Chevykiller Reloaded

[TurboPete]

Mark , Im so sorry to hear about this tragic loss . God bless you and your family.

Pete

 

[ChevyKiller]

Thanks to everyone...

The funeral and BS has finally past and the immediate family now just has the trial to look forward to for some bit of closure I suppose. It is the 3rd strike for the fuckhead that hit him, so I think he is going by-by for the rest of his days.

Got back to thinking about the car (another waking nightmare) and I just don't know how much more I can take...lol

I'm just so discouraged with modular motors right now and frankly, just going to take a break from the car for awhile before it stresses me out. I'm beginning to lose interest in it and that's not a good thing.

Since there hasn't been an update in awhile, I'll get you up to speed on the disasters...

Well Greg and the RET crew worked their asses off to get the car ready for vegas and got everything finished and turned the key and...

NOTHING - car wouldn't turn over. How he figured it out, I don't know, but Greg decided to pull a part the heads and check things out and low and behold my brand new custom comp stage IV Turbo cam was badly bent on the driver side. When torqued, you couldn't move the SOB an inch and could barely move it at all even when it wasn't torqued. Was binding bad.

Once again, Livernois motorsports jumps up to display their amazing service. I had sold my old cams and didn't have any stockers so Livernoise overnighted me a set of stockers no questions asked while I send my cams back to them so they can get comp to replace the Stage IV's with some non-bent versions.

I wasn't expecting the cams to make a million HP and the 'R' heads and train are so stout, I can still push all the power I could handle through stock cams for now so it wasn't that big of a deal to run stock cams for a minute - at least the several weeks it's going to take comp to create me a new set of the stage IV's.

So - I'm thinking - small hiccup - no biggie. Well, we get the new cams in the next day and go to fire the car and...

NOTHING. Won't turn over again. However, this time greg doesn't hear any binding coming from the motor like before... this binding seems to be coming from underneath the car.

SO...

After checking everything we discover my brand new bell housing is not right. The starter bolts are way too close and the thing is just not aligned for the modular motor. Mike's transmissions is a great place so I had no worries about getting a brand new bell housing but then I remembered that my transmission was built in 2 weeks and the other 3 MONTHS were spent waiting for JW to deliver a bellhousing. So, as I feared, turns out JW doesn't have one and 'says' they will have one in 2-3 weeks which is exactly what they said when I built the trans and it took 3 MONTHS...

So JW says they may be able to 'tweak' the housing to fit. Maybe they just have to redrill some new starter holes, I don't know, but for the sake of trying on Friday, we sent them out the bell housing, starter and flexplate to see if they can do anything.

The are the only game in town for bellhousings for a TH400 or glide on a modular besides PA which Mike's refuses to use citing they are shit and leak like sivs so JW seems to be it.

If they can get this thing to work, then I am in business - if not, then I'll have to sit and wait until they make a new one for me and hope it works. The bottom line is my car is 100% complete but I have no transmission...

I deeply regret selling my 4r70 now. Not because it was a better choice, but simply because I would have had a working back-up transmission to drop into the car. Right now, I have no tranmission at all and it sucks to see the car finished minus a freakin' bellhousing.

The frustration is these modular freakin' parts. If it was pushrod, I'd have a dozen avenues for bell housing within a day. I'm honestly getting about sick of modular motors and all things modular...lol


So, until I get a bellhousing for the TH400, the car just sits and waits...

 

[Miracle]

Damn bro... hate to hear about all the troubles. But I am glad the family situation has "worked" itself out a bit.

My regards to you on both aspects.

 

[don_w]

I'm just so discouraged with modular motors right now ...

The frustration is these modular freakin' parts.

Sorry to hear about the problems Mark, but I do have to say it. Did you really expect it to go flawlessly???? You, as much as anyone, should know that doing a cutsom "one off" build is a recipe for gremlins. And I don't think it has as much to do with mod motors are you make it out to be. It's just the nature of the beast. You'll work through the issues in due time. You just have to be patient.

 

[NastyStang113]

Ah Mark it doesn't sound too bad. Don't fret, RET has got you covered .. (I think get that trademarked ...)

 

[ChevyKiller]

Sorry to hear about the problems Mark, but I do have to say it. Did you really expect it to go flawlessly???? You, as much as anyone, should know that doing a cutsom "one off" build is a recipe for gremlins. And I don't think it has as much to do with mod motors are you make it out to be. It's just the nature of the beast. You'll work through the issues in due time. You just have to be patient.

In all fairness Don, I just don't see how a brand new camshaft coming bent from the manufacturer and a brand new transmission not fitting on the car is a 'gremlin'.

My gripes about 'modular' are purely based on supply and availability of aftermarket parts to do anything out of the ordinary. Like I said, if it were a pushrod, I could get the trans working within a day but being a modular, it is several weeks for a replacement bell housing at the least. Since very few modular owners run TH400's or Glides, they are not on the shelf anywhere. I started this build in January so I think I have shown extraordinary patience... Custom or not - 6 months is a toll...lol

Like I said, I'm more pissed I sold my 4r70. Seems I'm always learning a 'lesson'...lol This time the lesson was I should have completed the new power build without touching the heads and trans. I should have got into those AFTER the build was completed. The two new things I introduced into the build (trans and heads) are the source of all the issues with this build so far. I'm having a hard time remembering all the 'lessons' now...

