Quote: Originally Posted by Jaysz28 Why not stick some foam baffling into the breather and see if that cuts down on your consumption or relocate the breather to the drivers side valve cover and see what happens. Kinda odd to have the breather and the vacuum on the same side don'tcha think? -jason The breather I have now already has foam in it. Which is why I was surprised that it was huffing as much oil. Relocating the breather to the other side will give the same results. When I mentioned vac side/fresh air side, I was referring to the two different "air circuits". One has the PCV valve involved. The other just has a fresh air tube from the throttle body to the valve cover...no vacuum....I dont think. The PCV side breather is for every day driving and high RPMs. The fresh air side is for road racing, because when you do a lot of high speed turning, the G forces will keep the oil up in the valve cover area more, and it will find itself into the fresh air hose. That was a crude explaination. Cam... Thats basically what Ive been trying to figure out. Ide like to put those baffles in the plastic filler neck. But I cant figure out how to attach them, and not have them fall into the rockers. I still dont think that will help with my smell issue, but not having oil coming out would be nice. The breather Im using now doesnt have a huge opening in the bottom. Its sort of like a soda can top... that is only halfway popped. Does that make sense? A round piece of metal, folded in alittle bit. If you look under the cap, it doesnt look very oily. But there is oil coming out of the nipple, and all around the rim of the breather, as well as spots all over my FRC and HVAC box. Annnnnoying. Im going to hook the 5/8" hose to the breather nipple tomorrow since I have off, and try to put the other end into a can or something. See what happens then. Ill let you know after the weekend what happens since Ill be crusing on the turnpike. Thanks for the brainstorming guys!!! J.

Ok guys. Figured Ide post some pics of my breather set up as it stands... as well as what I plan to do in the near future.

I had some neat picures of what I did to try to cut down on the smell and oil mess...but they are on my phone, and my micro-SD card isnt working. So I just snapped some new ones for illustration purposes.

Basically, I put a 5/8" hose from my breather nipple, down to a 16oz. coffee cup that I hid in the fender. Not before I spray painted the cup black and put a big autometer sticker on it. Haha... It was lame enough to "install" a coffee cup into my car, so I figured I might as well cheese it up all the way. I also stuffed a couple cotton/paper towels loosely down into the cup to help absorb whatever comes out.

After 100+ miles, with some WOT runs, lots of idling, and cruising, the towels got pretty damp. It did cut down on the smell tremendously. But I can still get a wiff of it. Today I popped a dryer sheet in there hahaha. Its only temp so I dont really care.

Pics:

First the breather.



Here's the opening, and I think you can see some of the foam in there too.



Here's the cup tucked out of the way.



And the entire POS.



The car made the trips just fine this weekend. I got stuck in traffic on the PA turnpike friday evening. Literally stop, move a car lenth, stop, etc. Clutch felt fine. Pedal got alittle heavy after 30 minutes of pumping. Shifting remained notchy. Starting to think I should plan a rebuild on the trans.

As for the breather solution. Im almost thinking I have ring issues...but honestly, Im not going to rebuild that motor. So if I do, I dont need to know about it. Im going to save up a few bucks and order a Rev-Extreme catch can. I picked this can because Tracy the owner really backs up his products with confidence and knowledge. I learned everything I had to about the crankcase ventilation system from him, and I think I finally understand what has to take place for the system to work. His can also has a built in valve, so NO external PCV is required.

I also understand that I may get alittle oil in my intake. But...I shouldnt have anymore odor, and as long as I stay on top of the can, I should be ok. Its a full 1qt can also. SO its going to have to really be putting off oil to fill up. The only thing Ill have to decide or experiment with is whether to keep a breather on the fill cap. With vacuum drawing on the system, it shouldnt have the same odor. But depending how bad my situation is, the fresh air tube alone might not cut it. We'll see.

Anyway...enough babbling. My next order of business is to figure out where all the belt dust is coming from, so my belt doesnt decide to take a trip without me and the car. Im pretty sure its narrowed down to the power steering pump pulley. But who knows.

Thanks for following along!

J.

I was following along all 12 pages until I read the comment about the dryer sheet. I think this breather problem has finally broken you.

Very interested in the results of the catch can. Will you tear down your fast intake every 1000 miles and take pics for us. I am curious how much oil is really getting on the intake. We need a good guinea pig!!!

Haha. Glad to see you haven't given up.

NIIICE...

