🔧 BUILD Broke EF turbo LS SC400 Build

General Information

I may have never posted on here before, but for some reason I am inspired to post my build up here. I am going to copy and paste from another site to get us all up to speed. I will try and clean up anything that was specific to the thread I am pulling from. Now that I am getting started on the main fab work I will update this thread in real time.

For anyone who doesn't want to read it all here is the short version. I bought the car on a whim in June of 2016. It is a 1993 SC400 that was from this area, and was meticulously maintained at the dealer. I was going to stay with the original 1UZ so you will see I started installing a procharger on it. I ended up selling off the stock motor, trans, ecu and harness to a local guy and got an iron gen 3 5.3 motor. I am doing a Precision LS-7675 turbo with a truck manifold based kit (more or less). It will be backed up by a TH400, and for now will use a stock ECU with HP Tuners.

Alright, time for the massive dump of info.


A couple years ago I picked up a 1993 SC400. I wasn't really looking for a car, but a late night search found this one, and I have always liked them. I decided to go down and give it a look in person, and it was even cleaner than it looked in the pics so I bought it. Here are a couple pics of when I first got it.

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I wont bore you with all of the middle shit, just hit you with the highlights.

I removed a couple tons of wiring that used to be an alarm system.
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I had the gauge cluster fixed/updated with white LED's.
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Fixed up the wiring that was kind of hacked up from the alarm. Changed the steering wheel, etc. etc.
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I then updated the climate control, and put in a nice head unit.
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Just a bunch of little changes and fixing up small things here and there. The car was extremely well maintained and really did not NEED much. My plan was always to make it fast of course, and do drag week with it. The factory 1UZ motor is a very good starting point and can make some really solid HP. The stock trans can be built to live as well. Packaging was kind of a nightmare as you can see, but other than that it was a good option.

I ended up stumbling upon a great deal on a procharger kit that was actually on an SC400 locally. It was a P1SC that came with some shitty piping, a way too small intercooler, but a Tial blow off valve that actually had the right spring it it! I started installing that setup.
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You can see one of the things that was constantly in the back of my mind for making this a drag week car. Look how complicated that engine looks! If I had a problem on the road not only would parts be an issue, but just the time to do simple repairs is a nightmare. For example the starter is under the intake manifold in the valley.

So when a local kid hurt the motor in his SC I offered mine up to get him back on the road since that is his only car. We struck a deal and I ripped that shit out the next day.
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It happened to work out that a 5.3 LS came up for sale for the same money I just sold my old motor for, so I jumped on it.
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Its update time! Nothing really exciting, but I have been slowly chipping away at things.

First up was wiring. I am planning on using the stock ECU for a little bit with HP Tuners, so I had some wiring work to do.

Harness as I got it with the motor
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Stripped of all of the brittle loom and crappy electrical tape.
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Unfortunately I ended up having to move it around after I had stripped off all of the crap, and it got pretty tangled.
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So I decided to just fully depin everything since I only need a few things from that mess.
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Here is the pile of junk I didn't need from that harness. There is actually a bit more, but that is 99.99% of it.
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And here is everything all apart, ready to be cleaned, routed, extended, and loomed.
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Next up I got some mounts for the LS from Dan Perlenfein. He even made me a custom trans mount for the TH400. These are very nice pieces, and I got them really quickly.
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Got them set in the car, fit like a glove! (BTW they are not bolted down in any of these pics, just have the nut on the other side a few turns)
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Next up I pulled the oil pan off my motor so I could drop it in and see what I am working with.
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Bit of wishful thinking seeing of the truck intake would clear the hood. It wont.
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So keep in mind that the mounts are not 100% bolted down yet. I need to get my trans from my buddy so I can get that in place before locking everything in place (just to take it all back out again). Once I have put the trans in then I can check a few things, and it can all come back out. Engine bay is going to get cleaned up, and the motor will get some TLC as well. I am still planning on trying to get it running and driving this year, but we will see if it happens. I am not one to let things be "good enough" so I may end up spending a bunch of money and time on the motor even though it will remain a stock bottom end.

