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#518 Build Thread
Hey everyone! Starting this to document the build of GTM #518. I purchased it partially completed almost 2 years ago. Worked on it for a few months and then life and lack of motivation stopped progress for over a year. I've started working on it again recently and hope to get to go kart stage soon.
My name is Nick and I live in Charlotte, NC.
Some info on the GTM:
- Blueprint 427 LS3
- Mendeola SDR5
- Wilwood Brakes
- Kooks Headers and exhaust
- Infinitybox system
- QRP Sway bar kit
- RaceTCS Traction Control system
- Brand new “donor” parts
- Lots of brackets, panels, etc from Vraptor Speedworks
- GRP V4 Lotus Circular LED Taillights
- Custom aluminum gas tanks
- Dewitts Radiator
This forum has been a Godsend and I really appreciate the time all of you have spent filling it with your knowledge and experiences.
Adding a few photos of the GTM as it sits.
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Mounted the gas pedal today. Working on finalizing the cooling system hoses next.
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Welcome, Nick! Looks like you you have an awesome start there with some top-shelf parts! Keep making progress and keep us posted.
Shane Vacek
VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC
www.vraptorspeedworks.com
Turn-key GTM, SL-C & Ultima GTR Built to Your Specs!
Offering a full line of GTM Upgrades and Custom Parts
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Welcome Nick!
Is this the car that has been for sale on marketplace for a bit now?
Sal Mennella
Unfinished GTM #30 FFR - in progress!
Roadster 5132 - sold
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Thanks Shane! Appreciate your advice and fixes.
Hey Sal I did have it up and need to remove that. Had a ton of interest on FB Marketplace but I wasn't letting it go for much less than my asking or I'd just wait until my life calmed down and I could finish it. I am so glad that I didn't sell it because I'm getting so excited about the build again that it's all I can think about sometimes. Not a lot of things that can do that! Haven't had time to go through your build thread yet but I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.
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Nice clean build so far. Please keep the updates coming.
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Originally Posted by
gtm518
Thanks Shane! Appreciate your advice and fixes.
Hey Sal I did have it up and need to remove that. Had a ton of interest on FB Marketplace but I wasn't letting it go for much less than my asking or I'd just wait until my life calmed down and I could finish it. I am so glad that I didn't sell it because I'm getting so excited about the build again that it's all I can think about sometimes. Not a lot of things that can do that! Haven't had time to go through your build thread yet but I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.
Awesome. I was only asking because I recalled seeing that car, and you had way more pics posted there and that car looked killer!
Glad you decided to finish it. I am the 3rd owner of #30 and trying to get it going finally, and it's nice to have another active member here building a car. Most people have long since left the site, which is understandable with the car being out for 20 years and out of production.
Sal Mennella
Unfinished GTM #30 FFR - in progress!
Roadster 5132 - sold
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Thanks Crash! Appreciate all of your contributions to the forum.
Appreciate it Sal! Yeah I've heard of many kits changing hands a few times. Glad to see there are a few active builds this year.
Did some planning on the steam vent setup today. I used the Earl's adapters and wanted to vent both sides to try and avoid hot spots. I've got the front and back connected and going to join them and run a line straight to the Canton expansion tank. All the kits I saw online for this looked complicated so I'm trying to have something simple that won't take up too much space.
It looks like the PCV intake manifold port might get obstructed so I'm thinking I can just put a 90 degree elbow there and maybe add a catch can. I'm curious what everyone is doing for their PCV setup. Seems like a hotly debated topic.
Also I spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get images here to display properly so I'll share.
1. Create an imgur account, and upload your images there.
2. Copy the image link, should be something like
Code:
https://imgur.com/blah
3. If you post normally, it's way too big. You're going to append a letter to the end of your image url followed by ".jpg"
Code:
t = 160× 160 = Small Thumbnail
m = 320× 320 = Medium Thumbnail
l = 640× 640 = Large Thumbnail
h = 1024×1024 = Huge Thumbnail
If we wanted the huge size (same I have used for my images above)
https://imgur.com/oA63mSq
would become
https://imgur.com/oA63mSqh.jpg
4. Wrap your new url with the [IMG] ... [/IMG] tags
HTML Code:
[IMG]https://imgur.com/oA63mSqh.jpg[/IMG]
5. Hit "Preview Post" and you should be able to see the image.
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Senior Member
Most people have long since left the site
But the important people are still here!
MK3.1 2004 Mach 1 donor. ABS, PS, TC.
GTM #304 LPE 525hp LS3
2000 C5 Lingenfelter LS1@489hp
1999 Corvette FRC/Z06 track car
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Looking at the pictures, I notice the line that you are using for the steam vents...I don't know what the rating of that flexible hose is, but make sure you understand that there is at least 18 pounds of pressure(depending upon your radiator cap rating, I run a 30 pound cap) at over 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Just making sure what you have there is appropriate as it would not be fun to have to go back into the front engine area once the build is complete.
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Originally Posted by
crash
Looking at the pictures, I notice the line that you are using for the steam vents...I don't know what the rating of that flexible hose is, but make sure you understand that there is at least 18 pounds of pressure(depending upon your radiator cap rating, I run a 30 pound cap) at over 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Just making sure what you have there is appropriate as it would not be fun to have to go back into the front engine area once the build is complete.
I appreciate the callout! Hose says its good for 250 psi up to 250 degrees farenheit and it's 1/4 ID. All the fittings are push lock. Believe it's just standard fuel line hose. Should I go with something else?
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Originally Posted by
beeman
But the important people are still here!
Hey Beeman! I may use the Deville clock spring you posted in the other forum. The white lettering on my steering column is pretty faded so I think it would make things look much better.
