The project was a success......... Updated with a couple pics

[92ZR1Wannabe]

After 3 grueling days in the garage the 92 rumbled to life with the first turn of the key. (With open shorty headers just for kicks)

All mods installed. (MSD Opti, MSD coil , MSD 8.5 wires, new plugs, hooker super comp headers, new water pump, new belt, various sensors, ect)

The LT1 was not as bad to work on as we first thought it was going to be. After spending a few hours stripping away / moving the AC system, the altenator, the traction control bs, the egr junk, hoses and what not under all of that its just a small block.

We caught a couple of things in the nick of time. The water pump that we took off was completely seized, we could not spin it by hand, or with tools (Of course the motor had little trouble spinning it). The old optispark was shot shot shot, bearings were junk in it, cap and rotor were junk as well. The way way cool 7mm cheapo plug wires the previous owner had installed were arking all over the place. The drivers side exhaust manifold had a bolt that fell out of it. Lots of loose connections on various things.

The one item that completely whipped our ass was the harmonic balancer hub. The balancer came right off leaving its 3 eared hub sitting there looking pretty. Out comes the puller. No go, after 4 hours , one broken puller, skinned knuckles, and a whole lot of cussing we decided that the stupid thing wanted to remain there more then we wanted to take it out. Hence the timing chain / new timing chain cover did not get installed.

The exhaust was a challenge, no broken bolts though The new headers went right in from under the car, and were pretty easy to bolt down. (Except the last 2 bolts on each side sucked)

The work completely took care of all the issues the car was having, and it runs pretty damn hard now. <== Probably because the ignition doesn't start crapping out at 4500 rpm like the stuff we removed.

But anyway I wanna toss a thanks out to Rob for lending me his garage and skinny arms. I could not have done it without him.

Ill get some pics up to show off the shiny new mods........... if i can find them again under the hood. (They are all buried again)

Peek of the passenger side header, it was the "easy" one to get too.

The drivers side disaster. To remove the stock manifold: Remove alt, air cond compressor, ASR module (Traction control), EGR "stuff", 4 or 5 assorted brackets / braces.

A peek into never never land. The MSD opti in its natural habitat. Located approx 5 hours dig south of the waterpump. It was not horrible to work with , once you get it unburied.

I know the engine compartment looks like a messy trainwreck, but before I get any grief just know that the seals in the stock opti were so bad I almost walked home a couple of times from simply washing the OUTSIDE of the car. I never ever ever ever dared to get anything wet under the hood.

HOWEVER now with a good opti its time to get it all cleaned up. After the new Dana 36 differential goes in, possibly this weekend.

Also something interesting to note. Either changing to the headers or the ignition system completely changed the way the car sounds. (Possibly both) Rob and I figured the car may get louder with the headers, we were wrong, way wrong. For those of you that were at dyno day at AZPS a couple of years ago, you may remember how loud the car was at WOT with nothing but Corsa catbacks and cat elims. Now with these mods added to the bunch it is actually much more quite at idle and just normally driving around (ya cause that happens alot). At WOT it is still pretty loud , however its not as deep and throaty as it used to be. Not a bad sound by any means, just completely different.

Later

[Bigfoot]

Glad to hear all went well, ok almost everything. :D

There better be some pointing pics too.

[1EVLC7]

Glad to hear all went well, ok almost everything. :D

There better be some pointing pics too.

Great news!

[anmracing2]

That totally kicks a$$!!!! Congrats on the start up! Nothing is more exciting the the first start of a big job like that!

Can't wait to see some pix.

Andrew

[P51tj]

Very nice!

[Robwuk]

Hey what do you mean skinny arms????? LOL

No problem with the garage it was a learnig expirience for me also.

Hope I dont have to do that for a while though.

When are we doing the rear end???

Rob

[Loud Pedal]

There's nothing like turning the key after a project like that and hearing her breathe to life. Congats dude!

[Robwuk]

"HOWEVER now with a good opti its time to get it all cleaned up. After the new Dana 36 differential goes in, possibly this weekend."

Sounds like this a go for sunday??? Then we race???

[Guest 1FASTC4]

cool stuff. congrats.

[Don&Patty]

Let me know if your going to install the Dana this weekend. I'll stop by for a look.

Don

[Azmotorhead]

The one item that completely whipped our ass was the harmonic balancer hub. The balancer came right off leaving its 3 eared hub sitting there looking pretty. Out comes the puller. No go, after 4 hours , one broken puller, skinned knuckles, and a whole lot of cussing we decided that the stupid thing wanted to remain there more then we wanted to take it out. Hence the timing chain / new timing chain cover did not get installed.

I assume you pulled the bolt from the center of the hub?

If you didn't install a 5" headless bolt back in the center of the crank for the puller to push against, all the puller was doing was working against itself.

The hub is not open all the way thru like old Chevy motors.

[Shifty]

When I put teh 2149's on my 89 L98 car a couple of weeks ago (converted to true dual with B&B's, bullet cats and x-pipe)

it did indeed get a little quieter....strange...I dumped teh pre-cats and main body cat, and it quieted down...

Nice work though!

[Robwuk]

Ahh we did remove the center bolt but didnot use the 5" bolt in the center wow or more like Duh we should have thought of that. I guess if we would have had one off before we would have known. I have had plenty of the older ones off . Thanks for the Info so next time we will succeed !!!!!

Rob