So the reason behind this thread is to help anyone doing similar builds on their projects and appreciate a lot of detail. Yes I know, there are plenty of threads doing the same s***.... one more through my eyes wouldn't hurt. Being DIY'er I like lots of pictures and specific questions answered, yada yada yada.


Backstory: Back in the beginning of 2016 my 2005 LS2 GTO spun 2 rod bearings ( #6 and #7) on the way home from work. I have deducted from the tear down that it dropped oil pressure and decided it wanted to die after a hard life. Probably due to sitting in 6th and kinda lugging it at 60ish mph, high revving, and 80K miles. I'm not gassed by it.



After a couple months of research on the LS2 I found it to be a problem child among the LS family. It has a couple of weak points that seem to come up later in higher miles. For instance the rod bolts, oil consumption (blow-by...all LS's), oil pump, #7( wtf, IDK why), and rear tire wear . At this point and time I decided I wanted to build the LS2 into a 402. I began to make a parts list and to no surprise its a nice chunk of change for around 5xx whp. For me it did not make sense to spend that kind of money (6k-7k) for that amount of hp and loose a lot of DD qualities like MPG, reliability, ect.


So I started to look at the forced induction route and found a video by denmah. Needless to say after watching more videos, reading the wiki page, and seeing others achieve sloppy glory. Surprise Surprise, I am now a "Sloppy convert" about to boost a LM7 for the same price as the 402.

So this is the build list, feel free to add opinions. I will update as I go..

Build List

PARTS

• Gen 3 LM7 (90k+) 700$

• Arp Rod Bolts 111$

• China Studs 110$
• Pac 1218 135$
• Ls1 Head Gasket 70$

• LS7 Lifters 120$

• Front cover and water pump gasket 22$
• SLP double Roller FREE
• Sloppy Stage 2 Cam 270$

• VS racing 7875 "denmah" kit 1050$

• Walbro 450 105$
• MS3 Gold Box kit w/injectors 1521$

• RST Mcleod Twin Buscuit 500$
• Pick up tube girdle 22$
• Vavle Spring Compressor 25$

• 700$-1000$ in misc (guages,tuner studio,pipe,hardware,clutch hardware, oil sending)

Im reusing the LS2 accessories( gonna drill and tap the truss), intake, throttle body, and one of the gto headers to retain a/c for crossover fab. I decided to do it right the first time to the best of my financial ability with out burning a hole in my ***.








MY GOAT <br/>



So the tear down began to figure out the source of the knock





At first the I thought it was just a lifter, sadly all of them checked out. So I decided to pull the motor







#7 In all of it's spun glory



Prepping for the motor to get bored to 402 at the time

 

Got motor torn down to the prep stage



Old Timing sprocket and oil gear



used the balancer puller on the lower setting to pull the gear off





The new on is on.



A little test fit without the spacers





I really liked the timing marks



First stage of clean up and elbow grease



I used brake clean in these two





Go fast Parts showed up



Broke out the acetone, razors , and scotch brite



other bank



Pre soak the lifter



Rod bolts on and torqued to 40 ftlbs with the assembly lube





Cleaned the bump stick with mineral spirits and lubed her up to sneak it



I assembled it upside down and it went right in



LS2 lower cover



First muck up, I broke a cam bolt due to over torque ( shitty Harbor Freight) so I bought a nice snap on 10-100 ftlb 1/4in



no harm done to the threads and the bolt came out as one piece before it split



Oil pan cleaned from LS2 debris



Assembled with spacers on the pump. Ended up using the truck pump with LS2 pick up tube gasket sense the LS2 pump took a dump





clearances look good



LS2 pickup tube



Buy the plastic tube of RTV



she is a porcupine



I used blue loctite on the bottom of the studs. DO NOT USE RED.





Test FIT

 

Dont be fooled its still in good condition



Cleaned them up a bit



The broken exhaust bolts were removed using the welder method.



This space is the reason I bought the girdle which should be here on monday. Cheap insurance!!

 

Cool build looking forward to updates. Intested to see on the GTO platform.

 

Thanks man, Ill post more pics and an update tonight. I ended up going s475 and ran into throttle body compatibility problems.

 

What issues with the TB? S475 will scream with your set up. What are you gearing this car up for more street or strip?

 

Its is going to be a DD and street driven. At this point I dont think it will see much track use until I can afford to break more parts. My current throttle body is dbw from the ls2 and the MS3 calls for dbc set up. Something I over looked. But now I need a cable throttle body, not sure if it makes a difference to go 90 or 102. Feel free to chime in. So now I need a 04' pedal, tb adapter, and the cable. All of it is a simple fix. I was thinking of going cheap, but the truck manifold doesnt clear the hood.

 

With FI, I wouldn't bother spending the extra money on the 102.

 

I did get a gen 4 turbo drain timing cover and the -10an cap
Wobbles on wobbles trying to get the MC out
I did drill and tap the truss for the alternator. It was Super simple. Its a 10mm metal bit, honing oil, and a m10x1.50 tap.
Named the cylinders
I took a bunch of snap chats but no real pictures. The best I can do SMH 🤦🏽dum♂️
Smack smack smack. Do be afraid
So I got the car running and driving N/A for now. I forgot to post about the build there for a while so here what happened.

A fellow member on ls1tech sent me adapters for the knock sensors. Super easy solution that I thought I was never gonna get figured out. Then I bought the tick monster clutch kit with the adjustable master cylinder. The MC upgrade was definitely worth the price. You can tell the difference from stock, its day and night. I never miss a gear anymore and I would have to say the pedal feel is lighter than stock and easier to engage. Now the stage 3 isnt for the light hearted ( I like driving my car so I dont care about the extra effort or rough starts if you muck up on the way out ) it will rip your **** off if you arnt accurate with your shifts, but it does have a limited cushion for slipping and is easy to engage if you know what your doing. The initial install of the MC was a b****, but I feel fortunate because I had the motor out at the time. One thing I do have to say is that Tick Performance sends very detailed step by step instruction. The catch is that you do need wobble extentions and an array of power tools if you would like to attempt on your own without a hiccup (on the GTO body).

Next for fuel I put the dw65c by deatschwerks! Great pump, its a direct fit and supports up to 550ish rwhp on E85 and more on 93. Not sure if thats with a BAP though. The bigger direct fit pump is the dw300c

As far as tuning the car runs, idles, and drives pretty damn good for being untuned on the stock (E40) pcm. I plan on getting a PCMforLess tune ASAP to hold it off until tax money rolls in to buy more turbo accessories. But for now she stays under 3k and gets 16 mpg on a decent size cam, but the car does have the occasional miss. Before anyone flames my arsss. Ive driven it almost 500 miles to break in the clutch and cam very conservatively until I have the tune in about a week. On a side note I think the car runs fairly decent because of the 6.0 tune on a 5.3 with ls2 top end. But what do I know! Oh and I did break my fuel bucket fuel gauge bober so be careful. As a result I use my "fuel used" gauge to tell how much fuel is left. Fun fact it reads about 1.098 gallons more than is actually used. I don't know if that is a consequence of breaking the fuel bobber but it works pretty darn good in a pinch .
Mostly together
Stage 3 monsta trans buscuit
Had to beat this **** in. Fair warning freeze it first.
Everything together and waiting to get dropped in
A couple hours of hard work 😓
Adapter stud for the knock sensor for the gen 3 in the gen 4 car.
Works awesome.

 

Idle and blip
https://youtu.be/wlKtIWLiuZE

Just cammin
https://youtu.be/VqwZCnzwC-U

 

I also acquired a fairly large snail 🐌