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Rich Z's Blatherings Since Connie and I have retired the SerpenCo business, topics here will focus on topics of a more personal and general nature.

New motor for my vette...
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Old 08-04-2010, 07:31 PM   #61
army_greywolf
in the cases your referring to the turbocharger is used to compensate for a economy oriented camshaft so the motor maintains N/A expected power at similar displacement but effectively gets better gas mileage. similar in effect to turbocharging a prius....yea. Also in todays engines the use of camshaft phase timing and multiple spark/injection event per cycle produces better mileage allowing a car to be run VERY lean and not overheat doing it.

There is a formula out there, it's based on an engine calibration that runs the engine at it's optimum V/E rpm at 80% load where fuel consumption is measured against aggregate total output at the crankshaft. This is the only real measurement to use in determining actual "fuel economy" and can be done on a dyno measuring fueling rate (injector pulse widthXpsiXpounds per hour rating) against your output minus parasitic drag measurement (also done on the dyno). The rating is fuel amount per horsepower per hour, usually xxHP/GPH and yes you can have your engine tested under this standard, I'll find an article for the SAE testing and paste it here.
 
Old 08-05-2010, 12:54 AM   #62
Rich Z
One parameter in favor of the Corvettes in relation to gas mileage is the fact that they are very aerodynamic which helps a lot with the reduction of wind resistance. Plus I am always putting some sort of slick surface on the body panels, so the car is slipperier than gravy on a doorknob.....
 
Old 09-12-2010, 11:13 AM   #63
Rich Z
Unbelievable as it may seem, my car STILL isn't finished.....

But at least it got started up last week.



There was a very noticeable rattle from the valve train that seemed to subside after a while. That had me nervous thinking maybe something was wrong and the valves were tapping against the pistons. That is NOT a good thing! Then a minor coolant leak developed behind the heads, that got fixed by replacing the seals in the cross over tube.

Things were looking rosy till another coolant leak developed from one of the freeze plugs in the block. But it appears to have just been an improperly installed O-ring behind the plug. So maybe one of these days this darn thing will be done. Coming up on having this sucker in the shop for nearly 11 months now.
 
Old 09-24-2010, 12:07 AM   #64
army_greywolf
Rich, I am gonna say this as kindly in reference to your engine builder and your installers.

Firstly, a turn key engine means it has been dyno tested and RAN THROUGH HEAT CYCLE on an stand before it was shipped. Second, there should not be valve train rattle at start up or tapping or anything, the hydraulic roller lifters etc. all do a fantastic job of super fast of pump up and take up the slack in the first 15 revolutions or so. There are certain concerns I would have in finding leaks. You paid alot for it I am assuming but I would have already pulled the pin on the grenade to get this shop to ship it to another shop for completion. I would probably be thinking lawsuit at this point as well. Not only are LSX parts available in a widespread manner but they are almost never on back order for anything, from mild to wild there's metric tons of parts to be had for any use. I'm not stroking my ego telling you I could have assembled your car in my DRIVEWAY with the same parts and tuned it for use inside of 2 months and thats being respectful to my full time job. Whats the name of this shop? Ohh and in the future every year both hot rod mag and car craft publish a long list of reputable shops all over the country.

And my offer still stands, If your not happy with your tune, send me the build sheet to the best of your knowledge and I'll work with you to email tunes and logs back and forth to get it right.
 
Old 09-24-2010, 01:29 AM   #65
Rich Z
On Friday, 09/17, I had my car towed to South Georgia Corvette in Thomasville, Georgia.

The shop it was located at is indicated in this thread -> http://www.corvetteflorida.com/forum...ad.php?t=50585

This fellah by the name of Chris Harwood has got a LOT of people pissed at him. A number of us have contacted an investigator for the state of Florida and are pursuing criminal charges for his actions.

I got out with my car mostly finished, but I'm not at all certain that I got the transmission and differential I paid for.

This has NOT been the pleasant and exciting experience I had hoped it would be at all.
 
