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Old 05-22-2016, 02:59 PM
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Default 1969 Chevelle Turbo LSx-T56 Magnum-14" brakes-CTSv interior

I guess it is finally time for a build thread.

I have always been into cars and my first real build was in the late 90's where I put a Buick GN (turbo V6) drivetrain into my '87 Mazda RX-7. I put about 20K miles on it and commuted to work in it every day. Car ran mid 11's with a stock turbo on Nitto 245/50/16 Drag Radials. I had another stock rotary RX-7 with coilovers and Toyo RA1 tires with upgraded pads and tried road racing where I was hooked. Sold both cars and set out to build an LS1 powered '93 RX-7. That car I drove at the Sport Compact Car "Ultimate Street Car Challenge" in 2005 where I met Mike Maier and he was piloting the K&N sponsored turbo MR2 (it needed a bunch of refinement and he said was a handful to drive due to its on/off power). My car managed a 1.13g on 285/30/18 MichPSCup tires which was my goal. To prove the aluminum LS swap wouldn't mess up the cars handling.

I picked the Chevelle up in August 2012 off of Craigslist and surprisingly it was on there for a couple months. The story goes like this. 2 owner car originally purchased in Pasadena, CA where the 2nd owner bought it from about 10 years ago as a father/son restomod project. It sat in their garage about 30 mins north of SF for the entire time they had it. 93K original miles, Protectoplate, paperwork and service records dating back to the early 70's, factory Green/green 307ci, powerglide, 10 bolt non posi no a/c bench seat car when the original owner had it. 2nd owner installed an unknown mileage iron 5.3 with 4L65E trans and that was about as far as he got. No engine harness, no other real progress made. I had a bodyshop friend of mine come with me to look at the car and he said within a few minutes this is the cleanest rust free car you are ever going to find. Impulsively I bought it on the spot and put it in the trailer to take it home for some much needed care.

My goals for the car were to modernize it with EFI, a/c, better brakes/suspension, interior, and plush comfort. I hope that the car will run 9's with the turbo 5.3, achieve 25mpg highway, and be reliable with a/c as icing on the cake.

That week I pulled the engine/trans and in the following months installed a 2008 alum 5.3 with ported 5.3 heads, LS9 head gaskets, ARP studs, 225/223 114LSA cam, LS6 intake, ported TB, AutoKraft baffled pan, CarShop Inc 1" engine setback motor mounts, TC78 turbo, McLeod twin disc, and T56 Magnum, Holley 120# injectors. Most likely run it on e85. My buddy made 830rwhp with this turbo on a 378ci forged LS3 with ported LS3 heads/intake. I'm guessing I could make around the same.

Pulled the stock peg leg 10 bolt out and picked up a built Currie HD 9" with 35 spline axles, Detroit locker, installing 3.25 gears, with Torino big ends. TRZ adj upper/lower control arms too.
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Project: 1969 Chevelle, alum 5.3, GTS76 turbo, Chiseled Perf A/W intercooler, Holley Dominator EFI, Davis TC, JRi coilovers, 14" brakes, T56 Magnum. CTS-V Recaro seats!
Coffey Fabrication Nashville, TN doing the fabwork! 800rwhp+/25mpg+/9's@150mph goal
https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=52976

1993 Mazda FD RX-7, built LS7, T56 Magnum, Holley HP, Davis Tech TC, 8.8" 3.73 Cobra IRS diff, DSS axles, Ohlins coilovers, big brakes.
CCW 18x11 front 315/30/18's and 18x12.5 rear on 335/30/18 RA1's, 2850lbs
10.31@137mph 165mph Shift-Sector 1/2 mile speed
441ci AllPro headed motor and 200lb weigh reduction in the works....

Last edited by gnx7; 05-23-2016 at 01:35 PM.
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Old 05-22-2016, 03:07 PM
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Digging into the body work the sail panel below the rear window had some rust and some of the rear window frame needed repair also. I had a neighboring shop repair that and prep the rest of the body, weld some of the trim holes closed, and put it in black primer.

At that point my good friend Chris Coffey was leaving the area with an empty trailer back to Nashville, TN (he was out doing some fab work in the area) and asked me if he could take it with him so he could work his magic. Realizing that my progress was slow and I don't have the skills to do a full cage that actually looks good, a turbo system that would be reliable, and other touches the car left with him! He has been a fabricator for pretty much his entire career and would work on it during his slow times and charge me a discounted rate as a result.

At that point I felt like I was paying alimony at times as monthly funds were being sent to make headway and buy parts. I'm coming towards the end of the build so this thread needed to be put up!
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Last edited by gnx7; 10-14-2016 at 10:56 AM.
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Old 05-22-2016, 03:15 PM
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I sold the TC78 turbo and went with a GTS76 billet unit (1200hp rated), bought a beefy CG&J custom radiator, Holley Dominator EFI, chromoly tubing for the rollcage, and the hot side parts for the turbo system. 2.25" crossover tubing using truck manifolds and Vbands welded on them. Downpipe is 4" into a Badlandz e-cutout and then dual 3" into 4 mufflers for super stealth mode when closed.

