:snky: :snky: :snky:
That cat high 5-ing is really starting to weird me out. WTF BRO!
had a great night in terms of beating winter blues/boredom. for the last week I’ve been trying to figure out how to remount my Corvette radiator now that I’ve added the OEM BMW condenser assembly back onto the core support in preparation for A/C. originally, in a beer induced haze (in early 2013) I mounted it using pieces of aluminum cut out of the notch I removed from the GTO oil pan (no joke). looked like crap so I brought home some legit clear-anodized aluminum 2x2 angle from work and set about mounting it. Unfortunately the wrist injury combined with a general lack of motivation led me to multiple nights of head scratching and putting off mounting the stupid thing. Tonight I spent some time fitting it where I wanted it and got it all in place.
So in all her glory she started right up and idled great. The cooling system revisions (new hose splice/fill point) didn’t leak a drop upon startup and everything got up to temp, and stayed there. Needs a tune!
Naturally, no front bumper or headlights, no plates, no insurance, no problem. I needed to do a shakedown.
picked up a very low mileage Millermatic 135 MIG last week for a steal, already set up for stainless. I have been wanting to make some changes to the exhaust since the catless setup both smelled bad and still had some drone even with cutouts closed. Spent some time over the last few days adding in the OEM resonator and M5 cats. I am reusing the 3" cutout I had on my setup to keep the shenanigans going when I want them, but the overall goal is for the exhaust to be silent (near OEM) when the cutout is closed.
:bigtup:
Put these two together
and you get some of this
still need to do the passenger side cat. Once that’s done I can take it down, final weld everything, put it back up, and then make the connections to the rear exits. Getting there!
:tup: on the welder :tdown: on the pabest
Snob.
PBR is a pretty solid beer, all hipsters aside. Genny makes some great beers as well on the cheap. I feel its really easy to make an expensive good beer, but a cheap good beer is another story.
Car is looking great!!
Great point. We can all sip high quality craft stuff but if enjoyed constantly then it’s not really “special” anymore. I like to have a nice “old faithful” I can have all the time that doesn’t get old. Contenders include Blue Light (or Blue heavy), PBR, Rolling Rock
In college if I just wanted to get hammered then cream ale, pabest or what ever was on sale that day was what I was walking out with. These days I like to drink beer with flavor and enjoy it.
If he likes it great but its not for me.
Cold PBR after yard work is wonderful.
cant beat 30 for 15.
How about before, after, and during. Just mounted up a metal cupholder on the rider late last fall, I can’t believe I waited so long. I am cutting the grass more often than necessary now
So, some spring updates. I replaced the overflow bottle as the old one was discolored, replaced the kidney grills with new ones, and raised/adjusted/leveled the coilovers.
Took the car to be tuned at New Era, Mike did a nice job, although it proved difficult to tune.
Drove it to work every day for a week and generally enjoyed it. Went to Rochester to visit a friend:
On the drive back, about 60 miles from home, I got a random miss that turned into a tap, which quickly turned into a light knock 30 seconds later
Got it home, pulled it into the garage, and we get this
Oil Pan Doritos
All caused by this
Spring broke, dropped a valve, valve met piston, broke the rod, and sent it through the pan and block. So, now I’ll need a replacement block and heads - the valve made some big gouges on the inside of the combustion chamber - currently on the hunt for a dropout just like I had. The spring was a single beehive, PRC 1518 good to .600 (my cam is .588 on both intake/exhaust). I bought the cam, springs, and pushrods as part of a package deal sold by Texas Speed. Spoke to them and they will be replacing all 16 springs for me with a stronger set, along with other seals, seats, and retainers. Just kind of ironic since I only drove the car maybe 300 miles after putting it on the road…if it had happened just a few hundred miles sooner, it would have been late last year, and I’d have been able to spend all winter fixing it. But, it is what it is, so gotta move forward.
Day after the motor blew - 90 mins in
Another few hours on Tuesday got me here
Had a buddy stop by and help me “put it in storage”
So, it sits for now until I can find a new motor. I only had a chance to pull the one head, and it was trashed. Still need to put the motor on a stand and pull the pan and accessories/front cover to see if the lifters/cam survived.
Ouch, sorry man. At least since you did the swap you’re familiar with all the work to pull the motor and put it back in. 
Sorry for your troubles. I got that fresh aluminum cammed ls1
That blows, if I can hook you up with anything from Texas let me know.
“Do an LS swap” they said. “It’ll be cheap, reliable horsepowers” they said.
Just kidding. That sucks, but seems like a freak accident. Looks to me like you’ll have this up in no time :tup:
Build it bigger and better this time around. At least all the hard work is done!