1986 LS2 Conversion

This weekend is going to be all about fab work; my favorite if you haven't figured that out

Radiator came today and holy smokes is it tight! At 24" wide it scrapes against the walls near the top of the radiator support.I have to create the lower radiator support as well as chop up the passenger upper radiator support to make clearance for the radiator cap. Ordered fans tonight as well. Still went for 2.4" deep fans even though I'm switching the accessory drive to allow for more clearance. Dual 11" Spal fans. 15 Amps and near 1100 CFM. The radiator comes with no provisions what so ever to connect fans/shrouds so that's going to be fun

I know i'm horrible with photos which makes such a boring log... i'll try to get some tonight.

Cut the cap off and weld it closed. You won't need it with the stock reservoir.

spence wrote:Cut the cap off and weld it closed. You won't need it with the stock reservoir.

Doesn't the cap contribute to the water boiling with the different cap pressure rating?

From Griffins website:
The higher rated the pressure cap, the hotter the water has to get to boil. One pound of pressure raises the boiling temperature 3°F. A 16-pound cap raises the boiling point to 268°F. If your engine is designed to run at 200°F, a 14-16-pound cap should be sufficient. Running a higher pressure cap to prevent boil over is putting a band aid on another problem that needs to be fixed. Higher operating pressure places additional stress on the entire engine system and increases the potential of hoses bursting and possible injury.

I'm going to assume the cap on the reservoir fulfills the duty of the radiator cap. Posted too quickly without thinking

I'm having a hard time mapping out the coolant system and how it would connect to my radiator. My radiator has an inlet, outlet, a filler tube ( to be deleted?), a nipple on the filler tube (overfill port?), and a threaded hole in the bottom which came with what I think is a plug (drainage hole).

Inlet/outlet feed directly to the LS water pump; right? But then what do I do with the expansion tank connection? Using the 944 diagram below

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The radiator I used had a large threaded hole in the top left corner of the radiator. I ran the large hose from the bottom of the reservoir to this threaded hole. The small hose on the back of the reservoir went to the steam vent crossover pipe on the front of the heads.
Since you're going to have your filler hole deleted, have them weld in a threaded bung for the large hose to go to. I believe it was 1/2" npt thread from what I can remember.

Hotrodz of Dallas wrote:The radiator I used had a large threaded hole in the top left corner of the radiator. I ran the large hose from the bottom of the reservoir to this threaded hole. The small hose on the back of the reservoir went to the steam vent crossover pipe on the front of the heads.
Since you're going to have your filler hole deleted, have them weld in a threaded bung for the large hose to go to. I believe it was 1/2" npt thread from what I can remember.

Okay that makes a lot of sense. I was trying to figure out how/where to T in the hose from the expansion tank but mimicking the stock setup is always a viable option.

Heyyy my tank has a 1/2" threaded hole on the bottom of one of the end tanks for an electronic fan thermostat/controller that I was not planning on using. I assume I can connect the line from the expansion tank there!

Don't know why I had a hard time understanding this.... rather simple in the scheme of the overall project.

Only problem I could see, is that it might have a hard time bleeding the air out of the system with the hose being at the bottom instead of the top. But the steam vent line may do that well enough.

Ya, the expansion tank line needs to be at the top of the radiator.

spence wrote:Ya, the expansion tank line needs to be at the top of the radiator.

Damn. Another thing to add. Thanks guys!

Big weekend. Put an offer in on a house; hoping it pulls through.

Coilovers came. Installed the rears and either I did something wrong or the spacer used between the coilover and the trailing arm is not quite long enough. The carrier for the helper spring hits and trailing arm and needs to be angled up in order for the bolt between the coilover and the trailing arm to thread in. I'm gonna play with them and make sure i can't monkey with the mounting hardware (2 spacers and a sleeve/spacer that goes through shock housing) to get everything right.

Also welded on some mounting brackets I plan on using for the bottom of the radiator. My first time welding aluminum so the welds looks pretty bad... stuff really heats up fast!

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Good luck on the house.

The spacer next to the nut needs to go against the control arm. That should give the spring the clearance it needs.
Do yourself a favor though and order a set of shock mounting bolts like these. They are way stronger than the setup you have now.
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I've seen experienced welders not do that good on aluminum.

Just sayin.......

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Interesting. I've used those for years and have never seen one break. I guess anything can break at some point.

Hotrodz of Dallas wrote:Interesting. I've used those for years and have never seen one break. I guess anything can break at some point.

That was exactly my point. Pic is from the next to last page of Lemming's build thread.

If you've removed the torsion bars, this is even more likely to happen.

cjbcpa wrote:If you've removed the torsion bars, this is even more likely to happen.

I hear people say that all the time. I have yet to see it happen. All of my 944's have had the torsion bars removed and just run coilovers. Not saying it can't happen, I've just never seen it.

Yeah I read about it over on Pelican.

Looks like Lemmings is a racer's edge bolt from the picture... I've never heard of those breaking.

Dave @ Lindsey Racing as well as everyone else says the spacers on the "bolt" aren't put together right which is annoying cause Intrax put them together and when they put that nut on they used a healthy portion of loctite.

After the latest welding stint with the radiator brackets I know I'd do a questionable job on the extra inlet needed for the expansion tank. My old man volunteered to take the radiator to a local rad shop for me. They're gonna add the inlet and chop off the cap and weld shut.

Didn't accept my offer on the house the search continues....

Haha once again i'm a giant moron.

The mounting hardware that came with the coilovers was just... jammed in there somehow and I thought it was somehow fastened into the coilover (which is why i was complaining about having to take the nut with the loctite off). All i had to do was tap it with a hammer to get it to get the threaded rod with the nut and the spacer to come out.

It happens to all of us at some point. Laugh about it and go on.

Alright so fixed my mistake on the rear coil overs.

Dropped the engine on the ground last night so I could move the driveshaft back in the torque tube. I had pushed it forward about 2" while getting the original trans out. I had a difficult time and couldn't get the shaft to move by "tapping" it with a hammer... ended up hitting it with a 3.5lb sledge with a 2x4 covering the shaft tip to protect it. Finally got it to come out though!

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Also my oil cooler came. Looks like it'll fit just fine
I had a hard time finding a stacked plate cooler that was very wide but not tall... this was as big as I could find that would for sure fit in the space.


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I tried a Setrab bar&plate cooler mounted exactly like that and it was insufficient. Now running an RX7 take-off oil cooler mounted in that same spot, way bigger and way better cooling. YMMV.

Rich

I think i am using that same cooler on mine, original intent was to put it in the same place but ended up with the air filter there. It now sits infront of the radiator. Like Rich mentioned i do not think its large enough. Temps for me were around 230F at about 80 ambient after a 20 minute run group. Going larger is on my future development list.

Ah shoot

Well I can probably return it. Would you recommend something like this then?
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It has ~50% larger core area but I didn't get it at first cause I was focused on going the stacked plate route.

Rich you ran both oil coolers with your vented turbo style front bumper, right?

The guys on rennnnnlist are concerned about airflow to the cooler there without having the turbo header panel. I was going to modify the header panel but if people are putting oil coolers there with the stock NA air flow... i'd rather not touch the header panel.