In 4 rotary content?

 

When I heard the latest reason for the delays, I laughed and thought he was messing with me so I dropped that laugh emoji on him.

It turns out he wasn't joking and my laugh emoji was quite inappropriate for the circumstances. Thankfully he didn't hold it against me.

 

It's a Saturday night and I've got some time to myself with a small sipper of bourbon by my side, so let's go ahead and get this thread caught up with some extraordinarily condensed cliff notes.

Early Aug 2025:
Go to MATG, per my last update post above

Mid Aug 2025:
Get a call from a friend's wife that no husband wants to get. Keeping it blunt and to the point, let's just say my wife wasn't following her vows. On the plus side, thank god for having good friend's that don't hide **** like this.

Sept 2025:
Personal Therapy... Marriage Therapy... All the therapy... this continued for a few months but started here

Oct 2025:
Wife moves out. I begin managing step-son, 2 year old twins, and 2 dogs by myself at the house on a more than 50/50 basis.

Nov 2025:
My life is now this meme


Dec 2025:
Divorce eminent. Trust is shattered. Paperwork drafted. As the therapist stated in one session... "pretend your relationship in great shape was a flat piece of paper. It is now crumpled up into a ball. No matter how hard you try, it'll never be that same flat piece of paper again, so the question you have to ask yourself is, can you live with that creased and 'not quite flat' piece of paper that you are working to flatten back out?" My answer ended up being, no.

Jan 2026:
I message a slightly altered summary of this to Phillip (including the meme) and he laugh reacts at me. Making humor out of bad situations is a healing/positive coping mechanism for me, and clearly him as well which I respect. After he realized I was serious, he says "bad news, you're a soon-to-be single dad. Good news: the wife's input on the car no longer matters". That was good for a smile at the time, but life was still kicking me in the *****. I got divorce paperwork filed. He found me an MK60E5 ABS kit that I found the money to pay him for though, so that was progress!! MT family is their own support network! haha



Feb 2026:
Realization that keeping the dream house I literally just moved into isn't possible to keep on my salary alone. I considered about every financial avenue I could to keep it, but nothing was adding up. I swallow my pride and realize my life story is going to look different than I thought it was going to. Now was the most important time to focus on what matters and that was me and the kids as I prep the house for sale (by myself). I borrow a front subframe from a friend, slap the control arms and wheels back on the car to make it a roller, and stuff it into a storage unit to collect dust. Sad but necessary times....


March 2026:
Stepson and one of the dogs moved out with to-be ex. Still prepping/cleaning a house, which is understandably challenging by yourself while twin dad'ing and keeping a full time job. In the little free time I had, I found a company called Craftworks Industries that makes billet mounts for the ABS unit that allow for mounting on flat surfaces. More on why this is important later, but hey... baby steps on build progress..



April 2026:
I get the house listed for sale with the realtor. Life continued to deliver swift kicks to the gonads however. How about we toss in some issues with the daily driver!? yeah, that sounds great! So yeah, the suburban finally was starting to say it's final goodbyes at 276,000 miles. Not only did the AC system leak down in Sept right before winter, but it had more oil leaks than a vintage Harley Davidson, 6 different CEL codes, rusting quarter panels/rockers, and enough small issues to just not make it worth the time/money in repairs... and due to aforementioned issues from above, I had neither time nor money readily available... so it got put on a fire sale, and a bold mechanic picked it up for a fair price for both of us. I ended up finding a new reliable daily with the new funds I had to get me through what I knew would be a rough few more months of inevitably moving stuff around. Enter this new-to-me 2018 F150 Lariat 5.0L. I found it as a local one owner truck (even in my favorite color of the era, lead foot gray). It didn't make awesome cam noises like the suburban, but it is a better vehicle in nearly every way.



May 2026:
Accepted an offer on the house in early April, but then that buyer backed out in early May, essentially wasting 5 weeks of my life. I had to re-prep the house for listing (again) and go through a week of showings. Thankfully, another buyer came through with a reasonable offer and minimal clauses that could cause them to be able to back out. Took the offer and crossed fingers it would go through. Found myself a place to rent for around the time the house would close. Finalized divorce at end of the month, paid off the lawyer, started purging the house of stuff I didn't need/want.

My car guy therapy for the month was removing the old man pinstripes from the truck. Don't let the picture fool you, the eraser wheel didn't work. I had to pick them off with my finger nail every couple inches at a time.... ughhh haha


Also, transferred the Diode Dynamic SS3 MAXX fog lights to the truck. I did previously have them on the burb. Best fog lights ever...