Anyway I am really happy with the fitment, and how much space I have! This seems to be more room than I remember in an F-body (on the sides) even with a tubular K-Member. Should be able to get a big single in there no problem with a 4" down pipe to run out back. I am really glad I went LS!



Well time for a small update on the thread that nobody follows :) I got the trans, and a converter from my buddy a while back. Turns out the trans was shot, and needs a rebuild. That pretty much killed my plans for just getting it running this year. The good news is that I will be able to use it as a core to verify the trans mount, and hold everything in place so I can do all the fab work and wiring. I need to get un-lazy and move the car over in the garage so I can get the trans in one of these days. Its been hot as balls, and until I got my turbo there hasn't been much of a reason to bother getting it done. That excuse is out the window now though, since this came in last week

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Its nothing special, just a Precision LS 7675, which is a cast wheel journal bearing 76mm. It should be able to max out the 5.3 though, so it will do for now. This weekend (it was hot as balls) I went out to the garage for a bit to try and get some idea where I was going to place the turbo so I can start getting an idea for a materials list. First up I got the radiator sitting in place (close enough)
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These were the most obvious positions (turbo would need to be clocked differently for most) that I snapped some pics of not in any particular order.

Inside forward facing 45
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TA style
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Inside forward facing
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Outside forward facing
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That is really about all I got right now. I guess I also got the LS6 intake since my last update. That is still sitting on the truck steam ports which is why it isn't flat. I also got a set of non-EGR truck manifolds to use as the base of the turbo kit.

So right now I need to get everything mounted temporarily. That includes the trans, front accessories, exhaust manifolds, intake manifold, etc. Then I can lock down the turbo placement 100% and order material to start work. I also need to delete the ABS so I can mount the ECU over there and get started on the wiring. Well that's all for now, thanks for following along the journey of me seeing how dirty I can get my car.



Time for a small update, just because why not :)

I needed to get the trans in so I could check the fitment of the mount, as well as get everything locked into position for fabricating. Doing a trans by yourself is no fun, worse when you don't have a lift, and worse yet when you have to do some modifications for it to even fit. I ended up grabbing a trans jack from Harbor Freight to make my life a million times easier.
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The only downside to it is that it is quite a bit taller than having the trans on my regular jack, but other than that it was SO MUCH BETTER. I could slowly move it into position and make small changes to angle and overall position with ease. Not to mention how nice it is to have the trans stable as you are moving around to get a good look at everything. It turns out it only needed a little massaging to get it bolted into place. Again, that is without a shield on it (or a bell) but I was glad I didn't have to spend hours hammering overhead.

Ignore the mess, the garage is in process of getting a lot of work as well.

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Next up I wanted to see what I was working with on the exhaust manifolds.
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Driver side is actually hitting the frame, but that is fine since I always planned on v-banding them anyway.
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Plenty of space on the passenger side
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Next up was trying to get an idea of what to do for accessories. There are about a million options out there these days. I started by trying to place the stock truck pieces just to get some idea.
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Clearly those weren't going to work, but it was worth a shot. I have since figured out what I am going to do, but I will post more about that when I get all the parts. After that I reassembled the main fuse box under the hood. I need to patch where I cut for the procharger bracket, but the car is going to be outside for a bit while we finish the garage so I wanted to close off the fuses and wiring.
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That was about it. Got the car back on the ground and pushed back out of the way for now.
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Not really a crazy update, but progress none the less. While we are finishing the garage I will get the rest of the parts needed for the accessory drive setup. Once that is all in place I can start on fab work (FINALLY!), so hopefully the garage wont take too long. That's all I got for now, thanks for following along!



