SoCal GenIII Vortec Project (1 Viewer)

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I Tied the red/Black wire into the switch as shown in the attached pic, to help the wire up i pulled the wire and position switch up to the engine bay so I quit crawling up and down a 100 times. While i was at it I also wired in a dash switch to the Red/Black wire so I could turn on my back up lights for camping ect. The red/black wire is a larger wire that comes out on the passenger side bulkhead behind the washer fluid bottle.

Reverse Plug.gif
 
I saw that in your thread @fjeng and plan to wire a switch in also. Great idea!
 
bush said:
I saw that in your thread @fjeng and plan to wire a switch in also. Great idea!
Click to expand...

Yes It is just the right amount of light at night too. I converted the backup lights to LED bulbs and the white light will spoil you.
Also a adder for the LED bulb is I did not run a relay thru my transmission switch as the LED does not pull any amps.
 
pandasfj said:
Hey John, just checked out the rest of your thread,I'm glad to see that you got it done. You'll have a grin every time you drive that baby. looking real good....enjoy the hard work...:beer::beer::beer:
Click to expand...

thanks Gilbert!

almost done... Had a good time driving around today. So far, so good!!
 
Saw this rig today with its new power plant....
The pics of the new seats dont make it justice....!!!
Those look great...!!!
My rig is quiet..., but your FJ62 is probably the quietest that I have ever heard..or not !!! HA!!!!

I saw your comment about the X amount of hours you spend and $$ you drop on this thing, but you ought to be proud.. (im sure you are) that rig looks stock and CLEAN !!!
You just need to drive it a lil-mo to get those readiness modes going, and you should be golden with the REF.. !!

It is the fastest, and cleanest swaps I have ever seen come together...
Great job John.....

Enjoy !!!

:beer::beer::beer:
 
MANUCHAO said:
Saw this rig today with its new power plant....
The pics of the new seats dont make it justice....!!!
Those look great...!!!
My rig is quiet..., but your FJ62 is probably the quietest that I have ever heard..or not !!! HA!!!!

I saw your comment about the X amount of hours you spend and $$ you drop on this thing, but you ought to be proud.. (im sure you are) that rig looks stock and CLEAN !!!
You just need to drive it a lil-mo to get those readiness modes going, and you should be golden with the REF.. !!

It is the fastest, and cleanest swaps I have ever seen come together...
Great job John.....

Enjoy !!!

:beer::beer::beer:
Click to expand...


Thanks Frank! I really appreciate all your help and advice!
 
JohnCapoccia said:
Thanks! My harness doesn't even have a plug for this connection. I'll see if it's on my old harness. If yes, I can re-use that.
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Just an FYI, I had a 4L60e in my 80-series and bought a Lokar kit for the reverse light. Simple switch and bracket that fits to the linkage, linkage contacts the switch when in reverse, power in and out of switch and done. I never got around to installing it because I needed to modify the bracket slightly and I ended up rolling my truck. I did check it out in detail as far as fitment and it would work no probs with a small amount of modifying to the bracket. Might bolt right in on your application.

Cheers
 
RMP&O said:
Just an FYI, I had a 4L60e in my 80-series and bought a Lokar kit for the reverse light. Simple switch and bracket that fits to the linkage, linkage contacts the switch when in reverse, power in and out of switch and done. I never got around to installing it because I needed to modify the bracket slightly and I ended up rolling my truck. I did check it out in detail as far as fitment and it would work no probs with a small amount of modifying to the bracket. Might bolt right in on your application.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Thanks, it's good to know of the available alternatives. Fjeng's solution was perfect for me because I wanted to keep the FJ62 shifter, and it was very easy.
 
image.jpeg
Made some adjustments to the gas pedal. Now it feels PERFECT! It looks a bit unorthodox. At first, my plan was to bolt it in place and tweak it until I had it right, then I was going to weld it, but what the heck, I'm just leaving it bolted together. I also epoxied a little wedge on the plastic pedal so that it doesn't sit so vertical. Now it feels very natural, the angle is very comfortable.
image.jpeg


For reference, here is a pic of the original install, before today's modification
image.jpeg


The pedal was on the same plane as the brake pedal, now it's further forward and more horizontal.
 
Your welcome! I just finished my swap as well but as soon I had a test drive it wouldn't shift into 3rd so now its in trans shop. Cruise control is next on my list as well. Let me know your switch ideas. I thought about hard wiring the ON and just have one mom rocker MOM-OFF-MOM. or two small mom push buttons on the steering column. deleting my on off came from my 2500 and my wife's Tahoe the On button stays on ALL the time. The brake switch or the ignition could both terminate the cruise.
or use this for $50 off ebay....
cruise.jpg
 
fjeng said:
Your welcome! I just finished my swap as well but as soon I had a test drive it wouldn't shift into 3rd so now its in trans shop. Cruise control is next on my list as well. Let me know your switch ideas. I thought about hard wiring the ON and just have one mom rocker MOM-OFF-MOM. or two small mom push buttons on the steering column. deleting my on off came from my 2500 and my wife's Tahoe the On button stays on ALL the time. The brake switch or the ignition could both terminate the cruise.
or use this for $50 off ebay.... View attachment 1258584
Click to expand...

