TEAM PRODIGY Bull Run Rally Project

[Nine Ball]

That car is bad ass. Nice work Prodigy!



Tony

[Chevrolaine]

Sweet! Can't wait to see some vids of it tearing down the road.

[ProdigyCustoms]

It's alive!



So we had a little set back yesterday with the 4L80E transmission torque converter and the LS flywheel hating one another. Long story short, it requires a special flywheel from TCI (part number 399754) to run a 4L80E behind a LS motor. It has to do mostly with how deep the torque converter snout goes into the back of the crank, or in our case how far is doesn't go into the crank. The factory LS flywheel puts the converter .300 farther away from the motor. We realized this at 8PM last night long after Summits cut off for overnight air. Because it is July 4th weekend UPS nor Fed Ex are running on Saturday deliveries. So there was no way to get a flywheel here even for a Saturday delivery. it would be Monday at the soonest before we could get one here.

So I slept on it, dreamed about it and came up with my best Macgyver solution I think will be OK for the weekend until the correct flywheel comes in. Besides the converter depth being wrong, the bolt pattern was too short on the converter bolts also. Since the converter will not be centering in the crank right now, I very carefully machined each hole to the exact distance from center of the flywheel to the outer most edge of each converter mounting hole. I got every hole to the 1/1000th with zero extra clearance in outside of the flywheel to converter holes. So the converter has no wiggle room to bolt up off center. I have measured it every way I could dream of and am convinced I have it as perfectly centered as it would be if the converter snout was in the crank like it should be. We also shimmed the transmission back .250 so the converter is not buried to deep in the pump so it does not cause pump damage.

This is by no means a proper long term fix as I would have to think over time it could wallow the holes as the torque converter is not designed to ride on these bolts. But I do I think this fix will allow us to drive it around a little, do some drive ability tuning, and check out other systems like brakes, suspension, rear, etc. If it is vibration free, smooth, no problem, if it vibrates, we simply will wait until Monday to drive more. But this is something we had to try to avoid losing the entire weekend.

So anyway. After a long day at 12:30 4th of July, we fired it up in the car for the first time. As always, the videos below are "real starts" not staged starts. So they are not without incident.

The Bull Run Racer was flooded badly and had to much fuel pressure first time we cranked her. She made some big backfires out of the headers. But after a couple time we dry fired it, let is run 15 seconds or so and called it a win.

I am really proud of the guys. Not one leak anywhere. No fuel system connection leaks, oil drips, nothing. They have really done a thorough job of double checking everything on this car.

So here are a couple raw videos, I am to tired to blend them into one. Car sounds fricken NASTY on open headers. Tomorrow we will muffle that a bit though.

Enjoy.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImFO6ruwBXQ


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efsyeqWtZds


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGjEie6BBr8

[67 ls1 vert]

wooohooooo!!!! Now it time for some sleep. Great gob guys. Color looks awesome!

[GHOSTDANCER]

Great job. Congrats

[team 68 chevelle]

It's alive!



So we had a little set back yesterday with the 4L80E transmission torque converter and the LS flywheel hating one another. Long story short, it requires a special flywheel from TCI (part number 399754) to run a 4L80E behind a LS motor. It has to do mostly with how deep the torque converter snout goes into the back of the crank, or in our case how far is doesn't go into the crank. The factory LS flywheel puts the converter .300 farther away from the motor. We realized this at 8PM last night long after Summits cut off for overnight air. Because it is July 4th weekend UPS nor Fed Ex are running on Saturday deliveries. So there was no way to get a flywheel here even for a Saturday delivery. it would be Monday at the soonest before we could get one here.

So I slept on it, dreamed about it and came up with my best Macgyver solution I think will be OK for the weekend until the correct flywheel comes in. Besides the converter depth being wrong, the bolt pattern was too short on the converter bolts also. Since the converter will not be centering in the crank right now, I very carefully machined each hole to the exact distance from center of the flywheel to the outer most edge of each converter mounting hole. I got every hole to the 1/1000th with zero extra clearance in outside of the flywheel to converter holes. So the converter has no wiggle room to bolt up off center. I have measured it every way I could dream of and am convinced I have it as perfectly centered as it would be if the converter snout was in the crank like it should be. We also shimmed the transmission back .250 so the converter is not buried to deep in the pump so it does not cause pump damage.

This is by no means a proper long term fix as I would have to think over time it could wallow the holes as the torque converter is not designed to ride on these bolts. But I do I think this fix will allow us to drive it around a little, do some drive ability tuning, and check out other systems like brakes, suspension, rear, etc. If it is vibration free, smooth, no problem, if it vibrates, we simply will wait until Monday to drive more. But this is something we had to try to avoid losing the entire weekend.

So anyway. After a long day at 12:30 4th of July, we fired it up in the car for the first time. As always, the videos below are "real starts" not staged starts. So they are not without incident.

The Bull Run Racer was flooded badly and had to much fuel pressure first time we cranked her. She made some big backfires out of the headers. But after a couple time we dry fired it, let is run 15 seconds or so and called it a win.

I am really proud of the guys. Not one leak anywhere. No fuel system connection leaks, oil drips, nothing. They have really done a thorough job of double checking everything on this car.

