LS Swapping the Mini Truck (LQ9)

[DouglasVB]

You definitely can afford that Atlas t-case.

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[dan1554]

In the words of @CardinalFJ60, someone has to keep this economy alive. Might as well be me.

 

[White Stripe]

Most times the short block is fine. They last a long time. Good lifters and new trays is important. If you have time if the machinist is slow some simple cylinder head porting can help flow if you want to make use of the time. I have been eying the truck Norris cam.

 

[dan1554]

Yeah things were in pretty good shape. I had to source a new head because of the PO's botched bolt extraction.

Lesson learned: get a complete but cheap high-mile engine and rebuild it. I spent too much money chasing low-ish miles just to rebuild anyhow.

Hopefully I'll have it back in a week or two.

 

[dan1554]

Its back! It'll be a couple of weeks before I have time to dedicate to it, but at least now I have everything local and can determine what else I need to order. Have bearings and gaskets, and sensors and bolts are on the way.

 

[White Stripe]

Its back! It'll be a couple of weeks before I have time to dedicate to it, but at least now I have everything local and can determine what else I need to order. Have bearings and gaskets, and sensors and bolts are on the way.

View attachment 102416

The machine shop I used didn't line up one of the cam bearing holes. Glad I checked. Would have killed the motor. The costs really add up fast.

 

[rover67]

In addition to making sure the oil holes for all bearings are lined up correctly (cam bearings can get out of alignment when being pressed in as mentioned above) make sure you use the right oil pickup o ring. The wrong one can cause the pump to cavitate and yield frothy oil and torched rod bearings.

Choosing the right Oil Pick-up Tube O-Ring For Your LS Swap

You probably don't put much thought into your oil pick-up tube O-ring, until it comes time to replace it and the parts store hands you two different pieces.

www.lsxmag.com

Be sure to go full anal and clean out all the oil passage ways (block and crank) and make sure nothing is hiding in oil passageway dead ends. You knew that tho.

Its a good time to drill and tap the oil cooler takeoff port for a factory oil pressure gauge on the dash. most motors have this "blank" dohicky you can drill and tap:

Lastly, also a good time to drill and tap the second head for a Toyota water temp sender to keep our dash gauge working. Both heads should be the same, so one will use the hole for the ECU (drivers side front of head) , and the opposite head (passenger side rear of head) use the plugged hole for the Toyota sensor in the dash. I have seen adapters if you don't want to drill and tap that.

Lastly you *might* want to weld in a bung for a Wideband while you're at it.... AND for the factory primary O2 sensors keep them as close as possible to the collectors so they heat up fast and you don't get codes for them taking too much current to stay warm. In my last swap I found some decent vette manifolds that fit, were nice cast iron, flowed well, and had the bungs built into the collectors. The hooker manifolds (many others out there also now) seem nice if you wanna go that route. I have had nothing but issues with tubular steel headers on swaps but that's probably because my exhaust designs suck.

Be sure to use a speed sensor, it will help your idle pulling to a stop and in many other scenarios plus enable cruise of course.

 

[dan1554]

Thanks @White Stripe and @rover67. I checked the cam bearings for proper alignment. I thoroughly washed the block with soap and water and used brushes for the oil passages. The machinist blocked off one of the passages already so I blew water through it and said a prayer. Everything else looked pretty clean. Another fun realization was when an oil control ring slipped out of the compressor and I bent it. So now I get to wait for a new set to show up.

There is no oil pressure gauge on the dash, but I will probably rig up some sort of small display panel that shows that data.

Used new ARP rod bolts and new stock cap bolts. And haphazardly liberal amounts of assembly lube.

 

[Stuckinthe80s]

Thanks @White Stripe and @rover67. I checked the cam bearings for proper alignment. I thoroughly washed the block with soap and water and used brushes for the oil passages. The machinist blocked off one of the passages already so I blew water through it and said a prayer. Everything else looked pretty clean. Another fun realization was when an oil control ring slipped out of the compressor and I bent it. So now I get to wait for a new set to show up.

There is no oil pressure gauge on the dash, but I will probably rig up some sort of small display panel that shows that data.

Used new ARP rod bolts and new stock cap bolts. And haphazardly liberal amounts of assembly lube.

View attachment 102679View attachment 102680

That’s what I call lubed up and ready for a party!

 

[White Stripe]

Thanks @White Stripe and @rover67. I checked the cam bearings for proper alignment. I thoroughly washed the block with soap and water and used brushes for the oil passages. The machinist blocked off one of the passages already so I blew water through it and said a prayer. Everything else looked pretty clean. Another fun realization was when an oil control ring slipped out of the compressor and I bent it. So now I get to wait for a new set to show up.

There is no oil pressure gauge on the dash, but I will probably rig up some sort of small display panel that shows that data.

Used new ARP rod bolts and new stock cap bolts. And haphazardly liberal amounts of assembly lube.

View attachment 102679View attachment 102680

Did the machine shop know your using arp hardware? Afaik the rods need to be machined differently if your using arp bolts.

 

[dan1554]

Ooof that's another gut punch but that's why I post here. They did not know, but I'll give them a ring tomorrow and see what they say. On the internet it seems like most do it successfully without additional machine work on cracked rods. I can't find an example of a failure. But that still doesn't make me feel like it's a great decision.

 

[White Stripe]

Ooof that's another gut punch but that's why I post here. They did not know, but I'll give them a ring tomorrow and see what they say. On the internet it seems like most do it successfully without additional machine work on cracked rods. I can't find an example of a failure. But that still doesn't make me feel like it's a great decision.

Afaik the extra torque it takes to torque the arp bolts supposedly deforms the rods slightly. That's what my machinist told me.(colorado custom cylinder heads)So they install the supplied arp bolts in the rods when they machine them which makes the rod end true. That's what I've been told. I'm not a machinist. So it's possible my machinist is wrong. I used gen 4 rods and gen 4 bolts. Which I dont think ive ever seen break on the internet, so i didnt bother getting arp bolts. As far as cleaning the block, I had partially assembled mine when I realized each orifice in the block had metal shavings. So I took it back apart, and blew compressed air in every hole and orifice in the block. Found a lot of metal doing that. Then did a basic clean of the block again. Then assembled the short block. I imagine if u got arp rod bolts, and the valvetrain is a good setup, you could probably produce some crazy rpm's if you wanted.(like 8000 or more)A lot of camshafts don't make power that high though.

 

[rover67]

Yeah typically you machine rods with the hardware you will use for the reasons stated above. It just removes the uncertainty as to whether or not the big ends will be round (exactly as machined) after install since you use the same exact protocol and fasteners as they did when machined. If the torques are the same even the surface finishes and lubricants used on the threads can still provide slightly different clamping forces. Realistically though... I've never measured or studied how different things can be, so again, like White Stripe says, it's just how I learned to do it and I understand the reasons and don't deviate.

I will say that most machine shops will double check you are giving then the rod bolts you'll be using for that exact reason. I have only had a shop not ask me that maybe once or twice.

Anyhow, I can't say what kind of differences there are in the roundness of the big end if you machine with stock setup and install ARP afterwards. As White Stripe said tho supposedly the later model LS Bottom end stuff is supposed to be pretty decent. .. as in very sufficient. Your cam is also not a high rpm cam. FWIW, In a brief convo with my brother the consensus was stock bolts, and springs for that cam (healthy lift)

Maybe Jackson can chime in. I know he has a lot of experience.

You could give them back the rods with the ARP stuff and have them check for roundness. That's not a bad job. Then they can address if needed. No idea if clamping it all down with ARP's then swapping to stock after is a problem.

 

[rover67]

PS I think rear end/axle and t case will be weak links, not the rod bolts.

 

[White Stripe]

You could pull one rod and measure the inside of the big end with arp, then measure with stock bolts. Or just run it and see what happens. Some people online are saying it's not a problem, some do.

 

[dan1554]

Ok, I talked to my machinist who, Im pretty sure, did ask whether or not Id reuse the stock bolts. His recommendation is to plastigauge with the ARP bolts. If its in spec, he said he would not be that concerned.

New bolts wasn't something I needed to do, I think I just suffer from 'while-youre-in-there'-itis.

 

[dan1554]

Plastigauge checks out, no change that I can tell. Assembly rotates freely. Assuming I have all the parts, I'm optimistic I can get it mostly assembled this weekend.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Plastigauge checks out, no change that I can tell. Assembly rotates freely. Assuming I have all the parts, I'm optimistic I can get it mostly assembled this weekend.

Man, I hate coming across stuff like this. You won't ever really be able to forget it even though you absolutely know it's not a problem.

Well, my OCD anyway, always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

One day you realize you've been worrying for no reason for 150,000 miles "Did I forget to check something?"

 

[dan1554]

@DaveInDenver True words!

 

[rover67]

Run it otl be fine