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jimmy p's H3 Build

amrg

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Iirc 06 H3 had a problem with the mounts, Humvee also has an issue (still) with them. Says they mount the engine too tight or something

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Jeff V.

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123
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Kansas City, MO
Can you get some photos of the bell housing before you put it in? When I was looking into some transmission options I noticed it was H3-specific. I was just curious what's actually different.

What year is your transmission? In either 08 or 09 they changed the bell housing bolts to something called a Mortorq MTS-4 head. You can ruin them if you try to get 'close enough' with a standard Torx bit.
 

jimmy p

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186
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detroit
Can you get some photos of the bell housing before you put it in? When I was looking into some transmission options I noticed it was H3-specific. I was just curious what's actually different.

What year is your transmission? In either 08 or 09 they changed the bell housing bolts to something called a Mortorq MTS-4 head. You can ruin them if you try to get 'close enough' with a standard Torx bit.

Thanks for the heads up. It is an 07 and after looking it up, it uses a torx plus t50 but which I had to order up anyways. I'll get pictures when the housing arrives.
 

jimmy p

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186
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detroit
Pictures of the slotted and modified mounts. Also a picture of the current performance pedal adapter bracket for the tbss pedal.
20201217_095928.jpg20201217_095914.jpg
 

jimmy p

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186
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detroit
Alpha bellhousing is in. Only slight differences from the tbss/truck bellhousing but it captures all the bolt locations. I will need an alpha specific dust shield on one side now but they are only $5.
With the slots opened up in the factory mounts the current performance mounts worked out.
Obd2/gmlan and tbss pedal are wired into the cab. Next up is to measure for the new power steering pressure line and mounting the pcm so I can finalize all the wiring lengths.
20201219_163153.jpg20201219_164103.jpg20201219_164142.jpg20201219_164650.jpg
 

jimmy p

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186
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detroit
Everything that I ordered that was shipped via usps got stuck in the mail for a couple weeks but I was able to make some more progress while I wait.

Fuse block wire splicing is done, wires are all routed and loomed. I retained the factory engine to body plugs so I can keep everything plug and play. Now I have about 30 wires to splice into the factory h3 ecm to body plug.
I found a nice spot for the ecm/tcm on the drivers side fender near the firewall. I opted to keep it on the drivers side like the tbss to retain the factory harness.

Starter is back in. Tbss bellhousing plastic side dust shields are reusable after some trimming. Engine to trans and torque converter bolts are torqued. Front section of the exhaust is done. I opted to route it over to the pass side under the bellhousing. It should work out pretty welll and keeps it away from the fuel lines. I will be building a engine and trans skid plate and the crossover will sit above it as well. O2 sensor locations are probably not ideal, but the best I could do with the space.
20201228_161906.jpg
Hptuners should finally get here tomorrow so I can remove vats security from the ecm. Then it is time for fluid fill and first fire.
 
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Gpcalero

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234
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SW Florida
Everything that I ordered that was shipped via usps got stuck in the mail for a couple weeks but I was able to make some more progress while I wait.

Fuse block wire splicing is done, wires are all routed and loomed. I retained the factory engine to body plugs so I can keep everything plug and play. Now I have about 30 wires to splice into the factory h3 ecm to body plug.
I found a nice spot for the ecm/tcm on the drivers side fender near the firewall. I opted to keep it on the drivers side like the tbss to retain the factory harness.

Starter is back in. Tbss bellhousing plastic side dust shields are reusable after some trimming. Engine to trans and torque converter bolts are torqued. Front section of the exhaust is done. I opted to route it over to the pass side under the bellhousing. It should work out pretty welll and keeps it away from the fuel lines. I will be building a engine and trans skid plate and the crossover will sit above it as well. O2 sensor locations are probably not ideal, but the best I could do with the space.
View attachment 27078
Hptuners should finally get here tomorrow so I can remove vats security from the ecm. Then it is time for fluid fill and first fire.


Did you gut the primary cats? Would be a good time to do so lol
 

jimmy p

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186
Location
detroit
Did you gut the primary cats? Would be a good time to do so lol

The stock tbss cats were in good shape so I kept them. I am not looking for extra power or exhaust noise on this build so I opted to keep them. Routing the exhaust would have been much easier without them though, I must have been under the truck to the welding bench and back 50 times.

I torqued up all of the bolts today. Found pass side rear upper engine mount to block bolt was contacting the frame side mount after everything was settled in. I had to jack up the pass side of the engine and remove that bolt, now everything has clearance. Not that I am complaining about the current performance mounts because I think their design approach is the best for stock i5 mount to ls mount adapters....but if I was to do it all over I would have built h3 frame mounts for the stock tbss engine mounts. Just be ready for some work if you are planning to use them.
 
