question for you L92 guys: where are you getting your tach signal from? one of the coils?

 

Nine pages??!! You suck! I just barely hit three. Maybe I should change the title?

 

here's my LY6 swap... VVT enabled iron block 6.0L into my 1994 Firebird Formula. It runs and everything - oil pressure and coolant temperature sensor gauges work perfectly; just need tach and speedo and I'll be set!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi7jYJYMrek

 

So what intake manifold and throttlebody are you using? It still has the stock GM tune ? hows it drive and the power ?

I am waiting for a salvage yard to call me back about a LY6 right now.

Looks good !!!

 

pillagenburn

So what intake manifold and throttlebody are you using? It still has the stock GM tune ? hows it drive and the power ? Someone mentioned to me a L76 (car) intake might not function properly as the sensors have different values. I take it that person meant the stock L76 sensors being 6.2L vs 6.0L I don't know.

I am waiting for a salvage yard to call me back about a LY6 right now.

 

Maybe you should start a build thread...

 

I reused the stock MAP sensor and it seems to run fine - idles low, but i think that's more from the fact that it was in a truck with an auto and can be adjusted accordingly. I'm using the stock 90mm LY6 throttlebody and the L76 intake, the stock LY6 waterpump and all - it all just fit up.

As far as how it runs? Like a raped ape. ZERO TRACTION through third gear (as in blows the tires off in third for the most part) on 315 street tires with upgraded suspension mods.

To me, this is the evolution of the LS1 (that is, the L92 heads). I'm really glad I got the LY6; it was THE best bang for my buck and left with me a ton of money left over for other things (like k-member, hood etc). I can say with 100% certainty that this car would blow my F13 cammed 2001 SS (422rwhp/412rwtq) away in every way, shape and form. The power delivery is incredible and pulls all the way into redline. The OP is right... the L92

edit: oh, and Topher - I am going to start a build thread... I just have only a few pics at the moment, I've gotta get them all off of my other camera.

 

Uhhh, it's not nine pages! Honestly!

Right. Freakin'. ON. That gives me a good bit of motivation to just get this sucker done. What suspension mods have been done on the car?? I'm curious because I have just about all the suspension goodies you can get, & it's gonna be... "interesting" if the car still overpowers the tires...

(Of course having "skinny" little 255s on the back isn't going to help matters any... I need some DRs!!)

Too cool... What are the specs on the F13 cam?

Hmmm. I'm guessing that you meant to finish that sentence, but perhaps you got distracted..?? I'd be interested to hear what you had to say...

I'm actually curious about this too, since I haven't gotten that far into the swap yet - I've been saving the harness stuff for when it's colder out...

I've been working on the car off & on as I'm able to, just not doing anything really exciting - adjusting cable lengths, etc. I also went out of town to visit family while I'm able to, that's gotta be more important than any car. Got a bug recently that slowed me down some, & had to bring some work home over the weekend, so there went today... (But it's still better than when I was out of work this year...!) The wife's talking about going to Lowe's tomorrow, so I'm hoping that I can pick up a couple of pieces that I need while we're there, & MAYBE even make a bit of progress tomorrow... We'll see, keep your fingers crossed for me...

 

I have all of the goodies short of shocks and springs... front and rear swaybars (35mm front/32mm rear), UMI adjustable torque arm, UMI adjustable LCA's, BMR panhard rod... so I've got most all of the suspension goodies.

and about that L92 sentence, I fell asleep and completely forgot what I was going to say haha. Thats what I get for getting on LS1tech at 2am

 

Well, I really didn't expect this to be my next post...







Uhhh, my name's V8Rumble, and... Ummm...









...And I'm a swap-aholic.

I'm guessing that it's probably not the greatest idea to line up another swap before I have this one done, but it kind of fell into my lap, & I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. It's your basic LQ4, made in 2004 & (according to the previous owner) it has 127k on the clock. I haven't pulled the valve covers or oil pan yet, but I was told that it looks really good inside.

And before anyone freaks out about me taking someone's word for it, this is someone I know personally, & I have the utmost respect for his character. If he says it's clean, then it's clean - period. (And there are DAMN few people out there that I'd say that about...) And if there's damage that he wasn't aware of, well, that's life I guess. I'm not out too much, I just swapped a set of headers for it when he began to reconsider taking on another swap project. (Hmmm... Maybe he has more sense than I do...)

And not only am I lining up another swap before the 1st one's finished - but I'm not even sure what this is going to go into! I've thought about popping an RV-style cam into it, adding headers & putting it into my 4x4 Chevy camper/tow rig, but then the wife might want her Camaro upgraded too...

Decisions, decisions...

 

hey man, what all did you have to change on the accessories to run that L76 intake?

 

I'll be posting pics of all of that within the next day or so... (Actually, I'm hoping to do that tonight, but the way life's been going...)

 

For a second I was thinking you were backing down on the 6.2 glad to see you arent completely insane.

 

LOL... No, I'll never back down on the 6.2, I've got way too much work into it by now! Heck, at this point, it would be a longer "distance" to go back than to just complete the swap! And regarding the "completely insane" comment, well, the jury's still out on that one... (Don't know how I missed your reply, but I did...)

Anyway, I got back into this post because I promised that I'd post up info regarding fitting the accessories & intake together, & some of what I did in order to keep the VVT - so here goes:

The biggest issue that I ran into (at least the biggest one that I recall at the moment) is the truck water pump. Keep in mind that I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT want to have to customize anything like water pumps etc. for my swap. If I happen to be cruising through Podunk Wyoming, Death Valley, or even Outer Goat**** Arkansas, & I lose the water pump, I want to be able to hitchhike (or whatever) to the nearest auto parts place/GM stealership/whatever, buy a water pump, reinstall it & be on my way. Trying to figure out how I'm going to drill & tap a custom fitting in Mayberry at 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon (or needing to carry a ton of extra tools) seriously degrades the "just jump in it & drive!" aspect of enjoying the car - at least IMHO.

So, with that said, the truck water pump has seriously annoyed me a few times during this swap. First, the motor for the DBW throttle-body ran right into the outlet - I mean, directly up against it close enough that you weren't going to fit a hose onto it - no way, no how. I started thinking of how I could "gently" customize the outlet (going directly against my principle above), when one of my buddies that's smarter than I am -actually, that would be MOST of them- asked if I couldn't just flip the TB over. Uhhh, yeah, actually I could... Looks like it'll work just fine too...

Now, the upper outlet's still coming out in an inconvenient spot, since the way things are now, the upper hose is going to want to share space for about a foot with my cold-air intake, but I can work around that. If I hit the Powerball (yeah right, I don't even play), I'd probably buy a radiator with the upper inlet on the passenger side, but for now I might just fab up something that uses a bit of tubular aluminum or something.

You might recall that I've been DEAD-SET on keeping the VVT, even though doing so throws up some extra roadblocks in terms of fitting everything into a thirdgen, especially the Firebirds, with their lower hood-line. Well, the solution to that -as with so many things in life- is to throw a bit of coin at the problem. I first tried using a different hood, since I had another one of a different type available that I could use for test-fitting. And it worked - at least for a minute, it did.

If you happen to have a RamAir II hood like the one I was borrowing, then you can use the standard truck accessory drive brackets, & the hood will close just fine, even though the alternator sticks up a few inches over the normal hoodline. But there's no way that you'll be able to use a power steering pump, at least not one remotely near the stock location. So, that's out.

What I wound up doing was contacting Kwik Performance (after seeing an article about some of their stuff) & buying their bracket kit that mounts the accessories in the Corvette location, but spaced far enough out that it matches up with the VVT truck position (PN K10168). (I've included a picture as an attachment.) From what I can tell so far, that's going to work well, the only difficulty so far is that the holes drilled in the bracket for the P/S pump aren't spaced correctly for the P/S pump that I was given (for free), so I need to find out what application to use for the P/S pump. But it looks like there will be JUST enough room...

And yeah, there have been other things that I've been working on, & other "fitment challenges", but I'll have to document those a little later - I've got a long day of work ahead of me tomorrow... (I will try to get a few more pictures up within the next couple of days though - ESPECIALLY of the space between the stock thirdgen radiator & the VVT-equipped engine...)

 

Maybe I'm just tired, but... Are you now able to clear the stock hood?

What about just spacing out f-body or C5 accessory brackets?

You have one of GMs masterpieces in that body. I really hope you can make the stock hood work!

 

If anyone else is looking at doing a GenIII L99 swap, we took the engine out of our '10 Camaro with <500 miles on it...it's currently sititng on a stand in Chi-town, intake to pan, no wiring or accessories.

 

Wrong forum maybe???

 

how much did those brackets set you back?

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I can with these brackets.

Well, the only option available when I bought these was to build the spacers yourself, or have 'em fabbed up (which I actually briefly considered). I figured that buying these would involve a lot less hassle, since one-off fabrication projects frequently require 2nd & 3rd attempts...

Yeah, I hear ya, I'm really not 100% sold on the RA-II hood, but at the same time, I'm a little crazy for losing weight when possible, especially off the front end... We'll see.

There are prices shown on the page I linked to, but if memory serves, it was right around $300 with shipping. After having bolted 'em up, I'm liking them pretty well - they're really solid, & look like they'll last a good long time. Of course the real test will be when I have all the parts hooked up & I wind the engine up to 6k a few times...


OK, as promised, here is a shot of the VVT-equipped engine's clearance to the stock F-body radiator with dual fans. As you can see, the little bit of additional length on the front of the engine poses no problems whatsoever! (Which surprised me a little bit, since everyone who discussed it made it sound like the snout of the water pump was going to be poking into the radiator...)

Now unless I'm mistaken, I suspect that this post will (should?) eliminate a lot of the reticence that people have about retaining VVT when swapping into a thirdgen. Front-to-rear physical clearance simply isn't an issue, and the "too-high" placement of the alternator can be resolved using the Kwik bracketry. The only potential fly in the ointment that I can see now (at least in terms of fitting the engine into the chassis) is clearance for the P/S pump - but I'm cautiously optimistic in that regard. (Now of course the VVT adds a whole 'nother layer of complexity to the tuning, but as time passes, I'm sure that the knowledge base for that will increase as well.)

I hope that this post specifically, & this thread in general is helpful to someone - God knows I'm sure starting to look forward to firing this beast up!!

 

I see what you mean about the rad hose and intake needing to share the same area. On my upper hose I used two different rad hoses connected by 1.25 dom tubing. Then you could weld some brackets to it and attach it to the rad support. It also made a perfect place to put my steam vent but I see you already have the odd f body radiator with the heater and steam fittings on it.