 

[don_w]

In all fairness Don, I just don't see how a brand new camshaft coming bent from the manufacturer ...

That could happen on a pushrod motor too... just file it under "shit happens"...

Like I said, if it were a pushrod, I could get the trans working within a day but being a modular, it is several weeks for a replacement bell housing at the least...

But you are also trying to stick a Chevy trans onto a Ford motor. If you were trying to put a 5R55S onto an LS motor, it would have it own set of obstacles.

 

[05stroker]

That could happen on a pushrod motor too... just file it under "shit happens"...

But you are also trying to stick a Chevy trans onto a Ford motor. If you were trying to put a 5R55S onto an LS motor, it would have it own set of obstacles.

Yea . like 600 rwhp !

 

[ZmanM3]

Dang that sucks Mark. Then again, my car has been in my friends garage for 5 weeks on jack stands because the only time either one of us has time to work on it is an odd day here and there on a weekend.

 

[ClassJ]

New build gremlins happen. The last engine I did was full of them, most were stupid, but all frustrating...and this was on a big block mopar

-Mopar shipped me the wrong cam in the right box (3 sizes too big), the machine shop never degreed the cam, Last time I let anyone else assemble a motor.

-2 defective torque converters. First one shuddered off idle, second stalled too high.

-Defective Crane rockers (they did not heat treat them right and when I Rockwell tested them at work they were like butter), failed in 1000 miles.

-Customized holley carb from quickfuel was horrible.

-Warped new chrome thermostat housing,

etc etc etc etc...

From the day I declared the car done and fired the motor, I spend the next 3 months diagnosing BS parts from vendors. Hang in there...it will come together.

 

[Fastmover]

Marc sorry to hear all yoru frustrations.


But tell the truth, your taking your time so my build can catch up to you and we can square off, in the S197 superbowl!
C

 

[ChevyKiller]

New build gremlins happen. The last engine I did was full of them, most were stupid, but all frustrating...and this was on a big block mopar

-Mopar shipped me the wrong cam in the right box (3 sizes too big), the machine shop never degreed the cam, Last time I let anyone else assemble a motor.

-2 defective torque converters. First one shuddered off idle, second stalled too high.

-Defective Crane rockers (they did not heat treat them right and when I Rockwell tested them at work they were like butter), failed in 1000 miles.

-Customized holley carb from quickfuel was horrible.

-Warped new chrome thermostat housing,

etc etc etc etc...

From the day I declared the car done and fired the motor, I spend the next 3 months diagnosing BS parts from vendors. Hang in there...it will come together.

Okay - I take back my comments about pushrods...lol

Guess BS is an equal opportunity circumstance...lol

 

[ClassJ]

lol...gremlins happen. Just a part of life. What pisses me off is when they somehow get made worse by some vendors because it is never "their part" that is defective. The vendors that stick with you and work the problems rather than point blame are the keepers.

Good luck getting it sorted....


Nick

 

[explict]

Maybe I shouldn't have waited until now to read this...Whats the latest?

 

[W1ldcat]

I have been waiting for news myself.

 

[05mustang_TT_charged]

he is waiting on a Big Stuff 3 Stand Alone from what I have heard

 

[ChevyKiller]

Yep - the car is just sitting waiting for the BS3 to show up. Had yet another 'incident' with UPS and Precision losing my package. I'll give updates when the car makes a flawless dyno run. No sense posting anything until then. I've learned the car is never done when I 'think' it's going to be done, so I'll give the info whenever it's ready...

For now, it's a pretty shop ornament until I get a computer to start it...

 

[SixtySix]

Shit, I wouldn't even say anything after a dyno run, get it to the track run the piss out of it then post your slips and dyno runs

 

[Error404]

wow, sorry to hear about all the problems with parts! :-( I had an annoying problem too, a suspension rattle that I had for over a year that drove me freaking bonkers. Turns out, it was to parts (from the same manufacturer) that did not quite fit together properly. LOL

My boss back home when I was working at a restoration shop told me something along these lines, when ever doing something major on cars, "however long you think it's should to take, figure on at least 3 times that long. And probably at least twice the amount of money you think it should take"

 

[ChevyKiller]

Been a VERY LONG haul and by far the most complicated build I have ever been involved in but barring some random fluke, the Killer will be running at PSCA at Fontana next weekend...

All that's left now is to see what she will do. Today we knocked out the last little thing that was bothering me and that was the rubber hose lines to and from the rad. Reworked it all with aluminum and I can say there is nothing left for me to do with this car that I can think of...

How it was...

Now...

What I need now is some serious seat time and learn this car cause it is definitely another animal now and I need to 'tame' it. At least, I need to learn how to drive, work the 3 step, dial in the controller, etc, etc. All the stuff that can only be done by making passes but at least I'm FINALLY at the 'making passes' stage...lol We'll see what she does on Friday - should be fun - at least I HOPE so...