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 Post subject: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 11:21 pm 
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Location: Lancaster, Pa
Ive been getting a few people asking me for more info on the ecotec engine swap. So I wrote this little faq sheet up for everyone.

Ive had my ecotec swap done for a year now. I put on a good bit of miles in the woods and hill climbing and I will never go back to air cooled. :D
The ecotec 2.2 is called and "L61", the 2.0 supercharged is the "LSJ", and the newer turbo 2.0 turbo is the "LNF". Then theres also a few varients of the ecotec engine with flex fuels, 1.4l, 2.4l, ect. Heres a good link to the wiki info on the ecotec engine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_Family_II_engine#LNF

The first thing is the engine. The one in my buggy I found out of a 2003 chevy cavalier with 90,000 miles with the wiring harness and ecu for $200 and also picked up a second engine for $125. Just keep an eye on craigslist and you can find deals but normally an L61 ecotec will go for around $500. You want to try n find a 2003-2005 cavalier engine b/c the 2002's had a timing chain problem. But if you do find a 2002 its not a big deal I would just put in a new timing chain and be done with it.

The wiring harness you have a few options. "Turnkey" $1200, "CBM (Custom Built Motors)" $1000, and "ELECTRIC WIND,LLC" $1000 all sell harness and ecu's for the ecotec. These ecu's are are delphi mefi 4 which are small and tunable. Also by buying the ecu from these guys if you want to install cams or turbo you can just send the ecu back and they can reflash it with there tune then plug it back in and go. These come with fan relays and have a few wires all labeled to where to plug in and fire up the engine. Also they have there own tune they use which gives you around 175 hp. I have 2 buddys who went with turnkeys setup and they work fine. I used the stock harness and ecu from the 2003 Cavalier. I sent them to Enginewiring.com where they made the harness a very simple labled wire hook up just like turnkeys with fan relays and also flashed the ecu so it would work in my buggy. I also had them set my fan temp to 185 deg. and the rev limiter to 7000 rpm. It cost me $495 for everything done and shipped back to my door a couple weeks later. Now I only have the stock hp since Im still running the stock tune. But its really not that noticable of a difference.

The adapter plate I bought from Kennedy Engineered Products. I got the adapter plate to fit the 6 rib and it comes with the flywheel and I also got the stage 2 clutch which is the 6 puck. The pressure plate is very strong and without hydraulic clutch you might have problems. The hole kit came with all the hardware for an easy install.
The exhaust I made myself. I took the stock header manifold and fabed up the rest from there. Got a small racing exhaust off ebay and some j bends from summit. All in all prob cost me $150. CBM sells a custom header ready to go for $479. They also have a bunch of other stuff for the ecotec too.
I bought and aluminum single core radiator of a buddy for $100 that was short height wise and long. Fits great in my buggy with a low profile. My buddy used used a jeep cherokee v8 radiator that was like $80 on ebay with a lifetime warrenty. That radiators also short and long and the inlet and outlets work perfect with the ecotec. He also had some 1-1/4 exhaust tubing bent to make the water lines look very clean.

I bought a walbro 255 fuel pump from summit for $100 which worked great till I ran out of fuel and burned up the pump. Then I went with a turbo subaru pump from autozone for $50 with lifetime warrenty. So now if the pump goes I can easly replace it at any parts store. There are many options with fuel pumps. Ive scene guys using ford trucks pumps, bmw, ect. As long as its producing atleast 45 psi your good. I personally dont have a fuel pressure regulator on and it works fine since theres a regulator on my stock fuel rail but some years have different fuel rails and may require a regulator.
I run plain summit oil, water temp, volt gauges just to make sure everythings running fine. The last thing you want is your engine to overheat with out you knowing and ending up with scolding hot water all over you. I belive I paid $100 for them and they are holding up great.
My engine mounts I made right off the oil pan to my rear cage. Thats the only engine mount I use and it works great with no problems. But I have my trans mounted top and bottom of bellhousing and the front firmly bolted.

Now that you have a huge jump in Torgue (Ive always heard the old guys saying "Horse power sells cars but Torque wins races") you going to start finding new weak points in your buggy. My buddy tryied a 3 rib with the ecotec which only lasted for a VERY short time. Now he has a standard 6 rib with stock engine with no problems. Now anything over stock will probably require building a trans. My buddys got a turbo ecotec and he blew a completly built 6 rib since hes pushing around 260 ft LBS of torque. Im running a vanagon water cooled side shift 6 rib with no problems. The gearing is off but the 5 rib gearing from my buddys buggy seems perfect with stock ecotec engine. Type 2 cv's seem to hold up as long as you have your cv angles low and setup correctly.

All in all I did the swap for dirt cheap and it runs GREAT!

If you still want more info or have anything to add feel free to send me a message.

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Last edited by ImmortalSoul219 on Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 11:35 pm 
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Thanks, I've been thinking hard on this for the new 1 seater.

