Paul Y
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,948
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Another thumbs up from me. Will be following as always good to find somebody else that has an LS swap complete in the UK when it comes to me starting my transplant. Luv Hugger Orange. P.
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Mar 12, 2016 18:35:25 GMT
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Today has been ups and downs... First job was remove the core support from the car - easy enough Next up was getting the engine off the stand and the flex plate fitted and the transmission bolted up. No real issues there except that I needed to tap the holes a little deeper in the crank and chop around 2mm off the bolts. I machined a truck crank and they aren't quite drilled as deep as the standard short car crank it seems. Thankfully I have a set of M11x1.5 taps handy... After that the transmission and converter were fitted with no real dramas. That's when the fun started, as much my own fault as anything. The mounts wouldn't line up, but then I figured I'd assembled them wrong, oops. Never mind. The good news is that I don't need to move the engine forward at all, it will fit in the stock position. The bad news is that I think I might have a slight issue with clearance on the steering linkage. I could gain a few mm if I make myself a new set of engine mounts.... seems like a lot of effort, but it might be the only way. Oh and my transmission cross member fits right up... So yes, it's sort of in there, I still need to finish off mounting it properly. Ran out of daylight today
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Mar 12, 2016 22:13:44 GMT
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Is it possible to use thicker rubbers on the engine mounts to gain 10 or 20mm or so?
You machined your own crank too? Some impressive engineering knowledge going on
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Mar 13, 2016 17:21:18 GMT
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Thank you. I modified the truck crank as they are 0.600" longer than a car crank and you can't get performance bits to fit them very easily. Today started with pulling the whole engine and transmission back out again - at least that's easy with the core support removed. I reconfigured all of the mounts and put it all back together again. I also made a small adjustment to the idler arm and now have around 3/8" steering clearance! Yay! Helped by a number of things, including moving the engine as far back as it will go on the mounts. I followed other peoples advice initially and set it in the 1" forward position. But I think it works nicely in the stock position.... this is using Hooker adapter plates. After that I got the transmission crossmember installed, this confirmed the transmission is in the same place as it was with the small block. If anything it's slightly further back... The the driveshaft and a few other bits were hooked up. The 1st gen headers just do not fit, so I need to get some second gen correct ones. More expense! The oil pan that I modified hangs just below the crossmember - I made this to the same height as the CTS-V pan knowing that this would happen. I don't run the car too low anyway, so it should be fine. Next up I fitted the water pump and power steering pump, no real dramas there. The alternator is very close to the sub-frame but there is enough clearance for everything to work. I've left it off until I have primed the oil system as I need access to the port on the side of the block Last job was to refit the hood and chop a bit out to clear the intake, I'll need to cut some more once I have the hoses and filter fitted, but it should all sit under the scoop nicely
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Mar 13, 2016 21:43:00 GMT
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Top notch work going on there!
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Thanks After its too cold and dark outside I've been working on building the ECU up for this. I'm using Megasquirt 3x so I can run sequential fuel and spark. It's got more features than I need but it's future proof. It will also communicate directly with my Megashift transmission controller via CAN so it keeps things simple. Take one bare board Do a bit of electrical witchcraft At the stage of testing and cleaning the board now, before finally fitting the processor and cramming it all into its case.
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Mar 17, 2016 19:48:26 GMT
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The last couple of evenings I've made the water pump pulley. I had a brand new water pump with the engine, but it had no pulley fitted. Seemed silly to spend a fortune on a new pump when I could make a pulley easily. Used a piece of thick walled steel pipe, had a blank laser cut to fit in the end and welded it in. Then turned up a boss to fit in the centre before putting it all in the lathe and skimmed it up all over. I welded the plate to the tube inside too. I've just painted it and I'll fit it over the weekend. Took a couple of hours And this evening I've made myself a priming tool. The LS has no distributor, so you can't prime it like the old SBC. You can buy tools for about $250 to do it, but for a few bucks you can make your own. Loads of ideas on youtube for different options. I had an old disposable welding gas bottle, which has a 1 litre capacity. Bigger would have been better, but it will just take a bit longer with this one as I'll have to refill it a few times, most people seem to use about a gallon of oil during the priming process. I just drilled and tapped a few holes in it (it's good thick wall section) and screwed in some hose fittings and some for a sight gauge too. I'll unscrew the top airline fitting, fill it with oil and connect it to the port on the side of the block with an adapter before connecting it to an airline to pressurise it with about 25psi to force oil around the block, fill the lifters and get oil up to the rockers. Pretty simple, and I used stuff I had in the workshop.
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Mar 20, 2016 20:41:41 GMT
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Engine wiring done and tested this weekend
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Mar 20, 2016 21:52:38 GMT
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Wish I understood electrical witchcraft !
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1994 Mercedes e220 petrol estate, daily driver. 1998 Peugeot 406 Coupe 3.0 v6, shopping car.
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Wish I understood electrical witchcraft ! It's simple. The only trick is that you have to keep the smoke *inside* the wires. It's only when it escapes that you have a problem!
