Joel's LS1 FC parts list/swap thread (remixed)

[frijolee]

Looks like they make some specific purpose solder products, that might do the trick.

[Bowtie7]

Bummer Joel. Hey, I noticed you mentioned a cradle and I was gonna suggest that to you. I headed that direction on our stuff after seeing every Hinson rad crack, break, etc. repeatedly. There is enough flex going on that mounting to the chassis itself will eventually cause the rad to crack. Nick's has epoxy all over it and needs to be replaced.

[largeorangefont]

I worried about flex and cracking as well.

My radiator has a mount on each side that sits on the frame rail and is rubber isolated. I have a lower cradle on the passenger side to relieve the pressure on the frame rail mounts and keep the radiator from wanting to rotate back to vertical. My air filter panel mounts to the radiator as well, but very loose and also rubber isolated. I want to get another cradle on the drivers side, but I have to redesign it, my oil cooler lines are too close to where the drivers cradle mounted.

[65imp]

Joel, I have some of the aluminum brazing rid that works well for those type of repairs.  But it is prolly worth the 1 hour trip to the rad shop for them to repair. 

[digitalsolo]

Just remember the mantra of car stuff...   if you can break it, they can fix it.   

[Bowtie7]

http://www.norotors.com/index.php?action=media;sa=media;in=3724;preview


This is the setup that I run w/fbody fans and now running over top air bridge

[largeorangefont]

That is pretty similar to mine Charlie.

[frijolee]

It's on the ground and has been driven!  No leaks this time.  However, it still starts a lot harder than it should and idle is pretty bad despite the injector value update.

Question for the forum.  It doesn't seem to be using all cylinders equally. I was shooting with a laser thermometer and getting a pretty big swing in values between cylinders.  Fully warmed up (idle only) I was seeing only about 180 deg F on quite a few cylinders shooting about a diameter away from the header flange.  A couple cylinders were in the 250 deg range and one at 310 or so.  None were dead cold so I'm assuming spark is OK but I could try swaping a few coil packs around to double check that.

Thinking about sending out the fuel injectors to get cleaned.  The were supposed to be new but I bought them private party.  Any other ideas of things I should be looking for in the meantime?

-Joel

[digitalsolo]

Do you have a way to validate timing?    Are you positive the cam is in the right spot?

[frijolee]

Engine was just freshened by HKE so I left the long block alone.  I'd be surprised if they screwed up the cam position but it's possible.

Spark plugs are new so I'll pull those and look for anything obvious (IE FC3S Murray's fuel flooding issues).  I should probably also get a wideband on it and see where my tune's at.  If it were just running terrible, I'd say that's more or less expected.  The difference in primary temps has me curious though.

[largeorangefont]

That is good news.. I have a wideband if you need one Joel.

[Jordan Innovations]

After troubleshooting coilpacks and plug wires on my setup I can tell you that 180*F on an IR header reading is basically a dead cylinder - having a live cylinder next to it will heat up through the flange.  That explains your tough start and bad idle.  Pull the injector plug over the cylinder to verify - my guess is the idle won't change.

If those plugs look brand new and dry, it's the injector, if they're brand new and wet, it's the coilpack/wiring/plug wire.

[frijolee]

Thanks for the ideas y'all.  At least 4 of the cylinders were reading 180 and the exhaust note was just typical cam-ragged not all-out-awful like I'd expect on 3-4 cylinders.

Couple good things I can report:
-Clutch disk is world's nicer with the ceramic disc instead of iron in there.
-I have missed power steering in my rx7 a lot and it's awesome.  Definitely info on Turn One coming soon.

Little ironic story from last night...  It's holding idle and nothing leaks, so I decide, what the heck I'll take it over to 65imp's (1/2 mile away, same neighborhood).  Go pulling out around the corner.  Right as I'm thinking "damn this thing is loud, muffler's aren't doing much" and pull up to the main loop I come smack face to face with a Tustin police officer rolling by a low speed RIGHT in front me.  Bear in mind I have no hood...  He takes a long look but keeps moving, but then drops it to about 15 mph.  I was already clearly turning right so I follow him out feeling like an idiot (and trying to buckle my harnesses since I hadn't really planned on going for a neighborhood drive).  At least I installed the front plate...  I'm hanging back but the cop is still only doing 15 mph.  I pull over and say screw it, if he flips a U I'll just have to be nice ask forgiveness.  He keeps going, but still at low speed.

I flip a U, drive back to my place and throw it in the garage as fast as I can.  Note to self:  I need to finish the hood.  And I need to build some street oriented mufflers this thing is going to attract too much attention.

[digitalsolo]

LOL, you guys need to come up here.   I drove to the exhaust shop with open headers without a second thought.   Shoot, I put 1500 miles on the car with the exhaust dumping out a fender;  I've sat next to cops at lights with them on the exhaust dump side, I just look over and smile. 

I'm sure with the way they deal with that stuff out there, that had to be an, uncomfortable, few minutes.

[Jordan Innovations]

Welcome to my world.  Funny thing is, I haven't had any problems in the 1000+ street miles I've put on it.