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jimmy p

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Messages
186
Location
detroit
Harness work is done, fluids filled up. I attempted to crank it over and had several codes including coolant sensor signal high, park neutral signal high, pedal signal, crank relearn and vats security. Coolant sensor was a cracked pigtail, park neutral was a splice that I just missed , pedal codes were the result of my junkyard pedal pigtail having two wires swapped and the vats security will need to be tuned out. I am not sure why the ecm needs a crank relearn is needed on the sensors but I think I can do that with hptuners. After fixing most of that I went to make another crank and lost communication with the obd2 port. The h3 was also acting like it had a low battery or a bad connection and sure enough it was at 11.8 volts. So it is on the charger and I will give it another try tomorrow. The battery has been strong for a year and was just fully charged before I tried to crank....so I am surprised it drained down so quickly during my diagnosis.
 

jimmy p

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186
Location
detroit
This morning I put the battery back in and reflashed the ecm with hptuners to remove vats and update tire size/gear ratio. I then ran into another security issue code p1631, which involved a 30 minute security relearn procedure to get rid of. After that it fired right up. I didn't prime the engine with oil after the pan swap so I was a little nervous about getting oil pressure. I pulled the fuel pump relay which allowed me to crank the engine without firing to prime it. I just watched the factory oil pressure signal in hptuners and had pressure within a few seconds. I ran it for a few minutes and it seems to run great. I need to finish a few things up, put the fan on etc and take it for a drive to check trans operation. I am getting some codes for traction control and stability which I need to sort out....the whole reason I did the 6.0 with e67 was so it could communicate with the h3 bcm, brakes, etc and keep those systems functional.
 
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jimmy p

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186
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detroit
Ran into an unfortunate roadblock this morning. I put it in drive to pull it out of the garage for the first time....no movement. Reverse...nothing. I only added the service fill amount of fluid to it so I was hoping it was just low on fluid.......but there is no fluid being pumped to the cooler at all. Looks like the trans pump isn't pumping. So either the pump was bad when I bought it or I incorrectly installed the torque converter or it slipped out of position during my battle with the engine mounts and I messed up the pump on the startup. Looks like the trans will have to come back out for a rebuild. If so it will really set my timeline back and be a hit to the budget, but luckily I have some time before the weather warms up.
 

jimmy p

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186
Location
detroit
I decided to pull the trans out from the bottom instead of pulling the engine back out which went ok. I snagged a trans cooler line and broke it on the way out but otherwise good. Upon inspection the trans pump was definitely destroyed. I am somewhat happy to find the root cause. Now I need to figure out the best replacement option. I believe some of the parts are interchangeable with my spare 4l60e. I think new oem parts are $150 to $300 depending on what needs to be replaced. I am trying to be mindful that this is essentially a 4l60e with 100k miles behind a 400hp engine in a heavy trailblazer ss, so it might have a limited lifespan as it is. I expect a full rebuild in the next year or two.

On the plus side, the post office got caught up locally and my ac lines, exhaust gaskets and shorter power steering line showed up so I can button up the rest of the engine bay while I wait for parts. I need to make another run to the local u pull for an ac compressor.
20210109_095306.jpg
 

amrg

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Where did you get the trans? Stock 4l60 from an I5? V8?

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jimmy p

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186
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detroit
4l70e from the same trailblazer ss. The pump side is common with 4l60s but the cover side looks unique to 4l65/70s. Looks like I will need both based on the damage.

Spare trans are from 06 h3s
 
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jimmy p

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Messages
186
Location
detroit
I was able to install the trans pump housing from my spare 06 H3 trans and a new AC delco trailblazer SS pump cover with speed sensor and get it back together with some new gaskets. Everything went back together and I was able to take it for a drive around the block today. I was able to test out to ensure it was able to get into 4wd low and it did. In 4wd low with the LS2 torque and 5.13 gears it feels like it is trying to override the brakes as soon as I shift it into drive, like you can feel the body and frame twist...crazy. From what I can tell in Hptuners the TBSS calibration doesnt recognize 4wd low which means m 4wd low shift tables will be off. I am not sure how much that will make a difference because most of my 4wd low is pretty low speed.

Otherwise, so far no leaks or other mechanical issues. I am setting codes (P0526 and P1482)for the missing TBSS fan clutch/speed sensor which I need to turn off. Also the TBSS cluster uses a direct engine RPM signal from the pcm where the H3 gets it from the single serial data input so that is setting a code (P0654) which I can also easily turn off. Although the engine and ECM are still a match I am setting a crank relearn code (P0315) which typically doesnt set unless you swap ECMs or crank sensors. I believe I can do this process with Hptuners to get rid of the code and ensure the misfire algorithms are working.