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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 11:41 pm 
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Location: Mckenzie, TN
thats great info, thanks for posting it! i am currently runnin 2.2 suby on my 4 seater but i am considering the eco tech for my new build

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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Wed Dec 01, 2010 11:44 pm 
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Location: Corydon, IN
thanks great info 8)

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My ECOTEC swap http://www.woodsbuggy.com/index.php?option=com_jfusion&Itemid=10&jfile=viewtopic.php&f=23&t=11394


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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 1:08 pm 
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Joined: Tue May 11, 2010 12:20 pm
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Location: massillon, Ohio
I'm new to the sport, and this was a lot of information i needed! I just bought my first buggy and am putting either an ecotech or suby in it. Great help


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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 1:50 pm 
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Location: Graysville, AL
thanks man that helped me alot to figure out bout my next project... took all the fun out of the guess work lol

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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 2:46 pm 
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Location: Stamping Ground, Kentucky
Quote:
I run plain summit oil, water temp, volt gauges just to make sure everythings running fine. The last thing you want is your engine to overheat with out you knowing and ending up with scolding hot water all over you. I belive I paid $100 for them and they are holding up great.


Marine gauges also work great on buggies. They are usually water proof and being electric the water temp gauge can be mounted farther from the engine and you dont have to worry about a broken oil line draining your oil.

Huey

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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 5:16 pm 
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Location: Corydon, IN
with the stock ecu do you still have a OBDII port wired in

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My ECOTEC swap http://www.woodsbuggy.com/index.php?option=com_jfusion&Itemid=10&jfile=viewtopic.php&f=23&t=11394


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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 7:57 pm 
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bluebuggy wrote:
with the stock ecu do you still have a OBDII port wired in

Yes it is only like 4 wires. 1 signal, constant hot, keyed hot, and a ground wire.


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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 8:02 pm 
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STICKY PLEASE!!!!!!

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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 8:30 pm 
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Location: wooster ohio
Nice info. I too run a stock cavalier ecm reprogrammed buy a tuner shop. The harness is from a cav also and trimmed off all wires not neeeded my self. The local scrapyard gave me the harness for 35.00 and i got my ecm for free. My engine was from an 02 pontiac grand am and did have the loose timing chain. have less than 200.00 in timing chain,tensioner and all the guides and its easy to replace. The tuner shop charged me 175.00 to reprogram my ecm and for 200.00 more would have dyno tuned it for me. I LOVE my ecotec :!: :!: :D :D :D :!:

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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 11:04 pm 
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Location: Lancaster, Pa
bluebuggy wrote:
with the stock ecu do you still have a OBDII port wired in


Yes engine wiring left the obd 2 port so I can check engine codes. Also they put a wire in for a check engine light. But since my ecu is from a auto trans car theres lots of check engine codes. so I never hooked the light up. Next time Ill use an ecu from a manual car.

Marine gauges also work great on buggies. They are usually water proof and being electric the water temp gauge can be mounted farther from the engine and you dont have to worry about a broken oil line draining your oil.

Huey[/quote]

Yea I forgot to say they are all electronic gauges.

I have a few more things to add that I forgot which Ill try to do here soon.


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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 11:21 pm 
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Location: west kentucky
Very good information. I have been thinking about building a stroker a/c motor for my new 4 seater, but now I beleive this may be a better alternative.


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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 11:08 am 
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i dont have a check engine light but i have checked codes twice and have none so they have obviously programmed the ecm to disregard all trans and emissions related dtcs. I also have no rev limiter anymore :shock:

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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 8:36 pm 
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ImmortalSoul219 wrote:
But since my ecu is from a auto trans car theres lots of check engine codes. so I never hooked the light up. Next time Ill use an ecu from a manual car.


You can reflash the computer with a stock (or modified) file from a 5 speed car. We did that with my friends car since another friend of ours has HP Tuners.

If a group of friends all want to go Ecotec, you should look into buying HP Tuners. It's about $400 for the cable and software, but then to add extra motors to tune is only $100 a piece. I think you can tune 2 or 3 cars for free when you buy the software. It's not that hard to use, especially to turn the VATS off which is the only thing that needs to be done to use an Ecotec in a buggy.


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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 8:38 pm 
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tw9294 wrote:
i dont have a check engine light but i have checked codes twice and have none so they have obviously programmed the ecm to disregard all trans and emissions related dtcs. I also have no rev limiter anymore :shock:


With the HP Tuners software, you can turn off trouble codes that you don't want displayed. They probably turned off all of the auto tranny related codes so they won't throw a light.


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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:49 pm 
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Location: west kentucky
I found an 2002 alero. Complete car, maybe a donor.


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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:57 pm 
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wildcatoffroad9606 wrote:
I found an 2002 alero. Complete car, maybe a donor.


what motor and how much?

