Pirate 4x4 banner

Last starfighter IFS build

303K views 624 replies 171 participants last post by  GEspo 
#1 · (Edited)
Thanks Adam and Tribe4x4 for the wonderfull chassis. Adam is a top notch guy and has been great to work with. His new shop is full and likely reflects both his exceptional skills and great customer service.

I have fantasies of the whole ultra 4 go fast thing and fantasize to some racing but mainly just want to have a fun project that goes fast. i wheel in the sierras above fresno. the trails can be long and i would love to traverse them faster. will be nice to take this buggy to Pismo which is just a couple hours in the other direction

Anyway the IFS front end is the tricky part and so far I have:
-custom cvs from rcv to use as the outers.
-I have 934 rcv cvs to go on the dutchman 9" at the inner of the a-arms.
-i have all spidertrax parts for the outer sides of the a-arms: hats, 450 unit bearings, builder cup, brakes.
-I anticipate ballistic can make me a pair of spindles that use all my parts. they are crunching it now
-a pair of New 2.5 triple bypass kings. carrier king coils to follow
-lots of Kartec hardware

Motor is new an ls3 "hotcam" with matching harness. 480hp

New atlas 3.0. not divorced.

still need a rear axle

a local fab shop will build her once all the parts are here. (unlimited Fab) Only exception is the front end-i would like to tackle that-but cant untill i have the spindle-(go ballistic go)

so far i have nothing to post but a pile of parts. I feel a little premature even posting. My reason for posting is to get some help. i figure if I post some pics ill get more help. Before i can mock this thing up proper I need to hang the motor/tcase/tranny. But before i can do that i need the tranny. im held up here. I dont know much about autos. i am reading all i can here on pirate searches but am a little stumped. i wanted tci to build me one but after several emails i feel i know more than tci.

here is where i need help:
I believe i want the following for my Th400:
-4wd case with an advance adapter to my atlas II tcase (vs a 2wd case and advance's adapter)
-built to handle 600 hp all day long
-reverse full manual VB-i want to hit reverse fast and hard and want solid shifts
-compression braking
-A selectable lock up in 3rd gear (can i have this?)
-2200 rpmish stall converter

does this sound about right? would ati transmission be a good way to go? http://www.atiracing.com/ I have called around my area and I cant seem to find someone within an hour to build my tranny

help appreciated. im one hell of a web wheeler so fire away
 

Attachments

See less See more
4
#9 ·
yep the front is going to be altered in the front just a bit at the bottom tubes. Adam left the front of the chassis only tacked so it could be easily altered. the subchassis (where tcase is sitting under the seats) will also be extended forward to the IFS assembly.

And the dutchman chunk is right off their websight. i ordered the 35sp stubs. dual bearings. took them 2 months to get it to me.


How about the tranny questions fellas
 
#11 ·
Talk to Steve Culhane for a transmission. All he does is race trannies and he's built several for guys in our sport. I noticed a big difference from my last trans to the one he built. Much tighter...also attributed to the best 500 bucks I ever spent... tcs torque converter.
 
#12 ·
i emailed him and he said so reverse VB with his shop. i just emailed him again. i guess i could do without the reverse VB
 
#13 ·
From my experience racing you really do not want the reverse VB because it puts 2nd and 3rd really low by the seats and the jump from 2nd or 3rd back to reverse longer than a standard VB.

Just my opinion, sweet chassis by the way I really like the lines!

