I concur... Sounds like there is some air trapped somewhere. What all did you replace? Brake hoses? Lines? Calipers? Did you upgrade to LS1 brakes I forget...

Im not really getting what you are saying with the washers and the mounts... Ive read about this before, and I just cant fathom any other way to install those parts. Spohn mounts go on the k-member, stock LS1 clamshells go on the block... How can it be any other way?

As for the turn signals...if your front signal isnt blinking, but turning on and is BRIGHT, then thats ok. If the rear is doing the same, thats ok. At that point, pop a new flasher in. Make sure you are replacing the turn signal flasher and not the hazards flasher. If you arent sure, put the right hand signal on, the one that still blinks, and feel the flasher to see if its clicking.

Not sure about the oil. Dont assume it cant be a seal issue in the motor just because theres only 30 miles on it. Seals can be bad out of the package. Since its probably coming from the middle of the car somewhere, and its probably dark, Im going to guess its not brake fluid. But I wouldnt rule it out until you check all the levels. Lots of little things can leak under there...

Congrats on driving her! Its fun isnt it!!! They did a good job on your exhaust. Just goes to show you that you CAN make a nice exhaust with the spohn crossmember...you just have to know what you are doing and have the proper tools haha. I would REALLY like to hear a sound clip of your exhaust. Preferably while driving. I hate the rasp from my exhaust... Are you just running the bullet and thats it? Or the bullet plus another muffler? My magnaflow catback is ok, but the sound isnt really great IMO...I need a change haha.

J.

 

looks like a dump after the bullet. looks incredible man, i need to get some stainless wire for my MIG and start playing with stainless...but it's SO heavy compared to regular MS.

 

I'm pretty sure it's not brake fluid, but the leak came from towards the front of the car, a little towards the driver side, so maybe it was leaking out of the master cylinder. I'll check it out tonight.


I'll get a pic of the motor mount bolts and washers too. I couldn't believe it myself until I saw it with my own eyes. The washer is definitely keeping the tabs on the stock GM mounts from setting where they should be though.

As soon as I figure out my leak, fix the driveshaft angle, and get the brakes working again I'll take it out for a drive with my video camera. I'm starting to think the brake problem is a bad master cylinder. The brakes are LS1 all around, and I'm using the same lines that were on it before. I've literally driven on these brakes about a year and a half prior to the swap without any issues.

 

i had an issue very similar, but it was when i first put the ls1 brakes on the car. i had accidently put the calipers on the wrong side so the bleeder screws where on the bottom...no way to bleed when you do that! doesn't sound like that's the problem with yours though since you said you'd driven on them before

 

Freakin' awesome, congrats Nick!! You've got me totally jonesing to get mine on the road now!!

 

Yea that's not the case here. I'm gonna go back tonight after I get off work and see if there's any brake fluid that has leaked anywhere, and check the level on the master cylinder. I hope it's not a bad master cylinder because I LITERALLY have zero money to spend on this car anymore. My wife has totally cut off all funding for this project after my bill from last night. I'm lucky enough to have the funds to pay for renewed tags tomorrow, that's it!

Thanks!

 

Congrats! now put her in 3rd and romp on it...just don't go in the ditch lol

 

Do you guys think that maybe the master cylinder isn't bad at all, and it just has air pockets inside it from when I had it off the car when I was doing the auto to manual swap?

 

If you didnt fill it up with fluid before you reinstalled it, then its likely there is

Much like the initial install of slave cyls, there must be fluid in them to bleed properly

Hopefully its just a fitting that was not tightened down completely after the installation (leak)

 

Honestly the thing I am most cincerned with is the oil that was on the ground. I'm having a hard time focusing at work today because of it. I can't wait to get off tonight and check on it and hopefully find something good.

 

What type of trans mount are you using?

 

I'm not sure, it came with the trans. It's red so I assume its polyurethane.

 

When I went to crawl under the car tonight my heart sank... not only was there a huge spot of oil on the garage floor, the two parts that I was hoping would be the leaky problem were NOT the problem. The drain plug was dry, as was the oil filter. So I'm thinking "Crap, this sucks fat nuts..."

I look at the back of the block where the oil pan touches the bell housing and I see where the oil had come down the back of the block. I'm instantly thinking rear main seal, which would suck big *********.

This is what I'm looking at:




Then I noticed there was a run of slick spots down the side of the bell housing, a good 6 inches from the backside of the block. So I stood up and looked over the top of the block to find the best finding I could possibly imagine. The leak is coming from the oil pressure sensor, which I remember I didn't have a large enough wrench to get around it and tighten it down nice and good. I used a pair of pliers or a crescent wrench, and it obviously didn't do the job. So as you can imagine, I'm pretty relieved at this point. I'm getting hold of one of those oil pressure sensor sockets (which I didn't know existed until tonight) and will have it fixed up tomorrow.





