Project 91 "SS" 3400/5spd

[woody90gtz]

Nice find on the summit fans. By the size specs it should be a drop in... I'm surprised you had to trim it. Mine measures exactly 26" wide. I'll have to measure the depth of the stock fan. I went with the slim 96 version to clear my front headers. I wonder if it is thinner than 4" or not.

[GT_Indy]

Including the fan motors the one I linked is 3.94 inches thick, But there is 2 fan motors to clear.
Photo of it in the engine bay attached.

If you decided to try them they seem to be great quality. They sound like a mini jet engine, they have been working great for a few years now. I put them in because I wanted colder AC at idle for the remote start on hot summer days. Cools the engine fast too when it does its normal on/off temp cycle for engine temp.

If you wanted you can wire one fan to the ECM relay and the other to a switch with relay but I just put them both in parallel off the existing fan control relay. Total they draw 26.6 amps. Factory 105 amp alternator keeps up fine on mine.

Not sure how well it would clear custom manifolds.

[woody90gtz]

Kinda creepy, someone lifted my info and posted an article about my car...
http://chromjuwelen.com/de/network/237- ... -impala-v6

Which reminds me I need to update this thread...

[woody90gtz]

Let's zoom through a bunch of pictures of the 3400 build. Yes Tyler, I said 3400 "build" haha.

Street/strip cam from Wot-Tech. The damn sticker is almost big enough to use as a head gasket. I degreed it vs the cam card and it came in a degree retarded. But since the timing sets are non-adjustable...retarded it is!






Drilled & tapped the lower intake for a barb to replace the welded 3100/3400 pipe and stupid heater core hoses.



Took off the windage tray to clean everything up. It was actually super clean anyway, but good peace of mind to check. I also cleaned the outside of the block and other stuff for a rattle can refresh.




Had to improvise a balancer install tool since mine doesn't have metric adapters. So I got a longer bolt and anti-seized the piss out of it. Went on really easy.


The older style heads from Wot had 10mm rocker threads instead of the newer 8mm style. And I know my rockers are low mileage and meticulously maintained, so I found some 10 to 8mm step studs from a VW part number (N90905502) to reuse my 8mm rockers. Absolutely perfect fit. Also made some long conical rocker nuts on the lathe. Worked beautiful. And I put a little blue threadlocker on the nuts as insurance.

[woody90gtz]

Had my EGR and vacuum port delete properly TIG'd up on my existing UIM. Also ported the runners to match the Wot job. Tried to save the paint job on it but couldn't, so I blasted it and made plastic pieces to mask it off for a respray. Worked a lot better than taping it would have! haha






Put in some TrailBlazer 28lb injectors and recovered the whole wiring harness in braided nylon loom. The stock plastic loom was brittle junk at this point.



You can see how smooth the throttle body entry is without the EGR hole. I'm thinking that's probably worth 1.6hp.

I also made some 1/4" runner spacers out of phenolic. Probably worth 1.7lbft. Got some longer Allen head bolts. Button heads make me happy.




Also came up with an ingenious of an old radiator hose: relocated the washer fill. It has always bugged me crowding the battery. This will be completely hidden until you lift up the plastic cover.

[EPfiffner]

Good update, you've been busy.

1.6 HP and 1.7 lb/ft huh? That's a damn accurate brain dyno.

The harness braid is nice, that's a helluva lot of work.

I've been playing around with a new lathe we got at work, cool stuff.

[woody90gtz]

I actually put the cam specs and cylinder head flow numbers in desktop dyno for stock and my build. Mine came up 278 I think it was, which seems a little optimistic. But stock came up 187, so that's not far off the factory rating.

That braided loom is good stuff. Gonna do the whole Camaro with it too.

[Slinky]

Very nice, sexy time build.
I liked my phenolic spacers and the "idea" of them when i had them, they were just a pain to stop boost leaks double gasketing.. Mine were for proper plenum height spacing vs the typical "cooler intake temps" etc, so i ended up making aluminum o-ringed spacers.
Very ingenious idea with the WW fluid feed, im stealing the idea for my heat exchanger chiller, which is my WW tank now haha.

