'Merica! Go big or go home = installing LS engine into drift car
07-16-2013, 12:25 PM
#41
We are using a standalone conversion harness for LS2 motors since I am sticking to my beloved AEM Engine Management System. Standalone harnesses are widely available today at many different shops. One company that I like to work with is Jordan Innovations, since they are very knowledgeable on these motors, and with all kinds of tuner cars. Unfortunately, time was tight and I had to go elsewhere to buy a harness, instead of getting a custom tailored harness from Jordan Innovations.
A custom built harness makes it is easy to pin to the connectors of an AEM Standalone ECU, whether you choose AEM Series 2 or AEM Infinity.
Things I recommend to look at if you are buying a harness:
1. Reputation - are they good or is the word around that they are cheaply made with glitchy connectors
2. Check your fit. LS motors come with 24X or 58X reluctor wheels (crank sensor wheel in plain english). You can see the reluctor wheel if you remove the oil pan. Also, one method that is said to work is to check the color of the crank sensor. If it is black, you have the 24X, if it is gray, you have the 58X. Your tuner needs to know this.
3. Check the cam sensor pickup. Is it at the back of the engine, or at the front. Is it a single "tooth" or other setup on the cam sprocket wheel. Your tuner needs to know that too.
4. Check which connections that are included. Some are easy to take for granted. My LS2 harness came without oil pressure connector (?????). The oil pressure sensor sits perfect on the back of the block, and there are 10 other OEM connectors wired in from idle air control to throttle body sensor to engine coolant temp etc, but for some random reason the harness supplier figured that the oil pressure sensor wasn't a high priority. Epic fail.
5. Another thing to watch out for is the knock sensor connectors. On the LS2 harness I received, it had connectors for LS1 knock sensors.
5. Check your year/model/style of connectors to your MAP sensor, TPS and alternator. There were some changes between LS1/2/3 that needs to be checked out to get the right connector for the sensors on the engine. Some model year cars used parallell alternators with 2 or 4 pin connectors, as an example. Mostly it is straight forward, but worth to keep an eye on before ordering your harness, to reduce custom work afterwards.
A custom built harness makes it is easy to pin to the connectors of an AEM Standalone ECU, whether you choose AEM Series 2 or AEM Infinity.
Things I recommend to look at if you are buying a harness:
1. Reputation - are they good or is the word around that they are cheaply made with glitchy connectors
2. Check your fit. LS motors come with 24X or 58X reluctor wheels (crank sensor wheel in plain english). You can see the reluctor wheel if you remove the oil pan. Also, one method that is said to work is to check the color of the crank sensor. If it is black, you have the 24X, if it is gray, you have the 58X. Your tuner needs to know this.
3. Check the cam sensor pickup. Is it at the back of the engine, or at the front. Is it a single "tooth" or other setup on the cam sprocket wheel. Your tuner needs to know that too.
4. Check which connections that are included. Some are easy to take for granted. My LS2 harness came without oil pressure connector (?????). The oil pressure sensor sits perfect on the back of the block, and there are 10 other OEM connectors wired in from idle air control to throttle body sensor to engine coolant temp etc, but for some random reason the harness supplier figured that the oil pressure sensor wasn't a high priority. Epic fail.
5. Another thing to watch out for is the knock sensor connectors. On the LS2 harness I received, it had connectors for LS1 knock sensors.
5. Check your year/model/style of connectors to your MAP sensor, TPS and alternator. There were some changes between LS1/2/3 that needs to be checked out to get the right connector for the sensors on the engine. Some model year cars used parallell alternators with 2 or 4 pin connectors, as an example. Mostly it is straight forward, but worth to keep an eye on before ordering your harness, to reduce custom work afterwards.
Last edited by Mr_White; 07-24-2013 at 07:33 PM.
07-16-2013, 12:37 PM
#42
I started the head and cam swap last Tueday and yesterday (Monday night) the motor was installed and fired up. 6 days. It was all done evenings and weekend, since I work during daytime. The convenience of the Fueled Racing kit cannot be appreciated enough.
The engine sounded absolutely ferocious. Can't wait to drive this beast.
Some fab work related to my chassis will now go down (radiator mount, crash bar, stuff that most cars already have), then I will post some photos videos. Stay tuned!!
The engine sounded absolutely ferocious. Can't wait to drive this beast.
Some fab work related to my chassis will now go down (radiator mount, crash bar, stuff that most cars already have), then I will post some photos videos. Stay tuned!!
07-16-2013, 01:42 PM
#43
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Looks great! Can I trouble you for a couple pictures from the side showing the cylinder heads in relation to the shock tower or the fire wall. Just trying to figure out how much further back this sit compared to the Sikky kit.
07-16-2013, 01:50 PM
#44
Will get photos but for now, on the passenger side there is appr 0 inch clearance between the cylinder head corner and the firewall at the back corner. It is 1/4 after we hammered it to get some clearance. Straight behind the heads I'd have to measure and get photo.
