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 Post subject: Re: Phil's LS1 locost
PostPosted: May 21, 2009, 11:49 am 
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Joined: May 13, 2009, 12:10 pm
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wow.. This is the kind of stuff that makes me want to rush home and start my project. Very nice.

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 Post subject: Re: Phil's LS1 locost
PostPosted: September 6, 2009, 4:07 pm 
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Joined: August 15, 2007, 10:48 pm
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Location: Claremont,Ontario,Canada
Quick update

I've been real busy with other projects all summer and am just getting back to my locost now. I ran into some problems with my car running real rich and fouling the plugs which I think I have traced down to the O2 senders shorting on the bodywork. I didn't account for the bodywork when i welded the bungs on the headers. I just got the parts in to fix it and I'll be starting on the finish sanding and painting of the fiberglass soon.
Phil


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 Post subject: Re: Phil's LS1 locost
PostPosted: September 6, 2009, 8:53 pm 
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Joined: January 7, 2007, 3:24 pm
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Location: Visalia, Ca
Cool! I've been waiting patiently. :mrgreen:

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 Post subject: Re: Phil's LS1 locost
PostPosted: October 20, 2009, 12:47 am 
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Joined: August 15, 2007, 10:48 pm
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Location: Claremont,Ontario,Canada
Hello All
Got my o2 senders all fixed up but haven't cured the richness or plug fouling. Put the car on a scanner and everything looks OK. I'll probably have to get it tuned out.
Haven't looked at the car all together in a while so while cleaning out the garage for winter decided to mount the bodywork for last long perspective view prior to final trimming and paint. The headlight wing weren't on but otherwise fairly complete. I think I'll trim the rear of rear fenders inner edge level with the aluminum side to the diffuser and the outer edge up about 3" from there. Not sure what to do with the front edge of rear fender.

Phil


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 Post subject: Re: Phil's LS1 locost
PostPosted: October 20, 2009, 7:15 am 
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Joined: March 13, 2009, 1:55 pm
Posts: 138
Love the look! All those angles and details in the body are awesome.


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 Post subject: Re: Phil's LS1 locost
PostPosted: October 20, 2009, 9:54 am 
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Joined: September 22, 2005, 10:29 am
Posts: 599
yes, you've done what eludes so many - filled your shell needs while adding an element of style. kudos!


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 Post subject: Re: Phil's LS1 locost
PostPosted: October 20, 2009, 10:45 am 
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Joined: September 22, 2005, 10:29 am
Posts: 599
One question: Did you consult with SCCA guidelines on roll cage design - specifically, the front roll hoop is laid back so far that I wonder if there's a structural weakness there. I'd like to hear your thoughts.


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 Post subject: Re: Phil's LS1 locost
PostPosted: October 20, 2009, 10:53 am 
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Location: Lexington, KY
Looking awesome, Phil! :-)

-dave

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 Post subject: Re: Phil's LS1 locost
PostPosted: October 20, 2009, 11:21 am 
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Location: Charleston, WV
Amazing Phil!

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 Post subject: Re: Phil's LS1 locost
PostPosted: October 20, 2009, 7:43 pm 
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Looking really good,

Love the hood !!!

Fred


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 Post subject: Re: Phil's LS1 locost
PostPosted: October 20, 2009, 11:20 pm 
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Location: Claremont,Ontario,Canada
I figure the front hoop is stronger than an aluminum windsheild frame and it was gonna be there anyways(the windsheild). The layback on the hoop is less than on most aerodynamic modern cars with roll cages fitted . Just need to get off my butt and get it painted.
phil


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 Post subject: Re: Phil's LS1 locost
PostPosted: April 30, 2010, 11:39 pm 
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Joined: August 15, 2007, 10:48 pm
Posts: 233
Location: Claremont,Ontario,Canada
WELL I’m finally back at it

After almost a year of just staring at my car I finally started playing with it again this week. I had the glass cut for my windsheild and installed it. I modified my wiper motor mounting to make the shafts more perpendicular to the windsheild. The wipers were laying over almost 45 degrees at their end of range motion before this change and this helped somewhat.
I played with the tach wiring again. I have still not been able to get my TrailTech Vapor tach reading reliably. Hooking it up to the engine computer produces no result. I read about a "Pullup Circuit" being necessary to get aftermarket gauges to work with the Ls1 ecu on LS1 tech so I tried that but still nothing. Hooking it up to one of the coils also produces erratic results because the coils sometimes fire multiple times per each suck,squish,boom,blow cycle. So I've given up on that for now. I'm hoping that when I get the computer Tuned I can resolve this issue. So I cleaned up the wiring in the engine bay a bit.
I had to modify my heater core a bit as one of the hose nipples pointed straight at the MAF . I was able to cut the offending nipple off flush with the firewall and solder a threaded fitting onto it. That allowed me to screw a 90 degree fitting on from the engine bay side after the heater core is installed from the passenger compartment side. I plumbed up the system and now have a defroster.
So I went for a little test drive to celebrate and thats when all hell broke loose with the electrical system. First thing I noticed was that the fuel level gauge started rapidly rising on its own right past the full mark until the needle hit the case. Very Weird I thought. So I disconnected the fuel level sender for fear that the gauge may be damaged or that the sendor itself may be shorting out and could blow up my fuel cell. On the way home the car blew the fuses for the lights and turn signals. What the hell? When I got home I realized my Voltage gauge was way low. I hooked up a battery charger and it was drawing lots of current. So my charging system wasn’t working.

