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Banged out the drivers side header today. Had to relocate the cylinder 5 primary that hit the k member, and clearance the flange for the spark plugs, head bolts, and ect sensor. I still have to weld the o2 bung in and give it another coat of paint. After I finish it and install it, I can put the steering column in and try firing her up. Not bad progress for 2 months of spare time.
Maybe I’ll go for a tubular k member when something blows up. At that point I’m sure I’ll be calling up Raylar Engineering for pistons cam and aluminum heads. I’d love to have a high hp NA setup.
The long intake runners aren't ideal for high rpm and the large rotating mass isn't either. I would say capitalize on the rpm range the engine is built for and get a turbo that matches that range. You will end up having to do less re-engineering.
Haven’t had much time the past week. I found that my fuel pump relay wiring was incorrect then fixed that. Also found that when I modified the starter mount I drilled into the starter carrier bearing. This made for a slow crank. I removed the starter and tried my luck on modifying a second mount, which I’ll post after I can confirm it works. Also got my air intake assembled (speed density).
Started the car up briefly today, after messing with the tune a whole bunch and a little bit of wiring work. ran well but then broke my starter. I’m going to do what I should’ve done in the first place and swap the flywheel for a 168 tooth and a bbc starter. So out comes the trans again. Oh well. Learn from my mistakes.
Well, I did it. I doubled the budget. I did go above and beyond just a swap, but here’s a list of what I bought (and sold) so far. Shouldn’t be much else to buy at this point.
Quick update. Got the flexplate swapped out to a tci 168 tooth and installed a factory L31 starter. Also did some interior work mounting the wideband gauge and a switch for the line lock. I mounted the line lock on the drivers frame rail and started doing a little brake line bending. I also replaced the crank sensor, which would’ve been far easier when the engine was out of the car. Turns out it was the reason the car ran like **** (intermittent fuel and spark delivery). I’ll get the car running for 5min then 20 to check the fluids and systems. I’ll post up a video soon.
oh yeah and exhaust is on the way, and I’ll be working on fitting up a ls1 intermediate steering shaft bc the lt1 shaft was nowhere near clearing the headers
So to update, I ordered an ls truck throttle body, as I couldn’t figure out how to tune the 454 throttle body. Obviously any tunes for the old tb are on an obs pcm and are useless. I decapped some 6.0 injectors that I had already, and installed them. I’ve also been doing more work to the headers so the ls1 steering shaft will fit, as the lt1 intermediate shaft was way off. If I could do it all over I would’ve ordered an ls1 steering rack and used an ls1 shaft. I wouldn’t have had to reindex the ls1 shaft to work with my current rack, and a little hammer action on the cylinder 1 primary would have likely cleared the steering components. Instead I had to beat the **** out of three primaries and cut one apart for more clearance. Here’s a pic of the header before test fitting it again (which I’ll do tomorrow). What I did was cut an inch or so out of the cylinder one primary and heat and pull the pipe back to the flange. Yeah it’s ugly but I don’t give a ****.
Still can’t fit the steering shaft around the headers. I had to order an ls1 rack and pinion. Should fit with that. Time to re-index the intermediate steering shaft haha.
Got the ls1 rack and steering shaft installed tonight. Had to do a little more oil pan clearancing to fit it. After installing it all, looks like I likely didn’t have to bash the #1 cylinder primary and move it closer to the block. Oh well. In the next couple of days I’ll reinstall the brake booster / master cylinder, finish up my brake lines, hook up the steering hoses, and put the plugs and wires back on. Then I’ll try starting it with the ls1 throttle body and new tune.
Once this project is “done” I’ll post up what actually needed to be done to do a 8100 swap. I’ve obviously bought many parts that didn’t work and did some unnecessary work to date.
oh yeah and started to do some body work on the fenders and bumper, which were all damaged when I bought the car.
02-10-2024 | 05:43 PM