I'll be interested to see how that catch can works for you, that's (more or less) how I'd like to do it.

Is this more of a problem for you guys with big cams in your ls1's or something? I'm still running the factory pcv system on my 99 ta, I replaced the valve once since having the car (8 years), never had any oil consumption that was noticeable, and I popped the tb off to give it a good cleaning about a week ago, after reading about how you had an oily mess in your intake I thought I'd take a peek in mine (albeit through the tb hole with a flashlight) and it didn't appear oily at all. Only 110k on it so far, so time will tell.

I think the problem is in the intake specifically and not the throttle body. The pcv system plumbs into a port behind the throttle body. Then the incoming air flow continues away from the throttle body and into the intake runners. The sides of the intake runners are going to collect the most oil. Im not sure you could see it with a flash light but a nice white towel wipe in the runners would tell the tale. You may be just one of the chosen few that it doesn't affect.

Oh, now I understand your issue

see, I just stuck a breather on the motor, and didn't hook up the vacuum to the intake!

no leaks or odors thus far.... of course, I'm not driving it either

-jason

Geez, that sounds more like the venturi system in a carburetor than a PCV port! No wonder it spews oil!!

You mean everyone doesnt have dryer sheets installed SOMEWHERE in their car???? haha. Honestly, I happened to have a box of dryer sheets sitting there, so I thought, maybe it would help hinder the underhood smells. It didnt. Haha. Man those vapors are POTENT. Very nasty stuff coming out of the crankcase. Im starting to really understand how important a good functioning PCV system is.

Oh...by the way...Ive been broken a LONNNGGGG time ago. haha.

I will give you guys a full review of the catch can. My intake seems dry now, but Im going to pull my TB and give it the old white glove wipe. See if anything is in there. I doubt there is. Im also installing clear tubing on the vac side of the catch can. So I can see if anything is heading in. If its sucking it in like a straw, its coming back off, and I guess Im dealing with the smell.

89RsPower! & FirehawkSS: This problem plauges many LS1 drivers...not just the modifed ones. Some guys will tell you that they dont have any problems at all. They are lucky...and usually stock. These motors seem to like to have alittle bit of blow by from time to time. Sometimes its from the valve seals....but I think most the time its due to the amount of crank case pressure they build. Then the oil that is being tossed around works its way into the PCV hoses. The LS6 valley cover helps...but not enough IMO. There is also the theory of reversion...check into it if you want.

Most stock guys arent running their motors at 7000+ rpm like the built guys. Thats another thing. Just more gasses and more disruption of the oil cause more oil to do what it isnt supposed to.

The oil will build up all over. Im not sure what the floor of the stock intake manifolds look like. My FAST 90 had pools on the floor...like this.



Ugly huh? This was before my rebuild...

Jaysz28: Well...hold on a sec. You dont want a breather, AND vac hooked up. The only way you want to run a straight breather, is to cap off all of the ports. If you run a breather, AND the fresh air tube from the TB to the valve cover, you will be introducing unmetered air. If you run a breather and a PCV valve, you could run the risk of a vac leak.

The only time you want to run a breather with some type of PCV system, is if you install a catch can, and the factory fresh air tube isnt enough for the system, and oil goes through the fresh air tube. In which case, you want to run a small breather on the fill cap JUST for fresh air. The catch can will keep the vapors and odor down.

Im not sure why my situation caused more of an odor than most...but it was really obnoxious. I wish some of you could ride in the car with the open breather and smell it. The whole thing is frustrating. I got caught in the rain last night, so it was windows up and heat on...and it wasnt TOO bad. But I still smelled like oil when I got home.

In other news...Im signing a new lease and moving again. Signing is today...so its official. Moving in with the GF of 8 years.... SOOO...I now have to look at my funds even hardner now. I have a garage full of parts that need to be sold. I need to buy a catch can... and I want to buy HP Tuners. It all has to come from sold parts now

Update you all later!

J.

I'm also subscribing. I dont even have a thirdgen anymore, but I'm intrigued..

kind of off topic, but did you have to lengthen your factory engine harness to mount your ECM under the dash?

No LS1 swap question is off topic in this thread Im happy people are still lookin at it.

I did have to lengthen some wires. The PCM mounted in the stock location without lengthening anything. But in order to have the "C" plugs come out into the engine bay and sit where I wanted, I had to lengthen them. If you arent using the LS1 fuse blocks...it probably isnt needed though.

