^^ Nice ^^

 

Very nice. In for updates

 

I was considering a future project to rebuild this VQ motor for a different transplant [maybe a 240z] However, due to space constraints this motor will be looking for a new home. Anyone who might be interested give me a PM. I’ll consider reasonable offers. I’d prefer to sell the entire motor and trans together, with ECM / MAF ( I need a couple connectors off the harness so it will be partial). If I can’t find a good home in a few months I may consider parting it out. Additionally the Exhaust is still in “relatively” ok condition, meaning its not pretty but still in working condition. If anyone is interested in the Cats, Y pipe, Muffler, grill, radiator with cut AC lines send me a PM and maybe we can make a deal.

So I started with some minor clean-up. In the engine bay area i brushed off the small areas that had rust and touched up with black and silver rustoleum. I am mainly interested in functionality when it comes to under the hood.....so keep that in mind. Not going for show car look.

When I got under the car everything looked pretty good except for the tunnel brace. Wow must have been a late design change or something, because it is completely covered in rust, but everything around it is great. Seems to still be solid though (replacement part is like $250 so I'll save that money for some other frame stiffening add-ons later on). So I cleaned it up with a wire brush and gave it a good coat of paint.

I am planning to put aftermarket CAN BUS gages in that talk direct to the GM ECM so I decided to get the cluster out and make sure I understand what I'm getting into. The dials and armatures were a bit of a challenge to get out....used a couple spoons like mini crow bars and out they came. after an initial review I think I'm going to do a weird hybrid. New Speedo and Tach placed over/inset their current gage locations leaving all the idiot lights, turn signals, highbeams functioning. The Fuel gage should still work but the water temp wont obviously. For all the other "gages" I think I'm going to try a Bluetooh OBD II and a samsung Tab 3 mounted in the center stack with one of the Gage Apps...Anyone see this done before? Seems like a very easy solution for oil temp/oil pressure etc...

 

Looks like there is enough room for the 2 center gages. I'll have to keep the Mylar in place and with all the lights I should be able to retain that functionality. I may need to damp out the gage backlights by removing the light tunnels and putting black rubbers on the lights on the board....It'll be a little trial and error there. I'll need a couple holes in the Mylar and cutting it perfect will take some planning to get a clean look with the aftermarket gages When I get the gages in I'll post some more pics.

I ordered my cam kit it will be a custom grind spec'd by my tuner and ground by Comp. Double spring kit and new pushrods. I'm going to convert to a three bolt design based a recommendation from my tuner.

I ordered my install kit from Fueled Racing. I added an oil cooler. There has been some issues with availability of the flange mount type drive shafts that mate up to the the TR6060 so that bit is still up in the air as of now. Looking forward to getting the motor in the car.

I am planning to get my harness ordered in the next day or so. Thinking of going with ChaseBays.....any opinions out there?

Looking for opinions on aftermarket radiators as well and how to handle AC option.

 

Finally, a thread worth reading in this forum. Nice work!

 

nice work, subbed

 

awesome!!!

 

This is great!

Very excited about this build as I'll be there in about 1 to 1/2 years.
Let me konw if there's anything I can help, I have been gathering info on these builds since '11.

 

Regarding the wire harness, I would recommend talking to Brew_haha

He used to be with Chasebays for a while, but he no longer recommends them, stating quality issues. He has vast knowledge on real world issues as he has a working lsx swapped sedan.

A lot of the 350s decided to have a wriring expert do them, seems that it was worth the added cost.


Are you planning on keeping AC and Power steering?
Have you located a local guy to get your custom AC lines done?

 

OK some prep work for a new fuel pump. To keep from constantly beating up the interior I ended up pulling out both fron seats and the rear seat. Shocking how heavy the OEM seats are. I had always planned to keep them, but after seeing how heavy they are I may change my mind later. At a minimum I need a plan to lower ther driver seat at least 2 inches. Very difficult to drive the car with a helmet on. I'm 6 foot...not really tall, but with a helmet I'm forced to lean a bit and on a road course it's not ideal. I also started mocking up the stock ECM bracket to support the GM ECM. Unfortunately the connector position ended up pinned up against the passenger side vent duct work. Once I get my harness (on going decision on the harness supplier) I'll work on that some more.

I pulled out the gas pedal and started looking into how I can get the camaro pedal to work in the same space. Not sure how I want to mount it yet. I'd like to avoid tearing out the entire IP....but it looks like I may need to fab up a custom bracket and weld it to the fire wall...sigh. More on that project later I guess.

My Cam Kit arrived this week so I'll get back on this stuff later.

 

I have a friend at work who has a CTS-V that he has been working with a tuner on. He is up to 680RWHP sheesh. Anyway, his tuner used to work at GM and seems to really know his stuff and spec'd out a custom grind cam for him. I told him about my project and that I wanted to squeeze a bit more power out of the LS3 in the first iteration here. He ended up specing out the same custome grind for me and will be doing the tune later. COMP CAM did the grind. He recommended converting to the three bolt design cam, so I got a new 3 bolt cam timing gear. The new cam lift is agressive enough to require high lift double springs. Updated pushrods needed as well.

Pulled off the tensioner pully, serpentine belt, water pump and Alternator. By using a small pry bar on the Air conditioner belt, applying pressure forward, I turned over the engine with the main crank bolt and walked off the belt.

A gearhead work friend of mine let me borrow his harmonic balancer press tool, Starter flywheel lock, valve spring compression tool and the Spark plug Compressor adaptor. Vital tools for the job. I ended up borrowing the OEM Chrysler Harmonic Balancer puller from Autozone to pull off the Crank pully.

WIth the flywheel lock in place of the starter I was able to break the main crank bolt loose......wow that thing was really on there.

 

Pulled off the coli pack brackets and the valve covers.
Remove all the rockers and pushrods.
Go back to the crank shaft pully, I had to use the OEM puller. I put a socket on the crank then hooked on the puller with the bolt pushing on the socket to get the extra space needed and avoid damaging the crank shaft end.

With the pully off I was able to remover the timing cover.
WIth the timing chain and timing gear exposed I cranked the engine until the cam timing gear mark and the crank. Unbolted the cam timing gear and dropped it out. Just let the chain set.
Next is the plate holding the cam in....4 Torx40 holding it on. Exposing the cam.

 

Awesome work so far man! Excited to follow your progress on this. Have you heard anything about Hinson supercars and their wiring harness service? Seems like they have taken a little different approach to the issue. Keep up the great work!

 

I used a couple dowels to hold the lifters out of the way.
Inserted 3 water pump bolts and pulled out the cam. guiding it out was actually realatively easy. Main object was to line up each bearing lobe square as it was on the way out.

I oiled up one quarter of the cam at a time as I threaded it in. This cam is a three bolt design and required a new timing gear. After installing the cam, I replaced the cam plate using blue thread locker.

Now I hooked up the compressor to the one cylinder at a time. WIth the Spring compression tool removed the old spring retainers, springs, seats and seals. In with the new high lift springs, titanium seats and new seals and retainers.

Buttoned it up by putting the valve covers back on, but I'm just putting the timing cover on temporary until I get the oilpan. Considering I only got to work on the car 4-6 hours this weekend I feel pretty good about the progress.

Hope the install kit from Fueld Racing shows up this week. I'd like to get this sucker in the car and start seeing how things are going to line up.

More to come.....Thanks for the encouragement everyone. I will go check on Hinson and see what they have for wiring harness options.

 

I'm literally wet with excitement following your build, is that TMI?