Old 09-24-2010, 07:42 PM   #66
army_greywolf
If ever there is a next time, I would perform the work you request. Which in this case, I would NOT turbocharge the engine with the STS setup, rather I would run the LS9 crate engine with water/meth injection, a 2.9" pulley and I would probably swap out the cam for something with a LITTLE more bump, and for all that it would truly be turn key, probably be cheaper and YES it would be as fast or faster than while being more reliable and instantaneous. I personally run water/meth from snow performance, fantastic system, it reads the maf sensor signal to determine flow rate. I have seen 10-15 percent increase in horsepower with it tuned and 10 percent without tuning for it.

On behalf of the industry I apologize, these are the guys who make the business so difficult for the rest of us, good luck with the rest of the build and I would love to see the car if you ever make it through Louisiana.
 
Old 09-24-2010, 07:53 PM   #67
army_greywolf
Easy enough to figure out, most built transmissions for corvette applications will have billet servos and sometimes a billet torque converter, a pan drop and inspection cover unbolt will tell you. If it's a manual transmission (which with that much power I WOULD NOT HAVE.) then you can identify a non stock clutch with either gloss block pressure plate, orange, lime green or baby blue, the factory plate is flat black or semi gloss gray. Geez I read that whole thread, that's a virtual nightmare and unfortunately this happens OFTEN these days. We personally take picture of the build process some customers like to keep them for future reference, bragging rights or just a good to know.
 
Old 09-25-2010, 05:15 PM   #68
Rich Z
Quote:
Originally Posted by army_greywolf View Post
If ever there is a next time, I would perform the work you request. Which in this case, I would NOT turbocharge the engine with the STS setup, rather I would run the LS9 crate engine with water/meth injection, a 2.9" pulley and I would probably swap out the cam for something with a LITTLE more bump, and for all that it would truly be turn key, probably be cheaper and YES it would be as fast or faster than while being more reliable and instantaneous. I personally run water/meth from snow performance, fantastic system, it reads the maf sensor signal to determine flow rate. I have seen 10-15 percent increase in horsepower with it tuned and 10 percent without tuning for it.

On behalf of the industry I apologize, these are the guys who make the business so difficult for the rest of us, good luck with the rest of the build and I would love to see the car if you ever make it through Louisiana.
I doubt I will ever do something like this again. This one about stressed me out into the grave, and it's still not over with.

When I was looking at forced induction, I looked at all the options available and compared the pluses and minuses. The STS rear mounted turbos are still what I would choose, even today. I just do not want all the weight up front that all the other options would require. I was not at all disappointed with the performance I got out of them even with my old LS6 motor. If anything, it may just be that they can't keep up with the output of the 427 engine to push the engine into boost. But I'll cross that bridge if I get to it.
 
Old 09-25-2010, 05:18 PM   #69
Rich Z
Quote:
Originally Posted by army_greywolf View Post
Easy enough to figure out, most built transmissions for corvette applications will have billet servos and sometimes a billet torque converter, a pan drop and inspection cover unbolt will tell you. If it's a manual transmission (which with that much power I WOULD NOT HAVE.) then you can identify a non stock clutch with either gloss block pressure plate, orange, lime green or baby blue, the factory plate is flat black or semi gloss gray. Geez I read that whole thread, that's a virtual nightmare and unfortunately this happens OFTEN these days. We personally take picture of the build process some customers like to keep them for future reference, bragging rights or just a good to know.
Z06s only come with 6 speed manual transmissions. I know the clutch and flywheel are new, because I saw them go on myself. The transmission and differential looked like they had just come out of someone's car (maybe even my old ones just going back in. Any company would have cleaned up the exterior of those units, which was not the case with mine. But still, I need PROOF before I can file a claim of criminal fraud.
 
Old 09-26-2010, 11:21 AM   #70
army_greywolf
The housing will have a production number on the casting, and in many cases major assemblies like that have the last six digits of the vin number from the car it came from if not the full number. If the guts are supposed to be brand new, and there are literally zero miles on the car at present, easy enough to open the diff cover and take a picture of the gears because THAT will identify for shotgun sure if the gears have wear or not. IF they do, you were screwed over.

As for the manual/automatic, I was referring to the switch to automatic in the quest for more horsepower, drag racers often ditch manual transmissions when power gets serious.
 

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