Another way to skin the cat; the High Torque 292 LS swap

[dayj1]

Originally Posted by lt155ruck

Wow, thanks for that..that's even more comprehensive than I expected. That's awesome. Lol but you did forget to mention what belt you used... What are the details on your 57?

You're welcome! The belt is 79.5". The Gates number for that belt would be K060790.

As for the '57, I've had it since '99. It's all stock except the wheels and the drivetrain. It was my second LS swap. It has a 5.3 with a Radix blower running 11 psi. HP/TQ is about 450/490 to the rear wheels.

[lt155ruck]

Nice, that is sexy. I'm guessing you surprise more than a few people. Funny how we seem to hold onto things. I've had my 55 since 97.

[dkauffman05]

I absolutely love the setup man ! I also did something very similar but used a cable t.b

[dayj1]

Originally Posted by dkauffman05

I absolutely love the setup man ! I also did something very similar but used a cable t.b

Sweet! The smaller breather and bare aluminum parts gives it quite a different look than mine. I'm assuming that you went with a speed density tune?

I also noticed the low mount AC compressor. I'm also in the middle of that right now. I should be making snowballs by the weekend if the rest of my parts get here

[dkauffman05]

It's not tuned yet but my tuner assures me he can make it run good on sd. If not I'll hide the maf sensor kinda like you did.

[gringoloco]

This might be my favorite LS swap ever. Do you have a good overall pic of the complete engine bay?

[dayj1]

Originally Posted by gringoloco

This might be my favorite LS swap ever. Do you have a good overall pic of the complete engine bay?

Thanks! Is this what you want? I'm in the middle of adding A/C right now. Please excuse the bulkhead connectors above the heater core housing with no lines attached

[smbrouss70]

Are you doing an under dash A/C?

[HSRACER]

Great work, thanks for sharing!

[dayj1]

Originally Posted by smbrouss70

Are you doing an under dash A/C?

Yes. I'm building my system around a $69 universal evaporator unit off eBay. I should finish it up by the weekend (waiting on more hose fittings) and I'll post up some pics if it works out OK.

Originally Posted by HSRACER

Great work, thanks for sharing!

Thanks!

[SierraMtns]

Are you still running in cab gas tank? Any plans on switching to under bed tank?

[dayj1]

Originally Posted by SierraMtns

Are you still running in cab gas tank? Any plans on switching to under bed tank?

I'm still running the in-cab tank and I do not plan on relocating it. The two concerns that I see most often about the in-cab tank center around sound and baffles.

I have run it below "E" on the gauge and have not experienced fuel starvation or pickup problems. The tall, narrow shape appears to have negated the need for baffles.

For sound, I made sure to buy a genuine EP381 AC Delco pump (watch out for the cheapo gray market knock-offs on eBay). I wrapped the tank in a layer of Dynamat Extreme to add some mass and 1 layer of Raam Audio's self adhesive Ensolite foam. I can't hear fuel slosh in the tank at all anymore. The buzz of the pump is very faint. I can hear it with the truck idling, but the road noise drowns it out at anything over 15 MPH. With the windows rolled up and the AC on, the evaporator fan is all I hear, even idling and sitting still.

[smbrouss70]

So how did the A/C turn out? Any pics?

[dayj1]

Originally Posted by smbrouss70

So how did the A/C turn out? Any pics?

I started by mounting the stock truck A/C compressor.

Notice in this pic that the bracket extends behind the compressor by a couple of inches. That's important because it interfered with the engine mount.



So, I marked the bracket even with the back of the compressor and cut it off:





Here's the fit of the trimmed bracket:



And the compressor:



A little paint:



And bolted up for good:

[dayj1]

I bought a universal 14" x 24" parallel flow condenser on eBay. I made a three bracket mounting system as well as a bracket for the receiver/drier:




I called Vintage Air and ordered the 3 hard lines that are used in their condenser kits to mount the receiver drier and run through the core support and under the battery. Here it is mounted.:



I made this simple bracket:



To hold the end of the hard lines under the battery box:

[dayj1]

The last major component of the system is the evaporator. I bought a universal under dash unit off eBay. Here are a couple of pictures of it mounted:





In case someone tries to duplicate my setup, there was a major problem with the evaporator unit as delivered. It moved very little air through the core. Upon inspection, I noticed that the blower motor was rotating the wrong direction! Since it's a DC motor, that's a simple fix. Just swap the positive and negative leads going to the bower motor. That made things much,much better but I made one more "improvement". I swapped the blower motor fan blades side for side. This result is that it reversed the slope of the blades. A squirrel cage fan will move a higher volume of air with reverse pitched blades than with forward pitched blades.

