Level 7 Motorsports

A Bronco With A Different Personality

2014-03-23T18:57:00.001-05:00

A Bronco With A Different Personality

2014-03-23T13:47:00.000-05:00

We are currently building a 1984 Bronco for a customer. It is getting a lift, tires, new drivetrain, tow hitch, well the works.. Here are some photos as we continue building. Thanks for looking.

The truck is all original with only 37k miles.

Very clean original seats.

The oringial 6 cylinder with a C6 3 speed and NV208 transfer case.

The new GM 5.3L V8 backup up by a rebuilt TH400 and a Ford NV205 transfer case.

Our new mounts are bolt in and are powder coated. Also notice the section removed from the factory crossmember. This was to fit the GM a/c compressor.

We were able to keep the new transfer case tucked up nice.

A LOOK BACK AT FREDDY THE GM POWERED S14

2012-11-18T20:54:00.002-06:00

Over the past 4 years I have owned and have been building this 1997 240sx. It was a project that all started with a motor. I picked up an LS1 from a friend that had spun a rod bearing, then spent the winter rebuilding it. I went all threw the motor. It got a new rod, all new pistons, crank, bearings, heads, valve train, cam, etc. Like many other car guys, I enjoy the build more than owning the car. I liked the idea of learning a new motor and the time spent going through it. Now, at the time I started on the motor, I had no idea what car I would put this LS1 into. To be honest, I wasn't even sure that it would going into a car. I have always wanted to build a series of motors, just to collect and let sit around my garage. The same as a model car hobbyist builds for the enjoyment.

After some time I remember seeing a local guy swap this motor into his 1998 Nissan 240sx. I was blown away at how he made the motor look at home in this chasis. He was one of the first people I had even seen complete this motor swap. At this time there were no motor count conversions of driveshafts that were built to length. After reading about how capable the car's suspension was, I knew that I needed to find a 240 and get to work right away.

I searched the internet for almost a year before I found a car that I believed to be worth the money. I found the car on a forum and had it shipped down here from Boston. The car was a completely stock, automatic, 1997. The day I bought the car I ordered wheels, tires, coilovers, and every adjustable suspension arm. I drove the car like this for about 6 months before I was ready to pull the motor.

Looking clean but still VERY slow!

That winter I pulled the motor and began work on the engine bay. There was a small amount of rust that needed repaired and I wanted to tub the wheel wells.

Im not going to get into the full build in this post but more so look bad of some of the stages I went through to get to where the car is now. In this picture, most of the sheet metal work was complete.

Skipping forward a couple months, the motor is in and ready to run. At this point the engine bay was painted a Lexus grey.

The car was finished for the time being and I loved it. The motor made about 380 wheel and was a great daily driver! I actually enjoyed the car more back then than ever.

I bought an extra set of wheels and used them as drift spares.

I bought a JDM Kouki wing and ran if for about 1 day. Just didn't fit the rest of the car. I wish I still had that wing.

After driving the car for a good 9 monthes I decided to take the car apart to paint it. Things went the way they usually do with me and I got carried away. What started as a paint job turned into a roll cage, turned into a fuel cell, turned into cutting the roof off, then cutting the front end off, and thus continued on for almost 2 years.

Here I can finished welding the new roof on and had moved onto the front end. I built a tube front radiator support and had also made a panel to house the coolers.

Still funny Colten.

Last spring I decided that I wanted to drive the car on the Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour. Im a last minute, three week dash, we got the car into my shop and finished it for the last time. By this time I was about ready to paint the car.

After all of the painting was finished we still had to wire the entire car, run brake lines, fuel lines, get it all assembled, and tuned in the last week and a half.

Beleive it or not, we made our deadline and headed out the next morning for the Power Tour.

My long time friend Brandon came down from Chicago to go on the trip with me. We drove from southern Illinois to Detroit, then to Arlington Texas, and finally back home to Illinois. I had a great time this year however, Im sure Brandon could have benefited from more leg room. Next year will be better my friend!

Once we arrived in Arlington I decided to enter the Optima Batteries Ultimate Street Car Invitational. This was a great chance to test the car out on a road course and an autocross.

Optima Batteries actually picked the car to compete this year in the final for the Ultimate Street Car Invitational. We were among the top 50 to be competing.

We had a great time during the event and also got the opportunity to have the car at SEMA in Las Vegas.

Freddy had been a great car. I have enjoyed working on it, driving it, getting into trouble with it, cursing it, and even dreaming about it. Thanks for reading.

HARRISON'S 5.3L LS CONVERSION PT.3

2012-10-14T20:08:00.001-05:00

After a few final steps Harrison's 5.3 swap was finished and ready to get some miles under its belt. Since we are using the Holley EFI system everything needed to be plumbed, fluids topped off, and a full exhaust system installed. With all of those things finished we were ready to load the base map and get it started. As I said before, the Holley system is amazing. We selected a map that was within our displacement and cam profile range. From there we specified injector size, fuel pressure, IAC type, etc. Once everything was entered, the programming was sent to the ecu and a test fire was in order. On the first try she fired to life and sounded great. Now that the motor was running we put it in learn mode and connected the supplied wideband O2 sensor. After checking for any leaks and making sure everything was operating correctly, we sent it down the road. As of now the car has about 800 miles on it so we will get it back in and take it out of learn mode. Here are a few final photos of the car before we gave it back to Harrison.

We also upgraded the stock front brakes to the common but proven 300zx aluminum calipers with hawk HPS pads.

It was a great build for a great customer. Thanks Harrison. Pictured from left to right. Jesse, Drew, Tony, and Harrison.

Please feel free to ask any questions or comment.

HARRISON'S 5.3L LS CONVERSION PT. 2

2012-10-12T07:23:00.002-05:00

Now that the motor was installed for the last time we were able to address the wiring and plumbing. For the engine wiring and ecu we decided to go with Holley's new EFI system. The system comes with the engine harness and a new stand alone ecu. As with any aftermarket harness it comes with all new factory colored wiring and plugs. The harness is completely independent so it has an integrated fuse box for the ecu and fuel pump powers. Where the Holley EFI stands apart from the the rest is it's ability to self learn. Once all of the basic perameters are entered and the car is running, you can put it in learn mode and let the ecu tune itself. Our 5.3L had a cam, valvetrain, LS6 intake, throttle body, and the MAF was eliminated. I was new to the software and it took me about 30 minutes to plug in all of the information. Once I had it loaded the car fired up on the first try.

The ECU itself is quite compact and was right at home mounted in the glove box.

We use Interstate batteries in all our builds. This battery is an AGM and weighed 14lb.s With 2 guage wires for the charging system, this little battery has plenty of power to crank over a V8. We did built a tie down with an mount for the circuit breaker.

As for plumbing we wanted to keep everything as clean as possible. There is nothing more obvious about a conversion like than when people have worm clamps and hoses spliced together everywhere. Gates has recently come out with new hose unions and thermal clamps that look nearly oem.

Nissans have a return fuel system that does need to be converted to a dead head style or non return. This time we used the factory corvette fuel filter to handle the fuel return. Not only is it a fuel filter but it is also a fuel pressure regulator. It gives us our needed 56psi of fuel pressure and will return the un used fuel to the tank. With some adapters, we ran a -6AN feed like the the factory LS6 fuel rails.

The last bit of plumbing to handle was the exhaust system. We built a system that has dual 3" into a single exit 3.5" We used all Vibrant stainless components.

HARRISON'S 5.3L LS CONVERSION

2012-10-08T21:22:00.001-05:00

We just finished doing another LS conversion in a customer's 1998 240sx. It was a great project for a great customer. I will try to cover as much as possible in 3 or 4 write ups.

This job started a little different than most but ending up working out great. I had a customer, Harrison, who wanted to do an LS motor swap into his 1995 240sx. His car was completely stock and would need suspension, brakes, and a diff to even make the motor swap logical. After pricing the motor swap as well as everything else we set a date and would start ordering parts. That night a good friend of mine stopped by the shop and told me that he was going to get his of his 1998 240sx as well as his 5.3L LS swap. He had previously planned to do the same build but, being a married man, family came first and we all know how that story goes.

That week I introduced the two, money transferred hands, and Harrison ended up with a newer car. The 98 240 already had an aftermarket diff, suspension, brakes, and the stock motor had already been pulled. Now the car just needed to be finished.

Since we build all of our own motor mounts, we first set the motor in the engine bay and took all of our measurements.

We use the oem GTO oil pan for our conversions. The GTO pan is a cast aluminum part and is far stronger than the fabricated pans used in most mounts kits. The LS block relies partly on the oil pan for its ability to strengthen the block. Since we use the oem pan, we notch the sub frame to fit. With this modification to the sub frame, our mounts allow us to use the stock front sway bar, brackets, and end links. Our kit is the only one with this ability.

Here we have the transmission mount all tacked together ready for welding.

In this picture the drive train is completely installed. Pinion angles are perfect and there is absolutely no vibration in the drive line.

I'm sorry, I did not get any photos of the engine mounts being built this time. As you can see, we built a pedestal and mount off of the modified sub frame and mount brackets attach to the engine.

Just a shot of the driver side mount.

As I stated earlier, here you can see the factory front sway bar installed. There is 3/8" clearance between the bar and the front of the pan. At full suspension cycle, it never comes close to contact.

Shifter fits in the stock location with absolutely no trimming.

The shifter looks right at home.

That's all until next time. Thanks for reading.

Tune into SPEED

2012-09-30T10:53:00.001-05:00

Tune into SPEED channel today at 1 EST to watch me compete in the Ultimate Street Car invitational in Arlington.

BUILDS>> MY XS400 BOBBER PT.3

2012-08-04T14:51:00.000-05:00

I came out to the shop this morning to get some work done on my frame. I got the upper tubes, seat hinge, and cross bars welded on. Next time I need to make the axle plates and seat pan. Till then!

BUILDS>> MY XS400 BOBBER PT.2

2012-08-01T23:03:00.001-05:00

Not much has happened since the first post, however I still wanted to touch on the plans for this thing. I recently started building the frame my self. I looked around on the internet for an XS650 weld on kit that I could cut up but I couldnt find any that I liked. Instead I took some measurements and had a friend bend some chromoly. The smaller tubes are 7/8" and the back bone is 1.25" Its all been sleeved and tacked together in these pictures. I have changed the wheelbase to 59" and the rear axle has moved up to 5.25" over stock.

I did ended up buying a frisco mounted sporty tank from LowBrow and a pair of Shinko enduro tires. This week I plan on finished the frame and making the axle plates. After that I can make the seat pan and get the mounts welded on. Thats about it for now.

Jesse

BUILDS>> MARKS MODERN C10

2012-07-22T21:04:00.000-05:00

Last winter, while I was first building my shop, I had a neighbor stop by to say hello and see how things where going. After a few minutes of chit chat, he asked what I was going to be using the building for. I informed him that we were a performance / restoration shop and that I had a passion for motorcycles and older vehicles. He looked at me and said, "Uh oh, I better stay away from here, I'll end up spending too much money." Fast forward a few months and he has come to be a good customer and a great neighbor. After a lot of discussion and planning we have finally started building his 1970 C10 short bed pickup. Plans are to build a modern truck with a classic street truck appearance. The motor will be a GM based LS 5.3L with a 4L60E. Suspension will be all new from hotchkis. All new interior with A/C from Vintage Air. For safety we will be changing the fuel tank to a rail mounted cell, and installing disc brakes all around. For now we have stripped the truck down, blasted the frame, and powder coated it and the rear end housing. In the next few weeks we will be setting the motor in and getting some of the drivetrain lined out. In the next entry I will explain the motor mounts and headers.

I have no idea how long this truck sat, but it's last title was last transferred in '05.

No words can explain this...

Luckily the motor and trans were already pulled by the previous owner. This was a non a/c cab and it is a little too far gone. We are looking for a decent a/c cab now.

Once everything was stripped off, we put the lift up on the frame and checked it for square.

Once we verified that the frame was true and square, I burned in all of the braces and subframes that would remain. This truck will accelerate, brake, and handle much more aggressive than originally designed. These old frames are all riveted together and the rails and theoretically move independent of each other. After all of the welding was finished, we loaded it on the trailer and so that we could take it to be blasted and powder coated.

I also wanted to strip the rear end down and have the housing coated at the same time as the frame. I was please to find that there was a clutch type limited slip already installed. However we will be replacing the 3.08 gears with a set of 3.73's

After a 5 hour wait at the powder coater, our frame and rear end had been thoroughly blasted and powder coated satin black.

Thats all for now. This week I will go over the motor, trans, mounts, and headers in more detail.

CHRIS' GTO>> FRONT BRAKES

2012-07-22T16:04:00.000-05:00

A couple of months ago we did an interesting front brake conversion on a friends GTO. We upgraded his calipers to '05 Cadillac CTS-V Brembos and rotors to BMW 745i. After all new Russell lines and wilwood fluid, it gets this monster stopped in a hurry.

BUILDS>> MY XS400 BOBBER

2012-03-07T23:23:00.000-06:00

Growing up I was always around motor cylces or some sort of atv. My dad always had some type of dirt bike that he would buy, ride, fix up, and sell. When I was 4 he thought I would be ready for a go cart... During our first ride I remember flying around our 8 acre field just having a blast. He, for some reason, was wearing flip flops. During our ride one of these things flew off. He then pulled over and hopped off the get it. When he stood up he says, "Take over for me." I, being 4 years of age, instantly assumed it was my turn at the wheel. I slid over in the seat and stabbed the throttle. Now my dad was just like me, why build something unless it was fast. He had put this go cart together out of an old frame he bought cheap and a tiller motor. It was a 5hp motor and from what he says was geared pretty crazy on this frame. In typical Vaughn fashion, Im sure not every bug had been worked out of the system. Because when I planted my foot to the floor of this contraption, the throttle stuck wide open. Now keep in mind that I am 4 years old and weigh close to nothing. I am speeding across the field wide open, bouncing up and down in the seat, totally unaware of what will happen next. My dad can see what is happening and is helpless to the situation. Mom mom is standing on the back porch watching the entire event unfold. As she watches her son fly across the field, she notices where I am headed. I am on course to run head on into my father's parked truck. As I speed directly at it, her and my dad are screaming for me to hit the kill switch. I was so small that I was being bounced all over the place. I just could not reach it. Then all of the sudden, the cart ran out of gas and I coasted to a stop right in front of the truck.

From that moment on I have always been on motorcycles. Growing up my dad and I would get home in the afternoons and go riding for hours. As I got older I learned a lot of my mechanical skills from having to work on my bikes. I didn't have money to buy a good bike so we would buy $100 stuff and get them going. I never learned how to take it easy on those bike though. No matter what I would still just beat the hell out of them and have to replace a bunch of stuff. My dad would take me down to the Honda shop and have me tell the old guy at the counter what all I needed. There was just something about the whole process that still appeals to me. Even now that I have the money to buy a newer bike I still seek out the old fixer-uppers.

For the past year or so I have been wanting to build a little bobber to ride around town. I looked all over craigslist and ebay for a good deal on a Yamaha XS650. I like them so much because they closely resemble an old Triumph. I know there are tons of people out there that hate metric bobbers, and I get it. I'll just say this, show me a Harley, Triumph, etc that you can put together for $1000 and have as much fun. Reliably. I went to look at what was listed as an XS650 for $750. When I got there it was really an XS400. The difference is that they have smaller frames, shorter wheelbase, obviously less power, and most importantly not as much support from the aftermarket. To make a long story short, the owner could not get it started so I left paying $350 for the bike. I came home, charged the batter, and she fired right up. After a few "spirited" rides up and down the street I realized that I had a good bike to start with.

Here it is! One gorgeous 1984 XS400. How about that seat cover or the Harley grips?

The next night I had a plan set on what I needed to cut and what I wanted to retain. I started with taking all the factory measurements such as wheelbase, and how height the rear axle sat in relation to the bottom of the frame. From there I got to cutting.

One of good things about a bike like this is how much there really isn't to it. The oiling is self contained and it has a kick start so I will do away with the battery. Not to mention, its an air cooled motor, so no cooling system will be needed. It really will be a bare bones bike.

Factory twin Mikuni carbs are always a plus. Just needs to be cleaned up and add a set of velocity stacks.

Once the frame was down the this point I measured the factory rake on the head. Reads 27 degrees from the factory.

For some reason I failed to take pictures of me raking it. Here you can see that the head is tacked on and sitting at 35 degrees now. Adding the extra 8 degrees should lower the front of the bike just enough and give the it a more custom look. Here you can also see the new wheels, a used set of excel wheels off of a 2003 RM250 dirtbike. Sizes are 19 rear and 21 front. Huge in comparison to the factory wheels.

In this picture I added a gusset to the head to add some strength. I also through together I jig to help build the rest of the frame around. You can see that the rear axle stand can be move back and forth to let me set the wheelbase. Now the height of the axle is set to lower the frame buy 4.5" over stock. I simply took my previous measurement and moved the axle up to the desired height. Now I just need to buy the rear axle plates and start on the frame.

The last picture for now you can see that I have the front forks back in. The forks needed to be machined to fit the RM250 axle. The XS axle was smaller so the easiest way to run this wheel was to use the dirt bike axle, spacers, and the front caliper. You can also see that I have started to make a caliper bracket to mount the new caliper to my XS forks.

Well, thats all for now. Thanks for reading this LONG article!

