LS7 Corvette Wet-Sump Conversion - Engine Power S1, E6

[Music] swapping a corvette's ls7 into another ride can be a very tight fit the solution convert their bulky dread oiling system to the smaller wet sump welcome to engine power where the search for more is our number one agenda the 505 horsepower ls7 is the most powerful natural aspirated ls engine and was only available on z06 corvettes that makes it the most sought after power plant for swaps into wild rides like airplanes helicopters sand rails and anything on four wheels today we're going to show you how to convert this ls7 from its factory dred system to a wet sump oiling system to make swaps easier by saving room in the engine bay cash on oil changes and get it ready to transplant into your project plus we're going to add close to 100 horsepower with some off-the-shelf parts these engines can be a little pricey but there's no doubt you're going to have a serious powerhouse on your hands now as far as finding one don't worry they're readily available this thing looks good money bags where'd you pick it up uh this is an internet deal z06 corvette burnt down 10 000 miles pretty much complete it needs a few things so i don't need the car anyways heck of a find yeah the ls7 corvette was the only gm vehicle with this unique oiling system now the z06 corvette was able to pull more than three g's and if a standard wet sump was used oil would be forced away from the pickup and starve the engine of oil here's the factory ls7 oiling system minus the oil cooler now it's referred to as a dre system dret and it combines both a dry and a wet together now this is the oil tank you have a feed in the supply line and the oil pan now the pump is best described as two pumps in one you have a scavenge side and a supply side here's a look at how the oil flows through the system from the tank it's gravity fed to the supply side of the pump that pumps it back to the oil filter through the oil cooler and back into the engine now the oil goes through the engine and drains back down into the pan now the scavenge side of the pump pulls the oil through the pickup goes through the pump and returns it back to the oil tank now since most of the vehicles that are swapped with an ls7 will never see the abuse or the g's of a z06 corvette we're going to swap this one out to a true wet sump now what we're going to use is a holley oil pan with their new pro tour baffle set up with trap doors an ls3 balancer from ati an ls3 melling's high volume oil pump ls3 windage tray a comp double roll 4x ls3 timing set as well as a new timing chain cover now this is pretty cool this is a jig that's going to help us put a dipstick into the block without getting it off and messing it up we'll show you how to do that later we chose this one because the company we got it from pulls them apart checks everything and cleans them so they can guarantee it to the customer we'll start the tear down by removing the front accessories the belt will be the first thing to go next up is the water pump assembly now loosen the power steering pump and reservoir to access the main bracket bolts and remove it with the alternator attached the ac compressor can go now along with its mounting bracket ls7s have center dump manifolds so these can be removed since we'll run long tubes on the dyno and we won't need a starter so away it goes we'll use our matco balancer remover tool to remove the factory piece the parts removed from this point on will be kept around and put to good use in the future the ls7 has a couple of drain plugs the front one is to drain the external oil tank and lines that come into the side of the pan the rear one is to drain the pan sump with the pan out of the way we can remove the windage tray back up front the timing cover needs to come off to access the oil pump and the timing chain now here's a better look at the pump showing the scavenge and the supply side now we need to remove the valve covers remove the rockers and the push rods to take the pressure off the lifters before we pull the timing chain compression sounds good ring should be fine now we can pin the chain tensioner which allows us to remove the three cam sprocket bolts and the rest of the assembly normally this would be the time we would go ahead and swap the cam camshaft but our plans are to do the oil system swap first and get a baseline back on the dyno then we'll go ahead and swap the camshaft and springs and see what we get right now it's time for a break when we come back the new parts go on our ls7 is ready to get dressed this time it's going to be a little less flashy since it's losing everything related to the dret system now our first new part to go on is pretty important if you get this wrong it will not run we're going to be running a comp cams lsx double row with a 4x sprocket and a 3 bolt cam pattern now the cool thing about this is it's a double row with a heat treated chain it's already been pre-stretched with the non-position crank sprocket pressed into place i'll set it up at zero which means there will be no or advance of the camshaft in relation to the crankshaft medium strength loctite will keep the bolts in place this trick flow dampener is made of durable oe plastic and provides a small amount of tension on the chain which keeps it from whipping during gear changes now i've got a little tip for you guys that won't cost but about five dollars but can save you thousands if you're going to stop during any part of your assembly go away and come back after you've torqued a bolt put a little line on it now this can do two things it's an instant visual to let you know what's been torqued but also when you tear the motor down if the lines have separated you know a bolt is moved since