The short valve covers make it look really tall! Haha.

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Needs an additional 2" spacer

 

Starter and driveshaft are in but not without issues. The plate I bought that goes between the block and bellhousing was poorly made. When I put it in I had to use a rat tailed file on the dowel pin holes. Never expected the starter hole to be a wee bit too small too. I had to get the die grinder and carbide burr out to open up the hole ever so slightly. It wasn't off by much, but the starter dang sure would not fit in like it should. I also decided to revise the downpipe to stay away from the much fatter transmission. Just need to finish weld and rewrap with header wrap.

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Reverse lights, neutral safety switch, line lock are all wired up. Judd put the shifter back in along with the console.

I started mounting the trans cooler and getting the lines set up.

Getting closer!!!!

 

Trans cooler and lines are done and several little odds and ends are fixed. Just need to fill with water and trans fluid and fix the leaking turbo return line and we will be ready for a test drive. This Friday is the last scheduled TnT at our local track and we would love to make a pass or two before we go to Ford Vs. Buick at Thunder Valley OK in October!

 

Car runs again but is still on jack stands. Just had too much going on to get it to the track Friday. Trans works, but the shifter is way out of adjustment. N is where R should be, D is N position, etc so I need to monkey with that. Neutral safety switch and reverse light microswitches also need to be adjusted. You have to push the shifter to the right to make it start. Haha

 

Whoo hoo! It moves and stuff!

We started the evening by removing the drive shaft and swapping in the drive shaft from the 1998 GT. The drive shaft I used with the big block was a little too short for the small block and aod combination and I was afraid it would vibrate. Besides I want to use that drive shaft in the '98 GT. Did I mention I bought a 1998 GT with a freeze busted block? haha

Seems simple enough, right? Well the transmission yoke for a t45 is larger than a T5 or an aod. It's the same size as a C6. We didn't discover this until we started putting the drive shaft in and it wouldn't go in the transmission. So, we had to back up, swap transmission yokes and run to the store to get a new u-joint before we could put the new drive shaft in.

It fits much better than the shaft I used with the C6 and big block.

Next we monkeyed with the shifter to get it adjusted properly and I think we probably got it really close. It's still not as notchy and solid feeling as this shifter did with the C6 but I think that's more because of the internal rooster combs are different between the two transmissions. The selector lever on a C6 is pretty hard to move with just your hand and it's pretty easy on the aod.

Once we took care of that, we fired it up on the jack stands and shifted it through the gears for a few times. Then we put it on the ground and Judd pulled it out of the shop and made a few laps in the parking lot. I think the fluid level is a little low but the car moves and shifts and generally does the stuff it's supposed to do

 

Went out, pulled the trans dipstick. Nothing. Ended up putting 3 qts in it and now it works great.

May need to do some carb tuning with the different intake. I went for a short drive and it was stupid rich at first but seemed to get better thw longer it ran. Might have just been partially clogged from sitting for a few months.

First impression: it is completely different. the automatic feels different, the turbo reacts different, the motor runs different and it seems to hit the rev limiter very quickly. I may have to bump it up 500 RPMs just so we're not banging into it all the time.

I also think I need to back the timing down because we're loading the motor a lot more than we were with the five speed so it may be more prone to detonation. I don't want to screw up and break it before we really get to play with it.

 

Drove it home at lunch. Fuel pressure is too high. Not sure why, but it was definitely way way way too rich. Trans seems to work good. Floor it and It will down shift and haul butt.

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High fuel pressure: This has been a problem ever since I put the fuel lines in this car back in 2010. I put a -6AN return line in and it is just too small. With the big block, I crutched it by using 2 regs. An Aeromotive bypass reg set at 15 psi and then a Quick Fuel dead head reg after it and over to the carb. That kept the A1000 happy and I didn't have to replumb anything.

The n/a 302 just used a carb-style electric fuel pump with the QuickFuel reg dead headed, no return needed.