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Originally Posted by
gtm518
I appreciate the callout! Hose says its good for 250 psi up to 250 degrees farenheit and it's 1/4 ID. All the fittings are push lock. Believe it's just standard fuel line hose. Should I go with something else?
Nope. Couldn't tell by just looking at it so wanted to make sure it was properly rated. Sounds good.
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Slow progress this week since I've been slammed with work.
Got the basic steam vent setup working. Amazon has a brand called "Evil Energy" I've been using for AN fittings. You can get 2 packs of some small fittings for ~$15 which isn't terrible. Unlike some other sites they are returnable which is nice.
I ended up using:
2x Earl's steam vent kit
2x 45 degree 4an female to male
2x 90 degree 4an female to push lock
4x 4an push lock straight
1x 4an tee
1x 4an to 6an adapter
1x 6an push lock straight
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Got all the brass fittings for the coolant reservoir done. I'm a little worried about rubbing against the frame since it's so close. Maybe I'm being paranoid.
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No instructions with the Mendeola I could find online. I also tried to look at photos of GTMs for sale to determine what these 3 ports are used for. I know 1 has to go to a catch can for overflow (looks like the blue plugged port maybe?). If anyone can chime in I'd appreciate it.
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Nice work!
On the Mendy....#1 is the bleeder for the clutch slave cyl. The fitting where you hook up the flex hose for the clutch slave should be on the passenger side of the bellhousing. I assume #2 is probably for a trans cooler if you were going to install one.....and #3 is just a vent that you will want to attach to a puke/breather tank.
For the coolant reservoir, have you test fitted a fuel tank in there to make sure there is room for those fittings?
Shane Vacek
VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC
www.vraptorspeedworks.com
Turn-key GTM, SL-C & Ultima GTR Built to Your Specs!
Offering a full line of GTM Upgrades and Custom Parts
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Thanks Shane! Hard to tell from complete GTM photos given the exhaust usually covers those.
I've got the tank as close to the outside as it can get, is it far back enough?
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I've also been mulling over how I can add door locks and I'm thinking about using the door release assembly from a C6 corvette. I'd need to figure out if it will work with the InfinityBox system since it looks like it needs a double pulse signal. I'm also not sure how much work it would be to make things fit with the doors.
My thinking is instead of using door poppers I grab one of these for $40 a piece. There are 2 manual releases (1 for interior and another routed to the rear hatch) in case the battery dies or there's an electrical issue. I'm not sure if this route is feasible but I want to be able to lock the car and be able to get in and out of it if a wire comes loose or battery dies.
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In Pic 4 above, it doesn't look like your tank is as far back as it needs to be. On the left side of that Pic, the tank should be up against the square tube frame. Also maybe looking at Pic 2 the frame member on the bottom right. My Boyd tanks were flush with the inside of the vertical piece of that frame member (I actually put in a piece of L bracket on top of this frame piece so my tanks have something to lean against at that bottom outboard position). This tells me your tank needs to go back and towards the passenger side.
The easiest way to check this is remove your overflow tank and shove your tank in there as far back as possible.
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I would agree with Shoeless in that the easiest way to check tank fitment is to remove the overflow and shove the tank back as far as it will go and see where it wants to sit. With the plastic fuel tanks, it's not so critical because the tanks aren't hard-angled like that and don't fill that whole corner of the chassis in like the aluminum tanks. I would normally arrange the fitting on the coolant tank so that one coolant hose would come straight up into that chassis corner and hook to the hose barb....and the other hose barb I'd face outboard so the coolant hose would route behind the bottom of the fuel tank, then sweep up on the outside of the chassis (where the side-scoop area of the body is) and up to the hose barb. Again....that was with the plastic tanks, but it does appear that there's room to do the same thing with the aluminum tanks.
As for the door locks, doing the C8 latches would be quite a bit of work. I'm guessing it's probably doable, but the farther you get away from the FFR design, the more time and work it's going to be. The door frame is designed to accept the door latch and the chassis is designed to accept the striker....so to reverse that is going to require you to design all new mounts for the door and the chassis. For the door latch, I'm guessing you'd have to cut a big chunk of the body out right there where the latch would mount....and IMO, that's going to weaken one of the most structural parts of the body that keeps that whole area of the body rigid.
If you have the older style door latches (Gen I and early Gen II...gold colored) they have a lock mechanism already on them and you can use those along with some door lock actuators to get door locks. I've done that on a couple cars. Not fun, but it is doable. If you have the later door latches (silver colored), there is no door lock mechanism on those, but maybe you could find the same latch that has a lock mech? I've never looked into that.
If you're running the Infinitybox system, IMO, the easiest way to get "door locks" is to use door poppers and wire them up to the Infinitybox system so that they are disabled any time you "lock" the car with the key fob. It disables the door poppers and also disables the start and ignition outputs and anything else you want to disable. I've done that on a ton of GTM's.
Shane Vacek
VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC
www.vraptorspeedworks.com
Turn-key GTM, SL-C & Ultima GTR Built to Your Specs!
Offering a full line of GTM Upgrades and Custom Parts
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Appreciate the callout guys. Removed the tank and the only way I could get that space blocked was by angling the tank diagonally enough to where the crossover port would be blocked by the tunnel frame. Tightened things up and pushed back and it looks to touch where it's supposed to as far as I can tell.
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That's a good callout on the bodywork being too much. My biggest concern is being able to get in and out of the car if the battery dies or something else, but I'll see if I can do multiple manual releases on a door popper (1 for inside, 1 in hatch). I may see about making the hatch lock but I mostly just don't want someone to be able to pull the handle and just get in.
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