video of my Vortec V8 beetle

[duratothemax]

I finally got my beetle running tonight.

I dunno about you guys, but I think it sounds pretty nasty, at least for a VW beetle it does.

Kyle (1lowdiesel) will get a kick out of this because this is the motor that came out of his half ton that he swapped the cummins into.

Even without a CASE relearn, you can see on the tech 2 that it settles down to a nice smooth idle. It will run even smoother and quieter once I mount the radiator, figure out the radiator hoses, and put some coolant in it.

I need to mount the [drive by wire] accelerator pedal, mount the ECM, and clean up the wiring/put it in some nice wire loom. After that I can put the body back on, make an intake, put the cooling fan back on, and finally, take it out for a test drive and see how fast I can grenade an AMC20 and Dana 30 with 300hp. :rofl:

Anyone who knows about LSx engines...do they run hot and need a lot of cooling? Id like to reuse my existing radiator which was out of a chevy astro van. It did a fine job keeping the 4.3 V6 cool, but I dunno how much more heat an LSx puts out?

yes, that is a steering wheel off a simplicity lawn tractor.

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Ben

 

[maine04max]

I personally think it sound awesome . Nice job Ben . what did you do as far as exhaust????

 

[duratothemax]

I personally think it sound awesome . Nice job Ben . what did you do as far as exhaust????

two cherrybombs and some hacked up exhaust piping that I welded together/built in about 5 minutes. :joker:

 

[mick]

Will be a wild ride Ben. Will it be going on the street?

 

[Turbotug]

Pics please...

 

[Dozerboy]

Cool Ben I look forward to the vids of it on the street:cool2:

There was or is pics in his garage on DP

 

[03 D-max]

You need to come back to NY when you get that thing done and give me a shout, I want a ride

 

[duratothemax]

You need to come back to NY when you get that thing done and give me a shout, I want a ride

I think im coming up next weekend...I can hear the tick tock calling my name all the way down here in CT...

ben

 

[03 D-max]

I think im coming up next weekend...I can hear the tick tock calling my name all the way down here in CT...

ben

You should come to the Pulls In Cincy saturday.
I'm guessing the beetle wont be done by then....

 

[Jasondt2001]

Hey Ben,
The LS in my mom's Trans Am does run hot - average of 216 degrees sitting in the driveway with a log of 36 seconds (I was tracing a fuel tank leak).
During the 30 seconds it started @ 214 went to 219 fan kicked on and brought it back to 217 where i stopped the log.
I wish I could be more help, but, the one thing I noticed about her car sitting in traffic is you better have working fans, it seems like it's always up and down.

 

[JoshH]

That's really cool.

 

[TIM Z]

Awesome Ben!

Gen III engines are awesome!!!!

Put a cooler thermostat in and try your 4.3 Rad, i bet it will be fine, also add some water wetter, it wont hurt.

Did you use the stock harness?

 

[duratothemax]

Yes I used the stock harness and completely reworked/modded it myself. I left the NSBU and transmission connectors on the harness though (even tho im running a TH400 which obviously doesnt need any PCM) just incase I decide to swap to a 4L60 or 4L80 later on....

The harness is from a 2005 6.0 I think. Well, its either a 2005 or 2006. Reason I know its from a 2005-2006 is because it has the RVC (regulated voltage control, the "smart" generator controller module) which was only added in 05. And its not an 07 because those went to the new Exx ECM's)....

After its running Im going to play with efilive a bit. I want to tune the drive by wire startup throttle cracker and decay tables really high so it starts with an exaggerated huge roar before settling down to idle.

ben

 

[Rhall]

Thats pretty sweet Ben, that thing might pop wheelies:cool2:

 

[DuramaxPowered]

Sweet!! I have a Jeep CJ5 that i've been wanting to swap an LS motor into.....

 

[Darius6t9]

I want to see some pics of how he has the drivetrain set up in that thing. I can see it now. A Duramax beetle. HEHEHE:lildevil::lildevil:

 

[TheBac]

Holy crap, Ben...that is very cool! I gotta ask...what was the inspiration for doing the swap? How did you make a 4x4 Beetle in the first place?