The last code (P0856) Traction Control Input Signal has me stumped/concerned. It is also setting off the stabilitrack error and traction control off DIC notifications. I specifically searched for an e67 controller application (alpha 5.3 uses the e67 controller also.....the e67 has serial data outputs which is what the other H3 modules need) with hopes that I could maintain the factory traction control/stabilitrak, now I am concerned that the TBSS calibration doesnt function the same as the hummer h3 alpha calibration and the communication between the electronic brake module and the ecm won't work together. If that is the case my option would be to use a 5.3 alpha base tune and dyno tune it specific to the 6.0 engine.

One other learning I wanted to share in case there is someone else out there trying to do this in the future. In order to get consistent communication between the e67 TBSS and an OBD2 scanner or hptuners you need to add a 120 ohm resistor between GMLAN+ and GMLAN- wires at the OBD2 port. After fighting with lost communication issues, this seems to resolve it. Some sources say it was needed, others say it wasnt......for me it was:)

Next up is exhaust routing, bleeding the power steering, cleaning up wiring, bending the i5 trans cooler lines to better fit the V8 and eventually A/C.

Also still looking for reasonably priced Alpha fan shroud and air cleaner assembly if anyone has one laying around after a cold air intake or e fan swap.20210118_155026.jpg20210118_154959.jpg
 
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amrg

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You can turn off the MIL using hptuners for the fan signal and the truck will ignore it when it happens. As for the 4lo trans tables, I could send you mine but I have the standard tcase not the 4:1 case. I would suggest you speak with pcmofnc and they could help you by modding your trans tables (they helped me with my swap, sent em my tables and they copied the GMPP tune to my tune file and they fixed the trans tables to work with my circle d converter)
As for the power in 4lo, im sure that truck can climb obstacles now with zero gas pedal input!

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jimmy p

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186
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detroit
If anyone out there has a h3 06 3.5 or 08 5.3 and hptuners or another way to check their traction control requested torque outputs at idle as well as 4wd status when shifted into 4wd low i would appreciate it!

Amrg, I think the issue is that the tbss operating system might not even recognize the 4wd input signal since the tbss is full time awd.
 
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JPaul

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2,400
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Way up north, UT
I have a 08 Alpha. Is this something I can check in the file or do I need to have HPTuners connected to vehicle to check that?

i have several images currently, the stock one and then a few more with tire size changes and VATS deletion
 

jimmy p

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Messages
186
Location
detroit
I have a 08 Alpha. Is this something I can check in the file or do I need to have HPTuners connected to vehicle to check that?

i have several images currently, the stock one and then a few more with tire size changes and VATS deletion
It would be in the vcm scanner when it is running in normal 4wd high driving mode.

While you are in there if you can see what happens to the 4wd parameters when you then switch to 4low that would be awesome. Attached are the traction torque names highlighted in blue. My traction control desired torque is sitting at 99.2% and I think that is making the tbss ecm mad. .20210121_203018.jpg

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jimmy p

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186
Location
detroit
Exhaust is mostly tack welded in place. I will likely raise the exhaust exits up into the bumper in the future if I redo the bumper and hitch but they should work for now. Exhaust is taking a lot longer than expected, hope to have it fully welded with all the hangers in place next weekend. 20210123_194639.jpg

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Gpcalero

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234
Location
SW Florida
Exhaust is mostly tack welded in place. I will likely raise the exhaust exits up into the bumper in the future if I redo the bumper and hitch but they should work for now. Exhaust is taking a lot longer than expected, hope to have it fully welded with all the hangers in place next weekend. View attachment 27129

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Jimmy, the exhaust tip placement looks fantastic. Kinda reminds me of a Corvette style placement lol. I like how they are high up for clearance.

I looked at my T and I have the hitch support bar going across both sides of the hitch, so this isn't an option for me sadly. Love the look. :cheers:
 

jimmy p

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Messages
186
Location
detroit
I really like what you have dine with the bumper as well.


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Jimmy, the exhaust tip placement looks fantastic. Kinda reminds me of a Corvette style placement lol. I like how they are high up for clearance.

I looked at my T and I have the hitch support bar going across both sides of the hitch, so this isn't an option for me sadly. Love the look. :cheers:

Thanks, i think the exhaust tips are the same design as my old C6, I had the same thought as I was installing them.

I was able to final weld much of the exhaust and get all the hangers in place. I still want to add an h or x pipe to smooth out the exhaust sound a little especially when the cutouts are open. Hopefully next weekend I can get it all pulled back out for some exhaust paint. Here is a another shot to show the 8ft of basically straight exhaust pipe. Running exhaust on a lifted vehicle is much easier than lowered.

Also came across 3 more pinholes of rust under the pass front seat which quickly grew into half dollar sized holes. They were simple to cut out and patch though.
02b5433ddf37d98e3cbfeab97fd7d6d2.jpg
1ff1c0406f29412676b0a3d1ac023c59.jpg
 
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