The little things

[badnova]

been awhile since i posted but thought i would share progress and another batch of questions for anyone interested in replying..

I am putting an LM7 into a 66 chevy van - the plan is to use this vehicle for my ship truck/display piece for my upholstery biz

anyhoo..

this is my first ls swap and a couple weeks ago finally got the motor fired up on the same pallet it arrived home on. Engine runs great and started right up (once we figured out that my o2 sensors need to be rewired)

questions i have now are..

what do i do for gauge senders ? what is everyone doing for this?
steamport - whats the easiest way to handle this?

oil pan - thought about changing this to a corvette bat wing pan - my engine is a 2006 LM7 - will this work on my motor? are all of the ls pans interchangeable?

[chevy72blu]

All of your gauges will work fine with the exception of the speedometer. You will need to use a cable-x or some other type of device to convert the electric signal to mechanical. You could switch to an electric gauge, use a scan gauge, or use a tom tom style GPS (they make GPS speedos as well).

Steamport can be added to your stock rad by a competent rad shop. Or, jagsthatrun sells an adapter to splice into your upper rad hose.

I dont see a whole lot of reason to switch to the vette pan as (I've heard) they are difficult to fit. I dont know about your cross member, but the f body, ctsv, and swap pans are popular.

[badnova]

arent all of the senders in the motor currently electronic? water temp, oil pressure etc? all my gauges are mechanical - i am hoping to keep the original gauges in the van if i can

[BR3W CITY]

I would suggest looking at the LH8/"Swap" pan that gm sells. Its smaller than the truck pan and accomodates the crossmember better. Its not too expensive and comes with a new pickup. It also has a port for running an external oil cooler, but this is also the perfect place to tap for the 1/8NPT to run an oil pressure gauge.

Voltage gauge will be the same as it always is/was, just hook up the wires.

I made a new cluster for my 66, focusing only on have a big tach and the oil pressure gauge right in front and easy to read. I didn't want to have to buy, fit and hookup all of the gauges I'd want, plus their senders....so I just bought a SCANgaugeII.

It hooks directly to my OBDII port, and displays my speed (as read off pcm, and can be calibrated for change in tire size etc). My whole dash is only 3 gauges, and the ScanGaugeII. Whole cluster only has a few wires to hook up, is very streamlined and easy to read, and I can remove the ScanGuage and use it on any vehicle, and us it as a code reader as well.

It's kind of hard to describe, but I can post a pic if you want.

[badnova]

oh yeah, i remember following your build awhile back - cool truck ! just curious where did you get your intake bellows/pipe and air filter?

yeah on the gauge thing (because I am an interior guy) I am thinking i really want to use all the stock gauges if possible - that could change but I really need to figure this part out - i may need to contact redline gauges but am hoping i wont have to go that route moneywise

[BR3W CITY]

my intake was made out of a universal ebay kit for a silverado, cut down and flipped.

The only one thats really an issue is the speedo, and sadly the cablex is the only thing that will adapt for the setup.

[badnova]

so for oil pressure and water temp gauges do you change the senders? do the ones that come with aftermarket gauges screw right in? sorry this is my first LS motor, trying to research as much as i can

[chevy72blu]

Originally Posted by badnova

so for oil pressure and water temp gauges do you change the senders? do the ones that come with aftermarket gauges screw right in? sorry this is my first LS motor, trying to research as much as i can

Sorry, forgot to mention that you can drill and tap the block for your mechanical oil pressure

[mcmlxix]

Originally Posted by badnova

so for oil pressure and water temp gauges do you change the senders? do the ones that come with aftermarket gauges screw right in? sorry this is my first LS motor, trying to research as much as i can

The water temp sensor the PCM uses is on the driver side front of the motor. There is another port on the rear passenger side, but they are metric thread pitch. You can drill and tap that to 1/8 NPT which seems to be the standard for aftermarket gauges. Autometer makes and adapter fitting from metric to 1/8 NPT. CLICK HERE


For oil pressure, you can buy block off plate thats tapped for a fitting or you can tap your existing block. Its right above the oil filter.... there are two versions of the factory piece. One is easier to tap then the other...

[mooseknuckles]

on mine I just removed the factory oil press. sending unit and replaced it with the autometer adapter and sending unit.....my aftermarket wire harness has no use for the oil pressure sending unit. and removed the plug in the pass side cyl. head and installed the autometer adapter and sending unit for the water temp...(the wire harness uses the one in the driver side head).....now my gauges are electric which makes it alot easier.....

[ls1nova71]

You can also tap the original oil pressure sender and use it as a fitting for your original line. If you use this location instead of the bypass block, your original line will still reach your gauge, and you won't have to use that crappy plastic line. I have pics on tapping the oil sender and also the head for the temp sender in my build thread for the truck in my avatar, look at post #26. http://ls1tech.com/forums/conversion...-c-10-a-2.html