Nothing exciting, but parts have been coming in lately. I had to figure out and order up all of the front accessory drive components. Luckily there are a LOT of options for that kind of stuff these days. I ended up with a set of ICT billet brackets that will use a mix of F-body and Truck pieces.

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While I am at it, I got all new everything else too since most of it required f-body pieces anyway.

New tensioner
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New power steering pump pulley
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I have a new water pump, but no pic of it. The new power steering pump will be here early next week as well. I haven't ordered an alternator yet, but I will later when I get a crank pulley.

Next up is some of the fabrication pieces for the turbo kit. I have only ordered the parts and pieces for the hot side so far.

All stainless steel T4 flange, four 2.5" 90's for the crossover, and a 4" 90 for the start of the down pipe
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The stainless steel adapter from the weird 3-5/8" outlet of the turbo to 4" tubing.
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I am still waiting on the 2.5" stainless v-band assemblies and the stainless O2 bung. I will also run another section of stainless on the downpipe, then a bellows, then adapt to aluminum for the rest of the exhaust. I probably wont start on that until after I do the cold side piping, which I will hopefully be able to start directly after the hot side fabrication is done. My garage is currently being finished, so I wont be able to start work for a couple weeks still, but its great to see parts coming in! That's all I got for now, thanks for following along.


Here are the 2.5" stainless steel v-band assemblies and the stainless steel O2 bung.
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They are very nice with indexed flanges built in
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Quick release clamps, another nice touch!
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GM reman power steering pump came the other day as well
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I was a bit surprised to see that the pump did not come with the pulley bolt, or the reservoir cap. Not a big deal, just slightly annoying. That is all I have for now. The garage is taking longer than expected, but I have also been working on the wife's car anyway. Sometime next week I will probably stock up on welding supplies so I can be ready to go. I should have enough to get started, but I know I will need some soon.




On to a bit of news, my garage is 90% done!! Paint went on last night, so now I can trim it this weekend and move everything back. Here are a couple quick pics.

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For reference, here is a pic of the garage when we did our inspection (before we bought the house)
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It had a single light bulb, and the opener was plugged into an outlet next to the switch with an extension cord duct taped to the drywall.

Here is a shot after we had added the sub panel, lights, and pulled down the drywall. I then insulated everything, and put up new 5/8" drywall.
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I know not car related, but it has been a massive project that has delayed the car so I figured I would throw it in there now that I can see light at the end of that tunnel. Next update will be all car!



Well nothing too exciting to report still. I have been busy as hell finishing the garage, and getting our house ready for a party this weekend. I did however order up a bunch more material and pieces. I should have everything to build the intercooler piping except the intercooler (which is on backorder). I have all of the material to build my exhaust, but will probably need a couple v-bands so I can section it. Anyway, here are a couple pics.

Half stainless, half aluminum 4" V-band. I have two stainless steel 90's to come out of the turbo and get me to about the firewall, then it will be aluminum from there to the bumper. The other three pieces are 3" aluminum clamshell clamps for the intercooler piping.
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Detail of the 4" v-band
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And one of the clamshell clamps pulled apart.
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I also got two boxes of piping as well. Those have a single stainless steel 4" 90, ten 3" aluminum 90's, six 4" aluminum 90's, two 4" aluminum 45's, two 2' long aluminum straight sections, a 3" silicone coupler, and a 3" to 3.5" silicone adapter with T-Bolt clamps. I am really hoping to start fabrication next weekend now that I should be done with all of these other projects. My pile of parts/material is starting to take up too much space!




Finally time for a bit of an update! After busting our asses on Friday night, the garage is now 99% done. All that really means for non OCD people is that I have more than 2 outlets (a LOT more) and don't need to drag extension cords all over! Let me back up a second, I needed to get the steering rack out of the car since it was wore out and I got a replacement for it. I also wanted to take the motor out to make taking the rack out easier, and so I could do some things with it on the stand. Thursday night I got under the car and pulled the trans.

