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Hi everyone! this is my first time posting to ls1tech, I plan to upload the progress of my fox swap. its a 1991 coupe, engine is 2010 L96 out of a 2500hd. I only have the long block so I will be needing to get intake, harness, pcm, 4l80e etc etc. This build will be on the budget, I will try and spend what money I have very wisely by researching all parts first before buying, but the main goal is to reproduce what Denmah has done with his Colorado. I plan to drive this thing to school every now and again with rare trips to the track.
here are some things I need to figure out any advice would be greatly appreciated, Harness and computer: what are some harnesses that can run this engine? can it be from any year gen iv 6.0, 5.3, 4.8 or does it need to be from a 2010 6.0? Also what computer can run this?
Well i'm glad i decided to pull the pistons and gap the rings because they are gunked up. most of the rings are stuck in the grooves and require a lot of cleaning. The owner before must of not changed the oil regularly. gap will be set a .030.
Other than that parts have been coming in the mail, I have my e38 pcm and tcu from a express with the 4l80e, ls9 head gaskets, PAC 1218s, 450 lph walbro, transgo hd2, just need to find the time to go get an 80e.
If anyone has any suggestions for a Gen IV cam that will work well with the pac1218s let me know, this engine seems to have vvt so I dont know if i can just order a cam without the vvt that has the sensor in the front and reuse the front cover or i will need a cover that is Gen IV with only the sensor???
I will keep the updates coming
Last edited by PlasticZeus; 02-19-2017 at 05:25 PM.
yes you will need a VVT delete kit. it will have the correct single plug front cover, and a 3 bolt cam sprocket so you can run any cam you wish. $120 from texas speed.
as far as cam recommendations, I would probably ask in the gen 4 internal engine section since you have the rectangle port heads.
nice score, I have been keeping my peepers peeled for that exact motor B)
Picked up an L92 intake from my buddy with ls3 injectors and rails yesterday. Then ordered a 92mm DBC throttle body off of ebay, with the tps and IAC valve for 90 bucks, thought I would give it a try.
While I was cleaning one of the last two pistons and trying to remove the bottom compression ring from its lithified groove, the bastard snapped. now I need to find one set of rings for that piston, and one new piston because of the compressed ringland is pinching the rings not letting them float normally. I dont think I mentioned that last update.
I was thinking about just buying a piston off ebay. There is one for 40$ rod and piston but I can buy a new piston from GM for that much. So not sure what route to go just yet.
Also im not sure why the pictures keep rotating when I upload? Help with that would be cool.
Last edited by PlasticZeus; 02-19-2017 at 05:21 PM.
Well I just ordered a used rod and piston off ebay today, hopefully I can have the engine back together by next weekend.
I didn't do my research that well when I bought my DBC throttle body and E38 pcm, it seems I cant use the two together. I assumed I could disable the DBW through HpTuners and run the DBC with IAC but the E38 doesn't have an IAC driver capable of controlling it from what I have read. I have never used hptuners before so i'm not certain what its capable of.
Once the engine is together I will have to decide between these two options
- sell E38 and tcu, keep DBC throttle body and buy the microsquirt/tcu/harness package for ~ 1180$. I think the microsquirt can run 58X.
The car will be mainly driven on the highway for daily use back and forth to school/work. Another option is to buy the megasquirt/harness without the tcu for 1225, and use th400 but I think the microsquirt will be fine for my intended use and with the tcu can control a 4l80e for highway cruising.
Let me know how you guys have felt with your choice on the microsquirt package I am leaning more towards this option but I would like to run E85 since the station sells it down the street.
With my fox, I had to make a similar decision...as I had a DBW Ls2 but with 24x. I even repinned a factory 410 pcm but in the end I bought a china DBC TB and swung for the Goldbox from EFI source....they even modified my harness for me to run the front cam sensor and WB knock sensors along with a few other things at no extra charge. I am T56 so you will need a micro to run 4L80e I believe unless you to MVB.
I know this is increasing your cost, but I can say that I am so very thankful I got the Goldbox...once you get up to speed with it, you will see just how awesome of a system it is. I think Denmah is right, it's almost too much because there really isn't anything you can't do with it, it's left to your imagination and creativity. The Tunerstudio software is GREAT as well as Efisource customer service.
The Microsquirt is hard to beat for the price but an MS3x or Gold Box is certainly more capable. If you aren't going turbo the Mirco should do everything you need.
Got the China 92mm throttle body in Friday, looks nice!
After doing some searching on how to remove paint from intake manifolds I remembered I had some aircraft paint stripper leftover from removing the window tint from the fox. It said it worked on flexible plastics so I gave it a spray and it ate that **** right off in just a few minutes. I would spray it, let it sit for about 5-10 mins and then pressure wash it off. I did this about 3 times and most of it is off now. Im not sure if the grey was a primer put down first but it needed a gentle brushing with a green scotch pad before final washing.
Hope to get my replacement piston on Tuesday and have the engine together pan to intake by Friday!
Last edited by PlasticZeus; 02-19-2017 at 05:39 PM.
Quick update, got the turbo in yesterday! it is pretty sweet and packaged well.
I decided to go with a microsquirt it should be here today also. I also swapped out the one bad piston so my bottom end is all gaped and torqued ready to go. This Sunday I should finally have some time to work on a few things.
Has anyone used the oil cooler lines to feed their turbo?
finally got some time to work on the engine today, swapped the springs out with a homemade tool and bolted up the long block. Ill have a week straight to work on it while im off for spring break so hopefully I can get a bunch done.
Last edited by PlasticZeus; 03-09-2017 at 08:35 PM.
Alright, it has been a week of working on this thing every day and i have managed to drop in the engine with a th400 i picked up, install a B&M pro stick shifter, wire up the microsquirt and and get it to fire up for a few seconds with some starting fluid. thats about it lol. I started last thursday evening with the 2.3 fully running and functional to ls swapped and turning over with the keys like it should by the following Saturday and I did it all by myself in my drive way with only hand tools. To all those who feel you need a badass shop, just get out there and start turning wrenches!
Finally back from China! some things I have done in the last week,
-Swapped in the 88 Thunderbird 8.8 with 2000 mustang v6 wheels
-UPR upper and lower control arms
-installed new driveshaft (3.5" heavy wall with 1350 joints)
-mounted intercooler cx racing 31 x 12 x 4.
-installed the AJE k member
-mounted Magna fuel boost ref reg -8AN feed -6 return
-pulled the trans and installed the transgo HD 2 kit for TH400 and 3k conv.
-Received my wastegate, BOV, and turbo oil feed and return lines, trans cooler Derale 15960
I still need to have some -8 and -6 fittings tig welded into the sending unit to finish the fuel system.
So everything is in the car, my next steps were to try and get the microsquirt up and running. everything is calibrated and reading correctly but im having an issue with rpm sync. from some things I have read the 58x crank sensor needs to be wires: (white/black) goes to signal vr(-), (purple) goes to 5v_ref/tps, (grey/black) goes to sensor ground... the engine cranks but no spark and rpm sync is highlighted red. I will have to call efi source and ask about it needing a 1000 ohm 1/4 watt resistor between pin (vr-) and 5vref.
If anyone has any experience with this issue please let me know. I will go to the parts store and get a new crank sensor, the microsquirt was modified by efisource to work on GENIV 58X.
the wiring process is not bad! as long as you have a good soldering iron and take your time, I think i have most things wired correctly now its just the crank sensor issue and also my tuner studio crashes every second! i cant hardly do anything with it, really frustrating.
01-29-2017, 08:07 PM
91 fox 2010 L96 swap budget build 
