my ls6 350z build

[04.350z]

been posting on other forums other than this one but a few people asked me to post here so i am going to just post all my progress here.

Im not nearly as detailed as some of the other owners on this forum but here we go

Decided a few weeks ago I was fed up with being boosted because i was at a turning point either build the block or swap the motor for a ls series motor.

I found a local to buy my turbo kit almost 3 days after being posted forsale.

built and tuned the kit for $4400 and sold it for $5000 so I came out on top.

first step was remove the turbo kit.





took about 3.5 hours to uninstall. record timing if you ask me.

the kid i sold the kit to asked me to install it and i said i would in about a month for a fee.

I went searching the forums for a ls series motor and wasnt finding anything that caught my eye.

decided to see who my dealership went through to find their remanned motors.

they go through a number of different ones only one had what i was looking for

neal auto out of peoria had a ls6 with 88k miles

complete with:
wiring harness
ecu
clutch and flywheel
and all accessories

onlyn things not included:
transmission
and throttle body.

I went through and ordered it.

It showed up this afternoon.





it was in pretty decent shape. in my eyes.

the powersteering pulley was snapped off which upset me a tad
the AF sensor wire was cut and missing the connector.
and two of the wires to the injectors were frayed
and i called them and they said they would find a replacement PS pump free of charge.

and he refunded me
$50 for the wiring issues.

seemed like a pretty decent company if you ask me.

so now i am waiting to get the motor home and on the engine stand to do some more inspections and decide what will be needed to be replaced/ upgraded before installation.

these are the things I already plan on buying/upgrading before the install:
fuel rails
spark plugs and wires
intake gasket set
head gaskets
water pump
all new pulleys
t56 transmission
cable driven throttlebody
sikky 1 7/8 long tube headers
sikky ls mount kit
sikky power steering line
sikky master cylinder

I am not familiar with what products are good for the ls motors yet. if you have any suggestions on brands etc let me know.

theres definately a long road ahead.

I have already found out that I am going to need to re-pin the ecu to run the cable driven throttle body. I did some research on possibly using the drive by wire set up but it just isnt worth the hastle.

I will be wiring the LS harness into the Z harness myself.
sikky offers the service but i have read too many horror stories and i know i can manage this myself

going to have to figure out a way to run the cable into the car and mount it but shouldnt be a problem. I have a few ideas and am searching the forums to see how others did it.

this is just the begging and will keep posted.

ill post more pics once i get the motor home and on the engine stand.

all comments and suggestions are welcome.

[04.350z]

well tonight i made a tad bit of progress.



removed the head lights, Power steering cooler, and hood latch.



removes the core support, radiator and ac components... unfortunately the support slipped and kinked a AC line which isnt tooo bad atleast where it bent willl just be a line to replace and not more than that..

I ended up borrowing a engine stand but did not have time to get the correct size bolts to hold it in place considering i dont have the T56 tranny yet.

Tomarros goal remove engine transmission and driveshaft. and label all connectors because I will have to wire the z harness into the ls6 harness.

[04.350z]

made a ton of progress today!

didnt make any purchases for the ls6 the week hopefully next pay period ill have the sikky kit on order or the T56 trans if i can find one..*if you know anyone that has one please let me know*

on the the pictures!

remove ac lines


removed ps line


remove shifter and driveshaft


cherry picking time!!!


up and out she came in about 3 hours give or take


vroom vroom

not me ... another toyota tech

ride kyle ride!


sitting pretty


placed the ls6 on the stand and removed the headers and threw away egr



thats pretty well my progress for the day.

next weeks goal is remove and label the harnesses from both ls6 and vq35
and prepare them to be wired together. not looking forward to next week but will post pics.

enjoy.

[04.350z]

yesturdays progress went well only spent about an hour and a half removing the wiring harness from the engine and trans all wires are correctly labeled and ready to be wired into the ls6 harness once it is labeled and removed.



on to the pics.



engine stripped of the wiring harness.





quick pic of the trans.





quick pic of the motor





im not sure but i think i toasted the oem clutch





bell housing





harness laid out and labeled





seperation pic





all wrapped up and ready to be shipped.





trans wrapped





loaded into the truck





so that was my progress last night.



progress planned for sunday is pull and label the ls6 harness.

pull the coil pack brackets and valve covers so sand and have them powder coated.



im thinking i am going to do gloss black with chrome flake for the valve covers and just gloss back on the coil brackets.



while the covers are off i will inspect the valves, springs etc. for damage and possible upgrade. and may perform a leak down test just for my own self satisfaction.



also i ordered the lokar 48" stainless steel braided throttle cable. in black.



