• Hello Guest, welcome to the initial stages of our new platform!
    You can find some additional information about where we are in the process of migrating the board and setting up our new software here

    Thank you for being a part of our community!

Hackster's LSA / T56 2 door

VVT delete if you can especially with a manual. Just my opinion, but it is one less thing to worry about.

Since you have a front mount cam sensor look for LS2,LS7, or LS9 (debatable by some) cams. They are cheap and should last a really long time with Blue springs. Plenty of aftermarket choices as well, I just like factory parts for the same reason you do.

Yeah, that is what I have read, they really dont like the manual transmissions.

I am going to see what it makes in this configuration first and go from there. I am deleting the VVT, parts are on order now after figuring this out.

Made some pretty good progress on the engine yesterday.

Got the rest of the accessories figured out and mounted up. Got the crank pulley hole drilled and pinned. figured out the belt routing and tensioners and got those installed as well. Mounted the adapters, supercharger, fuel injectors, rails and a few other things.











For some reason I thought I could keep the VVT and had proceeded to this point until last night as the wire harness guy brought up a couple of questions and I did a little more research. So while this is great and I know it goes together, it all gets to come back apart now so I can do a VVT Delete.

I am missing more than a few parts so we are going to go into wait mode. I have parts ordered but probably wont see them for a week or so.

Exhaust manifold bolts, clutch, flywheel, new slave cylinder with remote bleeder, VVT Delete, Reverse Lockout Solenoid delete.

All that needs to happen before I can get it in the car, so maybe in a few weeks I can get it set in the chassis.

Should have some brackets and firewall panels back from powder by the end of the week too.

Sean
 
Damn that is the sex!

Good call on pinning the pulley.

LS9 cam is new for like $110 and is built for a blower... Just sayin ;)
 
Not at this time. I was going to try and keep the VVT setup but some reading last night has led me to delete it as it doesnt work with a manual. Guys are making plenty of power with this setup for what I want to do with the car. Reliability is big on my list of things to do with this car. Not that a cam would change that much.



Thanks dude, your car is looking killer, good to see you working on it again.

Sean

Im going to cam mine. I received my adapter plates in this weekend. Doing some research, the 5.3 stock bottom end and LSA makes around 450hp. If I can get the power band higher up I'll be happy happy happy.
 
Damn that is the sex!

Good call on pinning the pulley.

LS9 cam is new for like $110 and is built for a blower... Just sayin ;)

It is, but it really needs heavier valve springs and other work to run it. I know its not terribly hard but with the amount of work that is going to go into the rest of the car I would like to get it buttoned up and back together ready to drop in. I think 500 should be a good number to shoot for.

I think I'm most impressed by the unseen planning and calendar-clearing which allows for such rapid progress.

The planning I totally take as a compliment. It was a lot of work getting all the parts and pieces that were going to work well together, coordinated, ordered and arrived on the right days. Some of that was just dumb luck.

The Calendar thing happened by accident. My wife decided she was going to visit family so I got all my house chores done that week after work so I could work on car stuff all weekend. Worked good. This week has been all work all week though so probably no appreciable progress on the car until sometime late next week.

Im going to cam mine. I received my adapter plates in this weekend. Doing some research, the 5.3 stock bottom end and LSA makes around 450hp. If I can get the power band higher up I'll be happy happy happy.

Nice, yeah a buddy of mine just put his 5.3 on the rollers, made 454 HP with a cam and double valve springs. For some reason he is only making 6 lbs of boost. I think he has a leaking bypass valve, he things its because of the non restrictive intake, cam, exhaust he has on it. He is going to try and do a pulley and see what it makes. That was with a single walbro 340 pump and new longblock.

Due to my lack of research I find that the VVT needs to come out. So back down we go.







You can see the VVT **** on the floor in this pic.

I still have to button up the front end of the motor tonight and reseal things, new timing cover, rehang the oil pan, new water pump gaskets you know, the stuff I already did once.

The transmission is at the transmission shop getting looked at before it goes in, had too many of those go sideways on me once they are in the car.

Clutch, pressure plate, flywheel, new slave cylinder and throwout bearing have arrived so I should be able to get some of that back in this weekend. Maybe get the firewall panels back in as they are bakc from blasting and powder coat.