 

[Unit453]

I remember seeing that. I never imagined a 5.3 in it though. Or is it a 4.8? Regardless, thats a lot of motor...!

 

[duratothemax]

I remember seeing that. I never imagined a 5.3 in it though. Or is it a 4.8? Regardless, thats a lot of motor...!

its a 4.8, but I usually just tell everyone its a 5.3 because everyone knows what a 5.3 is...95% the same motors, the 4.8's and 5.3's.

4.8 is just a 5.3 thats destroked a couple mm. Same block, heads, etc... Thats why they have roughly the same hp, but the 5.3 has a bit more torque.

The 4.8 is 295hp/305tq and the 5.3 is 310hp/335tq IIRC.

Ive been driving it a bit up and down our [dead end] road. I found out that a TH400 will not shift out of 1st gear with the vacuum modulator disconnected, that took me a while to figure out that problem. Duh.

I also found out that a 10amp fuse for the headlights works fine on low beam, but will quickly blow if you switch to high beam. I was driving down our road late at night, everything working fine, and for whatever stupid reason I decided to flick my high beams on...nothing wrong with the low beams, they are PLENTY bright. BOOM, headlights went out as I was going around a sharp corner at 35mph. I slammed on the brakes (thank-you, hydroboost and simpson 5 point harness) just as I flew off the road. I had a maglite with me that was mostly dead, so I leaned out the window and drove a mile or so back to my house using that as a "headlight". We live out in the middle of nowhere so theres not even a yellow centerline on the road to follow.

I fixed everything else up and drove it a little more today. The motor runs perfectly cool with the 4.3 radiator. It has awesome oil pressure runs way cooler than the 4.3. ECT never even went above 180, with the [ford taurus] fan on its slowest speed. Now that its learned the fuel trims and everything I cant believe how smooth and quiet it is once it goes into closed loop and settles down...and I still havent even done the CASE relearn. Id say its hardly even louder than my dads tahoe (5.3) at idle. Of course once you get into it it makes some cool noise though. :angel:

I have yet to go above 60% throttle even when trying some launches...a "boosted" 4x4 launch feels like a 1.80 60 foot, no joke. Too bad the TH400 doesnt have lockup, but IMO its plenty fast enough for most anyone as it is with a completely stock tune. Oh and I love drive by wire...its so smooth.

But its back up on the lift again, the shifter broke. It was kinda a ... rigged setup to begin with, but now its broken completely. The shifter cable is about 12 feet long and I really could have done a better job fabbing it up. The shifter on the column moves but the little lever at the base of the column doesnt move. Something stripped out somewhere in the column.

And a little FYI, if any of you have to do a service or rebuild on one of the generic ~1970-93 GM steering columns, (with the exception of replacing those tilt pins that ALWAYS break) dont even bother taking it apart. Save yourself hours of headache and just go buy another one from the junk yard. Now I know why theres no info really on forums about how to rebuild them/put them back together. Because no one knows how.

I found what had popped out of place in mine and was able to get that back together, but after fiddling with the stupid cam/lock pin/key switch assembly for 6 hours, and losing some important parts that went flying off into a corner of the shop, I finally just said "DONE!!!", smashed it with a 5 pound sledge, and threw it out the door.

Im going to go to some junkyards tomorrow and see if I can find a new one. I DONT want a tilt column or one with the intermittent wipers widget so I cant see a junkyard wanting more than 50 bucks for it. Once I get that in, the shifter re-connected, and the passenger seat in, it will be pretty much done.

Id like to have it completely done by this weekend because theres a huge VW Beetle/Bus show this weekend in long island that one of my frineds is taking his beautiful '53 beetle to, I think it would be a hoot to bring my beetle as well. :joker:

ben

 

[Jasondt2001]

I'm glad I was wrong about it running to hot on you Ben.. I wish you were closer I'd drive to that VW show just to see that thing!! :hug: