The Twin Turbo Z06 LSX 427 build from Hell finally done!!

[extremecorvette]

The twin turbo Z06 build from Hell finally done!!

Let me start off my saying I’ve had the 06 Z06 vett for about 2 years and have driven it about 10-15 miles before I made up my mind to pull the stock Z06 427 motor out to sell it on the forum. It sold in under an hour I should of asked more for it, lol.

A run down of some of the main items I used was;

Motor: WarHawk Block stock height, WarHawk LS7X 6 bolt heads, Custom JE pistons rated for 1,300 hp Coated on the Skirts 9:1, Comp Star Rods, Dragon Slayer Crank, Clevite Coated Rod Bearings, Dura-Bond Coated Cam Bearings, Morel Lifters, Comp 919 Springs, Crower Shaft Rockers, APR 6 Bolt Head Studs, APR Cam Bolts, APR Clutch Bolts, APR Header Bolts, Ron Davis Racing Radiator, ATi Balancer, C5R Timing Chain, Cam Motion Cam 232/226 622/608 114 4 degree advance built into the cam Int open at 6 degrees close at 46 degrees Exh open at 51 degrees close at -5 degrees

Turbo System: Turbo Smart E-Boost Controller 2, APS Z06 Twin Turbo System with Garret GT3582R true ball bearing liquied cooled, 95lb Injectors, Fully Up-Graded Full System

Drive Train: Spec Clutch Super Twin ST-Trim Torque Capacity 1595, Thedriveshftshop Upgraded Driveshaft, Forgeline SP39 Rims 18x10” Front 18x13” Rear, BFGoodrich 345/30R18 Drag Radials, BFGoodrich 295/35R18, Hurt Shifter

You know it never good when a person starts off talking about his first engine builder. My first engine builder ran into problems right off the get go when he had clearance issues with all the bearings on everything The reluctor wheel on the crank was hitting my last piston so it had to be sent back to be mill and replace the rotating assembly. All the new bearings had to be replaced. At this point I did get some good news from Total Engine Airflow about the flow numbers.







The block looked awesome!!



I upgraded the driveshaft, here is a pic side by side of the stock vs. Thedriveshftshop Upgraded Driveshaft



With the heads done I had them shipped off to Crower to let them use the heads to design new shaft rockers. They came up with some very nice stainless steel shaft rockers for me. If anyone is interested they are 1:8 ratio part # 74110 with needle bearing tip option total cost $1,573. Thank you Crower and Dj David for the rockers.



The engine builder game me some more good news that the double roller timing chain I bought was not going to fit and after talking with Speed Inc they had me buy the built C5R Katech timing chain. After getting it installed we noticed it was going to rub on the block also and had to add clearance.

The motor looked badass once it was all together and ready to drop it in.



I got the turbo and exhaust back from HotJet and they looked great.













I was happy how the valve covers came out



When we dropped it in the first time as we mounted the motor I found an issue on the left side of the motor with the motor mount. I was only able to get one out of the three bolts started. When we loosened the motor up and moved the mount a little bit I could see there wasn’t even holes there. So after an hour on the phone with WorldsCastings they told me they some how missed drilling those two holes. I got them to overnight me the drill bit and tap along with the specs for the depth of the holes and locations. Let me tell you that was really fun drilling two holes in a built motor and one mistake could really F your day up in a hurry.

With the holes drilled we got the motor back in the car in about 2hrs and where about ready to start the motor up for the first time when I pushed down on the clutch and my foot went right to the floor. I could hear fluid running down and hitting the shop floor. A brand new throw out bearing blew a seal, great so the motor had to come out again and I had to wait a few days for the dealership to get another one under warranty The next one held and we where able to try starting the motor for the first time.

The car wouldn’t even crank over. After spending about 4 hrs running wires down and checking voltages I found the issue with the power wire coming from the fuse box to the started had the wire pulled out of the end connection at the starter. With the motor and turbo in the way I ended up running a new wire down to make the connection I got the motor started. You think that would have been good news but the motor didn’t sound right or want to ideal smoothly. After checking the valve train out we found that 2 lifters was not priming up, getting that news felt like getting hit in the gut because that meant I would have to pull the motor again to pull the heads off to change the lifters out. I called Shafer lifters to talk to them about the issues I was having and got them to warranty them after they got to look the lifters over. On a side note the motor had to come out again anyways because I had small oil leaking out the bell housing.

We got the motor out and changed the lifters and found the oil leak to be the rear main seal was put in backwards. How’s an engine builder make that mistake? Also I ended up putting the original throw out bearing back in because the second throw out bearing was leaking also.

Know with the motor back in the car no oil leaks and the motor does sound a little bit better I thought it was ready to go to Speed Inc to be dyno tuned, man I was wrong.