the oil pump is basically the heart of the engine we want it to work as efficient as possible so we're going to go ahead and knock off any sharp edges where the oil goes in and out of the pump that's going to give the oil a nice smooth path to flow when using a grinder like this don't apply a lot of pressure or rpm let the cartridge roll do the work you just guide it now as you work away the edges remember to make a smooth radius to promote flow now we can wash the housing and it's ready to go on i'm using silicone to hold these two spacers in place that were supplied with the timing set they go between the pump housing and the block to give us the clearance for that thicker chain now just finger tighten the pump for now first lube and install the crank sprocket then the driven gear will go into place and shim it against the pump housing using three one and a half thousand shims now install the drive gear and shim it against the crank sprocket with the same size shims and when the pump is tightened in a crisscross pattern it's aligned with the crankshaft and will prevent premature pump housing wear with a little loctite on the cover bolts we can close the pump back up when spacing the milling oil pump away from the block to clear the double row timing set we moved it closer to the timing cover now that caused an interference so the cover won't sit flush against the block but we've got an easy fix for that apply machinist die around the area the pump comes closest to the cover now push the cover towards the pump and wiggle it around against it remove the cover and you'll have bare aluminum showing where the interference is we have a mark here here and here that needs to be clearanced because the material is so thin use a cartridge roll rather than a burr to keep from breaking through using the gasket install the cover and just run it down the extra thickness of the gasket will ensure we have the necessary clearance we'll tighten it up in just a bit the factory dipstick pad is still on the block without a hole in it the original dipstick was in the external tank and tech afx offers the perfect solution to add one with this dipstick drill guide for the ls7 now drill through the block using the fixture as your guide then you can test fit the gmls tube which seals to the block with an o-ring nice once the hole is chamfered this is where a few more small clearance issues could come into play but no worries they're all super simple fixes now we're losing the ls7 windage tray for an ls3 version now this thing's job is to interrupt the vortex of oil caused by crankshaft rotation and get it down into the sump faster so the pickup doesn't start for oil now this one is a little bit shorter than the ls7s so that could raise our first concern when the parts in the engine get up to temperature they expand right now this is not touching but it's a little too close for comfort so we'll place 10 washers underneath the tray drop it back in place torque it to spec and now you can see a lot more clearance between the two which this is plenty next up is the old pump pickup which was supplied with the pan kit then we'll apply some loctite anti-seize to the crank snout and install an ati ls3 balancer remember we left the timer cover loose to allow the balancer to center it an arp balancer bolt will keep it snug and tight to the crankshaft a holley pro tour baffled with three trap doors will keep oil in the sump it'll also control oil slosh and is designed to be a bolt in piece to their retrofit oil pans now on a previous ls build we had some oil seeping past the bolts that hold the pan on so we'll use a small dab of silicone to avoid that problem and using a straight edge we'll make sure that the front and rear covers are flush with the block and it's a good fit now we can tighten them down and the bottom end is sealed up and when we come back we'll meet you back in the dino you got four over there now don't you yes sir yeah i'm not a sir yet dude we're back and the ls7 is docked and ready for its bolt-ons now we'll start with a set of hedman hustler muscle rod mid-length headers these are for a first-gen camaro with an ls swap which is where this engine is headed they have a 3 8 inch flange to avoid warping and a one and three quarter inch set of primaries dump into a three inch collector to hold them in place a set of stage eight lock and header bolts with them tight install the locking retainer and finally the clip into the groove of the bolt head now there's no chance of one coming out to keep it cool a mizir electric water pump factory harnesses can be pretty bulky and actually clutter up an engine bay and aftermarket harnesses well they can be kind of expensive so the best solution we've found to this is by an xgm engineer that has one of the nicest harnesses we've ever used his company is called speartek and this is the ls7 manual wiring harness with electronic throttle control kit it's custom built to fit the engine like a glove and uses a high temp high abrasion resistance covering to protect the engine circuits it has its own fuse block and came with an e38 pre-programmed dcm and there's only three connections for power now we can attach the rubber inlet elbow to the throttle body followed by the mass airflow sensor and tube and to cap it all off a conical filter from airaid this aeromotive fitting connects the factory fuel rail to a dash eight hose john you ready and clear yes sir here we go [Music] now so far we swapped the dread oiling system for a wet sump to make this ls7 a more swap friendly engine with good oil pressure and the engine to temp thing loads up so nice we're making a few baseline runs before the next phase of this build 493 491 all right that's pretty par for a brand