LS1 and 200-4r to L92 / T56 in 71 Chevelle convertible...now Gen V LT1 6L80e swapping
02-17-2011, 10:39 PM
#123
Man that blows. Guess so much for not being primed. It doesn't sound like you let run long enough for the fuel mixture to be the issue. You would think there would been sign when you had the pan off, now you got me freaking out bout my motor.
02-18-2011, 01:23 AM
#125
Damn, When you guys first started it, did you check the fuel pressure and make sure your getting a good fuel pressure reading? I wonder if it was running lean or too much timing on the tune... Who tuned it ?
Once again if you don't do a complete rebuild or short block, check out GFAN/ Frank, or a brand new LY6 from Sewell.....
I am just saying you got options, I hate to see that ****, but look at it this way, at least your not out of $5000+
And now you can build what you want......lol
Bozz
Once again if you don't do a complete rebuild or short block, check out GFAN/ Frank, or a brand new LY6 from Sewell.....
I am just saying you got options, I hate to see that ****, but look at it this way, at least your not out of $5000+
And now you can build what you want......lol
Bozz
One of the heads is kind of injured though I'm not sure if it is ruined. The most likely replacement is looking like an ls1 with 243 heads and then all of the parts from my current setup that I can reuse. I just woke up a little while ago and need to do some searching to see what I can turn up and do a quick $$$/ benefit breakdown of what is out there. No matter what I'd like to get this thing running within the next 10 days or so.
02-18-2011, 09:31 AM
#126
I'm sure that as with most disasters there was a root cause, however that cause at present escapes me. Once it's out and apart there might be more to learn but for now I just want to get something else in there. Hindsight being what it is I think buying a running motor or having one bought online get checked out by shop might be a good idea. All I can hope for is that by being careful when putting this next one together future disasters can be avoided.
All I had done was swap cams and springs, nothing crazy. Used your basic GM mls 6.0 gasket.
Picked up an ls1 block and some 243 heads today and will try to start getting it together tomorrow.
All I had done was swap cams and springs, nothing crazy. Used your basic GM mls 6.0 gasket.
Picked up an ls1 block and some 243 heads today and will try to start getting it together tomorrow.
Last edited by chuckd71; 02-18-2011 at 12:07 PM.
02-20-2011, 04:11 PM
#128
About to head down to Atlanta for a bit but thought I'd throw up a couple random things. Spent most of yesterday working on getting the old motor out and let me say that trying to get to the torque converter bolts on a lowered car after someone has apparently stolen your jack stands sucks ***. A whole lot of ***. But once I drain the oil the motor will be good to come out, and aside from the tedium of swapping valve springs the process of dropping the new one in should be cake, relatively speaking.
I'm not sure why this is here or if everyone's A body has it, but this is the brake thing that gets in the way of the headers:
If your driver's side frame rail has one I would suggest you seriously consider moving it. If it doesn't, well, then good for you.
Here is where James put the computer and harness fuse box. I don't have a pic on me but the fan relays and etc are behind the master cylinder, and once more important things are handled I'm going to make a box of sorts around them.
The computer is on top of the glove box, the fuse box is in it. The glove box is still usable but "security" is basically nonexistent on this car so I doubt anything will ever go in it. The dash pad fits no problem.
I'm not sure why this is here or if everyone's A body has it, but this is the brake thing that gets in the way of the headers:
If your driver's side frame rail has one I would suggest you seriously consider moving it. If it doesn't, well, then good for you.
Here is where James put the computer and harness fuse box. I don't have a pic on me but the fan relays and etc are behind the master cylinder, and once more important things are handled I'm going to make a box of sorts around them.
The computer is on top of the glove box, the fuse box is in it. The glove box is still usable but "security" is basically nonexistent on this car so I doubt anything will ever go in it. The dash pad fits no problem.
02-26-2011, 04:20 PM
#130
After spending hours scraping shitty gaskets of the new (to me) heads and block I started swapping the springs. The old springs are your basic yellow stock springs, the new ones are (supposedly at least) patriot dual golds. Now that I have them side by side the patriots look absolutely massive in comparison. Can anyone who has used these comment? Are they really that big or might these be something else?
I also picked up a TCI trans pressure gauge. It's made by autometer and looks good except it says "Oil pressure" on it and makes no mention of the fact that it's a trans gauge. In my mind oil pressure gauges say oil on them and trans gauges should say trans on them. Call me crazy.
I have a couple days during the week to work on the car and if all goes well a long saturday will have everything back in place more or less.
I also picked up a TCI trans pressure gauge. It's made by autometer and looks good except it says "Oil pressure" on it and makes no mention of the fact that it's a trans gauge. In my mind oil pressure gauges say oil on them and trans gauges should say trans on them. Call me crazy.
I have a couple days during the week to work on the car and if all goes well a long saturday will have everything back in place more or less.
