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Stomis' 94 Street Truck - Snail Trail

Progress has been sorta slow. Started getting some pieces back on the firewall and shot the core support and inner fenders. The trans shop called me today to tell me my trans was completely missing the shift detent plug and spring! He said no wonder it would fall out of 5th and 3rd.




Im making a good push on my house this weekend with my dad and then I should have a weekend, maybe two in jersey to wrap up the truck.
 
Trans is rebuilt and in. Full rebuild w/ a new 3-4 fork only cost me $680! Was expecting twice that. I wound up having to trim the living hell out of my drivers side lower control arm mount to clear my headers once fully bolted up with aluminum gaskets. I wasnt expecting that after mocking them up seeming so smooth... :doah::doah: What a frustrating day that was.

I also just ordered the LSXRT 102 manifold. Holy expensive piece of plastic. I did happen across a display model on ebay for $840 shipped instead of $1000 though. Thats kinda what made me just finally buy it.

My harness got shipped yesterday to be converted to stand alone and spliced into my truck harness.


Purchase list:
1)Fuel rails
2)Fuel injectors
3)Throttle body
4)Mail order tune


Things left to do:
1)Plumb fuel
2)Full exhaust
3)Redo crossmember
4)Replate control arm mount
5)Bolt everything above on
6)Move battery to bed
7)Aligment
 
I just saw this build Vinnie, cool build. Funny thing is I am helping a friend build a 6.0 for his Jeep and I had him run the exact same camshaft! Anyway, you may have done it but didn't mention it, but did you check your PtV clearance? I noticed your pistons don't have valve reliefs, we checked his and even with 1.7 rockers and the cam degreed at 109.5 IC the PtV clearance was very close (only about .050 above min on exhaust) and his stock pistons are dished slightly. So if you didn't check that I would do it before you run the engine. With that cam and 1.8 rockers you will be right around .600 lift. Although the duration matters more than max lift for PtV clearance, with the 1.8 rocker it has ~6% more lift at any given point.
 
I just saw this build Vinnie, cool build. Funny thing is I am helping a friend build a 6.0 for his Jeep and I had him run the exact same camshaft! Anyway, you may have done it but didn't mention it, but did you check your PtV clearance? I noticed your pistons don't have valve reliefs, we checked his and even with 1.7 rockers and the cam degreed at 109.5 IC the PtV clearance was very close (only about .050 above min on exhaust) and his stock pistons are dished slightly. So if you didn't check that I would do it before you run the engine. With that cam and 1.8 rockers you will be right around .600 lift. Although the duration matters more than max lift for PtV clearance, with the 1.8 rocker it has ~6% more lift at any given point.

Yikes. No I didn't check PTV to be honest because I had no pushrods when I was buttoning up the top end and was under the impression the can was quite mild. I did a fair bit of research and my build almost identically followed one on ls1tech.
 
Yikes. No I didn't check PTV to be honest because I had no pushrods when I was buttoning up the top end and was under the impression the can was quite mild. I did a fair bit of research and my build almost identically followed one on ls1tech.

Uh oh. Its a sweet motor, I would hate to have you destroy one of your heads or worse if a valve smacks the piston. You might be OK, but I would definitely not run it until you check that, it's not worth the risk. You could always change to 1.7 rockers or change the cam timing a little if you needed to gain a little clearance, but a lot would require valve pockets being machined. With your small combustion chambers I would not risk it, the valves may be closer to the piston.

Do you have a valve spring compressor for use with the heads on and some checking springs? Because with those pieces and an indicator or caliper you could check the PtV clearance in the vehicle without removing the heads. You could buy both of those pieces for under $20 total, or $100 depending on what type.
 
Problem is I've got stud mounted rockers. I don't think the drop valveethod will work with stud mounted rockers will it?

I've got a dial indicator and feelers guages and have no problem buying a compressor.
 
I don't see why not, you could probably use any one of these...(some better than others)

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/wmr-w84002/overview/

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/lil-16750/overview/

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/pro-66784/overview/

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/cca-5462/overview/

to put on these on the #1 cylinder (or any cylinder)

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/cca-4758-2

You will want the piston at TDC and/or the cylinder filled with compressed air before you do this so you don't accidentally drop a valve into the cylinder.

Then remove the spring tool, and put your rocker arms/pushrods back on. Then, adjust the rocker (using an indicator) so the valve is open .100" on the exhaust and .080" on the intake when the lifter is on the base circle of the lobe (valve closed). Then slowly turn the engine over by hand to feel for any resistance, if there is none, you are good to go, but you have no idea how close it is then.

If you want to measure, you could adjust the rockers for zero lash. Then push one of the valves down about 1/4" by hand, and rotate or have someone rotate the engine over slowly by hand until you feel the piston hit the valve, then slowly turn the engine over(while holding the valve against the piston by hand) to find the lowest clearance. Once you do, you can zero the indicator and find the exact clearance. Do this for both the intake and exhaust valves. You should find the lowest clearance when the piston is almost at TDC (~10* before and after depending on which valve), not when the valve is open to max lift.
 