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Pretty easy to do with nothing really connected at all. Friday the car and the bike went outside while my buddy and I did the massive amount of electrical work in the garage. Saturday got mostly eaten up cleaning the garage from the previous nights thrashing. In the evening I got the car pulled back into the garage and was able to get back to work on it.

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I let the snow melt off and dry up a bit before getting to work pulling the motor. Not terribly hard (again, nothing to disconnect or move), but kind of a pain in the ass since I have to come at it from the side.
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So one of the first things I wanted to try, was see about fitting AC. I don't think I would run it this year, but if I could build with it in mind it would make things easy down the road. I grabbed a bracket and a junk compressor from a buddy so I could mock it up. He also had this manifold laying around, so I took that as well.
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It is clearly a tight fit, but I think I could make it work. It pretty much kills running a 4" downpipe on the passenger side though, so I grabbed a piece of tubing to see what it looked like on the driver side.
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Again, very tight but I should be able to make that work if I need to. I still haven't decided if I am going to mess with it or not, but its good to know about options. Next up was getting the front accessory drive all installed.

All laid out on the bench (minus the water pump since I forgot where I put it!)
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Unfortunately I have the wrong tensioner, and I clearly still need parts (balancer, thermostat housing, alternator, etc.) but I can move forward with fabrication for now. Once that was done I pulled out the old rack.
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Then I got the new poly bushing installed in the new rack
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Then got it put in for now.
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I am going to change the "EVO component", intermediate shaft, and outer tierods but its in the car so I can fabricate around it for now and keep it out of my way.

Then I got busy organizing all of my material so I could clear the space under my bench.

Pile of tubing!
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Ahhhh thats better
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At that point I was going to call it a night, but I decided to dive in and try and get something done. So I busted out the big boy grinder
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Then I hacked off the end of the driver side manifold
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Unfortunately, that was where I had to end it. Its been so long since I have welded, the batteries in the hood were dead! I am going to stop and get some on my way home today, and I am also waiting on some welding supplies. It was great to FINALLY be working on the car again! Like I said I am still unsure on the whole AC deal, but I think for now I am going to cut up that manifold and see whats up. I will also be putting the motor back in the car as soon as I get my new steering parts (that is a whole story on its own). Thats all I have for now, thanks as always for following along!




WHEW, that was a lot of info! I ended up having to pull the post from a site I had already done this same thing on. So I again apologize if it doesn't make a ton of sense since it was a catch up on a catch up. Going forward this will get updated in real time though. I have some tools and supplies coming this Friday, so hopefully I can get a good jump on some of the fab work. I guess we will see how it goes. Look for an update later in the weekend, or Monday. Hope you guys enjoy the build, I look forward to hearing from you guys.


Thanks,
Sean

Intel

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Oct 28, 2009
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Full tank of gas = 3 ohms
empty tank of gas = 110 ohms

I had to use one of these on my datsun project as it doesn't have a standard american fuel sender.

For the Tach you can just use an aftermarket one off of the holley ecu and then be all set.
 
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Broke EF

TCG Elite Member
Dec 8, 2017
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The sticks
Full tank of gas = 3 ohms
empty tank of gas = 110 ohms

I had to use one of these on my datsun project as it doesn't have a standard american fuel sender.

For the Tach you can just use an aftermarket one off of the holley ecu and then be all set.
It's no so much that I don't know how to do all of that, it's more that it means I need to buy more shit, fabricate something to hold it all, and wire more stuff. Just more stuff I don't have time for that I thought was all worked out months ago. I am going to see if I can still find a way to mount the cluster for now and go from there.
 

Broke EF

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Dec 8, 2017
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The sticks
Time for an update for my favorite people :) Ive mostly been working on the ehaust since the last update, and finally have most of it complete. Lets start with the beginning

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This was an early version
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A couple hangers for the mid section. I am going to go back and add braces to both of these.
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Starting on the rear section
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A couple close up welds
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Welded
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Mock up of the tip
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Starting to get closer
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All tacked
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Last little bit mocked up
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Tacked up
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I actually left it like this over night. I was dreading welding it all out only because I assumed it would move all over and not fit anymore.

