New to me LS1 Street/Track Car.. Some of you know this car...

• New to me LS1 Street/Track Car.. Some of you know this car... by rrtec on 03 Oct, 2013 12:36
• I am a transplant from the rx7 club... Well, I never thought I would do it but after owning +30 Rotary powered rx7's I finally purchased a nearly complete fully track prepped LS1 FC... The car runs and drives very well and has more goodies than I can list but I will try and then ask some quesitons.. I think some of you know this car, it's kinda famous, or maybe infamous....
  
  87 Turbo 2 in Artic Silver
   NEW (not rebuilt) Gm Crate all aluminum LS1 (2 miles on the motor as of today)
   NEW from the crate (not rebuilt) short gear ratio T56 Tremec Magnum 6 speed
   Granny's Speed Shop LSX full install Kit including Radiator
   MSD Atomic ECU, Tuner, Fuel rail, coils and Injector System
   Holley Fuel Delivery/regulator
   Summit 15 Gallon Fuel Cell
   EBC Brake Pads and Rotors (slotted and dimpled)
   Racing Beat swaybars, end links, bushings, toe eliminators
   Stance 15 way Coilover system
   Magnaflow Stainless Exhaust front to back
   Hooker Cast Header manifolds
   Trunnion Upgrade
   Holley Alternator bracket
   American Powertrain, Science Friction, Super Street, Stage 1, T-56 MAGNUM, Clutch kit
   Magnum shifter, prepped with revolution receiver and stub
   ISO-X Transmission Mount
   Kirk Racing Full Cage (bolt in)
   Procar Pro Sports 1790 Fixed Back Seats in Gray Velour on stock sliders
   Wilwood Clutch Master
   Optima Red top
   TSW wheels with new Falken tires..
   
  The car runs and drives, but needs some minor stuff to be where I need it to be. It was an unfinished build but came around at the right time for me... I was about to do an engine swap into my Miata when this thing reared its head.. The car has lowish miles on the chassis and is in good shape. The company that started the build was a little rough on the interior when they installed the cage and the transmission shifter.. but that is mainly cosmetic.
   
  On my list to fix...
   
  No guages at all, speedo, temp, tach all (except speedo) available via MSD handheld but I want guages.. Will probably need help with this..
   
  Windshield has a good crack..
   
  Fuel cell needs trim around opening (just raw cut now)
   
  Padding the cage so I can drive it on the street
   
  Major exterior clean, and interior decision making.. (not sure If I am going to keep it full interior or not..
   
  Any tips, tricks or encouragement would be awesome.. I will be autocrossing the car as this is replacing my track prepped miata.
   
  
• #1 by frijolee on 03 Oct, 2013 13:11
• Welcome,
  
  Looks like you've got the HorsePower TV car.   Nice.  I'm glad to see it's going to get used.   There's definitely some really nice stuff on that car.  There's also some things that left the long time swappers on here scratching their heads saying WTF (exhaust comes to mind).
  
  There was a thread about your ride when that first released if you're curious.
  
  http://www.norotors.com/index.php?topic=15482.0
  
  Suggestions: you'll probably want to shroud the radiator. 
  
  If you decide you want to redo the exhaust (that y-pipe is pretty bad) Ronin has a trans mount that will let the exhaust run below which is a big deal from a maintenace and service-ablilty perspective.  Our engine placement is similar enough to Grannies (assuming you're mounted on the rear holes) that you could likely run just that.  You might consider swapping the mounting kit entirely since ours is a great deal friendlier to work with.   No pressure, as Granny's kit functions just fine, but you may want to do some reading comparing Ronin to what you have as we seem to be the go to guys for all the locals here.   
  
  Other than that, just going system by system making sure it makes sense is a good call.  You're in the unique position of starting with work by a builder with a big budget (or great hook ups) but likely less familiarity with the rx7 as a swap platform.  I'm interested to see what you do with it.
  
  Good luck and welcome to the board!
  
  -Joel Payne
  Ronin Speedworks
• #2 by largeorangefont on 03 Oct, 2013 13:17
• Ha! I just asked if this was the Horsepower TV car in your thread on RX7 club.
  
  Welcome!
  
  You have some great bones there, you will just need to go through some things to make it a solid track car. Thumb through some FC build threads here. There are some excellent track car builds here.
• #3 by rrtec on 03 Oct, 2013 13:23
• The exhaust is odd (put together well) but head scratcher design for sure.. My understanding is they built it with what they had, not a specific kit universal kit so some of the bends around that y pipe area were not ideal.
  
