YelloEye

iTrader: (3)

Treadstone has a huge selection if you're just looking at off the shelf items, they list them in HP ratings. Something to keep in mind is what fuel you will be running. Intercoolers listed in HP rating are typically with an assumed stoich value around 14.6-14.7 for diesel and gasoline. If you desire to go with E85 which has a stoich of 9.85 (math), you can get away with running a smaller sized intercooler since you will be running less air through the intercooler due to the increase in fuel. This would help with throttle response if you are worried about turbo lag.
Treadstone Performance

If you want something more custom and tailored to your available space I would look at contacting a company such as Bell Intercoolers (they were the first that popped up in my Google search), they will be able to help you select a proper core size as well as allowing you to select the end tanks that will work best for your application. They do offer both water-to-air and air-to-air intercoolers if you were interested in picking one over the other.
Bell Intercoolers - Custom Intercooler and Core Solutions

If you feel like doing the math to figure out what size intercooler you might think you need here's a decent resource, you can test the fuel change I mentioned above here as well:
https://www.rbracing-rsr.com/calcboost.html

patooyee

I wish e85 was an alternative for me but the closest station that has it is 2.5 hours away. Thanks for the links, that's a great start.

YelloEye

iTrader: (3)

I have a couple closer, but none are in convenient directions or are on military bases.

patooyee

I'd be more likely to run propane before I did e85, truthfully. I used to have a buggy that ran LPG but even it is a PITA to find around here. Everyone that has it gouges for it and keeping tanks certified is also a PITA. When I went from the propane buggy back to a gas buggy it was SOOOO nice being able to find fuel anywhere.

chuckie

Sorry for old thread bump, just wanted to clarify, once you removed the sleeve from the right port in the oil cooler holes, you can block off the ports. The oil flwo will return to the engine, I have a bad cooler and I am looking to delete it. . Please respond.

patooyee

Haha, the fact that you think this is an old thread says something about my progress.

But yeah, once the sleeves is removed and the holes plugged it acts the same as any other Ecotec without an oil cooler.

I had to carefully weld a bolt to my sleeve and use a slide hammer to pull it out. I tried threading the actual sleeve but the material was so hard that my tap broke off inside of it.

chuckie

THANKS SO MUCH!!! Sorry I was looking at the join date not the thread date! I'm exhausted...lol. THANKS AGAIN FOR THE HELP!

patooyee

NP. Just for future reference, all the sleeve does is redirect the oil to bypass the filter housing and go into the cooler instead. Then it exits the cooler and goes back into the filter housing through the other port. So by removing the sleeve all you are doing is removing the re-direct and letting oil back into the filter housing. If you didn't plug the holes at that point you would just have two major leaks from the same source.

chuckie

No I realize that...but great to know it can be done...easier that making a exterior tube bypass, the plate to delete it is easier ..Thanks again.

patooyee

I have decided that I did not like the width that was going to be required to sit next to the engine and am ditching the transaxle completely in favor of a normal transmission and t-case. This will free up a bunch of time and money in fabricating a custom intake as well. Since I won't need a custom intake, what do ya'll recommend for the turbo'ed LE5? Stock intake?

Sharkey

iTrader: (1)

many run the saab turbo intake. turbo tech racing makes a decent manifold. i modded an lnf manifold for my l61, however i wouldnt recommend it. it works fine but there are better options for your application.

patooyee

Does the Saab bolt up and everything works properly? What is the original application for it? How is it different than an LNF manifold?

Slowbalt2000

iTrader: (1)

Dont use the saab. I did some flow bench testing on it and the plastic l61 manifold flows better. I would use the stock le5 manifold. Although I didnt flow test the le5 manifold, i would imagine it outflows the l61 mani by a bit, and it also has long runners which give a better midrange,

patooyee

The plastic manifolds are good for boost? Certainly would be easiest and cheapest to use that ...

Slowbalt2000

iTrader: (1)

I was making around the power you will be making before i cracked my block. the plastic manifolds are actually really strong. I wouldnt worry about it at all.

YelloEye

iTrader: (3)

Stock plastic LE5 manifold? I wouldn't trust that not to shatter under boost. But you have the LK9 OEM option and an aftermarket option depending on what direction you want your intake tubing to go. There is a little modification needed on the manifolds if you go with the LK9. I'm not sure how the PCV port matches up with any of these, but can say for certain that the last option below blocks it off entirely which might not be so great for the motor.

