Mountiong LS1 into 1971

[Guest Will]

Have any of you guys looked at these manifolds:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1851878546

 

They're from the '02 ZO6 Corvette, and have a pretty cool tri-y pattern. I don't know if they'd fit, but I don't know if anyone's tried them, either.

[cyrus]

Corvette manifold hit the steering.

 

I almost finished the extraneous wire removal... I have removed 11.44 lbs of wire! Like a grocery bag full.

 

Now I need a custon aluminum dash to mount the camaro gauge cluster.

[cyrus]

Where do I buy suspension rebuild stuff?

[Phantom]

Cyrus,

Check with Motorsport Auto out in Orange, CA - (800) 633-6331. They have all the stock components plus several non-stock upgrade items. I redid my '77 with KYB struts (get them from anyone), urethane bushings, and the European spec. springs from Nissan. They are 1/4" lower than original but 15-17% stiffer. When the LS-1 was put in my Z the nose basically settled back to its original position so the euro springs should handle your fine - unless you want to lower the car.

[Phantom]

Did a quick test last night. With LS-1 & tranny sitting in the car I leaned on the radiator support. My full weight of 220 lbs sank the nose about another 1/2". That puts it to right where it was with the original L28 stuff. The water, accessories, etc. that have yet to be added won't add up to my weight so it appears at this point the new combination puts less load on the front suspension than the original. Once it's all done I'll axle the car and find out for real.

[jeromio]

Can't let the typo thread lapse...

 

Yesterday I put the motor back in and confirmed that indeed, the reason there are 2 different FBody trans members (auto/M6) is because each trans has a different mounting point. So, my lovely trans member is now merely a small metal sculpture. I got as far as mocking up a replacement and bolting it in place. I didn't have enough time left to haul the welder out to the garage to weld in the gussets.

 

This time I made it such that the flat part is lower so I can have some room for adjustment. I imagine I'll end up just putting spacers on it and the trans will end up in the same place anyway, but, at least adjustment is possible.

 

I also spent waaaay too much time constructing a bracket for the ECM. It's pretty zippy with a nice clamp and such. But I really didn't need to waste that 4 hours thusly.

 

I'll be putting the bracket in the lower right of the passenger footwell. It's a pretty short run from the harness to this location, but it turns out that I have just enough harness for the 2 plugs to reach the ECM in this location. Had to make a big hole in the firewall to get them suckers thru too.

 

Looking at the exhaust again - I really should have gone with 2 1/4 from the manifolds instead of 2 1/2. I guess I can crush it a bit to clear the starter/frame rail. There's lots more room in the tunnel now though - and no shifter in the way. That damn CAG solenoid is pretty close though. I don't think I can remove it without dropping the trans though. Plus I'd have to cap off the hole.

 

BTW, an engine tilter makes the chore of pulling/inserting the engine/trans in and out of the car SOOO much easier. Especially with an impact wrench doing the adjusting - zip zip and the motor's tilted in place. I only wish that I'd made mine specifically for the V8 rather than for the L6 - it's pretty long and tends to interfere with the hoist at severe angles.

[cyrus]

Update.

 

I have cut out more wire from car, 15 pounds now. I combined the camaro and datsun harness up front. It looks so factory it hurts. I have all the electrical working now, fuel pump, camaro dash, datsun lighting, etc. To mount the ecm I used the camaro bracket screwed on the fender ( real easy). I had to move all of the wires that go to the starter, o2, oil press, etc... because they close to the exhaust manifold. I ran them all foward out the front of the engine and up to the fender.

 

I am getting stuck though I have the folllowing issues:

1. I have to lower the differential front by 3/4"

2. I need custom steel lines for the fuel and I want to run them outside of the frame rails

3. I can not find a LSD in california.

4. It is tough to find hoses for the LS1-Griffin radiator combo.

 

cyrus

[Phantom]

Cyrus,

Do you happen to have any photos of your wiring harness work? I'd love to see what you have done with the two harness's.

If you want, I'll put some feelers out here in Texas to see if anyone has one.I'm still not at a point where there is anything worthwhile to post on my conversion. Started cutting some L28 related mounts out last week but nothing of significance has happened yet. I'll send photos when I'm able to get something useful.

[jeromio]

I put a little update up at http://240z.jeromio.com/motorswap

 

Looooong ways to go. Plus I have to send in my PCM to get reprogrammed. Not gonna make it to Mikelly's gathering

 

Also, I think that by grinding away 0.450 inches from the A/C bracket, I can get the compressor to fit. I figure 0.25 from the inside part of it and 0.2 from the outside (engine side). Then again, I dunno why I'm wasting my time on this since I don't exactly need A/C to get the car running (and it's practically winter now).

 

I need to get a fakey pulley and mount it up where the PS pump would normally be. Otherwise I don't think there'll be enough belt to wrap around the waterpump pulley. It's ironic, because it would be so much cleaner and easier if the waterpump had a real, ribbed pulley - could get reverse flow cooling as a bonus! (yeah, I know - the impeller is not designed to run backwards).

[jeromio]

I'm hoping Cyrus sees this post (I think it's cool to have all the LS1 info in this one thread).

 

I'm tracing down my wiring and I am wondering if there are any time (and headache) saving short cuts that I could take. For example, I started trying to trace out the grey clutch switch wire hoping it would end up somewhere int he neighborhood of the transmission harness (although my engine harness is for an A4). But then I am wondering if it wouldn't just be easier to patch that in with another engine cut off ground signal. I hate that clutch switch on my Contour anyway.