Looked for a year and found some black Recaro heated/cooled seats from a totalled 2009 CTSv and had to have them.
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Old 05-22-2016, 03:16 PM
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Been wondering if you were ever gonna start a build thread on this car! Nice find!
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---------------------------------------------------------------
70 velle' on custom chassis w/custom RideTech coilovers, RED sleeved 434” with Mamo 265’s, F-body Magnum, 12 bolt 3:73, wilwood 6/4's, bla, bla, bla...build. thread https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=39631
New 434” engine build here https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...ved-block.html

Thanks Dad!!

My Chevelle is old school... It has a belt driven power steering pump.
They're 17's, but I keep em clean!
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Old 05-22-2016, 03:18 PM
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onto the cagework.... Coffey Fabrication on it! Chris builds Bonneville salt flats landspeed cars for a hobby!

The first picture is the frame table Chris and his friends made from plate steel and then drilled in something crazy like 350 threaded holes into it!

The CTSv rear seats need to go to an upholstery shop to be cut and fitted properly; however they do sit in there nicely.
Front seats were pretty easy to install.... the wiring to control them is the next challenge.
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Last edited by gnx7; 05-22-2016 at 03:21 PM.
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Old 05-22-2016, 03:25 PM
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Newport Engineering wiper motor.... few more of the turbo progress.

Big thanks to SpeedTech for their ATS spindle kit to correct the poor factory ackerman that resulted in scary steering. Also added a faster ratio rebuilt Cherokee steering box and Global West tubular control arms at the same time. Body bushings were replaced in California by me with poly Energy Suspension stuff.
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Old 05-22-2016, 03:35 PM
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Flew out to Nashville last fall to visit and get some work done on the car I didn't want to waste Chris' time on. Knocked out about 40hrs on the car that week and prepped all the floors for Lizard Skin heat and sound barrier. It was a ton of work; however I feel it will really help in the end. I also installed the 4" aluminum DriveShaft Shop driveshaft with billet 31 spline yoke in the car. It is beefy.

In the first picture that is a '95 Firebird landspeed car project with full chassis built on the table, 540ci twin 88mm turbo, Bruno trans, Winters style quickchange rear, and other goodies to shoot for 300mph this year at SpeedWeek.
They are feverishly working on it! That picture is from last fall.
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Last edited by gnx7; 05-23-2016 at 01:36 PM.
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Old 05-22-2016, 03:42 PM
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Put in Vintage Air a/c and some nice brackets were fabbed up to make it look right. A/C bracket is from Holley. That picture shows the CG&J radiator in the back, then the intercooler heat exchanger and finally the a/c condensor.

Fuel system is -10AN PTFE e85 rated feed and -8AN return running Weldon filter/regulator combo. Purchased a used 25 gallon s/s fuel tank (Rock Valley I believe) that Chris is going to put in dual Walbro 450lph pumps with the Holley Hydramat to solve any pickup issues.

Chris welded up the intercooler water tank with clear lid opening for my Chiseled Performance 1500hp A/W intercooler and a Rule2000 pump inside the tank. The system including the water in the lines and unit itself should hold around 10 gallons I'm guessing. He also added a cogged drive for the GZ Motorsports vacuum pump driven from the alternator. Thankfully the Chevelle has a very generously sized engine bay and can swallow all these parts up with ease.

The last few items to address on the car would be the following:
wiring (Painless purchased then redone to our liking already)
Holley engine harness with quick disconnect fitting at the firewall
fuel system plumb and modify tank
finish dual 3" exhaust from turbo downpipe
brake system- 14.25" Wilwood C6 Z06 kit up front, Wilwood 12.19" rears with parking brake, Wilwood master cylinder and remote proportioning valve to dial it all in.
JRi custom single adjustable coilovers (built by Cortex Racing- thank you Filip) using the SpeedTech coilover conversion parts on the super nice Speedtech A-arms
wheels/tires (hello.... any sponsors?)

I purchased a GM warranty take out LS9 motor that needed rebuilt with new rings/bearings, converted to wet sump (cut the crank snout), ported Lingenfelter LS9 heads (flow 350cfm), and BrianTooleyRacing cam of still to be determined size. That will eventually go in once I get the car back and work out any kinks. With nearly 1 liter more displacement than the 5.3 engine any turbo lag should be minimized. The compression is also set at 10:1 so it should still be potent even out of boost. My guess is the LS9 setup should make 480rwhp without boost..... add 15psi and it will surpass 950rwhp with ease. 20psi should be a fun ride....
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Last edited by gnx7; 10-13-2016 at 11:14 PM.
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Old 05-22-2016, 05:02 PM
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A few more random pics of the build. Note the bellow for the air filter that goes from 6" down to 4" inlet to the turbo.....and Ford Taurus 4000cfm e-fan. They really suck.

Cage is pretty well tucked in and hidden from the outside. The door bars have yet to be fabbed in until the rest of the work inside is completed.
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Last edited by gnx7; 10-13-2016 at 11:15 PM.
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Old 08-28-2016, 01:08 PM
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Some more progress as been made and we are pushing to finish the car this year. Lots of little things to wrap up and make happen.

Thank you Filip at Cortex Racing for the JRi coilover hookup. Chris will do whatever is needed to make the SpeedTech control arms work in order to fit them.

Blake at SpeedTech- thank you for your help with coilover info and other tips you have shared so we could build this custom setup! Great people to work with.
They will pair well with your forged front ATS spindles/ZR1 hubs and I plan to give this suspension a pounding.

Some pictures of recent work.
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Last edited by gnx7; 10-13-2016 at 11:17 PM.
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