Trinten's SBC/F23 build - The work has begun! (Page 43/76)
Trinten JUN 01, 11:22 PM
The front will definitely come down after everything is back in there, it doesn't take much weight to drive it down. Leaning on it pushes it down a little.

I think right now the transverse spring will stay in. The spring rate might change depending on how it goes. He did make some marks and adjustments again. The front wheels sit a little more center to the wheel wells. He's got more he wants to do before he decides it's ready to have the new new mounts welded on.

I honestly haven't looked/asked about how the shocks will mount up yet. Given how much of the front is staged now, he'll probably be doing that soon. He also has one of the big pieces to the new rear cradle tack-welded together. Today he dropped the V6 engine and cradle.

That reminds me. I need to either update my post in the mall, or start another one. See if anyone needs anything off the old v6 engine.


Trinten JUN 09, 01:41 AM


I was out there again today. I couldn't do much but ask questions and stare.

The chrome moly cradle is coming along. The rough shape of it is straight-forward and just tack-welded together for test fitting and measurements for the moment. I also have a few shots of mock-ups for the control arms. The upper control arms might need to be flipped (And swapped L-R).

While it looks like the bottom bar is lower, it's only 1.625" lower than the stock cradle. My understanding is that Mike is going to finish mocking up the brackets for the arms then set my engine/trans on the cradle. It will let him make marks and measurements to do the engine/transmission mounts.

Once he's comfortable that he's got it all right, everything comes back apart so final bracing, welding and clean-up can happen, and everything goes off for powdercoating. In it's current form, it's also ridiculously light. If it weighs 40 pounds I'd be shocked. It can be easily held up with one hand.

I know, I know.... "pics!" I took a bunch of others, like a close up of the bracket he made for the adjustable side of the Corvette lower a-arm, but the pic wasn't well lined up (my fault).

















[This message has been edited by Trinten (edited 06-04-2024).]

La fiera JUN 12, 09:36 AM
Nice Job Vincent!!
So, just let me know when you are coming this way
so we can have some Burrito Loco!
Trinten JUN 16, 11:44 PM


Just a small update!

one of the "fun" things with any transmission swap is... axles!
So I figured the easiest way to start comparing things was to buy an axle from a Caddy that came with the 4T80, and one from a C5 Vette. The 4T80 inboard side of the axle is female. Interestingly, when I was looking at axles on O'Reily's, I saw they had a C5 axle with a female inboard side!!

So I bought that one. It's a Precision GM8214 axle.

It fits! It plugged into the transmission without any issues. Mike said it had no play, was fully seated, and the clip snapped into place!

Now it doesn't solve the length issue - but that's what the Drive Shaft Shop in Charlotte will be for. It will just make it much simpler to call them and give them that part number for the information and the proper length, instead of saying "I need the inboard from this car, the shaft to be this long, and the tripod for a C5 vette."

Overall, pretty excited!

I won't hope that the factory lengths are going to be correct... I'm not that lucky.

[This message has been edited by Trinten (edited 03-24-2023).]

RCR JUN 24, 08:41 PM


Bob
Trinten JUN 24, 10:02 PM


I was out there again this past Sunday. Mostly staring. And helping to line stuff up/brace things/be an extra set of hands. I need to get the pics off the phone and see which are worth burning up folks bandwidth.

Mike drilled out the other... I don't know what you call them.. ears? The tabs that we can use to making additional bolting points fo marry the transmission to the engine. He spent a lot of time doing tack welding and working out immediate logistics and future impacts, working on the engine and transmission mounts. When it's done he wants to accomplish a few things:

1. Make it serviceable without fighting the cradle.
2. Creating brackets that will use some of the mounting points on snout of the transmission to the the nearby points on the engine, reducing flex/strain on the snout under load.
3. Use every available mounting point to the goal of "This should be rock solid even with one less mount than I'm planning". Basically doing what I asked - make it as bullet proof as possible.

The monster-sized 4T85 did change some of the plans for the upper control arm. Nothing that will keep me from buying "off the shelf parts" in the future if I ever need them, and it will be serviceable once done, just requires some more engineering and welding magic up front.

