V1 Riley's Full Cage Goblin -07 SS/TC F23 #457

[Rauq]

What this means to me is that I should reach out to Adam about this via email, and I'll likely have to have some shorter shoulder bolts sent out for this tunnel connection?

I'm half tempted to just go buy a short 7/16-20 bolt, washer, and lock washer and install it that way. I don't really understand how a small amount of play between the harness attachment around the bolt would make it any less secure or safe.

Here's my solution i guess: I'll email Adam, and in the meantime likely run a regular bolt until this shoulder bolt thing from Corbeau is sorted.

Sorry, the question I was trying to ask was, is that the right bolt that doesn't fit because of powdercoating in the threads in the tunnel cap?

I think the shoulder dimensions on the belt mount are important because you're not trying to lock the belt anchor in place rotationally. If the belt anchor is locked down at an excessive angle from where it wants to be, I imagine that compromises the strength of the belt.

 

[newbtrying]

Sorry, the question I was trying to ask was, is that the right bolt that doesn't fit because of powdercoating in the threads in the tunnel cap?

I think the shoulder dimensions on the belt mount are important because you're not trying to lock the belt anchor in place rotationally. If the belt anchor is locked down at an excessive angle from where it wants to be, I imagine that compromises the strength of the belt.

I think that it's the wrong thread pitch. Just a quick visual inspection made me think this. The threads in the tunnel look to be more coarse.

 

[Gtstorey]

I think the stock Cobalt bolt/matching Goblin nut were fine thread so 7/16-20 sounds correct. Not sure were the bolt you are trying to use came from but one of the pictures seems to like maybe I'm seeing metric markings.

DF doesn't supply the bolt, even if they came with harnesses or seat. You are supposed to have/use a Cobalt stock bolt.

 

[newbtrying]

To tie up some loose ends:

1) I got a reply from ZZP about my air gap question. Again, I currently (with 0.250 spacer and bellhousing spacer installed) have a 0.250" air gap when spec is 0.150-0.200" air gap. Long story short, the lead engineer at ZZP said 0.250" air gap will work fine and he'd probably just run it like i have it if he were in my situation. The other option he threw out is I could by the 0.200" TOB spacer they sell and also remove my bellhousing spacer to make that air gap fall further within spec. I'm just going to run it as is.

2) I couldn't get any bolts started in the tunnel seatbelt anchor location, and the threads didn't appear to be coated in powdercoat, so I emailed DF support and waited for confirmation on the thread pitch at that location: it is 7/16-20, as I came to suspect thanks to the most common answer here. I ended up having to remove my seats and the inside seat bracket to run a tap through that nut. I got lucky (partially because i was very careful) and didn't mess up the threads like I could have. Now the bolt went in just fine. post-tap, it looked like the bolt inside the tunnel was just a bit misaligned with the tunnel itself. The tap cut some light threads into the tunnel (on both sides) on one side of the tunnel hole, if that makes sense. The bolt I used at this location was a shouldered bolt supplied by Corbeau with my seats. I cut the excess threads off so that it didn't protrude into the tunnel past the nut itself. I also used red loktite on this bolt at the suggestion of Adam in our email about this.

Pic is of the bolt pre tap and shortening

3) The rest of the harness attachment points were bolted on using the Corbeau supplied bolts and DF Supplied nuts that were for them (which I had sitting loose in a box, forgetting their purpose). The nuts for these bolts come with the seat brackets and are zip tied to the seat brackets when you get them. Probably put these in a labeled baggie of your own making when you cut the zip ties on the brackets so you don't forget their purpose like I did.

Now the seats are in and my harnesses are adjusted to my liking. Just waiting for my clutch pipe bleeder elbow to come in the mail tomorrow so I can get that installed, transmission mounted, and back end reinstalled so I can go for a little drive finally.

 

[SmsDetroit]

I would suggest if you are planning on putting side panels on you may want to put your outer seat belt bolts in the other way. Once the panels are on you can not get the bolt out

 

[newbtrying]

The lower clutch pipe for the 2.2/2.4 cobalt came in and I stole the bleeder elbow off of it. It was just a push-lock install into the slave cylinder. At that point I mounted the trans, got everything buttoned back up (should have probably bled the clutch at that point but I was confident it was going to work fine anyway) and then bled the clutch/brakes again.

I now have a clutch that works and a car that starts and runs again. I also tested that it would go in/out of gear and it does. The brake got mushy after this, so I’ll have to bleed that again.

I also wired in the taillights and tested the headlights/mirrors and everything is in order.

Here’s a photo of the taillight wire color matchups since I saw a few questions on that in the forum. The white wires from the original plugs were spliced together, and the red wire with one band of electrical tape on it was the red wire that was attached to the original plug that also had the black wire.

