LS-1 Re-Install

Well, it's Camaro time today and the horsepower shot and we're getting back to work on our 98 over there. That's right. We're going to drop the bullet back into our LS gun.

Now, in case you missed it some time ago, we did one too many burnouts and kind of hurt the motor on that thing. So we had to get busy on an LS One extraction mission

after loosening all the connections, the engine and cradle dropped out from underneath.

Then while disassembling the engine, we discovered a spun rod

bery.

So we first sent it off our machining at wheel to wheel up in Michigan.

Then we reassembled the engine, installing a balanced rotating assembly CNC ported heads.

We added a crane roller valve train

and a new fast deposit intake.

Well, we're just about ready to bolt that thing back in the cradle, but first, we're going to give it a new clutch. Now, what we're using in this light metal series clutch assembly from center force, this is an 11 inch sf approved clutch assembly

that uses a diaphragm style pressure plate

and a dual segmented clutch disk. Now, here's where the way it really comes off though. The pressure plate uses a billet aluminum friction ring and of course, the flywheel is billet aluminum,

but they both use high carbon steel friction faces. And that combination is good to take about 20 pounds off your road

mass. Of course, any time you reduce rotating mass, the engine is going to get into the power band faster. Now, that will get you off the line and down the track a little quicker. Now, before we bolt this up to the engine, we're going to go ahead and clean it with some brake cleaner to remove any preservatives. Now, that will give us a good clean mating surface for the clutch.

We'll bolt the flywheel at first using new hardware.

After replacing the pilot bearing, I can put the disk into place using the lineup tool,

followed by the pressure plate that aligns itself to the flywheel using in dow

pins

before we bolt this transmission to the engine. I'm going to replace the throw out bearing. After all, the camaro's got over 80,000 miles on it.

And since this thing moves with every shift, it's a good idea to replace it. Now, rather than down the road. Of course, the new one installs with just two bolts, just make sure these hydraulic valves point toward the two holes in the bell house.

Then after making the transmission to the engine,

we can install the motor mounts

and the starter.

Next, we can drop the motor and trance onto the cradle,

sent down the motor mount bolts,

then bolt up the power steering pump,

the alternator

and finally we can begin installing our engine wiring harness. Yeah. Now we built our LS one with improvements to the camshaft and the cylinder heads all in the name of making more power. So it only stands to reason that we make similar improvements on the exhaust side.

So what we're going to use here is a set of hooker super comps. Now, these things use equal length primary tubes with a one and five eights inch diameter.

They're made from stainless steel and they already have all the bugs and fittings that you need for your emissions equipment and the exit underneath the car. Now, because of that, we had to pop for one of their Y pipe kits. Now, what that Y pipe does is it allows us to hook everything back up to our existing cat back system.

Now, we're going to bolt these back up to the engine. Now,

here we go.

And once we get everything bolted up, we can roll this thing back under the Camaro.

Here's something pretty critical. I want to show you before we roll this thing under the car,

the steering shaft connects to the steering column as the car is being lowered over the cradle. Now, make sure you get that started before the car comes completely down.

Now, we can lower the car slowly down

making sure no wires or hoses get pinched in the process

with the cradle in position under the car, we re attach it with 618 millimeter bolts.

Now we can swing the front suspension back into position,

then reattach the strut to the shock tower

and install the transmission cross member with four bolts

that all went pretty smoothly. Now, we can start reconnecting some of the hoses and harnesses.

When we removed that engine, we showed you a little shortcut that involved getting this wire bundle

out from inside the car. Well, now it's time to deal with it again.

Now, the best way to get the job done is to have a buddy

inside the car and have him reach up behind the kick panel, pull the wires through and make all the connections for you.

Then all we have to do is deal with this grommet right here. Now, it's real flexible. So what I like to do is just double it back over, feed it through the hole in the firewall and pull it back through to see it.

Now we can get the car back in the air

reinstall. The AC compressor

go to work, reconnecting the front sway bar

and the rest of the electrical connections and sensors.

These late models use a lot of ground straps because of the electronics. So make sure you reconnect all of them. Now, let me show you something. This is our old stock drive shaft that was rubbing on the torque arm

and that compromised its integrity. A couple of broken motor mounts and a broken trans mount were the culprit. So we ordered this new one from dyno

Tech. It's an aluminum stock replacement piece that's been balanced and fitted with heavy duty U joints

before Mike stabbed that drive shaft into place. I reinstalled our torque arm and now we're ready for the Y pipe. Now we're going to start it on this side first here.

And you probably notice this Y pipe does away with our catalytic converter and essentially makes our car illegal to operate on the street. But we're in the search for a good high flow cat. And once we find one, we are going to bolt it up into place, return our Camaro back to street status.

