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Ok guys I'm headed to the dyno March 24th. I've put 1200 miles on the truck so far at 4psi and it feels great. I'm hoping to make 500-550whp or so, nothing crazy, and my tuner and I plan to do a flex fuel tune so I can E85 most of the time, and 91 when necessary. I'm lucky to have an E85 station about a mile from work, but it'll be neat to be able to fill up on 91 if I go out of town without worrying about loading another tune. I preemptively bought a yellow ethanol gas cap from a flex fuel truck to compliment my existing flex fuel badge on the tailgate. I don't only want to run E85 for power/octane reasons, I also think it's neat that it's a cleaner burning fuel, it smells cool, and since it's readily available I started the build with the goal of using E85 99% of the time.
I am super stoked on how the craigslist trans is shifting, it has not skipped a single beat (fingers crossed) and the converter feels great. Even if the trans starts slipping when the truck sees real power, it has done its job and then some. At that point it will be a basic r&r with a jake's unit or whichever. The truck does feel a tad soggy off idle but hopefully the tune will help with that. Otherwise it's a fact of life with the converter and 80e ratios, 3.42 gears and 31" tires.
As far as the exhaust, I want to change muffler and add a j-tube. I can definitely cruise around town without fear of the law, it's not significantly louder than your average lifted chebby with a flowmaster. It's fairly quiet at idle, just bassy. Sounds pretty mean at wot though that's for sure. I'm trying to decide which muffler to go with next. I've found only one youtube video of a Corsa muffler when used on a turbo Silverado, and it sounds pretty loud at idle to me, almost like your standard longtube/ no cats kinda truck. Who knows how loud it would be at wot or cruising. Anyone have any muffler suggestions? MBRP? Flo-Pro? The Corsa is $500, that's an expensive experiment considering the Magnaflow was $130. But, the Magnaflow I have (30" long) does neck down to 3.5" inside, not sure how much that is restricting me.
I also had a chance to fix my diff leak. The Moser preload studs were leaking pretty good. Lesson learned, use thread sealant on the preload studs as well as the fill/ drain plugs.
I did install some eBay 1" lift blocks to bring the *** end up just a bit. Next up I need to get tires for the 18" Centerlines I found on Craigslist. Wheels are an individual preference, although I know most on the site will not like the wheels I chose. I like the old man look: 18" Centerlines with nice big sidewalls. Going to go with 275/60/18, 285/55/18, or 285/60/18 when the wheels come back from polishing. I have not decided. The pic below is the fronts just bolted on so I could cruise around and make sure 285's clear (wheels came with junk 285/60/18 tires, 1 of which doesn't even hold air so I only bolted the fronts on). They clear perfect with not an ounce of rubbing, but I do have Atomic's coilovers so no more torsion bars. Btw - on my truck I found the perfect QA1 shock setting to be 12. Here is the truck as of this morning.
Hey, just came across you build and I'm really liking how clean it's coming out. Btw, that's my truck with the 4" corsa diesel muffler. Yeah you're right it's loud, but surprisingly quiet inside with no drone. I was trying to go for that popcorn popping vette sound and to hear the turbine with this muffler. Here's a video my brother took with his GoPro to give you an idea of what it sounds like. Cheers!!!
Nice angle! In that vid the cam doesn't lope nearly as much as it did in your other vids. I guess that might be the Gopro, they're not the greatest for sound. Is that Hawaii? Reminds me of Honolulu!
Overall I'm totally used to my Magnaflow 4" muffler (3.5" ID) and I can't see myself changing it. Maybe if I do a 6.0 someday or the fiberglass in the muffler blows out, I might use the next longest muffler, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with how quiet it is.
Haha, right on!!! It is Honolulu, right by the stadium. That video was with the milder triple12, 212/212 112. The idle video was a bit bigger cam, 220/220 112. I don't know how I missed this build but I'm happy that I stumbled on it. Congrats on your dyno #'s, I'm sure you'll hit your 600hp goal!
Haha, right on!!! It is Honolulu, right by the stadium. That video was with the milder triple12, 212/212 112. The idle video was a bit bigger cam, 220/220 112. I don't know how I missed this build but I'm happy that I stumbled on it. Congrats on your dyno #'s, I'm sure you'll hit your 600hp goal!
What cam did you end up with and what were your dyno numbers? Are you still using your LM7 and what heads on it? What Precision is that as well... sorry got a lot of questions
No problem man, ask away. It's a Cam Motion turbo cam, lm7 with stock 706 heads, BTR springs and a precision 7675cea. It's on 10 #'s with remote tuning done by Mike F. @ New Era Performance and it's never been on a dyno.
I've got a question, with your Caltracs do they make a bunch of noise (clunking) when you drive around?
No problem man, ask away. It's a Cam Motion turbo cam, lm7 with stock 706 heads, BTR springs and a precision 7675cea. It's on 10 #'s with remote tuning done by Mike F. @ New Era Performance and it's never been on a dyno.
I've got a question, with your Caltracs do they make a bunch of noise (clunking) when you drive around?
Which cam is in the driveway vid and which one is in the cruising vid?
The Cal-Tracs are pretty quiet, they changed their design (very slightly) in the last couple years so now the slide pin that pushes down on the top of the leaf has a urethane sleeve on it. When I'm driving around town, I untwist the bar and there's no preload at all on the spring so from a ride quality standpoint, there isn't much difference from stock.
If you hit a speedbump at speed or something jarring you'll hear a clank, yes. The fact of the matter is the front leaf bushing is replaced with a solid aluminum sleeve, so there's more metal to metal contact in the whole system. This is my 2nd DD that has Cal Tracs on it, and if they were horrible, I would ditch them for sure. They're not bad at all, but they're not silent. That's my honest review.
Triple 12 was the driving video and cam motion cam is in the driveway. Only reason I swapped cams was for more lope, but not too radical to kill low end. Otherwise, there are almost no difference I can feel between these 2 cams, both cams spools my turbo just fine. Also the track here has been closed for years, so no time slips either.
Triple 12 was the driving video and cam motion cam is in the driveway. Only reason I swapped cams was for more lope, but not too radical to kill low end. Otherwise, there are almost no difference I can feel between these 2 cams, both cams spools my turbo just fine. Also the track here has been closed for years, so no time slips either.
Nice, I thought the Triple 12 would lope harder.
That's sad about the track! I watched my home track, Carlsbad Raceway, get torn down. But that's just the reality of an increasing population...
I was going through your build again and read you swapped over your vette coils, wires and plugs. Were they aftermarket stuff or just oem? What are you using now?
Also what kind of thread sealer did you use on the rearend girdle bolts?
Thanks for your caltracs review too, I like to see what guys prefer for adjustable stuff.
I only swapped the the vette stuff on to troubleshoot a miss I had. They're just stock LS2 coils and wires. I can't be sure if my problem was the wires or coils as I left the vette stuff on when they fixed it. I'm using BR7EF plugs. I've actually read more than one thread on ls1tech where guys were chasing a miss and even though the coil packs checked ok, they still replaced them and that solved the issue. I believe OEM LSX coil packs are fine for just about any build as long as they're in functional condition.
Thread sealant is Permatex high-temp #59235. I use it on a lot of small stuff like the Autometer sending unit on the fuel pressure regulator, or any NPT thread where teflon tape would be used. I've never waited for it to dry and it never leaks.
05-25-2016, 09:47 PM
