25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

I have had my 92 z/28 clone for a while now, and this summer the 383 detonated on me. Warranty on the crate motor covered the rebuild, and I then Sold it, and my built t56 swap to pay for a ls1-t56 swap. I bought a 99 T/A as my donor car and the engine/trans is sitting on the floor in the garage already. The trans and clutch are new with receipts from June this year, so I have no worries there. The engine on the other hand seems to run well and carries good oil pressure, but has 175k on it. Compression test resulted in 1 cylinder at 155, 5 cylinders at 160, another at 165, and the last one at 170. Everybody local has been telling me to run it, and that its still in relatively good shape, it's just the miles that scare me.

Now my 1 question this far. Do I spend the 1300ish for ls2 heads, cam springs, and the nessasary gaskets and hardware to put on this engine with my ls6 manifold, or do I spend the money on this 1400 dollar engine?
http://appleton.craigslist.org/pts/3307724802.html

The car dyno'd 430 hp and 470 tq at the crank and did 12.90s with a 6 speed when the 383 was in it. I just want to be a bit faster than before if I am going through the trouble of the swap. Is it even feasable to run mid 12's or better on a ls1 bottom end with 243 heads and ls6 intake with long tubes and appropriate cam/spring selection?

Sorry for the lengthy post, been researching this swap for weeks and feel I have a good handle on it, just stumped on what to do with this engine situation without going too deep and getting carried away, budget is fairly limited, around 3k to finish my swap. A lower mileage swap would have been ideal, but I couldn't pass the donor car up for 2300 with the new trans being in it. Any advice and insight is greatly appreciated.

Podium

iTrader: (2)

You can run 11s with a cam only ls.

Podium

iTrader: (2)

I would expect 400-430 with the set up you described depending on cam and proper bolt ons.

Podium

iTrader: (2)

At wheels

25th327RS

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400rwhp is what I was hoping for, new to ls and just didnt know how realistic of a goal it was. The ls2 heads I found local are milled .0250, which seems to put me around 11:1. I was going to call Texas speed and have them recommend a cam/spring combo based on those heads and ls6 intake, unless buying the Craigslist engine is a better idea for the money. So many conflicting answers at ls1tech, I think I can get calmer, sound advice over here on this dilemma.

Podium

iTrader: (2)

I've had my fair share of cams in my ls cars. My fav was the fm13. I think its a 230/232 . The bigger cams pull harder uptop but I'd rather have the all around power. Ls1tech is a flavor of the week site. Futral is one of my favorite shops. Cam motion cuts their lobes. Futral will also spec you.a custom cam for free. Or try and find a used torquer 2 which is basically the same thing (232/234). A used cam will run 250 shipped as opposed to 400 new. I would buy new springs (250 for duals) for sure though. Might as well get ls7 lifters (128 shipped) and new ls2 lifter trays (32). Hope this helps. Gotta get back to drinking at the bar lol

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Happy drinking!!! Big question is, do the heads and cam on this high mile 5.7 because it still seems right and ran good, or buy the 71k mile 98 ls1 with the upgrades already done and hope the engine is what the seller claims it to be?

1nasty86

iTrader: (5)

got a friend with a cam i spec'd him 23x/23x 112+3 made 419/395 on a ls1, 243 heads, ls6 intake and a 6 speed.... i can get you that same cam, set of dual valvesprings and a set of tfs 7.400 pushrods for 675$ shipped if your interested.... his car drives good around town and still gets great mpg....

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

That seems like a fair price, if I don't buy the engine on Craigslist I may very well do that. I think I may need shorter pushrods since the heads I would be using have been milled .0250.

UnstableAviator

Welcome to the world of LS power. I too had a 383, and my bolt on LS1 is just barely slower than my previous build sbc. First time out I ran 12.30's at 111, whittled it down to an 11.8x (based on the 7.62 1/8th) and have not even touched the engine. These things run, you're gonna be shocked how well a stock internal, free breathing LS1 will move out. Don't worry about it bring slower than 12.90's, that's a piece of cake. My advice would be to save for a 9" before you spend a cent on engine upgrades. You'll be faster since you can use the power at the track, and upgrading to a 4.30 gear will really make it scream. Last weekend I drove 250 miles and average 23.97mpg.

