Alright, I'm starting to put the spare engine together. I fully ported the heads over many weeks, and got them assembled today with new valve seals, modified valves, Manley 150lbs springs, Manley retainers, and COMP valve locks. Those 150lbs springs are no joke, I had a bit of a tough time getting them installed. I did check the install height before installing them, and stock height is 1.8" I put a valve in, put a retainer and locks on it, and held it up with my fingers. Then I used a caliper with a depth gauge to measure from the seat to the spring retainer.





I used this awesome thing to clean up all the gasket surfaces. Its a nylon brush. I bought it at ACE hardware. That's a 120 grit, but they also make 80, and 240. 120 is supposed to be safe on aluminum, and 80 is good for iron, but I just bought the one. These things clean up gasket surfaces super easy, and all the factory machining marks are still visible.



I have to finish up making the crank scraper, but once I'm done that, I'll be putting the ST5 cam in and heads on the short block. Then I have to measure for pushrod length. Once I have the engine assembled, I'm gonna put it in the car with the 4t65e and Holley HP, and just run it NA so I can learn the tuning proses and make smallish steps instead of doing engine, ECU, trans, and turbo all at the same time.

 

For all of you still waiting on this build, I promise it's coming. The engine is fully assembled, and both the engine and trans are in the car. I'm a little over half way done wiring the car. I just finished up the ignition coil wiring, and the only major thing I have left to do for the engine is the injectors. After that it's torque converter bolts, trans fluid, miscellaneous wiring, and first start. Once I confirm everything is working right, I've got new axles that I'll put the front end together with. Then I've finally got my car back after it's been down over a month.

I knew I wanted to mount the coils to the strut tower bar from the beginning. The only other place to mount six LS coils would've been the valve covers, but I don't really like the way that looks, and definitely didn't want to bother with figuring out how to attach them. I got this welded up pretty easily, but when I test fit it, I realized the coil connectors would probably contact the hood. So I heated the ends of the strut tower bar with a propane torch, and hit them with a hammer to flatten the whole bar out and lower the coils a bit. I had to widen the mounting holes, but it should fit good now.

 

Interesting coil setup. Now, I am curious of a few questions:
1. - How are you controlling them? What is the ICM?
2. - What is the expected gain? I know the existing factory setup is a "waste spark" design. Is there much gain by doing what you are up to?
3. - Where did you get the plugs to make your own harness?

 

1. The engine is going to be on a Holley HP ECU which handles all the ignition control with the use of the stock cam and crank sensors.
2. As far as a HP gain, swapping to a direct spark setup just by itself won't get you anything. But it will prevent spark blowout at high rpm, high boost situations. There are several advantages to a coil near plug setup like this. First is timing control. Since the ECU is sophisticated enough to support it, I have the option of advancing or retarding the timing of each cylinder. The second advantage is spark strength. The stock coils weren't designed for 7500-8000 rpm or 15-25 psi of boost. A CNP direct spark system has twice the amount of time to recharge since it only fires one cylinder, which is why direct spark has much better spark strength. Another advantage is in the event of a coil failure, only one cylinder goes down.
3. I took the cheap option and got those coil connectors off ebay. But I highly recommend sites like KSV Looms for high end stuff, or EFI Connections for stock type connectors. I only used, and recommend connectors that come in pieces like the connector housing, pins, locks, and seals which you build yourself. EFI Connections makes that super easy if you know what connector you need. I don't recommend buying pigtails, which are connectors already put together with lengths of wire. With those you have no customization of the wire gauge, and they add a failure point between the ecu and connector.

 

Thanks for the info!
This is cool stuff! It is getting more and more challenging to find people doing creative things like this!