Boom #4, twisted tranny yoke, bent torque arm bracket and motor mount

Intro  Boom #1  Boom #2  Boom #3  Boom #4  Boom #?  Boom #6  Boom #7  Boom #8  Boom #9  Boom #10

After more than 6 months of waiting (following Boom #3), I finally was ready to take the new intercooled 383 to the track for the first time on 7/8/00.  The first two passes were the same as what the old engine could do - 11-teens at 128.  But the third pass was different.  I have this wonderful memory of not being able to see the track for a split second after the launch, and then of Ando running up to the car in the pits with the news: my first ever ten second pass.  10.87 at 132.  Much happiness all around!  I made 2 or 3 more passes, but couldn't back it up.  Probably cuz the constant adrenaline rush made it hard to shift cleanly.

Who knows why the car ended up back on the jackstands the next day, I can't remember, but I discovered that the mounting bracket for my chrome moly BMR torque arm was bent (6 passes!).  I sent Brett an email and he immediately offered to replace it with a stouter piece.  He also incorporated my suggestion to make the whole piece a channel section, instead of having the upper and lower plates (that bolt to the the diff) unsupported.  Brett's concern and customer service could not have been any better!  Thanks, dude!  I don't think a Pro Stocker could bend the new bracket.

The upper pix compare the new bracket to the original bent one.  The pic quality is pretty grim - sorry 'bout that.  The lower pix, courtesy of Joe "Coolpix" Gervais (again :), and much better quality show the bracket installed on the KTRE 12-bolt casting.  The bracket fits perfectly, no grinding needed anywhere.  Thanks again, Brett!

The next observation was that the driveshaft wouldn't go far enough into the tranny for the rear u-joint to clear the pinion yoke.  Oh man, been here before.  Sure enough, twisted tranny yoke number 3 (6 passes!).  I don't really need 3 pix of it, but they neatly fill up the space below, don't you think?

OK, now I remember that the car went on the jackstands because the spiffy new Stefs oil pan was sitting on the steering rack, despite my best efforts with a die grinder (on the rack) and a 2 foot wrecking bar (on the pan).  As of this writing (8/30/00), Stefs is still selling a pan for the LT1 fourth-gen that is 4.5" deep in the front.  That doesn't clear the steering rack, guys!  Anyway, I had also put hardened and parallel-ground AN washers under the motor mounts on both sides of the engine to lift it up a bit.  Well, the last discovery in Boom #4 was that the driver side motor mount was bent (6 passes!).  The 3 bolt holes were still spaced away from the chassis by the washers, but the middle of the mount was sitting on the chassis, and the new poly insert was free to rattle around.  Sorry, forgot to snap a pic.

So I arranged to return the pan to Stefs for a notch.  The pic below left shows the original configuration.  The other 2 show it with the new notch, which extends 5" towards the rear of the pan and results in a pan depth of 4".  Finally, if you compare these pix to those on the 383 page, you'll note that the Vortech oil drain is back on the driver side.  Turns out that the passenger side location interfered with steering hoses.  I also switched from -8 down to a still-more-than-adequate -6 this time.  The notch did the trick, so now the pan fits fine.