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Oh man, I finally bought a replacement DD for the wagon! A 2015 Colorado Extended Cab WT. RWD with the 2.5l, but it gets relatively the same MPG as the wagon yet so so much slower. Plans include selling the topper, spraying the bed as cheaply as possible, and maybe changing the grill out? Idk. I did buy a set of running boards as it sits too high for my daughter to easily jump in and out by herself. Lighter wheels will likely be in the future as well, but I'm cheap and not sure which ones to get just yet.
Downside is that I recently discovered a transmission leak at the bellhousing, so while I wait for a 15mm nut extractor to come in the mail because two of the three catalytic converter nuts were rounded...I'll continue driving the wagon.
Did I Buy Anything This Round?
Driver halogen headlight (Can finally do the swap!)
LS oil barbell (it was $14, so whatever. Little things really do add up in cost)
Slow month in terms of purchases due to the truck and work becoming hectic for me.
Lets see, what else....I almost grabbed an AR5 from the junkyard last week for $100. Even took time off of work to grab it right after lunch, but it looked like someone grabbed it that morning. I was pretty bummed as that would've brought costs down a considerable amount.
Other than that, very slow currently until the truck gets fixed. This does give me time to do the light swap on the wagon and get that working before everything gets ripped out and I no longer can, so that's night. Kinda worked out in my favor.
Costs So Far
LS swap - $1,621.19
RWD swap - $571.01
Light swap - $663.24
Total cost so far - $2,855.44
Got to weigh the wagon on a CAT scale. Without me, the wagon weighs 4040lbs. I think I was at half a tank, had a bag of tools and some other things, but 4040 is a decent enough number to get an idea.
As of this morning, I got the LCI tail lights installed and programmed. The wire routing is shit, half-hazard and I don't know why I even started doing it last night, but I did it and it's done. One of the wires isn't even plugged in because the pin coming out decided to completely **** itself, but they still work somehow! I'll be going to a junkyard tomorrow and cutting out part of a light harness from a E65 so that'll get fixed, hopefully. This was also after fighting the glass hatch for an hour or so because it decided to not want to pop open. Programming wasn't too bad. Just took a bit for me to combine Bruce's write up and a PDF and realize they didn't do a complete step-by-step. I'll be doing the headlights at some point after I clean up the lenses.
Still on the hunt for an AR5. Picked up a 168mm LSD out of an E30 that'll help fund that purchase if I ever find one at a decent enough price. Still need to fix the truck, but it's getting so damn cold I don't feel like going outside. I'll likely just find a local shop at this point to finish cutting out the seized exhaust bolts and doing the rest, too.
Got to weigh the wagon on a CAT scale. Without me, the wagon weighs 4040lbs. I think I was at half a tank, had a bag of tools and some other things, but 4040 is a decent enough number to get an idea.
4040lbs is not bad! My title says 4150lbs, but the state of WA using Edmunds's data for vehicle evaluation.
I will take my wagon to the local CAT scale as well, but will do full tank of fuel
4040lbs is not bad! My title says 4150lbs, but the state of WA using Edmunds's data for vehicle evaluation.
I will take my wagon to the local CAT scale as well, but will do full tank of fuel
It's not bad, but still plenty heavy! I'm hoping once everything is said and done and I've removed what I wanted to, the wagon will be ~3800lbs. Not a massive difference, but it's something.
It only costs $12.50 I think for CAT scales, so it doesn't hurt to see where you're at if you're planning on modifications or are just curious.
Mid-November 2020 Update
Still no decently priced Slingshot AR5 and eBay wasn't getting anything new on the Colorado/Canyon version either. Hopped on Car-Part on a whim one morning and...
For $83 ($249 total shipped to my front door 4 days later), I found a 2010 Colorado AR5. Honestly not sure how I got this lucky but damn will I take it.
I was also able to find a newer 4L60e bellhousing at the junkyard a weekend or so ago for $28; everyone's been pulling 4L60es for some damn reason and it makes no sense. That should just leave the $865 kit from FABbot (stage 1 kit for a safe ~350whp but reviews on Amazon say up to 550, so who knows) and figuring out how to extend the shifter 5" if I don't go with the $400 remote shifter from Canada. If I could find a way to use a T5 shifter, that'd be outstanding as those are much cheaper, but I need to get measurements on the base.
Even better news! LSE9x just finished up/are still working on an E60 LS swap likely using the Terminator X. I'll get to see if his acc brackets work and if his E90 mounts worked or if he had to do any modifications and plan accordingly. He did do a RWD E60, so any US E61 people will need to do the RWD swap if they go down this long long rabbit hole.
That should just about do it for now. Still have yet to fix the truck transmission because lazy and cold. Hoping a few vendors have some decent Black Friday sales like an eBay 10% or something to pick up the cam and remaining items I need.
