Barely, but only cause you're pointing to it in the above picture. Tough break for sure. You got the engine shut off in time though, right?

That sucks but the good news is that car is kickin' some butt. Way to go. :thumbsup:

that does suck. Rock or no rock....aluminum pans suck!!

Update, I replaced the pan with another CTSV pan, but this time I tigged a 1/4x1 piece of aluminum to the bottom to act as a "slider" skid plate if I ever hit anything again, it won't catch on the drain plug. I also fitted up my new splitter with attached belly pan on the car, It sits just a bit lower than the oil pan, so the pan is no longer the lowest point on the car. I was a little disturbed to find what looked like metal in the bottom of the pan when I got it off but put it back together anyway. So far so good, I ran the piss out of it at the local autox yesterday and all seems normal. The car kicked some butt too! I was the 8th fastest car out of 130 entries, I'll take that. Next the trans is getting rebuilt to get ready for the Ultimate Track Car Challange coming up in July at VIR!

Home now from the Ulitmate Track Car Challage, I didn't get chance to take very many pictures. I ended up finishing 27th overall, not bad considering all the "hardware" that was in the field. But the highlight was winning the fastest Vintage award! There were 5 cars running in the vintage group and I ended up the fastest! I only ran a 2.12 lap, about 4 seconds slower than my best. I'm guessing the areo I added slowed me down, and I didn't get enough runs to really learn how to drive it in the corners with it on the car. Transmission is still a problem, I Just pulled it out last night and opened up the cover to take a peek, and luckely none of the gears are missing teeth, it does look like some mauled up 3rd gear, but it's not too bad. The case did have a lot of metal in it. It's going back to the shop that built it today.

Here's some pics to enjoy, I'm gonna try and find some of the other cars and I'll post them as well.

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psmackitvf.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...pszin79yzn.jpg

Winners Circle
http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psznigibyj.jpg

Back home in the cave
http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psey8ipfjo.jpg

The best part of the weekend was my Dad came down and my son came up, so here are the three Mills's

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psy7lqhdbv.jpg

Here are some pictures of the other cars. I can only find one on track pic of my car and ended up winning the damn thing! No Love....

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps2644f5a3.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps8f1734f9.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psa3c2615e.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps0b653ac7.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps2db7c153.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psc6bf337d.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps9dc67913.jpg

Congrats man!! Did you make your splitter? how far under the car does it go?

Yes, all the way to the oil pan, I'll post some build pics up if there interest

I did not realize you ran against some Vintage Outlaw cars. Maybe you need to do a little wheel to wheel in that class.

Payton, I'm going to be time trialing next year. My wife doesn't want me to be doing wheel to wheel stuff. Besides, I already beat them! And yes they are all Outlaw Vintage cars, the firebird and the white mustang are from the southern region, SC and GA I think. I still have a ways to go to get my car to pass racing specs too. I need to put the front of the cage in it, batt cutoff switch, window net, fire system and I'm not sure if the rules require a fuel cell but I don't think so.

Ok, so the trans is at the shop that built it. We pulled the cover yesterday and all the teeth are still good, but it has a spot where it binds up if it's in gear. It spins freely not in gear. They are going to break it down and try and figure it out. As I suspected some metal went through the third gear clusters, so this is what my magnet picked up out of the oil I drained:

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psf1066fab.jpg

No sign inside the tranny where it may have come from, very strange. The poor transmission only had 40 mins of run time on it.

Great job Mills....picked you off as a winner back when you first started posting. Great to see your son and dad backing you up.

Your going to love Time Trials. Wheel to wheel or not you'll always be able to see what everybody's lap times are on the NASA web site so no point in trying to race somebody into a corner and taking home their paint. (Unless you hit the lotto).

That would be cool. Thanks

Sucks about the trans but it looks like it is not too bad.

Here's the Grassroots recap of the weekend, I got some more press!
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/events/UTCC14/


Splitter build pics coming soon

:thumbsup:

As Promised, here are my splitter build pics. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money so this was just a prototype to see if it works. I could feel a difference in the car even at Highway speeds, but I didn't get enough track time to really push it and learn to lean on in the corners. As you can see I made it out of plywood and a 2x4! total cost is under $20!

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psuacows0r.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...pswe8uzwbk.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psxtv1i4ku.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psowkzlgi2.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps9ezro9uv.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psqknfw5ev.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psqcwpbqfp.jpg

Here are a few action shots I got from Finishline Productions

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps8a16cc0a.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps9a16d82a.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps4146d81e.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps094e9b55.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps8ab31133.jpg

Thanks for the splitter build pics. Gives me a good direction for making mine for the 69.What did you make the final from.. 1/8 or 3/16 aluminum?

Most guys use Alumalite, Mine's still plywood :lol:

Dude!! thats funny... it did not look like it from the action shots. :confused59:

Paint and Plastidip FTW!

It works!!

It's here! My new Rankin Dog Box! well, almost new. This thing is heavy, way heavy. It better be as strong as it appears. Going in the car this weekend if I can find an assistant to help me bench press it in the car. Went by the shop to find the status of my blown up trans, well the found out that they left a shim out that keeps the front set of needle bearings in check, well without that shim they checked themselves right apart. they are gonna eat it and in a big way, but that cant fix the fact that I missed the whole rest of the weekend at the track. It's gonna cost them about $600 in parts plus the labor to put it back together. oh well, that's racin

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psxsfrfgfo.jpg

Glad the splitter seems to be working out for you.

I don't know if it works or not, it def took some top speed away, I didn't get enough laps with it to see if I could pic up speed in the corners. At least it didn't hit anything and it didn't fall off at speed!

So Grassroots Motorsports offered a wear your helment to work challenge today I took a few pics. Since I don't work on Fridays I took a short stroll on my Beach Cruiser down to the Beach.

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps1ygdxz1m.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psvleovkfv.jpg

Well I decided to pull the motor before I go to Daytona in Nov to change out the lower end bearings for insurance. So I was talking to Improved Racing about Oil Control as they just released an new trap door insert for the CTSV Pan. Guess what? They want to come on board and sponsor me to promote that new product! My first "real" sponsor! so I'll be doing a write up along the way on how it works out for me, stay tuned...

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psd0png5dq.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psko5c38sr.jpg

Got the motor out this weekend and set up in the garage for the tear down. Good thing I decided to do this because I found a lot of metalish stuff in the oil when I drained it. Got the new stuff in from http://www.improvedracing.com/ on Friday :ups: Here's a few updates:

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psq5kqgbil.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psuh0gsfcy.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps4quylmmy.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...pshopavgya.jpg

How does the Improving Racing bit adhere to the V pan?

Are there bolt holes in the pan for it?

Well I got the most of the motor disassembled now, I'm not really happy with what I found inside. The rods have a lot of "slop" in them, I mean I can turn the crank a couple of degrees before the rods move and you can see the crank moving inside the rod caps. I'm pretty sure it's toast and needs a complete rebuild other than me just slapping some bearings in it putting it back together. I did find a very well priced LS6 shortblock close by that only has 40K miles on it, so if it checks out I'm going to use that. After I pulled the pan and saw what was swirling around in there It was an easy call! I can't believe this thing was still running and not making any knocking noise!

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps8qf5hrhe.jpg

I'm gonna take a little time and clean up some of this too while It easy to get to.

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps6b30xczl.jpg

As for the Baffle, here it is beside the Oilpan, you remove the factory tray and bolt the baffled insert back in it's place. the second shot is upside down with all the trap doors opened. Nice little piece! I also got a crank scraper to go with it. I'll post pics when I do the install.

