2,400 Miles and Counting…

I’ve been able to rack up about 2,400 miles on bowtie6 so far.  And, it has been a blast!!  The frame is rock solid, and with the ECM tweaks the engine is so much more responsive.  Yet we have been able to see 28mpg in city driving no less.  Not too bad considering the tune is now more so towards performance rather than for economy and I’ve been really putting my foot into the electronic throttle pedal.

A few weeks ago, I found a vendor that makes an awesome coilpack cover for the Ecotec.  You can see this in the above picture.  Four screws with spacers hold the water-jet cut aluminium cover and very nicely hides the valley between the cams.  Looks trick.  I was thinking about unbolting the intake, cover and valve cover and perhaps having this all crinkle coated in black.  Maybe later this year…

Along with the great news, there has been on unpleasant development:  a bad wheel bearing on the new rear axle.  It seems like we got hold of a crappy “foreign” made wheel bearing and it started making a racket last week.  New ones have been sourced and I’ll be taking apart the axles this weekend.  All good – the diff fluid needed to be changed after “break in” so this should be a fun Saturday.

I’ll have pictures and a full report once we get the new bearings installed.

8 thoughts on “2,400 Miles and Counting…

  1. Jake

    From what I am finding it depends on the software on the PCM. It looks like the eariler truck PCMs with the LSx engines had the PCM and TAC controlling cruise. Here is a thread on ls1tech about it, http://ls1tech.com/forums/conversions-hybrids/1445068-cruise-control-drive-wire-swap.html . It is as simple as wiring some momentary switches feeding 12v to a couple pins on the PCM. But it looks like some of the later trucks and most of the cars use the BCM to activate cruise. Here is another thread about the differences between which cars use the PCM for cruise inputs and which use the BCM. http://m.modernhemi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1377479 . It talks about flashing the PCM with a different version of software so it will work without the BCM. I am not sure if there is a different version of software that could be used on the ecotech LE5(?) setup so that cruise could be handled by the PCM and not the BCM. I just bought HPTuners to tune some things on an LS1 I am swapping into a 85 BMW 5 series so I could download some ecotec tunes and dig around. Having cruise is a MUST for the swap I am about to plan and if it cannot be done with the ecotec I will need to look at other engine options. Do you know if the BCM could be added?

    That was a pretty long comment….. If emailing me direct works better go ahead and do that.

    Reply
    1. bowtie6 Post author

      Thank you for the great information Jake. You are indeed correct, it greatly depends on the PCM. Let me do some research and I’ll be getting back with you.

      Reply
  2. Jake

    Were you ever able to get cruise control figured out with the drive by wire? I am looking into an ecotec swap into a 67 Volvo amazon wagon and cruise is a MUST. I know with the LSx engines cruise and the drive by wire is pretty easy to set up. Are there wiring recourses out there for the ecotec like there are for the LS engines? Nice swap, btw.

    Reply
    1. bowtie6 Post author

      No we have not been able to get the cruise control figured out.

      You say the LSx cruise is “pretty easy to set up”. Show me. Where have you been able to see this? Yes, with a standard throttle is is indeed easy to set up. However with the fly-by-wire it is a little more complicated. It also depends on the PCM being used. In my case, I am fairly certain that to make the cruise control work I must use the body control module (BCM). There is a digital bus that connects the PCM to the BCM and from the BCM one can get the cruise control to work.

      If there is a better way to do this, then I would be most interested in reading about what you are talking about.

      – TIA – bowtie6.

      Reply
    1. bowtie6 Post author

      Michael – that fuel system re-build look very interesting. Small suggestion: you might want to keep an eye on those plastic tie-wraps. Modern fuel formulations are hell on plastic – those tie wraps might not last very long…

      Reply
  3. James

    Was the vendor from the Solstice Forum? I think I’ve seen the part you’re talking about before.

    Awesome to hear you’re getting such great fuel mileage with the setup, makes me even more excited about my choosing this drivetrain for the MogRod.

    As for the crinkle finish, I can say from having seen it done on other car intakes, it looks absolutely awesome! Something to consider would be to do the valve cover in the crinkle finish in black, and have the intake manifold and that coil pack plate done in a red similar to the car’s body.

    Reply

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