Zaid's Diary

3:51 PM

Say hello to my '04 Chevrolet Lumina SS, aka Pontiac GTO, Holden Monaro & Vauxhall Monaro depending on which GM sales region you happen to fall in.

This car has had a hard life. I stopped driving it a few years ago for several reasons, but parked it for good when I found oil in the coolant expansion tank. It ought to be scrapped, but there's just so much to learn from the teardown of such an engine.

Do I plan to revive it from the dead? That depends on many things, including the autopsy report. I would love to turn this into a drag car, but let's not get carried away...

Zaid

4:17 PM

Engine bay at zero hour

The plan, as discussed with Paulster2, is to pull out the engine and transmission so that I can figure out exactly what's wrong with the engine. If the engine is sortable, the transmission could do with a refresh as well.

I started by pulling off the intake. No real drama here, just a few hose clamps that had to be undone. This K&N filter/intake was installed by a previous owner. The IATS and MAF sensor plugs had to be disconnected

Next came the radiator fans. Had to disconnect the upper radiator hose and what I think is some sort of really thin breather hose between the radiator and just under the throttle body

This radiator fan electrical connector gave a really hard time though. You can see how brittle it is; it doesn't take much to break it

The inside was a charred mess. My guess is overcurrent due to a seized fan motor

Whatever the cause was, I ended up hulk-smashing the connector to disconnect the five spade-type connectors. Before I did that I thought it prudent to label each wire with a unique identifier so that I could know which one was connected to which

With the fans out of the way, the radiator was next on the list of things to remove

The fluid that came out wasn't much, and was fairly thick, like chocolate mayo

Blech

I think it's fair to assume that the radiator needs replacing

The end of the radiator has transmission cooler lines in it as well. Good thing I had a 19 mm flared wrench at hand

Also had to disconnect the lower rad hose and expansion tank line

And here's what it looked like at the end of Day 1

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

4:44 PM

Great write up! Looking forward to keeping up with you on this. Is there any water in the oil? The "blech" remnants on the ground look like it might be tyranny fluid and not oil, but might just be the picture.

Zaid

Oh it's oil for sure

I can smell it

Plus the tranny fluid had that came out had a grainy texture to it

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

7:46 PM

@Zaid - That's not good. Are you planning on sticking with the 4L60e? Or are you going to try and upgrade it to something a little more substantial like a 4L80 or 6L80? I don't know how fast either of these shift, but they can handle a lot more HP/TQ than can the 4L60.

You can get a rebuild done on the 4L60, but without some internal upgrades it won't handle much over 450hp, which your LS1 is very capable of achieving.

And whenever you want to start talking about upgrades, we can do that as well.

I know you don't have a ton of money to throw at it. We can probably look at what you can do from a budget standpoint to really get the most bang for your buck, but that also depends on what is available ~~for~~ to you in Doha.

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

8:25 PM

@Zaid - BTW ... that is a very weird layout for how they have the lower radiator hose attached to the radiator. No clue why GM would have ran a hard pipe across to the other side and not just engineered the radiator better.

You may want to consider getting a cross flow radiator for it ... one which has the outlets coordinated with your engine. The Eastwood Tri-Flow Radiator is actually what I was thinking of for you. Especially in your neck of the woods, this type of radiator would provide you all kinds of cooling without the worry of overheating. Good stuff.

Zaid

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 beggars can't be choosers, eh? Let's see how far I get with this episode. I'm genuinely surprised at how much abuse this engine put up with

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

The LS engines will put up with a TON of abuse!

Zaid

Well, I can now testify to that!

I'm surprised they don't run them in air-cooled guise ;)

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

I read an article where Hot Rod Magazine was trying to blow one up. It was a stock 4.8L out of a truck. They dumped 27+ psi of boost on to it, making 1200+hp and never did blow it up. The ignition system gave up before the engine did. All this with a stock bottom end.

Zaid

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 also note that this radiator doesn't have a cap. Just a 35 psi one on the expansion tank

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

8:31 PM

I believe most LS engines run them this way. My truck does.

Zaid

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 hah, that's insane

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

I like the expansion tank over an overflow by a bunch.

@Zaid - I'll find the article for you, if you like. But realistically, the LS engine is a brute. They built it right, no doubt about it.

Is it getting on midnight there?

Zaid

In half an hour

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

Gotcha ... I need to remember this when I'm talking to you. I look outside and see daylight. I need to remember you live in a little different time zone than I do ;-)

Zaid

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Putting aside the PS pump and A/C compressor would be a great achievement

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

8:36 PM

Those actually shouldn't be all that hard. Each only has 3-4 bolts holding them on, IIRC.

I don't remember, are you planning on retaining all accessories? (PS/AC/PB)

Also, if there's something you need which you cannot easily get (say someone won't ship to Doha), just let me know and I'll do everything I can to help you out.

Zaid

I will retain them for the time being. Better safe than sorry

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 you're so kind, thanks. I have a US address that I can ship to for the lighter items. As for the more hefty hardware, let's see

What's PB above?

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2

Absolutely. It's not an issue, so please keep it in mind.

@Zaid - Power brakes

Zaid

Yeah, I think I'll keep it

Zshoulders

9:06 PM

is the expansion tank that little guy by the throttle body or the big one back by the strut tower? and the follow up question, assuming the little one is the expansion tank; what is in that big tank??? that thing is huge!

Zaid

@Zshoulders it's the one by the strut tower

The one next to the throttle body is the power steering fluid reservoir

You might be able to make out the steering wheel symbol on the cap of the PS reservoir

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