Next up is an alignment. It’ll be interesting to see who will even do one on this

 

[Rttoys]

Next up is an alignment. It’ll be interesting to see who will even do one on this

Buy some toe plates, a good digital angle meter and do it yourself. Just like you’ll have to bleed the brakes several times, you’ll be realigning several times as everything settles. Plus, you can dial in everything exactly how you want.

V1 - DIY Rear End Alignment

Here's how we align the rear of our shop cars: The rear camber on the left and right sides should be the same before completing the following steps. We run around 1.5 degrees of negative camber per side at the rear of our cars for street use (at the track you'll want more). We measure camber...

dfkitcar.com

V1 - DIY Front End Alignment

Read the rear end alignment thread first: http://dfkitcar.com/forum/index.php?threads/diy-rear-end-alignment.750/#post-12342 Here's how we align the front end of our shop cars: Note: these instructions assume that you adjusted your control arm rod ends the way we showed in the instructional...

dfkitcar.com

 

[newbtrying]

3) The rest of the harness attachment points were bolted on using the Corbeau supplied bolts and DF Supplied nuts that were for them (which I had sitting loose in a box, forgetting their purpose). The nuts for these bolts come with the seat brackets and are zip tied to the seat brackets when you get them. Probably put these in a labeled baggie of your own making when you cut the zip ties on the brackets so you don't forget their purpose like I did.

View attachment 55636

FYI- Adam got back to me about the shoulder bolts for the harness. I was confused because the shoulder bolts weren’t fit the way I thought they should to function and this addressed my thoughts. You may also find the same issue with the seatbelt bolts that I have, so here is the solution.

 

[newbtrying]

I got the shift cables hooked up and was ready to finally set it on the ground and go for a drive. I rowed it through the gears and tested the brakes while still on jack stands, when I found a new oil leak…..

You can see the oil puddling just below the filter housing, under the transmission bell housing bolt head. The leak is clearly coming from between the oil cooler and the block. I’ve had issues with oil leaking in this area before and at this point I’m seriously considering just going to a remote mounted air-oil cooler, using the OTTP adapter.

Unfortunately to address this leak or install the adapter, I’m going to have to pull the transmission again. The lower oil cooler adapter bolt is too tight against the bell housing to be able to tighten or loosen it as is.

I took the car for a rip around the block anyway, just to see if the oil leak went away magically… and it did once the car warmed up. However, it came back once it cooled off to room temp and was fired up again.

At least it looks cool.

In the meantime, I have all the things I need for an alignment being shipped in. I’ll follow the directions above on how to do that myself.

anyone have any tips on how to post vids here? I’d like to get some up of the car running.

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Can you tighten the bolts holding the cooler to the block. Getting things warm and it goes away fits with something being loose.

 

[newbtrying]

Can you tighten the bolts holding the cooler to the block. Getting things warm and it goes away fits with something being loose.

I agree. I don’t know how it could have not leaked, but now it does… I don’t think it’s a broken o-ring just based on the fact that heating the engine up stops the leak.

because of my F23 swap, the clearance on that lower oil cooler adapter bolt is EXTREMELY low. I can’t get any tools in there currently to loosen or tighten it.

my plan of attack is to pull the fuse box, push some coolant hoses out of the way, and hopefully be able to get a file, dremel, or other tool in there to grind down the bellhousing just enough to get a socket over that bolt. At that point I’ll tighten it and see if the issue persists: if it does, I’m going remote mounted cooler. This particular cooler has been a source of issues since the entire engine overhaul and I’d honestly be glad to just get rid of it.

this is the suspected leak source. I’ve already tightened the bolt on the other port as much as I am comfortable.

here’s a look at the bolt just above my bell housing and just below the oil cooler:

 

[Gtstorey]

Probably just a old oring that has gotten hard and taken a permanent flat shap.

 

[newbtrying]

I pulled the fuse box off and got clear access to this oil cooler bolt in question. after a bit of awkward hand filing on the bellhousing, I was able to get a 1/4" 13mm socket on this bolt I attempted to tighten this bolt more than it already was, but decided It was already tight enough and I didn't want to risk stripping the threads.

At this point, I can remove the oil cooler easily enough, so I'm going to swap it for a remote mounted air-oil cooler. I grabbed a 16 row stacked plate oil cooler off amazon, some P clamps that fit 1.25 and 1.5" tubes, plus a 1 1/4" hose splice (already have a 3/4" hose splice) so I can remove the coolant tees for the current oil cooler. Oh, I also purchased the OTTP oil cooler plate since it has a spot to mount the oil pressure sensor, and ZZP's does not.

