zboi

Yeah I don't know how I got myself into this either. I had sold the LS swap out of my car, got this L28 as part of it. Originally the engine was supposed to be running good, but timing chain was noisy. Story evolved to engine stopped running one day and has been sitting for a year. Between the mystery electrical or fuel problem with the L28, and the missing wiring from my 240z which I deleted for the LS (voltage regulator, coil, etc.) it seemed this would be the cheapest way to get it running. I am also slapping a turbo on it, since after all this it will only cost a few hundred extra and will double the power.

If anyone was thinking, why don't I take all the stuff on a vortec 4200 (08+) and slap it on an L28, here is what it looks like. Firstly, there is like one post about putting the vortec 4200 in a s30 where a guy laid it in there and it looked way too tall. This is very misleading, a lot of the height comes from the front sump oil pan. Moving to a rear sump pan and the 4200 is only ~1" too tall, maybe even less. Could probably get it to clear with some trimming of the crossmember. That out of the way, using all the EMS off the 4200 on an L28 seems like it would be pretty cheap and easy. Cheap yes I spent $250, easy no. You are basically doing the work of an engine swap electrically plus a lot of extra chopping and bracket making. I've probably put 50 hours on this and am still not done. You do end up with top notch components at the end though, full sequential ignition, dbw, torque management, etc. Some of the things done: DBW pedal, can be drilled to fit stock location. Has a metal base that can have stock pedal welded too Crank sensor. 58x (60-2 teeth). Missing teeth should be 81 degrees before TDC. Use a 2.4 ecotec 58x wheel welded to the front pulley. Contact me for centering jig if you want one. Cam sensor. 4x weird pattern. Gap in halfmoon should be under sensor at TDC. Can mount to cam gear if you machine it shorter (will need endmill or lathe which I don't have), can mount to distributor if you cut distributor case half off. Throttle body is much larger, will need an adapter. I made a custom 3d model for it, contact me if you want one. Injectors are 14mm, tall, flow ~27lbs (a little more than stock turbo ones). Will fit directly into aftermarket fuel rail. Knock sensors seem to just fit against block fine. Coils need a 1/8" or equivalent mounting bar, but otherwise are direct fit. The typical ECU wiring for any modern computer, tune, unlock.

Location: Durham NC Price: make offer I have all the coolant sensors and manifold sensors off of an 1977 L28. Let me know if you want any. Was going to cut them in half and use them as pipe plugs to save a couple bucks.

I've been placing a vortec 4200 EMS on an L28 and was pleasantly surprised how easily the coils mount and thought I'd share. I'm using the 08+ Chevy trailblazer coils, which are the stronger ones, with the same internals as the LS coils of the year. I'm using an 1/8" aluminum bar with some holes drilled in it to hold the coils. I'm using the stock m5 bolts that came with the coils and some m5 nylon insert nuts on the back to hold them. I cut a couple little tabs out of the aluminum to bolt to the assembly to the valve cover. I got the entire EMS for $250, but these coils are about $55 new at the parts store.

10 thousandth out of round, 1/4" deviation fore and aft

I had pulled it off with a puller to do a timing chain job. Woodruff key fits very snug. I put a dial indicator on the pulley, it is perfectly centered, just 10 thousandths of pulley runout. Not trying to spend $300 on a new balancer. I guess I'll see if it's a problem when I get the engine running.

Is it normal to have wobble in the crank pulley on these engines? There is maybe a 1/4" difference in the the space between the crank pulley and the timing indicator as I rotate the engine. I also see a slight wobble in the water pump pulley, it's probably closer to 1/16" though.

So the Datsun flywheel is 120 tooth, 58x wheel is 60 soooo going to try grinding off 4 teeth from the flywheel 1/2 width and trying that as a trigger. If that fails it will be a 58x wheel bonded to the balancer

Peak power RPM should not be bouncing around hardly at all. Fiddling with the tuning should either bring some gains in certain RPMs if its targeting AFR or spark, or move the whole curve up. Your tuner should have locked down pretty much everything at a lower boost, then started adding boost and seeing the result. Which should result in a nearly identical graph shifted up with each increase in boost, until a point where the turbo runs out.

Was it identical in shape? Peak RPM and torque at same RPM each run? Trending up doesn't mean much. Like I said before your cam should not be falling off so soon, I'd expect peak power out another 1000 rpm. You have massive duration and overlap, which will amplify backpressure issues.

All the kits I've seen have adjustable motor mounts to slide the engine forward backwards. Full back on them will still have damper on or in front of rack. You can put them low enough to have a stock gen IV truck intake clear, but just barely.

Post another dyno sheet with lower boost!

Dug into this more. Seems all LS run ECUs can be set to 6 cylinder mode. Earlier ones only allowed for 6 or 8 cylinder mode, later 58x systems allow 0-8 cylinders. Earlier ones had some potential advantages, such as cable throttle body, simple 1x cam sensor. LS1s came with long injectors that will go in aftermarket fuel rails. The 24x wheel though is a strange 2 piece deal with unique toothing for the signal, which may be harder to fit. 58x systems are DBW with a normal 1 piece wheel with even spacing. But have an odd 4x cam sensor with custom spacings. From what I can tell on 58x system is that the crank sensor should be set so TDC of the prior cylinder (1-6-5-4-3-2 on GMs) so TDC of 2 or 20 teeth on the wheel. I'm not sure what it is on the 24x system.

Who is Boone and where are the results? Stock turbo manifolds go for ~$400 these days, in questionable condition.. @Zetsaz Thanks for providing examples. Have they been driving their cars a lot, and for a couple years? Doesn't sound like there are any other vendor offerings then. I have been leaning towards the NA manifold + crossover. Seems aftermarket only has long tube headers that merge too far back to be worth modifying. Not really interested in intakes, though since you mention, I imagine the protunerz one with its significantly shorter looking runners would be really bad for these cars. A shame cause it would make fitting DBW throttle body easy. Milkfab one looks nice, maybe someone will buy it.

I'm asking for people with experience with them guys, not some emotional crap. Yes everyone knows the head design sucks, yes people with lots of money buy it, but if anything someone shilling out big bucks on a l28 is not the ideal model for intelligent choices. I will reiterate, I have asked actual people running protunerz manifold and have posted the actual findings. If you look at the photos of theirs you will see the turbo is literally millimeters from the brake distribution block, wheras the stock turbo manifold and CX one are much further away. I would like actual experience from someone with CX or some other brands. Also as you stated, any person with a brain would look at the L-series and think "why don't we put the exhaust/turbo on the other side?" Further enforcing that these people should not be held highly for design choices.

Anyone running aftermarket turbo manifold? I see the ones at protunerz and cx racing. Protunerz one is very poorly engineered, places turbo right next to intake and brake distribution block. Have found someone running it, confirmed brakes get boiled and on top of that it is full of cracks (not surprised seeing that 6 into 1 T3 junction). CX racings manifold looks far better, but says it only works with their intake. Anyone try that or any other ones?

You would need to get some external ignition box to do boost retard. Probably easiest to go 4 barrel intake and a factory blow thru carb.

We talking snapped or just beating up the journals?

Ok, so answer is yes... sort of. Stock injectors will do 275hp when fuel pressure is cranked to 80psi. Stock computer is crap but you can fiddle with the AFM spring to make it work. Ignition timing will be wonky due to vacuum advance seeing boost, but a check valve can be used to kinda mitigate this. Would be better with L28et components, but can be ghetto rigged on normal L28e.

Is there any factory system that easily goes on these motors? Seems like an LS system can be moved over, as you can change cylinder count to 6 in the tune (btw the newer model atlas 4.2s used the same ECU). Would be kind of hilarious though buying an LS just to take off the harness, sensors, coils etc and leave behind the V8, but it is cheaper and superior to most aftermarket offerings.

Wow, I've built plenty of engines. I've built 1000 hp turbo LS motors. I've put out tuning guides even. Your the guy who posts a one word answer. I asked a simple question, are the injectors big enough and is the computer smart enough. Your the dude been insulting, and nothing is worse than a bunch of people throwing out a bunch of unfounded "buy this, upgrade that" crap. Show me an L series with a bent rod or broken crank.

But really need to see those other lower boost runs, if shape of graph is changing then that will make it much easier to diagnose.

People really need to stop with the whole build the bottom end up crap. We are talking about like 300hp people! No matter what you do you are never going to hurt the crank or rods. Were talking 50hp per piston/rod/crank journal. Don't throw money away! That said your dyno results are interesting, your cam profile clearly seems to be aimed towards higher RPM yet your power falls off pretty quick. Do you have some more Dyno sheets with less boost? You should see power increasing pretty linearly across the board with each increase of boost. If power is increasing at the low end but not up top then there is a clear restriction. First try with exhaust off, if your lucky that will help. I think you may be running out of spark though.

Yes it will be exactly like a normal gen V LS but with 2 less cylinders and a balance shaft. They are much rarer so harder to find cheap.