Our starting point was the engine – although it came from Katech fully tested and broken in on the dyno we wanted to do an intake swap and do some work to the stock LS7 oil pan before bolting up the ATS Sidewinder accessory drive and modifying it to eliminate the AC compressor.
The intake of choice was an LSXR 102mm from FAST with Katech billet fuel rails. A pretty straight forward – albeit time consuming – installation.
which was followed by some modifications to the stock GM oil pan with an Aviad sump and windage tray. We’re working on some modifications to an ATS oil pan but those will have to wait for another day while we work out some of the details.
and an Improved Racing thermostat
with a GM -12AN conversion kit
Until finally everything was ready…
That proved pretty easy. The first hiccup of the weekend came when we went to bolt the ATS Accessory drive on – the water pump wouldn’t clear the intake and the back of the impeller was interfering with the timing cover. Not a huge deal but an hour and change of messing around and grinding was needed to get everything to fit right
There is some more work to do but ultimately the AC bracket will be eliminated and a Katech tensioner will take its place – it looks like it will all work but we need to make some spacers to get it just right.