SliderR1's Track Goblin - 05 SS/SC

[SliderR1]

Super excited to start this thread.

I've been waiting to post until the donor was secured, and I confirmed that today. It was located close to my hometown in Indiana, so I had my dad pick it up this afternoon. Its a 5 speed car with light driver's side rear quarter panel damage.

I'm planning a trip up to his place to do the tear down over the long 4th of July weekend. I'll be bringing most of the parts back to TN with me for use in the goblin and resale.

My frame was ordered earlier this month and Adam/Lonny expect to have it complete near the end of July. This will give me some time to get parts cleaned up and ready for installation.

I'd like to document the build as much as possible on here for future reference and to share information with other builders. This forum was what pushed me over the edge on the purchase - already such a great collection of information. I've learned a lot about the Ecotec platform during my research in the last few months, and a lot of it came from this board. I've got quite a bit of experience working on Japanese motorcycles and classic cars, but the Ecotec is all new for me. This will also be my first go at building a kit car. Looking forward to sharing this build with the community.

 

[DanPerryy]

Good luck - there are lots of us here to help you. I know the builds will become easier and quicker as we all have learned a lot. I absolutely love my car. I have done a lot of extra things on my car that sucked up quite a bit of time but now I think that a tear down can be done in 24 hours and a build in 100. The kit goes together remarkably well, things fitting just as they should for such a new car. Thanks to Lonny and Adam for making it so easy for the rest of us!

 

[Dyno man]

I have the first factory built 4-5-16 7500 miles. It's a blast! Wouldn't sell it for 30 thousand. I couldn't stand wanting for a new one.

 

[SliderR1]

Deconstruction of the donor car is complete! The engine was running a little rough when we started last Saturday morning, so we spent a little time getting the old fuel out and put a new fuel filter on it. That solved the problem and my Dad and I tore into it. I was amazed at how rust free the car was. The engine/tranny subframe has hardly any rust at all - I'm not for sure it will even need a repaint.

We had about 40 hours total (2 - 10 hour days) between the both of us in the tear down. We took our time and labeled every wire we disconnected. Getting the dash out and tore apart was probably the biggest surprise. That thing is heavy and included way more layers than I had imagined! Our only real hiccup was that one of the wheels had those **** tuner lug nuts on it that takes a 10 point allen key removal tool. Had to run to the parts store and buy one to get them off.

I had feared the local recycler was going to give us fits about bringing the car and 'junk' parts, but it went smoothly and I got about $65 for the shell and all the other non-needed stuff that came off of it.

Special thanks to Lonny and Adam for answering the phone late Sunday night when I had a brain fart and thought the clutch pedal assembly bracket was spot welded to the rest of the dash superstructure. I hadn't looked close enough to realize it was actually bolted in and could be removed without any cutting. Sorry again for bugging you guys late on Sunday evening!! I think Dad and I were just beat and experiencing some serious brain fade.

I think the only thing we tore up during disassembly was the key fob/TPMS module on the top of the dash. Dad took the screw out that was holding it in and the whole thing just shattered in his hand as he was pulling it off. That part isn't needed for the kit is it?

I've transported all the needed donor parts back to Tennessee and will start cleaning and preparing them for their new home.

 

[SliderR1]

Which replacement fuel pumps are you guys using on the supercharged engines? I just realized I wasn't supposed to cut the fuel lines...and, of course, they only come with a new pump. I'm assuming its not safe to splice at 50+ psi... If I need to replace the pump, it would be nice to source one with removable lines.

 

[SliderR1]

Thought I would throw up a few pictures of the donor, before and after disassembly...

Before:

After:

Parts:

Anyone recognize what kind of header this is?

 

[SliderR1]

For future reference: 05 SS/SC DLC Pinouts:

 

[Sonic Tacos]

Could be wrong, but that header looks a lot like the zzp midlength header i had on my 06 LSJ.

 

[Sonic Tacos]

Not sure now, went through my old pics and my zzp header was a v-band style.

 

[TheNuker]

ZZP Headers should all be stainless should not rust!

Nuker-

 

[SliderR1]

Thanks for the feedback on the header. The bends do look very similar to the ZZP mid length. However, I agree with Nuker that it is definitely not SS... The car had a Tsudo system on it from the header back - huge fart can - sounded ridiculous. LOL..

 

[Sonic Tacos]

Yeah so it may be a pacesetter header. Weren't that many companies that made a header for the cobalts lol

 

[SliderR1]

Dash harness thinning is now complete. Started stripping main body harness tonight as well. Man that black tape leaves a nasty gooey mess!

For those with a 05 SS/SC - did yours have an ABS light near the radio bezel (not the gauge cluster)? My donor didn't have a radio and a lot of that stock wiring was fubar, but I couldn't find any trace of an ABS warning light that would have been in the dash near the radio bezel... I even checked the multiplug location as shown in the dash harness thinning video - there were two red wires there, but they went to something else.

Oh - and I also found a seam ripper very useful for stripping electrical tape out.

 

[ctuinstra]

Seam ripper, dangit, that's a great idea I didn't think about. I dipped my harnesses in paint thinner and sloshed them around a bit, rinsed them with water, and then run them through a bath of alcohol and then used compressed air to blow out the connectors. Made for a like-new harness with no sticky residue. Just don't leave them in the paint thinner for extended periods (hours), the rubber seals will swell up. If you just do it for a few minutes there are no issues.

 

[SliderR1]

I'm nearly done with the body harness, hoping to finish up tonight or tomorrow. It really hasn't taken that much time, but I get an hour here and and hour there and the next thing I know its been a month since I started working on it! I need to make some room in my garage for all three stages I'm picking up from DF this weekend!

 

[SliderR1]

I feel another update is warranted.

I picked up all three stages from DF last weekend. Posted a pic in another thread, but I'll show again. Everything fit in the cab except the frame, nose and engine cover. We bolted the nose and engine cover to the frame.

I'm also about to finish the main body harness. I had posted in another thread a while back about the compatibility of the '05 fuel pumps. The pump does not have a 'plug' on the top like the '06-'10 models do (like in the build videos). The harness from the pump goes directly to the lower body mount plug - which is huge and ugly... The top two connectors are for the EVAP system and get deleted.

I decided to see if I can make this pump work, so I ordered some generic plugs from Amazon. The brand is uxcell and they appear to be decent quality. I had that old plastic tray from a fuse kit - they actually came in a huge baggy.

Here are some pictures of how I put them together for those of you that haven't done this before.

Pretty simple. I'll cut the harness coming from the pump and install the matching plug on that end. The '05 pump has the fuel tank pressure sensor mounted to the top of the pump and that is what the extra wires are for on my plug. Not for sure if the FTP sensor is needed or not, but it was easy to just keep the wires and include it.

 

[Briann1177]

The fuel tank pressure sensor is for the evap system. I cut mine out, but only because I'm anal about those kinds of things. Not sure if TN will require the evap or not.

 

[SliderR1]

Up in the boonies where I am located, there is no requirement for evap or any kind of emissions testing. So I guess I should probably just remove those wires...

 

[BaltimoreHokie]

Up in the boonies where I am located, there is no requirement for evap or any kind of emissions testing. So I guess I should probably just remove those wires...

Johnson City isn't too far in the boonies. I went to ETSU there for a year. Its a nice place.

 

[SliderR1]

yeah, its a very nice place. Just doesn't offer things like a big city does. I don't even think there is any shop around here that has a chassis dyno - have to go to Knoxville...