I wanted it to be plug and play, so in order to plug into the LS1 fuse blocks, I added about 16" of wire...maybe less. And since I had a donor car, I found matching wire colors to use to extend them. It was a piece of cake.

Thats all I had to do wire wise though.

Here is where I have the plugs mounted. Not a good pic. All three are popped into the sheet metal of the passenger side wheel well. Like on a 4th gen.



J.

so i take it your ECM wiring goes through the firewall just under where the wiring comes out for the blower fan, etc?

Not exactly. It comes in just to the inside of the passenger side chassis rail, just under the HVAC box.

I dont want to repost too many pics from earlier in the thread, but here is a link to the posts that have relavent pictures.

Shows the hole.

Post 140

Shows how my PCM sits without modifying the PCM plug wiring.

Post 233

Hope that helps ya.

J.

That was a big help. Thanks man

Any updates, keep this thread alive it's all i have.

Haha... The only update I have is driving updates.

Back in april I was in a car show. Shined her up real nice and took it. The show was a benefit for ALS. My buddy and his dad organized it. The car actually looked really good and it got WAY more attention than I thought it would get. I have some pictures somewhere. There were some NICE cars there.

Then I got sick. I had BPPV (vertigo) pretty bad. So I couldnt drive the car. It requires too much attention. Plus the acceleration messed with my head. Here's the funny thing. It sat for about a week. It was a really rainy week. When I decided to take it out, it drove completely different than when I shut it down last. The clutch pedal was light as a feather. I thought it wouldnt even shift. But when I went to shift, the shifter moved so easy and went into gear....like there was no gear.

I mean... it drove so nice. Even downshifts. Not even a hint of notchiness. The thing just ran and drove great.

So...fast forward to a couple of days of driving it. Back to its old habits. Stiff pedal, notchy shifts. Fast forward again. It was like 4 or 5 days and I hadnt driven it. Today...got in...drove like a brand new car.

Its possessed I swear. Its obviously a hydraulic thing...because an internal trans issue wouldnt cause the changing clutch pedal feel. I dont know.

Anyway, other than that, I dont have any updates. Im moving in a couple weeks. So after that, Im down to only working on her on the weekends.

Projects coming up are power locks, possibly hatch glass swap, definately fiberglass spoiler swap, seat belt covers, heater control valve, rear wheel bearings, more welding on the SFCs, HID projectors... Nothing reall major.

J.

I vote more driving videos,

Haha...I almost took one today on my way home from work.

I gotta get some good videos this summer. Once I move, Ill probably head out to my buddies place. He's in the middle of nowhere and there are some roads that see maybe 3 cars a day.

Should be some good ones too as Ive just discovered 2nd gear line locks

J.

arent they all possessed? They're worse than women. Almost.

after taking this pic i'm convinced that you have never changed your number 8 spark plug? Are the headers any better than the manifolds in this area?

What kind of exhaust brackets did you use here? I have the 4th gen Magnaflow and nothing to hang the pipes from...P/N, place, whatever info you could provide would be tits. Awesome swap/post

Mine isnt that tight. I can change my #8 pretty easy. Its actually harder to get the boot on/off than to get the plug in/out.

But...my HVAC box is pretty custom too. So I dont know if that changes things a whole lot. Here's my clearance. I still remove my coil packs and brackets to change the plugs. Just makes it easier.



arrowcamaro: What 4th gen exhaust do you have? 93-97 or 98-02? I used the 93-97 kit...and I wish I went with the 98-02 kit.

Basically...I took the brackets off the donor 4th gen car, and they bolted right into place on my thirdgen. Then, I cut the hangers off the donor cars exhaust, and welded them onto my new exhaust. This is where I wish I had the LS1 kit, because all the hangers would have been there already. Check this thread out and you'll see some pictures.

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/ex...ssistance.html (Need some Magnaflow assistance... Anyone with pics or advice please come on in!!!)

Im not sure of part numbers...but Im sure a GM dealer could help you out pretty easy.

Let me know if that helps you guys out!

J.

Thats perfect info!

Actually I have somewhat of a "mutt" magnaflow set up lol- the tailpipes are 98-02, and the rest is 93-97 haha, so the tailpipes have the hangers on them, I just need the car side of the hanger.

Thanks man, now I know exactly what i need.

Cool man...glad I could help! Im pretty sure the 93-97 and the 98-02 kits are pretty similar. Slight difference in the intermediate pipe and then the hangers.

I wish I would have gotten the 98-02 because my pipes would have been perfectly located. In my case, I had to situated them, then tack on the hangers and hope for the best. haha.

Good luck man. You can probably get those hangers in a junk yard....Im sure its not a commonly pulled part.

J.

Back from the deadish...

I was debating whether or not to bump this...I figured I might as well continue. Then everything having to do with this car will be in one thread haha.

Update:
Ironing out some issues. My steering is whack. When I built the black car, I got a new steering box. Supposed to be a 2.5 turn lock to lock...WS6 box. It was the 3.5 turn regular box. I used it anyway due to lack of time.

Now my steering is sloppy. Partcially due to the box, and partly due to the TERRIBLE alignment I got at firestone. SO...Im getting another new box, and Ill get it re-aligned

Im taking the car to OBX on Aug 1st. Ive been talking with Mike at Rapid about a tune...and he is going to do my tune and my alignment for me. Before I take the car to him, I have a list of things I need to do... Im going to do them all on the 4th of July weekend. Just wanted to give a heads up for pictures and what not

-Changing knock sensors and wiring harness (getting an intermittent code for the rear sensor and im just going to replace them)
-Check sealing of intake, replace some vac fittings.
-Building a new air intake to avoid the 138* IAT temps Ive been seeing. Going to mount a filter under the battery tray. Have to move fuse boxes first...opening up a big can of worms. haha.
-New belt.
-New steering box, along with any other worn out parts I can find.
-Putting in a set of black 4th gen cloth seats I got for cheap so I dont sweat my butt off so much in the summer.
-Then...tune...which I cant wait for.

So...keep an eye out for updates next weekend! If anyone is interested still... Sorry for the WAY pre-mature update post, but I just wanted to put it in typing. Helps me keep my thoughts in line.

J.

I had similar issues years ago with my car. Aligned it twice, tried different specs each time. Wandered and sloppy. Fresh components and all.

Until I put poly bushings in the front control arms and sway bar links WOW is all I can say. Extremely tight feeling front end now. Thought I might mention it before you spend oodles chasing it when 40 bucks for some bushings might do the trick. Also check the ball joints they make a huge difference in the tight feel. That said my car still hunts in the grooved lanes of the highway a little but wide tires not much can be done about tht. Go for a ride in a groovy highway in a Viper... yikes...

delete em with HP when you tune it.

I need to do this also but time time time blah

Good thoughts CAM. Im going against my usual methods here...Im under time constraints, so Im kinda sorta throwing parts at it. My black car handled GREAT. No matter how grooved the road was, that thing was solid. This car is just plain scary. Changing lanes is a handful at 70. I have like 2" of wheel turn before the pitman arm starts to move. So Im atleast going to pop a new box in. All my bushings are poly, and everything else was replaced when I built the black car...probably has less than 10k miles on it. Way less. Im alittle unsure on my ball joints, because the boots looked cracked last time I had it apart...but they felt ok. I expect it to have alittle wander to it...but not so much that i wants to change lanes on its own. Even back road corner carving feels like poop. Very disconneted and vauge steering feedback.

Im going to have the tuner get rid of a bunch of codes. I am seeing a bit of knock retard via my scan gauge. I have a slight feeling that my y-pipe is banging on something...so Im going to look into that. Also, there is no foam or RTV seal around my knock sensors. So I decided that ide pull the intake, and check things out. While its apart, Im going to just put new sensors in. Those sensors were at the very least swapped when the LS6 valley cover was put on. So I dont know their history. And for another 20 bucks, a new harness is nice insurance. Either im getting false knock, or the rear sensor got water in it and its bugging out.

EDIT: Did you mean delete the codes? Or delete the knock sensors all together like some guys do?

As for the intake... I have a game plan. Im going to measure today and give it some thought. I need to move my fuse boxes down closer to the battery tray, and see if I can get an elbow to go over then, and down through the battery tray. My IAT shows temps of 138 plus. I have my batt on the pass side and Im not looking to relocate. My fuse boxes form a sort of opening for tubing to pass through...if I can just make them lower. With the 5 miles of wire coming out of the bottom of the boxes, it might be tough. I might end up cutting the entire tray out, and letting the wires go down below it. Brace up the opening and mount the filter under it. My only worry, besides fitment, is water. I dont think too much water gets in there, and I guess I could build a deflector...but then that will sort of block the cooler air too. Maybe it wont. I really have to look at it tonight.