02-27-2011, 07:40 PM
#133
On The Tree
Following your build. Nice car. Sorry about the bad news but I'm sure it will end up even better. So is this the motor from the idiot who screwed you on your parts originally? Are you sure this happened after you fired it or did he send it to you this way? What kind of mileage was on that motor?
03-08-2011, 04:26 PM
#134
Yeah, this is the motor from that guy. When I had it apart everything looked good, turned over smoothly by hand and seemed okay. Not sure what went wrong and I forget how many miles but it wasn't a lot. All the various internal pieces and parts looked and still look surprising good.
Today was the first I've had any time on a decently nice day to push the car out and work on it and I managed to get the lq9 out and stripped bare (except for one thing, mentioned below), swap the cam and front and rear covers into the ls1 and get the oil pan cleaned up. There were plenty of chunks of **** in the oil pan, but none in the scree, pickup or pump itself so I have to wonder if oil was really flowing. I shot some assembly lube into the new pump if for no other reason than to displace the air in it.
In the grand scheme of things it seems stupid but I cannot get this thing off:
Sometimes it's little things that dick you over.
All these pics are crap because I can't find my camera but this was in the oil pan (not talking about the windage tray, I'm talking about all the shards of metal):
Here are my cam dots, the engine is slightly tilted in the picture but I turned it over several times and think it's okay.
And that's about it. One of the locks for my springs broke last week but it was delivered today so I'm hoping to have that taken care of Thursday, then get the engine in on Friday or Saturday assuming it doesn't rain. After that it'll just be a matter of getting some gauges and the lockup controller/ vss hooked up followed by a tune and then I can start selling extra parts and get the top fixed.
Today was the first I've had any time on a decently nice day to push the car out and work on it and I managed to get the lq9 out and stripped bare (except for one thing, mentioned below), swap the cam and front and rear covers into the ls1 and get the oil pan cleaned up. There were plenty of chunks of **** in the oil pan, but none in the scree, pickup or pump itself so I have to wonder if oil was really flowing. I shot some assembly lube into the new pump if for no other reason than to displace the air in it.
In the grand scheme of things it seems stupid but I cannot get this thing off:
Sometimes it's little things that dick you over.
All these pics are crap because I can't find my camera but this was in the oil pan (not talking about the windage tray, I'm talking about all the shards of metal):
Here are my cam dots, the engine is slightly tilted in the picture but I turned it over several times and think it's okay.
And that's about it. One of the locks for my springs broke last week but it was delivered today so I'm hoping to have that taken care of Thursday, then get the engine in on Friday or Saturday assuming it doesn't rain. After that it'll just be a matter of getting some gauges and the lockup controller/ vss hooked up followed by a tune and then I can start selling extra parts and get the top fixed.
03-09-2011, 06:19 AM
#135
did u possibly have a valve lock drop into the cylinder? that kind of failure looks like a mechanical hit, not due to lean fuel condition. or possibly the cam gear is incorrect and you had a valve hit your piston? just throwing some ideas out there
03-10-2011, 10:57 PM
#137
I did have a spring lock that was broken when I was taking the springs off, only about 2/3 of it was still in the retainer. Maybe the other 1/3 fell in there. You can see where the valves did hit the pistons, exactly why or when I couldn't say.
The paint was actually done by me, just taped off the top since I couldn't get it out then either. In the interest of time I just bought a new one and am waiting for it to be delivered. Cheaper and easier these days than the gas and time it would take for me to go screw with the old one.
The paint was actually done by me, just taped off the top since I couldn't get it out then either. In the interest of time I just bought a new one and am waiting for it to be delivered. Cheaper and easier these days than the gas and time it would take for me to go screw with the old one.
03-12-2011, 08:34 PM
#138
Small update, but big for me. Now that the engine is in I can finish my part in the garage despite shitty weather witch is huge.
What I started with this morning.
And what I ended up with by 400. The ls1 is in and bolted to the trans. Finally. Looks so simple in pictures.
What I started with this morning.
And what I ended up with by 400. The ls1 is in and bolted to the trans. Finally. Looks so simple in pictures.
03-20-2011, 05:58 PM
#139
I spent the last two days getting random BS buttoned up; stuff like bolting the torque converter to the flywheel, getting the header back on, gauge wires roughed out and all kinds of little things like that that suck *** because the time/ result ratio is so poor.
Other than mounting the a/c compressor and air intake tube most of what remains is electrical, ancillary and in the cabin. I wish I had the money to get someone to tear my dash out and rewire it for me, but sadly I don't so will have to make it 'good enough' to last until winter as I don't plan on missing anymore top down days this spring than I have to.
Anyway, while under the car pulling off the dakota digital vss unit in order to replace it with the B&M lockup control I realized that I am going to have to use both of these pieces. Short of splicing the wires on the b&m unit there is no way to get the vss signal to the ecm, and the dakotal digital piece of course won't control my torque converter. Luckily these things came with everything I needed to run them in line and the end result tucks nicely behind the trans crossmember.
One thing I was wondering is that I've read a 200-4r takes about 4 quarts of fluid when you just drain it but holds 11 or so in total. When I took the pan off only about 3-4 quarts came out. I this normal? Should more have been in there or is it all inside somewhere and in the torque converter?
Also, how much fluid pressure if any is there on the trans dipstick? By that I mean if the dipstick is loose will it be blowing fluid out? My dipstick fits into the trans well, but the tube itself doesn't seem that snug into the fitting on it's end. It's in there I'm just not convinced it will hold up against a great deal of pressure.
thanks
Other than mounting the a/c compressor and air intake tube most of what remains is electrical, ancillary and in the cabin. I wish I had the money to get someone to tear my dash out and rewire it for me, but sadly I don't so will have to make it 'good enough' to last until winter as I don't plan on missing anymore top down days this spring than I have to.
Anyway, while under the car pulling off the dakota digital vss unit in order to replace it with the B&M lockup control I realized that I am going to have to use both of these pieces. Short of splicing the wires on the b&m unit there is no way to get the vss signal to the ecm, and the dakotal digital piece of course won't control my torque converter. Luckily these things came with everything I needed to run them in line and the end result tucks nicely behind the trans crossmember.
One thing I was wondering is that I've read a 200-4r takes about 4 quarts of fluid when you just drain it but holds 11 or so in total. When I took the pan off only about 3-4 quarts came out. I this normal? Should more have been in there or is it all inside somewhere and in the torque converter?
Also, how much fluid pressure if any is there on the trans dipstick? By that I mean if the dipstick is loose will it be blowing fluid out? My dipstick fits into the trans well, but the tube itself doesn't seem that snug into the fitting on it's end. It's in there I'm just not convinced it will hold up against a great deal of pressure.
thanks
03-23-2011, 02:08 AM
#140
On The Tree
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I stumbled onto your thread today and all I can say is you that you have definitely had some tough luck on your build but you certainly have the right attitude. I would have personally "returned" the parts to the crooks who sold you that engine.
Anyway, I did exactly the same swap to my "72 Chevelle 'vert, which if you search my sig you will find a few posts on my build. Needless to say, when you get it all together it will be all worth it. i used a stock LS1/4l60E out of an '00 Camaro SS, with the Edelbrock setup and the Autokraft pan. The results are really good; the car has plenty of power and the Edelbrock exhaust is almost too healthy. So far it has been done for over a year without a single problem. I will say that I used the Sprectra tank and i do have some pickup problems when there are low fuel levels. Other than that, I enjoy driving it more than my '69 Z28. I think you have a great looking car; I dig that interior and SS dash setup.
As to the 200R4, I don't know where you got the info on the capacity of the trans, I don't believe any of those trannys hold that much fluid. And the dip stick is not tight, the rubber grommet just holds it in snug so it won't leak. The bracket near the top holds it in; if you don't have it you need to attach it somehow.
One last thing; for the initial start up of the engine, priming the motor and getting oil pressure prior to firing it up is key (it was recommend to me that removing the spark plugs while cranking the motor to relieve pressure on the bearings until the oil pressure is up is a good practice) and when filling the engine with coolant all of the air has to be released from the heads to eliminate any hot spots. if you search this site you will find info on all of these issues.
Anyway, I did exactly the same swap to my "72 Chevelle 'vert, which if you search my sig you will find a few posts on my build. Needless to say, when you get it all together it will be all worth it. i used a stock LS1/4l60E out of an '00 Camaro SS, with the Edelbrock setup and the Autokraft pan. The results are really good; the car has plenty of power and the Edelbrock exhaust is almost too healthy. So far it has been done for over a year without a single problem. I will say that I used the Sprectra tank and i do have some pickup problems when there are low fuel levels. Other than that, I enjoy driving it more than my '69 Z28. I think you have a great looking car; I dig that interior and SS dash setup.
As to the 200R4, I don't know where you got the info on the capacity of the trans, I don't believe any of those trannys hold that much fluid. And the dip stick is not tight, the rubber grommet just holds it in snug so it won't leak. The bracket near the top holds it in; if you don't have it you need to attach it somehow.
One last thing; for the initial start up of the engine, priming the motor and getting oil pressure prior to firing it up is key (it was recommend to me that removing the spark plugs while cranking the motor to relieve pressure on the bearings until the oil pressure is up is a good practice) and when filling the engine with coolant all of the air has to be released from the heads to eliminate any hot spots. if you search this site you will find info on all of these issues.
Last edited by clm69z28; 03-23-2011 at 02:17 AM.