Racefiend's CA Legal 1992 LS Swap Build Thread

[Racefiend]

Then I thought, well if those are stainless, the rest of the lines are not going to match. So I went ahead and made them all out of stainless.

The fronts:

The rears:

Rears Installed:

Fronts Installed:

 

[Racefiend]

I then moved on to taking care of the temp sensor for the dash gauge. The heads have an m12x1.5 port for the temp sensor. Since both heads are the same and just installed in reverse on the motor, there is one port on each side of the engine. The driver side front is used for the PCM temp sensor. The passenger side rear port is normally plugged, and this would be a great spot to put the temp sensor. The problem is, the stock temp sensor is m16x1.5. There's no way to get an adapter to get the OEM sensor into this hole.

My first option was to get a 1/8 npt to m12x1.5 adapter, then try to find a sensor that would work. Not a lot of resistance charts are available for sensors. However, I did find one made by VDO that has the resistance that matches the OEM one within specs from below normal operating temperature all the way up past overheating. The range at the cold end is a little off, but who cares how accurate your gauge is when cold. You need normal operating temps and overheating to be accurate. The VDO sensor part number is A2C5218491780. Unfortunately, it seems to be a VDO Europe part. I could order it and wait, or I could call VDO North America and see if it transfers over to their part number scheme. Then I decided to see how much brass the OEM sensor has on it.

Here's the OEM sensor:

I stuck it on my lathe, and started turning. I got it down to 11.85mm, right where I wanted it.

Then I cut some m12x1.5 threads on that bad boy

And it fit like a glove!

 

[Racefiend]

Next was to slap some accessories on the engine. Since the Marks4wd mounts put the engine towards the driver side like the factory engine, there is plenty of clearance for the A/C compressor. I had to buy a new single zone compressor to use for the FJ, as the one that came on the donor was dual zone.

Unfortunately, this meant the power steering pump was too close to the steering box and hitting the box. I ordered up a 2010 Chevy Express 1500 5.3 power steering pump, since it uses a remote reservoir and has a small casing. This fit with plenty of clearance:

Then I went to install the pulley and found it was too big and hitting the steering box:

I ordered a bunch of stock replacement pulleys. There are a lot of options and LS motors used 3 different backspacings for their engine pulleys. Some were too small in diameter, and I didn't want to overdrive the pump too much. The one that fit the best as far as diameter would require me to space the pump back almost .6 inches. That would have put it against the block. So I searched some online and found a perfect match. It's a PSC pulley, part number PP2456. The factory pulley is 6.3", and the PSC pulley is 5.75", just what I need to clear the box. It also has the truck style pulley backspacing, so no need to shim the pump mounts.

Here are the two pulleys compared:

And here is the clearance with the pulley installed:

The PSC pulley backspacing is not quite exact to the original pulley, So I had to install it about a millimeter short of flush with the shaft to line up perfectly with the crankshaft. The pump will be overdriven by about 10%. I'll be installing a flow restrictor on the pressure side to drop pressure and flow so it better matches up with the FJ steering box.

Keep in mind, I welded on the steering box frame stiffeners, which moved the steering box out 1/4". If you don't have the stiffeners on your frame, the Express pump will still clear, but you'll need an even smaller pulley, around 5.5" or smaller.

 

[FMC80]

Fantastic wok man! Great job all around.

 

[Racefiend]

Before putting the intake manifold and all that on the car, I put the injectors into a flow bench to test them out and see if any needing replacing. They all flowed within 4 percent of each other, which is pretty good, so a cleaning, reseal, and reinstall is all they needed. Being the anal bastard I am, I put them on the engine with the lowest flowing on cylinder 2, then increasing clockwise around the motor with the highest flowing on cylinder 1. This is the flow of the coolant, so the coolest cylinder will be 2 and the hottest 1. This way, the hotter cylinders will get a little more spray under WOT to help cool them down. Is it enough to make a difference? Maybe not. But I feel good doing it so yeah.

Next I tackled the park/neutral switch on the 4l60. When I tried to get the harness off originally, the plug was fused to the switch. I had to break the switch off to get the harness off the transmission. This is what was left:

I picked up new harness connectors for the park/neutral safety switch. This is apparently a common issue. Upon dissecting the plug, I found that the dielectric grease in the plug had melted and reconstituted itself into some kind of thick pasty super glue. I guess it's from being near the exhaust for 200k miles. The new plugs came with wires already, but they didn't match the factory colors. I went to de-pin the old connectors to transfer just the new plug bodies over, but the pins were stuck in the old plug with that dielectric goo. So I ended up having to carefully cut apart the old connector and get the pins out, clean them, refurbish them, then insert them into the new plug bodies. All better:

I also thinned out the engine harness, and rewrapped it with Techflex F6 flame retardant woven wrap. I used Tesa tape to button it up. I like the euro look for harnesses, and the crappy looking plastic corrugated loom from the factory was falling apart. Here you can see the harness. And OH NO! What happened to those shiny new Summit exhaust manifolds!

