The "WildZL1" Build Journey- Ends with 427ci & 2650 Magnuson
 

I debated a long time wither to post my build, I figured it may help someone or at least be amusing. It starts with a replacement for my previous 13" ZL1 dream car. My wife and I shopped around till we found this 13' ZL1.

In!!!

Hopefully one of the things is replacing that gas cap door lol

We will start with the engine.
 

Got the car home and it has been 3 weeks so started to dismantle the car and the engine. So far everything is straightforward. Took about 2 days to pull engine, bagged and labeled everything. I had previously moved the billet pulleys over from my red car. My wife pulled the engine while I guided it from underneath.

Engine tear down
 

Yes, I have no garage. My shop turned out to be our living room. I tell you I have the greatest wife in the world. Tear down and ready for the machine shop.

Does she have a sister??

New parts and parts prep.
 

Some of the new parts and some of the parts prep. My wife and myself performed all the work on the car, I had a machine shop bore and check the block and balance the crank. I balanced and notched all the pistons for the oil squirters, then balanced and roto-peened the Eagle 3D2000 connecting rods and gave the balance weights to the machine shop. Sent the heads to Texas Speed for a 5 axis port job, the valves are all new sodium filled intake and Inconel exhaust valves, BTR .660 dual valve springs and titanium retainers. I disassembled and cleaned them (there was allot of crap in them from Texas Speed) and ported the exhaust some more to match the headers. Fit crank bearings, had to use 2 sets one of them 0.005 smaller, mixed and matched to get clearances. The block was immaculately clean from the machine shop! Wisco pistons were perfect, upgraded to thicker tool steel wrist pins.

All parts were inspected, measured and cleaned (I used a sonic cleaner on almost all the parts) before being used / installed!

Thats awesome that you are working out of your living room doing everything yourself, love to cat chilling next to the engine lol. Whats the plan for the engine/ power adder to get to 1000+hp?

Answers
 

1. I did have a new fuel door painted to match the car, have not installed it yet.

2. That is cheating, getting to the end first. I am still doing the road driving tuning, dyno should be in a couple of months. But, I am over driving the super charger 40% and I designed my own cam, close to a BTR stage 3 but with gentler ramp rates.

More engine work
 

Fitting the bearings for the crank and connecting rods took awhile, I wanted make sure they were perfect. Some pics are just to show what I was doing, do not read into the dial readings... Prep and painted block, final clearance checks and it is assembly time.

All Bolts Replaced with ARP Bolts where possible

Porting
 

I ported the supercharger and the snout (I could not find pictures of my supercharger but these pretty much show what I did). Must have removed over 2 cups of aluminum (picture of shavings is what I took off 1 side of the supercharger).

All the parts that I could spray with Moly and baked in the oven @250* for an hour, IE: pushrods, rocker arms, oil pump gears and housing, timing gears, rocker arm trunnions and bushings, valve stems, valve springs and retainers, wrist pins and so on...

More engine assembly
 

Installing a piston to check clearances and deck height. Then installed oil squirters, marked pistons and notched them for clearance. Installing piston rings, installing pistons and torqued rod bolts by measuring bolt stretch, worked out to 100ftlbs. Installing aluminum rear galley plug and cover I used this nifty guide.

Engine assembly continues
 

Cam install and degree. Valve to piston clearance. Oil pump fit check and chain clearance then permanent after cam degreeing. Installing and centering the oil pump gears with feeler gauges. Also checked cam end play. It took me approx. a year to come up with the cam specs. and had Comp Cams grind it for me using a billet blank. It uses LXL lobe profiles so the valves closing is gentler. I also ported the oil pump and moly coated the gears and pump housing.

Still more, almost ready to install back into car
 

Installed front cover, oil pickup with an Improved lock aligned and installed oil pan. Tapped all the head steam vents for threaded fittings, made rear vent tube assy. Verified fitment with heads and supercharger. (people with a sharp eye will notice that I have not ported the supercharger yet)

Awesome pics!