BOOKS>> HELL'S ANGEL

2012-01-15T15:07:00.000-06:00

I picked this book up last week and so far I cant put it down. Im half way through and just thought it was worth recommending.

BUILDS>> CHRIS' GOAT PT.3

2011-06-26T13:27:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned in the last post Chris drove the car to Speed Inc. to have it dyno tuned. Here is a shot of the dyno chart. The car made impressive numbers for the size of that cam.

Before the trip to Chicago I never has time to finish the air intake. It was installed on the car for the trip but it wasnt body worked and painted. Last week I pulled it off and got it painted for him. Here are some shot of us putting back on. Let me know what you all think.

Here you can see this little finishing plate I cut out. Mainly just to make the opening look a little better but also to keep any road debris out of the bay.

The intake has a mount that keeps it secure. Just below here is where the air filter sits.

BUILD>> FREDDY THE GM POWERED S14 PT.2

2011-06-20T21:41:00.001-05:00

Over the weekend I did manage to get the engine in paint. Not much of an update, but with all the other work in the garage right now I was happy to get to this point.

Hopefully I will be able to get the motor in now and start jamming out some other parts.

BUILD>> CHRIS' GOAT PT.2

2011-06-12T17:42:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we got Chris' GTO back on the road again!

We pulled the motor and transmission last Saturday to do a few things. It got a custom grind comp cam, patriot valve springs, retainers, viton seals, locks, comp hardened push rods, texas speed ported and shimmed LS6 oil pump, LS2 timing set, and a GMPP LS7 clutch kit.

We sent the ECU out to Speed Inc up in Shamburg, IL to get flashed. We put the car back together yesterday, threw the ECU in and it fired up first try. Car has been on the road a day of so now and everything seems to be working great together. We will be taking the car to Speed Inc on tuesday morning for some dyno tuning. It is running that old ebay intake and MAF for now but the 4" intake will get put on at Speed Inc and tuned for speed density. Check back later this week to see what kind of numbers it will put down.

BUILD>> CHRIS' GOAT PT. 1

2011-05-01T22:44:00.005-05:00

Over the next couple months I will be doing a top end build on an 04 GTO. The owner is doing a custom grind cam, valve train, custom 4" intake, and your basic maintenance items. Today I wanted to start fabricating the new 4" intake. I want the intake to be ready to install once the car is back up and running on its new parts.

Here is the car. A very clean, but yellow, 2004. Already equipped with a full exhaust system, off road mid pipes, and stainless headers.

I love using vibrant products for all my fabrication. All T6061 aluminum 4".

Here is a picture of what he is using now.. Not that people should not support ebay but, come on!

I started out by getting the silicone elbow trimmed up and fitting just right. I want the intake to follow the contour of the upper radiator air deflector.

First of the aluminum to be cut.

Here we are with a couple pieces cut and taped together for test fit.

The new air intake system gets air from inside the bumper. This one will be a little more efficient at drawing fresh cool air. Must keep those iat numbers low!

Thats it for tonight. All fitting is done. Now just need to get it all tig welded, smoothed out, and finished. The air filter is on order and should be here next week.

Check back soon to see what else is in store.

BUILD>> FREDDY THE GM POWERED S14 PT.1

2011-04-28T12:01:00.006-05:00

I know this may be old news to some of you locals, but for the sake of this being my first blog I found it worth posting. I want to touch on my favorite piece of the entire build, up to this point. It was really a challenge for my skills as an amateur fabricator. I had never mig welded stainless or really attempted to much sheet metal work up until this point. This is my over the radiator air intake. What may seem like a simple process of building an intake took several steps that I will have to post later. Steps such as building a custom radiator support that was .75" lower than the factory. As well as restructuring the hood so that the intake could tuck up inside it.

Here it is in the very beginning stages.

I, for some reason, didnt get any shots of me skinning the intake. The entire intake is made out of stainless.

Here it is all body worked and ready for primer.

Primed and guide coated.

Blocked out with 400

I chose to use Hot Hues hot rod black simply because it always lays out nice and even. It does cost a little more than a standard single stage with a flattening agent. However in my option looks much more professional.

I even applied a DEI heat wrap to the underside of the intake. Hopefully this will shield some of the heat from the radiator.

Here it is installed. Notice that the air filter is offset to the passenger side. The reason is to be able to clear the 5.5" spal fan that will mount to the oil cooler.

Also a final shot of the lower mount I made to support the air filter. Which still needs body worked and painted.

That covers the build of what I have found to be my favorite piece to date. Hope you have also enjoyed my first "blog"