During contractor work and needed home buyer visits, I spent a fair amount of time working from out of the truck with man's best friend. This dog and a few close friends kept me grounded through most of this chaos that would beat a lot of guy's down for understandable reasons.


Even managed to go to a local cars and coffee at the local speedway and take the truck for a couple laps with the kids after signing my life away on waiver forms.


June 2026:
Moved into my new-to-me duplex in the early part of the month. I spent this week emptying the storage unit out that I felt like I just put stuff into. I managed to find a 3bd/1.5ba duplex with a 2 stall garage for a very reasonable price in the area, so I ended up being really happy about that. Managed to get my stereo and TV mounted up right away, but still have a bit of organizing to go to make this "my space" that feels motivating to work in.


The house deal formally closed this last week and I also sold the zero turn lawnmower, which was the last big cash item I had to sell. Getting rid of that mortgage payment that I was previously paying for by myself since October was a monster sigh of relief finally. Seeing as divorce was final last month and I was financially free at last, I decided to follow Wingmann's advice as I no longer had anyone to tell me no, so I lowballed someone on marketplace for a set of OE raptor wheels on the truck that I was eyeing up for too long. To my surprise they took it. By time I sell my OE 20" wheels/tires, these raptor wheels will end up being free. Hell yeah for masculine car guy logic


Moving from 20x8.5 wheels with 275/55/20 to 17x8.5 wheels with 315/70/17 is a drastic difference. The internet says I need to run a 2" level to fit these in the front, but I'm going to see if I can prove the internet wrong. Stuffing meaty tires under factory bodywork is something I've had some experience with in miata land.. how different can it be for a truck?! Size difference for reference.


This afternoon I did a test fit on the front that they say "wont work". Looks plenty possible to me, but more to come on this later...



Anyways, so this brings us up to speed.... I kept all the heavy emotions to the side here (which there were many of), but yeah, as much as this sucked, I'll come out of this a better person. I basically started my life over since the last thread update less than a year ago and somehow managed to keep my job and stay a good dad to the twins. I took my stress out with exercising with my dog on the kid-less days and good dieting and managed 35lbs of weight loss in the last year, which feels freaking awesome.

I've been doing my best to stay optimistic and make the most of the hand that's been dealt to me and I'm beyond excited to get the miata project moving again. It's been sitting for over a year driving me absolutely nuts. The plan is still on for the LSx swap and I have plenty of Left Lane ideas that were put on hold over the last year that I look forward to spooling back up. I have some final finances to get in order here now that everything is settled out from the divorce and home sale, but it'll soon be shopping spree time to get this thread back on track!

Time for bed. Father's day fun tomorrow with the kids. Happy Father's Day to those dad's reading this

 

Ah ****, that's a really bad hand you have been dealt, great that you found the light at the end of the tunnel.

BTDT (not with twins though!) - what doesn't hill us makes us stronger, so they say. Trouble is, you've got to go through that period of pain, financial and emotional uncertainty, and the tough decisions to set yourself up for what comes next. Single parenting, with the other parent doing things their way, is its own form of hell, but the upsides of being that dad are the compensation. I count myself lucky that, a few bumps aside, my relationship with my kids has been good and I hope that you are able to do the same.

Good luck going forward, especially with the shared parenting.

 

Way to bring down the mood of fathers day...jk. Sorry to hear you've been going through this all year, but glad it sounds like you're at the tail end of it so you can settle in to the new norm.

You're my LS 4 lyfe guy though! I'll have so many questions for you regarding a semi-imminent truck purchase that's in my future, so I'm glad you're not completely abandoning GM, although I was a bit shocked at the Ford.

Carry on, and good luck with the twins. They're a lotta work at 2, and I hope you're getting at least a small amount of support from their mother.

 

Dang due alright, I won't hold the lack of Miata progress against you I guess.

In all seriousness, glad to see you've found some light at the end of the tunnel, and that you're still moving forward with everything and being a good dad to the twins.

And congrats on losing all that weight! Exercise is the absolute best stress-reducer. Glad to hear you're working that angle.

 

I've essentially been doing it since October and it's been going well overall for what it's worth. Better since paperwork is finalized.

I'll tell you the main reason I went away from GM... body rust.... I've owned 4 different silverados, an avalanche, and a suburban (one of the silverados was a 2018 and can be seen in this thread if you go back far enough). All of them had paint issues and eventually body bubbles after 3+ winters. I'm still a GM guy through and through, but that kind of sucks.

