pillagenburn

iTrader: (2)

So my brother has been doing automotive wiring for years now and suggested that I find a car to do a conversion and he'd do the wiring. I set out to find a good F-body to swap something into, but I was unsure of what car I wanted. I came across a near perfect-bodied 1994 Pontiac Firebird Formula that needed some paint and had a LT1 with rod knock for $1450 - I took it.

Fortunately for me the Firebird had a LT1 T56 in it... which I in turn sold for $1200... I haven't even sold the rest of the parts and got my money back out of the $1450.

I knew I wanted L92 heads, that much was certain, and I wanted at least 400rwhp so I began looking around at my options. I'd looked at cammed LS1's making that kind of power, LS2's and LQ4's, LQ9's and so forth. LS1's were too expensive for what I would get, stock, and LS2's were WAY too pricey. LQ4's and LQ9's required too much screwing around with pulling heads off and replacing all kinds of garbage. I then came across the L92, and while it had everything I wanted, it was a bit out of my price range..... then I saw the LY6.

The LY6 engine, for those of you that don't know, is the 6.0L iron block engine found in a lot of 2007+ 2500/3500 pickups and vans. It runs 9.6:1 compression, has forged rods, an iron block, drive by wire, 90mm throttle body stock, L92 heads and oh yeah... Variable Valve Timing.

If you don't know what Variable Valve Timing is and why it's better than a traditional cam setup, Google it.

I searched the boards to see more about the Ly6 engine, and to my surprise no one had heard about it. I then saw threads about people carb'ing LY6 motors and wondered why on earth anyone would do that?

The LY6 I found I got for $2140 out the door and is from a 2007 Chevy Silverado 3500HD and has about 8,000 miles on it. It came complete with all accessories, wiring harness and ECU. This pic is after I'd gutted it a bit:



Anyway, so I assembled a list of mods for the swap that I'd be getting and here's what I've got:

• -LY6 engine (of course)
• -M12 t56 from a 2004 GTO
• -Harwood fiberglass Firebird ram air hood
• -UMI Tubular road race K-member
• -strano 35mm front swaybar
• -UMI rear 22mm rear swaybar
• -Hooker long tube headers
• -true duals with bullets, dumped at the axle
• -L76 intake
• -stock firebird ram air intake
• -poly front a-arm bushings ($50 instead of several hundred for aftermarket a-arms)
• -UMI torque arm
• - UMI rear LCA's and panhard rod

there's probably more but I can't think of it right now

One issue we (my brother and I) ran into was the spacing of the f-body accessories to match the LY6. This was accomplished with a 3/4" plate and a few additional spacers to use the f-body accessories. I only had to buy the power steering pump.

I had to swap the oil pan as well for a LS1 ... here's the pan removed (you can see the UMI K-member too):



Other than that the swap went pretty cleanly.. I deleted the PCV system and installed an oil cap breather as well as another breather on the other valve cover. My brother took care of all of the wiring.

so here's the car, finished (for the most part... a few gauge wiring things and some paint stuff to work out)



and here's a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi7jYJYMrek



If I think of anything else to write about I'll post it up... but I can tell you this, the car pulls like freaking crazy... I had a F13 cammed LS1 Camaro SS before and the power delivery was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like this thing is. The power and delivery of it on this LY6 is far superior to my old cammed LS1.

Jimbo1367

good write-up. I thought the LY6s came with 87MM TBs? When you swapped the L76 intake, did you swap all sesors and TB too?

Where did you find the L76 manifold and $?
JIM

pillagenburn

iTrader: (2)

found the intake on LS1tech, re-used all of the LY6 sensors and as far as i can tell, the throttlebody is 90mm - it's pretty massive. The L76 intake was like $225 shipped from a member on the boards.

Jimbo1367

thanks

2SLO4ME

iTrader: (39)

How is the PCM working with everything else in the car... What did you do to work everything out wiring wise... I know you said your brother did the wiring. I have a L92 in my 01 WS6 that I converted to a LS3, but would love to go back to the VVT setup. I just don't know how it would work out wiring wise... Thanks!

pillagenburn

iTrader: (2)

no problem jimbo - the wiring isn't an issue - my brother did it, but from what he told me he didnt have any trouble with it (but he's been wiring for Toyotas for years).

