BritishV8 Forum

Jim,

Thanks. Still have a little ways to go but progress is steady.

Bryon,

Sounds like a really good idea and I"m not trying to discount it but interestingly, the grounds from the sensors go to the grounds in the PCM which usually are grounded to the engine. Mine are all to a common point on the passenger side head.

I'm already running 3/8" line for my supply (from my V6 swap) and that is what the LS4 needs so I should be good there. It's a returnless system so I'm going to run a Corvette fuel filter/regulator which has a single 3/8" outlet to the engine but allows you to run a pump that recirculates and it has a 3/8" supply and 5/16" return on the tank side. I'll go into more detail when I get to that point. I'm in the process of acquiring what I need for the fuel system now as a matter of fact. The AN fittings aren't cheap!

Scott

One inch at a time! So I'm still putting the firewall back together. It's pretty tedious work but I'm pleased with the result. I'm doing the most complex stuff first and I believe I just about have that part complete. Hope to have the firewall done at the end of this coming weekend. I'm taking my time because this has to be done right. It's amazing how fast 8-10 hours can go by. Here's where it sits at the moment.



One thing I didn't realize about the MGB firewall before I started this is the heater plenum seems to be an important part the unit body in that area. It contains some of the thickest metal I've cut into.

I've been wondering about the bellhousing alignment and thought it would be better to do the measuring now rather than wait and then find an issue at an inopportune time. Good thing I did. So both the bellhousing face and bore runout were measured. I got about .014" on the bellhousing face and a measured value of about .020" on the bore runout which means it is about .010" off center. Both are out of spec so something will need to be done. There are a couple of ways to handle this, another bellhousing, offset dowel pins, and/or shimming the bellhousing. I checked into getting the bellhousing machined but that will be a last resort. Most likely I'm going to have to go with another bellhousing but I'm going to try shimming it first to try to get the bellhousing face parallel and then see where the bore runout ends up. The spec is 0" to .005". Oh, I can't seem to find the right sized offset dowels pins. The small GM pattern uses dowels that are about .71" in diameter, I believe, and they are hollow too. The available pins I could find are a much smaller diameter so it appears they won't be an option in this case. Should be an interesting exercise.

In other news my friend Artie, who I think most of you may know, will be coming out to Ohio during the week of the V8 meet and we're going to try to get some major stuff done on the car. For those of you who don't know him he's a British V8 wanna be and a Corvette guy. :-) My wife will be away so there shouldn't be a lot of distractions. Should be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to it.

Scott, I ran into that exact problem with a D&D bell I used on my original 215 conversion, although I think your runout is a little more. I made offset dowel pins on the lathe and cut a large screwdriver slot in the end so I could turn them. They weren't very hard to make but without a lathe wouldn't be easy. For the angular misalignment I wouldn't hesitate to cut the block face of the bell, even with a coarse file.

Jim

Thanks for the advice Jim.

Scott,

Package should be there next Tuesday!

Thank you Calvin!!

Made some visible progress this weekend. The engine bay is done except for a small section near the starter, finishing the driver's side motor mount, some minor clean-up of the exhaust openings and preparation for paint. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Here is where I am at the moment:



I also got the cross member buttoned up and the upper gussets welded to the passenger side motor mount:





Next up is assembling the steering and getting the engine/transmission back in for a final check of clearances. Then getting the engine changes done and putting it into the car permanently.

Got another bell housing but haven't had a chance to check it on the motor yet. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one. The original bell housing was too far off to use without spending a lot of money.

Scott, the only issue I can see there that you might want to think about has to deal with front/rear stiffness of the  column mount where the original sat in a cup. Don't know if it is an issue or not, could be a factor in crashworthiness maybe. I'm sure functionwise it'll be fine.

Jim

Jim,

Thanks for the feedback. It's pretty stiff, I used 16 gauge steel throughout. I haven't noticed any flexing at all to this point but I will double check and deal with it if I find anything.

Take care

Scott

Should be fine.

Lookin' good Scott!  17 days until I'm there to help...

Looking forward to it Artie! Continuing to make slow but steady progress.

Made more progress over the last two weeks. I'm tackling easier, less time consuming things now so more tasks are getting done. The first set of pictures show the engine in place with the rebuilt firewall.





I still have a few minor things to complete in the engine bay but the list is getting pretty small. We are going to paint it when Artie gets here so next weekend will focus on getting ready for that.

I moved to the engine preparation tasks this past weekend. I swapped the valve covers from side to side. I did this so the vent lines on each valve cover matched up with the flipped intake manifold. I've had the engine for over a year but never opened it up. I was pleased with what I saw when I removed the first valve cover.



I also replaced the timing cover. The main reason I did this was the original LS4 timing cover has the cam sensor positioned 180 degrees from the position of the RWD LS motors. Obviously, the signal from the cam sprocket reluctor will occur at a different time. I did a lot of investigation but couldn't tell if the 0411 looks at a rising edge, falling edge or just an edge and didn't want to take the chance of finding out the LS4 cover doesn't work when everything was together. An added benefit is the water pump fits without having to modify the timing cover.



Had other good news as well. First, I got my PCM back from Sinister Performance. Once everything is together, it should run. He based the tune off of 2001 Camaro/Firebird code. The second bit of news is I measured my new bell housing and it just meets spec. The face of the bell housing was out of parallel .005" and the bore just a shade less than .005".....all good.

