2013 PP SHO RE-build/upgrade thread

Hi Folks!
Been trolling here since Vietnam and finally it's time to dig my girl out of the Ice and make a build thread.
My goal here is to help others but I feel most people have done what I'm about to embark on so, I'm really hoping to get great feedback and advice on how to make this process as efficient and problem free as possible.

Back story...Low compression on cylinder one(30psi). I'm relatively hard on the car but no worse than Joe average occasional WOT off the line or in traffic. I've been religious and most likely over bearing with ALL fluid changes. One day on the highway, let's say 75mph she threw a code and from there I could feel the power loss. That was the beginning of the end. I drove her home and got her parked. Every once in a while I could hear a little clattering but nothing showing true signs of catastrophic failure. Well the compression test proved a major issue is present. After researching catch cans I had hoped juuuuuust maaaaaybe I had a stuck intake valve open. Yeah, no...rolled the cams over and they closed right up. So I'm guessing I have a cracked piston or ring. Learning what a project it is to get the motor out of the car...or should I say car out of the motor, LOL I decided to turn half of my 30x60 barn into a shop. 2 years or so later, here I am finally getting her up on the lift. To think I basically made the shop just for this damn car.

I originally bought her with aspirations of using the driveline for a MK4 roadster setup. Well, that all went away when I continued to drive Eva. She's spacious, comfy, the kids love her and her rear heated seat, and everyone loves how shockingly quick she is; Especially for a big girl. So, I decided to keep the car.
I'm now at the point where I don't really want another car and I figure if I semi-restore the car and get 100k miles out of it, I'll still be ahead of the game while also having a car I enjoy. It will not be run in the winter unless absolutely necessary. As she sits now, she has 109k miles.

So, my goal of this thread is to post my journey with this car and hopefully receive feedback/good advice from folks who've previously walked in my shoes or have questions that I/we can help out with. I'm going to clean up any rust I find, replace whatever is needed, and find the most efficient way to get good and most importantly, reliable HP numbers. I already have the livernois down pipes, t-stat, map sensor, plugs, intake, tune, and corsa exhaust.

My initial goals are as follows:

• Livernois short block. That should take care of any motor worries I have.
• HV oil pump(stock spring)
• UPR catch can
• ATP turbo upgrade. I'm thinking I'd be crazy not to match these to the new motor while I'm there. Hoping bpd1151 will chime in on the above as I do not really want to update the fuel system if necessary. I'm hoping a remote tune will take care of all of this. I'd love more power from them if possible with that setup but supposed I'd be okay with the current power being reliable.
• Refresh or build up the trans if possible....I'm not confident in the current one lasting another 100k. The big question is what can this trans reliably handle...that's where I would like to live unless I can upgrade.
• Metal piping
• Progressive springs
• Do I need meth??
• Do I need more fuel?
• Are the PTU's gonna hold up.

SO MANY QUESTIONS LOL

There you have it!
So, I know a lot of folks have done a lot of these things so, I'm hoping they will chime in and I'll keep everyone posted as I work along. Work has me quite busy but I'm trying to really focus my weekends on the car. As of right now I have the piping removed, coolant and engine oil drained, down pipes/flex are almost removed, intake, battery box, some of the coolant lines, fuel line.

I'm headed up to the shop in a few.
I'm going to focus on juuuust maybe getting the sub-frame ready to drop from the car.
That would be a big deal so I can get the motor taken down to look at before I contact Livernois.

Side note...are those not the cutest little fu$%ing turbos you've ever seen!!???
It's so funny when I tell people this car has no lag. NO ONE believes me until they ride in it.
Now I see why. I've seen bigger turbos on bikes. I LOVE IT!

Anyway, thank you everyone for contributing.
I don't post here a lot but always feel welcome when I do.
HERE WE GO!!!!!!!!!!!

 

A pic version of where she was last weekend and where she is now.

20210228_113051 by BweegN posted Mar 4, 2021 at 8:54 PM

20210301_185147 by BweegN posted Mar 4, 2021 at 8:58 PM

20210301_200355 by BweegN posted Mar 4, 2021 at 8:58 PM

20210303_212302 by BweegN posted Mar 6, 2021 at 10:11 AM

 

Only thing I suggest is:

STAY.AWAY.FROM.LIVERNOIS

Chat with @bpd1151 , @802SHO or @Jordan_R on short block options

I've got one from RMB, but some folks are uncomfortable with him. I will say my personal experience with him has been positive to date. @DDLopes also has a motor from him and can expound on his experience with Ryan.

