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Total from 2025
1943.
hr
A brand new year and hope fully will be productive one. 2025 was the year of
big money on the engine and mounts. This year though not as expensive
still will need big investment into adapter and electronics to get the
engine running and hopefully have the car drivable and all the other
hundreds of things that need to be finalized.
Jan 6 7hr (accumulated)
Had been looking at engine wiring for last couple of weeks. The
harness poses couple issues, firstly the fuse box and ECM connectors are
at front of the engine in the donor making it very tight to locate both
the fuse box and ECM. Might be able to make indentation and recess them
into the wall but regardless it will be very tight. Ideally it
would be best to have engine rewired with the ECM and fuse box located
somewhere behind around transmission area. Then again would like to stay
away from that as might put turbos and will need to keep the ECM and
fuse box from any heat source which again leaving them in front of the
engine on firewall or just about. Secondly the way GM designed starter
and entire security around the electronics is around BCM in place
to controll the ECm and fuse box. There are ways around it will
involve rewiring both the fuse box and ECM slightly.
Looking and sudo solution and make an BCM emulator to trigger power
relay in the fuse box and ECM. One thing for sure is that VATS
will needs to be deleted and ECM in general reprogrammed for the purpose
Jan 17 1.5hr
With winter at its peak, garage is cold and not very inviting to work
in. However went out to have bit of a sanity check on mounting and
overall clearances of the engine.
So as it looks engine lid sits way above of what was expected and
observed when working with LS1 from 02 Camaro. However with the LS3 is
rather taller and what it looks like is contributed mainly from the
intake and possibly from the taller oil pan. will have to look into
Corvette intake plenum to see how much lower it is. Its possible to
replace oil pan and dropping entire setup downwards bt not sure how much
of a benefit that would be as most likely axels would be hitting lower
frame rails and CV joints would not be at optimum angle. As it sits with
the OE camaro mounts and isolators, oil pan has 18mm clearance to bottom
of frame and as the car will be at about 12cm ride height would like to
avoid any possibility in having it damaged.
On a good side with the way the engine sits, it has enough space to fit
oil cooler for the engine and possibly transaxle. Also it has space for
cross fit of coolant hoses and shifter cables.
Feb 2 4hr
Spent few hours with CAD and drew up drawing of adapter plate after
searching for few more hours before hand (not counted) for proper
dimensional drawing of the GM SBC / LS transmission face mounting
surface and Audi G86 transaxle mounting face. Biggest issue is with the
2 lower bolts on the LS face with in the oil pan.
Sent out couple quote requests to have the plate machined. Hopefully it
will be much less then getting it from 3rd party manufacturers.
Feb 7 2.5hr
Can not leave the adapter alone and tweaked some more
Feb 12 1.5hr
more tweaking on the adapter file. Realized that source for making PCBs
has CNC subsidiary and can machine the part at fairly inexpensive
amount.
Feb 19 1hr
Tried drawing flywheel, somehow with out the dimensions its mute point
doing it other then CAD practice
Mar 1 2hr
Found Audi pressure plate bolt pattern/dimensions the other day and made
up rough drawing of the flywheel. Deciding on material to make it from
though. Going back to JLCCNC aluminum 6061 will be bit less then the
adapter, 7075 aluminum is premium but shipping will be same coming in at
7kg. Going to #45 steel which would be ideal for friction durability,
weight goes up and so does the cost of the material and shipping way up.
On the other hand with aluminum can add option for replaceable friction
disk and total cost still would be lower then steel. So win and win
Mar 5 3hr
Couple more hours on the adapter CAD file. Re-adjusted some of the
outline and created LS mounting bolts recesses. Tried doing contouring
so that the Audi box flange would contour down to LS flange organically
but never really liked how it was going so just left it squared. May
grind down manually by hand.
Mar 8 4hr
Did some real work on the car aside from CAD work. Decided to split
inner fender returns and had it trimmed. Left one came out OK but the
right one had some sort of reaction so it will need to be redone. Could
be saved but not sure if its worth the effort. Regardless it will serve
as test part for fitting.
Got the HVAC fan box sanded down and filled once and had to refilled to
cover some of the missed air packets. Needles to say it will not be
visible but gong that far with the car may as well make all parts as
best as possible. Also ground out vent holes for motor cooling as it
never was made properly and drilled last mounting screw hole.
Should had removed flex plate but checking on the pattern the lower
holes are bit off. Then again the template ripped so will have to try it
again to make sure everything fits as it should be. However it looks
like the lower bolts are bit to narrow. Was going to order the adapter
as it is but now will need to re-verify and make sure all is as close as
it can be. Dont want to spend $500 on part that has some measurements
off.
Mar 10 0.5hr
sanded down HVAC blower box. Now its the mixer box and flap control plus
evaporators for heat and air
Mar 11 0.5hr
final adjustments to the oil pan bolts and verification to the adapter
plate before sending out for machining.
Mar 21 00
Finally took the big leap on the adapter layout and ordered it. Should
be in mid April
Apr 3 1.0
Cleaned up and prepared right inner fender return. Will try to gel
coated next sunny day as its still cold provided gel coat is still
usable Apr 5 0hr
ordered right door lock from C6 Ccorvette as experiment to see how it
will work with out modifying inner door panel too much
Apr 22 3.5hr
Some good news and some bad news.
Good news is that received engine adapter and right C6 door latch. good
part is that it looks smaller then the Legacy latch. Kind of bad news is
that it may fit but the frame and quarter panels will need to be
modified as striker clearance was missed during design.
With regards to engine adapter, great news is that all holes are lining
up perfectly, still bit in air as to if all is centered properly.
However as thou bolt holes are lining up it should be centered.
Now the bad news. Really messed up on diameter of flywheel, it will need
to be re-enlarged. Will take it to local shop to see if they can enlarge
it. As side note it slides onto engine dowl pins perfectly and though it
only one dowl pin on transmission it lines up good as well. will
just need to thread holes for transmission bolts.
Adjusted CAD drawing of adapter plate and flywheel hub dimmensions. Will
have to check on crank bolt lengths to adjust packets. To complete the
flywheel adapter will also need to get pressure and friction plate along
with throwout and pilot bearings. Will also need to get friction plate
if making the flywheel out of aluminum
Apr 24 0hr
dropped off the adapter at local machine shop to clearance the flex
plate. Also ordered some M10x1.5x55 bolts to fasten it to the block.
Apr 27 3hr
Drew up VSS multiplier board required to bring up Audi 4 pulses per
revolution to GM ECM 40 pulses per revolution
Total
1977.5
hr
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