STREETDEMON

+1 for the fms f13. great cam, i've got one in my LQ9 with comp 918 beehives. works great, pulls hard to my rev limiter.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Well after a few days waiting for a call back on the engine listed in the Craigslist ad, I have heard nothing. I will continue on with the original plan of moding the ls1 I already have. Threads are useless without pics, but my phone only does one pic per post? Apologies in advance for that.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

This needs to fill the hole in the previous post

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

These came from spohn this week.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Going to grab these tomorrow morning, a set of 243 heads from a 05 GTO. They have been cleaned and milled .0250, and a valve job has been done.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Cleaned up the k-member and front suspension components and painted them black tonight. I had all this stuff out in the winter of 05-06 and totally stripped and repainted, but after *cough* 6 engines and 45,000 miles, it was chipped up and grungy looking. Really just needed to be cleaned well again and touched up. Cam, lifters, ls2 trays, springs, headgaskets, headbolts, and timing set should start arriving tomorrow. Want to check pushrod length this weekend, so I can order those and get the motor buttoned up next weekend.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Got the brake lines routed around the spohn mount plates, and pulled the steering shaft to tuck the lines behind it. My last set of headers were really close to the brake lines there, and just thought it would be easier to move them now than wait and see if I had to later once the headers are in.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Got the clamshells drilled apart, blasted, re-painted, and assembled. Will go to the hardware tomorrow and get propper hardware to bolt the spohn plates in with, the hardware was all mismatched when I pulled the old clamshells out. Must have been from the previous owner attempting the first V8 swap on the car that never got finished. Sorry pictures got swapped in these last two posts.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Broke the engine and trans apart today. Have a rather severe oil leak from the plug at the back of the crank. I will order and install a new plug with a sealant of some kind. I have read this plug holds pressurized oil, and have also read it only has to hold back crankcase pressure. Which is correct?

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Still waiting on the LS2 lifter trays, should be here Thursday. Have the rest of my parts here. Will tear it down and do the heads, cam, springs, chain and gears, oil pump, all new gaskets and ls6 intake, ect. My car was a 3.1 MPfI car with a 700r4, and the original harness has been stripped down to bare bones, including the fuel pump and fan relays with all related wiring. The harness had also lived through a minor fire and every fusible link had previously been replaced with in-line fuse holders. I decided to replace it with a 91 TBI harness to retain factory fuel pump and fan relay with wiring, and a third relay to wire my second fan back in. All fusible links are in tact this time as well and no burnt wires. I have the TBI harness stripped down as per pockets walk-through (pocket is the man!!! Never would have taken on this swap if I didn't find his wiring threads!). I took the firewall grommet and split it apart to remove the glue and wiring, I even extracted the small white wire separater. I plan to reuse it, and pump it full of hot glue like factory did to keep a nice water right seal. Have more pics but having trouble uploading right now, not sure why. Have t been able to click on links the last couple days either...

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Here is the harness about halfway stripped down.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

I carefully heated the big ball of wires and glue to soften it up, so I could cut and pry the white wire separater out of the mess. All it does is he the wires apart enough to let the glue seep I between each and every wire to make a good weather tight seal.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

The wire separator completely removed

dprest68

iTrader: (1)

Interesting. I don't think I've seen anyone do that before.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Picture of the cowl grommet assembled for a better look at how the wire separator allows the glue to flow between each and very one for a good seal. Open to suggestions on what to use here, not sure what's thin enough to flow inbetween the wires, yet thi I enough to stay inside the grommet until its cured. There is a 1/4 or so hole in the black half to inject whatever into it.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Some dummy didn't order retainers with his new dual valve springs, so put the engine on hold until next weekend. Decided to start on wiring instead. Got the fuel tank out with the lines up to the T junction from my donor car. Did some reading and I decided to remove the evap/vent solenoid from the tank, but leave the charcoal unit in place to filter fuel fumes. I pulled the wires out for the evap system off the tank, leaving just the 2 grounds, pump energize wire, and the fuel level output. I plan on snipping the plug off the 4th gen tank and getting the wiring pins for the 3rd gen sending unit plug. I will tie the 2grounds together on one pin, to make it a 3 wire plug, that will allow me to use my factory 3rd gen plug on the 4th gen sending unit without splicing any wires, just plug and play.