All of the big name OEMs (Ford, RAM, Chevy/GMC, and Toyota) have their Achilles heel's in their designs depending on the model year and powertrain type you jump into. The GM issue in 2015+ (gen V) engine trucks is the torque converter and trans calibration. It's not a matter of if it needs a $6k trans on a factory tune, it's when.. hope you aren't that owner that has to buck up the costs. My 2018 had clunky downshifting for years that was deemed "normal" since new. It doesn't matter if it's the 6spd or 8spd.. GM still has active lifters to fail on the engine side and steel bodies that rot over winter in northern states, so there's that... Dodge has addressed the trans situation by running the 8HP, but the engine still has active lifters that fail and steel bodies that rot in northern states... so... that left me with considering Ford, to which point, the bodies of my gen truck are aluminum. Yay, no body rust. You'd never be able to tell my truck was ran through 8 winters, which was a huge sell point. The 10spd of this year does have a risk on the CDF drum failing, but if that kills the trans, it's the same $6k to replace the Ford trans that a GM trans would be, so call that risk a wash. I specifically sought out the Coyote 5.0L V8 as it seems a bit more robust to run into high mileage conditions without issues. There are cam phasers that can fail, but that's about it. If I want to be stupid and start modding the truck heavily, the Coyote is WAY cheaper to make power on than the gen V LT GM motors or RAM. This gen3 Coyote has dual injection (both port and direct), so it's already prepped for an E85 flex fuel tune for when you want to slap on a blower to make 700hp, which is why you see these coyote trucks all over the internet right now being modded in that exact way.

So yeah, not sure that helps justify my transition to Ford, but all the brands make nice trucks. This one fits the bill for me right now and I'm giving it a whirl. So far so good on the 8,000 miles I've put on it!

ahhh yes... the wisconsin child support system... gotta love how 50/50 custody means I (the higher income earner of the two) still has to pay her.. that said, the number could be worse, so whatever. I don't put effort into complaining about things I can't change, this is one of them.

Thanks dude! So... how about we jump into build progress shall we? Spent the morning with the kids doing fatherly things (went to a wildlife sanctuary and walked probably 1.5 miles with them), then the afternoon wrenching with them in the garage!

Started by renting a pulley puller from Autozone to get the harmonic balancer pulley off, then the front timing cover pops right off. This is what you see when you yank that off and why the LS is so loved. It's so damn simple. You have a crank spun oil pump, then a single chain running to a gear that is connected to the cam andddddd, that's it... Remember, this donor engine is a L94 out of a Yukon Denali, so it has VVT. You can tell it has VVT here because the cam gear has those odd timing marks on it and the bolt with plunger in it to run the cam phaser. All of that nonsense will be replaced by non-VVT goodies from the LS3 soon enough..


Quite literally 5 mins later, you have essentially a bare short block with only the pistons, rods, and crank left to possibly remove (if so inclined). In this case, I'm leaving the main rotating assembly alone. It's plenty strong to support the power levels I'm looking for, so scope creep on the engine stops here. Cam bearings show some age like you'd expect on a 198k motor, but nothing worrisome.


The cam mains and lobes also all look to be in great shape for 198k, so no worries here about a cam bearing being past it's useful life.


Just to show it, here is the main bolt that feeds the phaser oil pressure to enable VVT on the LS engines... This bolt is unique to VVT systems and doesn't install on camshafts that weren't made for it, so you'll find a huge majority of cams require you to delete the VVT. More to come on what the revised non-VVT setup looks like

 

Wow, and just like that we're back. Thing really does look so simple torn down like that. Deleting the VVT is just in the interest of being able to run a bigger cam, right? I think you outlined that earlier in the thread but... yeah that was a bit ago haha.

 

so... VVT has very limited advantages when you are dealing with a single cam motor and BOTH the exhaust and intake lobs must phase together as they are physically attached to each other.

You typically see strong gains with VVT when you can phase the intake separately from the exhaust. Phasing the intake on its own is generally more beneficial than phasing the exhaust on its own as the intake side is dictating air and fuel delivery that more drastically impacts the powerband, whereas the exhaust side is more relevant for emissions and EGT control. Phasers can be expensive (and complicated) so that's why you see a lot of OEM's running only intake phasers on their VVT setups (like our beloved Mazda motors, and the kseries, and so on..)

For the sake of what I'm doing on the LS, VVT is useless. Fuel economy? never heard of it. Emissions? not testing it. EGT's? Don't care because natural aspiration! You are very limited on cam design when stuck with a single VVT cam that allows full range of phasing and never crashes valves into pistons.. much easier to simplify the motor and stick to fixed valvetrain events with no phasing and let that engine breath!

 

Damn, hell of an update here dude. Sorry to hear about the personal turbulence but it sounds to me like you'll be far better off in the end.

Glad to hear you still have the car and will be pressing forward with the LS! You have already educated me on the platform so much, I really look forward to updates as you move forward.