Dusty's SLC Build

[Dusty]

THANKS for the input and the references to other builds. very helpful. I have called several vendors who make a LS corvette (y body spaced) head mount AC bracket. The most narrow of these brackets is 16" wide from the engine centerline to the outside edge of ac bracket. By my measurements it is 15.5" from the engine centerline to the aluminum "frame" of the SLC chassis. (see pic) the reason these brackets are made wide for corvette motor swaps is 2 fold: firstly most people put these motors in the front of a swap or want to mount the ac up high in the vette. In both of that situation hood clearance is paramount. The second reason for the wider spacing is to avoid colliding the ac bracket with the throttle body. Neither of these are an issue in the SLC because there is room in the back of the SLC to move the ac upward and we flip the intake manifold backwards so there is no throttle body to worry about. I put out a call to wegner motorsports as suggested above. im waiting for their response.

I cant see how the holly bracket will fit-its too wide
ill keep looking but I anticipate the local race shop will be making me an AC bracket when the . they have jedi skills.
I went ahead today and ordered the Daily Corvette LS Dry sump kit. the guys at daily are very helpful. I highly recommend them.

 

[Dusty]

note in the pics I posted below that they make LS AC brackets that are more midline for the serpentine belt sytems of the Truck and camaro based accessory belt (the "F body" engine and associated belt spacing). these engine sytems have a belt that is spaced farther away from the block than the corvette. this spacing of the belt away from the block makes packaging a little easier says one of the bracket vendors I spoke with. THERE ARE AT LEASTE a dozen head based AC brackets for the truck and camaro LS belt spacing BUT I CANT FIND a single mount for the corvett based LS. someone please prove me wrong.

 

[Dusty]

THANKS for the input and the references to other builds. very helpful. I have called several vendors who make a LS corvette (y body spaced) head mount AC bracket. The most narrow of these brackets is 16" wide from the engine centerline to the outside edge of ac bracket. By my measurements it is 15.5" from the engine centerline to the aluminum "frame" of the SLC chassis. (see pic) the reason these brackets are made wide for corvette motor swaps is 2 fold: firstly most people put these motors in the front of a swap or want to mount the ac up high in the vette. In both of that situation hood clearance is paramount. The second reason for the wider spacing is to avoid colliding the ac bracket with the throttle body. Neither of these are an issue in the SLC because there is room in the back of the SLC to move the ac upward and we flip the intake manifold backwards so there is no throttle body to worry about. I put out a call to wegner motorsports as suggested above. im waiting for their response.

I cant see how the holly bracket will fit-its too wide
ill keep looking but I anticipate the local race shop will be making me an AC bracket when the . they have jedi skills.
I went ahead today and ordered the Daily Corvette LS Dry sump kit. the guys at daily are very helpful. I highly recommend them.

 

[Joel K]

THANKS for the input and the references to other builds. very helpful. I have called several vendors who make a LS corvette (y body spaced) head mount AC bracket. The most narrow of these brackets is 16" wide from the engine centerline to the outside edge of ac bracket. By my measurements it is 15.5" from the engine centerline to the aluminum "frame" of the SLC chassis. (see pic) the reason these brackets are made wide for corvette motor swaps is 2 fold: firstly most people put these motors in the front of a swap or want to mount the ac up high in the vette. In both of that situation hood clearance is paramount. The second reason for the wider spacing is to avoid colliding the ac bracket with the throttle body. Neither of these are an issue in the SLC because there is room in the back of the SLC to move the ac upward and we flip the intake manifold backwards so there is no throttle body to worry about. I put out a call to wegner motorsports as suggested above. im waiting for their response.

I cant see how the holly bracket will fit-its too wide
ill keep looking but I anticipate the local race shop will be making me an AC bracket when the . they have jedi skills.
I went ahead today and ordered the Daily Corvette LS Dry sump kit. the guys at daily are very helpful. I highly recommend them.

