LSCyaL8r's Hawk. 8/20/2011-8/21/2011...

I got a call from Dylan informing me that he got his parts from fellow member 9t8Z28, who lost his beloved Z to an idiot driver driving on the wrong side of the road a few weeks back. So, upon hearing of the obtaining of said goodies, I immediately ate my food and was off to Dyker Heights, NY to assist with the build. Here is how things went down:

See this?
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/007.jpg
The dreaded "ticking timebomb" known as the factory 10-bolt. It was leaking and making noises causing Dylan much concern.

SO...what did we use? THIS:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/004.jpg
Strange 12-bolt with 4:10 gears and lightweight diff cover/internal girdle. Felt lighter than the factory unit IMO.

We also used a cro-moly driveshaft as well to reduce rotational mass. Hee!! :D

We started by pulling the rear wheels/tires to gain access to the adjustible LCAs previously installed by Dylan and start unbolting them, the shock bolts and stab link nuts, and rear Strano springs/BMR drag bags.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...so76/002-4.jpg

Dylan wasted NO time taking everything out, as seen here:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...so76/003-1.jpg

We put every nut, bolt, spring in the corner of the driveway to make sure we could re-use them. Worked out pretty well. Here is a shot of a small stash we had...
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/005.jpg

Oh yeah...we also used a UMI adjustible/tubular torque arm and torque arm relocation bracket. Good stuff!! :yup:

Did you see the adjustible panhard bar and relocation bracket in that shot? Yeah...Dylan got that too. :thumbup:

Dylan broke out the air ratchet and went to town loosening the lower rear shock bolts. They came out rather easily.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/006.jpg

Papa Amalfitano and myself removed the rear brake calipers, rotors and parking brake cables:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/008.jpg

And Dylan gave me the bertstare:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/009.jpg
:hide:

Here is Dylan removing the driver side lower shock bolt, LCA, and stab link:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/010.jpg

And...once all was said-and-done...we got everything out in one piece. Rearend, driveshaft, and torque arm. YAHTZEE!!!
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...so76/011-1.jpg

Lookie at all that room...
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/012.jpg

WAIT...something else is missing:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/014.jpg

Yeah...I asked Dylan where he kept his new Magnaflow catback. We ripped the current exhaust out too. Notice the newer bump stops?

Once he brought out the box...we began fitting the pipes, muffler, tips and clamps:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/015.jpg

I know you got more coming Rich, but it looks good so far!

Here is a full rear bumper shot with new tips:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/016.jpg

I said to myself "mewonders how a gunmetal CETA mod would look?":hmm:

We slid the old rear off to the side and offloaded it and loaded the 12-bolt on and slid it under the Hawk after installing the adjustible panhard bar and relocation bracket:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/017.jpg

NOTE: As most of you know...some rocket scientist at GM decided to make the rear brake line retainers SOLID, meaning, you would have to disconnect the rear hard lines from the brake hoses. Not one to let this stop us, I suggested notching the brackets to allow the lines/hoses to be removed as ONE piece. Papa Amalfitano broke out the Dremel with a good cutting wheel and made slots in the old rear brackets and new rear brackets. There are clips to hold the lines in place, so they won't move anyway:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/013.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Knight

I know you got more coming Rich, but it looks good so far!

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Thanks Walt. More coming.

Here is a close-up of the rear, panhard and new Magnaflow catback:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/018.jpg

I moved to the center of the car as we had an issue with the lower frame brace:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/020.jpg

We had a small issue. The frame brace bolts wouldn't align with the holes in the Hawk's undercarriage. Papa Amalfitano and myself evaluated the issue while Dylan tightened all the nuts/bolts in the rear of the car:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/021.jpg

Upon taking that pic...something told me to look at the jackstands. The driver side was a click higher than the passenger side. D'OH!!! No biggie. I took another floorjack and raised the car from the frame brace and when space allowed, I raised the passenger side one click, causing the floorboard to level. Bolts went right in. YAHTZEE!!!

We started at 9PM Saturday night and finished at 7AM Sunday morning. We worked so hard, we got to see a sunrise. :lol:

And here is Dylan's Hawk. Upgraded:

Rearend with aluminum cover/internal girdle
Cro-moly driveshaft
Torque arm
Subframe brace
Panhard bar with relocation bracket
Magnaflow 3" catback with dual/dual 4" tips
Replacement bump stops
Replacement rear brake pads

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...taso76/022.jpg

Dylan took the Hawk for a few test flights. With the exception of a whine from the rear, all went well. The whine will be addressed at a later date. This was a VERY fun job...and my first assist with a rearend swap. I'm glad I had the opportunity to lend a hand.

Looks like a good night's work!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Knight

Looks like a good night's work!

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We had fun. If you would have seen Dylan get antsy wanting to fire up the car with the new catback, you would have been on the ground laughing. We didn't even have the 12-bolt under the car yet. :lol:

Thanks for the writeup and the hands rich! I can't believe we got all that in so quickly.

I'm hoping to get the speedo calibrated before friday. I also was losing my mind with the noise transmitted into the car from the tunnel torque arm. so at least for now the stock arm is back in and the whole thing got much quieter. not perfect. still noisy around 60mph (GPS reading not speedo lol) If I get it up over about 70 i think it gets a lot quieter. seems to prefer certain speeds and is dead quiet when coasting. Still working on the setup, it may get quieter still once everything is adjusted right. I might end up going with a tubular factory mount style torque arm just to keep the car riding smooth and quiet. This car doesn't see too much track time so keeping it civil on the road is more important than making it bulletproof against the grip of slicks.

The exhaust is much noisier when cruising compared to the old flowmaster (yuck) but that's got more to do with the fact that "cruising" now takes place at around 2k RPM in 6th lol.

When you passed me on the way to IHOP, I :drool:ed. That exhaust sounds so evil. Like a cybernetic growl.

took the car to a local F body drag racer. Guy has a pair of GTA's and a WS6 that runs 10s on the bottle. Has HP tuners and sells tunes on the side. so for 150 he took care of my speedo, deleted the EGR and AIR, software deleted the CAGS and put down a baseline tune for the intake and headers despite the fact they arent in yet. He said the car will just run a little rich until i put the parts in. so i'm a Y pipe away from a 400+ hp hawk.

I like the sound of that!!! :yup: