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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.
So I decided to go ahead an start a thread documenting my swap. Obviously, this has been done countless times by other members, but with everyone going with the LS these days there aren't too many current LT swaps going on.
I've spent hours reading and searching, so while the LS/t56 is a better option and is a future upgrade I'd like to make I'm going with the LT1 as a cheaper and easier option for now. I've still got stock running gear. . brakes, suspension, etc, so the savings from the LT1 are going to go toward upgrading other areas.
My car is an 85 TA with 305/T5 from the factory that I've had for 13+ years. The 305 was very tired with ~190,000mi. I went to put on a new intake and got coolant in the block, hung a valve and decided it was time to upgrade rather than rebuild. After some searching I picked up a LT1/4L60e complete from a 94 caprice for $600 on craigslist with about 82,000 mi.
So far I've stripped the all the emission systems and auto from the LT1 while cleaning up 20 years of gunk. Makes sense to spend a little extra time for a fresh engine bay at the end. Also a good opportunity to take care of a few surface rust spots.
Some of the parts I've received/ordered:
Hedman Headers 68470 since I couldn't find a D-Port Option (Summit ~$170)
Dakota Digital SEN-01-4160 for VSS signal to PCM (Summit $45)
New Clutch/Flywheel for an 89 350 since the 85 is internally balanced and won't work with the LT Starter. . . . this was something I initially missed when planning the swap. Had I known this I would have held out for a LT/T56 combo, since I will eventually go with the T56 anyway.
(Summit ~$200)
Walbro 255lph external fuel pump (eBay $90)
New 3rd Gen 3 Row Aluminium Radiator w/electric fans (eBay $165)
New Parallel flow condenser
I'll be using a new, stock b-body PS line (O'riley $25)
Still need to order an AC compressor fitting and custom lines
Also replacing/upgrading other little things as I go but the above list is what was "needed" to complete the swap.
Hoping that I can get it all done over the next 2-3 weeks. When I get back home this afternoon I'll be swapping out the motor mounts and finishing up on degreasing the bay so I can work on dropping the LT in.
After that just need to get the rest of the AC Parts, tackle the harness integration, and then button it all back up.
Old 305 Partially disassembled
New LT1 as it looked when I brought it home. Came complete with PCM and Harness
So I got a little more work done on the project over the weekend. The new engine is now in the car, with the new clutch installed, along with the transmission.
I ended up getting a little impatient and not spending as much time detailing things as I had planned. Only have so many hours to work on the car and I really want to be driving it again with the new power. I also decided to skip installing new motor mounts now as I couldn't get to the bolts without removing the lower control arms, so I'll tackle the mounts when I get to installing the Poly bushing kit that's sitting in my garage.
This week I will be working on hopefully finishing all the plumbing and electrical, as my goal is to have it all running again by the end of next weekend.
Here are a couple pictures of my latest progress.
Quick and dirty paint job on the bare parts of the K Member.
Only spent about an hour or so on the car in the last two days. Finally got the correct water pump bolts to replace the studs from the mechanical fan assembly. 3/8-16x4. . .my first attempt I bought 2" bolts that weren't long enough. The B-Body PS line came in yesterday and looks like it should fit without too much bending.
Also started trying to wrestle my Hedman 68470's into place and discovered it would have been wise to do that before re-installing the tranny and fully setting the motor into place. Going to have to pull the motor mount bolts and raise the engine up to get them to fit so I can figure out where to install the o2 bungs, then hit them with some High Temp Paint. In retrospect I'm kind of wishing I would have gotten headers with the bung already installed. I'll probably go pick up a cheap welder from Harbor Freight since I'm going to try to mate the headers to the factory y pipe with a little modification.
Hoping to accomplish a little more this afternoon. Making progress but it's slow.
Well I typed up another update on my phone and just lost it so trying again. Worked a little today and on Saturday, got a few more things done.
