Stalker upgrade to LS engine and Tkx transmission

[searya]

Finally making the upgrade to an LS Engine in my Stalker this winter so figured I would post up some pics and info on the upgrade for others that have yet to take the leap. 
 

Main components of the upgrade are:

 

1. Upgraded naturally aspirated ls1 (don’t do this just buy a crate ls3 as the cost is almost the same)

2. New close ratio Tremec Tkx transmission (really looking forward to having a usable 5th gear on the track)

3. PowerTrain technology 7.25 inch triple disc clutch 

4. Holley TeminatorX Efi system (going to learn how to tune!)

 

My 8th grade daughter has been helping me out with the engine build and work so far which is also really fun!

 

Here are some pics so far. 

Edited December 14, 2022 by searya

[MV8]

That's an interesting pressure plate coming off with torsion springs and cooling scoops.

If it is a small bur on the nut, the tapered pin can be squeezed into the arm boss with a C-clamp or a vice grip directly to the pin and work the nut back and forth. You can tell if the nut is the issue if it also doesn't turn easily on the other lbj pin threads.

Your take off parts (eng/trans, rad, efi, plumbing,exhaust,etc) would make a nice complete setup for the right buyer/builder.

[searya]

I will definitely be doing a garage sale or all the unused LS and 3800SC parts after I get the new engine up and running. I have so many parts around that I think I am going to have to get more shelving to hold them
 

As to the pressure plate I may not be seeing the potential problem you referencing or could be that the 7.25 clutch connects to a “button flywheel” (the silver part of the clutch). This small flywheel then attaches to the flex plate and crank. The whole setup including flex plate weight just 21lbs. Vs the stock clutch and flywheel weight of 52lbs!

https://www.powertraintech.com/collections/clutches-flywheel/products/7-25-clutch-flywheel

 

 

[searya]

Got a little more done this week. Mostly stripping down the car of the now un-needed components like the old wiring harness and gauges. 
 

The holley efi system comes with a 3.5 inch dash that can display anything you want to see and also light up different colors for warnings (like low oil pressure etc). 
 

Also had one sarcastically fun time getting the old u-joint off the drive shaft. In the end I won though and it came out.  Turns out the drive shaft side of the ujoint is a ‘1310’ size but the slip yolk I bought was a ‘1350’ size. 
I must not be the first one to make that mistake as they have ujoints that allow you to mate them!

 

I also bought and installed a new throttle body and adapter plate. The old throttle body was just too junky so this makes it look at least a little nicer and can be used on larger ls engines if I ever switch in the future. 
 

picture of the adapter that allowed me to mount my new 4 bolt 92mm throttle body to my 3 bolt 75mm LS6 intake. Really nice piece for from ict billet that cost $30 or less and came with all the mounting hardware. 

 

 

new throttle installed. I used the 4 bolts that came with the throttle body to mount it instead of the ones that came

with the adapter as those were too long. 

Edited October 17 by searya

[searya]

Picture of the split size ujoint I found  

 

old ujoint and old slip yolk after I finally got he caps off. Pressing the ujoint from side to side was a piece of cake but getting a cap off that too a lot of cussing. 

 

matching up the now Broken apart old ujoint end cap with new part small side to ensure they were both 1310 size. 

 

pic of the old Pontiac engine wiring harness once I freed it from the car. 

Edited October 17 by searya

[searya]

Lot of empty holes in the dash now that I don’t need separate gauges. Guess I need to figure out what to do about the empty spots now. 

 

Update: I ended up just cutting off the section of the dash in front of the shifter that had the gauge holes in it.  For the whole right in front of the steering wheel I added a piece of carbon fiber to the back side and mounted the 3.5 inch dash on the front.

Edited October 17 by searya

[MV8]

I wasn't saying there was a problem on the old pressure plate.

Regarding the dash, 3m auto trim double sided tape is very strong and thin. You could fit matching patches or recover the whole panel, then drill the screw holes and anything else you want to keep in the same spot from the front. May want to make a sun visor for the new cluster since it is an open roof car.

