Wow! Incredible build

I just bought a junk yard LQ4

the goal is to build it and turbo it

thanks for the inspiration! You’ve given me a lot of ideas based off what you’re doing with your project

This is such an awesome build!

What are all the solenoids on the powerglide for?

It's a dump valve. Allows you to control the converter charge pressure. Have a question about that - can you control the Hughes dump valves via PWM out of the Holley??

Update us Pete!!

2-stage torque converter dump valve system. First stage bypasses converter charge oil as it's entering the converter. Second stage bypasses converter exhaust oil as it's entering the cooler circuit. Provides an increase in available stall speed & faster engine / boost response for staging purposes, & can also be used as an additional means of driveshaft acceleration management on tricky surfaces or to help manage RPM drop on the gear change.

Yep, PWM at 10hz works great with our dump valves. Holley, Haltech, several other management systems can all provide dump valve control. We also have our own stand-alone 2-stage dump valve controller as well for racers who either aren't running an ECU with PWM options, or have an ECU that is out of I/O.

Got the hot side all finished up! Probably gonna leave the hater pipe in place as a tribute to my grandpa Jim. He loved 5-inch stacks and would put them on the antique trucks he restored.

I thought about hood exit because of space, decided on dumping behind the front tire. Love it man! Any reason you're going blow through? Or did I miss that....I'm just curious as I'm currently on a home brew blow through and I didn't have nearly the problems people made it seem. My car is 99% street driven so I'm on the fence once I get a real bottom end put together.

Pete will respond with "Because I want to" - or maybe "Because carbs are rad". There is absolutely nothing wrong with a properly setup blow through carb, and IRD can build a hell of a carb. The EFI guys will cause a fuss here, but a CORRECTLY setup carburetor will produce more HP (likely due to the mechanics of fuel shear out of the venturi vs. Injector spray) and can still provide reasonable transitions and behave well on the street. It's not a huge HP number, and fuel injection certainly has advantages.. but in this setup (running a Holley EFI system to control ignition, data logging, boost control, dump valve, etc..) the advantages are negligible. Some people just like mechanical fuel delivery (myself included) and are comfortable tinkering with carburetors.

My CSU carb on E85 was an excellent street combo. People were genuinely confused when I popped the hood in the pits or staging lanes.

Looking good Pete!!

I went blow-through carb for three reasons:

1.) I really dig 'em.

2.) I've always wanted a high end purpose built blow-through carb and am finely at the stage in my life where I can afford one.

3.) Blow-through carbs on LS engines make many LS enthusiasts have a spasm and/or immediately dismiss the combo as being capable of running to potential which I find entertaining.

The car could potentially end up with EFI on it down the road, but that would be with a totally different engine platform if that happens. I have (3) LS engines currently & am determined to make the blow-through work. If I hurt all (3) engines then I have a Nissan RB30 engine that may go in the car. At that point it would get EFI.

Good answer! I stuck with mine because I'm cheap, and it was one of those "it can't be that hard" ideas where I just wanted to make it work. I ended up with a jet kit and a boost referenced power valve, used stainless brake line scraps for vent tubes. Something about the carb looks cool sitting behind the turbo.

Cold side mock-up. 3.5-inch tubing from Vibrant Performance. Have a VSR 50mm BOV to get fitted as well. Just waiting on the GT55 compressor housing v-band flange to arrive from Motion Raceworks.

Not planning on a hood I guess? LOL, Looks awesome!

I really dig the obnoxiousness of this configuration, but I'm going to try some other routing as well before anything gets welded. This set up obviously isn't great for line-of-sight from the driver seat LOL. I do have a fiberglass Sunoco style hood for the car, but it's obviously going to require some notching / fitting regardless of how the cold side plumbing gets routed.

Cold side finished!! Now to take the turbo system all back apart for cleaning / painting / powdercoating. Fortunately it all comes apart in under 10 minutes.

That carb is fucking beautiful lol. I think I've got the same BOV, 50mm? I had to shim mine to work at the vacuum I've got but so far so good. Been on almost a year. I did take it and the wastegates apart and cleaned and high temp antiseized them.

Yep, 50mm BOV from VS Racing. I'm also using their 60mm wastegate.

I'm using two 44mm, no complaints so far. I'm only running 6 lbs so far so I wanted as much control as I could get. Once I get my dart bottom end in I will turn it up to see what I can get. I THINK I'd be happy with 750ish whp.

Out with the 3.70; in with the 4.33.

How much rpm you plan on turning going with a shorter gear? With your setup you’ve got to be running the limit in a 1/4 mile.

The current engine should turn 7,800 - 8,000 RPM. The new engine that will eventually replace this engine should turn 8,200 - 8,400 RPM. This build is for 1/8-mile racing only.