It's working now.

I talked with Griff and he said it might be the starter slightly touching the flywheel. I did some searching and it seems like this is a common problem with the LS and aftermarket flywheels, nothing related to the LFX. Many of the comments I read were people saying the problem went away with time. So I guess I'll see what happens.

Edit: Just spoke with Spec Clutches who made the flywheel and they said there isn't really anything to do and it may go away over time.

Is there a way to confirm it is the starter and flywheel just to be sure? I'm a bit hesitant to try and remove the starter or loosen it while the engine is running and that's really the only way I can think to confirm it.

have you tried a stethoscope?

No, but I like that idea. Wow, I had no idea they made them for mechanics. Too cool!

Remove starter, dial gauge, check flywheel/starter ring runout cranking the engine over by hand?

Yeah, super useful for finding weird noises and such

Assuming the noise stays constant with RPM speed? or is it double the RPM speed? At least that would let you know if its top or bottom end. Mechanics stethoscope is also always a great tool to add to the toolbox for things like this (as already mentioned).

...

Well, I can confirm that the car will run with the alternator connector plugged into the high pressure fuel pump LOL

My bad on this one and fixing it now. I clipped the wrong plug thinking it was the alternator and then plugged the alternator connector into the HPFP. That probably explains the chirping noise coming from the HPFP as well.

For reference, alternator plug is gray and purple wires and HPFP is purple and yellow, but the connectors are interchangeable.

Problem fixed. It was the connector. The baffles I welded into the exhaust made a huge difference. Sounds great now and no more raspiness at higher rpm's. I'm pretty sure I can drive it without earplugs now too! Woohoo! Engine is running great with no more misfires and holy shit it revs fast with the spec aluminum flywheel that is way lighter. So stoked to drive this thing, but it won't happen until this weekend.

Next up is a dyno baseline and then the mace cams are going in with a post install dyno tune. Griff is coming out to help with the install and do the cam tune.

First drive on the new motor today and everything was perfect. Such a relief. No misfires, no accelerator pedal cutting out, just perfection.

The new spec clutch and flywheel took some getting used to and I have also upgraded the clutch master to a 1" cylinder. I realized quickly I needed to remove as much of the slack as possible in the clutch pedal since engagement/disengagement happens now in about 1" of travel. After adjusting the pedal it now feels great.

I need to put some miles on it and run through a tank of gas to make sure everything is broken in. After that, dyno and cam time.

Oh, and the Tillet carbon seats just shipped.

Congrats Luke! I know how much that accelerator pedal cutting out was causing you pain! Awesome that everything is working well!

Thanks Brother! I believe it was from the high pressure fuel sensor at the back of the motor. Learned about this from Andrew Keisler. He recommends replacing it no matter how few miles are on the donor motor and I believe it was my issue as well even though the motor only had 12k miles. One of the symptoms is sending the car into limp mode when it randomly acts up and it is very hard to diagnose as it doesn't throw a code.

Very excited to see this thing around Austin, congrats on getting things sorted.

Thanks!

Starting fab work on the base plates this weekend. I'm thinking I'll use 1/4" 6061 for the base plates, should be plenty overkill.

I'll get comparison weights of the seats and mounts in the car now versus the Tilletts. They are ridiculously light.


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bc5709f592.jpg
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Got the seats on the scale...

Corbeau Forza Sport Seats with Brackets and Sliders... 37.4 pounds each (74.8 pounds for the pair)
Tillet B6 Screamer XL Seats with Brackets and bottom cushion... 17.4 pounds each (34.8 pounds for the pair)

Damn, one of the corbeau seats weighs more than a pair of the tillet seats. Saving 40 pounds with just a seat swap is mind boggling.

Got the brackets back. Everything lines up good and I'm going to measure for the proper belt length tonight.

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Just weighed the OEM alternator and bracket versus the racing alternator and billet brackets.

OEM = 15.8 pounds
Racing = 10.8 pounds

Woohoo! Another 5 pounds off the car with this swap.

Seats are in after building the mounts from scratch. Made them out of steel, so it negated some of the weight savings, but for something my life heavily relies upon (like seat mounts) I like steel.

Found a pinhole coolant leak in the upper aluminum pipe. Need to drain the system, throw some beads down and then it should be good. That's it for now and she is ready for the road after the pinhole fix.