I still have to work on the issue with the driveshaft and the tailhousing of the transmission though. I was looking at the motor mounts tonight and where the nut is touching the tabs on the GM mounts, it doesn't appear that there is any way of curing it. The "washer" is actually part of the nut itself, and besides that, there is no wiggle room in the holes on the Spohn pedestals, as well as no wiggle room with the bolt going through the middle of the motor mount either. I'm not sure how I could possibly shim the entire block down towards the ground about a 1/4" with everything bolted down. I am thinking I'm going to have to rely on simply moving the tailshaft of the trans higher into the car with some sort of spacer or shim.

Here's how the tab looks at the nut on the pedestals (I highlighted the tab in one of the pictures):

 

Use the right angle grinder Luke!

 

Man my heart stopped when you said there was a leak... Glad its an easy fix...

 

I had to add a couple of large fender washers under my trans mount too. No biggie

 

dont forget to use some petruleum grade pipe thread sealer on the sensor and either get a felt washer or some rtv

 

About how much did you have to raise yours? And do you know about the distance between the top of the tailhousing and the tunnel where the shifter goes into the car?

 

I must just have been away from the garage too long or something... I still dont see the issue you are having with the motor mounts. I can kinda see where you'd have a little interference, but not enough to change things much. You said it yourself, there isnt much wiggle room in those parts. Maybe a better pic with macro turned on or something?

As for shimming the trans... Ive been doing that since I built the first car. I did it to keep my oil pan off of the k-member. Im using the energy suspension trans mount. It came with that "preload" plate, and I was originally going to leave that plate off because it increases vibes/trans noise. But I ended up using that, plus another 1/8" plate between the mount and the crossmember. So My trans was shimmed up about 1/4". With my new crossmember, and my notch in the k-member, I can probably remove those...and I probably will the next time I get a chance to work on my car. Problem is my exhaust has to come down for the crossmember to come out. I can get the bottom shim out, but not the preload plate.

Point being...dont be afraid to shim stuff here and there. On the top of my trans, there is a rubber snubber that I believe is to keep the trans from smacking the trans tunnel..metal to metal. At one point, that snubber was very close to the tunnel on my car. You could sorta get a finger between the two, but it was tight. Now I have a little more. Im running all poly mounts, so things werent moving enough for me to be worried about that clearance. I wouldnt put the trans right against the tunnel, but as long as your trans mount is good, you can make it pretty close.

Good find on the oil pressure sender. Those things will get ya every time. Had a big issue with that when my car was a 305 TPI. Thought for sure I blew a head gasket or rear main seal. Started poking around, and to my relief, it was just that stupid sender.

J.

 

I dont see anything wrong with your motor mounts or those little tabs

They look just like mine. It has around 1/16" clearance around the nut/bolthead and never touches the tab. Yours is the same because it never touches the bracket radius as seen in the first pic with the highlighted tab

 

I was also thinking a possible mis-match of mount brands could cause the issues, but you have Spohn K-member, mounts and crossmemeber

Give them a call

1/4" is worth shimming, 3/4" is rediculous

 

I just got off the phone with Spohn, unfortunately they have never heard of anyone having my problem before so they didn't have any suggestions. I guess my remedy will be a bunch of fender washers or a piece of steel with a hole drilled through the center.

 

Thats no fun

The mount stud is extra long to accomodate shims - 1/4" or so

3/4" will never fit. Thatll require steel. If you're very lucky you can shim the top and bottom of the mount and get close

 

With that much spacering, you'll want to use grade 10 bolts.

 

I used the Spohn swap front mounts and the Skulte T56 trans crossmember. I actually had to put shims between the frame and Skulte to get the top of the trans away from the tunnel. Checking the angles, I still had the proper engine/trans angle, and proper driveshaft/pinion angle.

As to the leak, I prefer Teflon tape to goop for brass fittings.

 

This will give you guys an idea how the exhaust sounds now that it's finished. I think it sounds pretty darn good if I may say so myself. Again, for those that haven't read it earlier, it has the Hawks stainless longtubes with 1 3/4" primaries, 3" collectors, into a stainless y-junction from there it goes into a single stainless Magnaflow 3" bullet that dumps inches in front of the rear end.

You can really hear the exhaust note well towards the end of the video when I am sitting in the driver seat again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0xeIrSSfeQ

 

Man that thing sounds mean! Now if I can only get my 5.3 to sound that good......

 

Thanks Dan, I can't wait to fix the small bugs with it and drive the ***** off it haha

 

Um...yeah... Im changing my cam and my exhaust.

That sounds great! I cant wait to hear it while its driving. To truely hear if the rasp is gone. I think Im sold on the magnaflow bullets whenever I redo my stuff. I dont know if Im going to dump it...but Im going to try to get true duals back over the axle and use some bullets in place of a STD muffler.

Mine sounds great at WOT, but its weezy any other time IMO. And the cut out is cool, but raspy as heck at certain points. My cam is partially to blame for me not liking the sound.

Great work man!! Get that sucker tuned, fix your minor issues, and you'll have so much fun you wont know what to do with yourself!

 

Whats the MIL on for?

 

MIL, as in the SES light? I think the tuner said it's because right now the o2's are turned off, plus he had some funky reading from the MAF. He'll fix it next time we take it out.

