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A wild LR4 appeared!
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Alphius
Peanut


Joined: 05 Sep 2006
Posts: 2429
Location: Grand Mound

1984 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 6:54 pm    Post subject: A wild LR4 appeared! Reply with quote

A lot of you may know of my truck. I've owned it for three years now, but I bought it off my dad who owned it for a decade before me. I drove this truck before I had a driver's license. It's a simple machine, and super reliable. Let's see if I can ruin that... Cool







So, I've been kind of casually checking out craigslist and salvage auctions for a nice 5.3/4L60E 2wd donor truck for a while. Not really serious, just planning for the future swap I know I want to do. One day, I happen to pop onto Row52 and run a search for Express Van donors. Voila, less than a week before, a wrecked 2005 Chevy Express 2500 went into the yard! Based on the VIN, it was a 4.8L which I knew had a 4L80E bolted to the back. This would be greatly beneficial to my towing endeavors. I bribed my trusty compadre, the Mountain Man, with beer and pizza to be my eyes in Tacoma. Tangentially, I still don't get why the Mountain Man lives in the heart of Tacoma... Anyway, that's not important. What is important is that the van drivetrain was complete (minus some coils and stuff) and looked reasonably clean. We ate our Wheaties the next morning and loaded up on sawzall blades, batteries and tools.

Assembly is definitely not reverse of removal.


But give us a couple hours, some deft sawzall skills (not mine), a healthy lunch of granola bars, and we got that sucker out. We stopped and stole all the missing parts (coils, sensors) and some not-ridiculous not-van dipstick tubes out of a 5.3 Tahoe down the row. $450 with tax included to the nice lady at the counter scored me a an LR4 4.8L with all accessories, intake, wiring harness, ECU, 4L80E, yoke, etc.

I immediately swapped that thing into my truck... Wait, you mean it goes in the front?


So for the past few weeks it's been taking up space in my garage.


I finally persuaded Aaron to leave the comfort of Tacoma and venture into the wilderness to accompany me on this trip down the rabbit hole. This weekend we are popping the 350/TH350C out and swinging the LR4/4L80E into the engine bay. Then it's some wiring, some miscellaneous jiggery and pokery, and Bob's your uncle! LSx swapped squarebody Chevy.

I'm taking this opportunity to do a bit of a refresh on the tired parts of the truck. It's been lowered 5" on cut front springs for nearly 20 years, and it's time to gain some travel back to the front end via 2.5" drop spindles, 2" McGaughy's springs and a complete balljoint/bushing replacement. The interior is a bit tired so it's getting a new seatcover, new door panel inserts, some new trim and a deep cleaning. I've always hated the snap on tonneau cover, so that's been tossed in the junkheap and replaced with a fancy Pace Edwards rolling hard cover. Once all the work is done, I'm going to throw a new coat of paint on to fix up the 18 year old Maaco job before it reaches drinking age.

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84 Camaro Z28 - LS1/T56
85 Silverado - Low and Slow


Last edited by Alphius on Wed Jan 13, 2016 8:30 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Schultzy89GTA
M.R.A. (11sec Club)


Joined: 08 Jan 2004
Posts: 4415
Location: Gresham, OR

1989 Pontiac GTA

PostPosted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 1:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice. Smooth wrenching boys!

-Schultzy
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Twilightoptics
Hardcore (12sec Club)


Joined: 13 Jan 2004
Posts: 9191
Location: Auburn , WA

1987 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z

PostPosted: Sat Jan 09, 2016 2:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My god that poor van! Looks like fun, I miss junk yardin!
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fiveoformula
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Joined: 08 Aug 2007
Posts: 1799
Location: OR

1988 Pontiac Formula

PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 3:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Can't wait to see more on this project!
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aaron_sK
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Joined: 23 Jan 2006
Posts: 8834
Location: Back in beautiful Tacompton

1987 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z

PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 4:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Twilightoptics wrote:
My god that poor van! Looks like fun, I miss junk yardin!


You can't see it too well in those pics but it had been ditched badly on the passenger front corner and all along the passenger side. Then the junkyard forked another car on top of it so the roof was caved in as well. Gabe and I took pretty much every remaining item of value. Laughing

Schultzy89GTA wrote:
Nice. Smooth wrenching boys!

-Schultzy


fiveoformula wrote:
Can't wait to see more on this project!


There was good progress this weekend, but I'll let Gabe post more on that.


Also, this topic should be titled 'A wild LRx' appears. Tappy tap tap
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QwkTrip
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Joined: 17 Feb 2004
Posts: 3942
Location: Peoria, IL

1989 Pontiac Firebird

PostPosted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 8:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wild as in "caught in the wild"

or

Wild as in "about to build something crazy"
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Alphius
Peanut


Joined: 05 Sep 2006
Posts: 2429
Location: Grand Mound

1984 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

PostPosted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 9:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

aaron_sK wrote:
Also, this topic should be titled 'A wild LRx' appears. Tappy tap tap

Laughing

QwkTrip wrote:
Wild as in "caught in the wild"

or

Wild as in "about to build something crazy"







The weekend's labors were indeed fruitful. We are going at a relaxed pace this time, which is kind of nice.