Once he has a few more things done, he's going to figure out the length of the axles I'll need. And if necessary (I suspect it will be), I'll be giving DSS follow up call to crank out the custom length corvette axles.

Frustratingly -- we did find a flaw with the Meizere flexplate bolt pattern for the crank. I have to hold my hand up and take ownership on it, because the company did send me a technical drawing ahead of time, and I missed the f'ing obvious way to validate the drawing was right (short of making Mike split the trans and engine). Which would have been to pull up a technical drawing of a standard 1pc rear main seal SBC crank. Mike said he can make the (thankfully minor) modifications to make it work without weakening the plate. Besides this bolt pattern issue, he was impressed with the quality of the piece.

AND! Triple Edge Performance shipped my torque converter, pumpshaft, and sleeve on Friday. That should show up at Mike's on Tuesday/Wednesday. I'll ask him to send me pics after he makes sure it's all right, so I can post those up.

I won't be out there for a few weeks. He's busy this upcoming weekend, I'll be busy the weekend after that. So besides possibly posting up some pics, the next notable update will be mid-July!

Oh. I did replace the other front break caliper while I was there. So that's done. So now the front Corvette stuff has the Z51 'Vette sway bar, new brake calipers, pads, rotors. I did notice the chrome was starting to peel bubble on one of the wheels, starting in the lugnut pockets. Refinishing those will be added (near the bottom) of the list.

[This message has been edited by Trinten (edited 03-24-2023).]

Will JUN 25, 08:45 AM

quote
Originally posted by Trinten:






That's a lot of trouble to go through to end up with a soft-mounted cradle. Why not hard mount it like an '88's? Probably easier to fab...

Also, triangulate the heck out of that thing, as it'll be taking a lot of suspension loads. Probably also a good idea to box & brace the body side of the forward cradle mounts.
Will JUN 25, 08:51 AM

quote
Originally posted by Trinten:

Just a small update!

one of the "fun" things with any transmission swap is... axles!
So I figured the easiest way to start comparing things was to buy an axle from a Caddy that came with the 4T80, and one from a C5 Vette. The 4T80 inboard side of the axle is female. Interestingly, when I was looking at axles on O'Reily's, I saw they had a C5 axle with a female inboard side!!

So I bought that one. It's a Precision GM8214 axle.

It fits! It plugged into the transmission without any issues. Mike said it had no play, was fully seated, and the clip snapped into place!

Now it doesn't solve the length issue - but that's what the Drive Shaft Shop in Charlotte will be for. It will just make it much simpler to call them and give them that part number for the information and the proper length, instead of saying "I need the inboard from this car, the shaft to be this long, and the tripod for a C5 vette."

Overall, pretty excited!

I won't hope that the factory lengths are going to be correct... I'm not that lucky.



Check out the DSS website... they have a bunch of cool things for Corvettes

Like these: https://www.driveshaftshop....ine-spline-both-ends



That's why the Corvette inner CV is female. The diff requires different lengths, but having these stubs means they can use the same axles left and right.

They also have drive flanges for the Corvette wheel bearings, so they could make your entire axle setup from scratch.
Trinten JUN 25, 04:24 PM
By hard mounted, if you mean the engine/trans mounts will be hard mounted - yes that is the plan. They will not have any bushings at the engine/transmission mounts.

And yes, that frame you're seeing is far from what the output will be. Mike was showing me the places where he's going to do exactly what you said, build in triangulation points.

Thanks for the info on the axles! DSS is the shop that will be making them when I know the measurements. I think I called that out in my last post. Just not in the one you quoted.

[This message has been edited by Trinten (edited 06-25-2019).]

ericjon262 JUN 25, 10:51 PM

quote
Originally posted by Trinten:

By hard mounted, if you mean the engine/trans mounts will be hard mounted - yes that is the plan. They will not have any bushings at the engine/transmission mounts.

And yes, that frame you're seeing is far from what the output will be. Mike was showing me the places where he's going to do exactly what you said, build in triangulation points.

Thanks for the info on the axles! DSS is the shop that will be making them when I know the measurements. I think I called that out in my last post. Just not in the one you quoted.




he means why use bushings at the cradle mounting points, they add a level of unpredictability to the suspension because the mounting points of the suspension now move relative to the body of the car.

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