Jessrayo ZL1 build.

[Chevrolet Customer Svc]

Originally Posted by jessrayo

Thanks William,
I'm almost 50 years old and have loved performance cars all my life. I must admit that for many years I was not thrilled with GM products but this Camaro really feels solid. My daily driver is a Cruze eco with the manual trans and that car hit the nail on the head also. I tell everyone that asks me that GM is making some quality stuff right now. Americans really do like a car that will perform even though we don't have an autobahn.... (I'm still hoping someday someone in this country will figure out if you take off the artificially imposed speed limits and force people to concentrate on driving, the highways are actually safer.) But, I digress, Chevy is making some good stuff these days at prices that make the rest of the world take notice. Over-engineering may actually pay off. I couldn't build a car like this if the foundation didn't have a lot of over-engineering in it. Tell your bosses I said thanks!

Wow,

That is awesome and I will definitely spread the word! We definitely appreciate you taking notice in our vehicles, especially from a quality perspective. We hope that we will continue to impress you and those you know with safe and quality products for a very long time.



William R.
Chevrolet Customer Care

[Blk-Ice]

Nice Build Brother!

[jessrayo]

I went to Eagles canyon raceway on Saturday the 13th of July and let's call it a learning day and a tuning day. First off let me say that when the car was running no one else had the raw power to run with it. Of course that is the way it should be when you have about 750 HP and TRQ, the problem was I could not string together very many laps without reduced power mode or completely shutting down of the car.

First Problem - track rubber of different height seemed completely incompatible with complex ZL1 traction control system. Stabilitrack errors kept putting car into low power mode unless car was put in traction off. I know others must have found a fix for this and did a search but didn't hit the right thread any help?

Second Problem with spring tension on throttle body that kept fighting with the traction control and killing engine completely. Engine would not even turn over until it sat long enough to clear the code or be towed off the race track. (another story here) Andy @ ADM replaced throttle body have not retested or had problem since.

Third - Air intake temps out of parameter to the point engine is shut off. Balooned Lingenfelter coolant reservoir, Lost about 1/2 gal of coolant which was enough to be below pump volume. Need way closer monitoring of intake temps.

Good news - Brakes are amazing. Oil temp never above 210. Engine water temp never above halfway in the little gauge under the tach.

I know it is frustrating being on the track and running your limited laps under caution. I apologize to anyone who may have been there and reading this post for the inconvenience I caused. I'm tryng to make arrangement to get out on a low volume members day to be sure the bugs are worked out before I try to run with the masses again on open track days.

[All-American ZL1]

sorry if I missed this somewhere in the thread above, but what throttle body were you using, and did you upgrade the heat exchanger from stock, or just add the coolant reservoir?

[jessrayo]

Originally Posted by All-American ZL1

sorry if I missed this somewhere in the thread above, but what throttle body were you using, and did you upgrade the heat exchanger from stock, or just add the coolant reservoir?

I had all the mechanical parts upgraded at ADM performance in Dallas. To the best of my understanding the car is running a stock throttle body. I got the idea he changed it again after my track day. Andy assures me that I will not have throttle body issues again. The heat exchanger for the supercharger is a replacement unit that is about twice as large as the stock unit. It was engineered by Ron Davis, a radiator builder that ADM knows and he assures me it has the best cooling properties available to date. Right now the system has about 2 gallons capacity.

I assume from your avatar that you are tracking your car. What are you doing for tires?

[All-American ZL1]

I just got the michelin super sports, but I haven't made it to the track with them yet, They do have more traction though.

I'm sure andy will straighten things out for you, he seems to be probably the most highly respected buider on this forum, as soon as I can save up some mullah I'll head up his way. I wonder if there is something about that the block being bigger that contributes to the coolant problems, or it could just be hot as hell right now where you are tracking. I'm just trying to learn as much as I can about the cooling issues because its almost always hot in florida. Keep up the detail write ups it helps guys like me plan our future mods!

[jessrayo]

Originally Posted by All-American ZL1

I'm sure andy will straighten things out for you, he seems to be probably the most highly respected buider on this forum, as soon as I can save up some mullah I'll head up his way. I wonder if there is something about that the block being bigger that contributes to the coolant problems, or it could just be hot as hell right now where you are tracking. I'm just trying to learn as much as I can about the cooling issues because its almost always hot in florida. Keep up the detail write ups it helps guys like me plan our future mods!

I really helped a lot of guys working on the CTS-V while I had that car but this ZL1 is a much better track platform. The complete shutdown was a problem but it is fairly easy to snap off the ECM connection under the hood and zero everything out so it will start again and limp off the track. I'm really hoping that I don't have that problem again. It is hard to say.... I'm looking at getting a bluetooth data transmitter so I can send info from the computer to my phone for the sole purpose of monitoring intake temps. It is bad when oil temp is good and engine water temp is good but I have no gauge to monitor the one stat that is turning the car off.

I still suspect that the heat exchanger under the supercharger may have a very small leak and may be gradually leaking water into the engine. Occasionally I seem to smell coolant but there is no sign of leaks and all the reservoirs are full.... I really didn't check it at the track until it was so low it was not even pumping, I kept getting other problems with the throttle body and only got that intake temp code on the last trip out. By that time I had stopped hot laps for the 3rd time they just wanted my car off the track.

