And some finished shots of the wheels.






The inner barrel is GM Atomic Orange - from the newer Vettes.  It looks like a bit overbearing off the truck, but its very subtle with the wheels mounted up; I like the look we achieved.  Of course, there absolutley filthy after breaking in the new pads/rotors.

Figured Id share this too:

http://www.enginelabs.com/news/videos-1000-horsepower-supercharged-lsx-build-for-the-street/

Joe asked me not to mentione anything until it hit the press, but he just dropped the ball on TBSS owners so I figured it was OK here too.  This one actually belongs to another TBSS owner from Ohio - but Joe has put a few of these together - I believe mine is the second, this one actually belongs to John.

It will also be featured in July's issue of Car Craft.

LC32 LSX 390 CI - TVS2300 Jackshaft Dyno Testing (July 2013 Car Craft Magazine Issue)

No photos just yet but big things should be happening in the next two weeks.  The truck is still down at Synergy - and they have been working on wrapping up a few things while I'm away - namely the meth system and the fuel system.

Fuel:
Aeromotive Eliminator stealth pump (in tank)
Aeromotive billet pump controller
Aeromotive A1000 regulator
Aeromotive billet Y block
Aeromotive 10 micron ORB filter
Aeroquip lines and fittings

And the transmission showed up at Synergy today.  Trans was built by Greg at Phoenix Transmission in Texas.  Here are the specs:

Billet 300M input shaft
Billet forward clutch hub
Billet intermediate shaft
Planetaries converted to 4L85e 5 pinion style
36 element HD intermdiate sprag and custom clutch drum
Extra frictions in forward intermidate and direct clutch packs
Wide intermediate band and apply piston
Reinforced low reverse band
AWD conversion with TBSS style output shaft
Billet torque converter adapter
2500 series trans to TC adapter
Modified valve body and pump; high pressure pump, billet accumulator pistons
All new internal electronics

Phoenix PTGM82/280 280mm 3000-3200 stall converter with hp friction plates, billet piston and 6 bolt billet front cover.

Basically lots of voodoo from one of the GM transmission gods - most of which I cant honestly claim to understand...though I have learned a lot from this project.  What I do understand is the net result; a ~1200bhp capable 4L80 that should live a long and healthy life.  The front diff and carrier bearing, that may be a different story.

The plan is to swap motor/trans/blower in starting next week.

Started off bright and early this morning...picked up a few of the engine tins at Extreme Powder Coating (which is actually right down the road from H&M).  Man, they did an amazing job.  Nice crisp lines, masked all the gasket surfaces, and even smoothed out all the casting marks.  Since I have to travel anyway for powder (no one left in the lakes region) I will definitely be back there the next time I need powder work!

No pictures of the tins yet...

But here are a few of everything else:







It went slower than we had hoped for, but that said - were doing everything right which is the most important thing.  Few silly problems along the way we had to solve - windage tray fitment was all sorts of fun due to the stroke, and then it was hitting on the pickup tube after we spaced it out with a few washers. 

I forgot a few small parts amongst my million orders...rear main seal, new motor mounts, crank key...(OK, ok, some really f'in important parts!).  Gilberts in Manch was able to cut the 3" out of the rear drive shaft, but they were not able to lengthen the front drive shaft...which is kinda an issue.  Anyway, they have custom ordered one that should be in by the end of the week.

Right now the trans and motor are out of the truck, and we have just a few more things to do on the long block before it can go back in.  Hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow we will have the engine back in and the new trans.

Here are some more shots:




Modified oil pan and pickup.  The factory pickup sits at the FRONT of the pan...which can cause some obvious problems on hard launches.  The factory windage tray was cut out (the first attempt by me cost an oil pan...Jay managed to get it first go round!) and new plates mounted to allow the pickup to be moved to the middle (and deepest part) of the tray.

And we finally managed to get the crank pulley on...I found some keystock at a local hardware store at 6am...and we proceeded to make our own key.  The first go round we noticed that the 3/16" keystock was not in fact 3/16" exactly, and the pulley was shaving metal off it as we tightened down.  After putting the pulley on and pulling it off about 4 times to make the proper modifcations - we nailed it!
And a couple pics of the modified pickup and the cuts we had to make in the windage tray to clearance the new pickup.  All in all a royal pain in the butt, but it should allow for a long healthy life.


And a shot of the bay after I went to town with some rags, degreaser and a can of rustoleum...still not a florida car but it looks a hell of a lot better.


And here is where shell sit for the next week while we wait on a few more parts.

Getting there...but it wont be done before I head back to work next week.  The good news is it should be done for the fall Kanc cruise - and if Im home Ill be there.

Wrapped all the coolant lines, breather lines etc. in tech flex.  Makes the engine bay look 100x better IMHO.  Im normally more function over form but I figured while it was all out, what the hell.

Ran the return lines from the rail to the regulator and mounted the regulator too.




Jay started the intake.


Dont even have to spit on this one to get my fist in.

Should be starting her up next week.  Its been a bit of a pain in the ass as work has been crazy and I travel for my job.  I thought we were going to have it up and running the end of last month but I ended up getting sent to Korea for all of November.

Anyway, here are a few updated shots.

Wiring the Aeromotive Billet Controller.


Setrab trans cooler.




Getting close to buttoning it up.





Some fresh fluids.


And some fresh fluids for my X.

This next post is just copied from TBSSOwners - but basically to sum it up we had DSX Tuning in St. Louis build this custom MAP sensor.

I just wanted to throw this out there to share.  We're wrapping up my 416/jack shaft 2300 build now and we had run into some problems with the MAP sensor.  I wanted to tune SD for a few reasons and we hard built the intake without a MAF port.

As we neared wrapping up the build we realized that the position of the sensor port on the LC32 made mounting a MAP sensor a bit tricky, especially on a build where we would be relying solely on the MAP signal and fitment/seal would be critical. 

My original plan was to run a LS2 style sensor I had bought from Dave at DSX Tuning months ago.  I hadn't really bothered to check fitment as it wasn't on the top of my list.  I made a small bracket to hold the LS2 style sensor in the port but wasn't happy with it and soon noticed that the port size was actually bigger.

Anyway,  I contacted Dave and told him what I needed, essentially a mirrored image of an LS9 sensor so the wiring harness/connector faced away from the cog drive instead of into it.

The space is super tight so using my artistic abilities I traced the port/mounting area and took some measurements for Dave.



Center bore/center bore, diameter, bolt size etc we're all sent to Dave.

A few days later he sends me these photos:




And after another couple of days it showed up at my doorstep!!

I was a bit nervous of my measurements, but as it turned out they were spot on.





Dave's craftsmanship is second to none, this sensor look and fits exactly like you'd expect an OEM sensor to.  I should also point out that Dave informed me that the LS9 sensor would not work for me either as the 06 ECU will only support 2.5bar, and does not allow for negative scaling.   This certainly would have been another headache for me as I did not know this.

Thanks a ton for the help Dave!

Hung out with        [MENTION=310]OVRBST[/MENTION] and         [MENTION=118]EviL8[/MENTION] today and finally made some music.

TBSS with blown 416

Im pretty sure any problem you can have with a build like this we've run into, but today defiantly got me pumped up again to wrap this baby up!

I wish I had a way of accurately capturing the noises this thing makes.  With the cutouts closed, standing behind the truck, you can feel the rumble in your chest.  I don't honestly think someone could hear this thing and not have a $hit eating grin come across their face.

Edit - couldn't figure out how to embed a photobucket video so I stuck it up on YouTube.

One more before I call it a night.

TBSS with blown 416

I'm not gonna lie, I made some supercharger noises, did some pretend rolling burnouts and yelled like the turtle man on the ride home tonight.

Your lightly modded TBSS sounds GOOD!   11 second on street tires, that MUST be fun!  I think we have a Ford Expedition on here that runs in that range as well.

Equal length headers?  Underdrive and/or lightweight pulleys?  Any mods to the 4L70E trans (known power handling limits)?  How much boost are you planning to run?

10% OD on the crank and a 2.9" front blower pulley.  The rear cog drive is 1:1.  It should yield about 16lbs of boost on the 416.

Trans is a Phoenix 4l80e now, it will take everything we can throw at it, the weak link will be the front diff.  Unfortunatly there are no upgrades for the diff so well see how long she lasts.  I think it will be fine with street tires but when we go to drag radials I'll likely grenade it!

I've owned several GM products and have my reasons for not being a GM fan, but between Mike's V and your TBSS, or "van" as you call it, I'm having a hard time not poking around on AutoTrader for a fun 2nd vehicle. Much respect for the amount of time and effort you've put into the TBSS. I think any car guy, regardless of brand preference, can acknowledge that much!

Awesome build!
Great job, looking forward to seeing what kind of times you get out of it!
I'm being talked into doing Pro-EFI and TT on my V this fall, we'll see if it happens!

That's awesome Mike!  When the time comes to unload the SS a V wagon will likely be it's replacement!