RIP: LS6->LS3 swap
05-19-2015, 07:08 PM
#1
RIP: LS6->LS3 swap So for those had not seen my thread my ls6 developed an odd tapping at idle a few weeks back. II changed the oil and all appeared normal so I assumed the lifters had started collapsing, so I started all new threads about getting RR's Johnson lifters and new springs to make a badass valvetrain. Well upon pulling the heads off I found no damaged lifters, valves or cam lobes, but I did find this....
Its a little deeper than it looks but I still think it could be cleaned up. I'm expecting to find a piece of the piston in the pan when I finally pull it off as thats what I and my buddy who builds motors cased the markings in the wall.
Anyway I really didnt have time to rebuild the motor and being I have no machine connections or parts pricing connections it would have been quite expensive. So the motor was laid to rest as the odo ticked just over 35k miles and I began to search for a new motor.
I ended up finding an l99 crate motor (same as ls3 with valve reliefs) on craigslist still new on the stand. Motor was bought by crane cams to do some testing and was filled with oil and fitted with heads but never fired. I have to say I had my doubts about it never being fired but after seeing it I dont think I have any reservations. Here it is getting loaded into my buddies truck.
Brought it home and began piecing together the parts. I needed to obviously delete DOD and VVT to go into my camaro. So I got the parts from here as well as ebay and some sponsors. I just went with converting it into an ls3 crate motor for now. So I sold the l99 bits off of it, valley cover, timing gear, cam, oil pump etc. Then I sourced a new ls3 cam, oil pump, valley and cometic .040 gaskets to bring it up to 10.7 :1 ls3 compression and also bring quench down to the .033 range.. I thought about putting a cam in it but this is expensive as is and later on I really do want to go with a blower. I loved my cammed ls6 but a blower drives just like stock with gobs more power and the ls3 setup will handle 600whp no problem.
Heres the vvt/dod setup before delete
Today the parts started trickling in and so I got to work doing the swap.
DOD/VVT delete completed: LS3 oil pump on and cam going in.
I had some bad luck though. When putting in the cam I noticed a small bt of aluminum in the cam beaing oil hole. So without really thinking I pulled it out and went on my way. Later on I got to think that maybe the block wasnt cleaned to well before gm assembly. So I got **** and pulled the cam back out and made my only new cam TTY bolt uselss. Ended up finding a few more small pieces of aluminum in the oil goles so I cleaned them all out with brake cleaner and compressed air and started again. Only to crack the cam retainer plate torquing it down for the 2nd time..
Anyway here it is finally buttoned up. With the ls3 damper swapped for an ls2 one.
And finally as it sits now in the garage with the valley and timing cover in place. Just waiting on the heads to get here tomorrow to button it all up.
Heres whats left of the ls6 motor I've pieced out pretty much everything on it now its just down to the shortblock.
It'll be getting pulled in the next couple days to get the swap done.
Its a little deeper than it looks but I still think it could be cleaned up. I'm expecting to find a piece of the piston in the pan when I finally pull it off as thats what I and my buddy who builds motors cased the markings in the wall.
Anyway I really didnt have time to rebuild the motor and being I have no machine connections or parts pricing connections it would have been quite expensive. So the motor was laid to rest as the odo ticked just over 35k miles and I began to search for a new motor.
I ended up finding an l99 crate motor (same as ls3 with valve reliefs) on craigslist still new on the stand. Motor was bought by crane cams to do some testing and was filled with oil and fitted with heads but never fired. I have to say I had my doubts about it never being fired but after seeing it I dont think I have any reservations. Here it is getting loaded into my buddies truck.
Brought it home and began piecing together the parts. I needed to obviously delete DOD and VVT to go into my camaro. So I got the parts from here as well as ebay and some sponsors. I just went with converting it into an ls3 crate motor for now. So I sold the l99 bits off of it, valley cover, timing gear, cam, oil pump etc. Then I sourced a new ls3 cam, oil pump, valley and cometic .040 gaskets to bring it up to 10.7 :1 ls3 compression and also bring quench down to the .033 range.. I thought about putting a cam in it but this is expensive as is and later on I really do want to go with a blower. I loved my cammed ls6 but a blower drives just like stock with gobs more power and the ls3 setup will handle 600whp no problem.
Heres the vvt/dod setup before delete
Today the parts started trickling in and so I got to work doing the swap.
DOD/VVT delete completed: LS3 oil pump on and cam going in.
I had some bad luck though. When putting in the cam I noticed a small bt of aluminum in the cam beaing oil hole. So without really thinking I pulled it out and went on my way. Later on I got to think that maybe the block wasnt cleaned to well before gm assembly. So I got **** and pulled the cam back out and made my only new cam TTY bolt uselss. Ended up finding a few more small pieces of aluminum in the oil goles so I cleaned them all out with brake cleaner and compressed air and started again. Only to crack the cam retainer plate torquing it down for the 2nd time..
Anyway here it is finally buttoned up. With the ls3 damper swapped for an ls2 one.
And finally as it sits now in the garage with the valley and timing cover in place. Just waiting on the heads to get here tomorrow to button it all up.
Heres whats left of the ls6 motor I've pieced out pretty much everything on it now its just down to the shortblock.
It'll be getting pulled in the next couple days to get the swap done.
05-22-2015, 07:23 AM
#8
Yep keeping the 58x and 4x timing gear just using the lingenfelter box to get it to talk correctly to the pcm.
fedex didnt get here till yesterday at 4 instead of 11 like they normally do with my heads. So heres what they looked like when I got them and then after a lot of stripping. They just had some dyno testing tie on them and came with new psi 1511 springs. I had a new set of ls3 springs here that I swapped them out for. I figure I can either sell the 1511's or keep them for that possible later on cam if I choose. As opposed to wasting them on a stock cam.
http://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/ls1tech....06893a60a8.jpg
http://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/ls1tech....a42756b945.jpg
Side note, notice the heads here have a shiny intake valve, this is how you identify true ls3 heads with hollow intake valves. L92 heads have an intake valve that looks cast just like the exhaust valve. Between the 2 heads the lighter intake valve is the only difference
Here they are after a good paint stripping and new ls3 springs.
fedex didnt get here till yesterday at 4 instead of 11 like they normally do with my heads. So heres what they looked like when I got them and then after a lot of stripping. They just had some dyno testing tie on them and came with new psi 1511 springs. I had a new set of ls3 springs here that I swapped them out for. I figure I can either sell the 1511's or keep them for that possible later on cam if I choose. As opposed to wasting them on a stock cam.
http://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/ls1tech....06893a60a8.jpg
http://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/ls1tech....a42756b945.jpg
Side note, notice the heads here have a shiny intake valve, this is how you identify true ls3 heads with hollow intake valves. L92 heads have an intake valve that looks cast just like the exhaust valve. Between the 2 heads the lighter intake valve is the only difference
Here they are after a good paint stripping and new ls3 springs.
05-25-2015, 01:31 PM
#11
SHE'S ALIVE!! lol fired her up today one turn of the key and it roared to life and started idling. Albeit not the best idle due to the stock ls1 tune I have in it but it settled down after a while.
I did encounter some issues and unfortunately haven driven it due to those issues. The heads I got for the motor that were new with dyno time had a header olt stripped out which cost me some time and cash to get fixed. The other issue is that the steering shaft with the bmr k member appears to be too short for the linkage coming from the firewall. If anyone has an answer to that please let me know lol. Finally my 5 month olf turn one steering pump is knocking. Heard a weird noise when I started the car that was most likely masked when the old motor knocked and noticed it was coming from the steering pump. Took the belt off and it went away. So now I have to see whats going to happen there.
Heres is a pic of everything buttoned up....Looks like an ls1 with bolt ons lol. I still need to get a better tb cable bracket and reroute the vc to tb hose.
I did encounter some issues and unfortunately haven driven it due to those issues. The heads I got for the motor that were new with dyno time had a header olt stripped out which cost me some time and cash to get fixed. The other issue is that the steering shaft with the bmr k member appears to be too short for the linkage coming from the firewall. If anyone has an answer to that please let me know lol. Finally my 5 month olf turn one steering pump is knocking. Heard a weird noise when I started the car that was most likely masked when the old motor knocked and noticed it was coming from the steering pump. Took the belt off and it went away. So now I have to see whats going to happen there.
Heres is a pic of everything buttoned up....Looks like an ls1 with bolt ons lol. I still need to get a better tb cable bracket and reroute the vc to tb hose.
05-31-2015, 07:00 PM
#13
Lol well here she is. Drove her back up to school today so 200 miles in about 3 hours. I did the 50 mile gm break in procedure before hand. Overall she ran great. Have some vibration issues I need to get sorted most from the exhaust rubbing since its probably out of adjustment.
Still undecided if I want to use my 100mm maf. I have a 102 lid but I am debating on doing an SD tune.
Btw if anyone is looking for a light battery this thing in the pic here is badass, weighs 4.6 lbs.
Finally all back together lol looks/sounds just like an ls1 with bolt ons. It drives obviously like stock but the torque is awesome lol. Taking off from a light or passing on the hwy is so effortless compared to the ls6.
INB4 someone give me **** about the fuse block, mine broke when pulling the motor and this was the only way to have a radio. New one is going in tomorrow
Still undecided if I want to use my 100mm maf. I have a 102 lid but I am debating on doing an SD tune.
Btw if anyone is looking for a light battery this thing in the pic here is badass, weighs 4.6 lbs.
Finally all back together lol looks/sounds just like an ls1 with bolt ons. It drives obviously like stock but the torque is awesome lol. Taking off from a light or passing on the hwy is so effortless compared to the ls6.
INB4 someone give me **** about the fuse block, mine broke when pulling the motor and this was the only way to have a radio. New one is going in tomorrow
05-31-2015, 08:59 PM
#16
Ya I dont want to put figures on it because thats bad luck lol. But bolt on c6's and 5th gens are in the 420ish range and I have a fair bit more bolt ons than they do,a long with a lightened drivetrain and lighter, smaller wheels.
The battery is a shorai 36 series. Its lithium, and has 550 cca and a reserve capacity similar to the stock battery. Hio runs the same thing my car has a 6ch JL amp powering 6 speakers, and a kenwood amp powering a jl shallow sub. Never an issue with the battery. plus it drops 30lbs lol
The battery is a shorai 36 series. Its lithium, and has 550 cca and a reserve capacity similar to the stock battery. Hio runs the same thing my car has a 6ch JL amp powering 6 speakers, and a kenwood amp powering a jl shallow sub. Never an issue with the battery. plus it drops 30lbs lol
06-02-2015, 06:49 PM
#20
it works good I'm just using some tsp maf tables a buddy gave to me. I know they're off but it gets a good reading even at idle. The screen is the key to that without it the maf reading was very jumpy at low rpm. If you need the tables just let me know, it'll at least let the car drive well enough until it gets tuned