Geoff
 
#15 ·
Not that I know much, but his reputation is stellar and his client list is pretty much the best of the best in desert racing. If he says no MVB I'm sure he has a reason. I have one of his transmissions in my rig with a standard manual valve body, several upgrades, and i'm very happy.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Just got off the phone with steve culhane. he is a great guy. he will build my tranny. have it in 2 weeks

he shared some interesting stuff.

im going with an 11" torque converter with 2500rpm stall. he want me to send him a dyno sheet before he finalizes the converter. cool

talked me out of 2.75 1st gear. said they dont hold up as well in the desert. he even has the gear sets in stock and talked me out of it

also talked me out of a lock up in 3rd. said it will break too easy for rock racing

Its rare when a builder tells you not to spend your money. tranny issue solved. check
 
#18 ·
Cool, you can sit in the seats with me and make loud vroom vroom noices. ill even let you drive.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Ok next question

i want to be able to move the drivetrain around with as little hassle as possible. will also need to test different bracket accessories and possibly make some brackets and i dont want to do all that on the heavy new motor. i called summit to get one of those plastic engines to use for mock up. they dont have a mock block for an ls3 or ls2. they do sell an ls1 long block however. I cant find a plastic ls3 mock up block on the web. Can i use the ls1 mock block for an ls3? summit cant answer

i have googled for 45 min and I still dont know the answer for certain to the following:

1. do the ls1 and ls3 engines have the same motor mounts and head bolt patterns for accessories?

2. do the ls1 and ls3 engines have the same accessory brackets in general?
 
#21 · (Edited)
I have a ls3 and ls1 sitting here and they both are the same. The only diffrences you need to plan ahead for are what oil pan you are running, and what intake your running. The truck oi lpans are deeper and the LS series pans are the shortest. Intakes are similar in height unless you go with a truck intake.
Not shure your mock up block has a starteror coil's on it, but plan room for those..

Look forward to following the build.
 
#22 ·
thanks.
I have searched everywhere and just need to confirm a couple things. i have even written http://www.payr.com/engines-chevy-smblock.htm who make the ls1 mock block but have gotten no response

are the bolt patterns the same on the back side (tranny side) of the heads. specifically, are the 4 bolt holes on the back of the heads the same. this matters as my chassis bolts to the motor via these 4 holes. i question this issue because i know ls3 heads do not bolt onto an ls1/ls6 block
 
#23 · (Edited)
Subed Lapro! I still remember reading up on your turbo install on your lexus on the other forumn a couple of years ago. That gave me motivation for my project. So lets hope this thread gives me MORE motivation for MY new project. You do awsome work:smokin:
 
#29 ·
yep I understand that. thanks for the further clarification

so the head mounted plate and coresponding bolt holes that are used to support an extra engine mount (as seen in the pic above) have the same bolt pattern on an ls1 as on an ls3?
 
#36 · (Edited)
Hey Laproscopic....I'm doing a very similar setup to yours and finally have some pictures to show. I posted back in the Ballistic thread with all the talk of the IFS geometry but I wanted to make sure mine worked before I said much. :laughing:

I wish I'd have known that RCV could machine the face on the CVs to get them closer to the unit bearing. Would have helped but it's too late now!

These are uprights designed to use the Spidertrax unit bearings with RCV D60 CVs. There's going to be lots of additional gusseting but wanted to make sure my geometry was good before wasting hours designing and welding it all. Just waiting on some axles and I'll get the RCVs in there.

Good luck with your build. I'm anxious to see what Ballistic comes up with for you.



 
#37 ·
Hey Laproscopic....I'm doing a very similar setup to yours and finally have some pictures to show. I posted back in the Ballistic thread with all the talk of the IFS geometry but I wanted to make sure mine worked before I said much. :laughing:

I wish I'd have known that RCV could machine the face on the CVs to get them closer to the unit bearing. Would have helped but it's too late now!

These are uprights designed to use the Spidertrax unit bearings with RCV D60 CVs. There's going to be lots of additional gusseting but wanted to make sure my geometry was good before wasting hours designing and welding it all. Just waiting on some axles and I'll get the RCVs in there.

Good luck with your build. I'm anxious to see what Ballistic comes up with for you.
Nice, Doing pretty much the same thing here.

Looks like you bought a set of spidertrax knuckles and cut the plates off down to the tube? Or did you get the bare tube/UB mounting place from them?
 
