Life gets in the way at times, but I'm still working on it.

 

UPS delivers happiness in a box.



3120, stock brakes, no driver, 1/8th tank of gas.



Found this guy wondering around the shop. I taught him the way home.



Center of lower radiator support cut out



Airbag computer with bracket:

 

Compressor with one hard line still attached:



Ebrake handle


Ebrake cables



Passenger airbag



AC side cooling fan



2 door speakers



I originally got this kit, with Strange aluminum hubs. After looking I was sure it would not fit behind a stock wheel due to the design and the large dust cap. After searching around I found most drag wheels allow for the dust cap to come through the center. Since switching wheels was not an option I contact Midwest Chassis and they revised the kit to work with a stock hub and therefore stock wheels.

The kit for drag wheels:



Here's the modified kit and brackets:



So once I had all the correct parts, I fit it all to the car. You will need either brake line adapters, or a brake line kit. I got the kit from Midwest and it work well. The old hard lines are a pain to break free from the stock adapters so go easy on them. You can see the new line and adapter in place in this picture.

 

Here they are behind the wheel:



And the weight. I assembled all the strange stuff on the scale and got 25lbs total. I assembled one side of the stock stuff and got about 31lbs. So 62 vs 25. So a 37 pound weight drop:



For driving impressions, the first few stops felt about like stock. After say a half dozen stops the pedal got more reactive and sensitive and the brakes had a very nice initial bite. Very confidence inspiring. I did not do any hard panic type stops but for normal driving you wouldnt know they were there other then the fact that the car seems to stop very well.



So we know what the new stuff looks like:



Yanked the old stuff off and promptly put it for sale: Its a BMR setup, which has worked good for me.



2 concerns, weight by needing to add the stock transmission crossmember back and ride quality. So lets look at the weight....The BMR torque arm was 25lbs. Then their crossmember was 10 pounds. Making the old setup 35 lbs.

 

Here's the stock trans crossmember: Its fully boxed and heavy. It should be as the torque arm is mounted to the trans when stock:



The stock trans crossmember:



We are gonna un-box it by cutting the stock welds.



Now this little piece removed might not weigh much:



I mighta hole sawed it too......



TA crossmember cleared my Flowmaster 3 into 4 merge very comfortably.



The Midwest torque arm: about 17lbs.



And this is their crossmember with DS loop:



The conclusion, the BMR setup was 35. The Midwest is 17, I was able to get the TA crossmember down to 5 by eliminating the DS loop, so we are at 22. I was able to get the stock transmission crossmember down to 4 so that's 26. We lost 9 pounds.

Driving impressions: Nice. Quiet, not harsh, I'm really impressed. Traction is about the same on the street. Pinion angle is -2.5.

 

Special delivery:



Here's the stock stuff:





Teardown:



Stock weighs 28 per side:



The carnage, new bearings and wedding rings needed:



Going together:



Done!





12 per side for Strange.



So stock was 28+28=56, Strange was 24, so 56-24=32lbs in savings.

 

So I finally decided to collect the fruits of my labor. Track time, TNT, we been planning it for over a month. Well the weather turned out really nice and DA was in the 750-1000 range. So, everyone and their momma came out.



Long story short I made three passes. I adjusted the coilovers in between each pass looking for traction. The second two passes I wheel hopped bad. Due to the crowd I decided that was enough for me for one night. I did noticed with the new brakes I can brake stall really high now. With the stock brakes it would push through pretty quick. I notice a bad vibration on the way home, and Im thinking its driveshaft related, broken ujoint or something. I made it halfway home and had to call the old lady to come bring the car hauler.



This, doesn't look right.



Decided to not chance it and just make the repair on the trailer:



Wheel holes are wallered out, brake rotor holes are too, and the centering register on the axle is ****ed. So I will be replacing all of them. Caliper took a little rubbing from the rotor but looks mostly cosmetic.



Strange was so kind to drill both 12mm and 1/2" stud holes. I will be going back with 1/2" this go round to see if I can stop this **** from happening again.



Here's the passenger side wheel studs.....whoops.

So I waited about a week for new 1/2 studs and a brake rotor from Strange. I didn't get in a hurry to get it fixed due to I'm still waiting on a wheel. I went ahead and patched it together yesterday and put the stock wheels back on the rear to get it off the trailer.

This is the damage to the caliper where the rotor rubbed the inside of it. Looks like i stopped in time and didnt do major damage to the caliper.



Here's the new 1/2 studs after installation.



Here's the complete assembly with the new center register and rotor. You can see from this picture the rotor is stud-centric meaning it depends on the studs to center itself. Common sense tells you if it fits with 1/2 studs and 12mm are smaller, then there was some slack with the 12mm. Enough to cause an issue? Well I cant say for sure but I do believe these were designed to work best with 1/2 because the fit is much tighter. Strange should mention this detail in their product literature I think.



I'm making a lug nut swap also. I'm including this picture for those who may not be familiar. Stock wheels use a hex nut conical seat on the top left. Drag wheels use something like the mag type hex nut with a washer. That type goes through the wheel to grip the stud all the way at the base making it stronger. Even with stock wheels you can use the hex nut ET (extended thread) and it gives a similar effect of the mag type where it actually passes through the wheel and engages more thread and in to a further point.

 

Damn!!!!! How fast are you hope by for? Btw do you have the same handle on LS1tech?

 

Would like to go 11.0s but we will see. I have the same screen name everywhere.

 

With the right da, tire, suspension etc you should hit close to 11.0 yup your name looked familiar and I remember following some of your threads on tech!