LS1 Swap

[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:

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!

[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

[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!!!

[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!!

[MunsterZ28]

omg x1000 i love that thing

[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......

[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.....

[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.

[Fbomb]

Sure has come a long way since August

[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!!!!

[ktl711]

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

[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!

[Emulsifide]

Alright, super minor update but it's significant.

After disconnecting the airbag controller, I'm down to one code:

[HUD] U1000 - Class 2 Communication Malfunction (History) (Current) (Immature)

I've actually seen this before on every car I've tuned with HP Tuners, so I'm not going to worry about it.

I managed to figure out why the starter wasn't turning the engine over. Turns out, the BCM is throwing a fit because my key isn't the proper resistance for it's VATS value (because I got the entire interior wiring harness and BCM from a 01 Firebird Convertible and didn't think to ask the original owner to check the resistance of his key), therefore preventing the starter relay from turning on. I knew this was happening in the ECU, but I didn't know the BCM had it's own separate functionality for it. What I also didn't know is that disabling VATS in HP Tuners only disables it in the PCM (makes sense considering HP Tuners is only concerned with the PCM when programming). The simple fix is to bypass the starter relay (that's controlled by the BCM) by grounding it out, allowing the tumbler to trigger the starter. A single wire between the relay and ground had the starter working normally. Sweet!!!

That's it for tonight (I'm tired and can stand to have a night off). Oh and the brake line and caliper brackets look pretty good after painting them.

More tomorrow!

[Emulsifide]

More done!

• Painted rear caliper brackets red.
• Painted front brake to k-member brackets red.
• Hooked up the battery, yanked the fuel pump fuse, and tested some electrical functions.
• Hooked up HPTuners and pulled the initial tune. Rewrote it back turning off a bunch of DTCs and VATS. Security light is out, but lots of alarms are still going off.
• The entire rear bumper, berger panel, and lights are all back in place.

Pics:




I tried turning over the engine real quick to see if I could get it to spin, but that didn't do anything. I'm wondering if I forgot to hook up the connections to the steering wheel column. I'll have to take a peek under the dash tomorrow. Here's a list of the DTCs I'm currently getting:

[Restraints] B0017 - RF/Passenger Frontal Deployment Loop (Single Stage or Stage1) Open (History) (Current) (Immature)
[Restraints] B0026 - LF/Driver Frontal Deployment Loop (Single Stage or Stage 1)Open (History) (Current) (Immature)
[Restraints] B1000 - ECU Malfunction (History) (Immature)
[Restraints] B1001 - Option Configuration Error (History) (Current) (Immature)
[Restraints] U1040 - Loss of Class 2 Communications with ABS (History) (Current) (Immature)
[Restraints] U1096 - Loss of Communications with IPC (History) (Immature)
[HUD] U1000 - Class 2 Communication Malfunction (History) (Current) (Immature)

All junk codes relative to the air bags being disconnected, a VIN mismatch between the PCM, BCM and airbag controller, and the disconnected ABS. Not bad! Doing a quick scan, the TPS and temp sensor are working fine. I didn't have time to check anything else.

Lastly, the first piece to my latest upgrade arrived:





More tomorrow!