If you want your intake tubing to go upwards the LK9 intake manifold is a good option and one that a lot of the turbo charged swap LSJ guys do. ZZP uses this in their LSJ turbo swap kit as well. For a small fee ZZP will modify this manifold for the swap as needed to fit your parts.
LSJ Turbo Intake Manifold - Turbo Parts & Kits


The last option is if you want your tubing to exit at one of the ends of the motor, front or rear. There are a couple companies that make these, OTTP and TTR to name a couple here. You shouldn't need any modification to the manifold once ordered, just figure out the number of vacuum ports you want and which end of the manifold you want the throttle body on and which throttle body you'll be using.

Slowbalt2000

iTrader: (1)

None of those line up with the pcv port^^

The stock le5 manifold holds boost just fine. Ive hit one of these plastic manifolds with a sledge hammer and it was not easy to break at all. Plenty of boosted cars come from the factory with plastic manifolds too. A company in detroit claims that theyve made up to 600hp on a plastic manifold without failure for an le5 powered sand buggy. My car makes mid/low 300s and there isnt a problem with the mani at all.

The first one yelloweye posted is the saab mani i was talking about that flows like ****. For some reason everyone amd their mom uses it.

YelloEye

iTrader: (3)

My apologies, I haven't seen anyone using the stock manifold or read anything about using one. But your experience trumps my reading, so if you say it's good I say it's worth a shot.

So long as the durability of the manifold stands up to off-roading it should be good.

Slowbalt2000

iTrader: (1)

Id say its definitely worth a shot. Even if it were to fail, which i highly doubt it would, the piping would fit for the LK9 manifold as well.

Sharkey

iTrader: (1)

the lnf manifold does not bolt directly onto a non direct injected engine (2.2/2.4 or lsj). the biggest thing is the top bolt holes do not line up, the picture shown has the manifold hanging on the top bolt holes however the bottom holes and ports dont line up. to make it bolt on the top bolt holes need to be sliced in half and the bottom hole closest to the front needs to be slotted. this allows the manifold to bolt up and the ports line up fairly close. to attach the top i made some clamp pieces on my milling machine, they index in the half holes left on the manifold and slide over the studs and allow proper clamping of the manifold. a fair amount of clearancing needs to be done on the top of the runner for the fuel injector to clear. also the oil filter cap wont come off with the manifold bolted in place, im running a cbm oil filter relocation adapter for multiple reasons.


im running this setup on my l61 porsche swap, its not ideal but all i could make work short of a full custom intake.

patooyee

That sounds like a nightmare.

I'm going to wait and get the engine in and see what I've got. If everything works out ideally I would use the stock LE5 mani and then fi that broke I would probably make my own since I have most of the stuff for it now.

Thanks for the tech ya'll.

YelloEye

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for that Sharkey, I'll make sure to pass that along to anybody that asks about an LNF manifold on the MPFI heads.

patooyee

I kind of lost motivation on this for a while for some reason, not really sure why. That combined with family activities pretty much halted progress. I got into rebuilding John Deere Garden Tractors for a little while for some reason, don't even know why since I don't have a garden. And for some reason I'm now highly re-motivated to get back on the buggy again. I've decided to delete the VVT on my motor in effort to run a simpler fuel system and in the process of swapping in the non-VVT head, am wondering if I should pull pistons to open up the ring gap in preparation for the expected 15-18 psi of boost I will be running. I think I have to separate the lower block skirt from the upper to do this? Or maybe I can pull the pistons and rods out of the top by unbolting the rods at the crank with just the oil pan off? Not really something I look forward to but I also don't look forward to replacing engines regularly. Are there affordable LE5 pistons anywhere that are worth doing? Also thinking ARP studs mainly in case I ever have to pull the head again I won't have to re-buy TTY bolts.

Anyone have advice or guidance?

jdbaugh1

iTrader: (1)

You can pull/install rods/pistons from the top by unbolting the con-rod from the bottom once the oil pan is removed.

patooyee

That's good news. Is there a generally accepted spec on how much they should be opened?