LS1 Swap

[Emulsifide]

Update:

Brakes (front and rear) are 100% assembled and ready for bleeding.
Power steering system is 100% ready to be filled.

Soooo close!! Seriously, if I could have 12 hours or so with my car, I'd probably be ready to roll it out of the garage and fire it up. Things are finally starting to come together nicely now.

More tomorrow!

[ktl711]

Great news! Can hardly wait to see it on the street!

[Emulsifide]

Update:

Things are getting done!!! After taking forever to source the proper part, the cooling system is finally buttoned up. I debated on what to do about the heater core inlet and outlet on the water pump. Some people say block off the ports using rubber plugs and don't worry about it, but after a few years stuff like that has the potential to crack and leak. No thanks. Thankfully, someone on LS1Tech managed to find the perfect loop hose for the job....Dorman Part#87629. Oddly enough, it's a stock part for a 3.1L in the 2nd gen J-body:



Here it is installed without clamps:



I think I have a solution for the exhaust system. I have the finicky piece all cut up and ready to be welded. Again, I gotta go grab the welder from my dad (hopefully tomorrow). I'm also waiting on exhaust hangers to come in before doing anything (ETA: tomorrow).

I also got a lot of little things done in the 2 hours that I worked on it today. With that:



Startup is imminent!!!!

[Fbomb]

Sure has come a long way since August

[meissen]

Looks great so far! Keep up the good work. That u-shaped tube for the waterpump is a great idea. I plugged my waterpump in a few places and yeah over time it just leaks and is no good.

[Emulsifide]

Thanks for comments guys.

Quick update. Mr. UPS Guy dropped this off conveniently at my garage door hidden behind my Volvo while I was a work:



Rut roh!! Mr. UPS Guy appears to have torn a massive hole in the side of my 75lb box. No worries though since everything was in it!! All I have to say about that is:



This thing is AWESOME. All the welds are absolutely gorgeous. Here's some 9 inch rear porn for ya:







I don't know if this is common or not, but the tube ends were even welded internally for extra support:


Torque arm mount:


Now for the bad. It looks like my UMI LCA relocation brackets aren't going to fit. They need to be about a 16th of an inch wider to fit properly:


Not a huge deal I don't think. I'll probably end up grinding off a little bit of material on the house and the brackets to make them fit.


That's it for tonight (gotta work on finishing the bathroom). Pretty sexy huh? Wait until you see what comes in tomorrow.....

[Emulsifide]

I give you...THE 3RD MEMBER:




Purchased from Roush Yates
Nodular iron 3.25" case
Iron Daytona pinion support
Fully polished 3.80 Visteon ring and pinion
Detroit locker (31 spline)
ARP 12 point cap bolts
ARP 12 point safety wired ring bolts
ARP 12 point pinion nut
Timken bearings
Billet steel 1350 yoke
Provisions for a NASCAR rear end oil pump

Shit just got serious......

[MunsterZ28]

omg x1000 i love that thing

[Emulsifide]

omg x1000 i love that thing

I know! Cool huh? It's a friggin NASCAR rear (not that I'm a fan [nor foe] of left turn only racing).

Talking to the guy over the phone, this along with a bunch of other 3rd members with MANY different ratios were put up on eBay because they're cleaning off their shelves and moving to a new location. This one along with most of the others pretty much only saw a couple laps around the track for motor testing purposes.

Just eyeballing it and playing around, the preload on the pinion and the gear backlash look pretty good. I need to get some gear paint and check the pattern. The gears look fantastic all polished up!!

[ThreeHonks]

wow I really cant believe I just found this thread... this is the first time i've ever opened this.

You have done a fantastic job on this car! i really love reading through threads like this Keep it up and hope to see it out at Woodward or the meet n greet!!!

[OIF1VET]

Looking good man!! I know you can't wait to drive it!!!!!! I didn't realize how much I missed driving mine until I got to drive it last week.. lol

[Emulsifide]

UPDATE:

Lights are in and foglights are installed (didn't have them previously):



I FINALLY figured out my exhaust issues and I'm very happy with the results. Here's a pic of the area in question:



You can't really tell from the picture, but that particular spot has at least 1/2" clearance away from everything, which should be fine considering the engine and trans are entirely poly mounted. The silver material you see above the piping is DEI Reflect-a-Cool (http://www.designengineering.com/cat...s/reflect-cool), a 2000 degree radiant heat thermal shield. From the initial looks of it, I've made the LPP true dual system tuck much better than anyone else on LS1tech.com, so I should have a decent amount of clearance. The system will be finished up tomorrow.

I'm thinking fireup will be Wednesday or Thursday at this point. Literally a couple of bolts need to be tightened and fluids put in. That's it!

[WMCCjames]

Looks good! It will be interesting to see how quiet that center section is. I have come across those polished visteon r&p's before and wondered if they were any good. I assume you will be replacing those rod ends...lol

[Emulsifide]

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT'S ALIVE!!!!

Click on it to watch it in HD:

VATS kicked my ass at first. With the starter relay grounded, I could only get the car started for 3 seconds at the most. I totally forgot that my key is not the key for the BCM that I got with the body harness. Because of this, I needed to find the proper resistance of the swapped BCM's key (which I definitely don't have) to get the car to keep running after start up. Turns out, GM has a list of 15 possible resistances for their keys. I took a quick spin in the Volvo to Radio Shack and grabbed an assortment pack of 1/2 watt resistors. After twisting resistors together for a little over an hour, I managed to find the right resistance.....7.5Kohms. It took me 13 friggin tries out of the possible 15 to land on the right one.

My god is this car low with the Strano springs. This might be an issue with regard to the exhaust:



I have roughly 3" of ground clearance. I can't remember which perch position I put the Koni's on. I sure hope I dropped it down to the lowest setting so I can bring it up another half inch. Oh well. At least I can get up and down my driveway.

Out of the garage for the first time in a year!!!



The car is set up for the 42# injectors, but the cam is giving it hell right now. I only added 50rpm to the idle, so I might try putting that up slightly more. I also need to get my wideband on the car to get some drive-ability data. This is going to take a lot of time, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get the car moving along for a BBQ I have next weekend and of course the M&G. I also have to get a new windshield and I absolutely need an alignment asap.

[birdie2000]

Great job, sounds good! I like the sound of that cam, just enough to let you know it's there but still pretty tame.