J.

Whoopsy... I power read through I've been working day and night and I missed the KNOCK part and saw rear and thought rear o2... I wouldnt delete the knock sensor on a daily driver sorry bout the confuseeee.

Hmm so you have poly. What about the front sway bar and end links? 36mm? Wonder bar? poly end links? That should tighten it up plenty if you havent already done that. If you have then ball joints maybe?

IAC temps? Bleh... I think we logged mine at 190 once iirc but they were WAY high and that was at the track too so imagine how much faster I could have gone. Bleh... word of the day bleh LOL

Haha...no confusion...just double checkin!

Im pretty loaded up on suspension. 36mm sway, poly mount and endlink bushings, wonder bar, poly a-arm bushings, bilsteins, eibachs, spohn solid adjusters, newish tie rods and supporting parts, spohn strut mounts, and a thirdgen in a pear tree.

I REALLY hope its not my ball joints. I hate replacing those. They were fine on the old car though, and things got out of wack after my first alignment. I have a feeling my box prematurely wore due to the crazy alignment. Not sure how feasable that is...or the box was crap. It was an autozone unit.

On a side note...I didnt re-install the thirdgen power steering cooler deal. I dont imagine that would cause the box to be fubar that quick right? Ive given thought to adding a small cooler up in the air dam, but since I dont road race the thing, I never saw a need.

I dont know what IAT temps would be considered excessive...but Im still going off the old thought that cooler air is better. I know its not just my sensor reading hot, because my filter sucks right infront of the headers almost. Cant be ideal. But Im not going to kill myself trying to build a new intake before tune day. We'll see.

Just ordered my knocker sensors and harness from Scoggin...

J.

I couldn't decide which set to use so I picked up a 3rd gen and 4th gen set. I may go w/ the 3rd gen set, but use the 4th gen slave and clutch master cyl.

Ok.... haha.

Well, you have no choice on slave/master. Gotta be LS1. And my opinion on best pedal set stands at 3rd gen pedals with 4th gen master cylinder push rod peg welded in place of the thirdgen peg. Provides a 100% bolt in affair except for the drilling of the master holes.

J.

Is that bad??

Honestly man, I think you'll be OK that way. I have run my car for years with my air intake extending down into that area with a cone-shaped K&N on the end of it -probably lower than what you're talking about- & never had any kind of problem with it - and that includes the time I lived in Houston (where flooding is considered a sport/pastime).

I think that once you take a good look under there, you'll see how it's actually pretty well protected from much splashing/direct water... If you wanted, you could fab up a quick water deflector for just the wiring, but I don't know that I'd say that it's necessary...

Noted... Thanks rumble. I plan on mounting the filter right to the bottom of the batter tray more or less. I think it will be ok there also.

Ok...game plan. Here is an overhead view for a visual.



I tried to draw red lines in Paint...but I stink at Paint. So, Im going to have a new pipe come off the MAF, alittle longer. Then go into a 45* elbow, to get things pointed over towards the fuse boxes. Then a short piece of pipe over to a 90* elbow. Then Ill build the part that attaches to the battery tray. I plan to build it so it stays there. There will be plenty of rubber in the set up to allow flex, so no reason for that part to just be floating.

My only dilemma now is whether to use a rubber 90* elbow, or a metal one. Im leaning towards rubber because surprisinly its much less expensive. It just means more clamps sorta.

I didnt check to see if my filter was going to work...Ill deal with that later. Should be ok. I just need to figure out how to lower my fuse boxes. I think I might try to re-located my cruise unit. Or get rid of it...I havent hooked it up yet haha.

Off to the internet to order pipes and elbows and clamps. haha.

J.

EDIT... See? This was after cruising at 70 and then coming to a stop. Haha. Too hot IMO.

nice!!
yeah my car runs right under 180 in this so cal heat. cooler on the freeway .. and if i get on it. the most is 185 or 190

Yeah my engine temp never gets above 180. It's gotten higher since I changed the radiator cap...used to hang around 160.

The lower gauge showing 145 is actually my Intake Air Temp sensor reading. Thats almost as hot as my motor!! Not really ideal haha. Ill see if I can fix it next weekend.

J.

wow, those IAT's are way up there!

Mine cruising around town in bumper to bumper traffic in S. Fl are 105ish and I think they can be lower......