#39 ·
I'm really glad that Spidertrax was willing to sell those "cups" they build their knuckles from separate. And for a really fair price. About the only downside is they have some extra material taken out of them on one side. Not sure what they're for but I just put that side towards the rear of the car so it doesn't affect anything.

My upper and lower pivot points on the upright are perfectly in-line with each other and not offset. Fortunately I got it to work out with a decent (not even close to 0", though) scrub radius with my RCV pivot directly in-between the upper and lower uniballs.

Here's kind of a pathetic build thread. I think there's some good pictures of the arms but I've changed plans on this thing too many times to count.

I'll get some better pictures of these parts in some daylight.
 
#40 · (Edited)
The notches in the tube from spidertrax are to allow for the full steering when used with their inner-c's, as they turn so far the tube would hit the flat plate on them.

Aligning the RCV pivot point directly inline between the upper and lower uniballs is more to help with shaft plunge than it is about scrub radius, although obviously it directly effects scrub, and you want to sandwich the unit bearing and RCV together as much as possible.

Are those your final arms? Where is the shock going, on top of the upper? You need a build thread :flipoff2:
 

Attachments

#42 ·
Ballistic is taking too long. here is what my dad has drawn up. finished it over the weekend. plate is all 3/8" with the exception of the gussets which are 3/16". weld washers on all holes

off to lazer cutters
 
#43 ·
#44 ·
Be careful with the mock up block, they are not perfect. I just used one to mock up my LS and when I put the real motor in I was a half a hole off on the mount. I used the factory mount location. The heads are just sitting on the block with a couple bolts holding them down. I suggest putting an intake and some other stuff on it to help get the heads straight. If you are going to mount off the back of the head I would not weld the mounts solid until you test fit the real motor. Also I noticed that my tcase mount was a little off, and there is no holes for the starter. It was nice to use but I wish I wouldn't have relied on it to be perfect. Hope this helps.
 
#45 ·
nice tip. and true. i note that the heads can be shifted around. fortunatly tribe4x4 built the engine mounts with a real engine. im going to use the mock motor to position the tranny (still waiting) and mock up the tcase. the mock block should not be depended apon to mock up head secured mounting solutions unless a real intake manifold postions the head for reference.
 
#47 · (Edited)
So how much was RCV able to take off the mounting face of the bell over a stock unit? The measurement on an off the shelf bell from the mounting face to the pivot point is 2.875".

Do you have a side view of the spindle to show what you came up with for the KPI?

Forgot to send you a link to my build earlier. The thread has turned into kind of a joke but there are some good pictures. A lot of revisions have been made since I started designing parts.

http://www.tacomaterritory.com/forum/showthread.php?t=133171&page=2
 
#50 ·
So how much was RCV able to take off the mounting face of the bell over a stock unit? The measurement on an off the shelf bell from the mounting face to the pivot point is 2.875".
thank you sir for this comment

I am a bit upset to find that RCV sent me a bone stock unmodified d60 CV after all the time I spent on the phone with Craig (and Sean) discussing how the cv would be shortened to get it up as tight as possible to the unit bearing. I even sent them all the spidertrack parts so they could mock the thing up. And then waiting weeks to get this "modified" cv-calling several times to make sure the project was still moving even when i was orriginally told it would only take a week like the website said.. I feel a little stupid for not checking into this issue when i got the CV.

And to make the whole issue worse i go to assemble the unitbearing and cv last night and find that the groove for the snap ring was cut wrong-the groove where the stap ring sits was cut too short to account for the seal and plastic spacer that fits between the cv and unitbearing. months ago when I shipped craig the spidertrax parts i had forgot to send him a spindle bearing kit so i called him and asked him if he wanted me to send him one-he said no as they had plenty of those parts at the shop and would be sure to account for that 1/8" inch when he cut the stub. well he didn't account for it

RCV sucks
 
#48 ·
some important pics. even 3d for those that need 3d
 

Attachments

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top