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Got the LE5 out of there today. Took a little more lowering, raising and angling but made it happen. The lower left edge of the block (front of the motor) was hanging up on the passenger side frame. But a carefully placed pry bar underneath the lip leveraged against the frame got the motor up and over. After that, it slid out from the upper lip of the bell housing and came out easily.
Of note, it is possible to remove your motor this way, but I plan on dropping the subframe to reinstall it. All of the equipment for my turbo will be in the way and make installing it extra risky, as I don't want to damage any of those expensive parts.
Long story short, if you just have some basic motor work to do (replacing pistons etc) than removing it this way works. But if you have more to do, I would recommend following the Chilton's steps. Needless to say, and I'm sure Slowbalt can attest to this, but getting it back in and lined up just right with the transmission is one helluva task.
Some pics for your enjoyment, now on to the fun part!:
If you look at my first pic it is possible to install from the top with the turbo on, just makes it more fun.
Haha, I totally missed that. You've got nerves of steel! 😬
Anyhow, thanks for all the help and direction on this! Can't wait to get everything installed and back into the car. For now though, I'm gonna do what I can to clean up the engine bay!
so which turbo are you going with? im putting my s257 on now
I'm using the ZZP turbo kit that comes with pretty much everything I need. It uses the K04 turbo that was stock on the LNF motors sold with the Cobalt SS. So it's not something extreme from what I can tell, but with my manual boost controller I should be able to crank it to 10psi and have no issues. Not looking to run crazy boost numbers. It's my daily driver after all.
Btw, is that an off the shelf piston, or did you order it custom?
Ordered it custom from Wiseco They have the OE specs. Had them drop compression from 10:1 to 9.5:1 for these guys to help with the extra air I'm gonna be forcing in there.
And with 150k on my motor (and the pistons and rods being notoriously weak in the LE5 from the factory) I decided to do this. It lets me run more boost in the future if I want to and I can also swap in a different turbo eventually too.
I never came across the S256 when I was doing my research. Got some specs on it or a website to check it out on?
Look up Josh Billheimer for your head porting work. Lsjion on here I think.
I also think you shouldn't waste your time on a ko4 if you're doing this much work. I'm on le5 stock internals on a s252et. 06 le5 though but if I was doing this much work I sure as heck wouldn't throw a baby ko4 on there lol
AGP has a vband outlet option for no additional charge
My bad for not getting back to y'all. Coachella was awesome last weekend and work was crazy busy this week.
I appreciate all the s256 info. I'll definitely keep it in mind. All my equipment just got here this week from the ZZP kit, including the k04. I didn't see the 256 option on their site, nor did their sales manage mention it to me, surprisingly. I guess I could sell the k04 and use that to offset the cost of the 256, or see if ZZP will do an exchange.
Biggest q tho here is whether or not I really need it. This is my first turbo install, and I realize I'm beefing the heck out of my internals, but I am gonna run a manual boost controller and set it up for 10psi, so I should get a little more oomph out of it.
Plus, this is my daily driver. I'm not looking for screaming amounts of power to take to the track or kill myself with on a canyon road. I'm not putting a new fuel pump in either. For DD duties so that I can have a little more power out of the motor to make passing on the highway easier and back roads a little more exciting, do I need a bigger turbo that has a little less lag? Or will a k04 make me happy enough when it's installed?
If y'all think I'm gonna get in the car to drive it for the first time and be disappointed in the performance after all the work I've done, then maybe the 256 is the way to go....
The k04 is fun no doubt but the potential for bigger power later just sucks. You can run low boost on the big turbo and it will be just as fun with room to grow. Thing about the k04 is its a totally different set up than the big turbo, youd need more that just the turbo exchanged. You need a different mani, dp, wastegate, bov, etc
According to ZZP, the 08 LE5 had weak pistons and rods as compared to the other years of the motor. With 150k on the motor already, they said I needed to go forged.
And hmm, so everything I just got with the kit would probably need to go back in order to do a 256 setup?
Unfortunately I'm a little short on time too, have to have this build complete to drive from Cali to MD in June. The wonders of military life haha.
Also, unpacked everything tonight:
Can someone enlighten me on how I'll get the boosted airflow into my motor? I could've sworn their kit came with a new air box, but I don't see one, and I'm not really seeing anything that would connect to my throttle body. Also, the stock airbox is that plastic p.o.s. Really thought I was gonna get a nicer one in this kit. Definitely a little confused right now.
The k04 is fun no doubt but the potential for bigger power later just sucks. You can run low boost on the big turbo and it will be just as fun with room to grow. Thing about the k04 is its a totally different set up than the big turbo, youd need more that just the turbo exchanged. You need a different mani, dp, wastegate, bov, etc
Yeah, that may just be too much to do right now. I'd have to do all the research and find all the parts. That's what I liked about the ZZP deal since they had everything in a kit ready to go for me, vice having to find each piece individually to make my setup work. Maybe I'll look at going bigger later when I get bored and have some free time again.
I see a silicone intake tube, you might need a stock lnf airbox. They arent a pos, it will be fine for your setup.
Yeah, I've got a question in to ZZP about it now. Not sure how this didn't come up before haha. Unless their kit has piping that fits my current airbox.
Quick question, after reading Coba's build thread, it sounds like swapping out my throw out bearing now while I've got the motor off the trans would be a good idea. Thoughts? I figured I'd just get an OEM replacement.
04-14-2016, 12:25 AM
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