Placed the order with Ben for all the suspension yesterday, ouch that was spendy. Hope to see that stuff show up in the next few weeks so I can keep moving forward.

Sean
 
Nice, yeah a buddy of mine just put his 5.3 on the rollers, made 454 HP with a cam and double valve springs. For some reason he is only making 6 lbs of boost. I think he has a leaking bypass valve, he things its because of the non restrictive intake, cam, exhaust he has on it. He is going to try and do a pulley and see what it makes. That was with a single walbro 340 pump and new longblock.

Your buddy's hypothesis sounded fishy to me but positive displacement superchargers are quite a bit different from radial compressors in operation, so I just ran this by one of my coworkers, who used to work for Eaton. Eaton makes the 1.9L Roots-type rotors in the LSA supercharger. TL:DR your buddy might be right about his low boost reading...

Some math to explain:
  • LSA supercharger is 1.9L displacement per revolution of the rotors
  • Assuming a 2:1 pulley ratio, it will displace 3.8L per engine revolution
  • If the 5.3L engine has 100% volumetric efficiency, it ingests 2.65L of air per engine revolution (it's a 4-stroke of course)
  • 3.8/2.65 = 1.43. This is the pressure ratio if the 5.3 has 100%VE, which is very good and likely optimistic, but just for illustrative purposes
  • 1.43 x 14.7psi atmospheric pressure = 21.0psi absolute pressure in the intake tract, minus 14.7 = 6.3psi boost pressure
  • Now assume that your engine's intake tract has more restriction (smaller cam, ports, valves, etc). Say 90% VE. Take the air volume ingested by the engine and adjust for that. 2.65L x 0.90 = 2.385L. Supercharger displacement and pulley ratio stay the same.
  • 3.8L / 2.385L = 1.59 pressure ratio
  • 1.59 x 14.7psi = 23.4psi --> 23.4 - 14.7 = 8.7psi boost pressure

Again I'm almost never thinking about positive displacement superchargers so this is interesting. By reducing VE you get higher boost pressure. However, this is not a good thing, because you're increasing the supercharger's pressure ratio but decreasing mass flow...meaning you will be moving up and to the left on the compressor map, away from peak efficiency. Charge air temps will increase and so will parasitic power losses, therefore engine power should go down at the flywheel. For turbos or superchargers, any day you can make more power with less boost pressure is a good day. In your buddy's case, of course increasing the pulley ratio will indeed give him higher boost and power, but it doesn't seem like anything's currently wrong with the system after going through the numbers.
 
What?d you get from Ben?

Adjustable Strut Mounts, Strut Brace, Master Cylinder reinforcement bracket, JRZ Rsone Coilovers front, Hybrid adjustable torque rods, Adjustable panhard bar, adjustable swaybar end links, Spherical rear axle bearings, 5x114.3 drilled front hubs with ARP studs, Luxe Steer bearings.

He doesnt have the lower rear arms or rear coilovers so not sure what will happen with that situation yet.



Your buddy's hypothesis sounded fishy to me but positive displacement superchargers are quite a bit different from radial compressors in operation, so I just ran this by one of my coworkers, who used to work for Eaton. Eaton makes the 1.9L Roots-type rotors in the LSA supercharger. TL:DR your buddy might be right about his low boost reading...

Some math to explain:
  • LSA supercharger is 1.9L displacement per revolution of the rotors
  • Assuming a 2:1 pulley ratio, it will displace 3.8L per engine revolution
  • If the 5.3L engine has 100% volumetric efficiency, it ingests 2.65L of air per engine revolution (it's a 4-stroke of course)
  • 3.8/2.65 = 1.43. This is the pressure ratio if the 5.3 has 100%VE, which is very good and likely optimistic, but just for illustrative purposes
  • 1.43 x 14.7psi atmospheric pressure = 21.0psi absolute pressure in the intake tract, minus 14.7 = 6.3psi boost pressure
  • Now assume that your engine's intake tract has more restriction (smaller cam, ports, valves, etc). Say 90% VE. Take the air volume ingested by the engine and adjust for that. 2.65L x 0.90 = 2.385L. Supercharger displacement and pulley ratio stay the same.
  • 3.8L / 2.385L = 1.59 pressure ratio
  • 1.59 x 14.7psi = 23.4psi --> 23.4 - 14.7 = 8.7psi boost pressure