Saturday I got the new ac condenser and aluminum radiator w/fans installed. Still need to modify my stock fan shroud or make/buy an upper radiator support. Also got the headers painted and Pass Side in. Driver side was a pita. .tried disconnecting the steering shaft but couldn't get it to compress so I end up jacking up the engine enough to get it in, did that this afternoon. Both sides dump out pretty close to the factory y pipe so still hoping I can get away with cutting some off and welding the collectors on. . going to put my o2 in the collectors as well. Probably going to save the welding until last. Oh. . .one last note on the headers. . pass side is maybe 1/2" from ac so I got some stick on heat shield. . .hopefully nothings melts
Painted Headers. . .not as nice a finish as I wanted but it will do.
. . Starting to look more complete
Today I also got the B-Body Power Steering line installed. I don't think it would have even needed bent much but I tried routing it through the accessories at first. . instead of around the ac compressor. Removed the oil cooler also and put a block oil filter adapter in.
PS line installed. . .the right way this time lol
New Rad, Fans, and Condenser. . Held up some pink zip ties for now.
Still trying to figure out the ac lines. I gambled on a cheap b-body set but it definitely interferes with the headers so I'm going to attempt to bend them significantly and see if I can get away with routing them between the 2 and 4 header primaries. If not I'll just suck it up and order custom lines.
Next up is getting the rest of the hoses for the radiator, PS return, Heater, and fuel lines. Then I can get my In-line pump installed, and on to the wiring. I've got both harnesses partially disassembled inside, and even though I labeled what I could before pulling off the engine I don't want to remove anything until I've got it laid out in the car for reference.
Making Progress and getting closer. Spent most of the day yesterday working on the car. Picked up, and installed radiator hoses, PS return line, and Heater lines. Also started installing the fuel pump, but still have to do some more work on placement and finishing the install.
Had to go back and work on the K-member some more. . . Noticed the compressor was interfering . . . didn't make a big enough dent with the BFH. With so much back in the car I just hacked a small notch out of the K-member then reinstalled the compressor. Since I don't plan on tracking the car I don't think integrity will be an issue.
Brought the wiring back into the car to start marrying the two together and removing some systems I'm not keeping. I've still got some things to figure out with the gauges here but I did successfully crank it over trying to check oil press gauge(which I have wired wrong apparently), and much to my surprise it fired and ran for a few seconds. . . scared the hell out of my neighbors lol. Its still open headers so was a little loud, but it sounds so much better than my wore out, poorly tuned, 305.
Going on vacation at the end of this week so probably won't get much more done until I get back, but once I get harnesses together, wire up the cooling fans, and finish the fuel pump it should be ready to drive.
Still have to figure out what I'm going to do about the AC lines, but as long as I don't engage the ac clutch it will at least be driveable. Seeing as we're averaging like 95 degrees with 70% humidity here in South Florida I will be working on getting that sorted quickly.
Unfortunately I haven't worked on the car at all since my last post. I was away on vacation for a week and kind of killed my momentum. Hoping I can motivate myself to dive back in and get some more work done this weekend.
Well hopefully my hiatus is over. Not much of an update but have been out in the garage today hacking on the exhaust. After cutting off one side of the old flange I decided to go ahead and order the Hedman Y-pipe to go with my shorties. PN 17478. Found a good deal on eBay for $113 shipped.
I'm sure I could modify the factory piece to fit, but it doesn't line up very closely on the driver side. I don't have a welder and have only welded a couple of times so new parts it is. Unfortunately the new part still needs the o2 bungs welded in along with the driver side reducer, so I'll probably outsource that.
I'm getting more anxious to get her on the road again now that the weather here in FL is finally starting to get a bit more bearable.
Once I've got the exhaust hooked up I'll be able to make some more test runs of the engine so I can button up the wiring and a few other items. Don't want my neighbors to completely hate me so I'm resisting the urge to run the engine with open headers. After I make some more actual progress I'll post more pics.
Lol true. . I also forgot to mention that I hadn't disabled VATS in the ECM so the fuel pump was just rigged for the test fire.
I was out playing around with TunerPro and eeHack a little bit ago and I think I got the bin edited to disable VATS, EGR, AIR, and the 4L60e. Went to check that the ecm was putting out power for the fuel pump and it appears the FP relay is bad, so now I'm waiting for that order to get delivered too.