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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 1:16 am 
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:idea: :| I'm gonna smoke most of you Kennedy adapter/bus trans wc's with with less than $1400 in motor, trans, porshe cv axles, brakes and suspension.Got the ford aluminum mag rims for $25 each! All from Pull a Part. I'm in the middle of front A arms with power stearing and MAYBE power/anti lock brakes .Spindles, ball joints, gear boxes(Drive from either side),brake booster, all from my favorite performance dealer :P .Why anti lock?How many people have rolled over backwards by locking up the brakes.So yall ac's better call the bug shops and order up some dangerous performance parts b4 spring with your IRS check.Wc's need to order trans parts. :D My clutch has a 1/3 more surface area than a beetle bug.It comes with a slave cyl. How many of us are financially set back rite now? You are the ones I'm trying to help! :? Oh... And the world is round.Jim Morrison is dead.We landed on the moon...... And, no , I don't know why some terds float and some don't :x. The International Date Line is NOT a 1-900 number.


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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:05 am 
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passat2800 wrote:
:idea: :| I'm gonna smoke most of you Kennedy adapter/bus trans wc's with with less than $1400 in motor, trans, porshe cv axles, brakes and suspension.Got the ford aluminum mag rims for $25 each! All from Pull a Part. I'm in the middle of front A arms with power stearing and MAYBE power/anti lock brakes .Spindles, ball joints, gear boxes(Drive from either side),brake booster, all from my favorite performance dealer :P .Why anti lock?How many people have rolled over backwards by locking up the brakes.So yall ac's better call the bug shops and order up some dangerous performance parts b4 spring with your IRS check.Wc's need to order trans parts. :D My clutch has a 1/3 more surface area than a beetle bug.It comes with a slave cyl. How many of us are financially set back rite now? You are the ones I'm trying to help! :? Oh... And the world is round.Jim Morrison is dead.We landed on the moon...... And, no , I don't know why some terds float and some don't :x. The International Date Line is NOT a 1-900 number.

I missed you DD,,,tried to call you . Hope to see you at Fultondale this weekend. You remind me of Christopher Columbus.

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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 8:26 am 
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I'll be there.


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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:27 am 
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Firebug wrote:
passat2800 wrote:
:idea: :| I'm gonna smoke most of you Kennedy adapter/bus trans wc's with with less than $1400 in motor, trans, porshe cv axles, brakes and suspension.Got the ford aluminum mag rims for $25 each! All from Pull a Part. I'm in the middle of front A arms with power stearing and MAYBE power/anti lock brakes .Spindles, ball joints, gear boxes(Drive from either side),brake booster, all from my favorite performance dealer :P .Why anti lock?How many people have rolled over backwards by locking up the brakes.So yall ac's better call the bug shops and order up some dangerous performance parts b4 spring with your IRS check.Wc's need to order trans parts. :D My clutch has a 1/3 more surface area than a beetle bug.It comes with a slave cyl. How many of us are financially set back rite now? You are the ones I'm trying to help! :? Oh... And the world is round.Jim Morrison is dead.We landed on the moon...... And, no , I don't know why some terds float and some don't :x. The International Date Line is NOT a 1-900 number.

I missed you DD,,,tried to call you . Hope to see you at Fultondale this weekend. You remind me of Christopher Columbus.

Reminds me of a damn broken record


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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:08 pm 
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Location: west kentucky
It is a 2.2 hoping to get complete car fo less than $500


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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:35 pm 
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wildcatoffroad9606 wrote:
It is a 2.2 hoping to get complete car fo less than $500

That would be a nice pick.. Id be sure to replace timing chain and tensioner before install.


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 Post subject: Re: Ecotec Swap Faq's
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 6:15 pm 
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I knew he couldnt hold back much longer!!! :mrgreen:
Firebug wrote:
passat2800 wrote:
:idea: :| I'm gonna smoke most of you Kennedy adapter/bus trans wc's with with less than $1400 in motor, trans, porshe cv axles, brakes and suspension.Got the ford aluminum mag rims for $25 each! All from Pull a Part. I'm in the middle of front A arms with power stearing and MAYBE power/anti lock brakes .Spindles, ball joints, gear boxes(Drive from either side),brake booster, all from my favorite performance dealer :P .Why anti lock?How many people have rolled over backwards by locking up the brakes.So yall ac's better call the bug shops and order up some dangerous performance parts b4 spring with your IRS check.Wc's need to order trans parts. :D My clutch has a 1/3 more surface area than a beetle bug.It comes with a slave cyl. How many of us are financially set back rite now? You are the ones I'm trying to help! :? Oh... And the world is round.Jim Morrison is dead.We landed on the moon...... And, no , I don't know why some terds float and some don't :x. The International Date Line is NOT a 1-900 number.

I missed you DD,,,tried to call you . Hope to see you at Fultondale this weekend. You remind me of Christopher Columbus.


Last edited by davehix on Fri Jan 07, 2011 10:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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