*still looking for a throttle body*



hopefully ordering the sikky kit in the morning



will keep the forums updated. with pictures and progress

[04.350z]

So today is update day.
finally got to work on the ls6 a bit today and get things torn apart so i can figure out what needs to be replaced cleaned etc.

todays goal was to get the wiring harness labeled correctly and removed from the engine. a few clips were broken or missing but nothing i cant fix or dont need.

second on the list was remove the valve covers and inspect the heads to see what needs to be replaced or cleaned.







they were much cleaner than i expected so i think i am going to refrain from replacing the valve springs and valves for the time being considering how clean the heads are.

but that being said i spoke with Royal_T earlier and after discussing with him what should be done we decided the Texas Speed Torquer V2 was the cam for my particular setup.

next i removed the intake manifold to see what was going on down in the valley



was a bit dirtier than i was hoping looked like most of the dirt was just from being in storage.
but what i didnt like was the white crusty residue near the front of the valley looks to me like coolant so there will need to be more investigating next week on what is leaking or what the issue really is.



i went ahead and cleaned out the valley so that wont need to be done next week. i will remove the cover next week and clean is more throughly.



next i removed the waterpump assembly to clean up before installation.
i will have the pulley painted gloss black to match the coil pack brackets.



next i removed the alternator and ps bracket because i will be purchasing new brackets for both to clean up the bay just a bit.



lastly i removed both motor mounts and the ac compressor which will be set off to the side for now until i can get some ac lines made.

hopefully a few parts will show up this week.
i ordered the lokar 48" throttle cable
and gm performance spark plug wire replacements.

during the week this week while i have some down time at work i will be sanding down the coil pack brackets and the valve covers to they will be ready for paint later in the week.

[04.350z]

ok after a long week it is finally time for my Sunday update.

made quite a bit of progress on the tear down.
got alot of stuff cleaned up and ready for paint.

and got a ton of stuff ordered and on the way.

on to the pictures.

first off was removing this bad boy took me and another tech and a 24" snap on breaker bar to bust her nut.


then removed the harmonic balance which was equally as difficult


removed the heads to check out what was going on underneath


a tad dirty that i was hoping but not a big deal.
after i removed the heads i cleaned off the old head gasket. with a razor and a vacuum.


removed the front cover and the oil pan so i could gain access to remove the oil pump and pick up.




dont forget to line up your timing marks


remove the cam cover and cam


i did alot of cleaning this week with scotch brite and brake cleaner to get ready for paint and just to be cleaner.

i was going to paint the block but i took a wire wheel to the block and a few cans of brake clean and there was no need to paint the block



i cleaned up the water pump assembly and re painted the water pump pulley a semi gloss black


sanded and ready for paint








here are a few goodies that came in the mail this week.
GM performance spark plug wires


lokar throttle cable


GM Performance clutch assemly


also this past week I have been looking for the wiring diagrams for the ls1/ls6 harness along with the 350z harness. if anyone has acess to these i would love to have them.

all next week i should be getting in shipments of parts.
sikky mount kit headers ps line and master cylinder
ps bracket
alternator bracket
alternator pulley
texas speed torquer v3 cam kit
texas speed deluxe gasket kit
and a few others

goal for next sunday is have the heads rebuilt, cam installed,sikky installed along with the clutch assembly.

hopefully i will have the wiring diagram mapped out

and i hope i can get the t56 trans ordered sometime next week.

also my brand new matco 6s 3 bay tool box will be here tomarro woot !

ENJOY!

[04.350z]

ill be honest i didnt get anythign done this week been sick and busier than i have been in a long time.

and every tech at toyota came over and got drunk in the garage.

but this week this is what came in

texas speed cam kit with torquer v3 cam, dual valve springs, stem seals and titanium retainers.

texas speed deluxe gasket kit.

alper motor sports alternator bracket and power steering bracket.

still waiting for the sikky kit to be delivered.

heres the small update on what i got done

dual valve springs installed


all 16 in and man were they a Son of a B+@$% to install


I install the cam and cam gear and put her in time so the rocker arms can be installed along with the push rods.

but on a lighter note this cam into work last week as well.

matco 6's three bay with hutch and stainless steel top. out with the old and in with the new!!!



this week i plan to get the motor rebuilt and ready to be installed for when the sikky kit comes in.

Parts that will be ordered tonight or possibly in the AM:

vengeance fast fuel rail kit
harmonic balancer
krc power steering pulley
SPAL ultra thin fans
idle air control valve
throttle position sensor
idler pulley
spark plugs

also i put some thought into my intake, exhaust and coolant hoses.

and speed source inc in mahomet il will be making most of my stuff.
Carl makes amazing welds and his work never dissapoints.

enjoy

[04.350z]

ok guys finally i had time to getting around to updating this thread.

work has been hectic the past week

but here we go

left and right heads bolted down with ARP head bolts




intake manifold mounted up


throttle body with new IAC and TPS


thats about all the physical progress on the engine side of the build

we tracked down all the wires on the ls6 harness and have them labeled.

next we will do the same to the z harness and salvage as much as possible.

this harness needs to not only look oem but be oem spec.

