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I like the concept, if you are not going back with a Porsche engine. The LS engines are powerful and relatively simplistic. The problem I have with the swap is the electricals. There is nothing even remotely close to a plug and play setup.
in my experience, even when you get something thats "plug and play" it still requires work. I'll admit, adapting the porsche gauges didnt sound like fun (plus my cluster was on its way out) so I'm happy giving up the OBC functionality in exchange for an AIM dash. makes things much simpler. Other than gauges, there is really little complexity in wiring.
Please document here what parts from the various kits work as advertised and which don't. Are you running an external oil cooler? Looks like you have an AN fitting welded to the pan
Please document here what parts from the various kits work as advertised and which don't. Are you running an external oil cooler? Looks like you have an AN fitting welded to the pan
I'm only using 2 parts of the "kit" and both require close attention to work. The KEP flywheel/clutch/adaptor is a great piece but I would recommend getting the 996.2 "L" version of the pressure plate (specify that with RH and they'll know what you mean) and update your pivot ball/release fork to the 997 parts TSB (if you still have the 996.1 short pivot ball style). this way there wont be any confusion. there are 2 different stack height pressure plates and depending on what year trans you have will determine what RH sends you. Alternatively, you can just specify that you upgraded your clutch hardware on the bellhousing side to 997 and save yourself the heartache.
the RH engine mount kit just needs to be drilled out a little to gain better alignment when bolting onto the head. Not a big deal. You can also dremel down certain parts if your TB hits the plate (mine did). this is not necessarily an issue for everyone. Other than that, its fairly good and works as intended or at least to keep the motor in. We'll see how it does under some abuse.
I'm running an external oil cooler tilton pump with -8 lines running the length of the car. I was doing this with the m96 to cool the oil so I'm just tapping the oil pan and hooking up the lines. This was the best way I found to integrate an oil cooler for the M96, kept temps roughly 20-30* cooler on the track.
What's your plan for the AIM dash? Are you running a newer ECU and able to get everything off of the CAN or are you going to have to plumb in sensors everywhere?
Do u have a pic of the engine mounting plate off the ls motor. Maybe because i have not pulled a porsche motor i cant visualise how it bolts into the mounts. You r right about RH, they r very helpful on the phone but very secretive with their tech.
What's your plan for the AIM dash? Are you running a newer ECU and able to get everything off of the CAN or are you going to have to plumb in sensors everywhere?
I'm using the e38 ecu so its compatible with CAN. I should be able to pull data from the ecu and run pressure/temp sensors separately.
Originally Posted by De Jeeper
Yes it does, thx, just need to source those motor mounts.
RH sells all their parts a la carte, I think I remember just the plate being something like $250. If my math is right, the difference between KEP clutch/adapter kit and the engine hardware from RH was something like $1200 or $1300 (which seems high for what you get)...but they are the only game in town for what they offer.
had some time to assist with the progress. Engine wiring harness is now complete and only missing a few finishing bits on the interior/chassis side. We moved on to the dash and made a little mount for it. Exhaust is being worked on and cooling system all wrapped up. With any luck, we should be able to bleed the system and start final trouble shooting within the weeks end.
It looks like the swap is in its final stages now. After some initial trouble with getting the engine running properly, we were able to sort some minor issues and get it to hold idle to bleed the coolant. For anyone new to the LS2/3 engine, the MAF sensors tend to be very sensitive to minor changes. When we first started the engine, there was horrible throttle lag, poor idle with misses constantly cutting the engine off after 5 minutes of warm up. Turns out the maf sensor doesn't particularly like having the intake boot loose on the throttle body. After tightening up the headers/ intake boot and securing the air cleaner, the engine ran significantly smoother and throttle response came back to normal. Who would have known.
The whole swap was done over at a good friends shop in Carol Stream IL and he's put in some serious hours to get this thing running in such a short time. Most of those hours went into the exhaust. My biggest fear was for this thing to be deafeningly loud, but 2 vibrant resonators and a set of dynomax mufflers keeps the exhaust note very reasonable (at least at idle so far). Havent had a chance to drive it at all yet, but from the outside its already quieter than the M96 was with just an AP muffler. This is using 2.5" piping all the way from the header back.
since I'm not running any factory Porsche gauges, I elected not to keep the Porsche ECU. Cant quite say if that made the wiring any easier, but it definitely made cutting wires a less stressful job. Here it is almost ready for interior panels to go back in.
my beloved switches. I got a lot of slack for asking for these. manual rad fan switch, electric oil pump for front mounted oil cooler and power steering switch
pie cuts. Lots of them. all the bends were too tight to get mandrel bends to line up so Adam spent centuries mocking up/welding this beauty. Worth it.
still need some rubber hangers to avoid chassis smacking.
my crown jewel. I initially thought the AIM dash would greatly simplify the wiring, but running 15 feet of CAN lines to the front from the engine bay took some doing (3 sets total). At the end, hooking up 5 wires total was pretty simple though
After running the engine for 10 minutes we realized there was one small coolant leak coming from the steam vent to coolant overflow connection and once hard coolant line was slipping from its clamp. Otherwise, there were no additional leaks.
I'll post the idle video here once its uploaded to youtube for anyone interested in hearing the exhaust.
Thats all for now. Last on the docket is power steering. I have all the parts (I hope I have enough line), just need to run everything up front.
02-21-2018, 10:58 AM