I've got ATPs but had Matt had his Gen3R turbos available at the time, I would've gone that route. ATP customer service sucks ass, tbh. They make power though.

Anyway, good list of mods for you! Look forward to it.

Oh and did I mention stay away from Livernois?

LOL

 

Yea id buy the engine from livernois. Just ignore them when they bug to do the tune on it.
Also im not sure if @bpd1151 engine went boom from their tuning or the engine itself.

 

The rad suport section of the front end unbolts, exposing the engine for an out the front removal.

This forum has a few threads on this theme with pictures.

 

I dropped mine out the under side. Bout 3 bolts, as high as i can count

 

Please don't do this...don't give those clowns a dime of your money. It is all overpriced anyway...

My advice on that really doesn't have much to do with the @bpd1151 incident (it didn't help for sure, just reinforced my feelings already)...my issue with them is many. They DON'T know what they are doing (contrary to what their marketing budget would have you think). They got shitty customer service...and worst of all, they aren't doing ANYTHING any other reputable ecoboost shop isn't doing, just charging you more.

 

Dear God NO!

DO NOT GO TO LIVERCRAP FOR ANYTHING!

No. No. NOOOOOOO!!!!!

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

Awesome to see a fellow Vermonter on the Forum!! Very nice shop space you made and that lift has got me a little jelly lol! With my car on jackstands I pulled the motor out. It really wasn’t bad. I just shipped my complete long block to Max Power Automotive in LockPort IL.

I would also strongly recommend against buying anything from “else” Livernois. Unless you want to pay upwards of 50% more for no reason and lousy machine work. I would highly recommend 10 min of your time, reach out to Matt Pohnan @ Max Power Automotive, I would suggest a phone call or through FB, he’s pretty responsive there as well. If I were you I would entertain a different route before bending over for Livernois. And I say bend over but it’s what ends up happening to ppl, that don’t see it coming. They’ll over charge and take advantage of you every chance they get, while leading you to believe you need x y and z too.

On fueling, yes sir! You’re going to want injectors, high pressure and low pressure fuel pumps. Meth? I say absolutely. VEMS in Colchester? VT just became an authorize dealer of Ignite Fuels. So we can now buy Ethanol locally.

At some point when our cars are back together we have to meet up at some point! It’ll be fun.

 

I used RMB and got his stage 2 short block. He can be tough to deal with but I’m happy with the work he did. You should also check out Jeff at CCS. He’s an awesome guy and his work is top notch. If I was to do it again I’d use him without any regrets!

 

Oh ... and stay away from Livernois

 

Thank you everyone for the comments. Also, thank you for pointing me to others and warning me about others as well. I'll be the first to tell you I've had a hard time searching out items for this car and when you have a good website will the motor sitting on it it makes you want to buy it regardless of your customer service.
That is why I continually talk about livernois because I don't know of anyone else so, I really appreciate everyone's feedback especially for something so expensive and critical like the mill.
honestly, I would feel plenty comfortable doing this motor myself as I've done plenty of motors but I was looking at the reliability Factor of the livernois motor and the components that comes along with it.
So, I'm definitely excited to hear from others and see what else is out there.

I managed to get most of the wiring harness out of the way, downpipes removed, steering linkage unhooked but not removed, I also chose to get the drive shaft out of the way even though I don't think I needed to. I felt better just having it out of the way. the only thing I'm stuck on at the moment is there is one wire that hugs the block and has a heat shield surrounding it. It goes somewhere that I have no freaking idea and I have to look into that. At the rate I'm going I think I will have the car off the motor tomorrow. I have noticed that I think I want to pull the front end as well just for ease of access of everything.

Again, thank you everyone for your support.

Sent from my SM-G988U1 using Tapatalk

 

Definitely stoked to see what you have in store!

Kill it buddy!!

 

Who is CCS?

 

Cylinder Support Systems. They do the closed deck conversion but also do just about everything else

 

AAAahhh...that's why I was confused. Its CSS not CCS.

 

Call CCS... you will be very happy with him. He was gonna take over my build at one point. You wouldn't regret it. Call him his name is Jeff. He’s in NH. He builds the shortblocks close to RMB. He’s much easier to deal with... lol

 

Sorry CSS

 

Also I just purchased few parts from Ortiz Performance. He has a lot of stuff on his site and gave me a great deal... not too many places for our platforms to get performance parts. Good luck with your build

 

I look forward seeing your build! Exiting times ahead for SHO’s!