TEGGSRB18C1's 2013 2SS/RS 6MT life long build

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Originally Posted by The_bald_eagle_machine

I ended up removing my steering shaft boot entirely because my TSP 2 inch primary headers were rubbing it constantly. And i figure it spins when you spin the steering shaft, so it will rub and burn off if I don't just cut it off. Looking good!

Thanks man! I tried to keep it, I'm assuming it does serve some purpose but alas.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Weekend project at my pops place. I brought over the starter shield and DEI heat tape for marriage. We started with standard washing and degrease, scuffed with a scotch brite pad and topped with 3M adhesion promoter.

While that was setting up, we cut a template of the shield from the tape and put it in the oven, not hot, just warm enough to make it pliable. The shield is a funky piece, getting that tape into every crease is impossible so we just focused on the places we knew we could make it stick and used a roller to work it out.

Turned out pretty good. If this starter still fries you can't blame it on me, I tried.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Dropped down the passenger side manifold and reinstalled the starter and shield assembly. Wasn't too bad fishing the electrical connections in from the back, there was room. Looks good, here is where I'm stuck though.

My next step is to make my passenger side ground cable and I don't have enough here. Having some real woes with these goddamn oxygen sensors too. I'll post more about this later but these things are killing me.

Everything else is ready to go in, you can see I went full psycho and cleaned/hand polished the factory cat back clamps and wrapped up the header so it doesn't get scratched going up in.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

All the wiring is pretty much done. I made it to the salvage yard the other day and my assumption was correct, a 5.3 in a smashed up Tahoe used the exact same coil pack harness retainer clip I broke, so that's fixed. I also finished tucking the upper and lower harness for the SLP coil covers. There was a supplied wrap for the lower part of the harness that I modified a little from their instructions, my version is a little cleaner.

I also picked up this ICT Billet evap solenoid extension harness. I originally stated I wanted to move it to the back of the head as per a few old threads on here. Well, that looks like a real grade A pain in the ass to be honest. I'm considering mounting it beside the ECU and going from there. We'll see.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Moving forward. I got some more 0 gauge wire and completed the passenger side ground cable. I used an existing ground bolt on the back of the head and tucked it along with the O2 extension to the existing wiring harness that rides the transmission.

I grounded it to the body, there's a threaded hole right in front of the transmission cross member and wouldn't you know it uses the exact same M10 x 1.50 bolt that I used on the driver side head ground. Finally, some money saved lol.

This is where she sits as of tonight. I have another package of parts coming soon and a whole story to go with it.

[morepowerjoe]

Hey buddy you have been doing some nice work. It's all coming together. I was wondering where you got your wire and terminals for the ground cable that you made? Sorry if you already said it in an earlier post.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Originally Posted by morepowerjoe

Hey buddy you have been doing some nice work. It's all coming together. I was wondering where you got your wire and terminals for the ground cable that you made? Sorry if you already said it in an earlier post.

It's all good man. The cable itself is from KnuKnceptz , it's called Kolossus Fleks 0 gauge but you can use whatever gauge and brand you'd like. This stuff is pretty flexible for how thick it is though.

The terminal ends I got off ebay, it was a 12 pack for a few bucks. They came with shrink wrap but the gray ones you see pictured on mine were some old sleeves I had laying around and were a little higher quality.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

So this was what I was eluding to with my oxygen sensor problems. Look at this shit, threads were smoked from the factory. The driver side one was upstream, passenger side was downstream. Unbelievable.

After that I just bit the bullet and bought the other 3 new Denso factory replacements. This may seem like a waste considering the rears will be turned off in tuning but I want that piece of mind that if I ever change this setup, I have brand new OE quality replacements.

The last thing I bought (please God) were some Taylor 409 spark plug wires. After wrestling those factory ones off, I wasn't too keen on them going back on. These should look mint with the DEI boots.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Everything underneath is done. Slightly challenging considering I'm a one man crew, I used a ratchet strap to pull the NPP catback forward and torque everything down. Did some final tucking of wiring as well, I really wanted that looking clean/OE ish.

Tomorrow I should be able to wrap up header work 100%. After that most of my focus will be on the cold air and washer bottle. There's a lot of fitting and routing to be done there.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Got some garage time in on Sunday and a little tonight as well. The driver side is pretty much complete. That fuel line was a bitch, I have a removal tool set but it didn't work on the LS3 fuel line for some reason. I had to rent the kit from Autozone and used the dedicated GM metal tool, popped right off.

A few last shots before it's all tucked away under the cover. The SLP covers are a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that I loosely test fitted the passenger side with the 1LE oil separator and it looks like it will work perfectly!

Bad news is that those Taylor wires are thicker and longer than the AC Delcos....they kinda push up against the cover. Not terribly but I can see they're being held down. I'm not thrilled about it and will keep a close eye on them, if they start to chafe, I'll go back to the OE's but I don't think the cover and wires will rock independently of each other on top of the engine.

Final shot before I turned the light off, just need to route that washer line to the cowl and the tank installation is done. Starting to come together. Next up is the dreaded oil dipstick re installation, I've heard this sucks.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Got the right side buttoned up tonight. Oil dipstick was a bitch, couldn't see a damn thing. Probably went up and down on the Quick Jacks 10 times. I ended up taking off the starter shield, loosening the starter bolts and that was enough to see a little and get it to slide down in.

For my own piece of mind regarding this spark plug wire issue, I installed 2 OEM wires and put the cover on, it pushes down on those too. Obviously less because they're thinner but this eased my paranoia a little, this is the intended design of the cover.

So here's where I'm at. Oil separator fits perfecto, no rubbing on the cover. Next up is intake work and coming up with some vaccum line routing for the oil separator and the evap purge valve.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

Memorial Day weekend, my son came up to check on my progress and give me a hand with the SLP intake. We have it 95% perfect. The mounting bracket that holds the intake pipe to the frame rail is wonky and the filter rubs against the fender liner ever so slightly but I think I have a fix for that.

[TEGGSRB18C1]

In the home stretch now. I mounted the evap solenoid beside the ECM, ran the line to the intake manifold under the throttle body. The vacuum line going to the hard line I have looped under the ABS unit. It's not as clean as mounting it on the backside of the head but it's way better than the OE setup.

Ran the line from the oil separator to the intake as directly as possible. All my lines are rubber/silicone covered in the same sleeving I used for all my grounds. Finished them off with fuel injection clamps because I think they look cleaner.

The fuel line is resting on there for now. Tomorrow I'm headed to a local metal fab shop to see if they can modify the stainless steel mounting bracket as per SLP's instructions. This didn't stop me from test firing the car for just a minute...good lord she ROARED to life on that first kick over.

I did a quick look over to make sure she wasn't puking fuel or the engine wasn't spitting in anger. Nope, she purred in contentment. It's loud, louder than I thought with the NPP, I like it, finally sounds like a muscle car.

[The_bald_eagle_machine]

You sir are definitely a perfectionist. Not an insult though, the car looks like it is coming along very nicely. With these cars once you have headers it is definitely more difficult to stay off of the loud pedal. Less miles per gallon, but more smiles per gallon.