this setup is going to be so sick when its all ironed out.

 

I got the engine in Friday. It went in pretty easy. I had to take loose the passenger side brake line and move it. I also found that my hoist needs to reach a little further to get this engine all the way back than it did with the SBC.

I also had to loosen the trans crossmember and trans mount to get everything to line up correctly. This engine sits a little further away from the firewall than my SBC did. Overall I'd say everything fit pretty well.

 

I put the headers on Saturday. The drivers side fits well but is kinda close to the transmission linkage but I think it will be ok.

The passenger side didn't fit as well. I did have to raise the engine some to get it in. You have to have it at the right height, not too much or too little then it won't go in. Theres a sweet spot. If you don't get the engine to the right spot it won't go in. Then the header would hit the K-member where the box is around the rear A-Arm bolt. I ground the corner off for clearance so I had to trial fit it several times.

I'm going to have my buddy that welds come over this week to take a look at the headers to figure out what flange to put on them or V-Band.

I'm also going to have to re-route my battery cables and fuel lines. I needed to do that anyway but I kept putting it off. The fuel lines fit where they are at but I'd like to keep them further away from the heat if I can find a better route.

Done for this weekend...have to work today unforunately. But the OT money will help.

 

man i want those headers....or something other than just my 1 3/4" hawks...pretty sure that i can gain from a larger primary tube.

 

I've made some minor progress on my swap the past couple of weeks. I haven't had a lot of time to work on it and have ran into a few problems that have slowed me down.

A friend had a spare v-band clamp so I held it up to my header and it looked like it would fit(clearance is tight between the drivers side header and the header collector). I bought some v-band clamps from summit and found they they were huge, way bigger than the one I had borrowed. I returned them and called several v-band manufactures to compare sizes, I don't think any of them would clear my trans linkage on the drivers side header, although some of the smaller ones would be very close to fitting.

So I decided to go with a 3 bolt flange. I ordered kooks 3 bolt flanges that were listed as stainless on the summit site. I get them and they are horrible. The sealing surface is grooved and pitted. The bolt holes aren't completely round and aren't spaced evenly. I put a magnet on them and they aren't stainless either...complete junk. I ordered some Vibrant 3 bolt flanges from Verocious Motorsports this weekend...I've heard nothing but good about Vibrant products so the quality should be good.

 

I got my pro-systems carburator this week, went with a 1000cfm 4150. I thought about trying a SV1 but it requires a dominator style air cleaner that is 16in in diameter which creates more hood clearance problems.

I have a Glass Tek 2 1/2in cowl hood so hood clearance is tight with the Super Victor. I had to trim the support piece at the back of the hood a little to clear the air cleaner. As it sits it clears a regular air cleaner lid but it won't quite clear my K&N lid, I may have to trim it a little more.

I bought a 2.25in drop air cleaner bottom made my proform for additional clearance. The deeper drop means less space for beteen the top of the carb and the air cleaner lid, not sure how much it will matter. I'll do some back to back runs with and without an aircleaner to find out. With my old combo it made no difference using a 3in drop base with a K&N lid. The problem problem with the deeper drop is that my csr throttle bracket hits the air cleaner bottom. I took the piece of the throttle bracket that holds the cable to a machine shop to have about .225in milled off it.

I've also readjusted the engine/trans mounts. My engine seems to sit slighly lower on the passenger side. No matter how I adjust it its always lower on that side, I'm not sure if the car is tweaked from years of racing or if the k-member or mounts are slightly off. Its not too noticable but it bugs me. Its even if I put a washers under the passenger side mount that bolts to the K-Member. I hate using washers but I may have to for the time being until I can get some fab work done to the mount to correct it.

I can't get much further until I get the flanges welded on the headers, hopefully by next weekend I'll get that done. And I'm also working on getting the MSD box mounted.

Just a few years ago I would have had this thing running in a 1/4 of the time......life changes with a kid, house, job etc..lol

 

Looking good man! Those single plane LS1 intake manifolds look really cool. Us guys going fuel injected are getting robbed of some of the cool factor

 

you can efi a single plane and make more power if you are spinning 7K plus.

man, your car is comming together very nicely!! what size is the butterfly on your carb?
1.75 1.78 or 1.80?

 

1.80 butterflies on my carb.

