LTX and LSXPutting LT1's, LS1's, and their variants into Third Gens is becoming more popular. This board is for those who are doing and have done the swaps so they can discuss all of their technical aspects, including repairs, swap info, and performance upgrades.
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ARD is doing the following:
* Exhaust build from manifolds to rear section. I am reusing my Hooker muffler and have some sweet new hooker tips to add on. This should be (I believe) 2.5" from each manifold to a 2.5-3" Y, then through a high-flow cat, then back to the muffler
* Tune and start - VATS delete, rear 02 delete, use of the 700r4 (acts like a manual tranny)
* Suspension - install Eibach Pro-Kit along with a full underbody UMI treatment (pan-hard bar, torque arm, LCAs, LCArbs, wonder bar). I could have done the UMI pieces, but ran out of time before the appointment with ARD and their prices seem good...so why not.
* TV Cable adjustment - this is a drivability thing really, as we made sure to install the constant pressure valve body recommended by your friend who sold me the engine. I'd like to drive the car home, so this needs to be done.
* AC line fabrication - I've got the AC block that guys use for the 4th gen AC compressor, and it should also work on the 3rd gen one. They're pretty sure they can handle this, but I may end up having to go elsewhere for it.
That pretty much sums up what they're handling. I think we've put enough time and effort into this build to still justify the "built not bought" label though
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The car's been at ARD now for 13 days. I went by on Friday to see how they were progressing (they've got alot of cars going through there!). They were finishing up the suspension and exhaust. I got to stick around for them to try and start it...seems like my fuel pump isn't working. My fuel gauge isn't working either, so I'm wondering if there's something wrong with the fuel pump canister wiring (they put power direct to the harness in the rear and the pump never started). Next up on the list is a new pump :-/ . Also, my custom VSS setup off the rear end had to be taken off as the new UMI torque arm was in the way. They believe they can use the input from the 700r4, and I'm hoping they can - but everything I've read points to EFILive not going low enough to accurately use that vss signal. We'll see....I'm not sure what to do if they can't use it...
So far - ARD has been good to deal with. I wish they had gotten to the car sooner than they did, but I'm not on a tight schedule and just feel like a kid at Christmas. The work they had dont on the exhuast was top notch, and I don't believe I've seen others use this routing before - it's just sick! Here are the pics of exhuast, and the new height with all of the suspension work
Jay at ARD said this is the way he ran the exhaust on his LS1 swapped IROC.
Here you can see the stock-like clearance (with an automatic!) and the cat. I hope to get this to pass the sniffer test...not sure yet what I'm going to tell the guy inspecting it though.
The exhuast consists of stock 01 manifolds, 2.5" pipes to a 2.5" to 3" flowmaster Y-Pipe. This goes into the cat and then over the rear axle to my old Hooker SuperComp muffler. We finished it off with some Hooker Dual Angle Cut tips w/intercoolers (or whatever they're called)
Here you can see the new height with the springs/suspension. I'm liking it
New fuel pump should arrive on Tuesday, and I hope to hear some good news shortly thereafter. I've been impressed thus far with the quality of work done by ARD, and their knowledge of the LSx platform and the thirdgen in particular. They were kind enough to let my father and I hang out half a day on Friday just watching them work on the car!
__________________ LSXPowered
Last edited by 3.1EyeCandy; 05-03-2009 at 09:23 PM.
very nice but, im gonna go with 6.0 flexplate and spacer. along with 700r4 tc, looking for 3k stall, found a 2800 b&m for a good price
am doing the same thing with a ls2 in australia i thought my only option was the tci flex plate is their another option parts aint cheap down under,also dont have a wiring harnes or ecu and am thinking of going after market stand alone maybe a haltech 11e
You might look into the painless harness for wiring. ARD's wishing I had gone that route instead of the Speartech (due to their prior experience). If you're looking for other options as far as flywheel & spacer - do some searching on ls1tech.com . A few more folks there are using th350s & 700r4s with their lsx engines.
ARD got the car on the dyno abot 3 weeks ago and were able to get it up into the upper rpms once. Second time around, my 700r4 wouldn't shift out of first... I've sank more than enough money into using the 700r4 "the right way" - see above long post for details - and wasn't going to sink more...especially with the doubt of the vss/speedo ever working properly. I bit the bullet and told them to source a 4l60e. Ordered the part of the harness i deliberately left off whn i first purchased from speartech for the 4l60e. ARD told me it would be ready most likely in two weeks.
we're now approaching the 2 month mark since i first dropped my car off. I still expect to be troubleshooting my gauges, rigging up the a/c, and attempting an inspection in the next couple weeks...but I'm not holding my breath. I sure hope I don't end up having the trouble member $750 L98 had. Really, I'm ready to enjoy this car for a change
Sorry for the lack of updates, I wish there was more to tell :-/
i was planning on doing the LS1 swap to my formula.
alot of hard work.... and alot more money than I expected.
ive read this entire thread and it looks extremely difficult and time consuming to get an LS1 into a 3rd gen. Im looking for the easiest, least painful route but arent we all.
Looks like I would need to get the 4l60E along with the ls1 for it to be easier and a custom fab driveshaft to fit the 9 bolt borg warner.
