wfritts911

If you have a moroso catch can you are looking to get rid of I will take it off your hands for a fair price, been meaning to get one for a while now, my LS1 drinks oil. I will get you a bunch of beef jerky next time you head up this way as well, my dad works for Jack Links so I get a good(read: free) deal on it. Pm me the details. -Will

No kit, I bought a box of miscellaneous bends from Schoenfeld Headers. They are relatively local to me(Fort Smith/Van Buren, AR). Then I bought 4 separate U/J bends. I had a few tubes left over but not many. A few more shallow bends would have been helpful. If you are considering it don't be scared. It really isn't hard work, just really tedious. But if you leave yourself a couple weeks to get it done, it probably won't be that bad. Definitely recommend the mock bay, would have been significantly harder in the car. And I definitely recommend a band saw. I used one of those twist tubing cutters meant for pvc/copper and Im pretty sure I spent more time cutting than anything else. I used my chopsaw some, but a lot of the bends you cant fit in the chopsaw. Don't be afraid to do it, my motor mounts made them a little bit more difficult than they should have been. -Will

Well i finished them, after about 100 hours of my life, they are done. Motor has to be pulled to get them in and out(Which I pretty much knew was going to happen). But they fit great once they are one, all spark plugs are easily reached. Going to send them off to get coated by someone once I get a chance, I painted them with BBQ grill paint, which seems to be hanging on, except I didnt prep them at all, so it scratches off really easily, which happened a lot during install. At first they weren't bad, about halfway through, when I started building the bottoms going into the collectors, it got a little(read: a lot) frustrating. Not a lot of measuring involved, more of an eyeball, cut, cut, cut, tape, cut, tape, weld type deal. Probably would have been better had I had more than a week to do them. I pulled my car in last Sunday night and drove it out the past Sunday night. So exactly 7 days, at least 12 hour days, I'd say I have around 100 hours in them, but I also wasnt working very fast during those last hundred hours, got kinda burnt out but I kept on. Had a little bit of a scare on my way back to school. My oil pressure would drop when I would get on the gas, and putting it in neutral made it drop like a rock to zero. It eventually got to where anytime I pressed on the gas it dropped to zero. After driving to the store this morning and it being at zero for over 45 seconds straight, I determined that it was definitely my sending unit, that or the LS1 bearings are made out of unobtainium. All I could think about was man I just build custom headers and my motor blows lol. But anyways speedhut customer service is grade A and is sending me a new one no questions asked. I actually had 2 scares, the picture of my valve cover breather scared my cause it looks so milky, realized I was cleaning on split brake fluid from bleeding clutch and brakes, and that I probably got water on it. The picture of my oil pressure gauge is while the car was driving on the interstate around 65ish. I had time to unlock my phone, open the camera, and snap that all while it was on zero. And heres some pictures, because everyone loves pictures. In the first pic you can see the pool tube I used to get an idea of where to run the tubes, you can also see my mock engine by out of good ole 2x4's Then the headers fully welded ready for paint, then paint. I painted them with some BBQ grill paint, which hasnt burned off yet, but we scratched a lot off installing them, although I account that to I did zero prep. So the paint probably didnt stick very well. -Will

drivers side header ready to be finish welded. The exhaust gasses from the rear cylinder aren't gonna know what to do, hope they have gps lol. Took a few steps forward then a few more back on the passenger side but its coming along. -Will

Its with a T56. I have custom motor mounta as well so the passenger side header loops on front of the mount. Going to finish the drivers side tonight and will hopefullu have them done other than finish welding by tomorrow night(read: 3am). Shooting for around 32" primaries and mostly equal length -Will

my ls1 fbody pan sits at least an inch below my cross member. I think The truck pan would drag the ground on most cars unless you werent lowered at all. -Will

posting this off my phone so ill make it short. Those of you that have seen my car know it gad the exhaust sticking out the hood vent holed, well not anymore. About halfway done so ill post some teaser pics if I can figure it out on my phone. The first one is the passenger side,second is the drivers

Mine leaks from the rear seal too. I dont think the problem is 100% the seal(Which is why I havent fixed it). There tail housing has a bushing inside it that wears down, which in turn allows the seal to leak. In order to actually fix the leak(Probably anyways, your bushing could be fine I suppose), you have to replace the bushing. If I remember correctly they dont actually sell the bushing for a T56 but the one from a TH350(Maybe?) fits(Possibly needing slight modification). Look around on the LS1tech or something and you should be able to find what I am talking about it. Honestly if it isnt enough to drip, I wouldn't worry about it. -Will

