I hadn’t had time to work on this in the past month, so really put some time in today on it. Stripped out the trunk, and started pulling the factory Harmon sound system to sell. Made brackets to mount the side mounts for the seats to the stock mounting locations out of 1/8" thick flat stock and installed my racetech’s from the 350z.
Also put the car up, pulled the ricer wheels off of it that I was using for rollers and started working on final fitment sizes for the Kinesis’. Looks like I’m going to end up with 18x10" with 3" stepped lips on all four. I took the time as well to install rear camber arms, and a set of KW’s in the rear. The fronts are going to have to wait because I’m going to need to make some tubular control arms with spherical ball joints because when you start going for big angle the bracket caliper hits the control arm.
Tomorrow I’m going to pull the front control arm so I can measure it and come up with a template for the new control arms. I’m also going to figure out a bracket for a separate hydraulic ebrake caliper like on the Z. I finally made a decision on a motor as well, I got sick of hunting for an LS1 only to have them be high miles, or sellers unwilling to provide a history on them. (compression or leakdown). Soooo I’m picking up a 7k mile old LS3 on Thursday.
Nice thing about the ls3 is a cam and they crank out good power. Throw some katech rod bolts, baffle, good springs, pushrods and have a very reliable engine that makes killer HP.
Pat, everything I’ve read since the katechs distort the caps and increase bearing wear. If I’m just keeping it at stock redline are they ever necessary? My plan was springs/pushrods, mild cam, baffle, accusump. I priced out the Dailey Engineering dry sump setup… but $4k on an oiling system I can’t afford right now, so band aid accusump it is.
I have never heard of anyone having problems with the Katechs. People normally struggle with the ARP’s. I’m curious as to what your idea of a mild cam is because you might be able to get away with leaving the rod bolts stock. If you want a custom cam there are a few people that come to mind if you need any suggestions. I also spent a shitload of time looking over cam specs last fall and winter so if you need any suggestions for off the shelf cams I can help with that too.
As for the baffle I have the Improved Racing fbody one. Really nice piece.
Steve, I appreciate the input. I’m buying a pan that already has a baffle in it to make sure it fits in the e46 chassis. Vorshlag is releasing their kit next month for LS/e46 and I’m going to use their long tubes and motor mounts (need to make the rest myself due to the 4 speed). I haven’t made any decisions on cam, but I’m considering one of the ones from LG motorsports if I don’t leave the stock one in.
The only components I have left to order are motor mounts, headers/exhaust, driveshaft. I have everything else either here, or on order. Headers/motor mounts should be released next month. Once they are in I’ll measure the driveshaft, order it, and make the exhaust. Picking the motor up Thursday.