I dont want A/C, and I was wondering what is everything exactly that you have to do to make the engine and tranny fit into the 3rd gen. after that is taken care of im sure the wiring wont be much of the problem except I am confused as the what to do about the fuel tank issue.
i will do more research and I might drop my plans of doing the swap if just keeping the tpi and building it is easier.
No custom fab driveshaft needed. Mine will have the 4L60e and 9 bolt as well.
Definitely do your research, this site and ls1tech's conversion forum are great resources. You can definitely do this swap "on the cheap" if you're good at sourcing parts and do the majority of the labor yourself. I'm not sure if my expenses and time-invested is at all typical.
In the end, this is a hobby. I'm still enjoying it, and have no intention to stop enjoying/spending/waiting anytime soon
Here you can see the stock-like clearance (with an automatic!) and the cat. I hope to get this to pass the sniffer test...not sure yet what I'm going to tell the guy inspecting it though.
either get it HOT before you go, and throw it right on the rollers, or pm me
Got my car back from ARD today. Before loading the car on the trailer, Owen commented that the car didn't seem to have very good brakes. I had previously told Jay (and saw him write it down) to bleed the brakes on the car, as we'd recently finished redoing the rear brakes. The car was all setup to be loaded, so I went to load it anyway...bad idea. With the rear brakes not working properly, one of the boards used for a ramp got pushed away while the car was going up the ramp. This let the car shift and slide over - denting my passenger door. My fault for loading the car without bled brakes...but didn't I ask to have this done?
Paid my bill and asked to make sure they had tuned the tach like I asked (8 cyl. mode instead of the stock 4 from the ls1). Jay told me he believed they had. Owen looked it up for me and it wasn't tuned - so I'll be going back for that, no biggie.
During the first month there, the fuel pump wasn't working. I was ok with paying to have them drop the tank to replace it - but both Jay and Owen told me they all run fuel pump access panels in their cars (some pretty fast) and they look right and are properly sealed. I was against the idea, but they did a pretty good job convincing me. I agreed as long as it was "done right". My final surprise tonight was pulling up the rear carpet to check their work. What did I find? The 3 sides-cut square of sheetmetal taped down. No access panel. No rounded corners. Arg. More work I'm going to have to finish.
I took a couple videos ya'll can see to show the car as a whole and the hack job done to my fuel pump "access panel". I can't say I'm happy with the quality of work the hack job hole represents, and hope it is not indicitave of things I am unable to see.
Click on the pics for video. The exhaust really sounds great, but the mic on my camera can't handle it:
I'm thinking to fix the hack job, something like this (real access panel) could work + rounding the corners a bit of the original cut hole. We bled the brakes once we got the car home and I got a chance to drive it around the block - what a nice feeling to have a car that moves I've got some vibration that seems like it's exhaust rubbing the body when the engine revs while moving (enough to reverb inside the car) as well. At this point I'm just glad to have my car back.
Well I am happy for you that you got to drive the car finally. Sorry to hear about the misfortune with the installers. I'm sure I will have plenty of questions for you over the next few months. I finally got my old drivetrain sold so when I finish painting this T/A for a friend of mine, I am yanking out the old motor and transmission and starting the process of installing the 6.0
I wouldn't hesitate to take the car back for some work - as long as I was incredibly specific about what I wanted done, and had given them only one simple thing to do. You'd then need to double check their work...well...maybe a good bit of hesitation is in order here.
Adding to the list - found some of the mounting hardware holding suspension parts in (which they installed) loose. I'll be going over this thing with a find-toothed comb before I take it on the road again.
Question for anybody running dual fans: does your first fan run as soon as the key is in the "ON" position? My second fan comes on as it should, but the first fan is running all the time... Maybe there's a short?
Should work in theory - didn't work in practice. I believe my sender became defective (or our modifications made it that way). I tore it down today and couldn't get consistent readings out of it.
I wouldn't hesitate to take the car back for some work - as long as I was incredibly specific about what I wanted done, and had given them only one simple thing to do. You'd then need to double check their work...well...maybe a good bit of hesitation is in order here.
Adding to the list - found some of the mounting hardware holding suspension parts in (which they installed) loose. I'll be going over this thing with a fine-toothed comb before I take it on the road again.
Hmmm. Sounds like you could take it to the primate house at the zoo & get similar results for a lot less money...
Hmmm. Sounds like you could take it to the primate house at the zoo & get similar results for a lot less money...
Maybe so!I'm hoping the tranny holds up. Over the weekend i also found 3 areas where the exhaust was directly touching the body of the car (causing vibration), my drivers side oxygen sensor wire resting on the exhaust with the connector melted, and my panhard bar was installed with the grease zert facing up (and how could they have greased that? oh wait, all of the suspension parts took plenty of grease...) This is nuts.
Question though, does the ls1/4l60e need the brake pedal switch hookup like the old 700r4 did? My idle at times really pushes the car forward even with the brake applied...is the tcc affecting this?
Haven't tried hooking this stuff up yet, but in case anybody can use it later - here are the diagrams for the auto trans to the pcm. They show the brake switch and the park neutral position switch. Click to embiggen.
