Not Another Cheap V8 Swap... (Pic Heavy)

[E30Whore]

The x pipe will give it a more modern v8 sound with a little higher pitch, plus some extra ponies also.

Whats not to love, now i need to figure out where to put it ..

[90e30ls]

Whats not to love, now i need to figure out where to put it ..

Does your magnaflow muffler have a built in x pipe? The dual in/out magnaflow I was looking at did.

[E30Whore]

Does your magnaflow muffler have a built in x pipe? The dual in/out magnaflow I was looking at did.

Honestly don't know if it does or not..

[flyboyx]

Whats not to love, now i need to figure out where to put it ..

get a rattle can and shoot some everyday household enamel paint on your exhaust. drive it around, get it warmed up. put the car on the lift and look to see where it burns off. choose the spot as close as you can to where the paint burns and where it does not.

another choice would be to put it towards the front of where the factory e30 cat would be.

as far as your exhaust goes. it looks pretty good. i don't think it looks very factory, but perhaps that isn't the look you are going for anyway. what you have there looks like it would be really really loud. have you thought about resonators?

i think i am going to choose the borla dual 2.25" and space the tips closer together so they don't rub on the edges of the bumper exhaust opening.


I want my exhaust to look more like jordan's except 2.25 or 2.5" dual all the way back

[bmk]

I have a different muffler a 24" can with built in x pipe, and dual 2.5 all the way back and its super quiet. So yours shouldnt be too loud.

[E30Whore]

The exhaust came out great, what size is it?.... I cant wait to see a video of your car.

Correction: I double checked and confirmed that the exhaust is 2.5" piping. I was mistaken when I said it was 2.25 early last week. FYI

[E30Whore]

get a rattle can and shoot some everyday household enamel paint on your exhaust. drive it around, get it warmed up. put the car on the lift and look to see where it burns off. choose the spot as close as you can to where the paint burns and where it does not.

another choice would be to put it towards the front of where the factory e30 cat would be.

as far as your exhaust goes. it looks pretty good. i don't think it looks very factory, but perhaps that isn't the look you are going for anyway. what you have there looks like it would be really really loud. have you thought about resonators?

i think i am going to choose the borla dual 2.25" and space the tips closer together so they don't rub on the edges of the bumper exhaust opening.


I want my exhaust to look more like jordan's except 2.25 or 2.5" dual all the way back

Do you have any sound clips?

[E30Whore]

Not Another Cheap V8 Swap... (Pic Heavy)

Correction: I double checked and confirmed that the exhaust is 2.5" piping. I was mistaken when I said it was 2.25 early last week. FYI

[george graves]

I really want to see the fenders progress please!

[E30Whore]

I really want to see the fenders progress please!

Fender work isn't done yet but I'll certainly update with pix once it is.

[E30Whore]

What was one has now turned into two [emoji16]




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[E30Whore]

LS Rad/Fan set up

As many of you probably already know, a problem are with most LS swaps is the cooling system. There is a lot of misinformation online, some info that is halfway helpful but not practical and then some info that is outright useless. After taking some measurements, googling the dimensions and seeing what my options were, I pulled the trigger on a R32 Skyline radiator due to its massive core size, no end-tanks and both in/out on the passenger side of the car. After it arrived and after a quick mock up, I saw where I was going to have to cut but looked like it was going to work just fine. Lets see how it worked out....

Mishimoto R32 Radiator: $270 Delivered



Spall 16' Low Profile Race Fan (Pusher) $175 Delivered



High Performance Trans Cooler w/ Hardware $89



So what we are doing here is attempting to make the cooling system one unit. For ease of removal and future work. I attached the trans cooler to the inside drivers side of the radiator. Being that I have a pusher style fan that mounts in front of the radiator, this should leave me plenty of room for the accessories. Hoses are pretty simple, lower hose is from a CTSV and upper is from a R34 (had to cut 1" from both ends) and BOOM, we have a simple, efficient radiator, trans cooler, fan assembly for the swap.

Radiator Hoses: $30



In order to fit the radiator, this had to go. Say bye bye to the old radiator support..