Dusty, maybe with the Holley Bracket the compressor sits high enough that it overhangs the frame so it can be wider than 15”. Just a thought, but not sure.

The Wegner kit looks like it will fit great.

 

[Brian Kissel]

Dusty, have a look here also
.

Kwik Performance, Inc. LS Compact and Street Rod brackets

Allows mounting of a Sanden air conditioning compressor, alternator, and power steering pump on an LS1, LS2, LS3 LS6, or LS7 engine out of a Corvette, Camaro, GTO, or truck for use in a Street Rod vehicle, such as a 1932 Ford. Brackets for other small engine compartments.

www.kwikperf.com

And here

https://www.vintageair.com/instructions_pdf/175012.pdf

Regards Brian

 

[Ken Roberts]

There is no way the Wegner kit will fit. It is spaced out way too far. More than likely even farther than the truck spacing.

 

[Dusty]

following up
correct Ken. the wegner kit wont fit. this design pushes the accessories out farther than the truck routing on an ls engine. I called the manufacturer.
I also called the Kwick kit people. they will sell you just the ac bracket that sits high up. but it doesn't fit our small compressors-it fits the larger 508 compressor. here is the kwick compressor mount.

 

[Earl Mitchell]

Dustin im back from vaca and just saw your thread,I believe I was going to use the welded bung thats on the extension for the return and weld another fitting to the lid that was hard piped to the holley mat so when you undo the lid the mat would come out if service is needed,but I dont think it really matters.

 

[Dusty]

I really do love this sump on the fuel tank.
Earl put some nice drain passages from the main tank into the sump. You can’t see them But they are there. This make sure the sump is always full from the main tank. I was a little bit concerned that the sump tank wouldn’t be able to burp air very well. I was concerned that air would get caught up at the top of the sump tank and stay there. I don’t want to risk the holly pick up mat sucking air. So I cut a 4 inch slit inside the sump tank at the top. This will let the air Leave the sump as it filled from the main tank and burp air into the main tank. I went ahead and drilled a few more holes in the main tank so as to allow filling of the sump.

 

[Dusty]

I also pulled the motor to make the dry sump install a little easier. While the transaction is out I’m going to install the 1.04 drop Gear’s and the sixth gear overdrive. Has anyone installed the sixth year on their own? Reading this for him I have only seen one person described switching out the drop gears on their own. Has anyone else tried it? I’ve done transfer case Gear changes for rock crawlers but I have never torn apart a transaxle.

 

[Dusty]

Another question:
While I have the motor out I was going to install the clutch before rejoining the motor to the Graziano. What are people doing for clutches? I know John b, who supplies the gears, also distributes a nice Kevlar clutch set up. Are people running aftermarket clutch assemblies like the one from John?

 

[Del]

For what it's worth, I'm running the stock Audi clutch that came with the completion kit from RCR. When it's time to get a new one, I plan to hit up JohnB....even sooner for his drop gears.

If you decide to not install drop gears yourself, Ron McCall seems to be the go to guy.

 

[Ben]

Dusty, great head start on your build. Looks like Earl did some great work! I think Frank Clark installed his own drop gears back in April? Maybe this is the guy you were talking about?

 

[Ron McCall]

Dusty,

The drop gear install is a fair bit more involved that any transfer case and the reprocutions of getting it wrong can be huge ( r&r trans , replacing expensive parts, waiting for parts to be provided) . I have been repairing transmissions since 1989 . Please let me know if you would like to discuss having the gears installed.
Also, I am using the HCF clutch in my GT-R and have been extremely happy with the quality and performance.

Ron

 

[Dusty]

Thanks fellas
Yeah I read about how Frank did the gear install on his own. I have read over the manual’s disassembly/reassembly procedure several times. Although there are a multitude of steps involved in disassembling this transaxle, the Audi manual doesn’t specify any specific tolerance essentials that must be respected when reassembling the gearbox . In fact never in the manual are any sort of measuring devices referenced and nowhere are any specific tolerances noted. I don’t see any special tools in the manual either except for a curious looking keyed socket that one could probably make by hacking up an impact socket with a grinder.
A basic gear puller is needed on several occasions to remove some gears from their associated shafts. On a couple of Occasions a basic shop Pres is recommended to put Gear’s back on.