Parts that came in this week.

drive belt


asp balancer


ARP crank bolt


lokar throttle cable bracket


had some issues with mounting this because the ls6 intake manifold is not tapped for a throttle cable considering the drive by wire setup.

i got a couple ideas to make it work but havent 100% figured out how i want to do it

parts on order
sikky products ... still waiting
fast fuel rail kit

ENJOY

[04.350z]

it was XMAS today!

PS line


oil filter relocator kit


engine and tranny mounts


master cylinder


headers


oil pan


drive shaft


fast fuel rail kit


installed pan


timing cover on i also installed the water pump assembly shortly after this and mounted up the alper motorsports alternator mount


for funsies


had my trusty pal


also finished a ton on the wiring

[04.350z]

sorry for the lack of updates guys.
been busy with work so i have not been able to upload the pics
not a whole lot has gotten done but alot of planning has been finished

so the t56 i ordered was a piece of junk and i had to send it back to the company i ordered it from i will be ordering a new one once my money is refunded.

i had a chance to set the motor in for a test fit and this is what i came up with




not much clearnace between the tb and the core support


i am ordering the lines to finish the fuel setup over the weekend and i am thinking about making a an fitting set up to run the lines back to the heater core so everything will match the black lines from the vengeance fuel rail kit

oh by the way the fuel rail kit from vengeance is a nice kit! but the brackets were very wrong.

i cut the old brackets from the oe fuel rail and drilled accordingly

also i am looking into either running the oem z radiator or possibly making a custom one not sure yet gettign a few second opionions and feel free to chime in.

also the harnesses have been tracked down and completed and will be wired together shortly.

if the harness comes out as quality as the other tech that is help are hoping we are planning to make these harnesses and compete with other companies just for fun.
if it isnt too much work.

this weekends goal is install the new master cylinder and hopefully order the new trans today.

enjoy !

[04.350z]

so i decided to post this update earlier that later cause i had a bit of extra time tonight.

so this is what came in spal fans water neck fuel compression fitting transmission and bellhousing.

so to start off i had to remove the slave cylinder to install the sikky line


then i mounted up the trans to the engine

close up of the exiting line


all mounted up and torqued down



at this point i went ahead and remove the oem shift linkage ill have to install the sikky shifter once the motor is in the car and tilt the engine back to make it work.

i then drilled a hole to let the slave line back into the compartment.


installed the sikky/wilwood slave


took the stock hardline and used a pipe bended to turn it about 70 degrees then installed the jegs 5/16 compression fitting


pulling these ends out and going to use earls fittings to run all the coolant lines




street and performance 15 degree water neck with 360 degree swivel


spal fans




enjoy more will be done over the weekend

[04.350z]

ok sorry for the late update but ran into quiter a few issues.

there wont be many pictures this update because i bought a new phone and all the pics are on the other phone :/

but here we go

i ordered all the lines for the fuel and coolant system and all the hose ends and fittings.
all earls fittings and hoses very quality stuff but unfortuneately no pictures :/

tapped the water pump assembly and that is ready to go
but no pictures :/

i ran into a few issues i didnt like the way i was going to attatch to the heater core so i am going a different direction.

i had to pull the whole motor for the third time because i was unaware that the ls1 trans will not shift into 2,4,6 or R

GM no longer makes the piece for the GTO so i called sikky and they shipped me one right away





also took some advice from BBS350z and ordered new clutch master cylinder lines





quality stuff and no need to drill.

ordered a few clips for the throttle body because i am converting from drive by wire to cable driven

www.larryselectricsite.com had everything i needed

also got alot of planning done on the harness and more will be finished this weekend

enjoy

[04.350z]

made quite a bit of progress tonight

power steering bracket came in finally


since my ls6 is drive by wire and i am converting to cable driven i had too tap the intake manifold where the ls1 throttle cable bracket would be


got all of the fuel lines ran and tightened down and done correctly

did a little test fit for the heater core lines and finally figured out the way i want to set up the system where it attatched to the oem core


decided to mount up the coil packs because i am not changing their wiring set up


got the slave cylinder and bleeder set up


when i went with the alper ps bracket i had to extend the lines a little bit to get them to run thrm to be a tad bit hidden


SIKKKKKYYYY


wired in the tps connect becasue of the conversion


more to come tomarro hopefullly

enjoy

[04.350z]

got a ton done the past week but havent hadn time to make any sort of update. but finally ill have a minute to sit down and show my progress.