With the turbo 302, I had to go back to using the return line because we had to use a boost referenced regulator. It has worked sorta ok. The pump has an internal bypass that used to bypass at 6-7 psi. So I just set the reg begin increasing fuel pressure just above that. Now, for whatever reason, (and even occasionally during Race Week), the fuel pressure will not go below 9 psi.

I'm sick of working around this issue that has been there for nearly 10 years. Haha. I ordered some hose and fittings to finally put the proper size return line in it. Should have done this a loooooong time ago.

 

Appreciate the updates. You might start to think you are posting just to hear yourself talk, but im guessing lots of guys enjoy your thread. Keep at it... jealous of your Rocky Mountain Race Week adventure

Don't overthink the timing.. i think you are already very conservative.

 

Thanks a lot!

I ramble on bit and post things that are probably not super important, but it is ridiculous the number of times I have gone back thru my Bangshift build thread to remember what I did or why I did something the way I did. I guess this is really just an electronic diary, but I promise not to start my posts with "Dear diary". Lol.

 

I also am enjoying the thread. I have never posted anything in any thread til now. I just always read stuff. Good build keep it coming

 

Well I should have ordered 12 feet of hose instead of 10 feet. Luckily I had another 20-in piece laying around that I could use.

I removed the gas tank filler tube, drilled a hole in the side of it and welded in a -8an bung so I could connect the hose to it for the return. The old return went back in the original pickup tube. Which in hindsight was probably a contributing factor to the problem.

Once we had the line ran all the way to the front of the car and the regulator connected, we turned on the pump, and we were able to set the fuel pressure at whatever we wanted. Whoo hoo! We set it at 6psi.

Then we started the car up, and it wouldn't stay running. Fuel pressure was 3psi and I couldn't get it to change. I asked Judd if the electric pump was running....... it was not. The switch was on, but the pump is not running. Crap.

The pump literally just died. Lucky for us we had a spare pump and we were able to install it and everything works good now.

 

I drove it lunch today and I paid close attention to how it was running. Easy throttle, moderate accel is it good, but if you open it up and vacuum drops below 6.5, the PV opens and it goes stupid rich and misfires until boost ramps up and then it runs really really good.

3 things I am going to do: (unless you guys red flag me.)

1. Lean out primary a couple sizes because it is a little rich a cruise.
2. Change the accel pump cam from orange to the stock white. The dual plane seemed to want more shot so that's why we had it in there.
3. Swap PV to a lower number. It has a 6.5 in it but I think it might do better with a lower number like a 3.5 maybe.

 

Ok I did all that. Front jets are now 65's and I had a 4.5 PV so I stuck it in.

Jets and PV *seemed* to be a move in the right direction. The pump cam was not. It had a big hiccup right off idle with the white cam.

I am kinda considering blocking the PV all together and seeing where I am.

 

With the big hiccup you should put a bigger squirter in it. Once you get the lean bump out, then tinker with pump cam to fine tune it.

 

Did some data logs and have been comparing them a little.

First one is just as it was with the 5 speed. No changes. 67/75, 6.5 PV, vent tube extensions. 28/29 squirters, orange cam

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This one is 65/75, 4.5 PV, no vent tube extensions, 28/29 squirters, orange cam.
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The 3500-5500 rpm section is a little steeper (2 tenths of a second steeper, prob from leaner afr) on the second one but the AFR starts to trend upwards hitting 12.4 when I shifted/backed off. The original setup seemed to trend richer, although not as significantly, dipping all the way to 10.4.

Interestingly, it looks like the original one shows the AFR to be lean when I first get into the throttle. That does not seem to match what I remember seeing on the gauge, but the log doesn't lie. Maybe this thing was misfiring and acting goofy because it was wanting more fuel, not less....

 

What you see on the gauge is delayed vs the log.

Change your afr plot line to green or something!

Is that lean spike at a tip in?

 

Here's a different section of the original log. You can see rpm pop up and struggle, presumably from a very lean a/f mixture, then take off . I wish I had a TPS on this thing so I could log throttle position.

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