Scribbler - LS1 Powered NA Build

tinsfci · Postby **tinsfci** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 1:07 am

As the meerkat says, simples!

Wiring porn time.

I started out trying to remove all of the unused wires from the factory harness, and threw my toys out of the cot after about 5 minutes. Too damn hard. Extensive googlywebs lead me to this guy:

http://www.leashelectronics.com/

He mainly does drag car electronics, but the prostreet board has inputs and outputs for all the lights, including a solid state flasher, and a relay board will do the fans and fuel pump. All potted in epoxy for vibration resistance, and mounted to a piece of ali on the trans tunnel so it is accessible. These two boxes house all the fuses / relays and random gubbins needed for the entire body harness and weigh bugger all! Dash harness and ABS harness are salvaged from an SE, engine harness is all GM, with an EMS8860 ecu. Rear harness is all done, took me and Deviant several beers to do it

Dann, pity you are not in Perth or you would be building the headers for this thing. The RH header is a right pain in the @rse, as the starter for the LS1 is RH mounted and the steering shaft leaves sod all room to play.

Postby **Okibi** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 1:20 am

Get it running Pete and we'll drive it to Newcastle to get the exhaust upgraded. :mrgreen:

CM sport · Postby **CM sport** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 7:41 am

Make life a bit easier for the extractors on your right hand side and get a left hand starter relocation with one of the super small starters. There are many kits available to move too the left hand side.

http://www.malwoodauto.com.au/index.php ... arter-Kits

Have used this kit myself and it will make life alot easier for your exhaust location. It does make a little less room on the left but leaves a better compromise for better flowing/sized extractors.

Postby **mrpham** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 1:59 pm

That relay/fuse kit looks tasty as!

Mr nanotech · Postby **Mr nanotech** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 3:24 pm

This is going to be fun to watch

tinsfci · Postby **tinsfci** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 5:08 pm

Left side starter looks like a good idea, but for the price I think I am better just getting dead sexy custom headers. I might change my mind when I decide on a primary tube size, but the way the 2 other LS powered cars here are done is to route two tubes each side of the steering shaft. Pics of the area around the steering shaft:

Side view showing compact starter from Summit. 4 tubes have to get down between the starter and the engine mount heat shield

View from the front

And from below

Dipstick tube is flexible and will be heat sleeved and routed to suit the headers.

This thread:
http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=489056
details the build of the current holy grail of LS headers and they are trying to get a kit made. This could be a good option for me.

16bit · Postby **16bit** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 5:57 pm

they look great.

and sound awesome!

mr bender · Postby **mr bender** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 9:56 pm

are you using the Sanderson Headers?

tinsfci · Postby **tinsfci** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 10:32 pm

I have the Sanderson headers and the passengers side could be used as is. The drivers side collector wants to occupy the same space as the steering shaft so can't be used as is. Both of the other cars here sliced the tubes just above the collector and extended it, with the steering shaft through the centre. Works OK, but not optimal. the Sanderson headers are also 1.5" primaries, which is probably a touch small for decent power. I bought the kit back in 2010, and FM now have their own exhaust with better quality headers, but I doubt they fit a RHD car.

The sanderson headers have something along the lines of "Proudly Made In 'Murrica" on the box, and I think that refers to the actual box because the headers themselves are pretty crap.

Exhibit A - Right Side Header. Looks OK?

Exhibit B - Manifold flange face. Ground weld, supposed to be used with no gasket. Pretty rough.

Exhibit - C HOLY SH1T! Clever b@stards taught a goat to weld! Pity he can't work the die grinder yet, so didn't clean the pipes after cutting or smooth the finished welds.

I really should weld up a jig that shows the position of the steering shaft from the block and send it to FM so they can get a RHD header made.

mr bender · Postby **mr bender** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 10:59 pm

Yer, they are not the greatest made. and they haven't changed the design of them in the last two years either!

Postby **mrpham** » Tue Oct 01, 2013 12:23 am

Made in murica?

deviant · Postby **deviant** » Tue Oct 01, 2013 12:45 am

Made in 'Murica means nothing really. At my work a lot of our suppliers are in the states, the worst suppliers for customer service are all in the states. The quality of some products is utter shite.

Talking of Mercedes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24afjVqm2Uw

tinsfci · Postby **tinsfci** » Tue Oct 01, 2013 1:41 am

Yep, headers are Murrican made.

deviant wrote:Talking of Mercedes

Still looking :wink:

tinsfci · Postby **tinsfci** » Sun Oct 06, 2013 1:12 am

No surprise that the engine bay needs modification to fit the engine and gearbox. The triangular braces at the rear of the chassis rails have to go to get the engine back as far as possible, and the trans tunnel is widened to fit the huge bell housing of the T-56. All up it needs to be about 100mm wider at the start of the tunnel, getting back to the normal width about 150mm into the tunnel. Fairly daunting before the first cut, but the job was not difficult.

Inside the cabin the braces are cut off by drilling the spot welds, then out comes the angle grinder to open up the tunnel all the way to the floor. Looking forward from under the tunnel. In this photo the side has already been offered a substantial amount of violence courtesy of an 8 Lb sledge hammer.:

The flap is then cut every 50mm or so to make it easier to fold to meet the tunnel to get this:

Then weld it all up. Bent plates go in to cover and reinforce the rail where the original bracing was removed.

Inside the cab is also welded.

All holes for heater and other random crap have been plated, needs a bit of a clean up but the completed engine bay looks like this:

Besides welding on the front mount for the diff and doing the exhaust, that's most of the welding done. In the top right of this photo you can see the blanking plate I plate that replaces the original cabin vent. Sikaflex 227 is the schnitz for covering and sealing all the welds before painting.