-jason

Ok guys...Got the intake done. It was actually pretty painless. The biggest pain was getting the fuse boxes relocated. Also, I had to remove that brace for the fender, so Im going to make something to help support it. Its not too bad though, the inner fender liner actually keeps it from moving much.

First some pics, then some results. This didnt come out as clean as I wanted. Its got lots of clamps and elbows and what not...but it does the job.

My order from intakehoses.com.


Real estate after the fuse boxes were moved.


Initial mock up of my idea.


Where I decided to make my hole. Also notice the cruise control in this pic. I ended up removing it because it gave me more room to lay the wires. Plus, it wasnt hooked up, and I dont see myself hooking it up any time soon. When I decide to, Ill reinstall it somewhere.



Another mock up with the hole in place.

This is how I ended up mounting the fuse boxes. Basically 90* from where they were originally. Not perfect...but it works for now. I reused the old bracket, and just used a horn bolt for the one side.


All done.


I used a piece of hose around the cut hole to keep rattles away.


How the filter sits.


PLENTY of hood clearance still.

While doing this..I decided to relocate the IAT sensor. It was getting tons of heat from the motor and Im pretty sure it was getting heat soaked. So I moved it up stream a bit. You can feel a difference in temp between where it was and where it is..just with your hand. And the air doesnt heat up before it gets into the motor as fast as its going and as short as the distance is.


Engine at full operating temp, and its been sitting idling for a few minutes.


MUCH better. haha. Stays at basically ambient temp the entire time now. So I guess its working.

Couple things I noticed. I didnt need to mount anything. The filter was a tight fit, and once I put hose around the hole, it was actually pretty snug. You can hardly move it the way it is. So Im not making any mounts. My filter could actually be shorter...but its working great as it stands.

My IATs are obviously lower now. I feel like the car is more responsive and while watching the gauge, I can see that its getting more cool air. Which has to be good. haha. One other thing I noticed. Its running richer now. Its seeing high 12.x's under hard throttle and low to mid 13's while cruising/idling...according to my wideband. So I guess it richened itself up now that its reading cooler temps. But the temps should be accurate...so it should all be good.

I ran the car hard on the way home tonight. Stopped on the highway and just laid into it. And it really friggin hauled the mail. It was a cool night and all, but honestly, the car hasnt felt that good in a long time while hot. So who knows.... I think it did some good.

Tomorrow is knock sensors, steering box, and odds and ends. Should be an easy day. Ill update again tomorrow.

J.

P.S....ended up using 4" of that 3' piece of pipe. haha. My previous piece worked great...and the left over piece from where I cut it was usable. So I only needed a 4" piece to go from the elbow to the filter. Oh well...Ill use it for something.

Looks really good Justin - that's almost exactly how I did mine (except that mine's on the passenger side). I think that you're really going to be happy with how it'll work out for ya.

(EDIT) BTW - I'd be interested in long-term trends regarding your IATs. One of the heavy drag racers in my local F-body group has said that this type of mod is worth around 1/4 second or so, but I'm curious about how it affects the car on an ordinary, "day-to-day" basis...

Looks good man!

btw, I left my cruise right where you had yours when I fabbed up my intake. It works perfectly there, so I decided to build the intake around it.

Now if I could just get better than 20.6 mpg on the hwy, I'd be really happy!

-jason

Whats up everyone. Well...so far Im loving the new cool air filter location. It got up to about 82 today at one point...but with as hot as it was today, and the sun beating on the asphalt all day, Im sure thats what it was. Still ambient. Either way, the car is running GREAT. Its not just my imagination. The A/F gauge shows that its about a full point richer under WOT. Gets down to high 11 low 12 when Im on it. That DEF never happened until I did this. It just feels....better. Not other way to describe it.

Now if only my MAF wasnt setting a code... Im not even sure Im running with a MAF, because Ive heard when the maf frequency maxs out, it runs in SD mode. Which my PCM isnt set up for...so that could be hurting me. I have a variety of new MAFs for my tuner to choose from when I go for a tune...hopefully this coming week!

Anyway...onto today's activities. I didnt take a lot of pictures, because frankly, you've all seen it before. Just a couple odd shots.

The steering box that I got is actually the correct one this time. I ordered a 2.5 turn box before, and got a 3.5. I used it, because I was in a pinch. Well...its been acting up, so I just got another. I installed that this morning, and it seem to be working great. I really love the quicker ratio box vs. the standard. Its how my 87 WS6 was from the factory...and I had to get used to my 86's standard box. Not anymore.

