ecotec swap

havent gotten a whole lot done of late, actual work was getting in the way lol. but i did get this done

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for those that dont know, thats an lnf manifold bolted to the l61. i was planning to build an intake manifold, however i ran across zzp selling brand new lnf manifolds for $35 on ebay, figured id give it a try (gotta say, thanks for the killer sale zzp). the manifold doesnt just bolt on, the top row of bolts doesnt line up, however i have machined some parts to make it bolt on. there is one other bolt hole that needs to be redrilled as well. i will have to rework the pcv as the ports dont line up, however ive got some ideas for that. i have seen this swap done by using an adapter plate between the manifold and head, however i just dont have the room. as it is, the brake line on the master cylinder hits just touches the manifold. once i get some more stuff worked out with the manifold im going to get some good pics on what i did to make it work, and if there is interest id consider making a batch of parts, but thats in the future.

no pics but my intercooler showed up and ive got it mocked in place. i need to weld some proper brackets to it. got a few things for the turbo manifold and downpipe on order. biggest thing im needing now is to get an order into vibrant performance, ive got a good sized list of stuff i need from them.

its been a while since ive updated, have been real busy with work. i havent gotten a whole lot don, but i have got some parts.

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thats a synapse top mount turbo manifold for a cobalt. im going to be changing it over to a t3 flange.

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that turbo is on there for mock up. its a little t3/t4, it was used on the engine in the last car, however its only good for around 350hp. ive got something on order, however im gonna keep it under wraps till it shows up.

got an intercooler mocked into place. rad is ordered, oil pan is getting cut out. starting to move along on some stuff, should have enough parts in the next few days to start getting some stuff done.

still waiting for the new turbo to show. got some other stuff done though. got the lower rad support built. its also the lower intercooler mount and oil cooler mount.

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tomorrow ill have the upper supports built for it all. i finally got the stuff from the water jet shop for my oil pan, however there were some issues and ended up back to square one on it.

got the upper rad supports built, and a few other things figured out. more parts have showed up in the past couple days. some more plumbing stuff, remote oil filter mount, cooling fan, fuel pump, and oh yea, my new turbo

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its a borg warner EFR 7670. i wasnt planning on getting this turbo now, but i got a wicked deal, i couldnt pass it up. add in the fact its an internal wastegate, it saves me $400+ on an external gate. same deal with the recirc valve, dont need to spend the cash on a blow off valve. i was planning to run the little t3/t4 for now, but it didnt make sense to buy a wastegate and deal with installing it in the manifold, and then upgrading in the future.

Great job on your build so far.

thanks

little more progress in the last couple days. installed the new aem 380lph fuel pump. its quite a nice unit, its based off the bosche 044 pump, but has a -10 inlet and -6 outlet instead of the hard to find metric stuff. it also flows more than the 044. i hooked it to the stock fuel lines, in the future i may need to go up to 1/2 feed and 3/8 return line (front the current 3/8 and 5/16), but thats something ill do when it becomes an issue. 

played around with the throttle cable, something this intake manifold was never designed to work with. to clear everything i ended up having to feed the cable down the slot between #1 and #2 runners. ill have pics of it when its hooked up.

also got a coolant tank tack welded together today. its a flow through design to help with air separation.

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gonna have one of the guys at the shop weld it up for me. i can weld aluminum, sort of, but id rather someone that does it all the time weld up the stuff that can leak fluids.

still picking away slowly at it. spent a bit of time trying to get the water neck to work, the end result is i spent a bunch of time and re-engineered half the cooling system to "simplify" it. ive gotten rid of the thermostat housing mounted on near the transmission, all that is in that spot is the block outlet for the heater core. also, the transfer tube from the thermostat to the water pump is gone. im going to weld an elbow directly to the back of the water pump cover and ive got a remote thermostat housing to attach to that. ill now have the water inlet at the front of the engine, and a lot less clutter at the back, clearing up more room for the downpipe. ill have some pics of it all when i get some more done.

got a few more cool parts. finally found a 944 turbo rear valance. its funny how i can buy one brand new and have it shipped from United Kingdom for the same price i can buy a beat up used one in north america. my clutch is ready to be shipped, more info on that when i get it. 

i also ordered the ecu ill be running. ive decided against a megasquirt this time. ive always had good luck with the megasquirt, however when i looked at the cost of upgrading the one i had to an ms3 i started looking around at other options. the shop i work for shares a building with a shop that specializes in rotary and 2jz engines (also have an in house dyno), i have some people with a lot of tuning experience, and i went with their stand alone of choice: Microtech. microtech is a company out of australia, and their ecus control some of the fastest imports in the world. they are not just pure race computers, they are very street friendly. we selected the lt9c version. ill be putting a 60-2 trigger wheel on the crank pulley as it doesnt work with the factory 7x trigger wheel. ive got a set of 2.4l coils and id750 injectors. ive modified the l61 cable throttle body so i can run a 2 wire ford iac valve (the microtech doesnt run a gm 4 wire iac). microtech also makes a really cool dash unit, it can be used as replacement for a factory cluster as it includes gps speedo and an odometer. ill likely add that in the future, along with their egt add on module.

a couple pics of my cooling system mods in progress

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so thats all thats left of the bulky factory thermostat housing. all it does is feed the heater core and gives a bypass route for the coolant when the thermostat is closed.

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and there is what ive started fabbing for the water inlet. on the bottom of that elbow is the new remote thermostat housing, i decided instead if having it inline that i would just weld it on. once welded up ill put in a temp sensor, turbo coolant return and heater core return fittings. initially i was going to have it farther forward however it was getting a little tight in the area i need to feed the charge pipe through.

work has been pretty kaotic the last couple weeks, but ive managed to pick away at the car. the engine is back out of the car, ive fixed the issues i had with my bellhousing adapter plate. the oil pan is half welded up, same with the coolant neck. right now im working on mounting the crank trigger wheel and crank sensor, 

it was like christmas today when a fresh batch of goodies from australia showed up.

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i wasnt planning to put the dash unit in right now, however the guys at forcefed brought an extra one in, so twisted my arm. its a pretty cool unit.

I joined because of your build. Might do something similar in the future. The pics on the first couple pages are not working for me. Is it me or something with the images?

Would love to see your bell housing setup.


thanks!

it appears the images are broken links. ill have to go through and see whats going on there.

ill grab some fresh bellhousing pics when i can. currently the car is on hold and ive put it away. unfortunately at work out current project vehicles deadline got moved way up. working long hours 7 days a week trying to get it done. we are supposed to have this truck done in the next few weeks, then i hope to be back on it. as of right now the engine is back out to get painted and detailed. my bellhousing adapter is almost completed, i just need to build a mount for the slave cylinder, however i need the clutch before i can do that (cant seem to get my clutch made quicker despite the fact our rushed project at the shop is for centerforce clutches). once i get that stuff done, the engine is ready to go in for the final time, i need to finish some plumbing, wire the car and build the exhaust.

ok cool

I assume you work at a shop?  I run a custom shop in Michigan.  We mostly do custom BMW swaps.  classicdaily.net is me.  I understand having to put your personal projects aside while doing customer jobs.  My own projects are waaaay delayed.

The car I would be doing the swap on is an automatic so my bell housing would be a little easier.
It's my wife's car and her driving a manual just isn't going to happen.  

If it would be easier to email some pics send them to jake @ classicdaily.net

thanks!

i do work at a hot rod shop. we build everything from street cars, race cars, to full on sema show cars. this is what we built for sema last year

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right now we are trashing away trying to get a truck built for centerforce clutches. its a 1960 ford bread van. its on a 2001 dodge truck chassis, airbagged, 5.9l cummins diesel twin turbo 6 speed, 600 hp /1400 ft/lb. this pic is a week old, a lot has changed but its the closest ive got.

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back to your swap, an automatic is going to present its own challenges as far as bellhousing. with mine, im using a quicktimes bellhousing designed to mate a t56 to the ecotec, and an adapter plate from the t56 pattern to the torque tube. that might all work for your swap, however the drive plate is going to be another whole issue. might just be able to machine the flywheel flat (ecotec flywheels have rasied lugs for the pressure plate), drill and tap it for the damper plate bolts and call it a day, just depends on the diameter difference.

ok ive fixed the important pics on the first and second page. here are the pics of the bellhousing stuff one more time

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Great thanks!

ended up working a short day today, so i decided to do something on the car. was starting to get really antsy. so with the car put away i ended up building the crank trigger setup.

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its pretty basic, just a 60-2 trigger wheel and a bosch vw style crank sensor (could even be the same as the stock porsche sensors). the reason i went with this is the pre 2007 ecotec used a gm 7x (also known as 6-1) crank trigger wheel. i could have used this with a gm dis setup as i did with the megasquirt, however i will be running coil on plug, and the microtech doesnt support the 7x trigger wheel. they could have made a custom ecm for it, however id rather use a tried and true ecm, and the 58x is far higher resolution.


decided to do some shopping tonight. i ordered an aem water/methanol injection kit, a set of id850 injectors, some gaskets and seals, silicone couplers for the charge pipes, and while i was at it, a fuel pump and rewire kit for my daily driver (cobalt ss supercharged, puts down 275hp and 260lb/ft at the ground). the only things i havent got covered parts wise is exhaust and charge pipes, however all that stuff is easily attainable locally. hopefully in a few week ill have some time to start putting the car together.