Accomplished a bit more this weekend. Mocked up the new Y-pipe, and after looking it over I think the Headers are coming back out to install the o2 bung. Since the Y-pipe is necked down where I was planning to installed the bung, I decided not to add the restriction of the sensor to the most restricted part of the exhaust system.
Also did a few other little things like running the wires underneath for the VSS and Fuel Pump. Topped off the tranny from all the fluid I lost out the rear seal, and re-installed the drive shaft.
Found out the fuel pump relay wasn't bad either. Turns out the Grey wire for the fuel pump was not correct on my wiring diagram so I had the Windshield Washer and Fuel Pump wires mixed up. Now I just need to finish the exhaust to give it a good test run.
Ended up putting 4 new shocks and mounts on my DD Audi so that ate up most of the day on Sunday, but hoping to get more done this week now that I've jumped back into the project.
Worked some more on Saturday. . .not sure I actually made much progress though. Got the old y-pipe fully cut out of the exhaust.
Tried to light the engine off again and now it's only cranking. . . and doesn't seem to be getting spark. I know i had spark a couple months ago when it fired up for a second. As I mentioned above I had reprogrammed the ecu to remove vats two weeks ago, but now I'm having trouble reading the ecu.
Need to do some more troubleshooting to figure out what the culprit is, but hoping I didn't brick the ecu. . .there was no indication that I did when writing the new file.
Ended up getting frustrated with that so started removing un-needed items from the wiring harness, which is slowly starting to look less scary. . . . Just getting the Wiper wiring out of the caprice harness was a huge improvement.
Just had our first morning below 70 degress today I'm really itching to go for a drive with the T-tops off. . . . maybe another week or two.
Well after numerous attempts to try to reload the bin files to the pcm with eehack, I'm pretty sure I did screw up the pcm somehow. From my searching it seems like Tunercat repairs the chips. . .just sent them an e-mail but they're closed this week.
In the mean time I may have found a used pcm out of a firebird locally. Probably not a bad idea to have a back up anyway so I may go pick that up this week and try again.
I can't really motivate myself to mess with much else on the car until I sort out the computer. I WANT TO HEAR IT RUN!! I did end up buying a welder on sale at HF yesterday, so need to play with it a bit and then pull the headers to weld in the o2 bungs, so I can finish the exhaust.
Yea I'm just now realizing that I didn't factor in the age/support of the gen II LT1 into my swap decision. . I'm sure I'll get it sorted though, hopefully it won't be a huge PITA.
Since I haven't posted any pictures lately I went out and snapped a few just for the hell of it. Not much to see right now.
Here are a couple pics of the exhaust which is just loosely bolted in. End of the y-pipe comes right up to the cat delete pipe from like 13 years ago. . it's suppose to slip over but doesn't seem to be long enough, so i might need an extension or just weld these two together.
Wiring . . . . It may not look much different but I have removed most of the unnecessary from the harness. Still have a few left to separate the trans harness out.
Yellow MAF wire needs to be extended as it's preventing the pcm from sitting where I want.
Intake and MAF are mocked into place. . Going to have to mess with this more as the upper radiator hose wants to occupy the same space.
Yea I'm just now realizing that I didn't factor in the age/support of the gen II LT1 into my swap decision. . I'm sure I'll get it sorted though, hopefully it won't be a huge PITA.
I thought about that, I'm running the 24x route to avoid some of the age deliemnas
So far I haven't really looked into that. Trying to keep the budget in check since that was one of the big reasons for not going with an LS swap to begin with. . . I haven't totaled everything up but i believe i'm at about $1500-1600 right now, so it has been a pretty budget friendly option.
So far I haven't really looked into that. Trying to keep the budget in check since that was one of the big reasons for not going with an LS swap to begin with. . . I haven't totaled everything up but i believe i'm at about $1500-1600 right now, so it has been a pretty budget friendly option.