We're using this band clamp that comes with the Y pipe here to connect it to the collector.

Now, you probably also notice that the 02 has been moved down here to the collector, but hooker includes this wiring extension kit here to help us reconnect everything

that looks pretty good. Now, we're going to reconnect with you right after the break. That's when we're going to go ahead and button everything up, strap this thing to

dyno

Jet and see what it will do. So don't go anywhere.

Hey, welcome back to the shop and thanks for hanging with us. Well, we're doing a pretty good job getting our LS gun back together. But in case you missed it a few weeks ago, we removed the engine, then we sent the block and the heads off to have a machine and CNC ported.

Then we freshened up the reciprocating assembly,

upgraded the valve train

added a fast composite intake

and a set of hooker long tube headers.

Well, we've done a real good job getting the drive train bolted back in place. But you know what? We've still got a lot of work ahead of us.

Now, I've just finished reconnecting the brake lines to the A BS and now I'm going to put the master back on the power booster

so we can bleed the system. Now, there are a couple of ways to go about this. Of course, you can put a guy in the seat there and let him pump the pedal for you, but we're going to do something a whole lot cooler than that.

We're going to use this Matco power brake bleeder here. Now, that's going to make the job a lot easier and simpler

now to get all the air out of the system, what you want to do is start bleeding the wheel that's furthest away from the master cylinder and finish up with the one that's closest to it.

Since we got the engine breathing better. We're going to help it take in more air with this fast throttle body to match their intake. Now, this is a 78 millimeter piece. But hey, check this out. We also got this 90 millimeter bad boy. And for good reason, you see, we're going to supercharge the LS gun down the road and we'll need the additional airflow

before we can install this new throttle body. Though, we need to remove the throttle position sensor and is motor from the old one here

and transferred them

to the new one.

Now with a fast throttle body, you'll need some longer mounting votes with a nut on the backside.

After this, we can reconnect the sensors and the throttle cable

plus the fuel lines and the rest of our coolant hoses.

The Camara's computer is ready to go back in now, but I've got to tell you one of the hardest parts about this whole reinstallation job is getting the wiring harness back into its original position the way they've got it snaked in and out of the engine compartment. It's pretty easy to get bit. So just take your time and work carefully. I'm going to get the computer slid into place and make all of my connections.

Hey, I'm sure glad that Mike had the job of handling all those snakes. Now, up here, I've had it pretty easy.

I've reinstalled the hoses and the serpentine belt. Now,

I'm gonna work on this cold air box a little bit.

That's looking pretty good.

Now, we can go ahead and reconnect all of our sensors and our electrical connections

and once that's done. We'll top this thing off with fresh coolant.

Well, the shifter is one of the last things to go back in. And if you haven't upgraded yours with a high performance shifter like this B and M we installed recently now might be a great time to do that.

Now, after I get this thing bolted down, we'll put the console back in place, reconnect the battery and

see if the LS gun wants to fire.

Well, here's the moment we've been waiting for after double checking all of our electrical connections and topping her off with fluids. We're ready to hear this thing run. Go ahead and hit it.

Hey, man, this thing sounds really healthy. Now, we've got to get it out on the road and get some miles put on it. And since I helped break it, I'm going to go ahead and break it in

when you're breaking an engine in. It's a good idea to vary the engine speeds to let the rings seat themselves

and to give the rest of the parts a chance to get to know each other. Plus it will take a while for the computer to learn all the new parameters of the engine.

Man. I'm pretty impressed. 368 horsepower at the rear wheels. Now, that's a strong number and you know, they'll only get stronger once we optimize our tune up with a handheld programmer. But what's really got us excited is the blower that we plan on bolting on in a few weeks. Now, don't go anywhere because we got more horsepower coming at you right after the break.

Hey, what do you say? We leave the shop for a while, hit the road and take in a, one of a kind racing event over at Carolina Dragway. Now,

just imagine the baddest pro mod racers in the country in a big money match up. I get some of the quickest outlaw cars on the planet.

Now. They call this thing drags stock. But unlike Woodstock,

I wouldn't expect a lot of peace and love among these competitors.

These guys come to race. Every win out there is tough.

It

seems like every time I run, I got to run some killer car.

I

get so excited. Just watching my husband stage that car. It is sucking the adrenaline than was my hot pounds out of my chest. Could this be the future of drag racing?

It's a first ever drag stock showdown. Pitting two pro mod teams, the Blow Master outlaws against the A MS all stars in quick eight mile competition.

Now, here it's team scoring that counts the most,

the old fashioned run. What you've run. Rule reign supreme. They want a venue to go race at

and I don't think it's fair if somebody says, well, you're too fast for this group because they don't want to play games with you.

