LS1 swap into a '88 Toyota

[88Toy]

Been racking up some miles and had a couple issues emerge. The coolant temp would run a little high with an occasional spike. I found the pulling fans weren't running, so began the troubleshooting. A little research and a quick call to Painless showed I miswired the fan relays. I now know that the ECM controls the ground circuit, not the power. I ran another fused hot to the fans and redid the relay control. The test was to jump the ECM relay terminal to ground, which showed I had one fan running backward. Sooooo, with that polarity reversed and the relays wired like they're supposed to be, things are running normal.

It was kinda funny that I had to open the dash fairly deep in order to make these corrections and run wires. Upon closing everything up, I started the engine, hit the headlights and poof! There goes the running and dash lights. I never touched that circuit so I figured I pinched a wire in the closeup. I started isolating sections one at a time all the way to the front running lights, nothing wrong. After a little head scratching, I remembered a pair of hot leads routed into the shifter console for a background light and the TC lockup switch. Background light. Pulled the wires out and found there was just enough of the spade terminal exposed to make contact to ground. They're now wrapped in a big ball of electrical tape. Entire dash reassembled.

Was also able to fix an ongoing steering fluid leak in the low side by replacing the hose sections and replacing the regular hose clamps with lined clamps. Did the same for the coolant lines.

It's getting near to where I'll feel confident taking the truck out on a run. It's long overdue!

[88Toy]

We finally had the chance to test the truck in my favorite element: low and slow. The weekend plans started as a scooter trip exploring single track around Pitkin. I wound up rearranging the trailer in order to make room for the truck knowing this would be the best opportunity for limited embarrassment. I was concerned about engine and transmission cooling as well as clearance between the front diff and oil pan at right full compression. I was also hoping that I had all the fluid line sealing issues resolved.
The run was up Tincup Pass from Mirror Lake, and back. It's a short trail, not particularly difficult (ATV/UTV bypasses not taken) but enough to expose any mechanical weakness. The engine never broke a sweat and the trans never got near hot. No fluid leaks or parts dangling underneath, nor was there any sign of contact on the oil pan. The only casualty was the broken rocker on the junky ARB switch. Overall, it was a very successful test hop.



Ready to join a real run!

[EKXJ87]

Glad to hear all your hard work paid off, a very clean 88

[dieseldoc]

good to see it get dirt under it.

[88Toy]

Yea, it's nice to see a little dirt on it besides dust!

[Brucker]

Looking good Les!

[88Toy]

Been trying to figure out how best to increase airflow through the radiator in order to cure the overheating while running in low and slow. I kinda figured this would be an issue all along but maintained an optimistic approach thinking 2 puller and a large pusher fan would suffice. It didn't.
Initially, I ran these fans that came out of a junkyard Mercedes, blades trimmed for clearance


My research showed that 2- 7.5in and 2- 9in fans would cover the greatest area while allowing space for the water pump pulley.


A lot of cutting and shaping along with 4 new Spal fans have what I REALLY hope is the solution.


It was obvious that the radiator had to be moved further forward than I previously thought possible. The bottom saddle came out with a lot of cutting and grinding and a new one made up and *bolted* in.


The upper radiator stays extended, fwd upper cross member cut for the 1.25in. radiator relocation.


Relays mounted on site, fused power taken off fwd terminal block inside front RH frame rail.




Crossmember brace fabb'd up and installed, along with the upper stay brackets. The LH headlight harness was rerouted and tucked into the grill.



All that remains is to replace the upper hose, fill and run. The new fan configuration moves a ton of air now, sounds like a jet engine...

[Patrolman]

Really nice work. That should keep things cool!

[94ToyBear]

Looks great les! Do you think hood louvers Will help with the flow ?

[88Toy]

Thanks Jeff, Adam. I don't think louvers would do much as there's lots of exit space on the sides. The wind that's pulled through the radiator is a vast improvement over the breeze it had before. I can still mount a dual pass radiator if absolutely necessary.

[94ToyBear]

Ahhh that's right! I forgot about the sides. Have you taken her out on the snow yet ?? Lets get out there!

[Funrover]

Holy cooling fans!! That is serious

[EKXJ87]

Those should move some air !! Hope this fixes the cooling issue.
Just throwing this out there, since you seem to have no issue at speed and out side air is being forced through the front of radiator could it be possible that at low speed the radiator is pulling hot air from the engine bay. Since you converted to a tilt front ?

[88Toy]

Its possible but I really don't think it was sucking hot air because when the hood is down, it closely resembles the original structure. I believe there just wasn't enough blade area to move enough air at low speeds and having to trim those blades for clearance certainly didn't help.

[moose]

Nice, I like what you've done here. I know that it is not the case with every situation. But using a push AND a pull fan setup can often create wave patterns that sorta just bats the air back and forth across the radiator and not creating a continuous, directional flow. I would think your wall of fans would do the trick!

Just fyi, I finally had to upgrade to these Perma-Cool fans on my rodded out Cutlass. 110+ degrees, stop n go traffic all afternoon. It was insane the amount of air these would move.
[IMG][/IMG]

[Brian]

Can't believe I never stumbled across this build! Nice job on the conversion. I just finished the whole swap on my Scout a couple weeks back but will have to wait for warm weather to check my cooling set up. Again, nice job.

[88Toy]

Super clean set up, Moose. I never considered the possibility of conflicting wave frequencies, makes sense.

Thanks, Brian. Having to re-engineer from the seat of the pants keeps us in constant pursuit of the perfect solution. I'm really hoping to have all the reliability issues resolved so that I can join up on a few runs with confidence. I prefer to be the one offering aid instead of the one on the receiving end.