Slow Motion LS Swap - (aka Heater/Cooling System Issue) (2 Viewers)

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I love my Badlands winch. I have been running the old school badlands 12k winch for awhile, and it's more than paid for itself. **knock on wood** that it doesn't fail me the next time i need it... ha!
 
I love my Badlands winch. I have been running the old school badlands 12k winch for awhile, and it's more than paid for itself. **knock on wood** that it doesn't fail me the next time i need it... ha!

Yea, I figure I can replace it 3 or 4 times for the price of a similar Warn ... but that only matters if you make it home :doh:
 
Two codes down, two to go!

I fabbed up a little box that I put between the charcoal canister and the purge valve that hold a fuel tank pressure sensor and vent valve and got those wire pulled from the old harness and pinned into the new one. The ECU is happy to have the right sensors on the end of the wires at least.

That leaves the fuel level sensor and the random misfire (P0300) codes. Unfortunately Todd couldn't make it last weekend ... and this weekend doesn't look conducive to working on a truck outside either!

I finished my first full tank of gas also ... and the news isn't so good there. 11.7 mpg :frown: I could do that well with the 1FZ!

This was around town driving, and my foot may have been a little heavy :p But I think it should be doing alot better then that. We'll see what kind of magic Todd can work on the tune!
 
Update on tuning. I decided to get my own HPTuners kit so I can muck around in the ECU myself. The learning curve on this stuff is STEEP! I wanted to get started on it last Saturday, but spent most of the day reading just to get oriented. Then Todd texted that he was available Sunday. So went over there and he did some work in his driveway with his wideband sensor to dial in the MAF response curve. While I greatly appreciate the time and effort (and I learned alot from him), something wasn't right and the resulting tune ended up way to lean (though it got GREAT mileage - over 18mpg).

So I saved that and rolled it back, then and worked through a narrow band MAF tuning process that has gotten me in pretty good shape I think. At least according to the long term fuel trim histogram. It also seems to have solved the P0300 misfire code. Still want to play with it a bit more and look at the VE & spark tables. Also bumped the idle by 50 rpm, which has smoothed it out nicely, and I turned off the fuel level sensor DTC for now. So it's been running with no CEL for the past 100 miles :bounce2: Some weirdness with the oil level sensor though - that turns on when it's cold then goes off once it's warmed up a bit. Oil level looks fine on the dipstick, oil pressure is good and no apparent leaks or smoke. It's a new sensor that came with the pan. Maybe I'll swap it with the old one when I change oil and see what happens.

Next step, beyond tweaking the tuning some more, is to finish wiring the AC system and fill it. Going to also wire the 4LOW ECU line, and maybe wire the ECU tow/haul pin to the ECT dash switch. Overall, very happy with the way it's driving. Hopefully the MPG comes in a bit better with this next tank.
 
Awesome, sounds like it is coming along nicely.
 
I mentioned at the meeting last week how bad my fuel economy has been with this swap - like 11.3 to 11.5 mpg for around town driving.

This is a flex fuel engine, and I thought I had turned everything off related to that with HPTuners. But I compared my file to a downloaded file for the non-flex version of the engine and found something I missed - a "default percentage" parameter that is used for the % alcohol in the fuel if the fuel composition sensor fails. Mine was set to 38% , compared to 0 for a normal engine.

You'd think that would be ignored if all the rest of the flex stuff was disabled. But you'd be wrong. First tank through with that zeroed gave me 13.3mpg. Still not great, but a 15% bump over what I had been getting isn't bad. The butt Dyno says the throttle response is a bit better also.
 
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AC is working again ... not sure what happened the first time. It worked for about a week, then didn't. Pressure was a little low so added more freon & some dye. Pressure came up - way up on the high side, but still no cool and no dye evidence of a leak.

Took it to Brakes Plus and had them evac the system, then took it apart and put a new expansion valve in (again) and flushed the rest of the system (again). Put it back together and it's cool again. Hopefully it stays that way this time.

I also wired up the pressure switch hack to run one of my fans: ABC's of 80's Cooling Part III - Press Switch - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/abcs-of-80s-cooling-part-iii-press-switch.103530/

The AC pressure switch has an unused mode on it - for the cost of a pair of wiring harness terminals you can tap in to this and use it to turn on an auxiliary fan (or main fan in my case) when your AC high side pressure reaches a certain level. Useful for idle or slow times when you're AC isn't getting it done. Or in my case, where I have electric fans that previously only ran based on coolant temperature.
 
Nekked truck...
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Ok, here it is! Was holding off on posting until I got the flares on, but that's going to be delayed a few more weeks.
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She sure did shine up pretty
 
So the big test this past week - drove down to Prescott AZ to visit my daughter. About 1800 miles round trip, and the swap was nearly flawless. Ran 75-85 MPH on the interstate, merged and crossed passes like a normal vehicle! I didn't get down to Phoenix for the real heat, but pulled hard on a hill on the interstate in the 90s with AC one and the coolant temp only got to 232F (IIRC, OEM the second fan doesn't even come on until 235F).

I hit Imogene Pass on my way back...

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A few issues popped up. First being that somehow a radiator hose clamp came loose 2nd day in Prescott and started leaking in a supermarket parking lot. Another cruiserhead had just stopped to talk as I was digging for my tools, and he was quicker with an 8mm socket to tighten it up. No problem with it after that.

I need to hook up the 4Lo wire on the ECU - it definitely shifted better with that grounded with a spring clamp when I was in low range.