Material for new radiator support. 1'x1' steel



He how shes sitting once the old support has been removed and surface ground down to make room for our new support/frame for radiator.





To keep things simple, I dropped the radiator in and simply measured up from the oil pan to get as clean of a fit as possible, here is the radiator box we made..



Its tight but it fits and looks like we have just enough room for the accessories.....I hope!



Another angle of the new radiator support, since i'll be retaining my AC, I attached the old condenser for spacing issues even though i'll be replacing the old stock unit. This is just here for now.



One of the more scary moments of the day, tapping into the new radiator. In case you are wondering, this is is for the steam vent!





A better angle for you guys to see the amount of space left behind and how the hoses are ran. I'm please with this setup, a bunch off people advise the E36 radiator however, the fuckery with the upper hose was a major turnoff. I like what we did here.






SWAP METER: $23,959

[E30Whore]

Not Another Cheap V8 Swap...

Moving forward, I had all kinds of miscellaneous fittings to purchase, fuel line kit, fuel pump, fuel filter, oil pressure and coolant sensors, hoses, clutch line, bleeder kit, heat shielding and wrap, accessory brackets, throttle cable etc.

Summit Hard Line Kit, Clutch Line, Bleeder and Assorted fittings: $295 Delivered



Walbro 255 Fuel Pump: $93



Tanks LS Fuel Line Kit w/ Fuel Filter and Quick Connect Fittings: $239 Delivered



Had to source this piece from eBay as the power steering bracket is now discontinued from GM. Looks pretty cool!

Power Steering Bracket $96 Delivered



Miscellaneous stuff from Advance Auto: $389



Throttle Cable: $85
Throttle Cable Bracket: $45



All the little stuff is killing me. Everything is adding up so fast, I feel like im doing nothing but spending, spending and spending some more at this point. Not pictured but also delivered is new alternator, power steering pump, harmonic balancer, pulleys, GM brackets, pcv hose assembly, GM bolts etc.

After ordering all new accessories, my tab with GM came in at a hefty $1130 bucks. I can say now that I am feeling the burn. Need to make some serious progress asap.


SWAP METER: $26,331

[E30Whore]

Not Another Cheap V8 Swap...

I was still having problems with rubbing issues in the transmission tunnel so we decided to drop it and cut off the prongs on the T56. Here is what the look like for reference.



Never thought id get to the point where I need belts and accessory bolts :D



Out with the old and in with the new...



Clutch line bleeder...Yes Please!



Ditched the reverse lockout switch and plugged it for clearance issues



New hardware looks great..



Throttle Cable Bracket looks at home on the intake



While the trans was out, figured id snap a good picture of the Monster Clutch



WOW, accessories finally getting bolted up. We are making all kinds of progress over last two days. Getting motivated to complete this thing now.





Im going to attempt to mount the oil filter on the passenger side, here are the oil relocation lines



In an attempt to stretch the tunnel a little more, we put the bottle jack to use. The last thing anyone wants is excessive vibration due to contact between car and trans...



Here is a good shot of the fan set up. Went in super easy! Looks like it was meant to mount to the frame here as we reused the holes already available. The fan looks massive here as it pretty much fills up the whole front end.







After measuring and cutting the power steering lines, I had a little left over which actually fit perfectly for the trans cooler. I consider this a win!



Some home made heat shielding to protect the clutch line, fuel line and my feet since the headers are right up against the tunnel.



Power steering lines and trans cooler



Oil relocation lines and good shot of the lower radiator hose. (as reference)



After sourcing some AN90 fittings, I was able to mount the oil filter up on the fender well. I am unsure if about this location but for now, it works. I'll wait to bolt it in till I know for sure where I want it.

[E30Whore]

Not Another Cheap V8 Swap...

Yanked out the old, rusted evap lines that run front to back and the old fuel lines. Ran a similar setup with the Tanks fuel line kit. Kept it simple..



Some additional heat shielding to protect the fuel lines. Better safe than sorry.



Because I'm running a split year car with the older style pump, mating the walbro pump to the housing was a PITA. After some guess work and multiple attempt to get it into the tank, this is how it looked.