  I am all ears to any suggestions on how to tidy the car up for track use, I have some budget remaining and am eager to order some parts..
• #4 by frijolee on 03 Oct, 2013 13:37
• I'm assuming you know rx7s well enough for the basics of alignments, suspension bushing etc.  Other than that, your car mostly needs a thorough shake down.  Make damn sure fuel lines can't chaffe, that you aren't running into heat issues, etc. 
  
  With quite a bit more HP on tap I'd recommend you play with swaybars.  Personallly I liked the RB front bar, stock rear bar combo quite a bit.  There's more commentary in my build thread (a sticky in the build section if you haven't seen it).
  
  For autocross and street, the stock sized brakes are fine but on big track you'll need more thermal capacity.  Ducting is a huge help and probably gets most of what you need for big track use on street tires.  Once you start driving harder and/or getting into sticky rubber you'll need more brakes.  Check out Ronin's "Mandeville" big brake kit, but several options exist.
  
  http://www.roninspeedworks.net/index.php?route=product/product&path=61&product_id=59
  
  Do you have an accusump or oil pan baffle yet?  I have a coffee table made from an LSx block due to an oiling problem I had on a road course one time.
  
  For competive autocross you'll want a wing and splitter.  Ronin has a bad ass GT wing but to have it clear the hatch it has to extend past the rear bumper and I seem to recall something about that not being SCCA legal.
• #5 by largeorangefont on 03 Oct, 2013 13:59
• You will want to box in the radiator for sure, and if it does not have an oil cooler, you will want a setup for that, and an Improved oil pan baffle. You will want a RB or ST front sway bar for sure. As Joel said, for AutoX you may want some kind of rear bar. Stock is a good place to start. The RB rear bar will probably be too much. The coilovers you have are pretty good to start with.
  
  Ronin also offers a great Ford 8.8 IRS rear end package if you want to change the gear ratio and have cheap diff upgrade options. The short geared T56, and 4.10 makes for some very quick shifting. First will be useless.
  
  You can get aftermarket gauges in the stock cluster housing relatively easliy.
• #6 by rrtec on 03 Oct, 2013 13:59
• I will be in Xp or EM and in believe it cannot hang past the rear deck by more than 6 Inches or something to that effect.
  
  It has the RB setup for the sways so I will need to check all the settings. I have run them on lots of my FC's and my miata for years. I need to dial in the coilovers too..
  
  I haven't done anything to the oiling system but will start researching that.
  
  Pretty much the car wasn't really touched after the end of that one and only episode.. So a full nut an bolt torquing will be in order.. I have never bought a "built" car before, I always have built my own cars so I am nervous about coming in after people, but I know a guy who works there and he said I have nothing to worry about.
• #7 by digitalsolo on 03 Oct, 2013 15:10
• Glad you made it over here sir. 
• #8 by cool on 03 Oct, 2013 15:24
• Welcome.  Very cool that you got the chance to own that car.  Im kind of bummed that HPtv didnt keep it around to do more with it but its nice to know it didnt go to scrap.
• #9 by N2v8fcs on 03 Oct, 2013 20:47
• Congrats.
  The Horsepower TV car lives!
• #10 by rrtec on 04 Oct, 2013 08:16
• Well after some deeper inspection I realize that I REALLY need to go over the car with a fine tooth comb before I ever turn the key again.. Here is what I noticed as of this morning.
  
  - No dipstick installed so yeah, just a gaping hole there.. nice little oil spray from there too..
  
  - There are two vents/ports on each valve cover that are just wide open to the air.. I assume these are crankcase vents and probably use to hook up to a PCV valve or something and I will just be connecting these
  to a catch can.
  
  - The heater is not hooked up and the intake manifold appears to have bent the inlet and outlet over a bit during install. I kinda want heat at least so I will have to figure out how to get that connected.
  
  -Some of the fuel routing makes me a little nervous because it rubs on stuff
  
  -There is an open vac line (I assume) on the Holley FPR that I need to look at and see if it is supposed to be vented or not..
• #11 by rrtec on 04 Oct, 2013 22:50
• I installed a oil dipstick tube, and dipstick today, when I checked the oil it showed low.. Is the Holley swap pan not compatible with the OEM dipstick?
• #12 by N2v8fcs on 04 Oct, 2013 23:11
• Well if some came out...(oil spray). I personally would drain the oil and put in fresh, just for peace of mind. i would start with 4 quarts then check the level, before adding more.  Just my .02
• #13 by rrtec on 04 Oct, 2013 23:19
• Also looks like I will have to bend the dipstick tube or shorten the pull ring in order to get the hood to close (is that commonplace?).  I am going to drain the oil measure, install, and then mark the stick for future reference.
• #14 by largeorangefont on 05 Oct, 2013 00:28
• Yea you need to bend the dipstick tube to get it to fit under the hood. I have a simple tubing bender from Home Depot and that worked great. I have some pics of the engine bay in my build thread.