Noob here... where do i start?

[khany415]

Hey all, this is my first post on this forum.
Im new to this Ls series motors thing, only ever had anything to do with carbied things.
Long story short, i was doing up a HQ one tonner and in the process of building a 415ci SBC, then along came my first kid and i now want a back seat so he can come when hes bigger, and the prices being fetched for half decent HQ sedans (and parts) these days is astonashing, and seeing as i have somewhat of a budget to work with and getting v8 withdrawels i have decided to sell the lot, and by a VK dunnydoor and drop an ls1 in it.

so yesterday i picked myself up a pretty tidy unmolested vk for a song, and am now in the process of looking for a good LS1 to drop in it.

So... my plans are to leave this thing naturally aspirated and stockish until its engineered. seeing that it will be a second hand motor, before i attempt anything else i will give it some fresh pistons to up the comp a little bit (between 10.5 and 11 somewhere) new rings and bearings. later on after eng cert and rego i will get some good heads, big stick and intake.
Now i have a few questions lol.
whats the best ls1 i should be looking for or are they all the same between the vt, vx and vy? i remember when they first came out there were stories of them having piston slop or oiling issues or something? and apparantly the problem was fixed with the vx. not sure how true this story is but its just what i remember hearing.
and can anyone suggest a good mob to get the motor through? im currently looking at a mob on ebay called 4bloc, they seem to have the best deals and test their motors.

ive heard that a weak area in the ls1's are the rods, should i upgrade these while im doing the rings and bearings? i understand the cranks are pretty tough.

this may seem like a stupid question but are the ls1's balanced from the factory?
should the wiring loom scare me or it it relativly straight forward?
is the stock auto a good box? with some work and a stall of course. or should i look at t400, t350 or t700? 4spds would be nice, but im really not concerned as it will only be a weekender.

and here is another one of these probably stupid questions... what is this mafless tune business people rave on about? and what is the difference between it and a normal tune?

sorry, im not a total dumbass and am reasonably good with the tools but i honestly have no idea when it comes to fuel injected and ls engines, i have done searches on here but as with any forum search feature its not real flash, especially when you type in anything with "ls1" in it, it gets a mention in almost every thread.

any advice would be greatly appreciated, or even any links to another website, or threads etc that may be a help with my new learning curve would be great!

cheers


oh... i hope i put this in the right section, i figured my questions were more "general" than anything else!

[OMR346]

What sort of power are you chasing? You can get 300rwkw very easy with a simple head and cam combo.

No need to change pistons to get 11:1 CR. They are 10:1 standard. A head change will net you 10.5-11:1.

Over all, they are a strong motor, and can take a fair bit of abuse. But depending what sort of power you are chasing, will depend on if you need to go further with the motor.

As for what motor to get, well the later the better, and with less KM's of course.

I would personally use a T400 transmission. But if you do want a 4spd, then get the stock box built first to handle the power. Otherwise you will destroy it.

MAFless tune is basically taking out the MAF sensor and tuning it. Trust me when i say do NOT get started on the whole MAF v MAFless argument on here lol

[Nutter]

Hey all, this is my first post on this forum.
Im new to this Ls series motors thing, only ever had anything to do with carbied things.
Long story short, i was doing up a HQ one tonner and in the process of building a 415ci SBC, then along came my first kid and i now want a back seat so he can come when hes bigger, and the prices being fetched for half decent HQ sedans (and parts) these days is astonashing, and seeing as i have somewhat of a budget to work with and getting v8 withdrawels i have decided to sell the lot, and by a VK dunnydoor and drop an ls1 in it.

so yesterday i picked myself up a pretty tidy unmolested vk for a song, and am now in the process of looking for a good LS1 to drop in it.

So... my plans are to leave this thing naturally aspirated and stockish until its engineered. seeing that it will be a second hand motor, before i attempt anything else i will give it some fresh pistons to up the comp a little bit (between 10.5 and 11 somewhere) new rings and bearings. later on after eng cert and rego i will get some good heads, big stick and intake.

Compression is already at around 10.5

Now i have a few questions lol.
whats the best ls1 i should be looking for or are they all the same between the vt, vx and vy? i remember when they first came out there were stories of them having piston slop or oiling issues or something? and apparantly the problem was fixed with the vx. not sure how true this story is but its just what i remember hearing.

Vx hsv and vx series 2 onwards use the slightly better ls6 intake, also I think around vy 2 they went to a slightly higher tension ring to counteract some oil burn and slap, other changes are typically minor such as sump baffles, windage trays and dipstick revisions to mask faults with oil surge/starvation.

and can anyone suggest a good mob to get the motor through? im currently looking at a mob on ebay called 4bloc, they seem to have the best deals and test their motors.

Privately they sell from $500-1200 if your patient you'll get one with all accessories and loom for $1500 or less.

ive heard that a weak area in the ls1's are the rods, should i upgrade these while im doing the rings and bearings? i understand the cranks are pretty tough.

Rods are not that weak but it depends what you a want to do, most guys break ring lands on the pistons or split the block especially when boosted, rods are ok with stock pistons but if you moved to a heavier forged piston I'd suggest rods too and then of course you'll split the shit alloy block anyway.

this may seem like a stupid question but are the ls1's balanced from the factory?
Not individually like a hand built motor most factory components are built with in a tolerance and mass assembled.


should the wiring loom scare me or it it relativly straight forward?