The 24x option doesn't really blow the budget as high as it might sound. The lsx does since a bunch of that is still kinda expensive to retrofit. I even found a whole conversion kit with harness for like $700. Granted that's a big jump from that tiny budget you've amazingly got already
The 24x option doesn't really blow the budget as high as it might sound. The lsx does since a bunch of that is still kinda expensive to retrofit. I even found a whole conversion kit with harness for like $700. Granted that's a big jump from that tiny budget you've amazingly got already
Yea $700 is more than I paid for the complete engine/tranny/harness/pcm out of the caprice lol. That's why I didn't got for the Painless Swap harness and decided to modify the factory harness myself.
Eureka!! So i just went and picked up the used PCM I found from a 94 Firebird and plugged it in. Fired right Up, so needless to say I'm excited lol. Apparently this pcm has already been tuned and came out of a modded car so i need to load the calibration file for the caprice. It stayed running but with the wrong tune and o2 sensors not hooked up it wasn't real happy. . .lol blew a could 18in flames out the exhaust so that was fun.
Paid $130 for the used computer, could have gotten one for less but I didn't feel like waiting a week for shipping.
Also side note for anyone with the same problems, I heard back from TunerCats and they still do the PCM repair on these for $25 plus shipping so I'll be sending the original computer to them this week.
aliceempire - Yea I'm hoping to recoup some money selling off the 4L60 and other parts off the 305 that I won't need any more. I've still got a couple little things to buy but pretty sure I'm going to come in right at $2k. No worries. . .I should have a back up once I get the other one repaired.
Worked more this afternoon. Got the original harness and computer removed from the car. Also did some more wiring. . Pretty much have it thinned out to what I'm keeping. Got the tach hooked up and working. Now I need to figure out oil pressure . . I guess I'm just going to have to get a T fitting and add the 1 wire sender from the 305?
So far I haven't run the engine long enough to test the temp gauge.
Here is all the wiring I've removed from the car and the lt1 harness.
I also cleaned, scuffed, and painted the cowl. It was looking tired and had primer overspray in a couple spots from when I painted the car in high school.
Spent most of the weekend out in the garage working. Got the o2 bungs welded in, ended up going back to my previous plan of installing them in the Y-pipe. Decided I didn't feel like pulling the headers back out. Exhaust is about done. Had it all hooked up but could only get 2 out of 3 bolts in each flange, so the pass side is leaking badly.
Also spent some more time on the harness, which is about ready for final solder on the connections. Had to put the pass side o2 wiring back in, which I accidentally removed with the auto trans harness. I just need to verify that my connections are good. I drove the car down the street and back. It was backfiring a little, but I'm hoping fixing the exhaust leak, installing new o2 sensors, and a tune will fix that.
I also got the throttle cable hooked up. The one I ordered from a 92 TPI car was a couple inches too short on the sleeve, so i installed a cheap 36in universal from eBay, which I'm not really happy with either, but it's working for now.
After running the car for a while I noticed the power steering fluid was extremely hot. . not sure what would cause that. Either the PS pump, or alternator has a bad bearing and was making awful noises, so might make sense if the PS pump is bad.
I have to say after 4+ months on jackstands I was getting used to looking at the car more like a truck and had forgotten it's a sports car until I set her back down on the tires.
o2 bung. . .don't mind my terrible welds lol. . . And no I didn't weld it with the sensor installed. Will be installing new sensors as soon as they show up.
Outside in the Sun for the first time in 6 Months!!
Here is the aftermath . . .even though I'm not finished yet. Haven't even been able to get to the right side of the garage to pick up since I couldn't move the car. Looking forward to having an actual 2 car garage again.
More Progress. . . I think I've got the exhaust sorted now. The ball and socket didn't line up perfectly so the pass side was about 1/4" off and leaked badly the first time. I installed new o2 sensors. . .noticed I have one little hole i missed so need to go back in and weld that.
Sounds pretty nice now aside from the terrible screeching from the engine bay. I was thinking it was the alt or ps pump bearing, but looking at it again this afternoon I'm now pretty sure its from the bolt I have in the the alt that's not the right size. . .and from not having the back support hooked up to the header bolt. I remember reading another build that had noise from not having the support on.
