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LTX and LSXPutting LT1s, LS1s, and their variants into Third Gens is becoming more popular. This board is for those who are doing and have done the swaps so they can discuss all of their technical aspects including repairs, swap info, and performance upgrades.
Hello third gen fans and thanks in advance for all the great write ups and advice. Like the title says, I am in the process of swapping in a ls1/t56 combo to a 91 z28.
The original motor was a tpi 305 with a blown head gasket. The engine compartment was very clean, however the interior was torn and dirty. The car has a drum rear (gu2). The car also needs a new nose cover and fender which i have.
Plans for the car are an all 4th gen swap including full wiring harness with fuse block, plastic ls1 tank and fuel lines, posi disc rear, full 4th gen interior swap including dash and 4th gen A/C box.
I know this sounds ambitious, but i plan to take my time, unlike my ss454 which was done in 4 months. (Body off resto).
I could use a little encouragement, as this project involves fabrication which i have no experience with. Thanks in advance for any advice or help.
Here is a partial parts list;
99 LS1 90k miles
97 T56 converted to ls1 spec
99 GU5 posi disc rear (will swap to 3.73)
00 plastic gas tank and fuel lines
00 dash and a/c box
00 eboney interior
89 Black rear plastics swap
hawks swap moror mounts
hawks trans crossmember
LS6 clutch pressure plate and fly wheel
clutch slave cylinder
clutch pedals/master cylinder from 00 4th gen
Thats all i can think of right now, i have lots of duplicates as well.
I am not sure how to add photos directly but this is a link to my photo bucket pics of the A/C swap.
We made lots of progress today. Its a little scary cutting your car but thanks to guys who have done this before, I have confidence we can complete this phase of the project.
Looks like you have a nice start to your project already NCDave. There's tons of information on this site to help you through just about anything on this swap. If you can do a body off resto on a '70 Chevelle in four months, you can do this with no problem! Please post pics of the Chevelle if you don't mind. It's my favorite car and I'd love to see it. F-bodies are a close second though. I used to have a fake '70 SS and a real '71 SS. I wish I still had them!
BTW, your slideshow link didn't work on post #3. I figured out how to get the slideshow to work though. Nice progress so far.
Thanks for the encouragement dprest68. Even though its tough times now days i intend on holding on to the 70ss. I will try to find and post those resto photos. In the mean time i am still having trouble posting photos here from photobucket. Any tips?
Ok I am getting the hang of this photo uploading business. here are some more pphotos in an easy to see format. the last set of pics showed the engine comming out, and the interior stripped. here we have the a/c job starting.
now the dreaded firewall modification. But wait, that's not the hard part. The box is off and you can see what you have to do. it involves cutting the cowl on the passenger side. The part just under where the dash mounts on the pass side, inside the car. a sazall and grinder with cutting wheel worked well, but i was thinking a little air saw might be easier to move in the tight space.
Here are some photos of that cutting process.
I have a ton of cleanup to do but little time to do it. Saturday my buddy jose will wash and clean up the LS1 and maybe we will put the engine mounts on. I have tomorrow to bolt on the a/c box and clean up.
Question for you guys. how bad do i need fresh air through the a/c system? The reason I ask is because inside the cowl drainage area (where wiper mechanism sits) it is very tight and hard to reach. Fabrication in there will be a challenge. Water drains through that area so it needs to be water tight. I have some ideas but it may take some time to do slowing our progress.
Thanks for the encouragement dprest68. Even though its tough times now days i intend on holding on to the 70ss. I will try to find and post those resto photos. In the mean time i am still having trouble posting photos here from photobucket. Any tips?
You're welcome. I hear ya. Yeah, it took me awhile to figure out the Photobucket thing too. Here's how you do it to have full size pics on your thread... first off, pull up the photo in Photobucket that you want on your thread. On the right side there is a section called "shared links". The fourth box down should say IMG beside it. Click on the box to the right of "IMG". That will copy that image to your clipboard. Next, right click in the area where you type stuff for your thread and select paste. Then add any text to go along with the pic and hit "submit reply" like you usually would. That will give you full size images.
I am using the stock manifolds in the stock location. As long as the cats are in the stock location and all the smog equipment is still being used it will pass California smog.
Update: I haven't been idle. work continues on the 4th gen trim ring. Lots of welding. fabricating a box for the cold air to get in is a challenge because of the tight spaces. engine is down to long block for cleaning and paint. we are planning to reassemble it this Thursday and possibly drop it in Sunday. We will see.
This Thursday was a success. we painted and assembled the engine as far as we could. i an missing some oddball stuff like bolts power steering hose etc. The t56 went together without a hitch as well. i need to finish that fresh air box and patch a few things on the firewall then i can move on to painting the engine bay.