I got the Vibrant flanges for my headers today, they look much better than the junk Kooks ones I got before. I should be able to start making more progress once I get the flanges welded and get the headers back on.

 

I got a few things done this week. I got the MSD-6010 mounted and all the wires ran. I used a Seals-It grommet to go through the firewall. I couldn't find any information about how much current the 6010 draws, what size fuse are you guys using?

 

I test fitted the throttle cable bracket after it was milled down. Fits perfect.

I got the radiator in today too. I got the 4th gen V6 upper hose. Looks like it will fit. I tried the Gates 21505 lower hose for a Ford Truck. It doesn't look like it even comes close to fitting. The angle seems wrong and the diameter seems too big. Any other suggestions on what to use? My radiator is a Be-Cool for a thirdgen so I think the hose locations are where the stock ones were. I have a truck thermostat housing, could that make a difference?

Also what are you guys using to plug the hole in the head where the temp sensor would go? Should I just buy a bolt and put it in?

 

i used a temp sensor to plug that hole.

i believe msd wants it hooked directly to a power source...i have no fuse in line with mine, but you could use a 30 and get away with it i'm sure.

i'm running a stock 2000 silverado 5.3 lower hose.

 

10 gauge wires direct to the battery, i run a 40amp relay and a 30 amp fuse. High rpm misses are common if too small of wire or not ran to the battery.

 

I tried the dayco 71321 hose and it was close but didn't quite work for me. I think the Be-Cool radiator makes the angle a little different.

Next I tried the 2003 Silverado 5.3L hose Dayco 71990 and it worked much better. Thanks mw66nova. The end on the radiator was just slightly loose fitting so I put a little silicone on it to make sure it would seal. It did rub the idler arm bolt so I cut it of a little shorter for more clearance. It still barely touches the nut so I put the covering that came with the hose on it to protect it.

FYI I went to the GM dealer today and the part# for the plug to fill the hole where a temp sensor would go is 12553191.

 

I have enough spare heads laying around i might swap the coolant sensor for another plug to make it look better.

Hope you get this thing running soon man, gonna be nasty!

 

I noticed you have the oil level sensor still in the pan. I am in the process of a LT1 swap and found an oil drain plug from NAPA that really cleaned up the look of my pan. It was an M20 x 1.5 thread size and came with a gasket. Set me back about $4 bucks. Just FYI.

Love your swap, keep up the good work.

 

This actually looks way better than what i have, mine is currently rubbing against one of the bolts, think i should buy that one instead.

 

i would run a gm plug and not a temp sender. looks much better.
im with the guy above, napa has a plug that will take care of the oil level sensor. i got mine from advanced. i believe hey are toyota diff drain plugs.

all those nice and shiny new parts look great. engine bay looks very nice too.
i also like the terminal block in the photo with the msd box.

id like to gut mine and re wire it one day.

 

come up and do mine when you're done...ugh...it's on the list to do maybe next winter.

 

Thanks man, I'll have to get a plug for the oil level sensor. The little details like that make a big difference. Another thing that I will change once I pull the engine again is the metal trans lines. They worked well with my SBC but they tend to get in the way of everything on this engine. I'll go with all braided next time so I can just move them out of the way. Those metal lines make getting the passenger side header in a lot more difficult.

Like you other guys have said, I would like to totally rewire my car one of these days. I've done a lot of wiring over the years but its been one thing at a time, I could clean up the wiring under the dash a lot of I redid it all.

 

After several delays I finally got my car up and running yesterday.

I found out that the Speed Inc Alternator in their kit is not a one wire as they said and its not a Powermaster either. I was very disappointed in that. I sent the alternator to Powermaster to get converted to a one wire since they said I would have it back in about a week. Well one week turned into 3 weeks...not nearly as fast as they said it would be. After numerous emails and phone calls I finally got my alternator back...it was the last missing piece I need to start the engine. If I had to do it over again I wouldn't use the Speed Inc. alternator kit....just too bad there isn't more options available. But for now it will get the job done. I will look into relocating the alternator down lower later.

I also decided not to run the steam line to the waterpump. The fitting interfered with the alternator adjustment too much(couldn't get the belt on with the fitting in). I plugged the hole in the water pump and got a fitting welded onto my radiator. I moved the temp sensor for my fan to the lower hole and ran the steam line to the upper hole.

