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Ethyl Roars

85391 Views 554 Replies 19 Participants Last post by  wrp
Ethyl is a 2004 GTO I bought her new in November 2004. We put 95,000 miles on her with 80,000 of them being at 450+ rwhp. In May 09 we decided to go completely through it. First off the original LS1 running heads and cam for 85,000 miles only required honing, cam bearings, and rings and is back in another GTO making nearly 500 rwhp with forged internals, heads, and cam. In our build we initially started to put a 91 mm Borg Warner Turbo on but switched to a PD twin Helix Harrop HVT2300 supercharger. After getting it together we decided to go with the 4.0 Liter Whipple to see how far we could take the Texas Speed and Power built 408 LQ9 Engine.



The engine. We started with a LQ9 Iron Block built by Texas Speed. It has Diamond Pistons, Eagle Rods, and an Eagle Forged Crank. The entire rotating assembly is coated and the pistons are a -28cc dish. We put ETP 245 heads on the car and retained the 1 7/8 inch Kooks Headers.



Fabrication. We relocated the ECM to inside the drivers compartment and fabricated a coil pack relocation scheme with some modified GM Performance Valve Covers to clean up the appearance. We fabricated a reservoir with a front mounted heat exchanger. We fabricated the intake for the supercharger and the brace for the snout pulley,





Forced Induction. We started out intending to put a Borg Warner 91 mm Turbo on it but went with a Harrop HVT2300. Our goal was 20 lbs of boost since the engine was built to go to 1500 HP. The Harrop maxed out around 18 lbs so we went with the Whipple Sand Rail 4.0 Liter Supercharger Kit. That Supercharger is a beast. We have seen 19 lbs of boost on the engine on the Serpentine belts with the OEM pulleys. We also replaced the 2004 GTO radiator with a 2005 Radiator to eliminate the large fender mounted catch can.



Cooling Includes an 05 GTO radiator and a Moroso remote mounted electric water pump. We used an aftermarket heat exchanger off a Cobra and a Moroso Heat Exchanger Reservoir which is trunk Mounted. We wired three fans behind the heat exchanger to pull air through them. A Flex-Cool low profile fan completed the setup.



Cog Drive. The Serpentine belts could not hold so we added a custom foabricated cog drive using Procharger and some custom designed and fabricated parts. We had to work through a serise of issues including the snout not holding up to the demands. We designed and fabricated a unique cradle for the snout and top sprocket. Once we were with the cog drive it became apparent the 80 lbs Siemns injectors could not keep up. Also the IAT's were high and the car did not respond well to meth. We installed Bosch/ID 2000 cc injectors and converted the car to E85. We've been able to consistently hold the car at 23 lbs of boost though the Aeromotive A1000 is max'd out. The current setup is a fuill return system using a combination of Aeromotive and custom fabricated parts.



Transmission. We could not get a T56 to stay together so we had RPM transmissions build a T56 Magnum with a GForce 9310 dog cut gear set, micropolished by Liberty Gears. The setup was awesome and scheduled be installed with a Monster Triple Disk clutch. Unfortunately the Transmission took so long to deliver we had already gone to FTI for a Stage 5 TH400 by the time it arrived. Reluctantly we dissassembled the T56 Magnum and sold the parts for scrap. We have the TH400 in now.





Drivetrain. We overpowered the OEM drivetrain so We turned our attention to GForce1320's 9 inch Ford IRS. We are using a Wavetrac 35 spline differential with 200 mm GForce axles. The car has tubs, and a GForce1320 coil over kit, We will be running 14.5 inch slicks on 15 by 10 Holeshot Rims with 15 by 4 inch skinnies on the front. Currently have MT ET DRs, 295 by 55 by 15s on it.



Finishing touches. SNL put a Kook's afterburner 3" exhaust on the car. We added a FireCharger fire suppression system and Prosport AFR/Boost gauges. We've installed an RPM Rollbar and B&M Quicksilver Shifter. We also installed a 100 shot on top of everything as it seems to help IAT's a bit. We have a shop standing by to do the hood when we get everything else finished.

Suspension. Lovell's suspension components from Kollar Racing will replace every component in the suspension with new bushings, and fittings. We are also going to the Lovell's 90/10 struts as the car will work mostly on the strip once completed. We still need to complete the hood, add the Roll Cage, and completely repaint the body to finish the build.

Here she is putting down 969/1110 on the dyno with a failing clutch


A few more pulls with the serpentine belt


Prolly my favorite pulls


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Clay Millican is one of the absolute nicest guys I've ever met. We have a mutual friend in Memphis who is an NHRA Hall of Fame member. He suggested I go meet Clay. I really enjoyed shaking his hand. He is gracious and fun to talk to.

