First off let me say this....John Spears at Speartech IS THE MAN!!! Through his patience, outstanding customer support, thorough knowledge as a subject matter expert with LSx conversions and wiring he has brought my beast to life People on this forum should be proud that we have someone this talented available to help people here and he is a sponsor to boot, how cool! Thanks again John!

Before firing the motor I had Speartech flash my PCM with a stock ZO6 program. I downloaded this program from my PCM and sent it to HPT and they deleted the VATs for me. I then used HPT to upload the VATs deleted program and proceeded to start the LS7. When I fired up the motor last week, it ran really rough (like it was only running on 7 cylinders) and I had zero "fly by wire" throttle response. I thoroughly checked all of the wiring and connectors and was able to verify that I hadn't connected anything wrong. When I fired up the motor and connected the HPT scanning software in an attempt to read the trouble codes it couldn't read the PCM. I thought that this was odd. I verified that the HPT scanner was working properly by connecting it to my 2000 Silverado 5.3L motor and it scanned this just fine.

Working together with Speartech we determined that the best way to start isolating where to troubleshoot would be to eliminate the HPT software since John 100% verifies his harnesses on his engine stands by physically running them and uploads through the ADL connector to verify at his shop that the Customer receives a 100% good product.

Unfortunately the LS7 PCM's are on back order and I had to do a nationwide search to see if anyone had one in stock. I was lucky enough to find one at Billion GMC in Sioux Falls, SD and had them overnight air it to John. He proceeded to flash the PCM with the stock LS7 programming and used LS7_Edit to delete the VATs. I paid $60 to have it overnight shipped to me this morning and it took all of 5 minutes to swap out PCMs and when I turn the key.........music to my ears and complete throttle response on the throttle body

I am now able to use the HPT software to read the engine parameters and verify how the motor is operating using the 2nd PCM.

Bottom line, there appears to be some type of glitch with the beta version of VATs delete HPTuners software for this application. I am working with HPT to try and resolve this.

Hopefully the software issues will be resolved shortly because I am going to break the motor in on a chassis dyno (even though it has already been broken in for 20 minutes at the Factory) and get some dyno time in while I am at it to establish some baseline RWHP numbers for the motor before the heads come off for some tweaking, installation of a nice lumpy cam and a possible sheetmetal mini-tunnel ram intake to meet my goal of 600RWHP N/A for a daily driver Stay tuned!

I've enclosed several views of the dry sump system for your viewing pleasure and also a view of the motor with the fuel rail covers trimmed and installed. Enjoy!

 

You are inspiring, dood.

Should be some small measure of fun.

 

awesome man cant wait to see a vid of what shell do

 

You're a sick, sick man.... in a great, great way.

Great work, glad to hear that project is coming along well!

 

Spectacular work John. Thanks for sharing all your pioneering efforts with us. I for one really appreciate it.

Richard

 

BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! Thanks for the update John.

 

Way to go John! You are an inspiration to the rest of us! And I agree, John Spear is defnitely the man, very helpful, knowledgable and responsive!

Pat

 

"That's one small step for a LS7; one giant leap for LS7-kind." - NOSjohn

Great work John B. !

 

That is going to be the baddest Monte on the road!!!!!!!!!! VERY well done!!!!!!
I wish my LS-7 install was as far along

 

it might be more than 600hp, if your gonna do the heads/cam, exhaust, like 600rwhp+

 

Teh video must cometh.

 

Yes, we need vids .

David

 

That's a nice looking Monte John!

My 84 Monte SS should be done mid this summer. That glitch was just to make sure you don't beat me to the finish line (jk).

Send me the ECM and I will see what we can do with it.


Regards,
-Ken

 

I have owned 5 Montes of different generations and I must say you have the BADDEST Monte SS out there!! Congrats on hard work paying off.

 

More pics and video?? Please.

 

Thanks guys! Always great to share with fellow car buffs that can appreciate the cool stuff!
Thanks Ken, it'll be on an airplane tonight.

I'll get a video camera from my future son-in-law just for you guys and make some video....I just have to figure out how to host such a large file....anyone have any free server space that could host a vid?

 

how large is it?
heh, i can host one on SwapLS1.com .... but it might have to go down if i get as many hits as i think you might get..

theres also several free video hosts... google and streetfire.net are good examples.

 

I can host it if you like.

 

Awesome work again John... Yes we NEED video, especially when you hit the track...

 

Congrats John. Blazing trails yet again. For those who don't know, John was one of the first to put an LS1 where it didn't belong. Now he's one of the first to get an LS7 up and running.