And finally, I need to look for opportunities to shield or insulate the fuel lines some more. At the top of Imogene I could hear the fuel boiling in my tank, and huge pressure when I took the cap off.

But all that doesn't matter, because I stopped by Overland Expo in Flagstaff on my way home on Friday and traded it in on this :flipoff2:

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No, not really. But they had some cool stuff there!
 
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So I've been having trouble with low range shifting. Basically, the transmission was shifting to 3rd gear as fast as it could, and staying there. Unless you stomped on it to get a downshift ... which isn't really what you want to do in typical 4LO situations. I also wasn't able to manually shift to 1st - I need to rework my shift cable bracket. This turned me back from Imogene pass with my camp trailer a month or so ago.

The fundamental problem is that the GM computer was getting the VSS signal from the transmission tail shaft, so in 4LO, it thinks it is going much faster then it is, and so shifts immediately. My solution was to get a Dakota Digital SGI-100BT Universal Tach & Speedometer Interface. I used this to translate the 4000 PPM Toyota VSS signal from the transfer case output shaft to the 128K PPM expected by the GM PCM (Pin 21 Green). I then connected the Toyota speedometer to the 4000 PPM output from the PCM (Pin 50 Green). I also used the Dakota Digital unit to handle the tachometer and correct the speedometer.

I had it out on some steep stuff today (Metberry & Longwater Gulches), and it shifted well. I'd like it to hold 1st a little longer, but overall i'm happy with it. I still need to adjust my linkage so I manually shift to 1st.

I also added a relay to ground Pin 16 (which is supposed to activate low range mode) based on the transfer case 4LO switch, but it doesn't seem to have any effect. I had been doing this manually with a spring clamp, but it set P2771 (4WD Low Switch Circuit) and the truck ran terrible - and then it cleared and hasn't come back. I think I posted about that earlier. I talked to support at HP Tuners and got a beta version of their software that exposes the 4LO shift tables, but nothing I do there makes any difference. So I wonder if something failed in the PCM with that P2771 code. I also asked HP Tuners to expose the PID for the low range mode, similar to the performance shift mode so I could track it, but they say they couldn't find it.

Finally, I got the Toyota stock ECT switch to control the Tow/Haul mode (aka Performance Shift) on the GM PCM. The GM PCM needs a momentary ground on Pin 71 Blue to engage/disengage tow/haul mode. However, the Toyota ECT button is a latching switch providing a constant 12V when engaged.

To convert this to a momentary ground on change, I went here: https://timers.shop/Multi-Functional-Timers_c_15.html and got a programmable relay: “Multi-Functional 3V-18V Time Delay Relay (Timer) V7” which can be programmed to provide a momentary + signal on change of the input trigger (Function 25 Output on Trigger Change, Trigger Configuration 2).

To change the output + signal to a ground signal, I also got their sink module: “Sink Adapter - Positive To Sink”

This is working great. It also works properly to engage tow/haul on vehicle start, if the button was left engaged when you shut it off. I was concerned that maybe the signal would be to soon, before the PCM was ready, but HP Tuners shows it engaging correctly every time.
 
Yet another crisis :bang:
Called around to some exhaust shops today - not going to mention which one's right now - and was reminded that Colorado has adopted California emissions controls, effective 1 January.

What this means is you have to use CARB approved catalytic converters which are twice as expensive - and because several states just did this and manufacturing hasn't caught up - hard to find.

It also means that I need that downstream pair of O2 sensors after all - one of the shops said they won't work on it without them. And I will need them to pass inspection when that comes back in a year or so anyway, so may as well do it now while they're building the exhaust. Luckily, I still have the Silverado harness, so I think I can pull the downstream O2 sensor wires and connectors from that.

One shop wasn't even sure they wanted to take this on right now, until they understand the new regs completely. Apparently the penalties for a shop can be pretty significant.

But back to the inspection ... if I'm reading it right, all emissions systems from the donor vehicle need to be in place, and operating - including all that evap stuff I described above as not being present. Not sure how to do that. This would have been valves, sensors, solenoids in the fuel tank & lines of the donor vehicle that I didn't grab, connected via chunks of body harness I don't have.
I was getting excited about the idea of an LS swap into an 80... I had even started assembling a price list... but then I got to this post, and that's the end of that. :flush:
 
I was getting excited about the idea of an LS swap into an 80... I had even started assembling a price list... but then I got to this post, and that's the end of that. :flush:

Yea, not sure what's happening there. Was a big deal when it passed, but 2.5 years later and I haven't heard anything about rolling out testing again and such.

I think mine could pass - still have to figure out the GM fuel level sensor, but all the exhaust and evap stuff is there. Depends how picky they'll get I guess.
 
Maybe I'll call some exhaust shops next week and see what the current status is before completely flushing the idea.
 
My daily's cat (still talking cars here) was stolen in 2021. Got lucky and found a non-CARB unit that was still shipping to CO on Amazon (by then at least 70% of the listed ones were not).
I thought you were still in El Paso county?
 
Me? I am. Does that make a difference?
Yes, no emissions testing in El Paso.
But I was asking Eric. Thought he was in El Paso county.
And perhaps it doesn't matter when building a new exhaust system. It starts to get into the whole "as it was from factory regardless, unless the new requirement is greater then you have to adhere to that" bs.
 
Yes, no emissions testing in El Paso.
I'm trying to decipher this hot mess right now and not getting very far. I don't see anything about the county-by-county inspection that I used to know about. The cat law seems to be for the whole state. It's a steaming pile of hot pony loaf, that's for certain. Surely more than I'm going to try to sort out, but I will try making at least a call or two before giving up.
 

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