I'll go over what I did to the engine harness when I post about the electrical. That's going to be a pretty long post.

The engine and everything is now finally ready to put the body back on the frame. It has all new body mounts. Hopefully this upcoming week I'll have a rolling FJ off my rack.

 

[Racefiend]

Fantastic wok man! Great job all around.

Thank you sir!

 

[Fosters]

You are providing a hell of a resource with this install...thank you so much for sharing the knowledge

 

[thatcabledude]

Too late now, and no big deal, but that thick sealant is normal on those trans switches from factory. The trick is to heat with a heat gun when unplugging. When going back together heat again when pushing together.

 

[thatcabledude]

Before putting the intake manifold and all that on the car, I put the injectors into a flow bench to test them out and see if any needing replacing. They all flowed within 4 percent of each other, which is pretty good, so a cleaning, reseal, and reinstall is all they needed. Being the anal bastard I am, I put them on the engine with the lowest flowing on cylinder 2, then increasing clockwise around the motor with the highest flowing on cylinder 1. This is the flow of the coolant, so the coolest cylinder will be 2 and the hottest 1. This way, the hotter cylinders will get a little more spray under WOT to help cool them down. Is it enough to make a difference? Maybe not. But I feel good doing it so yeah.

Next I tackled the park/neutral switch on the 4l60. When I tried to get the harness off originally, the plug was fused to the switch. I had to break the switch off to get the harness off the transmission. This is what was left:

View attachment 3026563

I picked up new harness connectors for the park/neutral safety switch. This is apparently a common issue. Upon dissecting the plug, I found that the dielectric grease in the plug had melted and reconstituted itself into some kind of thick pasty super glue. I guess it's from being near the exhaust for 200k miles. The new plugs came with wires already, but they didn't match the factory colors. I went to de-pin the old connectors to transfer just the new plug bodies over, but the pins were stuck in the old plug with that dielectric goo. So I ended up having to carefully cut apart the old connector and get the pins out, clean them, refurbish them, then insert them into the new plug bodies. All better:

View attachment 3026566

I also thinned out the engine harness, and rewrapped it with Techflex F6 flame retardant woven wrap. I used Tesa tape to button it up. I like the euro look for harnesses, and the crappy looking plastic corrugated loom from the factory was falling apart. Here you can see the harness. And OH NO! What happened to those shiny new Summit exhaust manifolds!

View attachment 3026568

View attachment 3026569

I'll go over what I did to the engine harness when I post about the electrical. That's going to be a pretty long post.

The engine and everything is now finally ready to put the body back on the frame. It has all new body mounts. Hopefully this upcoming week I'll have a rolling FJ off my rack.

View attachment 3026570

Heads up... Depending on the way you do your intake and what type of fan setup you go with, you may want to switch that water pump to one from the 2007 year range. The water neck is in a better position. Maybe investigate while it’s still easy to swap.
This:

VS what you have installed:

 

[Broski]

Subbed, nice attention to detail.

 

[Racefiend]

Too late now, and no big deal, but that thick sealant is normal on those trans switches from factory. The trick is to heat with a heat gun when unplugging. When going back together heat again when pushing together.

Thanks, that's good to know. We've pulled out numerous GM transmissions and this is the first one I've ran into that was this much of a bastard to remove. I'll make sure to try a heat gun next time it happens.

Heads up... Depending on the way you do your intake and what type of fan setup you go with, you may want to switch that water pump to one from the 2007 year range. The water neck is in a better position. Maybe investigate while it’s still easy to swap.
This:
View attachment 3026626
VS what you have installed:
View attachment 3026627

I'm hoping to reuse the factory flat intake if possible, so I stuck with the original pump. We'll see on mock up if that's possible. If I have to use a round intake there may not be room for the factory hose routing, and I may have to switch to that later pump.

 

[Racefiend]

You are providing a hell of a resource with this install...thank you so much for sharing the knowledge

I figure this can help the next person doing a swap. And about a month after I complete this project, when I forget everything I did to it, it can be a good resource for me to remember what I did on it!

