Wow! We have made some serious progress over the last month! The dedication of the guys during holidays, vacations, nights and weekends is really bringing the Hearse to life.
Shane, Lance & Greg were able to get the final prep done and the rear section of the 1 ¾ roll bar completed over our Christmas break. The guys will be completing the bar with removable door bars after the car is up and running.
The slower winter season has allowed us to continue to work on the Hearse a bit more in between shop projects. Lance has put lots of time into cleaning up the engine bay, weeding through wires, removing unnecessary items , etc. The harness Lance and Randy @ Yates EFI designed together came out amazing. The harness is fully installed and the layout really allowed us to clean up the engine bay.
We opted to remove the LS6 intake and in its place went a Victor JR intake, 90 degree elbow by Aaron @ 6061.com , LS2 TB & ID2000 injectors. This will be worth some power, support our future motor and really adds to the cool factor of the build. The fuel system is all complete up front and we'll be addressing the rest of the system in upcoming weeks. Read more…
Well unfortunately we were unable to hit our goal of attending the Fall Texas Mile with the Hearse due to other shop priorities, but we are happy to be working on the project again. We are still pleased to have Shane Smith on the project finalizing the fabrication side of things and he has been turning out some trick stuff. Read more…
It has been a busy summer here at AMS so naturally my hearse project has been coming along slower than I would like! My good friend Shane Smith has been picking away at the turbo kit as time allows. Hopefully we can get back on track as the Texas Mile is only 3 months away!
Now the fun really begins as we construct the turbo kit. The factory truck exhaust manifolds make a great base for the turbo kit when reversed so I decided to go that route. Guys have run in the high 8 second range on similar set-ups so there should be no issue with what I am trying to accomplish.
With the exhaust manifolds flipped facing forward we added 2″ 304 Stainless Steel schedule 40 pipes that Y into a split scroll T-4 flange. This is a really solid foundation but for safety sake we will be adding some support brackets once the kit is complete.
Greetings Hearse Fans! It has been a while since we did an update! We took a little break from the Hearse while we prepared our Drag EVO, Porsche 996TT and GT-R for the Texas Mile .
When we left off we had gotten the engine into place and were waiting to fit the transmission. For this build I chose the GM 4L85e from a Chevy Van. The transmission is larger and stronger than the 4L60e that was removed. Even so the 4L85e is rumored to have a limit of about 800 ft. lbs. of torque so I will probably need to upgrade should I chose to add any more power. The next step will have to be a 3 speed Turbo 400 transmission but I just really wanted to keep the drivability of the overdrive for now. Fingers crossed.
I turned to long time friend Lawrence Loshak and his company ETE Reman in Milwaukee Wisconsin to rebuild and upgrade the 4L85. Although they don’t specialize in performance transmissions Lawrence told me he had a couple of gear head technicians that could help me out.
While I was waiting for the transmission to be upgraded I contacted Dean at DRC Transmission in Arlington Heights IL. for suggestions on a torque converter for my combination. Given the weight and power combination he suggested we start with a 3K stall.