[woody90gtz]

What do you mean by proper plenum height spacing?

I doubt the 1/4" will do anything for cooler intake temps, but maybe it will get me back the torque lost by the cam being 1 degree retarded. Haha

I also just bought an air/oil separator for my PCV. That should keep my UIM completely clean paired with the EGR delete.

[Slinky]

I had to basically raise my intake so that my piping running from my aftercooler would align properly.

[woody90gtz]

Gotcha. I wondered if someone had done the math to tune the runner length to a certain RPM.

The little vent that came with my air/oil separator was a perfect fit for the valve cover. But there's no way it's gonna fit with the ICM bracket. I may have to use the stock tube, but I have another idea too. Wondering where I can find a vacuum tee that doesn't look ugly as hell to go at the top of the intake inlet to reroute to the separator and go back to the HVAC, etc.



Blasted and painted/cleared the headers with VHT. I'll cure them in the work oven tmo. Going to wrap the back one too. Cut up a new set of GM gaskets since I have reused the old ones a million times and I saw one spot where there was some blowout.




Put the trans back together since everything checked out fine. I did confirm my lathed reverse switch works, and I put in an axle support on the driver side from a PN I got from Jon. I also think I found the little oil leak that made a mess of things. The shift shaft had some pitting where the seal rides, so I cleaned the piss out of it and filled it with JB Weld on a razor blade and sanded it down with 1000grit. Seems like it should do the trick.






What a goddam nightmare those detent balls are. I hate them. Every time.


Clutch condom! I hope the reused Spec 2+ is up for the extra power. The stage 2 I smoked was before my braided slave line. But this should be a pretty decent jump in power, so I'm hoping it holds. I'll know soon enough...




I test fit a header to see how the new coolant hose fit. Looks like everything will be good. Headers wouldn't fit on the engine stand so I was hoping it would work out.


So here it sits. Once I cure the headers tmo I can install them and then lift the car over the drivetrain. I've already got all the suspension out so it's easier that way.

[Rettax3]

Very nice work. That cam looks huge. Are your valve-covers actually orange now, or is that wash-out from the camera? Sorry if I missed something there. I too shall be stealing your washer-bottle filler idea for my Z-26 (my other Berettas are too old, and use the two-in-one washer/coolant reservoir). Looking forward to more!

[bonecrrusher]

DEEZ....

Also where is the braided wire loom from?

[woody90gtz]

Got a bunch more little details finished and got the powertrain back in. I do a lot better work than I used to, but it takes a ton more time. Is it worth it for a Beretta? haha

The breather that came with my oil separator fit in the rear valve cover hole perfectly, but the ICM was in the way. So I found a rigid PCV elbow and modified it to work. I also found a grommet that works perfect for that hole or the one at the top of the UIM by the TB. I also got rid of the old evap bracket that scrapes up your hand when working on anything back there - used a couple caliper slider sleeves.





Made my own "molded" hoses for the PCV separator by bending tubing and jamming it inside. Cleanest, simplest solution I could think of for the hose routing.




Dropped the body on top. So much easier that way. Got everything hooked up and with the help of my belt tensioner tool. It's tight AF with that new coolant pipe right by the belt.





Had to make a bracket for my all-rubber heater hose to snake around the headers back to the core. It's nice to work in a place with a mill, lathe, drill press, belt sander...and an almost endless supply of drills and taps and allen screws. haha



Just started putting the suspension in. It's a real bitch trying to keep freshly blasted and painted stuff scratch-free during install.

Also did some more reading about $A1 mask in OBD1 and found some cool stuff. But that's for another post.

[EPfiffner]

Good update. That motor looks clean n' mean.

Its getting to the point where you pretty much need a machine shop to keep these cars on the road, ha ha

I can't believe I spent money on an actual seep belt tool when all I needed was an effing zip tie and a 9/16 wrench!!