After one last dump run to clean the shop up, we got a late start and had the 700-club drivetrain out by lunch. We spent some time yanking the trans crossmember and cleaning it up. The crossmember will be moved back on the frame to hold up the tail of the 80E. There's a second set of bolt holes already in the frame about 5-6" inches back... Will they line up to the new trans location? Tune in tomorrow to find out!


It's out and already on Craigslist!


We shifted gears in the afternoon to do some work on the LR4 and 4L80E to get them ready to drop in. Like so many late-model Chevy trucks, there were three snapped exhaust manifold bolts that took some effort to extricate. (Cue welder) Replacing those with studs was a good choice. We spent a little time fiddling around with the fuel rail to flip it so the inlet was on the front passenger side of the engine to more easily meet up with my carbed truck's fuel lines. The trans needed a couple parts swapped around. Good job Chevy, The trans mount and shifter bracket from the TH350 bolt right on... 20 years of production later.


Poor truck has no idea what's coming. Twisted Evil Aaron and I collectively decided after dinner that we were both just not quite motivated enough to spend more time out in the cold garage, and we'd pick it up tomorrow.






Next day began with an easy task. My Dirty Dingo engine mounts proved their worth and we had the engine bolted in lickety-split. For ease of steering and not making a huge mess, we plumbed up the power steering using factory lines. Yep, my truck is luckily new enough to have a metric steering box and factory LM7 Tahoe PS lines fit perfectly. Not Express Van lines? Well, I'm not a sucker with hydroboost. Cool Of course, if I was, I wouldn't have to give GM more of my money to buy the vacuum brake booster nipple that my intake manifold from a hydroboost van doesn't happen to have. Doh!

Now back to that factory trans crossmember in the factory second set of rearward holes... Well, I can't tell you if that worked out because the plastic fuel tank shroud was in the way. We removed it with much cursing. Now, the crossmember goes in. Wait, not quite yet, the fuel tank is in the way. More cursing. After a couple rounds of head-scratching we figured out how to remove the tank without taking the bed off. Both tanks had to come out anyway because I have an entirely new fuel system to go in; baffled EFI tanks, EFI pickups, Delco high-pressure EFI pumps, high-pressure rated switching valve and all new pressure/ethanol rated fuel lines. Oddly enough, the new direct-fit tanks required a lot of "massaging" with a "hammer" to fit back in the tank straps properly. After that, yet more head-scratching ensued as we attempted in vain to hook the fuel lines up as we put the tank in. What a pain. Eventually the fuel tank succumbed to our combined might and slipped into place with all the lines firmly attached.

Finally... the moment of crossmember truth... Of course the factory transmission crossmember in factory drilled holes fit the 20-year newer factory transmission and the factory column shift rod lined up perfectly to the factory TH350 bracket bolted to the factory 80E. What else did you expect? Very Happy Oh, and my factory driveshaft at factory length with the factory 80E yoke swapped on will pop right back in and connect my factory 80E to my factory rear diff with no problems. Laughing

And here we leave our intrepid hero until another day...

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84 Camaro Z28 - LS1/T56
85 Silverado - Low and Slow
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QwkTrip
11sec Club


Joined: 17 Feb 2004
Posts: 3942
Location: Peoria, IL

1989 Pontiac Firebird

PostPosted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 4:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Alphius wrote:


No comprehende

Kids these days....
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Alphius
Peanut


Joined: 05 Sep 2006
Posts: 2429
Location: Grand Mound

1984 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 7:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Laughing

As a "kid these days" who grew up playing Pokemon on my Gameboy, I thought it was clever. Maybe I should tone down the generational references. I'm in my mid-20's. Embarassed

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aaron_sK
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Joined: 23 Jan 2006
Posts: 8834
Location: Back in beautiful Tacompton

1987 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z

PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 7:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

An amazingly clever impersonation of an old person! Laughing

Also, the most flattering photograph that has ever been taken of me.

On a more serious note, it is amazing how little GM changed over the span of two decades. An older truck would have been just slightly tougher due to the lack of a metric steering box and no 700R4 mounting holes in the frame, but still, that's 1973 to 2005 without really changing anything. It's some Subaru-level engineering laziness.
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QwkTrip
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Joined: 17 Feb 2004
Posts: 3942
Location: Peoria, IL

1989 Pontiac Firebird

PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2016 8:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

aaron_sK wrote:
An amazingly clever impersonation of an old person!


All my practice is starting to pay off.

aaron_sK wrote:
that's 1973 to 2005 without really changing anything. It's some Subaru-level engineering laziness.


Laughing You always seem to have the right words.
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Alphius
Peanut


Joined: 05 Sep 2006
Posts: 2429
Location: Grand Mound

1984 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2016 11:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Aaron has helped me work on Subarus a lot, so he has started to see the light of endlessly interchangeable drivetrain and suspension parts. From an engineering standpoint, Subaru's philosophy seems to be: If it ain't broke, why fix it? Laughing My daily driver is a 1999 Legacy with a '90-'94 Legacy shortblock, '05 WRX set of heads and intake, '04-'07 STI 6-speed transmission and exhaust, and '05 WRX wagon suspension and brakes. It all bolts right in.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that GM is just as lazy as Subaru over 30+ years of development.