[jessrayo]

Well, I have never been a drag racer but thought I would give it a try just to test the car. I made several passes on the stock Goodyears, experimented with the traction control in several positions..... lesson learned for me Stock Goodyears are butter with all nannies off. I was a little disappointed because I never did feel like I got it all together but had several runs at 126 mph with a best of 126.3 and a best et of 12.08. 60 foot times were terrible and my best was 2.11. Everyone was pretty impressed that I could run 126 mph time and time again. Maybe I should buy some drag radials....

[snackbar64]

Originally Posted by jessrayo

Hello,
I'm new to this ZL1 forum and new to the Camaro. I have finally come through to the end of a long drawn out and ugly divorce. Prior to the divorce I had a CTS-V that was highly modified. I regularly ran the car at a local racetrack but honestly the Cadillac takes a lot of work to make it a reasonable track car. Anyway, I was forced to sell the car or pay the ex the entire sum of the modification receipts. So last Saturday I found a used ZL1 in McKinney, Tx, I bought it and on Tuesday it was in the shop. Here is the plan on the build:
6.8 stroker motor with forged crank, rods, and pistons.
Linenfelter Heads, radical camshaft.
Headers, no cats, stock mufflers with bypass switch manual override to "hush" headers
Intercooler upgrade, fuel pump upgrade, transmission swap (manual) to match the output shaft on stroker crank. Various pulleys, injectors, etc to handle the power increases.

Replacing rear linkage suspension bushings, and milling of spacers to run 19" rims that I used for track rubber on CTS-V.

I'm hoping the car will dyno at least 750 whp on 91 octane. Car will have 2 tunes on a hand loader, one for 91 octane and one tune for 110 octane race gas that is sold at my local track.

Build is being done by ADM Performance in Lewisville, TX. Andy is an authorized Lingenfelter builder and distributor and he does great work. Can't say enough about how he works with a customer.

Don't know if I can figure out how to post pics but stick a couple on here.

I tried to put them on as attachments.

Did you say Ardmore, Ok? So that's where my twin has been hiding?

[jessrayo]

Originally Posted by snackbar64

Did you say Ardmore, Ok? So that's where my twin has been hiding?

There are some other white ZL1's on the board but I have not seen one in person since I bought mine. I'll keep an eye out for you when I go down Grand Ave, there...lol. We could really draw some attention running the lights in Ardmore...lol.

[jessrayo]

Originally Posted by jessrayo

Well, I have never been a drag racer but thought I would give it a try just to test the car. I made several passes on the stock Goodyears, experimented with the traction control in several positions..... lesson learned for me Stock Goodyears are butter with all nannies off. I was a little disappointed because I never did feel like I got it all together but had several runs at 126 mph with a best of 126.3 and a best et of 12.08. 60 foot times were terrible and my best was 2.11. Everyone was pretty impressed that I could run 126 mph time and time again. Maybe I should buy some drag radials....

I'm really surprised that no one is giving me crap about my drag race times....
The engine ran flawlessly and I didn't notice any heat issues despite running several runs and pulling directly in the line-up to go again. Did 3 runs almost back to back at the end of the night and 2nd of those 3 had my best time.

[jessrayo]

Okay I have barely owned the car one month and I'm still working out the bugs. I went to Eagles Canyon Raceway 0n 8-2-13 and tested the car. The air temps were very high at the track 93 to 106 degrees as the day went on. This video is my second session of 7 for the day. In the beginning I am accelerating as hard as the car can on every straight. I first feel the engine pulling timing at 2 1/2 laps or right about 5:25 min. into the video. On this video there is a track only Mustang on the track ahead of me and I make up about 20 seconds and pass him on the front straight of my first complete lap but he is very courteous and stays right and off the throttle to give me the pass before turn one. There is also a highly modded Porsche 911 GT3 on the track, he never catches me on this session. Without heat issues we were close.... when I had to slow he was faster.



The plan is, I'm taking the car back to ADM at the end of next week. Here are the changes he is going to make....

1. He is going to install ZR1 5th and 6th gears in the transmission so the car can go 200 mph reliably.
2. He is going to install the Hurst line lock kit so I can burnout at the drag strip without eating the rear brakes.
3. He is going to install a large intercooler coolant reservoir in the trunk.
4. Going to cut back blower speed and boost pressures a little.

I'm still considering the "chiller" that uses the a/c Freon to cool the water.

The bottom line problem is that the fluid is boiling or is partially vaporized after it comes through the supercharger and it is overflowing as a foam out of the Pressure cap in the Lingenfelter reservoir. Eventually enough fluid and foam blows over that the reservoir and pump go dry. Once that system is dry the rest of the engine heat escalates and I saw engine water temp over 220 and engine oil temp over 300. I actually was driving tit for tat with the Porsche GT3 and was totally watching his lines and not my car then looked down and saw all my gages in the danger zone. I have heard that the supercharger coolant system really needs a pressure cap or it will blow a line or something else but I feel I need to cool it before it can blow over or I'll never have enough fluid....Any other ideas?

[LuckyZL-1]

Your car rocks dude! Nice video!

[jessrayo]

Originally Posted by LuckyZL-1

Your car rocks dude! Nice video!

Thanks Lucky!

Update, I may have a fix for the supercharger heat! Talked to Andy at ADM and Lingenfelter is shipping the new snouts to run the TVS2300 on the LSA block. I'm going to be getting one of the first LS9 blowers on my motor and that should help. I'll keep you posted!! Still doing all the rest of the stuff listed above plus he will swap the supercharger. May even make a little more power!