[Croc]

Apologies for going off topic but Is that a Fiat 124 Spider in the background?   

[searya]

MV8 thanks for the ideas on fixing the holes and and the sun shield for the screen. I will try both of those. 
 

Croc - yes it is. It is actually my 19 year old sons. We restored it as a father son project just over a year ago and he learned to drive stick on it. 

[searya]

Got the engine moved from my pole barn down the garage with some help from 2 of my boys. With their help we were able to use the cherry picker to load it into the back of my Ford Expedition and drive it around to the garage where we reversed the process and used the cherry picker to unload it. 

[searya]

Also got my PowerTrain technology throw out bearing installed. As part of the install my daughter and I had to measure to see if we would need to add shims to the bearing. Turns out that that no shims were needed. I guess the height of having a triple disc clutch takes up all the space between the throw out bearing and the clutch fingers. In the end you are supposed to have between .125 and .1875 between the two. I ended up at .150 with no shims. 
 

install is super easy. I have a bleed tube top that will extend out of the bell housing for initial bleeding future fluid changes. Then the longer master cylinder hose on the bottom. 
 

Since I didn’t have to add shims the only other part of the install was to undo one bolt and put in an anti spin stud in its place. Once that was in you just slide on the bearing and you are done. 

Edited January 8, 2023 by searya

[searya]

Things are moving fast!

 

After measuring for clearance between the clutch fingers and throw out bearing my son and I got the transmission bolted to the engine. Took a bunch of wiggling but once the spines lined up it went right. Since my bell housing was made for a mechanical throw out I was even able to double check the measurement using a feeler gauge through the hole made for the clutch fork and it looked perfect!

 

A couple days later my sons friend joint the fun to help cut and weld back on one frame bar that has to be moved a few inches to clear the starter part of the bell housing. We though that we would have to also cut and increase the height of the cross bar above the bell housing but when test fitting the engine in we found we still had .25 inches of clearance!  So we just bolted up the motor mounts I got from Scott Minehart at stalker cars. 
 

Another pleasant surprise was that the transmission mount bar lined right up with the tkx mount plate!  All I had to do was slot out the original bolt holes some so I could screw them in. 
 

All in all the new heavier tkx transmission fit in the transmission tunnel EASIER than my old t5!

[searya]

Lots of work but not much ‘completed’ in the past week. 
 

I fitted up the oil pan which is definitely the lowest part of the car. Plan to weld on some sacrificial metal pieces a little lower to protect it.  I have is moroso 20142. It is a racing baffled pan that holds 7quarts and is 6 inches deep. Minehart recommends the stock corvette ls3 oil pan which I think is 4.85 inches deep but it only holds 5.5 qts and doesn’t have a racing baffle. 
 

Being concerned with oil starvation in the high g and sustained g turns I am also adding a 3qt canton oil accumulator. 
 

Nice benefit on that is I am also going to use it to pre-lubricate the engine before first start.  To do that I just used a plastic hanger piece, opened the valve and then while pressing the hanger part into the accumulator I simultaneously opened the tire style valve on the back of the pump. This allowed me to press the piston inside the accumulator all the way back. Plan now is when ready I will fill the accumulator with 3 qts of oil and wire it to the oil pan in port and then pump up the tire valve. This should then force the 3 qts of oil through the system so I won’t have a dry start!

 

I though I was ready to wire up the fuel tank but then realized the ls1 engine with a stock fuel rail doesn’t have a fuel return line like my old 3800 sc does. 
 

To overcome that I bought a post pump fuel filter that has another fuel pressure regulator incorporated into it. So if pressure in that filter hits 58 psi it is routed back to my gas tank without even making the trip up to the engine.  Nice benefit if that is one less hose running through the transmission tunnel. 
 