[mattcrp1]

Looks good, I noticed that your compressor does not have the high pressure switch on the back. What year is the compressor? Top notch build.

[dayj1]

The last part of the system is the lines. I already mentioned that I used hard lines from Vintage Air on the condenser.

The discharge line from the compressor to the condenser required some fabrication. I started with the end of a condenser line from a 2000 Tahoe that picked up from the salvage yard. I bent it up as needed and added a M10 switch port fitting and a weld on bead lock fitting.

Here is is before welding:



And a closer pic of the joints to be welded:



Here it is finish welded and crimped:





Here's the compressor suction line:



And a better pic of the compressor end:



And here are the evaporator hoses that go inside the cab:



The bulkhead fittings on the end of the evap lines exit the cab just above the heater box:



Here's an overall shot of the lines:



At the firewall:



The compressor:

[dayj1]

The result:



That's at idle. Moving down the road, the vent temp drops to about 37/38*.

The A/C compressor came with my motor, so the components that I had to buy are:

A/C Belt 19.31
Evaporator 69
Condenser 57
Hard Lines 71.19
Drier 12.99
Switch Port 5.2
Fittings/Hose 114.95
Misc (bolts/sheet metal/etc) 20.18
O-rings 5.44
PAG oil 8.99
134a 24.98

Total: $409.23

So, was it worth it?

It works pretty well. We've had a few days in the high 90s lately and the A/C has kept me comfortable but it didn't turn it down, either. I think it could use a larger condenser and evaporator, but, for the price, I'd do it again.

[dayj1]

Originally Posted by mattcrp1

Looks good, I noticed that your compressor does not have the high pressure switch on the back. What year is the compressor? Top notch build.

Thanks! It's a 2003 Tahoe compressor.

[Hart_Rod]

Excellent job and write up Jonathan! Top notch as always, .

[aggie91]

Great job on the AC. You said for the discharge line you started with a line from a 2003 Tahoe, what about the components for the suction line? Is the compressor block and short hard line a factory part or did you get it from something else?

All in all it looks good!

[dayj1]

Originally Posted by Hart_Rod

Excellent job and write up Jonathan! Top notch as always, .

Thanks, Rob!

Originally Posted by aggie91

Great job on the AC. You said for the discharge line you started with a line from a 2003 Tahoe, what about the components for the suction line? Is the compressor block and short hard line a factory part or did you get it from something else?

All in all it looks good!

Thanks! I'll start with what I intended to do instead of what I actually did (because it would have been easier). I removed the end of the factory Tahoe suction hose and was just going to use a weld on bead lock adapter similar to the discharge line. But, I ordered the wrong fittings for that. The factory suction line is #12 instead of #10 like most aftermarket/universal setups. What you'd need is the end of the factory hose (with the block to attach to the compressor), a #12 weld on bead lock fitting, a #12 hose to #10 male o ring fitting, and about 3 feet of number 12 hose to make the suction line.

Now, for your original question, in a mad scramble to find a solution that didn't involve waiting another week for fittings, I bought the 180* #10 beadlock fitting that you see in the pictures locally and used that short compressor block hard line that I had squirreled away from some past project. I honestly don't remember where it came from, but I think it came in a kit from Doc's Blocks. Unfortunately, they no longer sell retail.

[solidaxel]

Thanks ,I picked up some ideas for the service ports on our build

[dayj1]

Originally Posted by solidaxel

Thanks ,I picked up some ideas for the service ports on our build

I glad you mentioned that. It slipped my mind to point out why I put in the M10 port on the discharge line. That's for the factory pressure transducer that I pulled from the '03 Tahoe discharge line. It's 3 wires and they all go back to the PCM. Have your tuner populate the table for the AC pressure vs fan on/off and the PCM will control the fans similar to a trinary switch, but less wiring. And, yes, that's even without the AC request signal hooked up.