At Speed Inc they get the car up on the dyno and discover a few issues, one my fuel to air is all over the place, my boost controller isn’t working and it just keeps building boost, and the fuel regulator is not holding pressure. At this point I make the call to just leave the car with them and let them get it done. The guys there great about it and had the motor out in about 2 days and off to there engine builder. That’s when I got the great news that one of the heads must of has core shift during the casting process because two of the exhaust ports had small cracks/hole from the exhaust side to the intake side.



After sending the heads back to Total Engine Airflow and WorldsCastings and having everyone say it’s the other persons fault, WorldsCastings gave me a second set of heads for 70% off and Total Engine Airflow made it right by me and didn’t ask for a dime. I have to give them props for doing that, Thank you Total Engine Airlfow!

Both guys said I only needed to buy one head to replace the head that had and issue but at 70% off I got two.

The second engine builder came back to me and said the last piston still doesn’t have enough clearance, all the bearings are at the bottom of the allowed clearances, and timing chain should have a little bit more clearance. So after all that we replace all the bearings and re-machined the block again.

[extremecorvette]

With the motor back together and in the car at Speed Inc I was so pumped up to hear it was going on the dyno and then I get the email from Tom. Nate we got a problem you need to call me. When I got that email I was expecting to hear the motor blew up. The issue with the lifters is back but this time they are load and the car will not rev over 6,000 rpm. Also we need to look into why the boost is creeping up on the car. I made the call to have them remove the heads for the third time and replace the Shafer lifters with Morel. The boost issue they checked out the controller, solenoids, and wastegates. Everything checked out. With the motor back in the car for the sixth or seventh time they found a new issue with the oil tank building pressure. After doing some checking they re-did the PVC system to fix the oil pressure issue and found a beads had found there way into the vacuum line and had it plugged up so that is why my boost was creeping up. The beads are from way back when I sent the parts to be hotjet coated. They must bead blast everything before coatings are applied and some must of worked there way into one of the vacuum ports.



The car got back on the dyno today at Speed Inc and they finished up the dyno run setting the car up at 11.9:1 air to fuel on 93 octane fuel getting 783 rwhp and 739 rwtq. If I add in the 15% powertrain loss it would put the car at 900.4 Hp at the motor. My goal when I started the project was 900-1000 hp at the motor.



Link to the dyno run


The guys at Speed Inc are going to put it back up on the dyno and tune the car to run at lower boost and after that give me a money shot with the car running race fuel to see what the car can make. I will post the dyno sheet on both dyno runs once I get them.

With it all said and done the motor was pulled seven times, countless man hours, and gobs of money. What I’ve learned from this project, I’ve learned how to pull the motor out of a corvette in my garage in under 2 hours by myself. Would I do this project again, I would have to say no, I would have let Speed Inc do it all from the start the car would have been done last year.

I have to give a huge thank you to Tom at Speed Inc for putting up with me and getting this car done and I can't wait to get behind the wheel.

Take a look at the tires I got for it. 295 front and 345 rear





The next set of rear I will get MT tires. I went with 18" both in rear and front.

[extremecorvette]

I had people asking for pictures of the car done but the closest picture I have of car done is when I loaded it up on the trailer and was getting ready to drive 3hrs to Chicago to drop the car off at Speed Inc. If you can't tell both my brother and I are Iowa fans, and I'm said to say I went to Iowa State Univ. but I went there to get two engineering degrees but I currently live in Iowa City.



Well Jim spent all day last Friday and even stayed late to get the car done.

Jim set up the boost controller with presets at

SP1 6psi 592rwhp 573rwtq dynorun 25

SP2 9psi 690rwhp 654rwtq dynorun 27

SP3 13psi 815rwhp 803rwtq dynorun 31

SP4 15.5psi 878rwhp 899rwtq last run on 110 Oct Fuel

[extremecorvette]

You got to love the super charger hood







The 345 tires look great on it











Video of the car being revved up

[extremecorvette]

The sad news is I'm going to trade the car for a stock (Z06 corvette, or 66-68 corvette, or 67 GTO) and some cash.

[Shermanator86]

Good god

[tatertot91]

Nicely done
must be a blast to drive

[extremecorvette]

Its a blast to drive, but with the cold weather I'm keeping the boost low

[RedSuperSport]

I need one of those

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

[35th-ANV-SS]

Subscribed to read later.

[2001camaroSS]

That thing is ridiculous. Why are you changing directions in cars?

[35th-ANV-SS]

Great guys over at Speed Inc. I've got some work done there before. Nice facility as well. Glad you finally worked through all the headaches and got her back into one piece.

[Kathryn Beynon]

Hi, is this the car that went to New Zealand

[Kathryn Beynon]

Is this the car that went to New Zealnad

[liemmayer]

Very cool cars, I like it!