LS1 V8 fd conversion progress thread

[Spartacus]

hi which way up is the master cylinder ? are the fittings at the bottom ? , it looks like it in the pics,you can use the brake master reservior there is normally a blanked of bung where the manual car feeds from. i have a manual res if you need one.good to see it running !!!!

Yep the master cylinder has it\'s outlet at the bottom and inlet at the top, didn’t think of using the brake master cylinder reservoir like Mazda does Doh:Hammer. I guess it was because as mine was an auto originally it was never plumbed in to the Mazda clutch master cylinder.

Now that its done it\'s ok and thinking about it, it might be a better solution as the t56 clutch fluid is meant to be easily overheated and contaminated so keeping it separate and easily replaced might pay dividends in the end.

At least I can now move on to the rest of the development/improvements.

[Bobbit]

wish i had 3mm to play with in places....

that\'s what my missues says, :3Confused LOL! :Giggle

[Spartacus]

Well today’s little development opportunity was to see what I could do about the heat soak to the inlet air temperature sensor.
First step was to take out the sensor and swap the thermistor for a faster reacting one. As you can see from the pic the new thermistor is much smaller which probably contributes to it being able to react to temperature changes that much quicker.

Then I wanted to try and insulate the sensor from the heat source. So I wrapped the upper rad hose and the inlet elbow in a very special heat reflecting cloth. Ok ok it was a couple of sheets of the cloth that plumbers use when they are soldering pipes so they don’t burn paintwork etc.... sneaky eh :Thumbs-up. I then covered them in a thin aluminium tape (more plumbing supplies) just for good measure.

Well the results seem to show it was successful, as before the sensor once heat soaked would give an indicated air temp about 20 deg F lower than the water temp (not good). Now the hottest it’s showing is around 20 deg F above ambient, which although not perfect it is a vast improvement and this with the car is stationary. Once moving the air temp drops much quicker than before too, so all in all well worth an hour or twos work and £20.
Ideally I\'d now like to work out how to get colder air into the filter. NACA duct on the bonnet?:rolleyes:

[Spartacus]

Just to give you some idea what a LS1 fd sounds like, shame the A1 was a bit busy this morning:rolleyes:. Id like to keep its tone but lose some db which hopefully I can do by adding a small silencer after the Y pipe.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aqvV4NAQlTE

[antnicuk]

can you not just slid a piece of ali shielding between the top hose and the filter pipe,  i can sort it for if need be.

[Spartacus]

can you not just slid a piece of ali shielding between the top hose and the filter pipe,  i can sort it for if need be.

I was thinking along those lines but the rad top hose and the inlet elbow are actually touching so I wanted something that would insulate them better. I wouldn’t have thought that a sheet of ali would be that good as in insulator when it’s touching both surfaces? Also when the fan comes on the whole area is soaked with hot air.

[Grub2000]

Thought I would dig this thread out again.

If you had to do your swap again is there anything you would have done differently in terms of parts purchased?

I was intending to do a conversion a while back but it got put on hold. I am now researching again and wondering if I should get a complete (expensive) kit from the states or just the essentials.

[bimbleuk]

Thought I would dig this thread out again.

If you had to do your swap again is there anything you would have done differently in terms of parts purchased?

I was intending to do a conversion a while back but it got put on hold. I am now researching again and wondering if I should get a complete (expensive) kit from the states or just the essentials.

For me as I wanted to do as much of the conversion myself but don\'t have any welding kit I went for the basic Samberg Rod & Custom install kit. I\'d have liked to order the radiator and inlet setup but that almost doubled the cost. So instead I used a Freelander rad and made my own straight CAI setup using an Ebay sourced Corvette twin filter, large diameter ally tube and silicon joiners.

You could re-use a rotary rad setup but the lower hose needs to be moved to miss the crank pulley.

If you want a pain free conversion then of course Craig at Dyno Torque is probably the best way to go.

The basic Samberg conversion kit includes the engine frame, rear trans bracket, front diff bracket and the bumpsteer conversion parts.

The other major convern is the exhaust system. I had the complete system made on my car but I was lucky to have friend to do it at a reasonable cost. I believe you can order a set of Edelbrock mid length headers that work on RHD cars and then get the rest of the system made. Also re-use any cat back system you have already.

[efiniste]

I have a radtec rad and longtube headers surplus to requirements if you decide to go ahead and do it.

[Grub2000]

I know that the Hinson headers are different on one side to the other. Not sure why. Perhaps cos if the mount or steering column.

Not heard of using defilipo headers in an rx7 build before (not that that means much).

I have also posted on the no rotors forum so maybe someone there will have more details.

[tinker-27]

I\'m just doing a ls2 for a guy who brought a kit from the states and it\'s not very good at all, but I have seen steves Samberg kit which is lots lots better so if you are going to do it your self they are the better kit from the states,

[Spartacus]

Thought I would dig this thread out again.

If you had to do your swap again is there anything you would have done differently in terms of parts purchased?

I was intending to do a conversion a while back but it got put on hold. I am now researching again and wondering if I should get a complete (expensive) kit from the states or just the essentials.

Hi, sorry for not getting back sooner.
Would I do anything differently? Well yes and no, there are many more options now than when I did my build and the exchange rate was much better then than it is now. A lot depends on how much you want to/can do, how much you want to spend and lastly what you want the end result to be.

At the time I did my build Justin Samberg’s kits weren’t available so if I did my swap now I would probably use his mounting kit as a starter as from what I’ve read he’s quite a bit easier to deal with compared to his main competitor. Having said that, in the US there are many many more people who use Hinson’s and like me are very happy with it. After all he was the first to offer a conversion kit many years ago. When I went to get my suspension and alignment done at wheels in motion they were impressed to see a car so “straight”. How much of this was due to the subframes, the original Mazda chassis, luck or a combination of all 3 I don’t know but shows that there had been some care taken with both of the subframes manufacture. My rear subframe and diff mounting was fabricated by a guy in Canada as part of a limited group buy as at the time it was the only alternative to Hinson’s torque arm which I never liked the look of. It has worked well and everyone who purchased one has nothing but praise for it, but again I would now go for the cheaper Samberg option.

Hinson’s supplied exhaust headers are from what I’ve seen by far the best, being mandrel bent ect (although there was a guy I helped in Aus doing some nice looking RHD ones too) but I’m not sure if they would work with the Samberg subframe. If I were buying now I think I would just get the Hinson headers and Y pipe and find someone over here to make the rest of the system.

For cooling and induction, again if money was no object I would go with Samburg’s but with a little fabrication of your own a Landrover rad (inlet and outlet on the same side giving more options for induction) and an induction of your own design would be fine and a whole lot cheaper.

Fuel, the Corvette regulator/filter is a no brainer depending on what BHP is required.

Basically I would advise to try and work out how much you want to spend and what your priority’s are for the car. If your building to a budget you might consider spending the most on the parts you would want to keep for the life of the car and then less on parts that you can easily upgrade at a later date.

Or you might even try to find a current owner willing to sell.

PS.
Try to read as much as you can on norotors.com and go from there.

Hope that helps, happy to answer any other questions you have.

[bimbleuk]

From my experience dealing with Justin Samberg has been very good as he sent the kit on the day he said would and also helped me to source a few other items at the same time. Such as an F Body sump kit (I bought a Monaro/GTO V8 over here), the correct engine stands and rubber mounts (they call em biscuits).

I suspect that may be that his operation is smaller than Hinson\'s so can be more customer focussed.

When I was looking for an engine I mostly went by the Ebay auctions for pricing. At the time (Late \'09) a decent LS6 was going for $5000 for a complete drop out. So with import tax and shipping that was working out at around £4000-5000.

Not really any price advantage but you had a lot more choice. I eventually bought an LS1 from Gary Clay on Pistonheads for £4K and he brought it over on a trailer so I could see it before handing over the cash as i was close by.

[Grub2000]

Well as far a I can tell the essentials for me will be the samberg mounting gear, headers (Hinson if they work with somber?) and Y-pipe.

Radiator wise I don\'t know that I can justify the expense of the specialist units. Might go with your landy suggestion and get a mate to make some shrouding for it.

Catback is a bit of an unknown.

What\'s ground clearance on the exhaust like? I would be interested to see if I could get some kind of switchable system like the monaro guys have.

Are standard brakes good enough for a standard LS1?

[Grub2000]

Well as far a I can tell the essentials for me will be the samberg mounting gear, headers (Hinson if they work with somber?) and Y-pipe.

Radiator wise I don\'t know that I can justify the expense of the specialist units. Might go with your landy suggestion and get a mate to make some shrouding for it.

Catback is a bit of an unknown.

What\'s ground clearance on the exhaust like? I would be interested to see if I could get some kind of switchable system like the monaro guys have.

Are standard brakes good enough for a standard LS1?