Doh, didn't even think about it being an automatic. I would say vac leak or tuning issue, and it sounds like vacuum leak since your intake bolts were loose. Hope the intake bolts fixed it! -Will

If you are moving along at possibly any speed, the LSx motors have some BS that makes them try and keep the revs up above ~1000 so shifting is more "friendly", also seems to make it rev down slower in between shifts. If the motor is at really low RPM's it will surge because it gets bogged down. Your post is not very descriptive of when it is actually happening. Does it happen at all RPM? Or just really low? What gear are you in? How fast are you going when it happens? Could also be in your tune since you have a cam. -Will

I have 275s all the way around on my 17x9.5 Rotas. The main thing for me when I decided to not stagger my wheels was being able to rotate my tires. Can't really vouch for the handling characterstics as my suspension is sub par at best, but my car is quick around the autocross for having blown struts and what not. SunnyZ is also running 275s on all 4. Unless you have a specific reason for not wanting fat tires up front, then I say go with the 275s all the way around. -Will

First off welcome to the forums! Second off the car looks nice! Ditto what Pac_Man said, what do you have planned for the car?? LS1 swaps are pretty cool, not that I'm biased or anything! -Will

Theres a couple from the first time I drove the car. Don't have any recent underhood shots available right now. Don't mind the hack job wiring mess you see, it has since been cleaned up. I tried to make the exhaust fit facing down, but I realized it wasn't going to work so I thought about turning them upside down. Then I looked at the hood and realized it had removable vents, and the redneck side of me took over after that. Custom headers will be built over my xmas break, so I will finally have regular exhaust. -Will

Don't be afraid to tackle the wiring yourself. There LS1 harness is pretty much a stand alone harness straight out of an F-body(I can't vouch for the truck harness). If you send your PCM off to get the VATS(Vehicle Anti Theft System nonsense) tuned out, you give power to 5 wires and ground to a couple of wires and the chassis/heads/etc, and it will start right up once you give power to the starter. It seems daunting at first, but the great thing about the LSx motors is the fan base is HUGE. If you look over on LS1tech or couple of the other forums(LS1.com, LS1LT1, etc) you will be able to find multiple guides on how to wire it up. Then its just a matter of removing the stuff you don't need and integrating wires for gauges and stuff like that. Like the members above have posted, I don't think anyone makes a plug and play harness for an S30, which means you are going to have to modify any harness you get, which means you might as well just modify a stock harness. But it all comes down to how much your time is worth, mine tends to be worth next to nothing, making it a lot cheaper for me to do everything myself. -Will

1. 98 LS1. 799 Heads milled .035 for around 11.5:1 compression. Stock everything else. 2. T56 from same car. Monster Stage 3 clutch(6 Puck), eats everything behind it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If this thing had a kill/death ratio, it would be 7-0(1 10 bolt axle, 1 8.8 driveshaft flange, 4 datsun u-joints, 1 datsun axle bolts, 0 deaths) 3. Custom mounts. Ran DOM tubing from the crossmember back to where the TC rod mounts making it a "K" member. Then ran DOM tubing up to the stock F-body location mounts. Solid mounted. Custom trans mount as well. 4. External Walbro 255 pump/Corvette filter/regulator for fuel. Stock harness with unused stuff removed, re-wired entire car using Cooper Bussman 15300 fuse boxes. Look them up, they are awesome and only cost ~17 bucks. Hold 10 fuses/5 Micro relays, completely sealed. Radiator from a 80s model chevy G10 van with a V6. Cost ~70 bucks brand new, same core thickness as the stock LS1 radiator, bout the same height, width is about 5 inches shorter so it fits in between the frame rails. Has a spot for the steam hose as well. Used exhaust manifolds from a 98 C5, couldn't make them fit facing down so I let the redneck side of me take over, next thing you know there is 3 inch pipe sticking through the hood vent holes. Definitely turns heads. 5. Started my project mid march, drove it back to school(2.5 hour drive) the first week in april. Only have spring break(7 days, 14+ hour days) and 3 weekends worth of work time on it. Of course I have done countless hours of work on it past getting it driving, these type of projects are never really "finished" 6. Sitting on Tokico lowering springs right now, blown tokico blues in the front, stock rear struts filled with power steering fluid. Body rolls like crazy. Eats U-joints on a daily basis. Custom ron tyler style diff mount as well. Also sporting the OBX LSD with the better bolts and thrust washers. Current fastest time at my local 1000ft track is a 10.06@104.9mph with a 1.91 sixty foot. Equates to a 12.0x give or take a tenth or two in the quarter. This was on 275/40-17 street tires. And because everyone loves pictures. Met up with Keith(RebekahsZ) and had a mini LSx Z Fest And because everyone really loves videos. -Will