Fuzzy this probably won't help you much, but the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky used the AR5 transmission as well. I know DDM Works made/makes a short throw shifter, I'm fairly certain the T5 shifter is a no-go.
Fuzzy this probably won't help you much, but the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky used the AR5 transmission as well. I know DDM Works made/makes a short throw shifter, I'm fairly certain the T5 shifter is a no-go.
Yeah I was looking in to the twins, but their tail assembly is a six bolt. I was also looking in to trying to buy the tail assembly for a slingshot, but the cost of that would've made me just buy a slingshot version. I debated on also buying a twin version after I saw on a Supra forum of a user using the twin version while using a R154 shifter until I looked closer and saw some crazy fabbing needed for that.
I did find another guy who makes a Hurst shifter+base for the Colorado version for ~$310 and if worst comes to worse, I'll hit him up and see if anything is possible.
I'll be going to a couple of junkyards tomorrow and hopefully find a couple of mustangs or S10s that have a T5 still (people are even pulling those more now) and do some measurements.
Also on the E8x E9x LS swap facebook group, a guy brought to my attention another adapter for the AR5 to LS for $270. It's essentially V1 of the FABbot version in that it still requires modification of the bellhousing.
Well, bought a black headliner sans pano along with everything else such as A/B/C pillars, speaker grills, etc from Schmiedmann for I think it was $600 shipped Thursday evening and then woke up to an email from them at 3am the next day saying that their shipping system has an issue when it comes to large but light items and that the $89.90 shipping quote should've been $400 and that they'll be more than happy to send me a link to pay for the remaining $310.
Needless to say I had them cancel that order. Kinda sucks as I was super excited about that one.
Was going to also see about buying a Holley Terminator X Max as they were doing a 20% sale, but they ended up pulling the typical "up the price a couple days prior to the sale" thing, so that'll just wait. LSE9x was doing a 10% discount, but according to them, they had to use different mounts and brackets on their E60 and they're not ready yet, so that also had to wait.
But in other news, actual good news, FABbot was doing a 20% on the majority of their items so I was able to get the adapter, slave cylinder, remote bleeder, AN fitting, and a clutch kit for $683 shipped. Hopefully eBay ends up doing a Cyber Monday sale with some sort of a cash back or something and I'll pick up the camshaft at that point.
Also got to go to the junkyard yesterday and last weekend for some measurements. Found a WC T5 from a '97 Mustang; can't remember off the top of my head, but def wouldn't work. Also found an NV3500 in an S10 and an Isuzu Hombre; way too short. Perused around eBay and what not and saw Sikky's TR6060 remote shifter and based on the measurements they have shown, that could possibly work, but I don't wanna spend $400 to be wrong.
Next Day Edit: Bought the cam sans cash back deal. $240 for an Elgin 1839p.
Last edited by FuzzyWuzzy; 11-29-2020 at 05:14 AM.
I have not given up on the build! Work, life, etc etc.
After looking at countless remote shifter set ups people have done for the AR5 that were either sloppy or gorgeous, I came across an '06 Solstice w/ a FABbot adapter kit on it locally. Ended up buying it, so I'll be selling the Colorado version along with the kit that came on the Solstice. Once I do that, I'll buy the JZX110 shifter housing and the transmission will be done!
The truck has also been fixed. An internal pump was shot and the cost to replace it would've been the cost of a transmission....I didn't want to pay the shop's $3k for a transmission, so I found one for $1.8k. So much fun. Makes me wish I ended up with a Focus or something.
But that's about it! Cleaning up the garage now to make space for the wagon and the truck and I should be able to start the swap.
Sold the Colorado transmission and the V1 FABbot adapter kit and have the JZX110 shifter housing and it fits perfect. I bought an R154 shifter for it that's supposedly also good for the W55 and all those other transmission, but the mounting holes just don't line up. Did more digging and found that it has to be specifically for a W55 transmission or a manual Soarer or SC300. There's a Chinese knockoff for $35 that looks like ass or the $300 Cube version the knockoff is based off of.
While waiting on the guy to pick up the old transmission, I started messing with the Solstice's shifter, undid some bolts, looked oddly familiar to the JZX110...
Aaaand it fits! Glad to see Pontiac and Toyota had such a great partnership. The only difference is that the pins in the Solstice base sit 10mm from the top, whereas the JZX110 sits 17mm from the top. So I took a hacksaw to it and have cut off 5mm and will likely sand the rest. The u-joint adapter also rubs the shifter housing, so I'll likely shave a little bit off the bottom of the housing as well.
Also decided to buy the DDM Works short shifter and adapter for the Solstice.
And that should just about do it. Currently single digits outside so the garage is pretty shitty and I don't feel like being so cold.
10-07-2020, 06:09 AM
