Olds ticket to 9s... LS swap adventure.

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"Yeah with one foot in the grave
And one foot on the pedal, I was born a rebel"

 
F the shot. Fire this pig up!!!!



My first Phizer shot was brutal, the 2nd was like a 6 pack hangover (sleepy the next day). You’ll be fine.
All will be better if you smell E85 burning 🙂
 
Feeling like I did alright today, even though I am being called away for some social obligations.

Started to refill with coolant to make sure the head was sealed up and discovered a really interesting detail about LS water pumps.
So there is two thermostat designs, the 54mm and the 58mm.
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The 58mm is an integral elbow and t-stat with a 62mm seal ring, (its hard to photo and measure solo, sorry.)
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the 54mm or LS1 style is a 57mm seal ring. The new style does not seal in the old style hole.
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Fortunately I have 4 or 5 spares, AND a sealed cooling system.
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Then I got started on the wiring underhood. Stage 1 is complete. Wires are split up, labelled, and organized in the directions they will travel.
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Next step is to decide final routing, how they will be restrained and measure lengths, then add in the sensor power and grounds.

On the plus side, no side effects yet with vaccine so life carries on. I have nothing else planned for the week so I think I should be able to have it running by the weeks end depending on other setbacks.
 
The thermostat difference seems to be a little known fact by everyone that has never done a swap.
But once you encounter it, then you know. The early truck style water pump has very limited options for non-factory temp thermostats.
 
The thermostat difference seems to be a little known fact by everyone that has never done a swap.
But once you encounter it, then you know. The early truck style water pump has very limited options for non-factory temp thermostats.
Correct, you can't just pick the one on top of the water pump pile.
 
Correct, you can't just pick the one on top of the water pump pile.
The older truck setup forced me to drill 4 3/32" holes in the thermostat. Now I cruise in the 180 range rather than 195ish and it gives me 15 degrees of leeway to build heat. It has seemed to help on highway hits. I never get over 210-212 where I used to see 220+ regularly on the coast down form a hard hit.

So what pump are you running?
 
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The older truck setup forced me to drill 4 3/32" holes in the thermostat. No I cruise in the 180 range rather than 195ish and it gives me an 15 degrees of leeway to build heat. It has seemed to help on highway hits. I never get over 210-212 where I used to see 220+ regularly on the coast down form a hard hit.

So what pump are you running?
Random water pump.... It was in the pile...

Bored Married With Children GIF
 
Progress report.

I layed the engine harness on the engine, measured again for all my connections, breakout lengths, drew out another map and plan for the routing and made the final checks.


Pay close attention to the 47 pin socket pinout diagram here... bottom left piece of paper.
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I pull the harness off the motor, brought it into the kitchen table to start pinning the connectors when I was distracted by food. Lunch specifically. So I ran to the store to grab a few things.

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When I returned and after I made lunch I could not find my 47pin connection map....

FML...

I looked... then I chased wire to find the ones I needed and started making a new wire map. That was especially satisfying, redoing the same work I just did. I had a time out for a bit, some me time...

Then we got back after it. It was slow to start with but things are starting to come together. I may need some more sensor connectors but I have a plan for that in the short term.

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I have been a bit distracted the last couple days with some work stuff and some family stuff....

But harness stage 1 is complete...

I spent a fair amount of time laying it in and routing as I thought was best. I have some slack for final routing but this is pretty much it.
20210831_102434.jpg


I got the last of the engine and sensor harness ready to pin out tonight, tomorrow I do both injector sets and the ignition harness, then its wrap and finalize the engine bay. Tomorrow morning I make up my final list and I'll post it as I go.

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Back to work in 9 days. It will be running before I leave.
 
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