The powertrain upgrade came from a 2001 Pontiac Trans Am. An Ls1 backed with a Tremec T56 transmission. All accessories will be eliminated save for an alternator and eventually minor bolt ons and possible internal changes will be made (i.e. cam swap, etc.) but getting the engine up and running first is the issue at hand.
3/29/09 See the exterior page for picture of the rear mounted Magnaflow muffler, a 3"in/out muffler, I ran the 3" from the Sweet Thunder muffler through some mandrel bends under the rear axle. With the linkage and coilovers on the narrow rear there wasn't enough room to go over the rear, so under should work fine, lots of F-body guys to it that way and so far clearance is good under all range of motion of the rear.
3/2/09 The weather has been crappy still so progress has been slow. I've done some cleaning up in the engine bay with wiring, fittings, etc. Got the brake lines plumbed from the master cylinder to the wheels.
2/8/09 I've been working on brake lines, got the rear brake lines plumbed on the axle, I mounted the Wilwood master cylinder, the output goes to a Earls brass t fitting. From there fluid goes toward the rear through the Wilwood proportioning valve, to the front the fluid runs to a Summit line lock which also acts as another T fitting. I haven't run all the lines to the wheels but eventually they will run through some Wilwood SS flexlines to the calipers.
The picture below is my coolant overflow that I fabbed up this weekend. It's all aluminum plate with a Moroso weld in cap. Some brass fittings are plumbed in to see the fluid level and to transfer the excess coolant from the radiator to the bottom of the tank.
1/5/09 I have been working mostly on sorting out electrical stuff and other small details but did embark on one trail and error journey to solve an issue that's been bugging me. The reverse lockout setup on the T56 is large and obtrusive and is right where I'd like to put my right knee. Add to that the fact that in swap applications it doesn't function property so I came up with the following. I removed the solenoid portion which was as simple as unscrewing it from the housing, then I took the housing to my bandsaw and removed everything except the portion which is housed within the opening in the transmission and a bit of the outer part to bolt the thing back on. After some failed attempts I cut the "piston" down quite a bit, did away with the rear sleeve and cut the spring down to fit enough in that it just about coil binds when you move the shifter all the way to reverse. Lastly I welded a plug on the back (which was horrible, I ended up melting a portion of the housing and had to file it by hand to fit in the transmission case and seal again. However what we are left with is basically what is picture below but assembled of course. I use a small c-clamp to tension the spring and piston and then use the circlip to hold it together. It functions about the same as the old setup, needing not quite another "hand" of force to "crash through the gate" into reverse, but it does so taking up a lot less room and saving some weight. One caveat to anyone who tries this, it may take some different clocking of the circlip to ensure functionality, the sides of the circlip are thinner and on one trail I got the piston cocked in crooked, only the spring holds it inline without the sleeve portion, but clocking the thicker parts of the circlip to up and down seems to have fixed that.
12/18/08 Here are some videos of the engine at startup.
12/18/08 Here is a still shot of the current setup of the engine.
12/01/08 Some new pictures today, as the main page said I decided to add a sump to the fuel cell while I was modifying it. I made a 2" deep by 6" long by 4" sump with a single -8AN male port and welded it centered on the bottom of the tank which is still between the baffles I added, the sump the baffles and the holes drilled into the bottom should combined to a wonderful job of keeping fuel fed to the Bosch "044" pump I decided to go with. The last picture below is the location I came up with to mout the pump, I also made a rubber isolator for the mount (Jayracing.com for the pump/fittings and mounting bracket) to keep vibration down as much as possible. The first picture is my crazy radiator "hoses" I made. The upper is 1.5 inch aluminum with silicone couplers and an inline thermostat from Meziere. The lower is 1.75inch aluminum. The aluminum bends were purchased from Burns Stainless and TIG welded together, the silicone is from Burns as well and is connected with T-bolt clamps from Summit. I like the space age look and hopefully the aluminum will help shed some heat as well, I can use all the cooling surface I can get!
Also, just visible in the pic is my intake system, which is complete minus a backordered filter which should be here soon, all silicone parts with T-bolt clamps from Siliconeintakes.com.
11/23/08 I've been working on getting things ready to start the engine. Been finishing plumbing, fuel, coolant lines, etc. I thought I had enough room to fit a stock RCI 15 gallon tank but it ended up needing to be modified, imagine that. So I measured 3" up and 3" back on the lower rear edge of the tank. While it was open I added some baffles since I hate to run foam. After that I cut a patch panel from some 1/8 plate I had and welded the cell back up, pressure tested it and we are ready to go.
10/07/08 There are a couple changes up front, I found a place to mount the mini-alternator from Powermaster, there were two holes in the head that were very close to fitting the bracket designed for a small block chevy, a little elongation and it fits nicely. Thursday I should have the correct pulley then I'll worry about getting a belt and getting everything finished. I figured out where the radiator is going to go. I had to notch the frame rails quite a bit, you can see the beefy plate on the outboard drivers side, both of the main frame rails have been stiffened with some DOM tubing. I cut a slot out of the center of the rail inserted the tubing and welded both sides top and bottom. It is surprisingly stiff, I'll try to get a better shot of the underside soon. You can also see in the picture and better in the second picture the steering linkage is done. Two Flaming River steering universal joints with a piece of double d steering shaft between. I removed about half a foot of the shaft and re-welded the splined portion to mount the upper u-joint.