All of the gauges work fine except for the tach and speedo.... I'm having the weirdest time with those things. I have the tach hooked to the tach output signal on the ecu and set HP Tuners to 15/15 low/hi and crank output for the tach signal..... but the tach simply doesn't move at all once the car has started.

The speedo is strange as well. The speedo is 4000 pulse per mile (stock LT1) but I'm not sure what i need to set HPTuners to in order to make it work.... I go like <10mph and it pegs to 110mph

mr220v

I didn't have any major trouble with it. I suspect a lot of people would though. Fighting with the gauges was the most tedious part.

A big problem for a 98+ fbody is the cluster. It won't be compatible with GMlan.

slp223

iTrader: (1)

did you get the gauges working?

pillagenburn

iTrader: (2)

yup, gauges work.

the_merv

iTrader: (88)

Gauges are easy to get to work..the Fuel System is on it's own, the Oil Press is in the Harness, splice into the Alternator wire for the Signal for that Gauge, and the Speedo and Tach are in the Harness. To take care of the Water Temp you use the 1998 Temp Sensor and wire it in properly.
I didn't have a problem with my Speedo working..I had it tuned to the stock LS1 T56 calibration in the PCM and it worked fine. The Tach needs to be set from a 6 Pulse to a 3 Pulse in HP Tuners to get it to work correctly.

Good job guys.

pillagenburn

iTrader: (2)

the e38 ecu is a bit different animal than the LS1's ecu (not sure about the code for that one). The e38 comes with a few dozen different Operating System versions since it is used in so many GM cars and trucks. The particular OS that came on mine doesn't allow for the ECU to output a distinct speedo signal, so what I got from the ECU is a 128,000 pulse per mile signal... or the signal used to input to the EBCM for the ABS function, so a dakota digital box is being used until I find out which OS version I need in order to output the correct signal.

Also, the throttle by wire was pretty easy to figure out - but I can see how it'd get past some people.

All-in-all, it is an incredible conversion... I'm going to make a video after I get done re-fabbing a new accessory spacer bracket to, hopefully, have the potential to be mass produced (I know a guy that does one-off fabrication for John Deere). I also bought an underdrive pulley for it as well, so that'll need to go on.

Honestly, I can't think of a better engine for this car... the LY6/L92... maybe the only better engine would be the LS9 haha

but then I guess I could just put a blower on my 9.6:1 LY6

LuSt4Boost

Were you able to get the speedo and tach working?

1994z

iTrader: (48)

you have a picture of it in the car. want to see the air inlet side.

pillagenburn

iTrader: (2)

i dont have a pic of it in the car, though I'll get one, but I have a video of it - check out the youtube video.

tach works fine - working on getting the ecu to output the correct signal for the speedo without the use of the dakota digital box.

things have been kinda going in slow-motion because of work... but i've got some vacation time now.

bonecrrusher

iTrader: (1)

How'd you get the VVT working with a manual trans?

I thought the VVT worked in coordination w/ the 6L80

Jimbo1367

Pillagenburn,
any new updates dude.?

glocklimited9

iTrader: (3)

nice swap man keep it up

pillagenburn

iTrader: (2)

update: because some idiot decided they wanted to try to steal the car at some point in the past, I had to swap in a new steering column as it was fubar....

and because my Starter was crap to begin with, I had to buy a new starter.... yay!

I'm working on getting a video of the car actually driving, so I'll get a youtube link as soon as my Droid decides it wants to upload this thing.

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

Can I request the video be in daylight? I know you are trying to be stealth and all but the last video being shot at night was a little hard to see some details.

J/K Nice swap man! Congrats.

Jimbo1367

Pillagenburn,
we are waiting. lol. I am getting restless waiting to install my LY6. Thanks for the vid in advance.
Jim