07-21-2013, 10:08 AM
#47
Now all we had to do was fill fluids and hook up the AEM Series 2 standalone ECU.
Once plugged in and after we had fixed a mistake by in the wiring harness for the cam sensor it took my tuner 3 attempts for the motor to fire up, the first two attempts because I had forgot to put a ground strap from the chassis to the block....
I use Champion sparkplugs exclusively in my builds due to superior firing quality under high performance use, especially with boost in mind. For a mild LS build, 3983 are a great smooth running plug, but 9405 will be a little colder/better insulated for running with boost.
I should also make a quick mention about the Fueled Racing longa** headers, they are really sweet, thermal coated and they install from under the car once the motor is installed. You will need someone to hold the header under the car to get all the header bolts to line up and be careful with the aluminum threads when putting the bolts in, be really really careful about this. We did ok on this but it was close once or twice that the bolt wanted to go in slightly angled, but as soon as the header is "balanced" the bolts go in straight by hand.
I made a video from inside the shop but the car is so loud the sound from that video is completely garbage. So I loaded the car up to get it over to fabrication of radiator mounts and took a video with the car outside, thinking the sound level would echo less and give the phone microphone a chance. So at strict idle it's a little better.
How do you guys like the CompCams XR281HR XTREME RPM HIGH LIFT idle sound? (listen towards the end of the video)
As soon as the rad mounts are fabbed up and we have bled clutch and routed all harnesses and hoses safely, we're taking this beast to the dyno, should be towards end of this week. Stay tuned for more video (with better sound). Should sound cool at high rpm!
Once plugged in and after we had fixed a mistake by in the wiring harness for the cam sensor it took my tuner 3 attempts for the motor to fire up, the first two attempts because I had forgot to put a ground strap from the chassis to the block....
I use Champion sparkplugs exclusively in my builds due to superior firing quality under high performance use, especially with boost in mind. For a mild LS build, 3983 are a great smooth running plug, but 9405 will be a little colder/better insulated for running with boost.
I should also make a quick mention about the Fueled Racing longa** headers, they are really sweet, thermal coated and they install from under the car once the motor is installed. You will need someone to hold the header under the car to get all the header bolts to line up and be careful with the aluminum threads when putting the bolts in, be really really careful about this. We did ok on this but it was close once or twice that the bolt wanted to go in slightly angled, but as soon as the header is "balanced" the bolts go in straight by hand.
I made a video from inside the shop but the car is so loud the sound from that video is completely garbage. So I loaded the car up to get it over to fabrication of radiator mounts and took a video with the car outside, thinking the sound level would echo less and give the phone microphone a chance. So at strict idle it's a little better.
How do you guys like the CompCams XR281HR XTREME RPM HIGH LIFT idle sound? (listen towards the end of the video)
As soon as the rad mounts are fabbed up and we have bled clutch and routed all harnesses and hoses safely, we're taking this beast to the dyno, should be towards end of this week. Stay tuned for more video (with better sound). Should sound cool at high rpm!
Last edited by Mr_White; 07-21-2013 at 02:12 PM.
07-21-2013, 02:13 PM
#49
That's including the engine build. If you just swap a VQ for a LS, it goes a lot quicker when using a Fueled Racing kit. As mentioned, hit me up for hookup on pricing on a complete kit and just contact me if you need some pointers on how to install it.
07-24-2013, 06:44 PM
#50
Driver side. You can't get any further back than that. It looks like contact but there is no contact, the gap is just under 1/4" and you can still move the harness and fuel lines through the gap to get around to the back / above the bellhousing if you drop it down the side of the engine first.
The passenger side has a ton of space, this is due to the offset of the heads on the LS motor (the passenger side heads always sit offset to the back), and also the shape of the firewall on the Z. The motor is centered on the subframe and the gearbox shifter sticks up centered in the cardan tunnel, so this is what it will look like.
There are some crappy used hoses on those photos that we are right now in the process of replacing, now that we know exactly how long things need to be, what angle fittings etc.
Last edited by Mr_White; 07-24-2013 at 06:53 PM.
07-24-2013, 07:32 PM
#52
If anyone has thoughts about a LS swap, hit me up for an official Fueled Racing kit hookup. If you have a LS motor ready and a friend to help out, it will only take you 1-2 weekends to get the swap done if you know what you're doing. The only reason we took 6 days is because we tore down the engine and I put new cam, heads and seals on it - and we are working on chassis fabrication work since we're changing radiator setup, something you don't have to do on "normal" 350Z.
Last edited by Mr_White; 07-24-2013 at 07:36 PM.
07-25-2013, 01:50 PM
#53
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Thanks. I appreciate the photos. I think I'm going to switch to the Fueled Performace kit at some point. Which sucks since I'll need to re-do my custom shiter, and adjust the exhaust to match. The pro's out weight the cons though, at least for a race car.