The crankshaft has a locating bushing for the converter and I'm in the process of trying to remove it so I can install my pilot bearing. I believe I need a bigger slide hammer...it is a b!tch to get out of there....always something! Let me know if you have any questions.

Scott

QuoteI believe I need a bigger slide hammer...it is a b!tch to get out of there....

Have you tried the grease and pilot shaft trick....ie pack the bearing cavity with grease insert, a pilot shaft of suitable diameter and hit the shaft hard with a hammer - hydraulic pressure should pop out the bearing.

alternately, some people use Ivory Soap rather than grease and the clean-up is easier.  same principle, just not as messy.  Once you are successful. pour yourself a Dickel, job well done :-)

Graham, Kelly

Thank you for the advice. I'm reading from several sources that there is an oil galley plug in the end of the crank in an LS motor. I can feel it if I stick my finger into the crank. It's sheet metal and there is a good chance it will collapse if I tried the grease/soap approach unfortunately. I just got back from an Autozone where I rented a big honkin slide hammer and a fitting made specifically for removing pilot bushings. I think this should do a bit better than my Harbor Freight POS.

I'm a firm believer in any excuse for a Dickel by the way!

Scott

Scott, A couple of questions. Is that the Camaro/Firebird water pump? Is your new bellhousing a 3.1 like the old one? You are getting closer all the time!

Great call, Scott.

Apparently, some of the LS variants (maybe most) have gun drilled cranks. Pretty obvious if the crank is out of the engine (unlike Scott's). That soft plug in the back keeps the oil in the engine.    Therefore, the hydraulic method using grease, Ivory Soap, bread, etc. cannot be used.

Jim,

I'm using the shortest pump available. It's from, I believe, an LS2 Corvette/GTO/Cadillac. The bellhousing is from a 94 S-10 2.2, same as the first bellhousing I used. I will have to notch the bellhousing for the starter pinion but it will only take about a 1/4" notch in the edge. I measured it this weekend but didn't cut it yet. I'll get some pictures eventually.

I did get the bushing out of the crank. It was actually easy with the proper tools. Took less than 5 minutes. Carl, I'll try get a picture but after looking at the "plug", it may not actually have one. It's difficult to tell. I wasn't going to take the chance with the hydraulic method though....that would have been a huge mess if things went bad.

Lot's of stuff going on work and car wise at the moment but I hope to have the motor "permanently" installed at the end of week after next when Artie is here. We will see.

Fred, Barney and I were discussing the "Plug" and agreed the plug idea was rubbish.  another Bowtie secret we had not heard of.  Guess we would have screwed up the job and used the "old way"   All the progress has left us dinosaurs in the muck.   Guess that's why our engines are conventional.  Keep up the good work and hope to see you in CS.  We are traveling in "the Big Silver Bird"

Kelley,

If you were using an LS you would have researched it and come up with the same approach I'm quite sure. I don't think of anyone in our group as a "dinosaur".....it's a bunch of really smart people actually.

I won't be going to CS unfortunately....I am going to miss not seeing everyone.

Lots of stuff happened over the last couple of weeks. I'll try to document the highlights here. First, Artie came in and was a huge help. His strengths complement mine and we work really well together. I was going at it pretty good before he showed up trying to get the engine bay ready. So the first thing we did was do one final trial fitting to make sure the motor went in with no issues. Good thing we did because we had to make a few adjustments to the motor mount gussets that were added to the upper part of the mounts. Here are a couple of pictures of the motor going in and how the radiator works with the position of the motor.





One thing Artie did that I'll always be thankful for is to talk me into painting the engine bay. I was so focused on getting the mechanical side done that I didn't give it the thought it deserved. I hate to admit it but I was strongly considering a sponge brush and some Rust-Oleum. Anyway, Artie talked me down from that cliff. Here's a picture of the progression. One thing I didn't capture, unfortunately, was how hard Artie worked on cleaning up the engine bay. You can see the result of his hard work in the first shot below.



You can't tell very well from the pictures but it looks really good.

Artie also spent several hours cleaning up the engine. You can see from the first picture below how good it looks. I can't wait to see it in the car. The next couple of shots show the end of the crank (to complete the discussion from a previous post although you can't see in the hole very well) and the new pilot bushing installed.



So where do we stand at this point? In a pretty good place I think, all things considered. The car is actually going back together. We did encounter an issue with the pressure plate that slowed things down and prevented us from getting the engine installed. I'll go into some detail in my next post but I need to confirm a few things before discussing it here.

Things may slow down a bit because I promised my wife I'd back off a little after last week. For what it's worth, I'm estimating about another 40 hrs. give or take to get the car back on the road. Lots of little details left. I couldn't be more pleased with how things are progressing.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Way to go, Artie! That clean engine bay will make all the difference. Just don't go by mine.

40 hours? Sounds like you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, Scott!

That looks really good. You are going to be amazed at the difference.

Jim

Scott, as a Ford guy, I've only owned one Chevy engine in my life, I know absolutely nothing about the LS series, but as an amateur fabricator and unofficial student of engineering, I totally enjoy this thread.  Thank you for sharing it with us!

Paul