Stick it into its hole and clamp your drill onto the stem so you can use the drill to spin the valve in the head.

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Use the slow speed setting on your drill, and move it in and out (on and off the seat). Wow what a difference 20 seconds makes.

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Comparison.

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The sealing surface in the head.

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Exhaust valve comparison. A little pitting on them is normal and nothing to worry about. Once i mate a valve to a hole, it stays there. I dont move it around once its been ground in. Also make sure you wipe as much of the compound off the head and valve as you can when youre done and hit the valve stem with some wd40 to help it slide in the valve guide easier.

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During the car disassembly I found some melted plastic looming on the block's main ground wire so I got some heat shield for that and the starter wire that run down the passenger side of the engine. Don't want or need any sparks unless they are in the combustion chamber. I also have a brass T for the brake booster that's returning to service, and the brake line adapters since I sold my stock lines and will be remaking new ones from scratch.......again.

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-8 line for the new cooler setup, beautiful TCI SFI flexplate and a starter heat shield.....for the battery. Yep, its the perfect size to insulate the battery and keep some heat off of it.

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Since Im doubling the fans Im going to run a new power feed to the back. New fan and cooler, and you can see the Y block and elbow feeds. The idea is.....well shit you'll see when i get to that point.

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Im stuck on the engine due to no valve seals (slow shipping). Figured since I was bored I would paint something. Meh, it turned out ok.

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Well that turned out a little brighter then expected.

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Much better. Ive always thought that corner under the hood was dark and needed something to spruce it up, maybe this will help....or just look silly. Either way it should be fun.

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Things are clicking right along.....motor should be complete and back together soon.

 

So we left off with an assembled short block, I stole the dual springs off the old 862 heads and installed them along with new valve seals on the new to me 799 castings. Cleaned all the block holes with an ARP thread tap, and copper coated the new LS9 head gaskets. I used ARP moly lube on the china studs and torqued in three passes, 25, 50, 75. No drama.

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Got the engine mounted to the K member and rolled the trans over to it. Notice my super sophisticated "converter keeper" bolted to the front of the trans. Keeps that beauty from falling out and hitting the ground while it rolls around in the garage. Patented pending. Also, got the TCI flexplate mounted, fit fantastic, very nice piece. I removed the intake temporarily so that my chain didnt scuff it or the fuel rails.

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Mounted the hotside and accs up and that was about the end of the playtime for me. I pushed it over closer to the car just to remind myself that this is close to being over with.

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The loudest and fastest beer coaster I know of. You'll also notice i used some of that heat shield wrap on the PS lines. Dont wanna blow those on a hot turbo going down the road. And if you have a sharp eye, you can see i removed the heat shields on the manifolds, wrapped them, and reinstalled the shields. Since they kick off a ton of heat I figured why not. Catching a few of these little details this go round.

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Well I cant catch a damn break to save my life. Lets start at the beginning, motor was ready to be rolled under. I draped the harness over it, then moved on to the car. I cut more clearance in the tunnel for the rear trans cooler line (which ended up not helping a ton), and trimmed the passenger side lower radiator bracket (the cold side pipe was resting against it), reinstalled the stock booster (looked for half an hour for the little retaining clip that holds the rod on the pedal) and made up the rear brake line AWAY from the manifolds. Rolled her under and it went real smooth.....I lifted the car by the ceiling joists. Red booster blends right in back there, not an eyesore at all.

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I got under and shortened the turbo drain line (it was about 10 inches too long and had to be looped around), hooked everything up and went to fire. Just a click. After scratching my head for a bit I decided to clean the block ground on the starter side. Well that worked and i got it to turn over but no fire. After some more scratching and a cold beer i determined in my infinite wisdom i did not plug the crank sensor in. Doh. Crappy pic but look at that oil pressure!

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Still need to make the new front brake line, bleed the brakes, and add the 2nd trans cooler/fan. For the bad, lost all forward gears in my yukon today, Im sure I broke the pump in the transmission. So unfortunately the camaro has to go on the backburner for a few until i get that sorted out. Fall weather is quickly going away and was wanting to make a track pass this year.......I am happy this motor sounds healthy with no apparent issues. I ran it about a half hour last night.