Harness it almost buttoned up. I hooked up the cooling fans to the wiring from the Air Pump relay and installed the trigger wire into the primary fan location. Since its a caprice harness I had no primary relay and no wire in that pin location anyway.
Had to get a pigtail and build a whole new back up light harness from scratch since I want to sell the old harness complete. . Now it appears that the switch in the trans is bad, so that's been ordered. With drivers around here I want to do everything I can to reduce the risk of being hit. . Also just ordered a strobe flasher box for my LED 3rd brake light.
I tend to be pretty ADD out in the garage so got distracted the other day and spent some time on the plastic cowl vent and wiper arms. Used Flexidip. . aka Plastidip. I was worried about buildup spraying the mesh part but I think they turned out pretty well.
I think that's pretty much everything I've done over the last few days. . .Need to take it for a drive again to see if fixing the headers is going to help with it running rich but still haven't tried tuning it yet. I want to hook up the aldl connector before trying on this pcm. . .Not sure if the way I had the wires hooked up before may have caused my first pcm to need repaired.
Rainbow Spaghetti
Started getting everything in place with twist ties
Before shot of the wiper arms. . .I didn't think to take a before of the cover.
Not the best picture but here are the wiper arms and cover back on the car.
So got home a few min ago and decided I'd back her out of the garage and go for a little shakedown cruise. . .lol I didn't get very far. Power steering wasn't working right so should have stopped right there, but went about 1/2 mi down the road and saw the belt go flying. Fortunately got it back home before the battery ran out of juice.
Looks like my lower radiator hose was rubbing on the the PS pulley causing the belt to slip. . then it got hot and broke.
On a more positive note it seems like the swap was worth it. . .in the 100 yard stretch where I cracked it open to about 1/2-3/4 throttle it seemed like a rocket ship compared to before. Once I fix today's damage and the cause I'll get her out on faster roads to test out the new power.
Nothing like destroying brand new parts, but at least it wasn't something expensive.
Got a new belt yesterday and put it on. . . Even though the PS pump wasn't seized up, when I started the car I noticed the belt was still slipping and no power steering. Guess I'm going to stop at o'reilly again on the way home today and pick up a new pump.
I have a feeling that not having the reservoir secured may have caused a kink in the feed line and run the pump dry. Need to fab up some kind of mounting tab to keep in place before I try to drive it again.
Still having issue. . .and they seem to be growing. Replaced the PS pump and the tensioner thinking that would solve my issue. Still no power steering. . I've flushed and bled the system. Also checked and didn't find any blockages, so I guess replacing or rebuilding the steering box is next.
Topped off the cooling system and now I seem to have a leak. . .I'm really hoping its the water pump gaskets, as a result of removing the mechanical fan assembly and installing shorter bolts, and not the head gasket.
I'm getting a lot of smoke out the exhaust, but I did run about 1/4 can of seafoam into the intake the other day. Just seems like I've run it enough to get that out by now.
Still having issue. . .and they seem to be growing. Replaced the PS pump and the tensioner thinking that would solve my issue. Still no power steering. . I've flushed and bled the system. Also checked and didn't find any blockages, so I guess replacing or rebuilding the steering box is next.
Topped off the cooling system and now I seem to have a leak. . .I'm really hoping its the water pump gaskets, as a result of removing the mechanical fan assembly and installing shorter bolts, and not the head gasket.
I'm getting a lot of smoke out the exhaust, but I did run about 1/4 can of seafoam into the intake the other day. Just seems like I've run it enough to get that out by now.
There's always something. My guess is there is still air in the power steering lines. Sometimes it's a pain to remove it all, other times super easy.
I would also imagine the seafoam would have burned off by now.
There's always something. My guess is there is still air in the power steering lines. Sometimes it's a pain to remove it all, other times super easy.
I would also imagine the seafoam would have burned off by now.
Yea I think I'll jack up the front end again and try lock to lock like 20 more times. I've never had this kind of trouble in the past. The box has no signs of leaking anywhere but pretty sure it's original and never been rebuilt.
Definitely worried by the smoke, but the amount of coolant that was leaking doesn't seem right for head gasket. . . also possible that there are 2 separate problems. Fingers crossed that I don't have to tear it all apart.
