Should be a stout combo. What cam?

 

This is the top end that I will be reinstalling, http://www.summitracing.com/parts/TF...ComboContents/

This is the spec on the cam, nothing to radical, but it sure works well with the heads,
Hydraulic Roller Tappet, Duration @ .050 in. 238/242, Lift .595/.595


The motor Ran real strong with this top end kit, and the tune was not dialed in, I was
working on that as I discovered the noise of a rod knocking. I suspect that the motor
ran with out oil for at least a few minutes in the SS Trail Blazer it came out of, maybe
even upside down, you never know what you are truly getting when you are buying
a motor from a salvage yard. Next time I will take better precautions.


Any how, I hope your start up goes really well, so you can get this LS swap finished
and start enjoying the car on these beautiful days we are having now.


On a side note,
If you still have the car up on stands, or the next time you do, could you snap a
couple more photos of the F-body headers, I would like to see some more detail
as to how they run with the fire wall and down to the floor board, from the photo's
you have posted, I can't really see the routing of the rear primary and how it travels
along the fire wall, I hope I would not have to lose the heat shield, I do intend to
cut the 3'' collector and re-angle it for better positioning away from the floor board.

They may even fit better than I am thinking, my trans crossmember mount is a
little lower than I have seen others, so maybe this will give me a better angle for the
F-body headers to fit with no modifications.




Riggs

 

That is a nice cam...I ran one very similar in my last WS6 that had a built LQ4 in it. It had a hair more lift, but duration numbers were the same, on a 112+4. Very streetable, great driving cam that pulled strong up top.

 

OK, so mostly great news on the startup! I had a couple of wiring issues that stumped me for an hour or so (engine would crank, but no spark...turned out I had the fuse/relay center wired to a terminal on the fuse box that had power in the "on" position, but not in the "run" position. I had misread the labels on the fuse box, and hooked it to ACCY on accident. Moved to terminal IGN, and boom, it fired right up.

So the engine fires right up immediately...good oil pressure, alternator is showing a charge, everything is running great. Except for a horrendous screeching sound coming from the belt drive system somewhere. Sounded like it was around the power steering pump, so I pray its not bad. Full of fluid. I am running the wrong belt tensioner, so I'll need to replace that to start, and then troubleshoot from there.

The engine warms up fully, and....no fans. I start testing the terminals on the relay. Definitely getting power from the battery to the relays, and the terminal receiving the input from the computer is also showing a signal. But no signal on the terminal going from the relay to the fan itself. Not sure what is going on there. They are 40 amp relays, and everything is wired correctly, I triple checked...

So overall, I'm happy. I'm just glad it runs so smoothly and had good oil pressure. I'll get the rest sorted somehow.

 

That is great news, glad to hear there was only a minor issues with the start up.

What are you looking at for the temperature of the motor? The Gauge or HP Tuner live data? My gauge was off by a 30/40 degrees, I believe it's because the sender is mounted in the passenger side head with a reducer that doesn't allow the sender to protrude out into the coolant, So I think mine is probably picking up the temp of the cylinder head, more so than the coolant temp. Any how, my fans came on when the HP Tuner screen showed the temp being at the on setting, (180).

Might this be the same thing you're dealing with?


Riggs

 

No, I don't have the stock water temp sending unit installed yet. Waiting for a hose tee to show up from Jagsthatrun that will allow me to use the stock sender in the upper radiator hose.

I'm looking at water temp on HPTuners, off the stock LS1 sending unit in the driver's side head.

 

Hey riggs i have my temp sending unit in same spot as you and with efilive im within 5 degrees of guage.

 

Maybe I have a bad sending unit? I will be changing it before I reinstall the motor.

Riggs

 

Still no luck with electric fans. I'm thinking maybe the relays at this point. Here's a short vid though...

(By the way, "Corvette Joe", who I reference in the vid, is a buddy of mine back in Alaska who has put LS motors in midyears for a long time now. He inspired me to tackle the swap. Oh, and don't mind Safari Goofy...he sits in on all my projects)

 

Sounds really good, I bet you are still grinning from the first time it started.