 

Pics of the cooler install later, yall deserve a video........

 

Here is a pic of the coolers, i thought i bought a matching one in size but it turns out it was about 1/3 bigger. Oh well, they fit. The new one is in the center and notice the Ys on the framerail. I changed to black nylon hose and will be buying that from now on, that stainless mesh line is shit, pokes the heck out of your fingertips.

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My heel isnt even healed yet and now this. Always wear your gloves gentlemen.....sike I dont wanna die without any scars!!!! This cut was down into the meat LOL.

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Been a while since my last update. Been building this for a buddy....
https://ls1tech.com/forums/forced-induction/1886705-trans-am-l33-4l80e-78-75-build.html
Not much been going on with mine other then the usual crank up and maybe drive around the yard. Long story short, things appeared great (dont they always) and after bringing the motor to temp one day last week......the oil pressure dropped to 30. Checked the dipstick and yep, it had bearing material on it. It was time for some real soul searching. I chose not to replace engines every 15 miles!!! I also noticed the cylinder heads seemed dry (but no lifter noise). My conclusion is very obviously this motor, as well as the last one, has an oiling issue. But what is it, it eats bearings at 70 psi of pressure. After careful examination of the LS oiling system, Ive concluded the oil is being picked up and pumped at least to the sending unit at the rear top of the engine, but somewhere in the upper galley isnt making the pressure to force it up the pushrods OR down to the rods which are the last two things to get oil. I cant see the rods but if i can get oil to the cylinder heads the rods are getting it too. So how is 70 psi being lost so quickly, internal leak, front cam plate maybe. Once I realized I had installed a new cam plate I said lets keep it simple. You have an oiling system issue, you altered the oil pan/pickup, the oil pan has been on both engines. Lets reinstall a stock pan setup THEN go from there. Well when my buddy brings over a stock pan I look it over. Front of the pan is 5.5" deep, rear is 5", I estimate stock pickup clearance is 3/8"ish. I maintained height when i moved the pickup back So the pickup is literally laying flat on the pan floor if you subtract those measurements, which is causing massive cavitation. I opted to shorten the pickup i had instead of go back to a front sump. You can see how much i cut out here in this pic. I also upgraded to an ICT Billet turbo feed just because i liked the way it looked. And yeah its shooting oil out of the pushrods now Hope i caught it in time.
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She's been on the back burner for a bit, other then the pickup tube repair, due to the turbo TA i was building for a buddy. But she went home Sunday so its time to get back on this car and get ready for some personal best springtime ETs. And we know these cars are never done right?
So I had a pretty nice interior in the car, sewed it years and years ago. It still looked new bc of how little I drive my car. As luck would have it I just happen to find someone local who was wanting to refresh their interior......so we struck up a deal. It's time to move on and let someone else enjoy it.
Here's what the guy bought, all 4 seats, and both door panels.
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And here's how she sits today.
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Not sure if you remember awhile back when i did the lexan windows, and the front and back glass was busted, but when pulling the seats out for the buyer i found this:
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Whoops! Well I've got some clean-up to do. On the agenda: (in no particular order) 17" kirkey prostreet drag x2 with the black tweed covers, Wolfe aluminum door panels wrapped in carbon fiber 3m, a custom back seat delete including cutting holes in the floor and flattening it out, remove the passenger door bar which i never got around to doing, may replace that window motor also since its been in my tool box for about 4 years (works but its a little slow), ZR1 MAP sensor, and also gonna ditch the stock PS lines and make up new -6AN lines that route completely away from the hotside. Stay tuned, should be a fun little transformation!

 

Your a very busy man!