Welding it on my messy bench the next morning
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And here it is all done
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With that done, I worked on installing the flex fuel sensor/remaking the line from the post filter to the Y block. I had a hell of a time with that specific line leaking, I have no idea why. I had remade it in regular rubber AN because I had run out of PTFE fittings dealing with the leak. So now my fuel system is once again fully PTFE lined and ready for any fuel.
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After that came working on the new differential. The one in the car currentlty is like 3.91, and this new one is 3.26 which should help a ton with crusing RPM.

Draining the fluid
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All cleaned out (this sucks)
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Cutting some plates to weld in
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All ready to go. I did one of these on each side.
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No pics of my terrible welding in the diff. I had to run to get permatex (cant believe I didnt have any). I was also working on pulling the old diff. I got the old one out which is a bitch by yourself, and ran out of time before I could put the new one up. I also finally installed my driveshaft safety loop that I have had forever.

The only other exciting thing is I got my switch panel finally!!
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This is specifically for the Leash relay board, which is what I plan on installing over winter. For now I am going to hack this to the stock wiring to get everything working that I need. I am disapointed that the face is not real carbon, if I knew that I would have just gotten it in black.

Anyway thats all for now. I still have a shit ton to do, and time is quickly running out. I really hope that wiring goes quicker than a lot of these projects have been going.
 

Broke EF

TCG Elite Member
Dec 8, 2017
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The clock is ticking, and this car is kicking my ass. Lets just dive in, fuck it.

Thursday after work I stopped and grabbed some fluids for the car
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Unfortunately I had to work on WORK stuff on Thursday until around midnight, so that was all for the car that day. However I did take off Friday and got right back into removing those damn diff bushings.

One down
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Second one was even worse
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But in the end I got it!
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Both diffs side by side after I installed the driveshaft adapter
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I got the diff installed, always a pain in the ass solo, but not as bad as taking out those fucking bushings. Then I installed the drive shaft safety loop that I have had around for years.
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I ended up having to take it off and install it with the driveshaft. But it fits nice and is in, so thats that.
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After that I got the fuel lines done and the flex fuel sensor fully mounted.
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Then I had to hand clean the bolts for the axles since they had locktite on them still.
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Got the axles done, and called it a night
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The next day I pulled the car out, and the almost immediately tripped over the push bar and went down hard in the driveway. For anyone who doesnt know, I am a pretty big guy, so a fall onto concrete was rough. I was barely able to get back up and get into the house, but I more or less just walked it off. My knee took the brunt of it and its pretty painful still, but the show must go on. I popped some ibuprofen and went back to it. I started by figuring out what I needed for the harnesses and seats. Once that was sorted, I temporarily mounted the seat so I could figure out where things should be.

Starting with the switch panel.
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I had to power it up, and my OCD was immediately triggered.
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I get why its lit up like that, but it does bug me LOL. That is the only switch that stays lit all the time, the others are only lit when on.
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With that done I moved to the trunk and fixed the leaking fuel line setup back there. This is much tighter and cleaner.
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I did some other boring stuff like run wire, tried to mount the radiator overflow, etc. At some point I decided to check my trans fluid. I have some weird adversion to changing the fluid, so I gave it a look before I just drained it.
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Looks pretty clean! Im gonna run it, and just bring fluid with me incase. This also reminds me that I took down both fuel filters and they were basically spotless which was nice.

Just a nice view of some wiring on the front of the car
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So I putzed around some more on things Saturday night. At one point I lowered the car down, and apparently I did that onto my stool which bent the fuck out of my intercooler and the mounts, and fucked up my stool. I wasnt really feeling like working on the car much after that.

