Builds Another LS swap? Really???

[ARJMN]

In drilling down on the location, I was just too close to the front cross member for my linking, so a trip to the Bridgeport took care of that. I didn't have to clearance it, but I feel better having more than a few millimeters between the cross member and the AC bracket. I did pull a real bone head move when I took the compressor off. I butterfingered it and dropped it on the floor, smashing one of the ear..Doh!

A buddy of mine back in AR is doing this same swap on his 95, and he fabbed up an extra set of scab plates and sent them to me. I got them tacked in, burnt in, and touched up.

 

[ARJMN]

The motor went in one more time, and then the mounts were tacked to the scab plates, and the engine side mounts were positioned and tacked. Pulled the engine again, and spent a few minutes doing last minute checks on the positioning. Once I bounced it all off my buddy, I felt good about them and burned them all in. Two coats of paint followed.

 

[ARJMN]

Next up was to marry the Tcase and the tranny adapter, and if you haven't tried to lift and 80 series Tcase, don't. Sure way to blow out your back. Amazing how much heavier the LC80 Tcase is over my 4th Gen T4R. Way more beef. New Fan and fan hub got torqued on. Coil packs went on. Tranny Cooler manifold and Lokar shift arm were next. Now I am working on solving my shifter solution. Open to feedback if any one has done one already. More to come next weekend.

 

[Saddletramp]

Next up was to marry the Tcase and the tranny adapter, and if you haven't tried to lift and 80 series Tcase, don't. Sure way to blow out your back. Amazing how much heavier the LC80 Tcase is over my 4th Gen T4R. Way more beef. New Fan and fan hub got torqued on. Coil packs went on. Tranny Cooler manifold and Lokar shift arm were next. Now I am working on solving my shifter solution. Open to feedback if any one has done one already. More to come next weekend.

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A good source for an idea or some parts is Cameron Mosley @FJ60Cam, he started his own business and I’ve followed a number of his threads. Cam is definitely a guy you should reach out to.

 

[ARJMN]

A good source for an idea or some parts is Cameron Mosley @FJ60Cam, he started his own business and I’ve followed a number of his threads. Cam is definitely a guy you should reach out to.

Thanks Steve, I IM'ed him

 

[ARJMN]

Not much progress last weekend but a ton of work. I got the shifter sorted and matched up on the indexes. I wont say how many hours I spent going in the wrong direction only to realize it, throw it all in the scrap bucket and start over. I used the GM shift lever and bracket on the 6L80 side, and the Trailblazer SS cable works well on length.

I started with using the Lokar adjustable shift arm, but wasn't sure how to solve the connect problem in a way that was robust and fail resistant. After a few too many hours going that route, I got frustrated and stopped to have lunch. After a break, it occurred to me again the value of using as many oem parts as possible. I made a trip to Watson Chevrolet, and picked up 2 more 6L80 shift levers. Part number shown in pics. I failed to document the process very well, as my lack of progress had me a bit perturbed. The plan was to cannibalize one of the levers to get the nub end that the cable was designed to snap on to. GM has used these for years and they last a long time, so I am comfortable with it. I then grabbed some cardboard and traced the swing path of both the Toyota shifter and XMSN lever to find the arc length and determine how to match the ratio. I came to what my math said the location should be, and thankfully had the sense to just tack it in place. After assembling it all, I quickly saw that it was off, and the detents on the shifter did not match the ones in the XMSN. This added to the frustration of the day. Another break...... A bit later I remembered taking notes during a conversation with @RockJock82 and dug them up. There was the measurement I wrote down. 3.62", well over a 1.25" what I calculated. I cut the tacks, relocated the nub, and by God it worked. I don't care to put any more brain power into it, because the math said it should be different, but what works, works. I now have a shifter that matches up to the XMSN. Concurrent to the shifter solution was the cable mounting. I needed to find a way to locate the cable housing rigidly on the shifter end. This is my least prideful effort on this build to date. I could visualize cleaner and more pro looking solutions, but lack the tooling to accomplish it. I need to add a finger press brake kit to my 20 ton press, so if Swag Off-road wants to kick me a deal, bring it on.

With the admission that it is rough, I will say that it works great. I have since researched and found one forum member that used a linkage rod, and swapped the arm to the other side of the shifter. I will rework my setup at some point, but later. Still pushing to have this ready for the Southern Utah trip in February.

 

[ARJMN]

The ugly beast that is my solution for now.

 

[ARJMN]

So, the engine is finally in its home for good. I had it in and out a total of 13 times so far, and I am over it. Working on hoses now. I need to procure another set of power steering hoses, so if anyone has a set, holla at me. I am talking with Bob at Century Hose and Tube about fabbing up the hoses to marry the Toyota and Chevy systems, and he has it dialed. If you need hoses, go talk to him. Great guy.

Also on deck is the exhaust. Javier at Discount Muffler on Ina is all over it. Having done these before, he is familiar with the tricks of this setup. I will be running 2.25" from the manifolds to Magnaflow High Flow cats to a Y-Pipe into 3" tubing to the muffler and out to a turn down in the rear. Flanges at each major section for service needs are also there.

Remaining items planned for weekend:

Install 38 gallon fuel tank
Plumb fuel lines in engine bay
Install Speartech harness
Put driveshafts back in
Start resembling the front end
Start marking up the radiator shroud
gunna stop there to keep from overwhelming myself.