 

The engine started up fine with no issues. I had one valve cover spacer that leaked but I got that fixed. Are you guys with spacers using stock gaskets on the spacer or the supplied rope type gasket?

The Pro-Systems carb was almost spot on out of the box. I adjusted the idle mixture screws and ended up about a 1/4 turn from where they were out of the box.

It sounds great but was way loud with open headers. Luckily no neighbors call the police..actually had one come over and comment on how great it sounded. I drove the car around the block, it felt nice and solid. I think I will have to convert to manual brakes though. But I need to drive it a little more to find out.

I still have some more work to do. I need to drive it to my friends house to get the exhaust welded up, then get it aligned. I may relocate the fuel lines too to get them further away from the heat.

 

congrats man, it's a great feelin' ain't it!?

no video?

 

I'll make a video once I get the exhaust on it. Definately feels great to have it running again.

 

with open headers, the motor will rev up just looking at the throttle linkage. that thing is looking like a nice steak dinner.

what crossover pipe is on the car and did you bend the outlet?
that valley cover is pretty sweet too.

 

The crossover pipe is the one that came on the engine. The truck was an 07 2500 Silverado but the engine was a 2004 so I'm not sure what year the crossover pipe is from. I would guess 04 since it didn't look like it has ever been off when I disassembled it. I did bend the outlet down slightly just so it wouldn't stand up so high.

 

you may have an 07. ive seen plenty of earlier truck models and they face towards the radiator, not at the side. they aslo have an abnormal bend, similar to the truck water pump upper outlet.

ill have to keep that in mind for future projects.

 

I got the exhaust welded up today by a friend. Sounds really good, sounds like a big block to me. I'll try to get a video up sometime next week.

I didn't get to drive it much though because of the threat of rain. But I did get it out on a couple of country back roads. All I can say is wow...power feels amazing! The butt dyno says its making some good power and I haven't even played around with the timing yet. I have an appointment on Thursday to get the alignment done.

 

power anywhere and everywhere. your setup is going to fly man. mine has a roar that sounds like a 454. my buddy david built a 471 lsx block and it sounds like a 582. amazing what the flow of air sounds like.

 

video

 

looking good, almost makes me want to step up to bigger cubes finally

 

Made a video as promised. My digitial camera wouldn't record the sound very well so I had to do it with the dvd camcorder then convert it to a mpg. The video doesn't quite do it justice but it sounds good. The engine was a little cold so it was idling a tad lower than normal.

http://www.streetfire.net/video/408-...le_2254356.htm

 

fixed the link.

 

love it man....car is super clean as always!

 

OH YEA! what exhaust did you end up running? y pipe or duals?

 

Its a dual 3in. system with magnaflow mufflers. It sounds good and clearance is decent. I wish I had room to get an x-pipe or H-Pipe but there just isn't a good way to do it with the Spohn transmission cross member and torque arm.

I got the car aligned today, it drives much better. I used to have my LCA's in the lowest hole but I moved them to the next higher hole to try to keep the front end down at launch(it was going too high last year with the SBC). I left the pinion angle at pretty much the same spot -3.5 degrees. I hammered it hard from a stop for the first time with the new combo and it felt pretty good but I won't know for sure until I go to the track with it.

I plan on hitting a couple of cruise-ins this weekend with it.

 

i dont think moving the lca will keep the front end down. tighten up the shocks or build some travel limiters. you cant really do anything with the spohn, but other design torque arms offer multiple holes for the front mounting point, which can change your instant center. the only thing i have noticed by moving my control arms is the force applied to the rear tires.
in the stock hole, the car leaves at ride height in the back, and at the lowest hole, it really puts a bind down on the tires, forcing the body up, giving a nice seperation in the back. anti squat is the correct term?

 

So do you think I'm better or worse off with the LCA's in 2nd hole from the bottom? Last year my car hooked hard but the front end would come up too high and occasionally would unload a little ways out. The air bags helped the unloading and so did switching to the drag radials. I do have the Koni adjustable struts set at the loosest setting, maybe I should have left the LCA's in the bottom hole and adjusted the struts a little tighter? I'm probably over thinking this anyway, I need to go try it...the coil overs may react differently than the trick springs.

 

travel limiters are going to help keep it down the most

 

coil overs are not going to have near the travel your old spring setup did. give it hell where its at and see how she does.

