Old School Meets New - Supercharged LSA into Grand National

[DeltaT]

Re: Old School Meets New - Supercharged LSA into Grand Natio

Thanks. With the adjustable suspension I expect it to be competent at everything but it is definitely set up more towards handling/AutoX/road race.

It took a little dancing between the height of the jack under the car, the hoist and the tilter, but I got it in without major drama. I wanted the car as low as possible but the long legs of the hoist had to clear the front suspension bits and Ridetech brace. I put some foam on the tip of the transmission to help prevent scratches on the firewall. The only tiny blemish is where the rear coil bolt (which I should have removed) touch the fiberglass AC housing and made a little mark. Easily dealt with.

Here the progression:

You can see the Dirty Dingo adjustable engine mounts attached to the motor here. I set them most of the way forward (sets the engine rearward), mostly for header clearance but it helps the weight distribution a bit. I ended up having the move them all the way forward to engage the frame side solid mounts.

More than partway in - I should have stopped and taken 1 more photo coming over the rad support.

Leveling out some:

In with the motor mount bolts in and the driver's side Hooker cast header mocked up:

And the same on the pass side:

You can get a good sense of the clearance of headers around the front lower control arm rear attachment points. Much better than dealing with the CTS-V or F-Body factory headers which would have forced a sharp bend in the exhaust leading into the cats.

Off to play with the transmission cross-member.

Jim

 

[DeltaT]

Re: Old School Meets New - Supercharged LSA into Grand Natio

How it looked when I finished the night:

Looks like I'll need to relocate the #8 coil inwards maybe an inch - pretty easy mod. I thought clearance was going to be more of a problem with the AC.

Took off a bunch of the remaining masking from painting and install protection. I'm much happier with the engine compartment now.

I pushed the engine as far back on the motor mounts as I can go without running into clearance issues at the rear.

The radiator isn't in but I'm really happy with how far back I got everything to sit. And from earlier pictures it doesn't appear I'll have any problems with clearance on the driver's side (for PS and Alt). I'll testfit tomorrow to be certain. The oilpan fits like a champ - it is flush with the bottom of the engine crossmember. The Chevy pan that they sell protrudes down like 2+ inches which would have made dropping it in a real bear - would have hit the crossmember with that pan and probably couldn't install the motor/transmission as a unit. Also zero conflicts with the steering, Ridetech brace or rollbar.

Still need to get the transmission mount and crossmember installed - it is held up now by a jack with a stack of wood blocks. Maybe tomorrow night.

It was a productive day and pretty fun, and no blood was drawn. Hard to beat!

Jim