I know that this type of oil cooler on these cars can be a controversial subject, but I've dealt with the current system leaking before and I'm just not willing to deal with it anymore, so i'm going forward with this "upgrade."

Something else that I learned during my quick rip around the block is I wanted a rearview mirror, so I'm going to try this one from Amazon.

 

[newbtrying]

Quick notes:
1) installed oil cooler adapter, AN Hoses, and oil cooler
2) decided i need a boost reference fuel pressure regulator but have a couple questions and some comments
3) performed alignment
4) problem with headlight and speedometer


Now to get into the meat and potatoes.
1) I installed the OTTP oil cooler plate, which was easy enough. Had to reuse the bolts off of the old oil cooler for this, which isn't an issue, just know you'll need them if you do this yourself. I also mounted the oil cooler on the back middle of the chassis, after much debate on where to put it... I decided that this location looked fine and had decent airflow, but wouldn't interfere with the aerodynamics of a wing when i attach one in the future. I also had to make a bracket for the oil cooler that went from each top corner to a P clamp located in the middle. it's also attached at each bottom corner to a P clamp. I used 10AN hoses and also chose to install a fitting on the outflow (inflow to the oil cooler) that has a 1/8 NPT connection that I can use in the future if I decide to attach a mechanical oil pressure gauge or the likes. However, the plug that I have in that 1/8 NPT fitting is leaking a small amount of oil, even though i used Permatex high temp thread sealer. I'll have to address this in the future. for now, there's a small leak still.

2) after some debate in my head, I decided that I need to and am going to install a boost reference fuel pressure regulator. I have 80# injectors and a 340 lph fuel pump, which is a problematic combo without one of these. I chatted with the tuner at ZZP that will be working with me, sending recordings and tunes back and forth when i'm ready about this and he pretty told me a BRFPR would be pretty much needed. His advice was to set it at a fuel pressure of 45 on atmospheric pressure, and it'd have a fuel pressure around 37 on idle and go up on a 1:1 rise rate, which would result in 69 pounds at 24 psi of boost. This will help it run better at idle and also better at WOT. He also recommended an electronic boost controller... any input on one of those? He named the SIRHC Cortex, and i'm aware of the AEM Tru-Boostx. This is another subject for me to dive down the rabbit hole on.
I've been learning about how these BRFPR install and am almost comfortable taking that on right now, but my desire to use 6AN hose for the fuel system has brought up a question I need answered: How have you guys connected 6AN fuel hose to the fuel pump assembly? There's currently 5/16 (i think) hardline on mine, and I'm just not sure what fitting or hose-fitting combo to use to hook a 6AN hose up to the supply and return port. Any input appreciated

Suggestions on how to connect 6AN hose to the return and supply?

3) the alignment went well, according to the instructions posted on the forum. I'm currently within spec on all adjustments except for camber in the rear. I ordered some 12mm camber bolts that should arrive in the mail tomorrow, and i'll finish that aspect when i receive them.

during the end of the alignment, I centered up my steering wheel, which wasn't that hard and now I have a straight steering wheel which is rad. I also positioned and tightened the turn signal cancel collar once that was done, and it works fine.

4) Some other things that need to be addressed popped up. first, I noticed one headlight (brand new) is very dim. it still functions in dim and brights like the other light though, what might be up with that?? i'll examine the bulbs tomorrow after I get the rear camber dialed in.

Also, my speedometer is not working. Since I swapped out the differential, I have to say that I did indeed install the speed sensor ring with the new differential on the F23 transmission. This speed sensor should also be basically brand new, since it came with the transmission (if i remember right) and I bought a 0 mile unit from DF.
While driving, the speedometer will float up to about 20 mph when i'm going approximately 60 mph, which makes me think that this isn't a grounding or wiring issue. I'd like to test the sensor, but I'm not sure what to look for on my volt meter to see if it's faulty or not. Any input on that?

 

[Ross]

2. I was able to get 6AN PTFE fuel lines on my fuel pump here. A few posts after that, I mention removing the check valve inside the fuel pump return, which you need to do as well, otherwise you can't get the fuel pressure below stock pressure. A few posts after that, I remove the return fuel filter.
4. I have had to replace the light bulb electrical socket... it had melted because of a poor electrical connection. The stock Chevy connectors can be problematic.

 

[Robinjo]

Go ahead and upgrade to some LED headlight bulbs. The bulbs that come stock in the Dominator lights are very weak to begin with. As Ross said, check your connectors. I’d get a volt meter and see where you are loosing power.