So here are a couple raw videos, I am to tired to blend them into one. Car sounds fricken NASTY on open headers. Tomorrow we will muffle that a bit though.

Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImFO6ruwBXQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efsyeqWtZds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGjEie6BBr8

"Car sounds fricken NASTY on open headers" sounds like a open and shut case for cut outs.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?? no?

[Larry Callahan]

Awesome! Those videos give me the chills thinking about MotiV8r last year on that same lift. Firing it up for the first time and working around the clock.

More vids! More vids! LOL!

[shortrack]

I love seeing the growing representation of the 68/9 body style on this site.....nice build....it should really run when its done.....doug

[Mike Norris]

Well I guess the base tune I put in at least gets her running That is half the batte. I will see you at my place at 9AM tomorrow and see what shes got.

Mike Norris

[ProdigyCustoms]

Well I guess the base tune I put in at least gets her running That is half the batte. I will see you at my place at 9AM tomorrow and see what shes got.

Mike Norris

Better then just running. I have it running more today and it seems really good. Pretty damn impressive considering the Speed Density tuning and all. My hero!

We will finish some stuff today. Get exhaust on, connect the Compu shift, etc.

Drink a beer for me, I will be working!

[Draginutz]

Looks great guys. You really do amazing work.

[Larry Callahan]

Well I guess the base tune I put in at least gets her running That is half the batte. I will see you at my place at 9AM tomorrow and see what shes got.

Mike Norris

Video! We want video!!!!

[Daveb]

Frank,

I don't think I've every done a first start and not found a little tightening on a fuel line or small leak adjustment. It says a lot about your team to get it right the first time. You're doing a super job on this project.

This is a great way to start the 4th of July.

DaveB

[Kenova]

.......Car sounds fricken NASTY on open headers.......

Does it ever! I want!

Ken

[JChristian1835]

"Car sounds fricken NASTY on open headers" sounds like a open and shut case for cut outs.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?? no?

Ted, I have to agree with you on the cutouts... when we fired her up open headers it seemed as though the world was coming to an end... then again I do get ridiculed at the shop for having no mufflers on the vette... lol

[team 68 chevelle]

Ted, I have to agree with you on the cutouts... when we fired her up open headers it seemed as though the world was coming to an end... then again I do get ridiculed at the shop for having no mufflers on the vette... lol

THATS WHAT I WANTED !!! ENDING OF THE WORLD SOUND....and I wont make fun of your vette not having mufflers ..I will find something else to make fun of...lol

Thanks again for all your work on the project its appreciated more then u can imagine.

T.

[ProdigyCustoms]

Awesome day today. We got everything tuned today. My buddy Mike Norris gave up an entire Sunday to get us tuned. I cannot say enough good things about Mike and his tuning. Mike can tune anything but when it comes to LS engines with factory ECMs, there is no one better in the country. And at the end of the day, having Mike's services available was the driving force behind my final engine management system for this project as I knew Mike would be able to tune this factory ECM / engine combo in his sleep. Because of the 4 barrel T body, and no MAF (mass air flow sensor) this engine tune presents a couple tuning obstacles. One being a Speed Density tune. Long story short Mike wrote a base tune that enabled the Wegner beast to fire right up, and allowed him to tune it in a matter of hours instead of days. Thanks Mike for your Sunday and all your help.



Another shout out goes to my buddy Steve of Twist Machine fame who was also on phone duty all weekend and helped us through couple headaches that almost derailed us. Steve walked Michael through the tuning of the Compu Shift controlling the 4L80E and it worked flawlessly. Tuesday we install one of his paddle shifters for added fun and perfor mance.Thanks Steve.



The Wegners had the team on speed dial all weekend to answer any questions we had. I will say it again, thanks guys!



So the final results at the tires were a VERY Conservative 440HP to the tires on a 6600RPM 143MPH run in drive without the converter locked. Mike was very safe with the timing, again worried about possible junk fuel, and Mike also tuned it just a tiny bit fat for extra security. The 4L80E is absorbing a lot of power, the big converter as well is stealing some power. but we are ruining a big low heat converter for the rally. Were looking for high speed torque and cool operating temps for the rally. After the rally, we will switch out the converter for something a bit more aggressive, find a little lost power, and make it more fun in stop light wars.



The number I most enjoyed was the effortless 143MPH. Considering we have enough torque / HP to pull over drive, and we can lock up the converter, top end will probably exceed the aerodynamics of the body, LOL!



The entire package really seems to work well and I am getting even more confident we have covered all the bases. My guys have nut and bolted, grommet ed and tied everything that could possibly fail. Tomorrow we will finish a couple things and Michael will make some 70 miles laps around Orlando and put 300 to 400 miles on it.



Ted told me a few weeks ago when we get it running to simply call him and tell him a 3 words. It's a weapon! So I called Ted today. Ted, it is absolutely a weapon!



Enjoy



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKzkSjju--A

[LS1NOVA]

Freakin awesome car!

[Motown 454]

Sweet !

[454bug]

Another AWESOME project!!!

GREAT JOB AND GOOD LUCK!