UK RHD LS1 8.8 FD Gunnytron's build thread

[Gunnytron]

New catch can fitted with a new bracket I made. I am not 100% sold on the hose I got from Amazon. It's "oil" hose, but feels a bit like it's made of foam, but then so does the GM LS6 cover hose. Time will tell if it holds up against engine bay heat. The reason I chose this hose was that it was thinner walled than most other hose and I got fed up trying to find rubber hose that wasn't unnecessarily thick and reinforced but also oil resistant.

[Gunnytron]

I couldn't live with the questionable quality hose for the catch can, so I got some aeroquip oil hose instead. The tangle of hoses and the random angles involved made routing near the throttle body a right pain.





Finally sorted the map sensor relocation






Though it didn't happen without consequences. I had to relocate the brake booster vacuum hose to run behind the intake. I did this with a short length of aluminium and flared the ends to secure the hoses. I shouldn't really need one in theory, but I will get a check valve on it too at some point.





I will start her up tomorrow and start tuning idle. It will be interesting to see if there is much difference now there aren't any vacuum leaks.

[Gunnytron]

Got out in the car today. Feels like it's been ages.

I am please to report that the car is soooo much smoother to drive now I have fixed the vacuum leaks.

I also ramped up the timing below my idle are and this has helped, but not eliminated, the stalling when coming to a stop. I did read that this can be an issue with larger throttle bodies (maybe lots of overlap too).

[Venom13132]

Nice glad you got to take it out and enjoy.  I am looking forward to that day myself! 

[Gunnytron]

After a month away from my baby I managed to get on with a few things.

I connected the vacuum hose to the FPR, of course this wasn't easy as the nipple was pointing directly at the fuel line so I had to massage the line to give me enough angle to fit the hose. The result of this was my fuel pressures going all over the place from 48psi up to 67psi. I am not sure if that is normal? I was expecting the pressure to be super flat?




I swapped out the Bosch O2 sensor for an NTK one. I don't think there was anything wrong with the Bosch one, but The NTK is supposed to be more hardy and accurate and I wanted a spare in case of emergencies.

I also fixed the issue with the horn blowing a fuse. It appears that one of the aftermarket horns was shorting so I just unplugged it and the problem was solved.

I took the car for a bit of a spin. Damn it was good fun. Nice sunny day with the windows down and sunroof open. The car felt like it was running great, despite the fuel pressure fluctuations. I didn't even have any low rpm bucking, but this is more likely to be a fluke.

My gurgles and pops were still there, but that was mainly when the car was on the colder side. Once it got up to full heatsoak they went away so looks like I will have to adjust some temperature enrichment somewhere.

I splooged on a Radium fuel hat with hellcat fuel pumps but they didn't arrive in time for me to fit them.

Not all was good mind you, My LH side drive shaft seal is leaking again. It was leaking before I rebuilt it, so I am more than annoyed that it is leaking again.



I also found that the steering rack is clunking. Up to this point, I knew there was a knock up front but couldn't find it. I had assumed it was a suspension component. I am assuming I will need to rebuild/replace it. Not sure why it happened, perhaps age, perhaps I have messed up the power steering setup. I have the low pressure line going in to the stock oil cooler but I never tried heating the therm switch on it up so it is possible there is air trapped in the cooler. Not sure if that could cause an issue?

https://youtube.com/shorts/nz5Lsk_7u0w?feature=share

Another thing I noticed is that the brake fluid cap looks like its about to burst. I may have too much brake fluid in the reservoir. It's currently filled up to the mesh screen.

[Gunnytron]

Got an aliexpress reservoir cap


Fitted spacers on the steering rack bolts so they clamped down fully. Also swapped to superpro bushes from powerflex. I was very pleased to find that I could replace them without raising the engine or dropping the subframe.



Still got a clunk from the rack though.

[Gunnytron]

Progress is slow these days. I did fit the Radium in-tank fuel pump assembly. I need to check the wiring for the fuel level sensor and recalibrate it as it is located slightly higher that where I had it.

Apart from that I just fitted the horn button spacer.