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psykg7dslw.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...pso57ly74g.jpg

Nice little set up. Congrats on the sponsorship. :thumbsup:

I had one in my yellow car. Worked like a champ

Got the frame rails and crossmember all painted up, cleaned up the harness some (it's hidden when the motor is in the car) need to get a little paint on the firewall and then I'm done under here. Should be picking up the LS6 early this week and the fun begins! Also my copy of Grassroots motorsports came in yesterday, Page 63! They even gave me the majority of the page!

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps8mcce8sg.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psjbzvc2jn.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psygnsfrqk.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps913gwfgj.jpg

The good guys at Improved Racing just released a new oil pan baffle insert for the CTS-V oil pan. The CTS-V pan is a good choice for a lot of motor swaps as it clears the cross member better than the f body pan, but is just a tad deeper. I run one on my TTU/V-1 Track Camaro (Trackmaro). I'm in the process of swapping in a new LS6 Shortblock and wanted to make sure I had the best Oil control I could get in a wet sump application. I'll be taking the car to Daytona Nov 1-2 to run the Rolex circuit with NASA. So Improved Racing hooked me up with a new baffle, a crank scrapper and an oil thermostat for my oil cooler. For now here are the pics of the installation, It took only 15 mins at best (pan was already off the car).

Here's the stock pan:
http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps0ffsmt2n.jpg

Baffle removed:
http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psvetpdgdw.jpg

Improved Racing Baffle inserted:
http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps7p9obwnj.jpg

All bolted in place:
http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps3gbbpkfb.jpg

Factory windage tray and oil pickup inplace (just for reference):
http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psziajrnqz.jpg

Something I did to my last pan, as the CTS-V pan hangs low and the drain plug is in the rear. I welded a 1/4 x1 piece of flatbar on the bottom to act as a "slider" in case I ever bottom out or hit something on high center again. It doesn't take much at all to knock the back of the pan out if you hit the drain plug on something. It's happened to me twice even at 3" of clearance. That's the reason I'm putting in a new shortblock! ARG!

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psclg9o2zr.jpg

Congrats on the ink! Sorry to hear about the motor.

The LS6 shortblock arrived Friday evening. I worked on it some over the weekend, but not as much as I wanted to. I've got some kind of nagging cold that is slowing me down.

I need to start putting some of this stuff together because I'm running out of room!
http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psdgpdszan.jpg

The first thing I wanted to do was check the bellhousing alignment because I was pretty sure it was going to be off. The starter tab on the block had broken off and repaired, but that is where the dowel goes for the bellhousing alignment. I was really happy that the bellhousing actually fit on the factor dowels. But after some detailed checking with my dial indicator (a real pain in the tail) it proved to be off by over .024, not the end of the world, I ordered some .021 offset dowels to fix it. The factory tolerance is .005. I need this to be right, I don't want to F'up my new Nascar Dog Ring Trans!

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...pspl7rpkal.jpg

Next order of business was the cam and timing chain:
http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psxt7ydrum.jpg

Then the new crank scrapper from Improved Racing, that thing is close but it fits everywhere perfectly.

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps0lg9hvbq.jpg

I got the rest of the covers and oil pan all bolted on, and the engine rolled over and on a dolly. That's all I could manage for the weekend, I should have all the rest of it put back together by Friday so I can drop it in next weekend.

Those look like some nice upgrades. I hope they work well for you. Good luck!

Well this weekend went a little better than last week. Got the motor all assembled and running in the car. Sunday was a long day, but I had a couple guys come over and help me drink all my beer and turn a few wrenches. Still lots of little stuff to go over, but those I can do by myself. Deadline is Oct 17th, AutoX is on Oct 19 then it's getting loaded up to get hauled to Daytona for Nov 1-2 track weekend.

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psp1udxxdo.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps8szgjqya.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psaeujdtb6.jpg

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/f...psov5ryomn.jpg

Great way to spend a weekend!

Way to get it back together. Good luck out there.

Grrrr8 progress! Was there any shiftier conflicts ?