 

[thatcabledude]

Thanks, that's good to know. We've pulled out numerous GM transmissions and this is the first one I've ran into that was this much of a bastard to remove. I'll make sure to try a heat gun next time it happens.



I'm hoping to reuse the factory flat intake if possible, so I stuck with the original pump. We'll see on mock up if that's possible. If I have to use a round intake there may not be room for the factory hose routing, and I may have to switch to that later pump.

I tried to use the factory GM intake piping too and couldn’t make it work. It’s just too big. Our LC filter box is really close to the throttle body once the lid opening is flipped towards the TB.

Maybe you’ll come up with a way to use it.

 

[Racefiend]

I tried to use the factory GM intake piping too and couldn’t make it work. It’s just too big. Our LC filter box is really close to the throttle body once the lid opening is flipped towards the TB.

Maybe you’ll come up with a way to use it.

My goal is to use the donor airbox and piping so there are not referee complaints. We'll see how that works out.

 

[orangefarmer]

It should be the exact same amount of work as on a 92, minus welding in new engine mounts, just modifying that passenger mount if you want A/C. All of the emissions components from the donor vehicle have to be transferred over to the LC. You would need to transfer over the OBD2 connector from the donor, as I don't think the 97 Toyotas use the same pins. It needs to be refereed with the donor vehicle specs, plus a dyno smog, which would be required whether you have a 92 or 97. The only thing I'm not sure of is what tailpipe criteria they use for the dyno test. Having a 97 might be a bit stricter. But either way the LS is going to spit out way less pollutants than the original LC. Plus the donor for this car is E85, which I plan to incorporate on the LC, so smog should be even cleaner if that's in the tank.

I have been told that the obd1 LC's need the e-rod engine. I'm wondering if yours is different because it was the 3fe? Great thread, by the way. You have a great attention to detail. Thank you for pointing out all of the little things that you did to both make it easier, and look cleaner. What part of the state are you in?

 

[Racefiend]

I have been told that the obd1 LC's need the e-rod engine. I'm wondering if yours is different because it was the 3fe? Great thread, by the way. You have a great attention to detail. Thank you for pointing out all of the little things that you did to both make it easier, and look cleaner. What part of the state are you in?

The rules for engine changes haven't changed. I spoke to the ref. As long as it's same year or newer and the gvwr are in the same class, it's good to go. I gave him both vins and gvwr were in the same class so he gave it the thumbs up. He even gave me some tips. Should be the same for any 80 series. I'm in Solano county.

 

[orangefarmer]

The rules for engine changes haven't changed. I spoke to the ref. As long as it's same year or newer and the gvwr are in the same class, it's good to go. I gave him both vins and gvwr were in the same class so he gave it the thumbs up. He even gave me some tips. Should be the same for any 80 series. I'm in Solano county.

Awesome. Thank you. Great build.

 

[Racefiend]

Got the oil pressure gauge figured out. Since this is a 2002 donor, the oil gauge goes directly to the instrument cluster. There is no PID for oil pressure on the PCM, so it does not monitor oil pressure. It wasn't until 2003 and CAN Bus that the oil pressure sensor went to a 3 wire sensor and was directly connected to the PCM, and the PCM monitored pressure.

So we can chuck the original sensor and plug in the Toyota sensor instead. Then cut off the GM plug and splice in one for the Toyota sensor. You'll need:

AT9919AUJERL - M16x1.5 to 1/8 NPT adapter
968699ERL - 1/8 BPST female to 1/8 NPT male adapter
EC2195 - Pigtail connector for the pressure sensor (available at Napa)

 

[Racefiend]

And finally a big milestone. Putting the body back on the frame.

With the old bent frame came bent mounting bolts

I was afraid the body may be bent as well. I got all new body mounts and new body mount bolts/washers/nuts and dropped the body onto the frame. To my relief, all of the bolts dropped right in. The body was still straight!

And boy that V8 sure does look nice in there. Almost like it came that way from the factory.

 

[Marco Lau]

And finally a big milestone. Putting the body back on the frame.

With the old bent frame came bent mounting bolts

View attachment 3029557

I was afraid the body may be bent as well. I got all new body mounts and new body mount bolts/washers/nuts and dropped the body onto the frame. To my relief, all of the bolts dropped right in. The body was still straight!

View attachment 3029558

View attachment 3029560

And boy that V8 sure does look nice in there. Almost like it came that way from the factory.

View attachment 3029562

View attachment 3029563

very cool man, keep up the good work!