Ace - for the exhaust manifolds look at the 08-09’ Chevy Trailblazer manifolds with the LS engines. They should be tighter and hopefully not require hammering.

 

On previous builds we have used an aftermarket set of manifolds that fit well with no modification. On this specific build, we decided to try some new center-dump headers for something different and they fit (with same very minor hammering). The factory Trailblazer manifolds are too wide and do not fit unfortunately.

 

ACEngineer - Do you have an ETA on your kit availability or are you looking for another beta tester? I have done a couple swaps in the past and am wrapping up a single turbo ls swap right now. I am ready to get my next project started. No pressure if you don't know yet.

 

The next set of six beta kits are taken. We're hoping to have those kits out by the end of the month, after I get back from vacation. Once I get back and the others are out, I plan to keep producing them at the rate I have been as long as all is well. We just ordered a new milling machine which should help with things.

Between the mechanical side of things and the electrical side of things, there is quite a number of parts to this kit. We're planning also to sell the parts a-la-carte, which would work good for the folks interested for the D1/RRC. And also, a standalone Discovery 2 electrical controller for other swaps.

 

Hey Ace, how many beta kits do you plan on going through before pushing the kit to production? Trying to determine if I should get in line for a beta kit or wait for the finalized production kit to be available to the masses. Will be ready to drop in the LM4 in the next few weeks.

 

This will be the last of the beta kits. After this round of testing is through, we plan to release the kits on our website.

 

Congratulations!

 

I have received a couple of common questions so I thought I would answer them here.

The picture below is our electrical conversion box. It can fit up in with the other ECUs under the dashboard. We will soon have the ability to use the GM electrical throttle system without replacing the factory pedal, which should allow us to adopt a number of other GM features.

I’ve had a lot of questions about how this is different from the Trailhead 4x4 swap. While the end result is similar, the execution is quite different. While we use the GM ECM and make it work with Bosch Motronic, the Trailhead solution runs the LS on the Bosch system by grafting the Land Rover sensors onto the LS. As far as I understand it, for this to work, several major things have to change with the LS. First, since the firing order between the LS and factory Land Rover engine are different, the camshaft must be swapped out with a custom unit that mimics the factory setup. Second, the crankshaft and camshaft sensors are setup differently between the LS and Land Rover. Since the LS reluctor ring is welded to crankshaft, the crankshaft has to be removed to replace the reluctor ring. With this method, the engine has to come apart, making the swap a lot more complicated, which is probably part of the reason they are not releasing kits for self-installation.

There are disadvantages and advantages to both setups. There were several reasons we didn’t originally go the Trailhead route. First, I didn’t want to modify the LS engine, or at least, do so as little as possible. Second, I wanted to get rid of the Bosch 5.2.1 because it is very hard to tune and inherently limits the performance ability of the LS. Third, I wanted the system to be expandable, especially looking forward to other gasoline and diesel engine options, including 4 and 6 cylinder setups.

That being said, if someone wants to use that method, I can look into that a bit further. Overall, I think using the LS ECM with our conversion box offers a fairly plug-and-play solution, with more performance for significantly less work and money.

 

Thanks for the update, Ace!
Correct me if i'm wrong but it sounds like we no longer have to worry about sourcing an engine with the correctly color coded ECU? I.e. Blue vs red.
Also sounds like we can include gen 3 vortec engines from later years that made the switch to drive by wire without needing to worry about grabbing the pedal assembly.

 

Just wanted to put some info out there. The harness doesn't really matter when it come to the electronic pedal to a certain degree. The video i posted earlier, the engine harness originally had an electronic throttle setup. I converted it to a drive by cable setup. As long as you have the correct ecu you can add the pins and plugs required to run a cable setup. I have a bunch of ecus laying around from an "all you can carry day" at my local junkyard. So i just added the pins and swapped the colored connector as well as the ecu.

So what you can do is get whatever gen 3 motor and just find at the junkyard or whatever; 1) correct ecu 2) throttle body with sensors 3) pins and plugs. All that is left is to wire it up