Builds V8 Swap Project Begins!

[kirk]

Well, I am awaiting the customs service to give the ok to the shipment (the correct A442F adapter) from Marks. From what I have heard today, advanced adapters told me I may have it in ohio late next week.

Meanwhile I have chatted in depth with Rodney at Wholesale Automatics in AU. He determine my engine will work fine with the stock torque convertor(that is a big savings). I will be installing a tuned extreme valve body to get the shift points where they need to be (If the damn thing doesnt shift how i want it to I have a backup plan). I am getting in touch with Marks regarding the tach interface(already have it) and TPS sensor. I think I am going to remote mount the toyo tps sensor driven from a cable on the throttle body or inside off the foot pedal.

C-Dan I got my toyota wire harness repair manual. Thanks!

Sorry, no new pics yet.

Kirk

 

[zebrabeefj40]

I agree that a mechanical fan is ideal. Problem I see is that IIRC the LT1 never came that way. The water pump is driven off the cam drive gear through the timing chain cover. My Camaro uses dual electric fans and has no trouble staying cool. I can tell you for sure that the Camaro engine compartment is FAR smaller and tighter than an FZJ80 engine room too! I'm sure that Kirk can fab up a mechanical fan mount if he wanted. But the stock F-car fans would probably work just fine and interface with the stock computer as well.

Definitely looking forward to the outcome of this swap!

Nick

 

[kirk]

Nick,

I hear ya on the mechanical fan fabrication. In fact Marks 4wd drive is doing it & has picks of it on their site.

I still contend the lincoln mark 8 fan will get the job done. There are lots of cheap electric fans on the market, and I think people try them and give all electrics a bad rap. I often see people with cooling problems are too lazy to make a nice fan shroud. This is worse that having a undersized fan.

Like you say, the OEM camaro fans would do the job too. Look at how poor the front air intake is on a vette, camaro, or lincoln 8. They are essentially bottom breathers an suck air off of the road. Put your hand 8" off the pavement on a sunny hot day. its remarkable the cars dont boil over!

 

[Gumby]

I love my Taurus fan. A Mark fan would be nice, but, man, they suck some juice.

Good shrouding is everything.

 

[Lars]

Lots of guys here in Arizona using the Camaro fans with their V8 swaps.

My sbc equipped rockcrawler has a dual SPAL fan with a ron davis radiator. I struggled with cooling issues for a while before settling on this setup.

 

[kirk]

I will generalize and say with electric fans: increases in current draw lead to increases in cfm of airflow. With that, if you want to stay cool ya need to run at least 1 or 2 #10 wires to the fan. I have dual spals on my camaro. They are great. When i turn the fans on with the engine off it is clear by the sound that they are moving serious air. I first fused the fans a 30 amp Maxi style fuse. It blew those on startup. I know have a 40 or 50 amp in there. I think Spal is the best fan out there in the afteramarket choices, after all they are OEM on Ferrari/Maserati and Lambo. If they made a big single fan I would be in business. The 80 radiator is too square for dual 11" or 12"s I mocked up the $20 mark 8 fan I have. It will work great, I am going to build a new aluminum shroud for it.

 

[kirk]

I have a question to the other V8 80 series guys out there. What the hell are you doing to get the exhaust manifolds between the frame rails? I installed corvette and camaro ex-manifolds on my motor on the engine stand. The overall width is about 26". BIG problem, the frame rails inside to inside are 25.5I may be need to run up to Summit and pick up a set of block hugging headers to see if they would clear.

Please post pics if possible.

The latest update on my V8 adapter,
I am still waiting on the correct adapter to show up. I have been fed information from the sales force at advanced adapters that has been conflicting and confusing. So after I had my fill I emailed Marks 4wd to get the straight answer. Long story short I learned that I have been getting a fed a bunch of BS for over a month now. The best one is... "Sir its in customs, there is nothing we can do to speed it up." this is a crock b/c if customs took as long as Advance claims america would be at a standstill. Funny there are 2 overpaid customs guys wasting time looking at my cast aluminum piece of crap while the mexicans are digging tunnels and hauling drugs in by the ton. I get parts for my business from overseas fedex from germany and canada. It is here overnight or 1-2 days max. I feel Marks 4wd are good honest people, they have been giving me straight answers. I shall refain writing my thoughts about advanced adapters. If I cant go to tellico and paragon in my v8 80 this year I may fly out to A/A and go postal!