Today I got started on exhaust. Well kinda, fist thing I messed with was the steering. At some point the rack moved in its mounts. Only slightly sketchy right :) I assumed it was because the set screw had come out. I losened everything and then decided to look up if there were any torque specs from the guy who makes it. That was when I found the instructions to tighten the passenger side first to make sure it is tight. OK no problem, lets do that...
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Well fuck. After a lot of searching it seems that usually the SC rack is 51mm, and sometimes the Supra rack is 47mm. This is a brand new poly bushing, for an SC. Tomorrow Joel Grannas is going to check to see if he has some of the correct bushings in stock to send over. If not, I am having a hard time finding some that are in stock for sure. I have found them NOT in stock, and then some that are questionable. If I cant remedy this, thats the end of the trip. BUT onward and upward, lets work on some exhaust.

I nievely though this would be simple... First up, its a pain in the ass trying to see how things land under the car or whatever while also holding things in place. Secondly, its a bitch holding everything to weld it on your own.
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It came out decent though. I wish I was less joints, but I was working with what I had around.
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Also ignore the well placed hole to the left that very much did not work out. It landed close to how I wanted it.
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I would have liked it to be shifted toward the back of the car more, but that has some issues as well, so I left it where it was. I started with a tight cut 90 that is swedged over the stainless.
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I didnt get pics of figuring out the rest, but here you can see a bit more of how I dealt with the suspension.
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You can see that its pointing down some in this last pic. I figured that was going to happen which is why I left that last pice just tacked in place. I will break those tacks and rotate it around some so that its more aligned with the mid section. I also didnt realize that the trans cooler lines are lower than the other stuff down there, so I had to massage that piece a bit as well.

OH, I also fully welded the stainles side.
20220911_193639-X2.jpg


I need to add some supports to both of these sections, and then wrap them to try and keep temps undercontrol as much as possible.

That was all. Besides the injuries to myself and the car, my wife also got me sick, so I have been dealing with that since Friday as well. I am REALLY hoping that it doesnt get worse because I have a shit ton of work to do, and work on the car as well.

BTW, its a long shot, but anyone have some mustang fitment front runners they are willing to let me borrow for the week? My co-driver actually has a set, but I would need to get tires and they are a bit spendy after everything else.
 
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Broke EF

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Hey, I actually did some work on this thing over the long weekend! With the half decent weather on Saturday I put the car half out of the garage so I could finally pull the engine and trans.



So now that I have that done, I need to rip out all of the wiring and tear down the engine to see how bad it is. I am hoping I can get the engine torn down this weekend and also get all that on video, so stay tuned!
 

IDAFC21

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Hey, I actually did some work on this thing over the long weekend! With the half decent weather on Saturday I put the car half out of the garage so I could finally pull the engine and trans.



So now that I have that done, I need to rip out all of the wiring and tear down the engine to see how bad it is. I am hoping I can get the engine torn down this weekend and also get all that on video, so stay tuned!


Shit meant to watch this last night! I don't know what happened. But watched now.

"I've done it both ways, we'll see how this goes" :mamoru:

But not bad! Left the hood on an everything
 
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Broke EF

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Whats up guys, its been a little bit since I updated you. Holidays and whatnot, its been very minor progress. I started to tear down the engine though, and figured out I dont have the right puller for the harmonic balancer. So that delayed me a bit, but I got one in the other day. Today I went out in the grarage with the plans to pull the damper and then keep going to get the crank out at least. Lets just say, mistakes were made.

A little back story, I was going to get the ATI tool but its like 2-3 times as much as like every other one. I decided to get the OTC kit instead and have a more complete set.
20230126_171609-X2.jpg


I had some uncertianty on which bolts/bolt holes to use to pull it but I thought I had that figured out eventually. When I started pulling by hand I was putting everything I had into it and it was a bit sketchy on the stand. Basically the same thing I was worried about when I was taking out the bolt. I think I posted about that in a different thread. ANYWAY, I figured I would bust out the new monster impact gun and let it eat. This was of course a mistake. First off I am pretty sure I was using the puller wrong. It was working though, and it got it most of the way off. That was when shit really hit the fan.