07-26-2013, 01:27 PM
#55
I can add that we installed the Wilwood 0.75 bore clutch master last night, super easy swap with the Fueled Racing adapter plate. This doesn't require any elaborate work of taking the slaves apart, it only requires a simple thread tapping of the 350Z OEM clevis.
Note to self, I should have gotten the Wilwood slave right away, the stock 350Z master just doesn't cut it for the LS motors (not enough fluid volume to fully release the clutch).
Once the metric hole on the clevis has been tapped to Wilwood's standard SAE thread, you screw it onto the Wilwood master cylinder rod just like on the 350Z master (adjust the clevis position to the same distance from the firewall side of the adapter plate to the clevis pin hole, as you had before, then you get the correct pedal travel amount), then simply bolt the new master cylinder to the firewall using the adapter that allows you to use the original 350Z firewall holes.
Bleeding it with the Fueled Racing bleeder line, which is long enough to reach up behind the engine, it's a really easy bleed, either with a vacuum bleeder on the bleeder adapter and just fill the master as you bleed out air/fluid, or have a friend pump the pedal (brake bleed style method).
The ACT 925lb/ft pressure plate makes the clutch feel great, it is now medium/firm instead of a sloppy featherweight pedal and it requires the perfect amount of clutch pedal pressure to depress, and it's very easy to feel exactly where it grabs/releases.
The team is almost done with the new radiator fabbing and custom front crashbar. I can't wait to get this thing on the dyno and start testing!
Note to self, I should have gotten the Wilwood slave right away, the stock 350Z master just doesn't cut it for the LS motors (not enough fluid volume to fully release the clutch).
Once the metric hole on the clevis has been tapped to Wilwood's standard SAE thread, you screw it onto the Wilwood master cylinder rod just like on the 350Z master (adjust the clevis position to the same distance from the firewall side of the adapter plate to the clevis pin hole, as you had before, then you get the correct pedal travel amount), then simply bolt the new master cylinder to the firewall using the adapter that allows you to use the original 350Z firewall holes.
Bleeding it with the Fueled Racing bleeder line, which is long enough to reach up behind the engine, it's a really easy bleed, either with a vacuum bleeder on the bleeder adapter and just fill the master as you bleed out air/fluid, or have a friend pump the pedal (brake bleed style method).
The ACT 925lb/ft pressure plate makes the clutch feel great, it is now medium/firm instead of a sloppy featherweight pedal and it requires the perfect amount of clutch pedal pressure to depress, and it's very easy to feel exactly where it grabs/releases.
The team is almost done with the new radiator fabbing and custom front crashbar. I can't wait to get this thing on the dyno and start testing!
08-02-2013, 03:56 PM
#57
VIDEO: Dyno pull last night at Road Race Engineering.
LS2/L92 heads/LS3 intake, XR281HR Comp cam, long Fueled Racing headers, custom made Berk Technology exhaust, Champion spark plugs, ACT clutch system, Fiveo injectors, all controlled by AEM Series 2 ECU, tuned by Mitch Petersen Tuning.
Powerwise it hit pretty much right on the target of what is doable with a non ported LS2/LS3 head combo with that cam. Decking and porting heads will gain some but we don't need it since next step is to force feed this baby... we are only getting started.
LS2/L92 heads/LS3 intake, XR281HR Comp cam, long Fueled Racing headers, custom made Berk Technology exhaust, Champion spark plugs, ACT clutch system, Fiveo injectors, all controlled by AEM Series 2 ECU, tuned by Mitch Petersen Tuning.
Powerwise it hit pretty much right on the target of what is doable with a non ported LS2/LS3 head combo with that cam. Decking and porting heads will gain some but we don't need it since next step is to force feed this baby... we are only getting started.
Last edited by Mr_White; 08-02-2013 at 04:18 PM.
08-04-2013, 09:47 PM
#60
Not going to release the exact number as we are not done yet but the "NA baseline" estimate above is a bit on the low side and the result with a 6.0 with LS3 heads is totally dependent of the cam choice and intake. There's a drift build with a RX7 guy who put together a somewhat similar LS2/LS3 headed motor and that put out 517 rwhp (verified in a ton of ways by non-believers), it was attained by quite some work on decking the heads to increase the compression way over stock.
Anyway, those numbers would give you an idea of the range. Very good power for the $$ with easy to find stock L92 heads, LS3/L76 intake and an off the shelf cam. From here on, the route to our targeted 700hp spells Garrett turbo.
Had some good test runs today, it's loud.
Anyway, those numbers would give you an idea of the range. Very good power for the $$ with easy to find stock L92 heads, LS3/L76 intake and an off the shelf cam. From here on, the route to our targeted 700hp spells Garrett turbo.
Had some good test runs today, it's loud.