I haven't looked into the options for cruise control yet, but I think keeping it on all the time is a good idea. That's how it works on my 1988 M6, and to me that's the best CC that I've used. Really simple and intuitive. I don't think I've ever in my life actually turned OFF cruise control. I just leave it on until I shut down the car, so what's the point of on/off?
 
I can not find a "point" to the On Off as the TAC is energized the entire time and the 12v pos on is just for a logic change to tell the computer to look for this "set/Resume" signal. So keeping it on is not a issue from that standpoint and to be able to turn it off would possibly for a issue with it???? I was also looking at using just one of these type switches for the Set/Resume with the hard wired ON
27329_700x700.jpg
 
Well, it was too good to be true. I finished up everything today, evacuated and charged the A/C, and it's blowing cold. I went to pep boys to pick up a new relay, because I didn't like the one I installed, and I'll be damned, the truck wouldn't start. No click, nothing. Had to call AAA and have it towed home from the pep boys parking lot. Long story short, after systmatically troubleshooting the starting circuit, I discovered that I never crimped a splice!!! The wire fell right out of the connector. I can't believe it. I must have been distracted. I don't know how I didn't notice it. That debacle took hours to resolve because it was a bitch to get an alligator clip up on the starter solenoid to test voltage, but I'm glad that my worst fears did not come true. I thought I had a bad solenoid. That would have been one nasty job to get that out of there now that the exhaust is installed.

Just a minor setback, but my pride was severely injured going home with my tail between my legs with my rig on a flatbed.

On the plus side, I drove it about 150 miles yesterday and scangauge was reporting 19.5 MPG consistently with a cruising speed of 65-70! I'm really thrilled with that. I'll check my overall mileage next time I fill up.

Getting the tach to report accurately was a problem. I'm using a Dakota Digital adapter. I use the High Voltage setting with the extra jumper, but it still was reporting too low. So by trial and error, I wound up setting the output to 12 cylinders and keeping the input to 8 cylinders and now it's pretty damned close to what the scangauge is reporting. Go figure...

So now I'm pretty much done, but I'm sure a couple more things will pop up in the next couple of weeks. Still have to visit the ref. The good news is that there are no codes, the bad news is that it's still in Not Ready mode. I'll look into that over the next few days and I'll probably just make an appointment with the Ref and have him tell me what he can live with and what he can't.
 
Good work...Enjoy.

When I did my swap. a wise soul here on mud - Crusher, told me to drive it for a few weeks, and take care of a anything that pops up then. Good advice I thought.
 
Well I was hoping to close out this thread with good news from the Referee, but no such luck. The visit with the Rio Hondo College Referee was a disaster. But of course, the emissions from the tailpipe we're waaaay below the maximum allowable!!!

The problems:

1. He did not like my Corvette manifolds.
2. O2 sensors (that are in the corvette manifolds) are in the wrong place.
3. Two OBD monitors are not set to Ready. The first one says that the O2 sensors can't initialize. The second says that the Evap system can't intialize.
4. He said the CEL wouldn't come on and throw a code when he unplugged the Air Flow Meter plug
5. He said that the PCM must be able to see the transmission selector signals, so it know's what gear it's in.
6. He said that the PCM must be able see when the transfer case is in low range.

So, What do I do? I can relocate the O2 sensors because I had the exhaust guy put a bung in the right place anticipating that this might be a problem. I need to chase down the OBD monitor problem, but Frank tells me that the failure for the evap system to initialize is a know problem, and his rig passed even though he had the same problem. I need to figure out why the CEL won't light, because It does work and it threw a code when I started it without the O2 sensors.

What do I do about the Manifolds and the Transmission? I'm sure I could fix these, but redoing the exhaust would be a MAJOR PITA trying to shoehorn the stock manifolds in there, and I would have to modify the harness to get the transmission selector signals to the PCM. I think I would have to rig a workaround for the transfer case to report to the PCM, because there's no sensor in the transfer case to detect low range, is there?

This is all so frustrating, because so many others have passed without these mods. So what do I do? Should I call the Regional Manager? At the bottom of the report is says for Questions or Concerns, to give him a call.

Is it possible to go to a different Referee after you've started the process with one?

I read in another thread that WHO you go to matters a lot. But when I asked this question before about the Rio Hondo Guy, some said he was OK. Must be a different guy there now. Not that he's a bad guy, but I'm wondering if he was perhaps inexperienced as a referee and is maybe interpreting too agressively. I'm worried that since he's specified these fixes, his boss or another guy might be reluctant to override him. The CARB website says that there's an Ombudsman, but I am skeptical about them helping without a bunch of hassle first.

I'll get through this one way or another, but your thoughts on the path of least resistance are appreciated!

John
 
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