 

Summit dropped off a surprise.
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Spent the morning making some simple brackets out of 1.5" wide flatbar. Though the seats are very stable, I think I going to add a backbrace to them temporarily until there is a cage to support the backrests.
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After an hour of cussing i got the passenger door bar out. Weighs 8 lbs. Here's the dzus fasteners Im gonna use to hold the new door panels on.
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What i will wrap the door panels with....
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Rear seatbelts and the little bit of stock carpet in the hatch was 18 lb per my shitty bathroom scale.
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The tools I used to get the door bars out, the new -6 line that will be PS hose, and the ZR1 map. You must drill the intake out to 15/32 for it to fit, it is slightly larger.
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MAP is installed (waiting on the harness adapter), there is no panels or carpet in the car from the backseat back. Took the seats back out so i can work in the rear. Going to modify the floor and start cutting off brackets I dont need.

 

Got the AN hose ends in, and the MAP sensor pigtail installed. When I cranked the car it was idling at 16.5 AFR so i threw some fuel at it in HPTuners and realized I'm probably starting over from scratch retuning the car. Not super thrilled about that.
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Got to play with the cutoff wheel a little today. Here's our specimen. After lowering the fuel lines away from the floor I drew out a basic line about where i thought the patch panel would go. Front seat bracket is going bye bye.
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This was my first initial cut. I ended up trimming more out of the back, tunnel side, and front edge.
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Here's the patch panel being tacked in place. Its 16g (pretty stout), the tunnel and rear edge have bent edges
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I generally go overboard with seam sealer. If you're worried about looks, you can putty knife it while its still wet, or sand it after its dry. I didnt do either bc there will be carpet covering it.
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I hit it with some red paint. Its a little glossy but again no one will see it, really just did it for rust prevention on the steel panel. The color variation in the center that makes it look wavy is just a reflection off the roof of the garage. The back hatch was open. Panel going in vs metal cut out was about a wash weight wise.
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I have a tracking number on the Wolfe door panels, should be here today, I ordered a big piece of black carpet to cover the entire rear section of the car. I also realized i forgot to order two of the steering adapters I need to make the hoses so I did that. Hope to get the passenger rear floor to match this side this weekend and onto the door panels. There are also about 6 rear brackets that can be removed (rear seats and belts etc) so Im deciding whether i want to drill all those spot welds. I estimate all 6 brackets would be 15ish pounds maybe. Decisions decisions.

 