Again I'm almost never thinking about positive displacement superchargers so this is interesting. By reducing VE you get higher boost pressure. However, this is not a good thing, because you're increasing the supercharger's pressure ratio but decreasing mass flow...meaning you will be moving up and to the left on the compressor map, away from peak efficiency. Charge air temps will increase and so will parasitic power losses, therefore engine power should go down at the flywheel. For turbos or superchargers, any day you can make more power with less boost pressure is a good day. In your buddy's case, of course increasing the pulley ratio will indeed give him higher boost and power, but it doesn't seem like anything's currently wrong with the system after going through the numbers.

Precisely!!! Funny how these things work, but its not the first I have heard of it happening. Turbo cars its much easier as you just adjust the boost up a little more with a knob, these you have to re pulley. Ill see what it makes stock and go from there. Lets be honest though. Even at 500 hp, this thing should be fast. My F100 is fast at 445 hp at the crank and 3,550 lbs with the COG significantly higher. This thing should be in a whole different playing field for track days on low boost.

Realy nice project you have here! :)

Thanks!!! Appreciate the kind words, hopefully more goodness to come soon.

Sean
 
Precisely!!! Funny how these things work, but its not the first I have heard of it happening. Turbo cars its much easier as you just adjust the boost up a little more with a knob, these you have to re pulley. Ill see what it makes stock and go from there. Lets be honest though. Even at 500 hp, this thing should be fast. My F100 is fast at 445 hp at the crank and 3,550 lbs with the COG significantly higher. This thing should be in a whole different playing field for track days on low boost.

Your views on this car are very similar to what I'm thinking for my twin-turbo 4.6L 3V wagon. At low boost (<10psi) I know that thing will make 500whp. Totally stock internals, just adding turbos, tuning, and fuel system upgrades. It will be a blast since the 245 is a good ~700lb lighter than an S197 Mustang. Low stress, fast, and fun.
 
I think you'll be happy with the mid 400hp range in this car. The 5.3 is all low end power. Its going to roast tires left and right when you're done.
 
I think you'll be happy with the mid 400hp range in this car. The 5.3 is all low end power. Its going to roast tires left and right when you're done.

Should be closer to 500, this is a 6.0 gen IV L96, they generally make a bit more power.

I hope it has a tough time spinning tires with 200 treadwear 315's on it :)

Either way it should be a hoot.

Sean
 
You tubbing?

Flares on all 4 corners. I dont think I could get 315's on it any other way to be honest and I want a square tire setup so 315's front and rear.

Had a little time after work last week and a few hours this weekend to work on it.

Home built pulley installer tool worked like a champ!!!



Going back together, new Timing cover without the VVT bull****.



Accessory drive all back on and torqued this time.



Got going on putting some stuff back on the car and quickly realized I need to finish some parts. So some body work on the brake booster and paint before it all goes back together. This was supposed to be close to the firewall panels 20% gloss and it dried a little more glossy than anticipated. Its a catalyzed single stage paint though and is supposed to hold up really well.





Wanted to re route the heater hoses for a cleaner look so I cobbled this together. Everything clears the firewall and it will be tucked pretty far in there....not beautiful but should work.



Got new gasket materials for the firewall panels and picked them up from blasting/powder late last week so got them installed with all new plated hardware and mounted up the booster.





Looks pretty good compared to a month ago.



Its a big waiting game at this point. I need a bunch of parts to show up before I progress any farther. I need a tranny, brake master cylinder, suspension parts.....all have been ordered but nothing is here yet. Once that stuff shows up I should be able to proceed. Going to have to do some clearance work on the trans tunnel one of these nights too before the engine and tranny go in.

Hope to make a dent on it again next weekend......yardwork took most of my time this weekend.

Sean
 
You give any thought to bringing the heater hoses through the firewall on the passenger side - so you don't have to move them across the compartment? You can still fit the control valve in the same place -- just run a longer hose from that side back over the passenger side. Just a thought....
 
Back
Top