new set of rings on the first pull [Music] [Applause] [Music] sounded good old good i saw a good number on there yes sir 542 horsepower 510 pound feet that's our baseline all righty why all the tear down to get ready for the next phase of this project which is a new camshaft and intake manifold by now we all know how well ls engines respond to aftermarket camshafts so we ordered this comp one with this in mind a broad top end power range now it requires a spring upgrade which we got covered it has an rpm range from 2400 to 7200 rpm and it's in comp's all-out power family duration at 50 for the intake is 239 exhaust is 255. valve lift is 624 on the intake and the exhaust the intake center line is 110 degrees the heads have to come off so we can replace the valve springs due to our higher lift camshaft now even though the old spring looks like the new spring they're completely different now the factory spring is only good to 600 inch of lift before we run in the coil bind you can see right here we have no more room on our camshaft lift now with our new spring set up at the exact same height at 600 you can see how much extra room we have for more lift they also have a higher spring rate which can handle more rpm with all the original components bolted on here comes the fast 102 millimeter intake manifold that will complement the additional camshaft lift it's constructed of polymer and accepts all the factory hardware now we installed fast rails and new 39-pound injectors with a new tune in the ecm good oil pressure and the engine warmed up we're ready to go [Music] 541 foot-pounds of torque it's a good start it's still climbing though with a few runs to 6 500 rpm this ls7 is making awesome power 615 on power 548 at torque picked up seven foot pounds that's good power that's a clean graph too yeah that thing looks beautiful it's better all the way around all right johnny i'm going to take an extra 300 to 68 and see if it's still making power from there okay [Music] nice smooth pull 622 horsepower 548 foot-pounds nice nice level flat curve too it's maintaining that power but it's not climbing yeah man it's still going to be pulling that car down the road this is going to be a fast 67. we converted the oil system from the factory dred system to a true wet sump that made this ls7 more compact for swaps after the performance parts we made a gain of 80 horsepower from our baseline that is the perfect example of why ls power plants are so popular we'll be right back ls engines are taking over the streets and the race track mostly because they're affordable and respond well to aftermarket parts here's a little trick that'll lead to more accurate ignition timing and give you more tuning capabilities by using this goodson reluctor wheel jig i'm going to be able to show you guys how to change an ls crankshaft over from a 24 tooth reluctor to a 58 tooth the reason is i want to run a late model computer on this thing later on down the road like an e38 or something but the problem is this cranks from an older style engine and has a 24 tooth reflector so the first thing we need to do is get it off we'll use our matco air chisel to remove the ring now don't try this with a hammer because you could miss damage the crank a slight chamfer needs to be put in the new reluctor's ring seat and the leading edge now the ring must be clocked correctly to the crankshaft or a faulty signal be read from the crank sensor the goodson jig will precisely align it and keep it square for the next step some slow and steady pressure to the top of the jig with the ring seated assert we can remove the jig and the cranks ready for its next venture a stock clutch won't last behind an ls7 making the kind of power we did back on the dyno today but this quartermaster optimum sr will it's a 10.4 inch single disc clutch made for late model corvettes camaros and pontiac g8s now it'll handle 500 foot-pounds of torque and 700 horsepower now it's completely rebuildable and 50 percent lighter than a stock piece plus it'll give you that factory pedal feel now it comes with the flywheel attached and it's all billet construction is held together with aircraft grade fasteners you can get one in your ride for just over 2 100 bucks do you have an optima battery that you need to get secured into your hot rod well good because i've got something i want to show you it's the fessler built battery mount for the most popular optima series the 34 and the 3478 now it's 100 cnc machined out of a billet chunk of aluminum and this one's actually polished to a jewelry finish it's an absolute great way to clean up the engine bay or the trunk if that's where you've got it now if the polish doesn't suit your fancy they're also offered in a natural finish or you can get them anodized now you can check out the ones you want at summitracing.com with prices starting at 129 bucks how would you like better fuel efficiency throttle response and more lower end torque out of your chevy or gmc truck or suv well for 50 bucks you can add one of valance vortices throttle body spacers and gain up to 15 foot-pounds of torque now this thing will work with your factory air box or with one of volant's cold air systems it's made from a glass filled nylon composite so it won't corrode like aluminum and you can pick yours up at summitracing.com well that's it for this week's engine power we'll see you next time

Channel: POWERNATION

Views: 104,579

Keywords: Car, PowerNation, howto, how-to, diy, automotive, cars, trucks, automobile, do it yourself, automobiles, auto, powerblock, LS7 Corvette, corvette, oil, LS7 Wet-Sump Conversion, Wet-Sump Conversion, oiling solution, ls, engine build

Id: DAUmhFEtTN4

Length: 18min 42sec (1122 seconds)

Published: Sat May 01 2021