My Car (LS1 DeLorean) Used For An Episode of Car Fix on Velocity! Airs Sept. 12, 2014
TL;DR-located at the end.
Last week my car was used in the show “Car Fix” for Jared and Lou (the hosts of the show) to perform a head and cam swap on an LS engine.
It all began back at the Celebration Exotic Carshow here in Orlando this past April. Jared (the host) and the show’s producer (Brian) were walking through the DeLoreans when they stumbled upon my car. Now I use the word “stumbled” loosely because the truth is that Lenny here on DMCtalk was parked next to me at the show. When he saw the camera crew walking around, he immediately ran over and said something along the lines of “If you want to see a DeLorean to video, you need to check out this one in the corner.” Truthfully, if it hadn’t been for Lenny, I think it’s unlikely that this even would have happened, as I doubt the crew would have walked to the back of the DeLorean section where I was parked. I definitely owe Lenny one.
Anyway, at the show they asked about the car, what my future plans were, and how I work on it. I explained that I had made the rear fascia and bumper section easily removable for maintenance, and that in the future I was hoping to do a head and cam swap. They liked the idea of the easy engine access and they asked right there if I was interested in being on the show. At the time I thought they were either joking, or that this was just them putting out feelers for potential cars for the show. Of course I said yes and gave them my info, assuming that they probably wouldn't call.
The following Friday I got a call from the show’s producer asking if I was still interested. I couldn’t believe they actually called back, but they certainly did. They tossed around different dates as well as different parts to use during the show. The original schedule conflicted with DCS but they were totally cool about working around my schedule, which is how we ended up in July.
The final decisions were made that they would install Lingenfelter heads and a Lingenfelter cam, and then perform a full Dyno tune on the car.
I brought the car to the studio for the shoot; they shot the episode over 2 days. The first day was in the studio doing the bulk of the engine work, then the second day took place at the Tuning shop where the car was dyno tuned. It was a blast!! And it was really awesome to see how they weave the shooting into the actual work on the car. The whole episode is only about 25 minutes, but Jared and Lou actually did do the majority of the work on the car. They don’t shut down the cameras and then have another team come in to turn wrenches. Both Jared and Lou are super knowledgeable and capable car guys that love what they do. They also found out pretty early on in the shoot that I wanted to help turn wrenches on the car, which they were totally cool with. When the cameras would stop, I got to jump right in to help out.
So in the end, they installed Lingenfelter LS1CNC-C heads, which are Gen II (I had Gen I) LS heads that are CNC ported and polished with CNC re-profiled and oversized hand lapped stainless steel valves, built up with dual valve springs with titanium retainers. Also installed a Lingenfelter GT11 high lift and duration camshaft designed for street use.
Before ordering parts they had me talk directly to Lingenfelter so that they knew exactly what my intentions were for the car. I told them that the car gets driven a lot, mostly just around town, and that I didn’t want to trade power at the low end, to have super power at the high end (since the car typically lives between 2000-3500 RPM). I also explained that I had already installed an LS6 intake manifold and LS6 PCV system, as well as Hooker headers on the engine. Lingenfelter spec’ed out the parts based on that.
The car was trailered to the tuner where they did a full mapping of the car through the power band and dyno tuned it. The car is now making 420hp at the wheels at the top of the power band! With even 10-12% drive train loss that’s about 475hp at the crank shaft. Whats even wilder is how quickly the torque is applied. At 3,000RPM the car is already producing about 350ft/lbs of torque. The pickup in the mid range is really wild.
Throughout the process I told them that I did have concerns about the transmission. With Toby’s coupler I was pretty confident in its ability when there was only 350hp at the crank but this new power made me nervous; especially with how quickly the torque is applied now. I think they even reference my concerns on the show and that I’m working to improve the transmission. I do keep this in mind when I drive, however; I have reconciled with myself that if I shear the input shaft, I can just fix/replace it (at least until I finish my ongoing transmission project). I was told that we could likely squeeze more out of the engine with more testing and tuning, but I didn't like the idea of doing a bunch of dyno pulls right now.
Anyway that’s my story. The episode is set to air on Friday night September 12 on Velocity as the season 3 season finale of Car Fix! If you’re like me and don’t have Velocity, you can also get the episode on iTunes or Amazon Prime once it airs.
Oh and if anyone is curious, no I personally am not in the episode, just the car (unless I accidentally got caught in a shot at the dyno place).
TL;DR – My car used on “Car Fix” TV show because it had the LS1 engine; installed Lingenfelter cylinder heads, Lingenfelter camshaft, now makes 420hp at the wheels ~475hp at the crank, Episode airs September 12 on Velocity as the season finale; also available on iTunes and Amazon Prime; Jared, Lou, Brian and their whole team at Car Fix are awesome!!!
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Dave M vin 03572
Originally Posted by Dangermouse
though I'm sure all the all the photos wreaked havoc as well...
