Glad to hear you are working on it bro! Looking forward to having all of our cars at the RTTC in March---keeping fingers crossed that it will actually happen.
Thanks Brett & Doug. And Brett, thanks for continuing to clean up my own and other shops mistakes lol. Also, thanks for letting me in on some of the top secret Fab53 skunkworks stuff. Very very cool.
Yeah I've been working on this thing. Hit a major road block in reassembly after dropping the trans and oil pan. I had to replace the power steering hose and it took FOREVER to get the parts. On the plus side I got rid of the shiny braided stainless hoses and replaced with black braided pressure and black push on return/cooler lines. XRP stuff.
Vibration issue is much much better now. There is still some vibration at 2k rpms, more than I'd like, but nothing like before. So you can't trust the brand new RAM and LS7 clutch to be balanced.
Oil pressure issue... I'm sad to report it still FUBAR. New oil ring didn't do a damn thing. bybpassed the ECU oil pressure and ran a new sending unit directly to my autometer gauge and the read the same. Its either somehow still a pickup problem or a main bearing problem I guess.
Speedometer... I can't get my damn speedo to work. I've checked the wires half a dozen times with the ohm meter, replaced the VSS, rewired it both ways (2 wire VSS), checked the voltage at the speedo signal post and confirmed with autometer that it is supposedly in spec. Anyone in socal have a spare electronic speedo I can try?
In liu of a pic to make this post interesting here is a quick vid of what the car sounds like with the 3" Magnaflow exhaust (tail pipes all the way back). I really like this system! I took the car on the freeway and zero drone! I'm now putting some breakin miles on the car & motor waiting for an appointment to have TCI massage a few things.
It happens every now and them to LS motors, but the cam bearing will walk out and uncover the oil hole. This caused my oil pressure to drop to 5lbs at idle and 15lbs max. My rear cam bearing walked back. I pulled the motor and check all the bearings and they were fine, replaced oil pump and o-ring, still the same problem. Pulled the rear cover and my cam bearing was hanging out the back. Checked the rest and it was only the one. Put and new bearing in and fixed my problem.
Well after almost a year I have something like an update...
I shipped the motor back to Mast Motorsports. They inspected it and said it still looked brand new inside and the only thing they didn't like was the oil pick up tube height from the pan. Mast said too tall at close to 1" and according to Champ should it should be about 3/8".
Despite the pick up tube height issue they ran it on their dyno under 70 load cycles for 1.5 hours with and without and oil cooler with both a mechanical and the ECU oil pressure sensor and pressure never dropped below 35 psi at idle and 60+ at 3.5k RPM. With oil cooler the oil temps were 170-180 and without oil cooler they used a temp gun showing 230* (dyno temp gauge uses the cooler)
So I'm totally lost. I also tried a mechanical gauge and verified the low oil pressure not to mention the same ECU they are using is what I used and it showed the low oil pressure too.
Mast is pretty convinced that the motor is fine but is open to any suggestion I have that they should of tried on the Dyno that they didn't but I can't think of anything. I also can't think of a plausible explanation for why they get good oil pressure and I didn't.
Chad, what are you using to measure the oil pressure?
If your relying on your guage, and have used more that one guage, i've seen guage defects, in other words, same guage used but manufactoring defects in design or production giving you a false read. Also, having just done an LS conversion in my 70, the computer does alot of weird stuff....but iirc, you had a mechanical read with low op?
been waitin for an update from you, love your car, Mike
Clogged oil cooler/line? Only variable I can think of between the two setups. Glad to hear the engine is healthy at least...
I didn't have an oil cooler installed in the car so it's not that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by glassman
Chad, what are you using to measure the oil pressure?
If your relying on your guage, and have used more that one guage, i've seen guage defects, in other words, same guage used but manufactoring defects in design or production giving you a false read. Also, having just done an LS conversion in my 70, the computer does alot of weird stuff....but iirc, you had a mechanical read with low op?
been waitin for an update from you, love your car, Mike
Mike, I used the ECU with its own sending unit and a proven autometer gauge and both read the same. Besides reading the same they both read a huge pressure drop as the engine oil reached operating temp n
Quote:
Originally Posted by GregWeld
No way I'd run an oil pick up 1" off the bottom of the pan....Way too high!
What fitting sizes and hose sizes are you running because that could be a FLOW issue...
Yeah I agree 1" is too high. I measured the pick up back when exploring the problem and don't recall it being so far off from the recommended 3/8". No oil cooler so don't think tht is impeding the flow. Also I tried a different pan and pick up that was shipped on the motor and had the same symptoms.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash68
Regardless Chad this is at least some positive news that the motor is in healthy shape. That's progress at least. Thinking positive for you.
So are they shipping the motor back to you now or in a holding pattern?
Mast will ship it back but gave me the weekend to think about it in case there is anything else I could think for them to check. It doesn't make sense to me. I can't think of anything that explains this.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
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