so between not having many parts and getting a nasty flu, i havent gotten a lot done. but i do have some pics. ive got the new manual brake setup mostly built and plumbed.




im using a wilwood 1" tandem master cylinder on a custom firewall plate. also on the plate is a summit racing line lock solenoid (just in case i wanna do a nice smokey burnout) and a performance worlds adjustable proportioning valve. it should work quite nicely with the current brakes, and with the brake upgrades im planning in the future.

i also have the steering rack powdercoated, rebuilt and depowered. i spent some time properly depowering it and doing what most dont, locking out the torsion shaft so it has precise steering. it might be a bit of a bear to drive at parking lot speeds with a quick ratio manual rack, but i think i can live with it.

ive also decided on a bellhousing setup. i ordered a quicktime bellhousings ecotec to t56 unit and ill be making an adapter plate to bolt it to the torque tube. the custom bellhousing thing wasnt going to happen for quite some time, as well as i figured out how to make the input shaft the little bit longer it needs to be to make this bellhousing work. it will also give me a little more firewall room, something im going to need if my idea for a cam sensor will work.

 

got my bellhousing today.


ive got the local water jet shop cutting me an adapter plate to go from the bellhousings t56 pattern to the torque tube pattern. if all goes well ill have engine bolted into the car by the end of the weekend.

 

Love the progress. I have a sneaking suspicion you're one of the few that could have pulled off a RWD cobalt if you really wanted. Yes I know about the gobalt.

 

a rwd cobalt wouldnt be the end of the world to build. one of 2 ways to do it, either an art morrison back half kit with a 4 link and a ford 9" rear end, or corvette rear suspension and run a corvette torque tube and rear mounted transaxle. either way your cutting a substantial amount of the floor our and going to lose the back seat and trunk. the front suspension is quite easy, flip the knuckles side to side to put the steering arm on the front, put the steering rack in front of the spindle and low down, cut the back of the subframe off and firewall out.

or you build a tube chassis race car, like the hundreds of cobalt drag cars that are out there.

 

excited to see how this turns out sharkey!

 

RWD cobalt using the LNF tho lol

 

What you Put it to power it makes little difference. Lnf would be easy, start with an Lnf car, everything is there. Lengthen the harness were needed. Use the bellhousing I just bought and run a t56. Simple.

 

Turbo 2.2 + T56 + 944 . . . sweet!

 

People have done the corvette torque tube and rear mount t56 with the Ls engine. It's a lot of work to do it, and I don't think its worth it with the ecotec. 6th gear is far too steep.

 

engine is in and mounts are built. its now solidly mounted in the car.



this is the adapter plate i had water jet cut to adapt the t56 bellhousing to the 944 torque tube

 

so i built an oil pan today



at least a template. going to have the water jet shop cut the stuff out. the pan will be made out of 2 pieces, the flange will be one and the rest will be 1 piece. it will get water jet cut and bent on a cnc break and ill just have to weld it up.

 

havent gotten a whole lot done of late, actual work was getting in the way lol. but i did get this done




for those that dont know, thats an lnf manifold bolted to the l61. i was planning to build an intake manifold, however i ran across zzp selling brand new lnf manifolds for $35 on ebay, figured id give it a try (gotta say, thanks for the killer sale zzp). the manifold doesnt just bolt on, the top row of bolts doesnt line up, however i have machined some parts to make it bolt on. there is one other bolt hole that needs to be redrilled as well. i will have to rework the pcv as the ports dont line up, however ive got some ideas for that. i have seen this swap done by using an adapter plate between the manifold and head, however i just dont have the room. as it is, the brake line on the master cylinder hits just touches the manifold. once i get some more stuff worked out with the manifold im going to get some good pics on what i did to make it work, and if there is interest id consider making a batch of parts, but thats in the future.

no pics but my intercooler showed up and ive got it mocked in place. i need to weld some proper brackets to it. got a few things for the turbo manifold and downpipe on order. biggest thing im needing now is to get an order into vibrant performance, ive got a good sized list of stuff i need from them.

 

This thing is looking sweet man keep up the good work! Can't wait for this to be finished. Good luck with that manifold. Sounds like it's a bitch.

 

the manifold is actually quite simple, having access to a mini cnc mill has its benefits, and makes things quite easy. the whole thing is far easier than building my own intake manifold just to fit the car. that will likely happen one day, but for now, this will work fine.

 

its been a while since ive updated, have been real busy with work. i havent gotten a whole lot don, but i have got some parts.




thats a synapse top mount turbo manifold for a cobalt. im going to be changing it over to a t3 flange.




that turbo is on there for mock up. its a little t3/t4, it was used on the engine in the last car, however its only good for around 350hp. ive got something on order, however im gonna keep it under wraps till it shows up.

got an intercooler mocked into place. rad is ordered, oil pan is getting cut out. starting to move along on some stuff, should have enough parts in the next few days to start getting some stuff done.

 

This is a badass build! I love keeping up with the updates...can't wait to see it all finished!

 

yes yes yes looking good man

 

So you are the one that scooped up that Synapse so quickly!

 

Yea it's the only top mount manifold for the ecotec that works for what I'm doing. I do have to swap the flange as its a t2 flange, however what I saved on building a manifold can now be put into the turbo. And the turbo I have on order, yea, gonna be sweet

 

I love the car nice pics.......

 

Sub'd. Keep up the awesome work. I wanna see this thing rip, I've always loved 944s.

 

still waiting for the new turbo to show. got some other stuff done though. got the lower rad support built. its also the lower intercooler mount and oil cooler mount.






tomorrow ill have the upper supports built for it all. i finally got the stuff from the water jet shop for my oil pan, however there were some issues and ended up back to square one on it.

 

got the upper rad supports built, and a few other things figured out. more parts have showed up in the past couple days. some more plumbing stuff, remote oil filter mount, cooling fan, fuel pump, and oh yea, my new turbo





its a borg warner EFR 7670. i wasnt planning on getting this turbo now, but i got a wicked deal, i couldnt pass it up. add in the fact its an internal wastegate, it saves me $400+ on an external gate. same deal with the recirc valve, dont need to spend the cash on a blow off valve. i was planning to run the little t3/t4 for now, but it didnt make sense to buy a wastegate and deal with installing it in the manifold, and then upgrading in the future.

 

Mother of god!

 

Looks amazing, care to share price you got if for? Maybe PM me I'd like to grab a EFR 7163