Yes and no, if you buy a pre made conversion loom its easy, if you strip and re wore yourself you'll save $500 but loose a lot of hours.

is the stock auto a good box? with some work and a stall of course. or should i look at t400, t350 or t700? 4spds would be nice, but im really not concerned as it will only be a weekender.

Weekender only. T400 CHEAPEST to build, ridiculously tough, can still retain full auto shift at power levels well above what the alloy block will take.

and here is another one of these probably stupid questions... what is this mafless tune business people rave on about? and what is the difference between it and a normal tune?

Do a search its older than the forums them selves.

sorry, im not a total dumbass and am reasonably good with the tools but i honestly have no idea when it comes to fuel injected and ls engines, i have done searches on here but as with any forum search feature its not real flash, especially when you type in anything with "ls1" in it, it gets a mention in almost every thread.

You need to be specific in your search also US forums tend to be better for proper tech stuff.

any advice would be greatly appreciated, or even any links to another website, or threads etc that may be a help with my new learning curve would be great!

cheers


oh... i hope i put this in the right section, i figured my questions were more "general" than anything else!

Mate I answered what I could from what I remember granted my Knowledge is over 5 years old now and I may have got it wrong, I doubt you'll get any responses as these are very very old and easily searchable.

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[Nutter]

Oh also in a VK you will need a starter relocation kit to move it to the passenger side this comes with a specific starter, this affects your stall converters installed height as the transmission will be approx 8mm further back, Engine mounts are available of the shelf from several suppliers, extractors are extremely tight but available. Also you will need a VK efi or vl petrol tank to allow for a return line and either lift pump feeding a surge tank or in tank efi pump depending g on power level.

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[khany415]

thanks fellas, clears a few things up for me.

OMR346, when it comes to power its hard to say really, the 415 i was building was going to be somewhere around the 650-700hp range at the fly. i think if i could get 550hp (400 ish kw) at the fly i think i would be happy, mainly because in a light little vk that will be a handfull. but thats not straight away, im not expecting that sort of power just with heads and a cam, ive looked at them edelbrock pro flows and they look awesome, however this will be my first venture into the fuel injection scene and dunno how ile feel about it, i like the idea of tuning things myself, im old school that way lol. so if i dont end up liking it i will get rid of it for a manifold/carb setup. basically i want something, that if i stand on the loud peddle, its gunna scare the pants off me lol i also want it to sound as tuff as it is, i want a real lump, im not too worried about "driveability" as i dont have to deal with traffic etc like the city folk do, and i like a car thats interesting to drive, makes me concentrate!

nutter, thanks for the tips, i have looked at a couple of conversion threads in a couple of different forums and it seems like a great help. i am a little fuddled about something though that im yet to look into further, i knew about all the stuff you mentioned (the vk i bought is an injected 6 luckily) however i did read somewhere a guy used a stock vk k-frame out of a non power steering v8 job and apparantly everything cleared fine including the starter on original side! i dunno whether he was rambling crap, i read it wrong or he wrote it wrong or what, i dont even know if there is a difference between 6 and 8 k frames and power and non power steering in the vk's!
like i said i have a bit of a learning curve ahead of me lol if its not a kingswood or landcruiser im in new territory hahaha

but ide just like to thank you guys for your time, bit hard to show over the pooter but it is appreciated! i do understand that many of my questions have more than likely been asked 100 times before but it was gunna take forever to find them! i was also expecting some die hard "only gets to be tuff when the missus isnt around" type to get on here and give me the "search" speil that weve all heard before.
weve all been new to something before and i figure i had to start somewhere lol
thanks very much again fellas!

[Nutter]

The k Frames don't change the rack location, depending on who's engine mounts you use if you go for manual steering you may have 2 or 3 mm between the starter and intermediate shaft, if your really lucky as the engine is twisting to the drivers side it won't smack the shaft. Other guys being tight asses have also spaced the rack across and just wound in or out the tie rods to clear the exhaust, besides being illegal this can cause issue's with steering arc. The problem with ls1 in to early commys is most people seem to be young and broke and doing it badly, that's why there's so many half assed ideas to make them fit.

[motorin on]

The help threads are here somewhere in the forum but as many have found out the title is everything
All the questions you have asked possibly should have been asked b4 you bought the VK,at least you would have bought knowing what really lies ahead
Late nights and cold beers coming up
Happy Building

[khany415]

The k Frames don't change the rack location, depending on who's engine mounts you use if you go for manual steering you may have 2 or 3 mm between the starter and intermediate shaft, if your really lucky as the engine is twisting to the drivers side it won't smack the shaft. Other guys being tight asses have also spaced the rack across and just wound in or out the tie rods to clear the exhaust, besides being illegal this can cause issue's with steering arc. The problem with ls1 in to early commys is most people seem to be young and broke and doing it badly, that's why there's so many half assed ideas to make them fit.

i think you may have nailed it when you said tight asses lol and no im not going to be a tight ass, like you said that generally means dodgie bros.

motorin on, i did look into this stuff mate, and know what to expect to do the conversion PROPERLY, but like i said i just wanted to look into what now seems like a dodgy way to do it, because as we all know, there is more than one way to skin a cat.
the only things im not sure about is a few things regarding the motor itself and this new age fang dangled injection lol and how good the stock autos are.
and again, like i said, if i dont like the injection, ile loose it. no big deal