I do need some recommendations on the power steering pump. The 2012 2500 ran a piggy back reservoir that will interfere with the steering box. Remote mount reservoir is not a problem. The issue is that the inlet port for the PS pump is a smooth bore, no threads as the reservoir piggy backed on there. Any advice is welcome.

Cheers,

Jason

 

[ARJMN]

One last item today, I am modeling and printing a new bezel for the shift handle to mount the tap shift switch. We'll see how it turns out.

 

[ARJMN]

First print of the tap shift bezel went well. I saw immediately that it needed some revisions, so out came TAP_SHIFT_BEZEL_REV01.prt.
Threw it on the Lulzbot and an hour and 12 minutes later, I got this. Still needs some fine tuning, so REV02 will come tomorrow. I have to actually do some work today.

 

[RockJock82]

Looking good man!!!

 

[ARJMN]

Looking good man!!!

Thanks. I appreciate all the help you've given. This has been a huge learning experience, and I have a list of lessons that will be applied should I do another one. Call me dumb, but I think a stock height sleeper with an turbo 6.0 would be a hoot. There are better rigs to build a street machine out of, but you know....Land Cruiser and stuff. Gunna get this one done first.

 

[RockJock82]

Thanks. I appreciate all the help you've given. This had been a huge learning experience, and I have a list of lessons that will be applied should I do another one. Call me dumb, but I think a stock height sleeper with an turbo 6.0 would be a hoot. There are better rigs to build a street machine out of, but Land Cruiser and stuff. Gunna get this one done first.

Funny you mention that...

 

[Saddletramp]

I think Scott Ryan @scottryana has a sleeper LX450 he’s building

 

[ARJMN]

So much progress. The break had been good for both the project and my mental health. The garage is my happy place and my tools are my toys, so here's an update.

First item I worked on last week was the fan shroud. I wanted to get it roughed in and make sure the space claim was there and I did not route any hoses that would foul or rub. I started by laying out the 80 Series shroud on cardboard, and then overlaying the aluminum shroud I got from Summit. Next I found center of of the fan, and transferred that to my template. 21" diameter fan, with a half inch clearance yielded a 22" planned hole. The shroud is going to need some fab work, as intended, and I need to figure out the fine details, which led me to reassembling the front end to be sure all the space claims were respected. The current conundrum is whether to keep the shroud as a single piece, as the original is, or to split it on a horizontal plane to have a 2 piece shroud to allow for easy access to remove the fan and clean the radiator.........giving it thought before cutting it up. Either way, I realized I need some additional tools to complete the job, so I hit pause and got the credit card smoking a bit with some purchases. Stay tuned.

 

[ARJMN]

Next up was the power steering pump issue. The original PSP used a piggy back reservoir that not only was missing from my donor engine, but was going to foul on the steering box. A remote reservoir was going to be needed, in tandem with a compatible PSP. March just happens to have a direct replacement available on Amazon. 2 days later, I had it in hand. There were some dimensional differences to be addressed, but they were accounted for in the pressing of the pulley. The PSP pumps/pulleys used on LS engines are a press fit, so I took some offset measurements and matched the position relative to the mounting surfaces. A double check with a strait edge ensured that the belt would run true from pulley to pulley.

 

[ARJMN]

Now on to hoses. I previously talked to Bob at Century Tube and Hose on Grant, and had a great vibe from him. He is a one man op and is friendly, honest, and keeps the cleanest shop I have seen in Tucson. A good thing when dealing with hoses and contamination concerns. We determined the best route was to source the Toyota and Chevy hoses, trim the ends, braze new crimp barb fittings, cut to length and crimp. This required an order from RockAuto, and a few trips back and forth from my house to Bob. It was a 2 day process, but I am very pleased with the result. We were able to build custom hoses that interface perfectly with the differing rigs, and have great routing. Power steering high pressure side shown here. I will revisit this to secure the hose in order to protect the fittings from vibration.

 

[ARJMN]

I will carry a spare PS hose, just in case Murphy comes round. AC hoses, I just had the one set made. High pressure side was first. I took the Chevy side and laid it out. I laid the Toyota side out and identified where to make the cuts, and what the orientation of the fittings would be.

 

[ARJMN]

The finished product on the high pressure side. The low pressure side is cut and marked, but I'll have to go by Century Wednesday as Bob is taking some time off. I'll add a pic when I get it done.

I also had a pack of baby backs in the freezer that was always in the way, so they got thawed, rubbed, smoked, slathered, and enjoyed.

 

[ARJMN]

More hoses...... I wanted to keep the momentum moving, so I moved on to the tranny cooler. I decided to retain the factory 80 Series tranny cooler. I feel it should have the capacity needed, and.....it is there and I don't have to mess with it. I am using and LSX Innovations 6L80e cooler manifold on the tranny, -6AN barb fittings and 3/8 line from Autozone. I am really trying to engineer out any future mistakes, so I labeled and heat shrank the lines to clarify where they go. I grabbed a selection of clips that I thought would work for this effort, and to my delight Cat part number 132-5789 will be perfect to secure the cooler lines routing from tranny to cooler and back. I will have to go grab a handful more to finish the job.