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Alphius
Peanut


Joined: 05 Sep 2006
Posts: 2429
Location: Grand Mound

1984 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

PostPosted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 5:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Those of you who know me well know that I tend to pathologically complete projects as fast as possible. Sad to say, the last 6 weeks have seen way too much profitable Subaru work and far too little progress on the truck. To get the momentum going again, I spent a few hours on Sunday and got a couple more things done. Excuse the filthy engine and parts, when it all gets done I'll be cleaning everything thoroughly.

"Custom" A/C bracket from a 90's 4.3 S10 trimmed down a bit and I can use an old-school R4 compressor. Perfect accessory spacing to the LS truck drive system. Looks like I'll need about a 106" 6-rib belt.


With that out of the way, I moved on to exhaust manifolds. Driver's side fits perfectly, but as I read online the passenger's side needs a little frame clearance. No problem, I'm a redneck with a death grinder!


After a hackjob well done, what better place to move to besides the fuel system? I got the engine bay stuff all set. Corvette filter/regulator for the returnless fuel system, full quick disconnects with barb fittings and expensive Gates rubber line with proper EFI clamps. Aaron and I did a fuel rail flip back in January to put the inlet on the front passenger's side instead of the rear driver's, which radically simplified my fuel line routing. Thumbs up









Things left to do:
1. Engine wiring harness, '91 Suburban VSS speedo/cluster conversion
2. Replace punched trans pan, work on column shift linkage
3. Finish accessory drive
4. Swap second fuel tank and wire up fuel pumps/switching valve
5. Reinstall core support, cooling system, A/C, and set up electric fan
6. Interior reupholstery
7. Front suspension rebuild with drop spindles, new springs, etc.
8. Connect manifolds to exhaust

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izcain
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Joined: 09 Sep 2006
Posts: 1306
Location: Port Angeles WA

1983 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

PostPosted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 11:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Are you planning on using the van pcm?

If you need a program modified I'm more then happy to render my services. Just have to purchase another vin unlock from efilive. I really should just purchase the streaming setup since I have done several trucks as of late.

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1983 Z28 383 + 201ci more = New Heart for this season!
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Alphius
Peanut


Joined: 05 Sep 2006
Posts: 2429
Location: Grand Mound

1984 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 7:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

05 Van PCM, yes indeed. IMO the 05/06 van PCM is one of the best. Supports 3bar HPT custom OS (for if/when I need boost), it's a fast 1MB P59 PCM that supports cable throttle (unlike truck PCMs), and has working flex fuel code in stock form. Can't beat it for a GenIII engine if you want to run a GM PCM.

Thanks for the offer, but I'm a competent backyard tuner with my very own copy of HPTuners Pro. Very Happy I usually do Subaru ECUs or MegaSquirt builds, but I think I can handle some GM tuning as well. Cool

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izcain
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Location: Port Angeles WA

1983 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

PostPosted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 8:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Right on man! Sounds good. I will keep tuned to see how it turns out.

I run with EFI live right now for all the gm stuff. It has worked well with everything except the p12 pcm which HPtuners has it beat totally in that area!

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9.17 @ 148
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Alphius
Peanut


Joined: 05 Sep 2006
Posts: 2429
Location: Grand Mound

1984 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

PostPosted: Sat Feb 27, 2016 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, I think at this point EFILive vs HPTuners is mostly a preference thing. I couldn't see any reason to spend the extra on EFILive, and HPT seems to be keeping up to date pretty well nowadays so I went with them.

So, today I get to work on a fun job. The van harness that I got from the junkyard was complete except for the C1 and C2 ECU connectors and PCM. Somebody got to them in the 3-4 days between when it hit the yard and when I got the drivetrain. I decided to hack the connectors off of the Tahoe a few rows down and splice them onto the van harness. Pain in the ass, but it's basically the same job I did to extend the harness for the Camaro back in the day. Not difficult, just time-consuming. I also bought a P59 PCM with drive-by-cable support programmed with a TechII to the van's VIN so that it will have the proper segments for the 4.8/4L80E combo, which was fairly rare. Because of the steal I got on the drivetrain, doing a little extra work on the harness doesn't bother me.


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Alphius
Peanut


Joined: 05 Sep 2006
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Location: Grand Mound

1984 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2016 10:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm going to be working on the truck this weekend, should be able to get quite a lot done. Stay tuned! Cool
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Red Bird
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Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 193
Location: Yakima

1991 Pontiac Firebird

PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 10:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This build is awesome. great write up
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Alphius
Peanut


Joined: 05 Sep 2006
Posts: 2429
Location: Grand Mound

1984 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

PostPosted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks! Very Happy

Today I picked up the single most important part of the build. Cool


My old one broke off right before I started the swap.

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