Have you jumperd the relay coils to see if they would come on, you should hear them click when you
apply power. If the relay coils are working, maybe the fans are the problem, have you applied power
straight to the fans to see if they come on? Just throwing out some ideals here. Hope you find it soon
so you can road test the car.


Riggs

 

Just a quick note on the squealing. I have seen the LS motors do this and after replacing tons of parts it turned out the be the harmonic balancer causing it. If you have eliminated everything remember that. Get a new one or aftermarket one.

 

I tried grounding terminal 86 directly, which is the terminal that the PCM wire connects to. Still nothing. Also tried relocating the ground wires on the fans themselves, and no joy. I've done everything short of applying direct power to the fans.

I've got power to the relays, and I've grounded the relay, so I should be seeing something coming off terminal 87 that goes to the fans themselves, but there's nothing there. These relays are brand new, so I'll be surprised if they are bad, but stranger things have happened I guess.

The car is a long way from a test drive. There is no interior in the car, and I still need to get the driveshaft measured and shortened. But I'm close. Just glad it runs and fluids aren't spewing everywhere.

 

Turns out I hadn't gotten the PS pump bled properly. Spent some time on that tonight and its quiet as a mouse now.

 

Thanks to a member on LS1tech, I just discovered the problem. The fuses light up when they are BLOWN! God this build has humbled me. I swapped out a 30 amp fuse instead and grounded the PCM signal terminal on the relay, and the fan fired right up.

Now I just need to know for sure what size fuse to use on the power wire to the relay. 30amp is working now, but I have no idea if it might blow as well.

 

OK, its been forever since I updated. I've been out of town a lot, but working like mad on the car when I can.

I'm still troubleshooting an issue with my water temp gauge. I've tested the gauge itself, and it works as it should. The sender is the same one that came out of the car, and it was working fine when pulled. I have the sender installed in a coupler in the upper radiator hose, and I can't remember whether or not I erroniously wrapped the sender in tephlon tape before I installed it or not. So I'm still figuring that out...

I have been putting the interior back in for the last week. Yes, you read that right. I swear on all that is holy, the interior reinstallation has been worse than the LS swap. This thing fought me every inch of the way. I had portions of the dash in and out probably 5 or 6 times. I have it all together now, but I'm still not very happy with how it turned out. I'll try again when I have to pull the driver's side lower dash out to do something with the speedometer.

My T56 crossmember finally arrived today. I only ordered the thing 2 1/2 months ago. So now I can get that bolted up and see where I am with the driveshaft. Once a driveshaft is in, it's drive time.

I've also got to do something about the ride height now. Since pulling the spare tire carrier and spare and doing the engine swap, this thing looks like a damned 4x4. I bought longer bolts and new bushings to lower the rear, and I guess I'll cut the springs in the front to get it down some.

I'll try to get pics up soon.

 

Yea I was having problems with my sender giving me the wrong temp readings, but mine is in the back of the head, I hope to resolve that as soon as the motor goes back into the car.

The Corvette interior is a love hate relationship, when put back together correctly it looks nice, but while putting it back together, it can be a challenge to reinstall with out breaking something. It gets easier the more times you have to take it apart and reassemble, but it still is never fun.


Hey do you have some pictures of the cross member, I would love to see some of it before and after installing it. Does it give you better cut outs in the cross member for running the exhaust past it?


Good to hear you're still making progress.


Riggs

 

I'll be happy to get some pics for you. It's tubular, so it should tuck up nice and give plenty of clearance. Hoping to get it in tomorrow.

How far off were your temp readings? Are you using the 3 wire setup with the stock LS1 temp sender?

 

The temps were off by about 50, I'm referring to the single wire sensor for the gauge, the one for the ECU seams to be fine. With the car up to operating temps, the one for the ECU reads around 190, while the one for the gauge reads as high as 240/250, it had me really worried until I was able to hook up HP tuners to it and have a look at what the ECU was seeing.



Riggs

 

Is the fitting in your upper hose grounded?

 

No it is not. And I'm going to assume since you asked that it needs to be...