Starting to tear the box out.


Old on the left, new on the right. Notice they are both the SAME atco part number. However the one on the left is NOT correct.


New box in. I had to remove all the braces and brackets under there to get it out. It was a bit of a chore to sneak it out of there.


Just for fun...another shot of my filter set up. By adding that hose, it made it a super tight fit. Really holds things good.


cont...

Now...the fun part. Knock sensors. One thing I love about the LS1, is how easy it is to pull the intake. Literally takes 10 minutes, tops. Haha that included the time it took me to find the fuel line disconnect tool.


Here's where it gets hilarious. I was throwing a code every so often for the rear sensors. When I pulled the intake, I noticed the boot wasnt seated firmly. Looked like this.


Everyone knows how fun it is to unplug those sensors right? Well when I lifted the boot out, this came right out with it.


Thats right...the sensor wasnt plugged in!! The plug was cracked. So I guess it was making connection, but would loose contact every so often, and throw the code.

Nice and clean though.


Good thing I thought ahead and got a new harness. New GM harness and two GM sensors was about 115 shipped through scoggy dicken. Great place.


Thats all the pictures. I ran into trouble putting the intake back on. For some odd reason, two of the o-ring gaskets kept popping out. Its like they were about 1/4" too long. Really ticked me off. The ONLY way I got them back in was to put the two orings in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Shrunk them just enough to shove them in, and slap the intake on. I also taped the harness down, and put RTV "dams" around the knock sensor boots. I also put a couple strips of foam down under the intake in a few spots...like the factory intakes have.

Last but not least, I put in a new belt. Doesnt sound like much, but it should keep the belt dust from cropping up all over.

That was my weekend. haha. It was fun...sorta. Just for kicks and giggles, I took a video on my way home tonight. Its not really exciting. Just me going through the tolls and accelerating onto the highway. I love how you can hear the motor noise with the t-tops out and all the wind. Dont mind the shaking and crappy quality. haha. The sound is decent. Actually...watch your volume, because its pretty loud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti5L2EY7DaE

Tomorrow Im gonna wash her up, and hope that i can get in for a tune this week. Ill update with that once I get it done. Ill probably start a new thread, since I hope to have video and dyno results too.

Thanks for reading my bazzillion updates and posts. haha.

J.

I am wanting to run a cold air intake similar to that once I change intake manifolds later on. I haven't looked yet but my car is a 91 so I am not for sure if the nose hangs down as low as yours. How long is that filter?

Also do you worry about water or anything with it hanging down like that? I doubt you drive it in the rain and I know I won't be unless I have to but that doesn't mean there aren't random puddles on the road sometimes.

Awesome work.

do you have something to datalog the ecm while running?

A bit earlier in the thread (post #583), I wrote

I don't think it'll be a problem...

Yeah its shielded all around from water. Just a small area is exposed. And if I think it will be an issue, Ill just make alittle piece to cover the area. Wouldnt be hard. Its tucked away pretty good. You have to really reach under to put your hand on it, and you cant see it at all. Not sure how long the filter is. 8-9 inches maybe? Oh..and she does get driven in the rain haha. I try to avoid it, but its not a garage queen. I run her hard and put her away dirty on a regular basis. Thats why I built it the way I did.

I dont have anything to datalog. The only thing I have is my wideband gauge, and a scan gauge that shows me just about anything I need to know. So I can watch my IAT and my knock count/retard...which is what Ive been watching lately. I was geting a few degrees of retard, then I was getting a code for the sensor. Also, it was leaning out due to the high IAT temps...so that might be why I was having those issues. So far, Ive seen nothing but good from the new air intake.

That vid from last night was in 3rd gear, not even WOT, not even shifting where I normally would and the speed what probably 40-45ish to 100. Its running better now that it has in awhile. And call me crazy, but I think it quieted things down under the hood alittle. I think the foam and RTV under the intake helped keep the noise from transmitting through that as easy, and there is no hissing/sucking from the air filter.

Overall....Im a happy camper. I might have my GF take some more video today while we are out goofing around. If I can find some fun roads or something haha.

J.

Lol, way too many posts in this thread to really keep track of it all.

Good to see that my idea will work then. My battery tray is rusted out so I am going to put the battery in on the passenger side like the camaros have it and then use a 4th gen battery tray and overflow tank. I had planned on running an elbow off the tb to an lt1 cold air intake but I will probably just use some tubing like you did to keep costs down.