I've been quiet.

Here's why:

My 2004 DD coupe




a few days later....




I had the swirl... running with an LSJ/L61 hybrid engine.
The skwirl has a working drivetrain, but is not everyday friendly.
Blue was an everyday friendly car without a working drivetrain.

some pillaging needed to happen.

special tool I made to get the pesky L61 out of Blue.


with the L61 out, and the 2005 L61 head off the LS61 sold to a friend, I decided to reunite the LSJ head to the LSJ block, and run a straight up LSJ swap in Blue.

setup:

2005 LSJ ecotec engine 2.0L
-arp headstuds
-cometic headgasket
-balance shaft delete

2005 F23 getrag transmission
-LSJ clutch
-LSJ trans spacer

first I needed to figure a better way to mount the crank shaft position sensor


this little beauty puts the sensor in a nice safe location, and also replaces the water pump access cover. Nice, secure, and stock.


then I needed to modify the intake manifold/ head in order for them to marry together without troubles


drilled and tapped the PCV port on the LSJ head for NPT threads (I forget if its 1/4 or 3/8)


stock L61 intake manifold bolts are too small for the LSJ head


size comparison


LSJ intake manifold bolts won't fit through the LE5 intake manifold


so I ordered some special bolts and knocked out the brass sleeves in the intake manifold in order to get them to marry.


I also had to clearance the intake manifold around the PCV port


I then had to weld shut the stock PCV gasket on the LE5 manifold


mock up


LSJ in the car


beginning to fabricate the cam sensor block off (keep this in mind for later..)


LSJ ignition cover


time to abrasive-blast


after a few minutes, no more ugly spray paint


now that its clean, time for some machining


all done


here's why


the LSJ ignition cover will hold the L61 ignition down in place in the LSJ valve cover.


fixing aeromotive's fuel pressure regulator (it's 1/16NPT... I needed 1/8NPT)


machining some more parts


what the hell is this for....


intercooler and oil cooler mounted up to plate that bolts to the bottom of the radiator core support


mounted up


after a tiny bit of bumper trimming, fits like a god damn glove


ended up having to use an aftermarket crank pulley so the trigger ring would sit flush. here's a nice view of the VR sensor bracket I made


top down view showing clearance


from the bottom up


I turned gay and made 1" thick rear wheel spacers. (with the saturn disc brackets, I have a 3" wider track in the rear)


before space


after space


another shot.. yea my tires are narrow.. time to upgrade.


custom fabricated battery tray


mounted up


time to do the pesky exhaust....

3" front to rear.
all v-band
all stainles steel
magnaflow spun cat
magnaflow resonator
magnaflow muffler

muffler bracketry (muffler is fixed in place, flex joint is in the downpipe)


mounted


I used a prebent cat-back system from Mandrel Exhaust Systems and was severely disappointed with the fit. After cutting the pipe and reshaping it a bit I got it to fit beautifully. I have over 1/2" of clearance on the torsion beam with 3" exhaust piping. Way better than the skwirl ever had.


ground clearance isn't bad either


exhaust finished early in the morning fog


F it... I'm stealing the manual brake setup from the skwirl too....


but I'm going to remake the adapter plate so that it actually FITS this time


looks a lot better with that little bevel on the edge


looks a lot better with stainless steel hardware too


painted and mounted


what to do what to do...... you know what? I don't like my cam sensor block off plate....


I think I'll put the PS pump on the exhaust cam instead of the intake cam.....


gonna need this to extend the hex drive a little bit (this is before I trimmed it down)


time to clean up that aluminum piece...


again, stainless hardware. countersunk the mounting holes so they didn't interfere with the pump.


F-ing beautiful


sooooo much room for induction now when I throw the turbo on it


manual brakes are a necessity for moving the PS pump


almost done.....




I'm a few days away from completing the car and starting it up.

comments welcome.

Looking good buddy. There is more room to run charge pipes in the front, but with the stock power steering lines crammed behind the motor even more now, you might have issues clearing a large turbo. (And I KNOW you dont do small turbo's) lol

Awesome update. I like the power steering pump swap, looks great.

looks good pj cant wait to see more updates


RIP Cpl Derek Kerns And Cpl Robby Reyes
24th MEU VMM-261 (REIN) V22 Crewchiefs
11 April 2012 Morocco (African Lion)

Good work going on in here

Awesome build! I love the power steering idea. Does this mean the squirrel is on it's death bed?

looks awesome, ive been contemplating this too lol

<3 PJ


Built&Boosted moar
04 Cavalier Turbo r.i.p my baby
2nd place 2009 GM tuner bash qwick 8--holla

loving it bro






RIP JESSE GERARD.....Youll always be in my thoughts and prayers...

Great fabrication work here!

You only bring the very best posts!


-I drive my car to work-

I may actually have to come over to see this now.



Club Jeffie, Yea we can make that. Text or Call(908)866-1882

Great fab work friend

Looks great, I wish I had access to stuff like that, sadly my fab tools are a hack saw and a welder...LOL

Like!

Go go go.

Much approved.

thanks a lot guys.


for turbo selection, I'm trying to keep the setup as cheap as possible. Ideally, I'd like a garrett GT series turbo, but after shopping around a bit, I can throw a T3/T4 60 trim on for extremely cheap.. and the turbo is brand new.

I have the old garrett cobalt turbo kit, so the manifold hugs the block very tightly, and comes with an elbow to adapt the 5 bolt exhaust outlet right to the factory exhaust. I'm going to use the manifold, the t3/t4 60 trim, the 5bolt elbow, and the atp cobalt exhaust-to-3" adapter to make my life super easy when I fab my new downpipe.

Ideally, I'd like to throw a gt30r or a gt35r on this car. The LSJ has been proven to love these turbos even on factory internals. But I need a turbo in order to test my theory of tuning the car on factory J-body electronics.

as far as the skwirl goes... ideas are flying around in my head, not sure about what I'm going to do with it at this point.

i love how you did the battery. nice, clean, simple and subtle. its not mounted at an angle, its not mounted the long way it looks perfect and oem where it is. good job man.



I choose the technology built for land speed records... not the technology built to save on emissions and gas mileage.

Very cool, a swap many swore not possible.

Props!

Why that intake mani selection though versus others?

I like what I hear about the turbo stuff! And also glad to hear the squirrel is still alive. Where did you get that hex extension? I could use one for a little project of my own.

Amazing work. You're a wizard with this fabbing parts @!#$.



R.I.P. JessE Gerard 7.11.87 - 1.25.08
The Radiation Nation Facebook Twitter Twisted Metal Alliance

nice work pj!

love the fabbing in this thread. i like the manual brake setup.

newt wrote:Great fab work friend

Looks great, I wish I had access to stuff like that, sadly my fab tools are a hack saw and a welder...LOL

nothing wrong with that. I'm lucky in that I have access to a half-decent machine shop. Helps a lot for all the stupid ideas I have.

-Z Yaaaa- wrote:i love how you did the battery. nice, clean, simple and subtle. its not mounted at an angle, its not mounted the long way it looks perfect and oem where it is. good job man.

thanks a lot brad. I was struggling to find a good place to mount it... you'd be surprised how long it took me to decide lol

Joe Schulte wrote:Very cool, a swap many swore not possible.

Props!

Why that intake mani selection though versus others?

thanks joe!

I decided to go with the LE5 intake because when I initially tried out the plastic manifolds on the LSJ head, I said it wouldn't work. I wanted to prove myself wrong more or less. It wasn't easy, and for bigger turbo setups a surge style intake would probably be better... but yea..

1) prove myself wrong
2) throttle response
3) clean look (and, I already had one laying around)

Zs Z wrote:I like what I hear about the turbo stuff! And also glad to hear the squirrel is still alive. Where did you get that hex extension? I could use one for a little project of my own.

I made the hex extension from a 12mm hex allen key, and a 12mm deep well impact socket.
keeping it true was extremely difficult. I cut the socket, then cut the wrench. I used a spacer to get it as flat as possible, tacked the socket to the allen. Put the assembly in a drill press and turned it on to make sure it was true. Tapped it into place a bit, tacked it some more. Checked for trueness, then welded it up.

Evan Undead (The Black Pearl) wrote:Amazing work. You're a wizard with this fabbing parts @!#$.

if things go my way, wait until you see the @!#$ I have planned for the skwirl....

I've been following most of this crazy @!#$ on Facebook, and holy hell am I glad I have. Looks amazing PJ!!


I need a new sig.

You crazy mofo... very nice to see work like this. I was in NJ this weekend, and I might come down to get a tune in a month. I will find your car, take your keys.... well you guess the rest

explain the reasoning for the trans spacer on the cobalt SS and on this combo that you are doing? is the bell housing bolt pattern the same on all ecotec blocks? i am confused?

why the spacer, and how will you make up for that 1/8th in in the external mounts.

and the LSJ clutch is plug and play in f23's if i have this spacer???????