The clutch i got on LS1 tech turned out to be useless so we are getting it resurfaced locally. Now comes the decision on painting the engine bay. Rattle can or real paint job? Any suggestions for inexpensive paint? I am up against a deadline. Mother in law has been here giving us awesome help with our preme new born but she is leaving in 3 weeks. I would like to have the engine in the car and running before that as my car time will be in short supply after she leaves. So thats why I am contemplating a quick solution to the ugly engine bay so I can keep things moving along.
So i went to car quest and they quoted me 235.00 for base/clear just to paint the engine bay! So rattle can it is for now. The big news is we figured out a solution to the fresh air issue. Instead of building a box, we made a simple lid (plate) for the top of the A/C box fresh air intake door. It worked perfectly and was much simpler then building a box for that fresh air door. I will post the door/hose photos tomorrow. the hose we used was for the heat riser for a small block chevy which is expandable and is available at autozone or orilleys auto parts. we vented the box to the pass side in the stock location after we covered it with a small plate and made a hole. We will caulk the whole A/C system before primer and duplicolor rattle can paint.
We are going to put the 4th gen pedals in tomorrow. take the last of the old harness out and finish prepping the firewall for the REAL paint job. After sanding priming and caulking.
Here is the promised shots of the fresh air ducting. Although small the main goal is to be able to VENT the system so it cam breath and prevent mold from growing in the system and creating a stinky a/c system.
another shot of the simple fabricated fresh air lid and hose.
Hose exiting passenger side of car
another shot from the outside of car this will be underneath the pass fender
Thanks for the updates. I'm curious to see how this turns out and how much room you will have for the cats. I want to do this as well. I have been searching for info on this swap for California and have spoke to the Cali refs a few times. Would love to see this In preson once you have the engine and exhaust all buttoned up before I pull the trigger on picking up a wrecked 4th get and trying the swap.
I will keep updating this thread and let you know so you can see it in person if you want.
I also will try to get good quality photos to show fitment and clearance of the cats and other exhaust components.
The welding work needed smoothing so i decided to apply some filler to enhance the look of the firewall.
The original fan area was difficult to smooth out. The result is less than ideal but i felt like i had spent way too much time on this area of the swap already.
My buddy john applying a suprisingly nice rattle can paint job to the engine bay.
We removed the shock mounts to paint under them. new j&m mounts will be going in.
The brake booster is loose. I hogged out the fourth gen pedal holes to fit the third gen booster
Dropped and sold the drum posi rear. we were going to install the 4th gen tank lines and axel but found some gas tank lines were cut. Oh well back to the junk yard we go...
top of the 4th gen tank. looks like an easy install. we also have the filler neck which must be trimmed by about 1 inch.
another shot of the tank behind the car
This is the entire 4th gen harness in my drive way. we put the harness onto the dash fairly quickly. its now ready to be mounted into the car followed by the 4th gen steering column.
My buddy john fitting the harness to the dash
This spyder was pretty big!
Finially got the 3rd gen harness is out. this car is ready for new guts. next step will be the tank and rear and engine and trans when my engine guy gets some time this week or next.
My buddy John getting the car ready to accept the 4th gen dash
Grinding off the 3rd gen brackets
note the 4th gen a/c box ready for the dash
We had a little trouble getting the dash mounted like the rest of the conversions to all the 3rd gen matching holes. I think it was becuse the dash sagged in the middle. we will support it next try. Note the ENTIRE 4th gen harness ready for installation.
Thanks Mamba, glad to see someone is looking at this besides me!
I drop in almost every time I see activity in this thread also. It is quite inspiring.
There are lots of lurkers on this board. I am sure it is getting more viewing than we three. It would be nice if forums had hit counters per thread or posting to gauge where the interests are. Especially for the OP.
hey thanks guys for looking. You can feel free to give your advice and opinions as well.
To be truthful, I'm a little disapointed that I haven't been getting a hard time on this build like others have on their LS1 builds lol. We are certainly moving along now. The wife wasn't too happy when i told her i wanted to work on the car on fathers day... but we are getting sooo close to dropping in the engine.
I installed the dash all by mysealf. I put the jacks on either side and worked my leg under the dash just enough to lift it uo like 2 inches to get the bolts in. It still needs side brackets and a bottom brace.
Another view of the dash so you can see it bolts to the old 3rd gen mounting points. (I managed to get 3 in and drilled a 4th hole) it seems solid.
I got around to installing some KYB rear shocks I found in the junk yard at the 1/2 price sale. they look like new. I will up grade later, but these will do for now.
Thanks Ramit, Ive been helping out a young marine about ready to EAS (End Active Service) he is a real car guy. we have been having fun with this project and his RAM 1500 4x4 rebuild which we just completed.
Johns 01 dodge 4x4. we completely swapped the front end and transfer case.
My son loves this truck. He is crying because he has to get OUT!
02-11-2015, 11:39 AM
I used to have a fake '70 SS and a real '71 SS. I wish I still had them!