"Working" from home today so took some more time to go tinker with my PS issues. Went and got another bottle of fluid and some of the Royal Purple conditioner (did a good job quieting my Audi PS pump down in the past).
So just flushed the fluid out again. . on the 3rd qt now. I've done lock to lock easily another 50 times. . .lol I've lost count. Both with the engine running and not. Every once in a while it seems to get a little better for 1/2 sec then nothing. Also seems to be harder to turn the wheel with the engine running than off.
I noticed I'm getting smoke from what looks like the PS pump itself. I can see a little fluid on the back of it, so I think my reman pump may be bad. Need to clean it off and run again too see if I can 100% tell it's leaking. I also noticed there seemed to be excessive play in the pulley up/down, slightly less front to back but more than I would expect. Either way it's most likely coming back out for re-inspection or replacement.
Still getting smoke out the exhaust once the engine warms up a little, but I'm thinking it isn't head gasket. . .yet to be determined. The area where I saw smoke at the front of the head appears to be the PS Pump. Looking inside the intake there is a still a fair amount of buildup so hopefully smoke is that burning off, but I believe I fixed the coolant leak. One of the heater hoses wasn't tightened down enough after replacing PS pump.
Feeling so close yet so far away right now with this troubleshooting. On a more positive note I did get the reverse lights working. After putting a new switch in the tranny with my new harness I was still getting no lights and was afraid something was broken inside the transmission. Turned out I didn't have a good connection at my temporary wire joint. . all good on that now.
Bought it last year mostly for the sequential turn signals, and it's almost a perfect fit for the reflector. I don't believe I've seen anyone else attempt this on a 3rd gen.
I'll post more on this later. Going to have to splice in, and run two wires from the front turn signals. Since the TA tail lights are commons brake/turn it's not working correctly with the hitch wiring box I used. The light bar needs to see turn signals independently of the brakes, otherwise the amber lights come on with the brake lights.
I did fix the brake/turn issue on my aftermarket led 3rd brake light. Spliced into the white wire off the brake pedal switch and then ran it to the un-used light blue wire in the the tail light harness. Now it doesn't flash with the left turn signal like it did before. This will also be my brake only wire for the light bar.
Not to get too far off the swap but since I hate to post without some pictures and have little other progress to show here are a couple pictures to give you an idea on the light bar I mentioned above.
60" . . or like 59 and change I measured a while ago so don't remember exactly. Gives you and idea of the size compared to the tail lights
Almost perfect hight to fit the lower reflector.
I do think it's going to take more than the 4 sticky pads on the back of it so secure it to the slight curvature of the lights. I was thinking a full strip of the hardcore Velcro. .. lol I forget the proper name. Could also use two sided tape but that will make removal a p.i.t.a. . .
Last edited by KnightPhoenix; 11-11-2016 at 12:23 PM.
Reason: spacing
So just went out and installed the 2nd reman PS pump. . . .still not working. The 1st reman pump was definitely a dudd. . .there was 1/2"+ endplay in the shaft. The pump I got today seems much better in that area.
After filling and trying to bleed again, the new pump is also starting to smoke if I run the engine for more than 60 sec. I'm going to let it cool off for a bit and try some more later. . . . getting so frustrated with this stupid problem.
If I still have no luck later then I'm going to order the Steering Box rebuild kit and give that a go. If that doesn't work I guess the next step is shelling out another $150+ on a Brand New pump.
Only other thought is that I have a 5/16" return line, so maybe that's too restrictive. I guess I should try to change out to a 3/8, or 5/8 line first since that's the cheapest thing.
One good note is that O'Reillys is going to refund the price of the first reman pump.
I also found a used wiper motor + cover on eBay the other day. Been looking for quite a while to replace my busted cover, and wipers that won't turn off unless I turn the car off. The 84-87 covers seem to be nearly impossible to find, so very happy to have found one in good condition.
Last edited by KnightPhoenix; 11-18-2016 at 10:54 AM.