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Mar 24, 2016 17:31:05 GMT
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Ah, that's where I am going wrong !
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1994 Mercedes e220 petrol estate, daily driver. 1998 Peugeot 406 Coupe 3.0 v6, shopping car.
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Mar 26, 2016 18:24:55 GMT
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The car is at that stage where you can't really see where you've been working. Lots of silly little jobs that all take ages to sort. Yesterday I finished cutting a hole in the floor to clear the oil cooler lines on the 4L80E - downside of such a large transmission. I hammered out a domed aluminium cover plate for it and put a squirt of non-setting sealer round it before screwing it to the floor. Now if I ever need to get at the fittings I can do it without dropping the transmission out...! Next I fitted new body seals for the doors to replace the leaky ones. I did replace them with new when I rebuilt the car the first time, but they didn't last very long. I bought a different make this time and they seem much better. With the rain that's forecast for the rest of the weekend I expect I will find out if the new seals have fixed the problem, or not. After that I finished off all of the dash wiring with a couple of minor exceptions and then refitted the carpet, dash, instruments etc. Tested the electricals that I can and everything seems to work so far. Today I got quite a lot done, but nothing much to see - which is always annoying... Wired the rear lights, fuel pump, dome light and starter solenoid (which I've moved to the back of the car with the battery - I never liked having a 50mm^2 hot cable running front to back with no fuse. And I also dropped in a big 16mm fused main battery feed for the rest of the car, that runs up to a stud on the firewall where everything takes it's power from. Overkill, but if I ever upgrade things like fuel pumps, or ever fit a stereo or something then I won't have to touch that again... Spent a good hour fitting the shifter cable - and swearing - trying to get it adjusted right was a pain. Not sure if the throws on the 4L80E shifter are slightly different to other transmissions or not.... Made the throttle cable up and fitted that - do need to modify the stop on the throttle body so that I can get full throttle - not unusual on those Chinese throttle bodies... Spent 2 hours messing around with the ECU and TCU trying to get them talking to eachother via CAN - got there eventually! Loading new firmware on the TCU seemed to fix the problem - so it was either corrupt or there was a bug in the old code.
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Mar 26, 2016 20:21:45 GMT
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What more can I say, that has not already been said......?
I guess we all carry interesting surprises around.
Your skills and resto to date just makes me grin madly.
What it your day job? Or background as a matter of interest?
I like the whole learning on the job thing.
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Mar 26, 2016 22:38:07 GMT
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Thanks so much! I'm an engineer, got my degree from Warwick about 8 years ago - I'm actually currently working as Quality Manager for a local engineering firm. But I've been working on cars and bikes since I was a young kid. It's in my blood... I always figure it's worth having a go at things yourself, I like to research and read up on things and then have a go at them - that's how I got into the auto transmissions and electronics stuff. Sera
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Mar 26, 2016 23:12:03 GMT
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Whatever it is you do, the work you turn out is first rate. I just wish I knew half as much about what goes on in the tiny little electronic brains on mine!
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Having a 79 monte carlo myself, and i am looking into lpg injection system. Is the system you are using ready to make it to lpg injection ?
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Mar 27, 2016 19:21:25 GMT
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Thanks No intention of running LPG... the LS motors are pretty efficient compared to the older SBC
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Had a good few days doing odd little jobs. Got the fuel tank back in. Made the mount for the new fuel pump and prefilter. Fitted the pushrods and the motor and primed the oil system through the port on the side of the block. Mounted the alternator and wired it up. Measured up for the belt too. Mounted the solenoid in the trunk and hooked up the battery. Cranked it over to check I was getting a signal to the ECU and it all look ok so far. Had some issues the with the transmission controller, but seem to have fixed that. Mounted the new wideband controller in the dash and tested it. All ok. Refitted most of the interior, just need to fix the door handles and re-dye the backs of the seats. Put some polythene sheeting behind the door panels this time. Should keep them dry. Also mostly finished plumbing the fuel system. Got a few more bits to do yet, but its nearly there.... Managed to nab a pair of gear shift paddles for cheap too. Will be really easy to mount and they are super neat.
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Another busy day - got the core support cleaned up and painted this morning - 2k epoxy primer and then satin black top coat. Looks much better now. Let it bake in the sun for a few hours and then refitted it. Dropped the radiator back in and worked out the hoses for it, just need to get some clips, and also add a little bleed point in the top hose. Loads of clearance to the underside of the hood and it all worked out quite neat. Not got a huge amount of big jobs left to do, mainly small jobs that take ages. Waiting on some headers from the USA too.
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Quick job for the evening - mounting the new fuel pump. I thought an upgrade would be beneficial with the new engine. The new one being an AEM 340lph/100gph (@43psi) pump. Enough to support my HP goals with some to spare... Cut a stainless plate which bolted to the mounts I'd previously welded to my tank when I fitted my original pump, fitted a decent sized pre-filter, just need to finish the fuel lines off and I can stick some fuel in it and see if it leaks :lol: Ignore the low hanging mufflers, nothing connected the other side just yet...
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