If I have missed anything reguarsing this tank swap please let me know, I will be getting the 0-90 ohm level sensor this week to button up the tank.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

I also dismantled the ls1 engine harness, and I stripped down the 3rd gen harness earlier this week. I feel I have a good understanding of what I am doing so far, but really underestimated the time involved to do the custom swap harness. I am probably being over cautious about labeling every pin and plug and checking them twice for correctness before I removed any pins or plugs from either harness, and that's why it's taking me so long. If I did another I am sure it would be much quicker but still a lengthy process in the end.

dprest68

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, I was taking my time with my harness and ended up spending 5 weeks on mine! It was my first harness though, so there was a learning curve

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

I was able to get time tonight to start re-assembling the ls1 engine harness. I have everything back in except for the air temp sensor. Not 100 percent sure if I want to retain the stock TPI box or do a CAI, so I don't know where to locate it yet. Busy tomorrow, but maybe Tuesday I can begin to lengthen the wires to the PCM after I get a measurement of how long to go.

Pocket

iTrader: (24)

Good job on the harness. Be especially thorough now and triple check everything. Much easier to track down problems and repair them now than when its installed

Id ditch the TPI intake for a better flowing DIY intake. Where to locate it is easy. Point it whatever direction is empty. Seal it from the hot engine bay with a flat panel of whatever you can get, plastic, PCV, alum etc, then get a foam seal on top so the hood will close it off

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Thanks pocket, I appreciate it. Your threads are immensely useful, I will ditch the TPI box if a custom CAI is better. I became aware of using truck or ZO6 MAf sensors to incorporate a air intake temp sensor with the MAF yesterday, need to do some reading and see where I want to go with that, insight on this is much appreciated.

Pocket

iTrader: (24)

The truck maf is also larger, so factor that in as well. Fbody 75mm, truck 85mm

That boils down to 3.5" intake for the Fbody piece and 4" intake for the truck unit. Either are plenty for most NA engines, just be aware the tuner needs to know which MAF is being used as the tune changes

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Oil pump pressure. Haven't heard of using a sealant on it, but also haven't had to replace one.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Pocket- I will most likely use the 85MM MAF, bigger intake opening can hurt and I like the idea of the IAT being incorporated into the MAF, one less part to fail.

Five7kid- The more I thought about the crank plug, it should not need any sealer, but I will use loctite retaining compound, which should be overkill. The donor car recently had a clutch installed with a rebuilt trans, a few thousand miles before I bought it. I don't see anything physically wrong with the plug but I am assuming it was disturbed when the pilot bearing was replaced.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Meant cannot hurt in previous post. Auto correct is the downfall of no PC worth using at home.

Did some research and found part numbers for the crank plug, got one at the local oreileys tonight and mic'd it against the opening in the rear of the crank, appears to be right.

Lastly tonight, my best friend I met years ago as my thirdgen parts guy, went to South Carolina today to make a delivery to hawks. He takes a truckload of stuff to hawks once or twice a year, and he grabbed a headliner kit and 1-3/4 long tubes. Can't wait for him to get back in town so I check them out. Hope they are as nice as the price is high.

Prokilllsx

I would buy the $1,400 one and keep your other one for back up. Should go at least mid to low 12's either way and maybe 11's

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

The 1400 dollar engine is t a option anymore, seller specifically says "if still listed I still have it" yet didn't list a number, and did not respond to either of the two emails I sent. If I got a response now, I would pass just out of spite.

Fuel level sensor is in, checked it with multi-meter to verify it worked properly. 2.2 ohm empty, and 92.6 ohm full. Other level sensor from the kit is in listed in the classifieds. Headers will be here TOMORROW!!! Excited, can't wait. Looks like I finally will get the engine torn down and new parts installed this weekend, and I will go back to working on the harness the next few nights after work.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Busy weekend! Did manage to make a good amount of headway on the car though. Got the motor torn down and got to know the parts washer cabinet on a first name basis. Cam and lifters are in. Swapped out the springs in the 243 heads from the yellow bee hives to some comp duals, and got those on with a new timing set and all new gaskets. Need a few Nickle and dime things and to put the accessories back on. Got a steal on a ls7 clutch and flywheel for 362 bucks!!! Should be here next week. I have 44 of the 53 PCM wires lengthened. Me being ****, over stupid things, have taken apart several harnesses to lengthen every wire in correct colors. I understand this serves little to no purpose, as the wires would be correct colors at the PCM and connectors should trouble shooting be nessasary, but I have the time, so why not? I have been soldering and heat shrinking all connections, and testing resistance when done, so far all have been between .5 and .8 ohms, I think I read somewhere that anything under 1.3 would be fine.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Half together....

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Here's how it sets now until I pick up a few little pieces

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

As for the leaking plug at the rear of the crank. It appears to only hold crank case pressure. The rear journal is hollow, and we were able to push the plug all the way trough to the inside of the engine and retrieve it that way, Instead of using the screw and slide hammer method. With the plug removed, its just a straight open hole to the crankcase.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

I ALMOST have the harness done. The thirdgen and fourth gen harness' are tied together and have been in and out of the car a few times for test fitting. PCM is under the dash in stock location using the thirdgen cowl grommet.
I need to get more electrical tape so I can bind some sections of wiring better so I can wrap it and install it with the engine, hopefully very soon.

Very rear-- HO2s, VSS, and reverse lockout wiring
Left-- PCM plugs with C207
-- long orange and red leads are power distribution, and PCM/fuel pump fuse
These are ran inside the passenger inner fender to a power block next to
The battery.

Center-- engine wiring, injectors, coils, map, crank cam....ect...

Right top-- thirdgen relays and C100
4 long wires going to the front of the engine are the cooling fan leads.

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Rotate pic 90 degrees clockwise in previous post and the post will make more sense. Not sure why posted in that orientation, stupid phone......

Finally measured for pushrod length too. With the heads being milled and the new valve train, looks like I need 7.350. Will order those and a 160-170 thermostat tomorrow, with some new plug wires. Cannot wait to fire this thing off!!!

Pocket

iTrader: (24)

Harness is shaping up nicely. Be sure to ohm it out atleast once prior to looming it

Get a solid lifter and adjustable pushrod to measure the distance accurately instead of guessing the new PR length based on how much the heads were milled

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

I had a friend come over Sunday evening, and we sat down and ohm'd the whole harness out. The real short wires from the PCM to the c207 were .03-.04 ohm, the longest ones were .04-.08. There were no wires with a ohm resistance over .08.

I bought an adjustable pushrod checking tool, put it in and adjusted the rod to zero valve lash. Measured that length and added .080 to it for lifter preload. I don't remember exactly where I read this from..... Is this way ok, or do I need to buy a solid lifter to check it? I would hate to have to pull a head back off to re-do this, but if I must, it is what it is, chalk it up to the learning curve.

Pocket

iTrader: (24)

.03-.08 is well withing range. A bad connection will stick out like a sore thumb with 50-200ohms. The main purpose is to ensure all the wires are ran to the correct locations and there are no fractures

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

After following your walk-through threads, I feel pretty confident after checking the pin locations, twice now. Still very nervous about it though, this is by far the largest and most in-depth electrical project I have yet to take on. We will find out soon enough!!

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Didn't get much done with the holidays, and catching a nasty bug. My picture uploads keep failing, will have to figure it out and post some. Engine harness is loomed and 100 percent done with the exception of the aldl, but all wires are there in the harness, just haven't decided where I want to locate it yet. Also modified the 18 inch harness from the stock ls1 tank to plug and play with the thirdgen body wiring. Tied the black and black/white together to go from 4 wires to three, since these were both grounds. Cut the 4th gen body plug off, crimped on third gen pins, hocked the 3pin plug from my stock tank and pushed the new pins on the 4th gen harness into the third gen plug. Ended up with stock thirdgen body plug and retained the stock 4th gen sending unit plug. Will post pics when I figure out my issue.

micktroup2

Not to upset you, after such a great job with the harness, but have you seen the Atomic EFI setup from MSD? The ECM is built into the FUEL RAILS and it takes about 10 minute to bolt it on and plug everything together. And program it! It looks like you could put it on the engine on the stand, drop the engine in, plug it into the module on the firewall, hook up the fuel lines AND DRIVE AWAY!
It is definitely on my 'LSX dream swap' list of thing I need!

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

No need to fear upsetting me. That's what forums are for, discussions!

I did see it, but thought 3k+ was pricy when I had a complete drop out already, PCM and wiring included, and did not see where performance would be enhanced with it. At this time in life, I have way more time than money, lol.