Reason: Pictures didn't post
Tried bleeding a bit more this afternoon. Still Zero power assist. I was reading about Seafoam Trans Tune as an option to clean out the gear box, but I've now noticed the box is starting to leak fluid so probably not much point in trying the seafoam.
I went a head and blasted it with some penetrating fluid. Suppose I'll work on pulling that out tomorrow.
**edit: went back out in the garage after this post last night. Forgot that I had spilled a little fluid changing out to the larger return line, so not 100% sure the box is leaking. For $10 I'm gonna stop and get the trans tune stuff today and try that.
Last edited by KnightPhoenix; 11-20-2016 at 08:57 AM.
The Saga continues . . . .After more fettling today I've definitely got another dead pump.
Got a bottle of the Seafoam Hydra and put half in the system. . .while the wheel seems easier to turn with the engine off, still no assist whatsoever. The pump did stop smoking though.
Decided to slacken the belt and check the pump/pulley again. . .this one now has 1/2" of play in the shaft too!! Really wish I would have just rebuilt my stock pump instead of wasting time and money on this cardone junk.
Just ordered the rebuild kit for the box from rockauto. Was going to try a new pump from DNJ but found some bad reviews on those, so I ordered a reman Ac Delco pump off amazon for $75 that has a $30 rebate. Heard Declo has gone down hill in recent years too but seems like my best bet.
Hopefully it will all arrive by the end of the week. I really don't see how the box could be killing these pumps but I'm not going to try the delco pump until I rebuild the box just in case.
I'm also still getting a lot of smoke out of the exhaust, and oil on the pass side y-pipe. The engine doesn't puff smoke when starting like the 305 did but after it runs for a second it starts, also gets worse revving the engine. So I don't think it's the valve seals. Doesn't smell like coolant either. All I can think is that it's from being tuned super rich, or is burning oil.
Well . .another 4.5 months slip away. Haven't really touched the car much since Nov. Ended up not receiving the AC Delco PS pump after a month so contacted the seller to figure out what happened. Great guy, sent another one right away, showed up 2 days later, then 2 days after that the first one finally showed up, so I got a free extra pump. Hopefully I won't need it . . .
I installed the Delco pump (this is now my 4th pump) a couple weeks ago, but haven't done anything else. Still need to pull the steering box and rebuild before I try the new pump, since the box is the only thing left. . .
Not that I need another project but just picked up a second Jet Ski last week. 1100 Waveraider with a bad engine so working on rebuilding that now. Once that's done hopefully will jump back in and get the Bird finished. . . just in time to be cooked alive in it with our Florida summers lol.
Well . .another 4.5 months slip away. Haven't really touched the car much since Nov. Ended up not receiving the AC Delco PS pump after a month so contacted the seller to figure out what happened. Great guy, sent another one right away, showed up 2 days later, then 2 days after that the first one finally showed up, so I got a free extra pump. Hopefully I won't need it . . .
I installed the Delco pump (this is now my 4th pump) a couple weeks ago, but haven't done anything else. Still need to pull the steering box and rebuild before I try the new pump, since the box is the only thing left. . .
Not that I need another project but just picked up a second Jet Ski last week. 1100 Waveraider with a bad engine so working on rebuilding that now. Once that's done hopefully will jump back in and get the Bird finished. . . just in time to be cooked alive in it with our Florida summers lol.
If your pumps were f body pumps and not b body then I'd buy the extra one off of you if you don't need it. I hope the rebuild is all you need, I'd personally like to see your car going to give me more hope for finally getting to mine
I just read through your "saga." I'm still working on my swap which is very similar to yours. I just spent more money as we bored and stroked along with balancing our LT1. I was concentrating on your wiring as that's where I'm fast approaching. One question, did you remove the main plug that goes through the firewall? I did and it is covered with a nasty (probably dielectric stuff). Did you clean yours, if so, how did you clean it? Question 2 deals with the throttle cable; you said you used a 36" cable from flea bay. Any other suggestions? Will the Caprice cable work? Thanks and at least you got yours running.