I want to pick up my marbles and go home. I

said

the hell with that. What we want to do is heads up, bring it out here. If you're good,

it's going to show on the line to be a winning team member. You need hunks horse power,

a healthy serving of your power adder of choice.

And in the case of Tommy

Liar's Mustang GT crew, a crowd pleaser like nurse Tiffany. I love the fans. All this is about the fans. If it wasn't for the fans, we wouldn't be here. We'd be racing in some dirt track

and no one noticing us. And

I love getting close to the car. If I could drive, I'd drive, but I'd much rather wait.

I might try to smile and wave

drags. Dock was the brainchild of promoter Kenny Nolan

who attracted a lot of heavy hitters to Carolina Dragway,

including Scotty Cannon,

Mike Ashley

and Jason Scruggs first driver to go in the threes during qualifying. I

knew if we went down the track, I'd probably go in the threes and

we're to

do it. You

know,

here,

cars are capable of it. And both of my cars have been in the threes before,

but there's a lot of other cars here. It's not just me that can run three s

and

I'm sure that I'm the first, but I'm sure there'll be many more before the weekend's out.

404 102. What a drag race. The number one qualifier team Strout you got to be proud

while the power ADDers of choice for most of these 2000 horse monsters are knifes

and supercharging

outlaw racer. Mike Moran is determined to prove his unique turbo setup is the

wave of the future. You're always constantly trying to shrink down the frontal area of a car and make it more slippery through the wind. My theory is put these up front and it's gonna eat your frontal area. Ok? It's gonna make it easier to pull it through the air. A lot of people traditionally will put them back and up on the hood.

That's just not what you know, we do at our place

in this unusual team scoring setup. There are no eliminations on Sunday. Just three rounds of the heads up competition

with bonus points for top speed and low. Et in

this race, Jon Lyman's bet goes into the grass while John Ashley's mustang goes an amazing three and 97.

That's why they run the race.

I saw it come up 397.

I almost forgot I was driving 200 miles now.

So

it was wild. It was fast and best of all exciting down to the wire

with the A

MS all star piling up 21 points to the Flowmaster outlaws a team

and the fans, well, just maybe they peered into the future of pro

drag racing

and they loved what they saw

what was put on this weekend

is a recipe for the future and you're gonna see more of it.

Hey, if you've been looking for a better way to stop your street machine, well, here's a breakthrough that you'll probably appreciate.

It's a new all in one aluminum master cylinder from classic performance products. Now, check this out. It features built in metering and adjustable proportioning valves plus a provision for a stop light switch.

Now, it also has more

capacity then stock and you can even order an optional lid that allows you to mount a remote reservoir. They can get them as cast or with a show of Polish like this one. Now, they use a standard master cylinder mount. They only weigh about five pounds and they will lighten your wallet by about 139 for the cast 189 for the polished.

Well, here's a good way to polish off your transmission set up. It's a deep cast aluminum trans fan from BT. It's engineered to hold a couple extra quarts of fluid and this bin designed dissipates heat to extend the life of your transmission.

Now, it's got an extra thick plange to ensure a leak proof seal and fluid changes are easy. Thanks to this built in drain plug,

you get a gasket and mounting hardware and well for 80 bucks and up BT has got you covered. Here's a cool way to cover your Chevy big block. These fabricated aluminum valve covers from pro form are available in two different versions racing like these or with a breather hole and internal baffling for the street. Now, either way you get a recess bow tie and Chevrolet script along with Billet Ray

for maximum ceiling and an overall weight of only three pounds. Now, they're available in a satin aluminum finish or a black powder coat like this. A great way to finish off your big block for about 450 bucks. Well, check out the finish on these headers for C five Corvettes from Jet Hot. Now these things will bolt right up to the LS one engine and feature 16 gauge one and 34 inch primary tubes with a three inch collector. Now, they also have a 38 inch flange rod here for strength and to prevent warpage and leaks at the cylinder head.

Now, the two bungs are already in place and this high flow H pipe is included to improve power and sound quality. Of course, they come with Jet hot sterling coding to help lower under temperatures and improve exhaust scavenging.

Now, of course, all that prettiness and power comes at a price just under 700 bucks for the pair. Nice. And we had a good show this time. But

don't you think we're getting a little bit chevy heavy? In fact, guess what we're going to do next week? I forgot. What is it? A Mustang Mopar

Maverick? I don't care.

I'm going to bring in another one of my Chevelles. That's what I thought. Well, hope you tune in next week for Chevelle. Hell, here on Horsepower.

I think I feel a sick day coming up. Well, you got to be sick to drive a mustang dude. Tell you what, Mike. And I will certainly be back here again next week. We'll see you then.