 

[IdahoDoug]

That's gotta be frustrating.

DougM

 

[kirk]

Well I have the adapter here finally. Today with the help of Landwagon (Tim) we test fitting the engine for the first time. It looks badazz, like it it was meant to be. Lots to do now! I am using the LT1 Camaro accy brackets (thanks Gary). I ran up to Summit last night and picked up a set of hooker block hugger headers. They seem to be the best choice with regards to making way for engine mounts, a/c and fitting in between the frame rails. I am drawing a few pieces of the engine mounts now that I will laser cut tomorrow. I hope to have the engine permanently mounted by mid week.

Upcoming challenges:
The throttle cable is 2-3ft to long.
The tranny kickdown cable is 1ft to short.
The tranny cooler lines need redone.
The exhaust is going to be fun
Lots of wiring of course
Power steering lines
A/C needs adapted to GM compressor
Fuel line adaption.
Fan shroud
... and so on...

I will get some more pics up asap. I did not have a camera handy today.

Kirk

 

[PabloVTA]

FJ Z06?
Get some old Corvette flag emblem for it!

 

[Bennett]

Not sure if you posted it ,but what was the cost of the Marks setup?

thanks

 

[kirk]

The adapter is $965 plus shipping. The total cost of the swap is ongoing. I am doing all to work myself with no outside labor. The entire swap should come in around $4000. This includes the engine wiring exhaust etc. I would say if a shop were to do all the work it would be 100+ hours at $50 per hour.

Kirk

 

[curious1]

Kirk-

Will your tranny require a throttle position and ECT sensor signal? I had read in an Advance Adapters catalog that this could be an issue.

-George

 

[kirk]

Yes George, I will be adapting the toyota sensors on the chevy engine to send this info to the tranny ecu. also there is a tranny kickdowwn cable that will be utilized.

 

[SUMOTOY]

Yes George, I will be adapting the toyota sensors on the chevy engine to send this info to the tranny ecu. also there is a tranny kickdowwn cable that will be utilized.

Kirk:
Not sure your plan for the air intake, but I helped do an LT1 swap into a audi quattro a few years ago. One of the best flowing intakes (per K&n even) was the "flame arrester" used in the marine applications.

Also, you may want to pay close attention to the bellhousing temps, as we found they were extremely high with the LT1 (read: mongo trans cooler/s)

Ditch that optispark for sure. We actually had water problems with the optispark that cost a motor before we realized what was happening. We ended up talking to a chevy engineer who said that optispark is hidden behind shrouding on the LT1 applications, and that water is *the* enemy to it.

We went with hall sensor setup (used Painless harness), but I think the 8 coil out of the LS1 is the eticket. Especially if you have a lifted truck with water a 'given'.

Good luck with the project.

Scott Justusson

 

[kirk]

 

[kirk]

 

[bdyer]

there was a lot of talk about the tranny, I have a 95 with a 343, will my tranny hold up to 5.3 vortec out of a late model truck. or should I install a turbo on the inline 6

 

[OGBeno]

Looks great Kirk.

Sorry I wasn't around to help this weekend.

Looks like the engine was made for that space.

Good luck with the engine mounts....see you later.
-o-

 

[gnx7]

Wanted to add that this conversion is coming along nicely. I'm anxious to see how the stock transmission works out with the LT1 power curve.

Sounds like you have a nice used parts bin from the Camaro buildup to pilfer from.

The 1st sign of anything major happening (clutch etc) with my anemic 2F I'm going LS1/4L60E myself. Have the LS1 on the engine stand already.