@Strick1 . . . hopefully you're all done now. . sorry it took so long. . I did take that firewall plug apart, but I don't remember doing anything special to clean it. . there was that nasty mess on mine too, but wasn't too bad. Throttle cable I am not sure about the caprice unit. I know the cable I have isn't perfect, and I'll eventually look for a better solution.
Anyway. . . Still Alive, and still have the T/A. . . In addition to the 2nd jet ski, I also picked up another project vehicle last April. . 1994 S10 Blazer, with a bad trans so I've spent most of my wrenching time the last 15 months on that. . .
The Trans Am unfortunately got pushed to the side. . .
This is what it looked like out in the garage the other day. . .
Now that the Blazer is almost complete, I'm starting to clean up to get back to the T/A.
I've gotten most if it uncovered from all the clutter and boxes. . . . Need to put the hood back on to free up some more garage space, and then tear into the steering box.
I replaced the steering box on the Blazer so doing it again should be pretty easy. . Another thing I've learned during the Blazer build is how terrible the rag/tulip joint steering shaft really is. . .Was shot on the blazer, so I upgraded to u-joint shaft from a jeep cherokee.
It made a dramatic improvement too the steering, and even though the T/A doesn't have much slop, I'm definitely going to do the upgraded shaft for it as well.
This is amazing. I too have a S-10 but it is a GMC Jimmy, 1993. I bought it new and we've put over 290K on it with the original engine. The tranny needed work but runs well now. Problem is it just sits there as my goto car is a Durango and my wife drives a new Durango.
As far as the Camaro swap, it's been on the back burner for a while. Our next job will be welding some of the floor board that developed a crack on the tunnel. We're still learning how to weld as we keep burning through or not getting enough penetration. Then we hope to install the drivetrain for the last time. Then the steering components.
We're not too far from "Fantom Works" (TV show) and want to make a visit to ask about wiring and other items about our build.
This is amazing. I too have a S-10 but it is a GMC Jimmy, 1993. I bought it new and we've put over 290K on it with the original engine. The tranny needed work but runs well now. Problem is it just sits there as my goto car is a Durango and my wife drives a new Durango.
As far as the Camaro swap, it's been on the back burner for a while. Our next job will be welding some of the floor board that developed a crack on the tunnel. We're still learning how to weld as we keep burning through or not getting enough penetration. Then we hope to install the drivetrain for the last time. Then the steering components.
We're not too far from "Fantom Works" (TV show) and want to make a visit to ask about wiring and other items about our build.
Always nice to stick with the GM family since so much interchanges. . .We had a new 95, and 97 Jimmy growing up. . .I love the square bodies, and have been enjoying my '94.
Seems like we all end up hitting bigger delays with these projects, but glad to hear you're still working on it even if it's slow going.
Finally went in and pulled the steering box. . . was a PITA! the lower fender brace, and bracket for the vacuum reservoir made it much more difficult to get to the bolts vs when I pulled the steering box off of the Blazer.
Today I've been working on disassembling the box for rebuild. Definitely needed it. . There was a whole bunch of sludge inside the case. . . some of it was pretty solid too!
The pictures don't really show how bad it is. Good news is, this definitely seems like something that could have been killing my new pumps. . . Bad news is the cover snap ring is really stuck in there, so far I've bent the crap out of it but only gotten about 40% out of the seat.
Hopefully I'll get it out soon, just needed to take a break from the heat and thought I'd post an update.
Finally went in and pulled the steering box. . . was a PITA! the lower fender brace, and bracket for the vacuum reservoir made it much more difficult to get to the bolts vs when I pulled the steering box off of the Blazer.
Today I've been working on disassembling the box for rebuild. Definitely needed it. . There was a whole bunch of sludge inside the case. . . some of it was pretty solid too!
The pictures don't really show how bad it is. Good news is, this definitely seems like something that could have been killing my new pumps. . . Bad news is the cover snap ring is really stuck in there, so far I've bent the crap out of it but only gotten about 40% out of the seat.
Hopefully I'll get it out soon, just needed to take a break from the heat and thought I'd post an update.
I bought a rebuilt steering box for our swap. It wasn't that expensive from NAPA. Just be sure you get the box for the Z28.
06-08-2016, 01:17 PM