There is however one passage on page 193 that leaves me fealing a bit queasy:

“Always install the roller bearing inner race and synchronizer hub all the way on so that the gear wheels have the specified axial play.”

Unfortunately the manual doesn’t specify what is meant by “specified axial play”

There’s a high probability that I will end up dumping the whole disassembled pile of tcase parts in a big box and Shipping the mess to Ron. But I’d like to give it a try .

I purchased a 1.04 drop gears and the sixth gear overdrive gears. The overdrive gears look to be the most difficult part of the procedure. Is that correct Ron?

 

[Dusty]

Dropped the SLC off at the fab shop for a little cage work. Wherever the steel cage is fastened to the aluminum chassis the holes through the aluminum have enlarged to about 1” and a piece of .25” wall tube has been welded in place to the span the distance through the aluminum chassis. Adding these “spuds” to the aluminum chassis allows the cage mounting bolts to be torqued tighter and perhaps promotes a more solid union between the cage and chassis.

Where the a pillar steel cage mounting bolts pass through the dash the same procedure has taken place. A 4130 steel backing plate reinforces the backside of the 4 bolts that pass through the dash.

These 4130 .120 wall side braces are constructed in the same manner

I am impressed by how well Fran designed and constructed this aluminum monocoque chassis. Absolutely solid. Note that different wall thicknesses are used in the aluminum tubing throughout the chassis. I note that foremost .120 wall dash horizontal tube is sleeved inside by a second tube.

 

[Dusty]

Cage work continues to progress. Power steering kit on the way so we will be replacing the current GM steering column assembly.

Has anyone used a basic Sparco/momo type Bucket fiberglass receipt? These super light seats seem nice enough but I prefer to sit up straight like the sparco/momo. I am 5’8” tall. Is anyone running these type of seats? I’ve read lots of builds and I don’t see them. I suspect they are too tall.

 

[Ken Roberts]

Here is a recent video of the guys with the lambo and LS engine mated to a graziano from an Audi. They are installing the HFC drop gears themselves. You can watch them take it all apart. Don't think I'd give them mine to do though....yikes.

 

[Dusty]

Thanks for the link. I’m still waiting on my gears to arrive. Worst case scenario I’ll put it all in a box and ship it away to someone who knows what they’re doing.

My Slc is still at the fab shop. Electric power steering is going in. And the welder Jedis There are putting together a plan to put in an 8 into one exhaust on the car. To do so, the rear x brace above the transaxle will of course need to be redone and I think we will probably need to cut some of the rear body out. The Fabricator guys think they can do the headers without cutting the body. But an eight in the one collector is pretty huge. Especially because we will probably need to do 2 inch primaries to take advantage of all the power the motor makes. Has anyone done an 8 into one collector on Slc?

And I gave up on finding a bracket for the air conditioning so I started making my own yesterday

 

[Dusty]

In the pic what you see is my bracket made from steel bolted to the head in the position where the mini air compressor that comes with our cars needs to be in relationship to the head. Before I fabricated this bracket I bought a cheap $120 mini compressor bracket on eBay. This brackets ebay bracket is for an f body motor. The F body bracket t is used on the Chevy trucks that use an LS motor. On the F body belt spacing everything is forward about an inch from where it is on the Corvette spacing accessory belt assembly. That is why the F body spacing allows you to put the air conditioning compressor forward and below the head. Because the Corvette spacing that comes on these crate motors is tight up against the block the AC bracket must be moved above the head so that part of the air-conditioning pump can sit above the head. I bought the cheap brackets on eBay because they already have proper spacing for the bolt holes and I can use them to help me make quick and easy bracket templates.