started off the week by removing all the unnessesary wires from the ls6 harness

removed 27 wires total


i decided the way that chevy runs there injector power wires was a bad choice so i changed it from each individual injector getting a 12v power wire to a parallel series wire with each injector spliced in


as far as the wiring for the ls6 harness it is finsihed other than one connector for the reverse lamp switch which i am waiting on the connector as we speak.

we are working on a way to utilize the stock nissan DLC connector and put it on a switch to change from 350z-ls6 depending on which ecu you are wanting to scan.

also we are working on the bugs on the immobilizer for the ls6 so it will crank without the stock signal, we are going to attempt to use the nissan signal.

finally all my fittings for the heater core hoses came in and i was able to build those


mounted them up to the fire wall


this is a poor picture but there is my clearance for the heater core lines


sikky 1 7/8 long tube header clearance and you can see how the coolant is ran to and from the water pump assembly


radiator set up
the speed and performance water neck worked out well but im going to need to get creative on the hoses that run to and from the radiator from the water pump assembly. if anyone has any suggerstions please let me know!


more will be finsihed monday and should be up and running shortly

questions comments and suggestions are all welcome!

enjoy!

[04.350z]

ok got lots done the past couple weeks

got all the wiring from the nissan ecu removed that will not be needed

figured out a bunch of power steering stuff

and got her to run on fuel for about 3-4 seconds

but heres the pics:

if you want to run the remote set up like mine you need the ls6 pressure line fitting so that the sikky pressure line will fit



mounted up the power steering cooler roughly where i want it



ran the lines up through where the stock vq intake runs





going to run a 1" aluminum tube to connect the upper and lower radiator hoses



removed almost all the nissan harness except for a few minors things
this

to this


sent the ecm to speed inc in chicago to get the base tune for my cam
remove the maf
remove the VATS
remove the Rear O2 sensors
and a bunch of stuff i cant remember

i cant figure out how to upload the video or i would

seems like it has an extended crank hoping that is because of the VATS but we will find out soon.

enjoy!

[BarrigaS14]

Nice build! I hate wiring harnesses.

[04.350z]

Just takes time

[PureRush]

Nice! Post up a video!

[feito]

and the pushrod engine keeps outperforming the mighty twin cams, supercharged n turbo wonders. Nice build. Either u guys have really good jobs, save every dollar, or dont drink xD, Waiting for more!

[04.350z]

Im a Toyota technician don't drink and getting married but i still manage id love to post the start up video but can't figure out hot to get in from facebook to a forum help?

[stamps31757]

i like the car

[04.350z]

Sorry for the lack of updates

I got the ecm back
But i dont have the car.

Its out getting exhaust made and the intake pipe made.
He is also getting the correct angle and length for the throttle cable.

But i should have ot back Wednesday and start back to work.on Thursday.

As of now literally have to hook up the coolant lines and fire her up and begin work on figuring.out how to make the oem gauges work

[04.350z]

ok finnallly for a small update before she is finished.
so we came to the conclusion that the stock tach will not work the can bus system is going to be too hard to by pass.
but for some reason the speedo works not sure why or how accurate it is.
so im pretty positive i am going to pull all the gauges and run after market ones which i am not familiar with trying to get them to work any suggestions or opinions or part numbers are welcome.
i ran the car for about thirty seconds and seems to be ok idle is kinda high but i figured it would be considering new iac new computer etc. it will prolly have to learn a little bit.
but today i am buttoning up the whole system and hopefully driving it home.
also i popped it in first gear while on the jack stands and under any sort of throttle it kicks out of gear i think the detents might be bad. i want to try it again with it filled with fluid and see what happens .
but where is my update
utilized the stock z pedal

ran the line up through the firewall



headers were wrapped to prevent heat soak


ypipe that was made


upper radiator hose

enjoy ill be putting it all together today hopefully drving it home tonight

[Guilty1s]

Speedometer works from the sensor in the wheel hub. that's all I have to add.

Nice build. Good luck.

[h2v7]

nice ls info stuffs here too thanks

[04.350z]

trying to help the community that is all

[sky53line]

This thread gives me a hard on. Cant wait to give it a test drive next month buddy. Glad you finally listened to me and got rid of the turbo after 2 years.

[04.350z]

lol yeah i was only boosted for about 6 months
but hopefully she will be done by then ordering tachometer speedo and fuel/coolant gauges soon

[04.350z]

Small quick update

The car moves

But ran into a few issues was finishing up the wiring for the coolant relay and something sparked and toasted my relay circuit board but a new one has been ordered.

Got the tachimeter ordered and the new circuit board ordered.

Was having issues with the sikky shifter it kicks out of gear under any sort of throttle so the requested i ship it back

So currently im in wait mode

[turbo2nr]

Great build man! cant wait to hear that thing.

mind sharing where you bought the lsx motor from and the Transmission?? I may be in the market for one soon