 

Malfunction Indicator Lamp

Its what GM denotes it as, terminology rubs off, sorry

 

Gotcha, I hadn't heard it referred that way before

 

Exhaust sounds awesome. Hurry up and drive it so you can make ghetto c. jealous. What did you figure out on the driveshaft angle?

 

I haven't been able trk on that angle problem yet. My dads friend owns a shop with a lift and he is letting me use the lift to try and fix the issue on my day off on Monday. Today I am waiting for the ATT installer to get here to hook up my new internet and TV and when he leaves I'm going to install my a/c delete box, change the oil for the first time, and put on some kind of splash guard behind the filter so it doesn't get debris thrown at it from the front driver side tire. I have an idea on how to do that, so we'll see how it turns out.

 

that is a sweet merge on the y pipe. did your exhaust guy make it, or what brand is it?
any more angles under the car at the y pipe?
real nice job with it. that area is a mess!
car sounds good too!

 

Sounds amazing Nick!

I hope you'll let me come get a ride in it sometime

And with it being a manual, I'm sure you won't get bored of it very easy.

You'd be surprised on how many compliments i get on my 88 formula with just a 305... my 2002 trans am ws6 doesn't get half the attention.

Perhaps I need to do an LSX swap in my formie soon.

 

looks like a magnaflow junction

 

when they did your y pipe. what collector type are you using? standard ones or are they v band clamps?

 

Yes I believe is it a magnaflow junction.


With your question on the collectors, I'm not sure. To be honest I'm not even sure what exactly a v-band is anyways.


Oh, and its back OFF the road now...looks like I had two leaks, not just the oil pressure sensor. I've got a drip coming from inside the bellhousing...looks like I have to take the trans back out and replace the rear main seal...what a ball buster.

 

Or the crank plug. Although I'm not sure if they will only either leak big or not leak, or if a small leak is possible.

 

Where's the crank plug? I'd imagine you'd have to pull the trans to change it as well huh? I can't believe this happened with 50 miles on the block. I'm so pissed...

 

The crank plug is in the crank...behind the pilot bearing. It can be an issue if you arent careful when removing/installing the pilot bearing. The old school guys used to squirt grease in behind the bearing, or use compressed air. That method can knock the plug out on the LS motors though...

Im not sure...but I guess it could be seeping, as opposed to a full on leak. Bottom line, and you already know this, but you arent really going to know until you pull things apart and investigate. ITs a royal pain...but you'd much rather be safe than sorry...trust me.

Keep us posted on what you find! Dont worry...these little gremlins will pop up at first. Iron them out, and you'll be impressed at how reliable the car is and how trouble free things will be. Not to mention friggin fun to drive!

J.

 

Posted in one of my threads https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/atta...utch-63238.gif

Makes one suspect something wasn't put together correctly or was damaged when being worked on.

 

Good news. I guess the seal wasn't bad after all. Apparently I was just seeing left-over dripping from when the oil pressure sensor was leaking, because it's not leaking now. I suppose there was just enough oil that had run down the back of the block and sat in the bottom of the bell housing that after I drove it to the shop to put it on the lift, it started to seep out. I got it out of the garage today to drive some friends around in it and let them see it, and when I parked it again, I slid a piece of cardboard under the car so I could monitor it. I went back about 3 hours later and there wasn't a single drop of ANYTHING under the car.

So now that this is settled, I'm going to spend my afternoon tomorrow finishing up the wiring loom, hopefully putting the console back in, and installing the a/c delete box.

 

Well good deal buddy! Now you gotta gets some videos up!

 

I'll see if I can get some today, I really want to button up some small details on it today. If I can get it all done before dark, I'd like to put the hood back on and try to get some driving videos for you guys to watch.

 

The weather was pretty cruddy today, I may be able to get some videos this week, we'll see. We're supposed to get snow here sometime in the week, so it might take me a while.

 

I screwed up big time.


Tonight my car was running perfect, now it doesn't run at all. I was putting wire loom on the bulkhead connector over on the firewall, and then when I went to start it, it would crank but wouldn't start. So I pulled back some of the loom, and I saw a broken end of a wire, and also found that the red wire coming from the fuel pump relay, which has a black plastic clip at the end of it, wasn't plugged into anything.

Sure enough, the fuel pump wasn't getting power. I'm not sure what happened, did that fuel pump relay wire even have another end to that clip, and maybe it broke off when I was looming it?

Anyway, I ended up soldering the fuel pump relay wire to the broken end of a wire I found, and now it starts but it only runs for about 2 seconds. I literally cannot keep it running. I started it about 10 or 11 times, and every time it stayed running for 2 or 3 seconds max.

When I turn the key to the on position, the fuel pump used to be pretty loud when it was priming, now it sounds very faint, I can barely hear it priming, not sure if this helps in diagnosing the problem. I literally didn't touch anything else on the car other than install my a/c delete box, which isn't even wired up yet.



Can I get a freaking break here?

 

are you sure you made a good connection when you repaired it? you may have a high resistance connection that allows it to prime the system when you key on but when it is trying to run doesn't get enough voltage to the pump. based on how you said it sounded different i would check that repair out first