Forehead Nose Chin Cricket cap Cap
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Me n Ethyl out cruising today when a Camaro spied us out on the IH. We was on the access road. played a little. enjoy

Now THAT looks like fun!
So, after a ton of work I finally got the Hot Rod on the Dyno Monday. I watch way too much YouTube and Facebook so I had a number in mind. The new engine just felt like a beast compared to the old engine. My oldage memory recalled a 320 number on the old engine and I recalled that as horsepower with a larger torque reading. The new Holley Sniper had greatly improved drivability over the old carburator setup. I engaged John Gilliland to put a tune on the Sniper, we were running the basic Sniper self learned tune on the new engine until Monday. The tune itself goes into dozens if not hundreds of areas of the engine, fuel, spark, and air combination at the entire range of engine speed, temperature, air density, and a number of other variables the new Sniper has provided sensors to measure.

The first few pulls were well below 300 HP to the Wheels with Torque in the 320-330 range. That set the baseline. John went to work changing the timing and fueling, improving the driveability incredibly. Still the numbers only came up into the 320-330 wheel horsepower range though the torque did manage the mid 330's. Studying the pulls and John's seat of the pants intuition, we determined the Wheels were not hooking up to the dyno at all. After the tweaking, which included the fat guy sitting in the trunk, we did a final that netted right at 343 rear wheel horsepower and 358 foot pounds of torque. It was a general improvement in the numbers. But I was somewhat disappointed as my expectations were higher. I really had no idea of how good these results were.

First, going into the session I had no idea what the redline for the new motor was. We saw a clear falloff at 6200 RPM so that is where we set it.

Second the engine suffered an overheating problem with the old setup, often reaching 240 degrees on hot Texas days. On the trip out before the tune we averaged 190-195 degrees, showing a remarkable improvement over the previous engine. With the tune adjustments to idle and cruising timing, on the return the temps dropped to below 170, meaning I need to up the thermostat. The car cruises at about 185 degrees now as opposed to 192 prior to the tune.

Also on the way out I averaged 9 miles per gallon. On the way back with the new tune we averaged 14.5 miles per gallon figuring a near 30% increase in economy while cruising. Of course when my foot gets involed that gets worse sometimes.

My exhaust was designed for a 190 horsepower sbc crate engine with 2" collectors and tubing. The headers are 1 3/4 tubing. I need 2.5 to 2.75 inch headers with 3-3.5 inch collectors and 2.5 inch exhaust piping. Just my opinion

I installed an adjustable 4 Link system a few years ago and have never really gotten that effectively dialed in. I am old and don't bend so well. I don't have access to a rack to take the 4 link adjustable settings and properly set up the pinion angle. That may well have been a lot of the problem with the traction, though light weight needs to own some of it. I need to pay attention to that.

Overall drivability is excellent after the tune. John did a great job. Holley Sniper provide an okay daily driver safe solution and the learning keeps the finicky fuel tables up but the touch of a tuner smoothing out the timing and fueling transitions is a big improvement. In the photos below there are three sheets, two from the old engine done in 2016 and 2017 and the third is from the latest session. All in all a 50-55 rwhp gain and a 36 rwtq gain. Over the 2017 session and an 81 rwhp gain over the 2016 session. Enjoy the dyno, no surprises in it, just a bunch of pulls.

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Sounds great Bill. Nothing like a Hotrod that gets good mileage too.
With those RWHP figures that's a very good flywheel HP number for a SBC. I'd guess it's getting up in the 450 hp range or maybe a bit more at the flywheel, which is darn good.
Don't recall if what your trans is, but if it's not got an overdrive then that mileage is awesome for a 1:1 top gear. An overdrive would make highway mileage boost about 30% higher.
Its got a T45 5 speed, 5th is 0.67 I have 3.73 rear gears with 27 inch tires. Here is another short romp or two.

With the 5 speed T45 you should get pretty good mileage when cruising at highway speeds. But of course you need to be steady cruising, vs. hot footing it to get the mileage. The T45 is just about at it's limit of 400 ft. lbs. torque with your engine build, but the lightweight of the car helps a lot.
Was very honored to get an article on Ethyl published in the NSRA StreetScene Magazine this month. On page 46 of the November 2020 issue Ethyl got a nice write up and some cool photos published. I have enjoyed the car immensely and enjoyed sharing it with the guys on this board. Thgis submission was prior to the louvered side panels and the 383 stroker motor install. Hopefully we can parlay them into a future article.

Car Wheel Automotive parking light Vehicle Land vehicle
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So out playing some Saturday and made some videos. Saturday mornings are good here in Plano here are a few examples of exotics also out cruising.

Here is a nice limited edition Lambo

BMW 335.... wasn't too cool but what the Heck eh? I was watching the Mustang and he come out of nowhere...I hollered over to Ethyl "don't look Ethyl!!!" It was too late, she done been whooshed at.

Many years ago, I developed a camera mount for the Pontiac GTO community. One of the first few videos I made with it was one against a WRX-STi from the dig. The what's the Camera For comes from that encounter. Here is another STi years later

A few nights ago ran into a fast Tesla

Working on the Hot Rod has been fun too. I made a video of installing the engine cover side panels after the recent mods we put together to support the louvered side panels.

Asleep at the wheel. Encounter of a lifetime and I was sitting there gawking at the GT3

If ever I could express the feelings of a hard romp through the gears, this young passenger's face would be pretty much an accurate description

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