cars still on hold, but i havent stopped buying parts lol. most of the stuff i had on order has showed up, going to place an order for the the last bit of stuff i need (mufflers, some v bands) and then just need to get the stainless tubing for exhaust and charge pipes. and in the mean time, i bought a set of wheels and tires

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they are dp enduros. they are 3 piece 17x7.5 and 17x9, tires are 225/50zr17 and 235/45zr17. planning to put the 235 on the front and get a pair of 255 for the rear

after 2 months i got a chance to pull the car back out and continue working on it. didnt get a lot done, more organizing and seeing what i still need to order. none the less, got the microtech dash mounted, shifter modded with a hurst pistol grip handle, and of coarse got my wheels and tires on the car finally. 

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ive got a good size pile of parts sitting here for it now, ive been collecting stuff the whole time the car was on hold. i still dont have my clutch, its ready to ship though. the only other thing i need is some plumbing odds and ends and the stainless for the exhaust and charge pipes.

finally have an oil pan finished. this has been one of the things ive been working on since i first set the engine in the car. this is one of the things ive had to rely on other people for as i dont weld aluminum (at least well enough to build an oil pan). i had the flange water jet cut out of 3/8" aluminum and the pan was bent up by the same shop. had one of the guys in my shop weld it up, just took forever to get it done.

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now i bet most of you are scratching your heads on the oil pickup. because of the lack of height in the front of the pan (its only 3/4" from the flange to the bottom of the pan in the front, just enough to clear the main bolts) i decided to go with an external pickup. the pickup in the sump is for a big block chrysler, its very common for them to run an external oil pickup because the pumps are external and it bypasses the restrictive oil pickup in the block. its feeding through the -12 an line to the front of the pan, were i have a fitting tapped into the pan rail to go into the suction port in the block. the pan holds 5 quarts, i figure with the large external filter, hoses, and oil cooler oil capacity will be somewhere around 6 1/2 to 7 quarts.

i also picked up a couple other goodies
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when i built this engine way back i didnt get to put a decent set of cams in it. the car i built it for had a stock long block with a pair of level zero motorsports tri-flow cams. they worked ok, but in that engine, however they are regrinds. i put them in the new engine with the bates springs, and it turned out that the lash adjusters didnt have enough preload and i had horrendous valvetrain noise (for a hydraulic cam engine). took them out and put stock cams in. so in go a set of comp turbo cams, should help out a bit.

That's a really cool solution to the sump/pickup problem.

got the cams installed last night, and painted the engine today

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got a good pile of parts to get powdercoated before i can finish assembling the engine.

looks awesome!

How similar an engine is this to the LSJ?
I really like the packaging on those with the supercharger. Almost enough to try to fit one...

its very close to the same engine. all of the 2.0, 2.2 and 2.4l ecotecs are very much the same engines. the blower setup from the 2.0l lsj will bolt right onto a 2.2 or 2.4l. my daily driver is a cobalt ss with the lsj, it puts down 275whp and 260ft/lb. keeping the stock supercharger, thats about the limits of the stock engine on gas, some have put down 300hp with e85. there is an eaton tvs blower that bolts right up, however 330-350 is about it. now take the same stock lsj longblock, swap the blower out for a turbo, itll put down 420whp all day long. the blower makes for a real nice daily driver though, normal driving its got v6 grunt.

as for swapping an lsj with the blower into a 944, i dont think its possible. have a look at some of my early pics and were the engine sits in the car. i had to clearance the firewall around the oil filter housing, and the back of my intake manifold is almost in the firewall. the supercharger inlet is at least 2" behind that oil filter housing, the throttle body would be sharing space with your right foot lol. the lsj has been used in rwd stuff before, people have cut the end of the blower off and welded a 90 degree elbow on and redone the inlet, but because of our firewall shape in the 944, i just dont see it. tilting the engine to the passenger side could be done, however im not sure about oil drain back from the head. its common in the fwd drag engines to tilt them forward up to 25 degrees, but they run dry sumps with a valve cover scavange.

couldnt resist setting the turbo on it for a couple pics

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well guys, its on the backburner again. i decided on a brake upgrade and have gathered most of that stuff (lexus ls430 calipers, wilwood 2 piece rotors with xschop rotor hats, rx7 calipers and 86 turbo rotors out back). the sema show is right around the corner, we have 2 major builds and not enough man power, so im working 16 hours a day 7 days a week again.

today we had a media company come to our shop and do a video blog live. the company (two sharks media) is heavily involved with the show Supernatural. anyways, i thought id share the video with you guys show off some of the stuff we are building. im not in the video, was to busy on the "secret project", however my 944 got some attention.


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