Engine Build Continues

The engine has been coming together slowly.  The shortblock is finally assembled.  The engine is a 355ci with forged pistons and rods, polished stock crank and a custom grind cam.  The cam specs are 275/284 adv duration, 221/228 @0.050 duration, 0.550/0.556 lift with 1.6 rockers, 111LSA and 107 ICL.

Intake Elbow Done

It has been some time without an update, but not much has changed that required updating.  The home made sheet metal intake elbow is welded and finished.  The fit is perfect!  I also bought a small cap style distributor to replace the large HEI in the pictures.  This should give me enough room to adjust timing.

Also, the interior is coming together.  The wire harness is being trimmed down to only what is needed, and the wires are getting cleaned up.  Gauges are on order and I hope to be making the dash soon.

TTA Engine Build

The reason for the hood scoop was to allow a larger better flowing intake on the new engine.  I have started the mockup of the new intake on the old block before it is removed.  The intake design includes the use of a single plane carb style EFI manifold, with a throttle body off of cable driven LS1s found in 4th gen F-bodies and GTOs.  The throttle body will be aimed backwards to take advantage of the cowl induction.  It looks like I barley have enough room for the LS1 throttle body with the standard HEI distributor so I am going to have to switch to a small cap style distributor.

Weight Reduction

Taking weight out of the car is going to help on every section of the track.  So far it just looks like a mess, but once all those wires are removed and organized, it will look more like a race car.

Hood Scoop

I am installing a hood scoop to clear the new engine for 2011.  I bought a L88 scoop styled after early '70s big block Corvettes. 

How it All Started

Stock form, back on the road.

The car is a 1990 Corvette Z51 coupe.  It was purchased from a junkyard after having been rear ended, and fixed up. It made a very nice street car in all stock form, but the more I learned and the faster I got, the faster I wanted to go.  I have been racing it in NCCC Time Trial events, Autocrosses, and various HPDEs since 2005.  It remained in stock form for several years until the need for more met a budget that allowed it t happen.  Since then it has undergone some suspension changes, engine upgrades, and weight reduction.

It still sports the factory TPI L98, but the cam has been upgraded to a ZZ4 crate engine cam, and it has headers with a custom made dual 3" exhaust.  I did some mild porting on the stock TPI components but it didnt seem to help much.  The rear end has been upgraded to a fully heim jointed suspension by Banski Motorsports.  I shaved the spring pads on the front spring, and used some longer spring bolts on the rear to lower the car about 2" or so.  Once I started getting serious about doing some NASA Time Trials I removed item that were no longer needed by a race car, AC AIR system, stock seats, etc.

It is now being prepped for NASA TTA competition and soon wheel to wheel racing.  I am starting to build a full TTA engine, and remove everything from the interior to make room for a cage.

This is how it looks in it most recent form.