LS1 in my 98 Lux

[Camos]

It drove fine into Sydney this morn and over heated while parking with the expansion tank bubbling away like nannas kettle. Seems to be fine while driving along at speed with more airflow. The throttle position could have something to do with it. Will refrain and take it real easy for a bit, just so hard to fight the urge to hear that growl.
If I can move the throttle body I can lift the rad back up and the fan will cover better and be more effective.
Will then sort out a shroud and may even put a second fan on.

I have the fan on a relay that comes on with ignition and stays on the whole time. Just until I get it sorted and are confident the PCM will trigger the relay when needed.
My boggle at the moment is that the old temp sender I put in a sender housing like a radiator hose joiner and wired it directly up to the gauge.
When the thermostat opens and warm water starts to circulate the needle moves up to where it should. But it does t move higher than that. When it over heats you would expect the needle to point high but doesn't.

[feistl]

What sort of angle do you want? (Exactly 90 degrees?) and what sort of bend radius?

If it was me doing it i would buy a 3" or 3.5" Stainless Steel Exchange Mandral bend from here...

http://www.performanceexhaust.com.au/~5165
http://www.performanceexhaust.com.au...STEEL-EX/15384
http://www.performanceexhaust.com.au...TEEL-EXH/15386

3" $30, 3.5" $65 or 4" $70.

Then get some ~10mm stainless steel plate, cut a template out and weld the pipe in place.

If you genuinely want help i will actually be doing a similar modification/project in a couple of weeks. Can probably knock something up then...

[Camos]

Thanks a million Feistl, it will work out and looking forward to seeing your artwork as it's being created.

Still having overheating issues, if I drive it ever so gently and keep moving at 40-50km/h + it seems to go aright but as soon as you go up a hill at low speed it labours a bit and expansion tank starts boiling.

I had an epiphany yesterday that it might be the rad cap. The cap was replaced because the seal was split and is rated at 88kpa where the old one was 108kpa.
I noticed that the commodore caps are around the 125kpa which will significantly increase boiling point of the coolant.

So my questions are these: If I replace the cap with a 125ish rated cap
1 - do you think that an increased cap will prevent the coolant boiling and operate at a normal temp instead of working against the thermostat by reducing flow to increase temp and cause boiling?
2 - any thoughts on the additional pressure on the radiator, will it blow a seal or something?

[feistl]

For those following along at home, i spent a bit of time on Saturday trying to make up an intake pipe but unfortunately it appears the quality of the 3" mandral bends from the Vermont exhaust shop are really low quality. Spent hours trying to weld something up, but just kept blowing holes and wasnt happy with the quality of the welds.

I am going to go back to Richard at Rowville Exhaust Shop and try ordering some more 3" mandral bends, as he provided me the 2.5" bends for the FJ40 exhaust. They were much higher quality and a lot easier to work with.

The other thing I was going to suggest is maybe have a look at Penrite Racing Coolant...

http://www.penriteoil.com.au/product...id_products=98

No idea if it works, i am going to try some in my VX shortly. From my research it seems to have a positive effect...

Also, (not sure if i missed it) but did you post some pics of the thermofan setup?

As for the radiator cap question, not entirely sure. I would assume a higher psi cap should be ok.

Other question is do you have an overflow tank (eg plumbed in on the pressure side) or how are you filling it up? You'll need a reservoir above the engine height so you can bleed the system properly. It might be that you have too much air in the system which would cause the boiling and performance issues...

Cheers

[duke5700]

This was an issue that took some thinking and effort to solve. Yours is an earlier model than what my friend shoe horned his LS into, but it looks rather similar as far as the problems you are having.

Try having a read through this..

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Cooling/

[Micks]

Tend to agree with Errol, if you have an oem rad with rad cap type filler similar to our VZ 5.7-6L models. It then needs to be plumbed the same as VZ LS1 would. Otherwise you need an active/pressurized type tank as fitted to the VT-VY models. Either method should work ok.

[Camos]

I love this site, everyone is so keen to jump in and help out just because they want to, thanks so much everyone for the input.

Went in search for a higher rad cap and highest I could find for my style rad was 16psi so I put it on and it all seems fine, hasn't had an issue since and I have been stuck in some pretty heavy peak hour traffic.
The system is using an expansion tank from the old engine and plumbed up the same as the LS engine with the exception of the line that comes from the TB. It used to go to a port on the pressure side of the rad but now tees into the return line of the heater hose. I bought a temporary digital water temp gauge and put it in just to monitor things while ironing out the bugs, reduce my stress levels while driving around more than anything. A bit on edge ATM, a bus goes past making a hiss and I'm ready to pull over and check things out.

Still wanting to lift the rad though and then will sort out a shroud which will help immensely.
Next project is to remove front diff and rebuild or put in a truetrac and do a diff drop at the time so I can connect the front prop shaft. Still only 2wd because the shaft hits the gearbox sump but should clear when dropping the diff an inch.

[Camos]

New sump turned up today - yay.
Cost me $50 - double yay everywhere else your looking at $500
The old one that I welded up was weeping like a kings cross hooker amd made me nervous like it could spontaneously implode.
Going to be a pain to swap out, need to lift the engine or drop the diff to get enough clearance to get the rear out.

Going into the engineer on Sat so don't want him to see the chicken shit and leaking oil on the sump.

Can anyone tell me if the power button particularly on a VY, does it illuminate when in power mode or out of power mode? Or does it display on the instrument cluster when in power mode?
Cheers

[Camos]

For anyone doing a conversion and wanting to get the reverse lights working with a 4l60... I have worked it out.
Searching won't shed any light so I though to put it here to help the next guy out.

The white plug in the passenger foot well has 2 wires, a green with silver dots and a brown with blue trace. For a VY/z anyway. Other models may have different colours but still be on same connector.
Snip them and connect one to 12v ignition and the other to your lights. The park neutral switch will close the circuit when reverse is selected.
Obviously do a resistance test with a multi to make sure before snipping and soldering.

Temp gauge is still giving me the shits. Stock one reads normal all the time after the thermostat opens and doesn't move up even if engine gets hot.
The digital gauge is cactus, works occasionally when feels like it.

[Camos]

Started making up an adaptor to relocate the TB.
Used a spacer as a template and used plasticine and formed over the spacer.
Then poured cornice cement over and pulled out the plasticine. Then used resin and fibreglass mat to create the flanges. Sorry didn't get pics of this process.
I used a length of pbc and filled it with expanding foam and then the old pie cut trick to get the bends how I wanted.

[Camos]

Started wrapping in carbon fibre. Not as easy as first thought, but then again it's a fairly complex shape for a first attempt... that's how I roll

[whitels1ss]

Geez....

You are not shy to have a go at making things yourself mate!

[Camos]

Final epoxy coat on the adapter. Came up really well and happy with the result.
The air box in the background had a little bit to go and will be ready for the weekend

[Camos]

Final coat on air box, finally. Need to weld up the end cap and polish. Looks a bit ordinary in the pics when wet with light reflecting off it but really looks the goods.
The inlet pipe is offset to line up with new position of the TB.

[Camos]

It fits and the bonet even closes