LS Swap Seafari 25

[wattaway2]

It’s a boat OF COURSE. There will be issues——-lol
Amazon must be a God send over ther, we wanted metal cooler cups for our vacation but didn’t want to drag them there in the baggage looked and had them ship a 4 pack there thru Amazon for like $26-28 then left the set for her there, no issues with what do you have in the bag?

[Xcomunic8d]

Yeah Amazon prime is a must here. Real nice of you to give to others. Yard sales and second hand everything is pretty normal here. Amazon’s shipping has gotten slower, sped up, and is slowing down again. But they did open a warehouse in Hawaii so that did help some during COVID but I think the supply chain is really messed up getting stuff to them.

Summit is still lightning fast with very reasonable 2 day air prices.

So far no issues (that I’m aware of) But I won’t really be able to fine tune until I get it firing. But as is all things engine. It’s one thing to bolt it together. It’s another to make it run and keep it running.

Fuel system and cooling system are next on the list.
Need: fuel water separators, fuel hose, -an fittings, c5 regulator, return hose setup.

Cooling: All my fittings and hoses for the cooling system. Power steering cooler, oil cooler.

[Xcomunic8d]

So yet another order for parts

Ict billet 5’ spark plug wires.

https://www.amazon.com/ICT-Billet-Un...omotive&sr=1-2

Faria Chesapeake black gauge set.

https://www.amazon.com/Faria-KTF003-...28983850&psc=1

Ls oil drain valve

https://www.amazon.com/EZ-Oil-Drain-...motive&sr=1-12

Fuel regulator /filter

https://www.amazon.com/EVIL-ENERGY-F...NsaWNrPXRydWU=

AIT sensor for LS1 harness

https://www.amazon.com/ACDelco-213-2...omotive&sr=1-3

Holley Term X is back in stock. So do I try to return ligenfelter trg (if can-it’s unused) and go Holley? or do I stay with what I have? Bear in mind that’s $800-1200.

[flyingfrizzle]

Holley all the way. Love my 12.3 display with the dominator ecu. The Term X is a much better value though. Lot of good support for the Holly stuff and you will be happier in the end...

[Xcomunic8d]

Kind of what I figured.

I’m going to get the engine going, outdrive rebuilt, gimbal housing ordered. I should have some money leftover and then I’ll do term x.

I’m not doing Holley gauges they look great but crazy expensive. I’m going old school Faria black Chesapeake on teak wood background. I’ll either leave a space for the handheld to mount between the gauges or just make a new one altogether when I do that upgrade. Having tools and wood makes it pretty easy.

I just got a truckload..literally of curly Koa wood. Too bad I’m only using teak but boy is this stuff gorgeous.
These 2 pieces cost me about $100

Got a much better deal…


Just one of my woodpiles… I need a barn




For those wondering..,denatured alcohol, mineral spirits, or water will give you an idea of what it will look like varnished. I like alcohol dissolves quick, cleans the wood surface, and won’t dry it or wet it.

[Xcomunic8d]

So I’ve found another flaw in my plan. I had that fancy cooling setup figured out. But notice the no clearance issues. I’m not even sure I can get an elbow in there.

So I’ll have to plan to go the traditional setup.



But the plug wires and some other misc stuff finally arrived. I’m locating cooling hoses and have some fuel lines to take care of. Expansion and overflow tanks are planned out. Feel like I’m getting close to firing it up.

[FishStretcher]

I think they make a 3 or 4 inch riser for that. And for many installations on 25s it's desired.

[Xcomunic8d]

So I got these from Hardin marine. I don’t see where I can get risers. If I’d gotten crusader or pcm I could have done that but I was trying to avoid iron.

Maybe another brand would work in between or I have another idea with a friend who I think has a mill…let’s get this closer along and we’ll revisit it.

https://www.hardin-marine.com/p-1045...-53-60-62.aspx

This needs a bigger heat exchanger. At this point, I might as well get an appropriate marine heat exchanger. Given the price of fittings and cooling needed it’ll be cheaper and simpler to go that route.

Now for full closed or half closed is next question.

[Xcomunic8d]

New plan:



This cost is about $1300. I spent about $800 on brass fittings and 200 on the plate to plate. Fortunately I can return the other stuff. It’s not much difference to do it in a better way. Hope this helps others dealing with this.

I’ve found that crusader (also pleasure craft marine I believe they are under the same parent company) use a LS based engine in some instances (6.0). I know Ilmor and I believe Indmar utilize the LS. However, I’m excluding them for this conversation. My preliminary research shows crusader is the least expensive and most readily available.

I prefer Crusader die to the full closed cooling design. The Hardin Marine setup only does half closed (block only not exhaust) and costs $1600. https://www.hardin-marine.com/p-7409...per-brass.aspx

Here is a link to the Crusader parts manual. Throughout the drawings reflect LS architecture.

Please see:
pic on p1
Pic on p8 of water pump diagram
Pgs 32-41 diagram the closed cooling and detail the setup for the 6.0

https://www.crusaderengines.com/wp-c...03/L510018.pdf

Here’s another view of the cooling diagram

https://macombmarineparts.com/pages/...tem-components

Parts required:
Heat exchanger- RA0147048a

Marine parts.us:
Heat exchanger Thermostat housing and splitter - r025038- $65.35

Perf protech:
Heat Exchanger Bracket- r090258- $137.15
Degas bottle- r146001-$75.38
Degas cap- r034045- $23.36
Degas bottle bracket?

Various suppliers:
Water pump inlet and threaded port- R025036 $44.27 p8 of crusader diagram

Searching for:
Water pump tee- R025035a

Misc hoses and clamps.

I’m still searching for the water pump Tee r025035a. I already made my own out of brass fittings and reducers. I used a 1.25” brass tee with 1.25” hose barb fitting inlet and reducers to 1” hose barb outlets. I suspect the crusader part r025035a would be much less expensive.

Per our first call, I learned that 1hp =2,500 BTU’s. However that number does not include the cooling requirements of a full closed system. Maybe you can back into it from the information provided.

Closing notes in exhaust manifolds. I bought these from Hardin Marine https://www.hardin-marine.com/p-1045...-53-60-62.aspx

I wanted to keep iron out of the boat in my salt water environment. However, I did not consider that I might need exhaust riser spacers. I am now faced with definitely needing spacers and will probably have to fabricate them myself. I would tell others to buy the crusader or pcm exhaust elbows and risers if they might need spacers. Perforate h has a good article about this.

[Xcomunic8d]

So it’s been a while but all the heat exchanger parts are in. I’ve started installing the parts and wiring up gauges etc.

The stand-alone harness is nearly finished with wiring. The instructions what little came were wrong so it took extra time to sort it out. I think everything is nearly ready. I need to go over every connection just to double check everything but the engine should be ready to fire up soon.

I’m using Sae 30 to break it in. I’ll probably switch over to 10w-40 once I’ve started it and let it run for awhile. Probably 20-30mins on initial startup. Then change to conventional 10w-40 and after 25 hours probably switch to full synthetic (royal purple is a favorite of mine).

Volvo recommends 10w-40 in the dps based Ls systems
Crusader recommends 15w-40 in their 6.0 Ls system.

Any suggestions always appreciated