Looking at some dyno time next friday to finally get an idea of this motor versus the last and see if there is anything worth noting in the data.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d16fa3887e.jpg
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Losing my mind trying to weld the gm cast aluminum coolant pipe. How hard can it be to weld a hole without creating more holes? LOL

Called Griff as usual when I get stuck and he recommended brazing it. Wasn't expecting that. Apparently GM cast parts are notorious for being a pain in the ass to weld on. So did some digging and found the video below. Got some of the benzomatic AL brazing rods and a MAP gas canister from Home Depot. They worked perfectly. Holy smokes brazing cast aluminum is so much easier than trying to tig weld it!

Alumiweld, Muggy Weld (has a bunch of different names) works, but it's not.. good. Despite the youtube videos, in my experience, it should require as much prep as an A/C Tig weld, benefits from a large surface area. But the bond itself is not the greatest on cast. If you must braze, use a product with flux. On my A/C hard lines I used https://www.harrisproductsgroup.com/...num/ALCoR.aspx - has a built in flux (like rosin core solder) and flows way better than the nickel stuff - but it's primarily designed for tight-fitting pipe joints on thin wall aluminum - not void filling, it's very thin and runny (but for a tight fitting joint it's amazing). For larger pieces (junction blocks) I used Al-Braze 1070 which is 1070 aluminum and flux, which is a better bond, but the temperature to melt 1070 is dangerously close to melting thin-wall aluminum tube, so you'd have to be real careful about making sure where your torch was pointed.

But the trick I found for tigging cast aluminum is to basically just have the grinder ready. Run a heavier cleaning action (and gotta resharpen that tungsten), float the impurities, flapdisc them off, then continue. TFS just did a video on working with crap castings - the suggestion of "small beads to float and then tie them in together" is also another valid strat.

Agreed. I basically did the bulk of the initial structure weld mating the two pipes with tig. Like you said, lots of grinding. Then going back with aluminum brazing rods to fill the small holes left over and so far so good.

Thanks for the tip of cleaning passes then flap disc. I recently welded braces onto my diff and did a couple of passes just to get the cleaning action to run then went back and added filler/heat. That made it easier, I have always struggled with aluminum welding.

Some updates...

The brazing of the aluminum coolant pipe didn't work for shit. It leaked no matter what I tried. So I ended up using the oem pipe with an add on cross pipe and oem rubber coolant connectors. Not as clean looking, but no more leaks so it's a win.

The 1" clutch master cylinder was a bit ridiculous. I had about 0.5" of pedal travel for clutch engagement/disengagement to work with essentially making the car nearly impossible to get going from a stop without spinning the tires. Back down to a 7/8" clutch master. I think my previous issues with the 7/8" clutch master was from improper bleeding on my part. I had my wife do single clutch presses and would bleed on each press of the pedal. Spoke with Andrew at Keisler and he said to do 10 pumps and hold on the 10th and bleed. That worked way better and the clutch is now certainly fully bled.

Had an exhaust leak at the marmon flange on the passenger side. It looks like the exhaust was settling a bit from the heat and left a small gap. Widened up the mounting holes about 1/8" on the rear to give a little play and that should allow them to seal up nice and snug.

My AIM gps signal disappeared so I dug into the tunnel wiring and found the crappy little connector for the gps cable had come loose. Wrapped it with some high strength fiberglass tape and put a small relief cut into the cable sheath to prevent the cable from being pulled. Seems to be fixed.

And lastly, I'm going to relegate the exocet to weekend street duty. I had originally built it with the intent of tracking it, but I just love this car on the street and don't really feel like breaking anything on the track.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8a71727297.jpg
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On that note, I put a deposit down on a Rush SR1 to beat the hell out of on track. I'm chassis number 27 and will hopefully have the car by the end of the year. :party:

Great build, great thread!

I'm working on an LFX swap using the Keisler kit in an RX-8. I'm veering off the beaten bath by using an MV7 transmission as well. I actually ordered a new one from a dealer, but it hasn't arrived yet.

I'm trying to figure out the differences in mounting. Do you have any pics of your mounting solution? Or even just of the transmission itself? I'm trying to figure out how it differs from the MV5 which just has two vertical bolts going into the bottom. Looking at your custom trans mount, you also use two bolts through the bottom?

Also, what's the word on the VSS sensor on the MV7? Is it just on the passenger side? Same connector, etc?

Thanks!

Did you ever get your Rush?