 

Bad news - Went to go to the cruise-in tonight and I backed out of my garage and the car died. The MSD 6010 controller had smoke coming out of it. I've driven the car quite a bit the past few days and had driven it a couple of times today after tuning the carb some more. I didn't change anything so there shouldn't have been a reason for it to fail. I double checked the voltage going to it and it was good so I think the box just failed. I almost bought a used one just to have a spare but didn't want to spend the money, I guess I should have. Not a big deal just annoying. Hopefully it won't take too long to get it fixed. I may just buy another one and get this one fixed and use it for a spare. Anyone else had a 6010 box fail like that?

 

you are going to have to buy another box. from past experiences, msd will either be a day or two plus shipping, it will take months, or they will not warranty it. they will blame it on the wiring, even if you took it to them and had it installed.

 

Quick update. I ended up buying a 6010 box from someone on LS1tech.com and had the car running within a few days. I sent the original one back to MSD. I got a new box in the mail from MSD today at no charge. I'm glad they honored the warranty, I was expecting the worst. Now I've got a spare box so if I have another fail I'll be ready. They sent a new harness with the replacement box too so now I've got 3 harnesses. I would like to sell one of the extra harnesses, if anyone is interested in it send me pm.

I'm going to try to make it to the track within the next few weeks. All I need to do is check the valve lash and put a new set of plugs in. Hopefully there will be some decent weather its been 90+ degrees and humid.

I drove the car to a cruise-in last weekend, its amazing how many people don't know what an LS engine looks like, especially one with a carb.

 

gen 3 motor with a carb.....i've been told BBC, and ford mod motor at car shows....good times.

 

yeah, it always leaves folks scratchin their heads for sure!

 

electronic ignition.... well, gollie-bum. ill be. haha.

car did not like the heat this past weekend. it was dying up top. no air to be had. backed down the timing and shift point. still ran 6.50 with 200 pounds in the car and a full tank of gas.

dont expect to set the world on fire in the heat, but it should run good. keep the timing down in the humid weather. and listen. you dont want to hear marbles.

 

awesome job!!!

 

Thought I would update what has happened since the swap. I only made about 10-12 passes the entire year but I did drive it on the street a decent amount. I had some problems so it didn't perform as well as it should have. I didn't have time to get the problems fixed before the end of the season.

It took me awhile to figure it out but I had a bad fuel pump. The car would stop accellerating on the top end. Suspecting fuel starvatioin I got a AFR meter and confirmed it. It was going all the way to about 15-15.5:1 AFR at the top end of the track in 3rd gear, it would get progressively leaner through the run. I tested the fuel pump and found that it was only pumping about 1/2 of its rated capacity. I repaced it with the same style of pump (Aeromotive SS) since it should be enough to supply an engine of this HP. I also installed a fuel pressure gauge in the car right next to the shift light to keep an eye on it.

The torque converter was also way too loose. I turned the 2-step rev limiter all the way up to see what the actual stall was and it went all the way to 5800 then the car would start to creep forward...so it may have also had a trans problem. I'm guessing the actually stall was probably 6000-6200. Circle D was willing to restall it but I didn't exactly feel comfortable with them after seeing how far they missed it the first time. I sent the converter to Ultimate Converter Concepts and got it restalled, also upgraded to a mechanical diode sprag.

I sold the th-350 and had a th-400 built. I'm currently in the process of installing it. I upgraded to a Spohn Pro-Series torque arm too. I had an older design of Spohn torque arm for my th-350 that wasn't really rated for the amount of power I have now. I'm not sure the Spohn torque arm was a good choice once I saw how it is made, it doesn't leave much clearance for exhaust, seems to be desiged with the intention of minimizing exhaust clearance. I cut a decent amout of it for exhaust clearance, I will take it back off and weld in some additional bracing once I get everything final fitted.

 

I test fited the headers with the new trans. The ears were already cut off so it fit well, no other clearance needed. I also test fitted the CSR shield, it seems to fit better than the th-350 one. I have some AN fittings and hose on order to run some new trans cooler lines. The original hard lines got in the way of header installation so I'm switching to braided.

 

Really stout setup! Any numbers on the setup? Also im sorry to hear about your problems with Circle D. I always heard of them to be a reputable place.