09/14/08 Several new things going on here, received my Meziere water pump and installed it, see picture, also received my radiator and fans which I am working on installing. The radiator fits in the opening but the fill neck is too tall which is either going to require me to lower the radiator my modifying the frame up front, or tilting the radiator back toward the engine at the top. My 1993 Rx7 had a radiator that was installed at an extreme angle and didn't seem to affect it, but if I angle this radiator back I loose the ability to mount my fans in puller style. The shroud on the fans along with the blade style I think will significantly affect the incoming air if I have to mount them up front. Also I need clearance over or around the radiator for my intake setup so I guess I have to work on lower the entire setup a bit to get everything to clear. Also you can see in the picture I have removed the grill and the surrounding support metal becuase it was interfering with the bonnet closing around the radiator feet. I also was going to do it to increase air flow as much as possible into the engine bay.
08/31/08 - Not much new on the engine at this point. I have been working on wiring, I got the holddown welded up for the battery and am very happy with it, I'll take some pics when I have it welded in and a mount for the fuse block done. I have ordered a bunch of parts but have just enough on backorder that I can't do much with them. I purchased a drag race Powermaster alternator, which they say will be fine on the street with some pulley changes. Before I mount that I want to get my Meziere electric water pump mounted so I know where the alt. will fit. Also, my stock balancer pulley is pretty rusty and has part of the center broken off, possibly from someone trying to pull it off incorrectly, so I ordered a Summit underdrive pulley. Once I get the alternator mounted up and the water pump I will only have 1 belt driven accessory, should look clean and help free up some power as well.
My radiator is on backorder as well. It's a Griffin Scirocco style drag radiator but it's all that would fit in the opening. It is supposed to support 450 hp so I hope it will handle it's job for now. I have a dual fan setup that should fit perfectly, I am hoping I have enough room to mount them as puller style which might mean angling my radiator with the top back toward the engine, I'll have to wait and see.
Here are some general shots with the hood in place. I am working on getting my little battery mounted and starting to get the wiring laid out. I need to order an alternator next and hopefully start it up in the near future. Also note the fuel pressure regulator and pressure guage. I plan on adding some black spark plug boot sleeves to cover the red and keep the boots from burning where they rest on the headers.
I've done some cleaning up of the top of my engine, got rid of some emissions stuff, and most of all the stock rails. I needed more options for plumbing and eventually more flow. The rails are Summit LS1 replacement rails, the plumbing will eventually be -8 AN in to the driver-side front, a -8AN line across the rear, see second picture below and then -6AN to my regulator and return.
Other updates for engine: you can see I've bent the stock oil dipstick tube to clear the hood and removed the neck from the oil filler cap for the same reason. My custom y-pipe is done, still need a muffler, I'll be ordering that soon. I have a Braile battery on the way that I think I am going to front mount in the stock location, leaving room for a fuse block from a Summit wiring kit as well. The battery only weighs 11 lbs so not mounting it in the back won't cost me much, I'd like it out of the cockpit as well.
5/12/08 I received my Aeromotive pump, filter and regulator from Chris at irtperformance.com, now the next major fabrication task is a custom fuel tank/cell. I am going with 1/8" aluminum and am going to run the A1000 pump in tank if possible. Now I just have to get some dimensions and figure out what I can fit. in the space I have, any suggestions?
5/12/08 Driver side header is done, oxygen sensor bungs welded in both, ready for downpipes and y-pipe.
04/21/08 Over the weekend I got to work on mounting the clutch master cylinder, it's the stock cylinder off the trans am with the clevis end of the Gt6 linkage welded on, it works with the stock clutch pedal and provides the perfect amount of travel, I could have tapped the shaft from the cylinder and added an adjuster and a rod end if I was going to do it again, but this works well. I have to finish the "drill mod" on the hydraulic line and run it to the transmission.
04/2008 I received my stainless for my exhaust and started on my headers, it's not going to be easy and it looks like it's going to cost me some ground clearance but I'll make it work.
All the exhaust came from StainlessWorks through my friend Chris @ IRT Performance, see links page for both. The primaries are 1 3/4" which feed into the 3" pipe. Eventually the two 3" will join together into a single 3" pipe, that will come later when I have the rear end figured out. One side down and one to go.
2/24/08 - This weekend I started sorting out the harness and ecu. I spend a while on LS1tech.com researching repinning. Doesn't seem like it's going to be too bad. I'll have to order a Painless wiring kit for the rest of the car since I tore out the old wiring. Supposedly original Triumph wiring isn't known for it's quality and I'd rather not loose my project to electrical fire(especially when someone else has been hacking into it).
This is a more up to date picture of the combo. See more pics under the frame mods section of exactly what it took to mount it. My first mockup was way off, I ended up needing to drop the engine height by 3-4 inches and bring everything rearward 2-3 inches to get me hood clearance as well as good mounting positioning.
Here is a shot of the first mock up. I learned alot from this first trial, mainly that it was going to be possible to fit, and secondly that alot of changes would have to take place.
Here is the old engine still in the car. It's a 2.0L straight 6 that made 105 hp stock. It was backed with a 4 speed manual, no overdrive on my particular car.
