Another V8 Swap

[DustinS]

Got my Vibrant fuel hose last night. It seems no one stocks it. Took forever for it come in. Hopefully get the fuel system complete today.

Yesterday was pouring rain and cold, but I still wanted to get something done. Anything. So I Tossed the radiator in real quick and got a quick measurement for custom mounts. Hopefully they work well.



Come straight out from the body



Weld this tab at the correct angle and drill a hole for the factory bushing to fit into it.



Weather forecast went from cold and rainy to decent and windy. I should be able to get some work done. I am hoping to get the fuel lines run and made tonight. Maybe get the FPR Blank and return into the pump hanger. I also need to pull the intake and throw some of the heat shield product I got on the underside. Saw a dyno test of decent gains made from preventing so much heat soak.

[all4spl]

Oh that's a good idea. Are you cutting the crash beam or?

[DustinS]

I haven't ran a front crash beam since like 4 digit miles on odometer. I am going to see if I can design one to fit around the radiator that doesn't look out of place.

[all4spl]

Well if you get one of those "drift beams" you could weld a mount onto that instead of making a bracket that will be visible. Cleans things up for you

[DustinS]

I would have to cut it in two, which defeats the purpose. I may get one to experiment with down the road, but for now - no beam.

Edit: After looking at the Drift Armor bar, looks like it work decent. I will have to cut it still, but puts the bar in almost the exact spot to mount the radiator. And it's cheap. So I am going to order it. Thank You @all4spl for the tip/idea!

[gtpvette]

What radiator are you running??

[DustinS]

Originally Posted by gtpvette

What radiator are you running??

Full Blown Radiator

[all4spl]

Originally Posted by DustinS

I would have to cut it in two, which defeats the purpose. I may get one to experiment with down the road, but for now - no beam.

Edit: After looking at the Drift Armor bar, looks like it work decent. I will have to cut it still, but puts the bar in almost the exact spot to mount the radiator. And it's cheap. So I am going to order it. Thank You @all4spl for the tip/idea!

Glad I could help. Just trying to make things easier for everyone!

[DustinS]

Okay. Charging circuit. I would guess the car is looking for a charge signal for warning light on dash, I assume I need to tap a signal from the GM alternator signal into the FRS Harness. Am I over complicating this or on the right track that there is more to this than plugging in GM harness and away I go.

[all4spl]

That should be part of the MRS device. Everything goes through the GM ecu and when the GM ecu flips a check engine light, it should flip the FRS check engine light.

[MRS-Colin]

Originally Posted by all4spl

That should be part of the MRS device. Everything goes through the GM ecu and when the GM ecu flips a check engine light, it should flip the FRS check engine light.

Battery charge and oil pressure are still analog signals to the dash! I cant control them through CAN!

[all4spl]

OYYYY then you will need to tie that in dustin.

[DustinS]

Originally Posted by MRS-Colin

Battery charge and oil pressure are still analog signals to the dash! I cant control them through CAN!

Awesome thanks!! Kind of what I assumed. Not worried about oil pressure light. Only told you once it's too late. That is what aftermarket oil pressure gauge is for.

Looks like the "L" signal wires from alternator will tie directly into the "L" Signal wire headed into FRS Gauge cluster. Sounds easy enough. Hopefully find out tomorrow.

Got a little bit of work done today: Return Style system finished up. I was going to "vlog" the day, but couldn't find my go pro mount and forgot about it after the fuel pump modifications. So I have pictures to grab out of that video.

Here is the start of when I was taking pictures. Bulkhead Fitting





Got both feed and return lines made up. Pretty happy with them. Feed line could be a tiny bit longer. I may switch to -8an down the road, so I will remember that.



I hit a snag when I went to put one of the old flex fuel fittings onto the new Vibrant hose... It didn't fit... I found the Vibrant Hose/hose ends are larger than Russels fittings that Moto-East uses with their kits. Being that I only had straight fittings, and no "EFI" fittings for the flex fuel sensor itself. I decided not to run it. GM specific fee fuel sensors are cheap and a lot smaller than the one Motoeast uses, so I might just get one of those. Time will tell. Because of that mess up, I need to redo the fuel rail to fuel pressure regulator line tomorrow.

As it got dark out, I put everything away and pulled the intake. Brought it inside for thermal sheet on the bottom. Two tests of this - one on LS engine, one on a ford engine - have been done, both made more than 15whp more on the dyno. Take that with a grain of salt, but I had the stuff on hand, so why not. Couldn't hurt.



Going to remove and paint the throttle body and hopefully water pump/thermostat housing tomorrow as well as finish up the wiring portion.

Edit: Oil Pressure switch that seems to be missing on my engine is $70

Pictures of the fuel lines under the car:

[DustinS]

Got the fuel lines finished, and the tank drained as much as I could. Still about an inch or less at the bottom of the tank. I also got the wiring started. Undid all y nice wrapping and have to start over. Tomorrow is full day, but weather should be amazing. Car should be most of the way finished up (hopefully) tomorrow. With most likely welding up exhaust, radiator mount, and cutting core support on Sunday. Tie up any loose ends and put car together over the week, and Finish up the project next weekend. (Maybe I am getting under thinking it, but it seems so close)





Got a temporary solution for brake booster



Pulled through the Battery Power, Ignition, Primary Fan, Secondary Fan, and reverse light switch wires through FRS Body harness grommet. I was chasing wires all over the place trying to find the Reverse light wires on the passenger side. Wasn't until I removed all the electrical tape that I found the wires don't go into the passenger side grommet. Wasted a ton of time on that. Will route everything except reverse light into the fuse box and use connections in it to keep everything clean. I plan on using the factory Fan relays to run the fans, just cut the wires underneath attach what I need. Will re-use the factory wiring to the fans as well. While I am in there, I am going to move my HID power wires into the fuse box as well. Working on the harness was a million times easier with the engine out of the car.







Doesn't seem like a lot of progress looking at all this haha. Though I did leave work almost an hour late. Hopefully tomorrow is more productive.