These photos were taken 9-10-03. The engine runs, the drivetrain is in place, the wheels are on, and it's finally coming together. Still need to clearance the valve covers a little and bolt up the supercharger plumbing, but it's all been layed out and is ready. The bumper guard will be bolted on and the wiring cleaned up. Then tonight, it's on the dyno for break-in of the engine (without the supercharger...)
In this first picture it's easy to see how big the intercooler is. The battery has been relocated to the trunk and that opens up a good bit of space for the LTCC, the Overflow tank (not in yet...) and the supercharger plumbing. The intake will be repainted to match the body color. The blue we used is too light for me. I went with lots of polished aluminum to offset the blue.
You can also see that we were able to retain the stock washer tank behind the intercooler. It required some spacers, but the stock tank is really large and will make a good tank for my water injection. I'll retain the ability to use it for washing the windows, as well. The alcohol and water mixture will do a good job for both...
In the next shots, you can see more engine detail. Check out how much space we saved by deleting the ABS. The supercharger is really easy to access from both the bottom and the top of the engine compartment. Lots of room. Also check out the custom proportioning valve and the line lock setup. Simple and clean.
The plug access on the driver's side is super as you can see here. I retained the A/C, so the passenger side is a little more cramped, but 20 minute plug changes are no problem. The Holly throttlebody and the Vortech intake are nice and work well with the supercharger plumbing design. It all goes together nicely and should be easy to work on.
The aluminum valve covers are cool and came notched for the alternator. On my setup they require a little clearancing on the inside due to my stage 3 heads with massive rollers and springs. We used head studs and rocker studs, but it's tight in there. As you can see, there's lots of detailing that needs to happen when we get everything working. You can see the connection for the fuel pressure gage and the line for the boost gage are both laying loose. Note the plug wires going up under the dash. That's where the coil packs for the LTCC are mounted. 4 coils are on either side of the engine, up under the cowl. I bought the brackets from Fisher Pontiac and they work great. BTW: The LTCC fired the engine right up and has been working fine so far. We were a little concerned about it since we'd never done one before. simple install except for finding someplace to route the injector harnesses. The wires came long (real long...) to give you lots of options when mounting the coils.
In the third pic you can see we haven't mounted the alternator yet. This shot shows how nice the BMR radiator cover is. The anodized blue is almost a perfect match for the Quasar blue. It looks better in person than in the pictures. Between it and the polished Vortech intake and valve covers, I've got about 300 bucks tied up in dressing, but I think it will look great when everything is in place and the manifold painted the right color.
There is also a silver BMR strut brace that goes back on when we're done. I removed the insulation from the stock hood and it looks tons better than the dirty fiberglass that was there. I'm probably going to open up the hood vents to gain a little airflow, as well. I've got LT4 Corvette fuel rail covers that I'm thinking about using, but will decide that at the very end of the project based on clearances, etc. I want to bondo the corvette letters, paint them the stock body color and use some vinyl decals on them to dress them up. BMR has some really cool billet pieces that cover up the corvette markings and have Z28 badging, but they are mad expensive. Don't think I can justify it...
You can see from this side how tempting it is to remove the A/C. It would make working on the engine super easy. But since the summertime is the only time I can drive the car, I think I'll keep it. Check out the supercharger plumbing.