I understand what you're saying but doesn't the valve need to be set at .100 over the max lift and .080 on the exhaust and intake respectively?

I'm having a hard the understanding why I can't take a feeler gauge and shim the between the rocker and valve the respective needed clearance, rotate and check for anything hitting?
 
So PTV is measured. It measured 1 mile lol. The trickflows must have the valves picked up in the casting to compensate for the angle change. What I did was take a feeler gauge at .100 and put it between the exhaust valve tip and the rocker. Then I bottomed the adjustable rocker out in the lifter so everything was a solid connection. Then I spun it over til TDC and took a look at the valve clearance with the boroscope. Still a mile to go. Same thing for the intake @ .080.

I guess theres a reason trickflow said I needed longer than stock pushrods. I am glad I checked though.
 
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I understand what you're saying but doesn't the valve need to be set at .100 over the max lift and .080 on the exhaust and intake respectively?

I'm having a hard the understanding why I can't take a feeler gauge and shim the between the rocker and valve the respective needed clearance, rotate and check for anything hitting?

Yes, you could put .080 and .100 shims between the rocker tip and valve, however, if you don't take out the valve springs and put in checking springs it will collapse the hydraulic lifter and then when the lifter pumps up with oil it could still hit. Now, if you have a lot of excess clearance this probably won't matter as the lifter can only collapse so far. Also, without the checking springs you may damage something if the valve spring coil binds, you will have almost .700 lift with those shims in there. Watch to make sure the valve seal doesn't hit hte bottom of the retainer too.

So PTV is measured. It measured 1 mile lol. The trickflows must have the valves picked up in the casting to compensate for the angle change. What I did was take a feeler gauge at .100 and put it between the exhaust valve tip and the rocker. Then I bottomed the adjustable rocker out in the lifter so everything was a solid connection. Then I spun it over til TDC and took a look at the valve clearance with the boroscope. Still a mile to go. Same thing for the intake @ .080.

I guess theres a reason trickflow said I needed longer than stock pushrods. I am glad I checked though.

It's unlikely the heads could have such a small chamber 58 cc, and not have the valves closer, but possible. The heads we measured were stock 70 cc units. You do have a more flat valve angle so that may help a tiny bit, but not much, that angle change can affect your push rod length although with the valve length itself, rocker geometry, rocker arm, deck height, cam base circle, head style, etc.

Sounds to me like you checked the PtV clearance, but not at the spot that matters as when you are actually at TDC the valves are closed further. Bottoming the rocker out on the lifter is probably close enough if you are sure it was bottomed out. The best way to know for sure is to measure the valve opening, if the valve actually opens to .100 when the lifter is on the base circle then you should be good. You could also measure your max lift to see what it is to make sure the lifter isn't collapsing more. However, you have to be very careful with this method, because if the heads aren't setup for .100 more lift, you could damage something, which is why I like to use the checking springs and remove the valve seals, etc.

One more thing, I'm jealous you have a borescope.
 
Well I spun the motor over with it shimmed. I didn't just hold it at tdc. I spun the motor with a short 1/2in wrench to boot, definitely no interference.

The lifters are also definitely bottomed out. I adjusted them until the nut just wanted to open the valve.

What I suspect is that the casting of the heads are the same for all sizes of their LS heads. So despite being for a smaller motor I think the casting is only cut open to 205cc intakes while they probably make the 255s from the same casting, which makes me think all the heads are thought out with huge lift in mind. Just an idea.
 
Well if you spun the motor 2 revolutions with the shims in there with no interference then you should be good, glad to hear because I was worried with no valve reliefs. The cam is pretty mild you are correct, but I was surprised those new pistons didn't have valve reliefs. Sorry to make you go through all that but at least you know it's good now. I've seen people skip that step and occasionally the results are not pretty.
 
Well if you spun the motor 2 revolutions with the shims in there with no interference then you should be good, glad to hear because I was worried with no valve reliefs. The cam is pretty mild you are correct, but I was surprised those new pistons didn't have valve reliefs. Sorry to make you go through all that but at least you know it's good now. I've seen people skip that step and occasionally the results are not pretty.

Dont be sorry at all. Deep down inside I regretted not doing it in the first place... Updates to come. The good juicy kind where you can see some stuff happened :woot:
 
Progress shot




Also have a throttle body, injectors, and soon to be fuel rails on the way. I went with a 92mm throttle body as Ive read of issues regarding cable throttle bodies and off idle jerkyness with 100mm throttle bodies on smaller motors.
 
92mm is still pretty damn big considering that engine came with a 76mm
 
looking real good Vinnie!
I noticed a few LS engines powering supercomp dragsters this weekend...mostly a BBC staple for these cars, some are switching over evidently!
 
92mm is still pretty damn big considering that engine came with a 76mm

Indeed.

Couple more shots of the little bits and pieces coming together. Put a new TPS and IAC in the throttle body, bolted that on. Also modified/extended the upper hose outlet on the water pump to use a stock LS1 fbody upper hose. Should have just enough room to run that giant 4in intake over the hose and to the passenger side of the core support.





 
It's looking good! What are running for an ECM?

What did you decide to do with the steam vents?
 
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