Finally with the help of my son and his 3d printing skills I started to design an alternator mount that will allow the alternator to be flipped backwards (pulley facing the engine). I looked for hours at every type of alternator bracket on the market with no luck. Every time I found one that I though would work I would measure only to realize the alternator would hit the frame, suspension mount, driveshaft, water pump or hood. 
 

Good thing is if I get this figured out my plan is to send the 3d models to sendcutsend.com and then anyone else that needs them can do the same. 
 

 

Edited January 25, 2023 by searya

[MV8]

Maybe this will give you some ideas. Common steel plate and gas pipe or dom tube. No extra long studs. No welding. The pipe/dom needs to be cut or ground square though.

[MV8]

This should make it more clear. The spacers and plate can be low carbon mild steel or thick walled aluminum tube. The alternator is designed to be supported by just the material around the attachment bolts. There is no need to spread the load across the case. The water pump bolts should be a 1/4 inch longer. If you tell me the head bolt and alt bolt sizes, I can tell you what size pipe or dom to use.

 

The placement of the alt on the plate is a guess based on the chassis clearance.

[searya]

Thanks I like that design so I am going to do a mock-up this weekend to see how the alternator fit!
 

The head bolts are m10 and the water pump are m8. 

[MV8]

For the m8 alt bolts, you could use dom tube (5/8, 0.148 wall) or 1/4 gas pipe.

For the m10 head bolts, dom  tube 3/4, 0.165 wall.

For a close fit to the head bolts, you might have to rotary file or ream slightly depending on the dom/pipe and bolt tolerances, dom 5/8, 0.120 wall or 1/4 gas pipe.

The pipe has a weld ridge inside that is easily filed down. DOM is drawn over a mandrel to flatten the inside weld bead. You can find short pieces of dom offered on ebay if your local metal supplier doesn't stock it. The fit to the tube spacers is not critical. The holes in the plate align. The gas pipe is easy to find but needs more work (sanding inside and out, and filing the weld bead inside).

[MV8]

Duh! Here I am talking about crusty pipe when Mcmaster has spacers to order: https://www.mcmaster.com/spacers/for-screw-size~m8/for-screw-size~m10/

 

Look at the od of the flat area around the bolt holes in the alt to determine an acceptable spacer wall thickness. If not available, consider a washer between the alt body and the spacer or you can buy tube to cut to length.

 

The alt bolt heads should be forward of the alt with split lock washers and regular washer between the heads and the alt body. The nuts can be tacked to the rear of the plate so they do not need to be held with a wrench to remove the alt. By putting the bolt heads forward, the alt need only move forward an inch or so for removal.

 

Edited January 29, 2023 by MV8

[searya]

Thanks and sorry for the long delay in response. 
 

Love the idea of spacers if the have size I need. And also the idea to tack the alternator nuts to the plate. 
 

I will keep you up to speed o. How it turns out!

[searya]

Quick update. Lots of challenges figuring out what parts fit etc. to get the oil pressure sensor to fit I ended up needing a strait and an 90 degree not adapter. Still not a big fan of the clearance from sensor to frame though (update: I moved the sensor to right before the accusump as I think it would hit the frame in the original spot as the engine moves on the mounts)
 

Also looks like I am going to need to cut and reweld the steering rack to make it lower as the height of the mount does not allow the water pump/alternator belt to fit without rubbing against it. I even tried buying a manual tensioner from ict billet and that didn’t help enough at all. 
 

I did get the fuel system run from the tank to the front of the car. I will finish up the rest later as I want to see where I can best fit the e85 sensor and the fuel pressure sensor. 
 

also lots of nuts etc bought for the cooling system but not totally done yet. 
 

with all if this once I find a working solution I will make sure to come back and document with part numbers and detailed photos. 
 

finally I decided I need to run my accusump into the engine block oil galley as installing the suggested sandwich adapter that goes between pan and filter would have put my filter an inch below the already too low oil pan. 
 

more pics to come in that setup too as I get in the galley port m16x1.5 to 10an adapter. 

Edited October 17 by searya