Great deals are hard to find, "clearencing" is cheap I don't actually have any real info to add unfortunately, hope you find what you need though -Will

Thanks! They are 275/40-17's on the Rota RBR 17x9.5 group buy wheels all the way around. -Will

Buddy of mine snapped a good one of my car at the drag strip last weekend. And yes, those are exhaust pipes coming out the hood vents -Will

If you are a handy with a welder and some cutting/grinding tools, making your own mounts isn't hard. I used some DOM tubing ran up the the stock f-body motor mount plates that bolt to the block. Pretty simple to make and worked well. The only thing I would do differently with my motor mounts would be to change the passenger side one to bolt to the front of the motor like the JCI mounts. Using the stock f-body mount location doesn't leave much room for headers to fit between the mount and the starter. Don't be afraid to make your own mounts, they aren't difficult to make. -Will

Sounds like it should work pretty good, reducing the angle in the joints will be a big plus. Are you not worried about just moving the weak link out to the stub axles? Thats the reason I kind of decided to go SRA, because I didn't want to spend the money to get strong axles only to move the weak link to the stub axles. Maybe you have the billet stub axles now so you will be good, although I know someone has broke the billet stubs, but he had a LOT of power. -Will

Pfft Keith can't even get my screen name right, its wfritts, no z's in this guys name. But anyways Keith is being way to nice, his car is fantastic as well. He surprised me when he told me to get in his driver's seat, his drove great as well and that LS2 pulls hard! Naturally after I drove his I had to let him drive mine under one condition, if he broke an axle he had to swap it out! But anyways words get boring so I will upload the pics I snapped from the very large Central Arkansas HybridZ Fest. And last but not least, once I realized what Keith was doing, I scrambled to get my camera turned back on and barely got a picture in before he turned the line lock off. Definitely look forward to meeting up again next year to do some autocrossing! -Will

Fast? Or really, really, really slow. I mean they shipped them in '69, and said they would deliver them the same day, but you haven't even got them yet??? Terrible service if you ask me. -Will

I agree. Plus its not fair that 1 QUICK Z gets 4 out 5 top 1/4 mile times lol. Not that my 1/4 mile times are anywhere near top 5 territory, but maybe one day. -Will

I run Rotella 15-40w in my motorcycle(85 Honda Nighthawk 650). Also just recently put Rotellas synthetic(5-40 maybe? Cant remember) in my LS1. Got a friend with an STi that runs rotella as well. From what I hear its pretty good stuff, but I'm a pretty firm believer that changing oil regularly is much more important than what brand you run. I usually just buy whatever synthetic the parts stores have for a good deal or from the 5 quart jugs at walmart. Change it every 3k or less. When I worked at firestone a 5.3 suburban came in with over 300k on the clock and the lady asked for Rotella oil, we wen't to make sure and she said he grandpa or dad had always put that in it, and with over 300k on the clock, it can't be doing any harm. -Will

That gear pattern is your whine right there, his carrier bearings might not be great, but that pattern is terrible. You don't need a special tool to check pinion depth, the gear pattern will tell you what the gears want. All you need is some calipers to measure shims, a dial indicator for backlash, and a bearing puller and preferablly a press to get the bearings on and off, and a beam style inch pound torque wrench to measure pinion preload. You will probably need to locate some pinion and carrier shims that will fit the R200, and maybe a crush sleeve(Dunno how the R200s are setup). I'm a little rusty on my gear patterns as I haven't had to setup gears in over a year(Thank God!). But you will just need to change the pinion shims again and again(And changing carrier shims to spec backlash in each time) til you get an acceptable pattern. Although if you have never done it, it might be best to take it to a pro, it is a really tedius(sp?) job. In truth your best option is probably to just find another diff and swap the carrier in there. Although if the carrier is out of spec you might have the same problem with a different diff. -Will