Got a little done this weekend. Basically started with this:
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Realized right off the bat, the hole they cut for the door handle was a courtesy cut, and nowhere near correct for install.
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This was my initial thinking, but ended up about doubling it due to me wanting the lock lever to be exposed.
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The original mounts for the stock door panel need to go bye bye.
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The plan is to use dsus or 1/4 turn fasteners, I want to be able to easily remove the panel if needed. Here's how they go together, the gold spring goes inside the door, riveted, and the black fastener is what you see on the outside of the door panel.
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Here's one installed:
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There are lots of things around the perimeter of the door that will obstruct placing your springs inside. I went around the door and marked Xs anywhere where there was something in the way. Along the bottom of the door there is ribbing/reinforcement every few inches.
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Here's where i selected the 5 could go with the least amount of issue:
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Here is my final passenger door cut for the handle and the lock lever:
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Lay out your wrap. Once it was on i hit it very quickly with a heat gun on the low setting.
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Driver door mock up, no trim, and need to put the switches somewhere, may extend them to the center console.
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Add a little black paint around the handle:
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Passenger door with trim installed. The rubber at the upper front of the door requires minor trimming, the rubber at the rear of the door does not.
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Pic looking from the inside...
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I used the cutoff wheel to cut off the mounts, the bodysaw to trim the handle holes, the carbide grinder to finish them out, the file to take the ridges off my cuts, and the silver tar tape (roof repair) on the rear of the panel to give it a little weight so it wont rattle against the door, this step optional.
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Random pic, Im trying to do racecar stuff and got the hood wanting to fall on my fingers. After 17 years the stockers gave up the ghost. New one on bottom.
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Though i dont have many miles on this combo I always try to think of things that may be a potential issue down the road. I havent liked the idea of the plastic Dorman overflow tank, so I bought an aluminum one.......and made a simple L bracket.
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Quick test fit
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Have heard stories about how turbo heat can effect batteries so I wrapped this one with a DEI starter blanket.
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Back in place. Waiting on an adapter fitting that goes into the bottom of the overflow tank. It is -8AN ORB of all sizes.
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Have all the fittings to make the new power steering hoses. So, I will be doing that soon.
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Finally got the passenger rear seat delete done. They sent me the wrong color carpet so I sent it back. Not sure what Im gonna do so Im just leaving it for now. May get a wild hair and order some one day soon.
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I need to wire the door switches, then put the finishing trim on the doors and the interior, at least the front half. I think the tune is more important so I will focus on that as the weather cooperates and fool with the back half later. May leave it out until i cage it. Brake pedal has been spongy so I re-bled the rears and put the slicks back on, it wasn't gonna be tuned safely on the drag radials. May add a temporary back brace to the seats.
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First step, remove belt, PS pump, and hoses. Install your two fittings in the rack. Lower fitting is the pressure line.
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Fitting side of AN fitting
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Hose side of AN fitting. The ridges hold the hose, and there is a stop collar.
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Insert the hose fully till it stops on the stop collar ridge. You'll notice the debris from the cutting. You'll need to flush the line before final install.
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Oil the threads and the angled section. I use any type of oil in a $1 ketchup squirter from the dollar store.
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Clamp the lower and thread it in carefully.
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Mock everything up so you know length. This fitting needs to be vertical, not slanted in the pic.
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Cut to length and assemble. Done. Notice I'm using a fuel injection type clamp. This will keep it from digging into the exterior during tightening.
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The final result hugs the motor instead of the hotside.
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Car hauler is getting a winch soon!! Cause we KNOW something is gonna break.
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So, in conclusion to the door panel portion of the thread.....I selected to lose power mirrors, and dash mount the switch. After careful consideration it seemed like the best choice for ease of installation and aesthetics. I carefully trimmed off the mirror control off the top of the master switch, no need for it anymore. I selected this spot on the underdash panel due to clearance in that area. Make a hole, insert, hot glue from the backside.
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If you dont wanna cut/splice/extend, the stock harness will reach your new location. The issue is there are about 25 wires in the door, and about 5 need to stay. So you'll need to separate what goes to the switch, delete what you dont want, then pull it back through the boot. The long strand i have hung on the door is the plug in for the switch, separated and wrapped in tape and just propped up for the pic. The small strand coming out of the kickpanel next to it is power mirror and switch light wiring thats been cut and not needed.
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Here's final install. Panel has probably been in storage for a year so its a little dusty but you get the idea. Works great and i can almost reach it when i pretend I'm strapped into a 5 point harness.
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Big converter issues. Figured why not go ahead and add the deep pan. Adds like 4Q 16oz more then a stock pan.
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Not gonna get super technical, but a GM PS pump can put out 12/1300 psi under full load. AN hose is rated around 350psi with a burst strength of like triple that. PTFE AN hose has a rating of 1250psi. Its better suited for the high pressure line. So i bought some and swapped out the pressure side of the power steering. You can see the teflon lining inside the hose.
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I guess I can let the cat out of the bag. Placed an order through Wolfe for their 10 point chromoly cage. Likely gonna add swingouts to it. Im really not going for tech in a racing class, Im doing it for safety and piece of mind. Also told them what the hell, add wheel tubs to the order too.
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What was the issue with the converter?

 

When ordered, I told Circle D i wanted a max effort no fucks given converter. He hit the nail on the head. While it actually drives and takes off sorta normally, under throttle is doesnt couple/grab like my old 4k. Example, both this and my Yank 4k get the car moving around 1500-2k rpm. Little more throttle and 3k could be seen. After 3k the Yank would grab pretty hard and give you a solid pull. This converter simply doesnt want to couple/grab on motor power. So if youre out of boost even at say 3500 rpm a blip of the throttle produces slip (heat). Once into boost it locks in tight and pulls very nice. The preboost slip gets you right to boost which is cool. The downside, heat. The purpose of the deep trans pan.