 

Also, in bleeding the slave cyl, I got real worried. I loosened the bleeder screw about 1 1/2 turns and pumped the pedal. Most fluid came out the screw (or appears to have), but a WHOLE LOT is in the bellhousing and dripping out.

 

So,

A) I hope the clutch disc isn't wet with fluid

I hope my homemade fitting arrangement is not to blame

C) why would the fluid leak past the screw?

D) I HATE THIS DESIGN!@#$%& If I have to drop the trans cuz of this I will be so unhappy.

[cyrus]

Hey Jeromio,

 

Use the shop manuals from helm inc.

 

You have the camaro harness right?

 

Remember you have:

camaro engine harness (no mod needed)

camaro light harness (goes under hood)

camaro body harness (dash+Interior)

Camaro tail harness (throw out)

Datsun engine bay harness (just retain the lights, horn and a + and -)

Datsun dash harness

 

The basic stragegy is to minimize all harnesses, retain the engine PCM and Body computer, use the correct resistance solder inline for the pass key II, and have the harnesses run in parallel with each other.

 

Start by cutting out the radio, amp, and speakers, this is about a third of all wire inside.

Then remove rest, air bag, HVAC, etc.

 

Ok now the clutchk, I think it can be done simply with out removing anything. I will just make an adapter that goes between the end of the camaro line and the datsun 1/8 hard line.

 

Or maybe you can tap the exisiting clutch fitting (it comes out).

 

If I have see farther, it is because I am have stood on the shoulders of giants. (Decartes..?)

 

cyrus

[Phantom]

Cyrus,

Have a hose made that runs between the two that has the specific fittings on each end. Any hydraulic shop should be able to do that for you.

[cyrus]

Phantom,

 

Did you have this done. I took it to 3 places and no one could deal with the stainless braid.

 

cyrus

[jeromio]

Look on my site for the clutch MC/SC mods. remove the GM stuff and throw it away. There's a small pin holding the funky fitting to the SC housing. I drilled and tapped that hole (details on the site).

 

It works, I hope. Worried about the bleeding since there was fluid everywhere.

 

I have comprehensive GM manuals on CD. Diagrams are sorta spread out into individual component diagrams and it's sometimes hard to link them back together. I only have the engine harness.

 

Are you planning on using the clutch depressed switch then? I had John at Speartech reprogram my PCM - reflashed it from A4 to T56 and removed VATS. But there are still some complications for the wiring since I have the A4 (auto trans) harness. I have the pinouts from the PCM for instance, but I hate to have to tear apart the whole harness just to track down the 3-4 wires I need that concern the transmission...

[Phantom]

Cyrus,

I have not done what I suggested - yet. I noticed with my stock set-up that the hose from the hard line to the slave cylinder was the same hose used for the brake lines at the wheels. That gives you a few options. One would be to buy a set of braided hoses from MSA and use an adapter on one end - or buy a single rubber hose from NIssan and use an adapter. Another would be to go to an actual Hydraulic shop - not an automotive - and have them build a custom hose - probably not braided - for you. The hydraulics folks have all kinds of hose - like those used on backhoes & such - that can take tremendous abuse that would be a good material to use. There are several good shops here in the DFW area but I haven't started trying to source the part yet.

[jeromio]

There's an RX7 guy on LS1tech.com who made some wierd adapter to the GM stuff with the help of a hydraulics shop. He recommended against anyone following that pathway. Too much hassle for no added benefit.

 

I bench tested my setup and it held nicely with no leaks. I used one of the "extra" braided lines that came with my MSA 280ZX line kit. It had femail fittings on both ends. The stock 240/280Z SC hose is male female if I recall correctly. Not gonna be helpful.

 

I have hard line from the MC to the braided line, then hard line from braided line to the SC. The SC fitting is a mostly standard one (although a longer fitting woulda been better) which is larger OD than the ones that come on preformed 3/16 inch line. (I had a bag of assorted fittings for 3/16 inch line.) I drilled out the SC hole a bit and tapped it for the fitting.

 

Do yourself a huge favor and just remove the GM stuff and toss it.

[cyrus]

Hey Buds,

 

Update time.

 

I got the cast iron manifold to clear are some work. I bolted collector extender on them by drilling and tapping.

 

I got the cooling, custom driveshaft (23.5" long), fuel lines done. I have been running it with open exhaust for my neighbors to enjoy Now just brakes, air cleaner, dash etc and i will driving.

[Mudge]

Originally posted by Helldrives:

How will not forcing the exaughst through a kitty effect the ecu?

You need O2 sims for replacement of the after-cat O2s, or re-program the computer (PCM). LS1 Edit is very expensive, ~$550 last I checked, the Tunercat crowd unfortunately doesn't have a solution yet. Or you can ship off the computer to someone for probably ~$300.

[cyrus]

I have O2 simulators. I can not stress enough how well engineered the entire powertrain system is engineered. I see no reason to use a different computer or reprogram it. I used it all. The body control module, the PCM, and the pass key II. I also use the dash and it made the swap great.

[Guest jdllaugh]

Cyrus: How did you get around the VATS system? I have the tiny resistor from the donor car, and know it's value. Can I use that?