turbo questions for ls1
 

Ok so I have a bone stock 99 T/A ls1 M6 and I want to go turbo. So far from what I have seen the best set of budget heads for this would be the 317's. My question is if I was to go ahead and buy a set of these heads and a cam would it hurt the car to put them on before I get the turbo? I don't have all the money together to buy everything at one time and was going to do it in stages if I would see some gains or at least stay the same.

almost any head and cam over stock is going to perform better. Do it!

i think i would go ahead and get the turbo stuff on there and then change the heads later once you are ready to start upping the boost.
main reason i suggest that is because a good turbo setup is so expensive half the people who try give up and sell whatever parts they aquired before getting the car up and running.

I can see how that happens, I know I have the luck that as soon as I have the money something else comes up and the car gets put off. One reason I was looking at doing the head and cam swap was because I have been fighting with a overheating problem and even though my compression test was good 150-160 on all cylinders my last idea was something wrong with the heads or gaskets and it only happens when its getting hot.

I did find a full turbo kit on a site that is supposed to keep the a/c for around $2000 but im going to have to look more into the on3 turbos and how good they are

check your fans and the radiator itself could be clogged up causing it to overheat.

Thanks but unfortunately I have replaced everything with the cooling system including the water pump t-stat and radiator cap a few times. Flushed the system got a good mix of coolant and the fans are working plus I have a switch on them. Compression test on the system shows good but it will keep pushing water to the overflow tank and not pull it back in. From what I understand its getting air in the system but I have no idea where that could be coming from. I would much rather buy a turbo system first and upgrade other parts later but I dont want to install something like that without the cooling problem fixed. If anyone knows something else to look at please let me know.

I have been thinking about that and have read where stock ls1 can do well with the boost. I have a couple of questions regarding keeping it stock. With my overheating problem all I can think of was when it gets hot the head gasket leaks, but not into the oil. So if I take the heads off to change the gasket should I try and have any work done to the heads? I was also thinking about changing the head bolts to studs, is it worth having the studs since im trying to turbo the car?


I appreciate everyone for there input. I have never messed with a turbo so im trying to learn as much as I can before I start

PM pescenero on here, he ports cylinder heads and his name is Ray Meyers from moncks corner. Studs aren't a bad idea IMO. does the car actually overheat? or just push water?

Thanks I will definitely get in touch with him. And the car will push the water out and eventually overheat. I hear that the temp gauge on the 99 isn't very accurate so all I can say about the temp is that it stays around 210 until it has pushed all the water out and then it shots up. It does it the worst when I have to drive to Columbia.

As I've heard from sevral sources & read, '98 cars were much more accurate, folks across the board complained so GM turned them into "dummy" gauges in the 99+ cars...kinda has always made me wonder though if this had Anything to do w/the fact that the '98 f-cars having a unique ECM/PCM "language" or programming unlike the 99-02's....I thought You got that all squared away meng??

I thought I did too until the other week when I went to get my daughter. Ran fine all the way there and home except the last 2 miles from my house, temp gauge just shot up and when I got it home it was almost a gallon low on coolant

I just wonder if Who ever replaced the engine knew/remembered to swap over the steam pipe from the back of the heads...I mean it could just be something as simple as that, mean Your heads on the car now just have plugs in them where that line should be....

No I have the lines hooked up in the front I can only assume that they are good on the back of the block. I thought that maybe there was a leak there causing it to act up at one time but since it holds pressure I kinda ruled that out

No I have the lines hooked up in the front I can only assume that they are good on the back of the block. I thought that maybe there was a leak there causing it to act up at one time but since it holds pressure I kinda ruled that out

if you have the electric running at too low a temp then they will block air flow, if they are coming on while you are moving.

esp if you have a switch to manually turn on & run them while car is moving, and are using that.

this sounds like something simple that make you say DOH

The lines in the front are the TB coolant lines, preventing the TB from freezing over and sticking shut (ie Up noff/extreme cold climates)

The steam line runs from the passenger head to the driver head

I have a feeling that when I do find the problem im going to feel stupid but I wont ever forget it though either.

as for the fans I did not know that running the fans while driving would block air flow. I did put them on a switch in line so the computer can still turn them on. the only reason I tried the switch was to see if that was a problem but it didn't fix it either. I was thinking about having someone tune the car and adjust the fan cut on/off since I have the 160 t-stat.

the steam line from the passenger to driver side head is hooked up, but didn't it also have a line that went under the intake to the rear of the block too?

the line that went to the tb has been taken off by someone else before I got the car. Being in the south I never saw a reason to put it back on.

If you have a ls6 intake, then the rears may be blocked off.

I can change the fan settings for you, but doubt that's the problem if it's fine while moving. The fans are normally off when you are moving at highway speeds. Do you have the deflector installed in front? When your moving do the temps come down?

I remember when I first got my car, there was a rubber cap installed on the bottom of the radiator that busted when I was driving down the road. I didn't know anything about it. Maybe you have one and it's slowly leaking coolant?

Ok...no, the front 2 are there to basically keep the TB warm. The rears are their own "circuit"... That's right I remember seeing that now when I first saw the car when Brandon bought it...