 

[Rttoys]

On the alignment

“3) the alignment went well, according to the instructions posted on the forum. I'm currently within spec on all adjustments except for camber in the rear. I ordered some 12mm camber bolts that should arrive in the mail tomorrow, and i'll finish that aspect when i receive them.”

df specs calls for a lot of negative camber. We have found that much negative camber is not needed. For reference, I’m at about -.8 in the rear and -.5 up front, great wear and contact area all around (Measurements are with 200# in the dr seat). I ran -1.2 in rear for a long time, I just recently dropped it from there.

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Quick notes:
1) installed oil cooler adapter, AN Hoses, and oil cooler
2) decided i need a boost reference fuel pressure regulator but have a couple questions and some comments
3) performed alignment
4) problem with headlight and speedometer


Now to get into the meat and potatoes.
1) I installed the OTTP oil cooler plate, which was easy enough. Had to reuse the bolts off of the old oil cooler for this, which isn't an issue, just know you'll need them if you do this yourself. I also mounted the oil cooler on the back middle of the chassis, after much debate on where to put it... I decided that this location looked fine and had decent airflow, but wouldn't interfere with the aerodynamics of a wing when i attach one in the future. I also had to make a bracket for the oil cooler that went from each top corner to a P clamp located in the middle. it's also attached at each bottom corner to a P clamp. I used 10AN hoses and also chose to install a fitting on the outflow (inflow to the oil cooler) that has a 1/8 NPT connection that I can use in the future if I decide to attach a mechanical oil pressure gauge or the likes. However, the plug that I have in that 1/8 NPT fitting is leaking a small amount of oil, even though i used Permatex high temp thread sealer. I'll have to address this in the future. for now, there's a small leak still.

View attachment 55866

View attachment 55867

View attachment 55868

View attachment 55869

2) after some debate in my head, I decided that I need to and am going to install a boost reference fuel pressure regulator. I have 80# injectors and a 340 lph fuel pump, which is a problematic combo without one of these. I chatted with the tuner at ZZP that will be working with me, sending recordings and tunes back and forth when i'm ready about this and he pretty told me a BRFPR would be pretty much needed. His advice was to set it at a fuel pressure of 45 on atmospheric pressure, and it'd have a fuel pressure around 37 on idle and go up on a 1:1 rise rate, which would result in 69 pounds at 24 psi of boost. This will help it run better at idle and also better at WOT. He also recommended an electronic boost controller... any input on one of those? He named the SIRHC Cortex, and i'm aware of the AEM Tru-Boostx. This is another subject for me to dive down the rabbit hole on.
I've been learning about how these BRFPR install and am almost comfortable taking that on right now, but my desire to use 6AN hose for the fuel system has brought up a question I need answered: How have you guys connected 6AN fuel hose to the fuel pump assembly? There's currently 5/16 (i think) hardline on mine, and I'm just not sure what fitting or hose-fitting combo to use to hook a 6AN hose up to the supply and return port. Any input appreciated

View attachment 55870
Suggestions on how to connect 6AN hose to the return and supply?

3) the alignment went well, according to the instructions posted on the forum. I'm currently within spec on all adjustments except for camber in the rear. I ordered some 12mm camber bolts that should arrive in the mail tomorrow, and i'll finish that aspect when i receive them.

View attachment 55871

View attachment 55874

during the end of the alignment, I centered up my steering wheel, which wasn't that hard and now I have a straight steering wheel which is rad. I also positioned and tightened the turn signal cancel collar once that was done, and it works fine.

View attachment 55875

4) Some other things that need to be addressed popped up. first, I noticed one headlight (brand new) is very dim. it still functions in dim and brights like the other light though, what might be up with that?? i'll examine the bulbs tomorrow after I get the rear camber dialed in.

View attachment 55876

Also, my speedometer is not working. Since I swapped out the differential, I have to say that I did indeed install the speed sensor ring with the new differential on the F23 transmission. This speed sensor should also be basically brand new, since it came with the transmission (if i remember right) and I bought a 0 mile unit from DF.
While driving, the speedometer will float up to about 20 mph when i'm going approximately 60 mph, which makes me think that this isn't a grounding or wiring issue. I'd like to test the sensor, but I'm not sure what to look for on my volt meter to see if it's faulty or not. Any input on that?

Is there a difference in the speed sensor signal between the F35 and F23? Someone who already did the swap should know. If there is no difference, sure sounds like a ground is missing. The high signal wiring is there if you've got the speedo showing 20ish when driving, the missing ground doesn't provide a low reference to the incoming signal.

 

[Rttoys]

I was thinking ground issue too, since one headlight is dim and such, as well as a speedo working, but not working.

 

[Gtstorey]

Can’t check the speed sensor very well with a regular volt meter. It’s a frequency type sensor not voltage.