I'm going to have to eat my comments on all LS engines being butt ugly. They are probably one of the best engines ever and now they can be pretty. This is an LS9 in a 70 Camaro we are doing and when they opened the crate I thought "Oh yeah". Power, good mileage, and now looks. We are also putting one in a 51 AD right now and though we have put in several others this time I'll try to remember the camera to do a step by step.
Actually they are not even valve covers, just coil covers. The front is solid but the sides are vented to let cooling air around the coils. Still much better.
Or it's the Maggie in place of the ugly part (intake). Really, its only the truck engine with the tall intake and plastic cover that is unattractive, the car-intakes look nice.
Mike, No plastic on this one, the "intake" is a super charger. It's aluminum painted black to dissipate heat but it does mimic the plastic one.
Evan, Sorry if I was unclear... Maggie=Magnuson, as in Magnuson Supercharger What's not to like? Every ounce of fuel economy a normally aspirated engine delivers, and early-retirement for the Goodyears out back at will... Penny's LS will be an "ugly" one. Oh well.
The two features of the LS truck motors I don't like the look of is the tall truck intake and the coil packs on the top of the valve covers. I shaved the bosses off the covers of mine and will locate the coil packs down on the side of the block or on the lower part of the firewall and make-up some high tension leads for the extra distance. Here's a pic of the shaved covers- The intake is Corvette or Camaro LS1 and it sacrifices a little torque compared to the truck intake, but with 300 HP in a 3000 lb truck, I doubt i'll be able to tell the difference. Here it is in the engine in the chassis with shorty headers from a 2010 Camaro- Another thing I dislike about the LS motors are the wiring harnesses. That corrugated plastic all over the place drives me nuts. For this one, I'm planning on tucking as much of the wiring to the sensors underneath the intake manifold and looming the harness with shrink tube and this type of loom where ever it is still visible like this- I'll have to un-pin and re-pin a bunch of connectors to get the look I want. Will extend the wires to the PCM to get it located in the cab under the dash and out of the engine bay. I'm not crazy about having the alternator sitting up on top of the motor by using the truck accessories, but for the cost and trouble to change to the F-body configuration i'll live with it. I want to keep the AC compressor down low on the motor and am going to make some mounts for the Sanden compressor that look like these from Alan Grove Fingers crossed I can figure out the intake and discharge ports so the lines don't interfere with the frame rails Any other LS cleanup ideas out there?
Hot Rodding This is the essence of Hot Rodding and I keep hearing how Hot Rodding is dead and gone.... Good ideas here , keep them coming .
And, answered a question I had not even asked yet... Car style intake, with cable pull throttle body, will clear a truck style water pump. Doesn't look like a DBW throttle body would clear. Thanks. Engine looks good. I'm going ahead with the coils on the covers, but, using the Holley polished covers that angle mount the coils, and get rid of the underlying coil bracket. Your using a factory PCM, so, you will still need a MAF meter? The F.A.S.T. system eliminates the need for that and you can mount the air filter directly on the front of the T-body.
No, the truck pump's water neck won't clear the cable or electronic throttle body. They say that the housing can be heated and the neck turned to clear, but the simpler solution is to run the water pump from the 2010+ Camaro. This is a junkyard motor, so I should replace the water pump anyway. The factory PCM can be tuned for speed - density and eliminate the MAF and just put the air cleaner right on the throttle body. The engine in this truck is pushed back about 2-3" into the firewall so I may be able to run the filter straight with a MAF instead of using an elbow to turn the filter ninety degrees.
OK, thanks. What oil pan are you going to use? I first thought I would go with the CTS/V pan, and it would work, but, after more measuring, the F-body pan looks good. It also has the drain plug on the side. Are you going to have to alter the swing of your brake pedal to clear those Camaro headers?
I used a truck pan and jacked the motor up just a little so the bottom of the pan was even with the bottom of the front cross member The truck pan holds about 1 quart more oil than the F-body pan, and for other projects I've cut the bottom of the truck pan off and shortened it to get to the F-body oil capacity. IIRC it was about 1 3/8" shorter and a real PITA to get it clean enough to TIG. (Wife now prohibits car parts in the dishwasher) I've used the F-body pan before too, but if you're using a rack that's behind the front cross member, it can be a little tight. Good catch on the Camaro shortys. It was an 'aw sh*t' moment when I first bolted the pedal assembly on the frame and the pedal arm hit the header. They'd be great for a 4L60 though. This is a thread about the looks of the LS motor, and I'm not a fan of the looks of the cast manifold solution like the Trailblazer SS or stamped stainless center dump Corvettes. Pace Setter is here in town and they'd been very accommodating letting me try some of their long tubes for the LS, but nothing fit very well. I'd built headers for other projects out of mild steel mandrel bends, so I decided I'd try making a set out of stainless mandrel bends for this truck that will go out the inner fender well and dump outside the frame. Here's a picture of the plastic mock-up header and ebay slip-on collector (still worried on how I'm going to get these to seal up) - Another one- Thoughts, alternate ideas and suggestions are always welcome.
Nice work. What is the intended use for the plastic tubing? Does it hold a set well? For years we have used defroster duct configured to the right shape and then filled it with foam. After setting over night the tubes are quite rigid and can be removed from the flange and collector to be used as bend patterns. Takes a number of steps and is quite messy. Shown are some for a 57 Studebaker Golden Hawk that haven't had the foam cleaned off.
I guess the best way to describe them is 'header legos' - Summit sells them. They are available in various tube diameters and orange is the color of the 1.5" diameter 'lego'. They snap together and hold ok, but sometimes require some tape across the joint. The segments correspond to different bend radii that match mandrel bends available from a company called SPD. The kit came with 2,3,4 and 6" mandrel bend radii. When you're done with mock-up in legos, you can transfer the individual segments directly onto the mandrel bends to cut on the band saw. The kit comes from Icengineworks. I've tried different ways of mocking up headers (but not the foam filled heater duct - pretty clever) but always end up spending 40-50 hours on a set cutting and trial fitting mandrel bends. Hoping to take some time out with the 'legos'
Very nice finished product with a minimum of weld joints. You will giggle to know this 78 year old fart still gas welds the header tubes. Use a 00 Victor tip and 1/16 rod to give tig sized beads but of course stainless is off the table. Have a Miller Dial Arc tig gathering dust cause old ways are just more comfortable. I envy the newer thinkers (and doers).
My brother is the same way. Welds with gas, or a AC-DC buzz box. Chipping slag.... You know how cows stay on the same path until they wear it into the pasture?