The 3 bolts I had holding the tool to the hub were really not great coming out, but they went in nice. I was hoping it was just heat or something, but I knew better. Then the center piece of the tool wasnt coming out. For some reason I thought I would just spin it out with the impact. That went just fine, but then I realized what had happened. The centering part that goes on the end bored its way all the way into the crank.

Long story short, I ended up getting the pulley off. I would say the crank is fucked, the new tool is fucked, and the damper is questionable.
20230128_210740-X2.jpg


20230128_210848-X2.jpg


20230128_210746-X2.jpg


The bolts in the damper are in as far as I felt comfortable going. I think most of them just need to be chased. They all had lock tite on them, so that is probably most of it. One looked a bit iffy, but we will see. I found out after I got it off the car I should have used the 3 non tapered holes. I didnt think the hub was threaded in those 3, but its just a larger size, which is why I should have used them.

Now I am in a bit of a pickle. I dont think throwing in another stock used crank sounds like a great idea without doing any machine work. I dont have the budget to do a bottom end, and even if I did I would prefer to do an aluminum block to save the weight. I could possibly do an L33, but that may be stretching the budget even with everything else I have going on. There is always another stock 5.3 or possibly a stock 6.0 possibly? I dunno, I am upset at my stupidity/luck. I really did not want to be back into the engine at all this winter. I wanted to focus on other aspects of the car, so the fact I was already pulling the motor to do bearings was annoying. Now its clearly a much bigger project which just means less time and money for other areas that I feel need it more.
 

Broke EF

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Have you tried getting the nose of the puller out? From what I remember those threads are very deep and probably salvageable
I havent yet. It was one of those situations where I got it off and then just shut everything down and went inside. Its pretty far in there though. I think its bottomed out completely, but maybe not.

Oh f***

Those pullerr pilots are almost always hardened but you can give a drill a shot and I guess is that thing is probably going to be fully wedged.

Only thing I could possibly recommend would be to hold it snout down and use a small oxy acetylene cutting head to try to blow out the puller nose
I was thinking of trying to drill it if anything. But I may just use this as a reason to make some changes.
 

HILROD

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If you get a crank from the same engine, cubic inch and rod type it will be fine. Sloppy Mechanics Matt inspired me years ago. L.S. don't care. Also the crank can be retapped larger. The root cause is the ATI damper hubs are too tight. In the instructions they say to send the hub back to be rehoned if you are using a stock crank. You can force them on buy they strip out coming off. I hhave one for the LSA I'm building and need to send it back as it's keyed and can't just be honed by me.
 

Boostie

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I recently went though similar with a broken crank bolt, which turned into a broken extractor inside the broken crank bolt and ultimately forced me to find a replacement crankshaft, which then forced me to have the bottom end all machined with new bearings. Hope you can get it out
 

Broke EF

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Find out the crank bolt thread size and pitch and pick up a chunk of 6-in all thread from McMaster and a nut. Epoxy it Ram it home till it hits the puller nose and voila you have a stud instead of a bolt holding your balancer on.

Cut off the excess sticking out once you get the balancer installed and tight
The problem with that is the puller took all the threads with it.

I think doing anything with the crank is throwing good money after bad. Another stock crank is cheap enough, but I really dont feel great about putting a used crank in a different used engine with no machine work. And of course doing machine work on a stock crank/stock motor isnt worth the time or effort.

Getting another iron 5.3 doesnt seem like a great idea. I know I want to go aluminum to save the weight so why get another iron block that I dont want long term.

That leaves getting an L33 probably. I have a line on one, I just need money (like always). I am still really upset about this whole deal. I really would have like to spend all this time and money on other areas of the car this winter. Oh well I guess.
 

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