LS Fest: Day 2 Recap

Day two was an interesting day for Holley LS Fest, and LS-Fest goers alike. Some great racing took place as well as many more cars showing up for all the festivities. And, as Kevin Costner so eloquently phrased it in Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.” In this analogy, our “field” is a drag strip, autocross course, road course, and a veritable cornucopia of some of the countries best LS-powered rides. And boy did it draw a crowd. From what we heard, over 15,000 spectators were in attendance and well over 750 cars. Unfortunately, our time mingling with our LS brethren and making fast passes was cut short by an encroaching storm system that dumped rain around 3:30 p.m., putting an official end to the day.

When we first arrived, however, we were told that their was a substantial chance that the weather would rear its ugly head, but with nothing but blue skies in view, we persevered. Drag racing was up and running at 9 a.m., as was the autocross and droves of LS fans took to the track. There were even a couple of guys who went head to head to see how quickly they could swap an LS into a car in the Car Craft LS Swap shootout. The Show-N-Shine was vastly more populated today with an eclectic group of old-school and new-school muscle — but as long as it had an LS between the fenders, it was in the right place. So lets get down to the nitty gritty.

Drag Racing

LS Engine Swap Challenge

In one of the most exciting challenges of the event, Tyler Sandau and CJ Durbin — friends since childhood — faced of against the father-son duo of Eric and Austin Bujnevicie. The challenge? To swap a 5.3-liter LM7 into a third-generation Camaro as quickly as possible. The first to fire the motor, show that it shifts into gear, and shuts the car off wins. Seems simple enough, right? Well, it’s not, since last year’s winner complete the task in just 1 hour 10 minutes. We can’t be the only ones that thinks that is just insane. But these two teams vowed they were up to the challenge.

The cars were sourced and started with two substantially different motors that would be yanked in favor of the Gen III mill. The red car, belonging to Tyler and CJ, rolled into the tent with a 455 cubic inch Oldsmobile engine (more a paper weight than proper motivation in our minds), while the blue car, belonging to Eric and Austin, had ditched its factory 305 in favor of a larger 350ci motivator. Before all the action started, Holley inspected each vehicle to ensure that no quick swap shenanigans had taken place. In former years, competitors have gone as far as installing engines after rigging them with quick disconnect engine mounts, or mounting the mills using screw drivers instead of actual bolts. After which, the rules after which were changed to their current standard, which you can see on Holley’s website.

After the cars were checked, both teams readied for the challenge. Everything needed to complete the swap was provided by Holley, including: an MSD Atomic Airforce intake manifold, MSD ignition coils, Hooker swap exhaust manifolds, Frostbite radiator, swap engine mounts, a new tranny and torque arm mount, and a Holley EFI ECU and wiring harness.

As the clocks were started, the red team set to work and quickly had their Camaro’s tired Olds motor out in just 20 minutes. In the meantime, the blue team struggled to relieve the small-block Chevy from the Camaro’s carcass. When the blue team did finally manage to free the 350 Chevy, the red team had already unbolted the LS-based motor from the engine stand and were mating the engine to the 4L60E transmission. From there the gap only widened.

The red team made short work of maneuvering the new mill into its new home. Just 40 minutes in, the red team had the entire driveline sitting in the chassis. The blue team at this point had finally freed the old 350 and were just getting started on getting the LS off the engine stand.

The red team efficiently bagged and labeled all of the bolts and nuts as the removed the old engine which cut down the time to install the new mill substantially. By the time the blue team had finally wrestled the new LS into their F-body, the red team had widened the gap; installing the intake manifold and exhaust manifolds, as well as securing the transmission, starter, and torque arm.

After this, it was a mad dash to hook up the wiring harness, connect the fuel system, wire the car, and install the radiator. At this point, it was clear that the red team would most likely finish first. However, this doesn’t mean they would win. The car still had to take a lap around the pits — showing that it could run and drive in real-world conditions — before they’d be crowned the winner.

In what seemed like mere minutes, the red team had everything necessary to try to fire the car. Holley officials stepped in at this point to ensure that the car was installed within the boundaries of the rules and check for any safety concerns. After the inspection, the red team was given the go ahead to fire their car. After a few turns of the starter the car roared to life. However, improper wiring of one of the hot leads to the tranmission controller wouldn’t allow the car to be shut off. This lead to some trouble shooting. The read team quickly traced the wires and discovered that they had accidentally connected the hot wire to an improper source. After another try, the car shut off properly.

It seemed like all was lost for the blue team, as they were still scrambling to get the ignition coils on the car and get the exhaust manifolds installed. But as the red team lowered the car to the ground, they discovered they had no reverse gear, so the car had to be put back up on the Race Ramps. After a couple of minutes of tinkering, the red team had the car shifting into reverse and back on the ground. The car completed the requisite slow lap through the grounds without a hiccup and returned CJ and Tyler to the tent to claim their victory and the bragging rights of having performed an LS swap on a third-gen in just 1 hour 26 minutes and 13 seconds.

  

The blue team finished all of the requisite procedure to fire the car within the next 20 minutes, but couldn’t manage to get it fired up. After Holley’s technicians stepped in to determine the problem, they found that the transmission solenoids had fried the tranmission control side of the ECU. Once the tranmission connectors were undone, the car sputtered to life.

It was amazing to see both sets of skilled technicians go head to head and perform LS swaps on these third-gens in under two hours. Our congratulations go out to Tyler and CJ, who got to keep the car and the drivetrain for their efforts.

Drifting

The drifting event saw its second stage before the impending storm reared its ugly face. LS-powered cars could be found flinging sliding accross the infield of the circle track, creating massive plumes of smoke for a cheering audience.

Our favorite was the Zenna Tire car driven by Nerren. He showed a very high level of skill and achieved more extreme angles and produced more smoke than any of the other competitors. While everyone did a fantastic job, Nerren stood out to us as the drifter you should be watching. We’ll have the results of the drifting competition for you tomorrow as they hand out awards.

Autocross

Day two of the autocross event saw both green and red groups back at it again at both the Beech Bend autocross course setup on the infield of the oval, and at the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park. While the standings shifted slightly, the top five didn’t ending in the following order: David Pereira, Todd Rumpke, Karl Dunn, Mike Dusold, and Al Unser.

However, the event was stopped short by the weather and will pick up first thing in the morning. We will also crown our winners tomorrow, so stay tuned for coverage of all of our winners.