Engine and Transmission Tech

Since this thread is engine specific and my project has moved to the conversion phase, this is going to be a "close-out" post for me in this thread. I believe the MG Forum is the proper place to document an MG build. I'll still answer questions and contribute if I feel I can make a contribution but won't be posting progress here any longer. Please go here if you're interested in following this thing.

[forum.britishv8.org]

It might not look it but I've made a lot of progress over the past couple of weeks. The V6 has been pulled and the engine/wiring/ECU/headers/mounts are sold. Looks like I'm committed. (my wife thinks I should be committed. :) )

For those who may have wondered, the S-10 bellhousing fits nicely over the 148 tooth flywheel. To me, it looks to be about the smallest RWD bellhousing with the small GM pattern so I think the odds favor the other bellhousings working with a 148 tooth. For some reason, GM put a bellhousing dowel for the "big" bellhousing in the LS4 block and it required some minor grinding in order to get the small bellhousing to mate properly...not a big deal.





Oh, in the above picture, you can see the edge of the rear cover..the thing with the tab. I mentioned in my previous post about grinding the block to fit a starter to the 142 tooth flywheel. This will give you an idea of what you will run into if you would attempt to do this.

One thing I haven't discussed are some of the little LS4 details I ran into when researching which LS motor I was going to use. I'm not sure if the following is internet legend and has been blown way out of proportion but there supposedly were issues with the DOD in the LS4. The problem as I understand it...correct me if I'm wrong...was when the engine was in DOD mode, too much oil was directed at the cylinders and over time this caused the oil control rings to get gummed up and stuck causing oil consumption. The factory came up with a procedure where they put some kind of solvent in the cylinders that was supposed to loosen up the gunk and free up the rings. There is supposed to be an updated pan gasket that reduces the amount of oil directed at the cylinders and corrects the problem. Again, this happened only in DOD mode which is essentially crusing on the open road. The reason I mention this is it might be a good idea to pull the plugs if you're shopping for one of these and check for evidence of burning oil. I don't know how widespread the problem is.

The other thing you might want to be aware of is engines 2006 and older had 24 tooth crankshaft reluctor wheels and 1 tooth cam gears (for the cam position sensor). All LS4s 2007 and newer had 58 tooth crankshaft reluctor wheels and, I believe, 4 tooth cam gears. This makes a difference if you're going with a factory computer. The popular 0411 PCM won't work with the later motors unless you get a module to convert the 58 tooth signal to 24. I believe MS3 will work with both signals. Not a huge deal, just something to be aware of.

I think most of the other stuff has been mentioned at one time or another in this thread.

Regards

Scott