When I put all those idiot lights on my dashboard one was for the alternator. In the year I have been test driving my car around the neighborhood the voltmeter has always read good voltage (around 14) and the car has been started and run thousands of times and I have never had to charge the battery. I knew that the light had always been on but thought that was a peculiarity of the fact that I had used an LED lamp. I knew that the alternator required a load on that wire to function so had wired a resistor in and thought I was charging. Apparantly not. After some further reading I realized that a normal 194 type bulb is required in this circuit. It will light whenever there is a difference between the voltage of the battery and the alternator and so will light when any malfunction occurs such as high or low alternator output compared to the battery or high or low voltage of battery compared to the alternator. An LED will not work even with the resistor as it can only be powered one way and acts as a diode blocking reverse current flow.

Live and Learn .
Lesson one: One new incandescent Indicator light(which now comes on before starting and shuts off when running) and my charging system now works for the first time. Yeah
Lesson two: Optima batterys are amazing. Tons of capacity
Lesson three: Trust your Intuition and don’t believe everything you read on the internet. The autometer gauge site had me convinced a voltmeter was more useful than an ammeter even though my gut told me only an ammeter can really show me whats going on.

Got my mirrors all mounted too.

Still avoiding the final filling sanding and painting of all the fibreglass bits.
And I can’t decide if I should get the ecm tuned now or If I should Upgrade the camshaft as planned eventually and just do the tuning once.

Phil(soon to be itchy)Matolcsy


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 Post subject: Re: Phil's LS1 locost
PostPosted: May 1, 2010, 9:59 am 
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We are Slotus!
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Joined: October 6, 2009, 9:29 am
Posts: 7651
Location: Tallahassee, FL (The Center of the Known Universe)
Hi Phil!
Glad you're back at it again. Your build is one I've looked in on and enjoyed/learned a lot. Can't wait to see what you do next!

:cheers:
JD "Occasionally Itchy Myself" Kemp

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 Post subject: Re: Phil's LS1 locost
PostPosted: May 1, 2010, 10:24 am 
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Joined: August 15, 2007, 10:48 pm
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Location: Claremont,Ontario,Canada
just a couple of pics of the windsheild, mirrors and heater core modifications. Also check out the cool velocity stack inside the K and N filter. Never knew it was there until I mounted my air intake temperature sender in it. Also my first ever try at Louvers in the dashboard to allow the air for the defroster through. I don't have the balls to try the hood but I may get that done If I can find someone local to do it. I painted the dash with a flat black crinkle finish that eliminates any glare. You can just see the heater core in the picture of the dash . Its a small auxillary heater from princess auto mounted to the side of the trans tunnel. The fan draws the air through it and blows it up to the dash.


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 Post subject: Re: She's Red
PostPosted: May 2, 2010, 5:38 pm 
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Joined: August 15, 2007, 10:48 pm
Posts: 233
Location: Claremont,Ontario,Canada
Felt energetic this weekend , So I decided to tackle the body work. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I used a high build primer that showed all the little imperfections well. Then some spot putty on the pinholes and other imperfections. Sprayed some Tremclad Fire Engine Red on. I've only got the first coat on, But I am already happy with the results. I got some major runs (in the paint) so I guess I'll be sanding them out and putting a couple more hopefully thin and less runny coats on, But I am really happy with the color and my bodywork/buck building/ fiberglass laying skills are better than I thought they would be. I was sort of planning on it being a 50/50 paint job but so far its a 5/5 and I think I can do better. Maybe it's only my painting skills that suck(see the frame fiasco).

On another front , I have been trying to figure out what to call my car. Early attempts were LS-7 but it isn't what it is and thats already taken by GM. Phil Matolcsy Special came to mind but has an unfortunate ring to it's initials. Maybe true, but still unfortunate. So the search continues

Phil(not so Itchy)Matolcsy "proud father of the PMS"


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