Engine SwapEverything about swapping an engine into your Third Gen.....be it V6, V8, LTX/LSX, crate engine, etc. Pictures, questions, answers, and work logs.
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305TPI out! GM ZZ383 in! The immediate problem...headers. I bought a set of SLP 1 3/4" shorties, no way do I have the clearance on the drivers side. The SLP's are about 6" deep and I have maybe 4 1/2" before bumping into the hard brake lines and steering column. How much can I dent those headers in..if at all to make them work? Hedman 68479's the answer? Long tubes are questionable because of the next sentence.
My car is lowered, riding on Jamex springs. However, the car is actually sitting up 1-2" since the swap! How can that be? I do not have the battery reinstalled, nor the radiator, nor any of the A/C equipment. A little more weight, but not enough to drop the car that much...or is it?
the brake lines aren't a big deal. Gently move them towards the fender till you have the clearance you need. just be careful not to kink the lines.
As far as the powersteering I haven't heard of any issues with them. Have you tried undoing the motor mount, tilting the motor to one side and then installing the header? I was able to slip my headers in without issue, but I have the hooker 2055's.
The headers will drop RIGHT IN, if you do 2 things.
DO NOT dent the headers!!!! That's the HACK way of doing things.
Remove the steering column (2 nuts under the dash, 3 sheet-metal screws at the firewall, 1 nut & bolt attaching it to the intermediate steering shaft, about 3 electrical plugs .... about 2 minutes total if you're as slow as me) and enlarge the 3 holes in the metal plate that fastens to the firewall to allow it to slide toward the fender by about ¼". In fact, you might not even have to totally remove it from the car; all you gotta do is be able to get a grinding point or something into those holes. That solves that problem.
The brake lines ned to be re-routed. You can just bend them differently.
Cars always sit up higher for a little while after pulling and re-installing the engine. Don't worry about it. Put the car back together; drive it around a few miles; it'll settle right back down to where it was.
__________________ Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate. — William of Ockham, from Quaestiones et decisiones in quattuor libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi
Roughly paraphrased into modern English, and applied to figuring out what's wrong with your car:
The simplest explanation that fits all the facts is probably the right one.
A friend and I ran SLP 1 3/4" headers about 10 years ago but I don't remember the problems you are having... I do remember having the engine in the air, and then letting it down slow as we slipped them in the holes, then bolted them up when the engine was sitting on the mounts...
I'd follow sofa's advice...
__________________ "Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored."
--Abraham Lincoln
Here's a picture of my LT1 with the Hedman shorties (think they're the same part number you posted)
In the car that had the V6
When i put the motor in the GTA, I had to bend the one brake line away from the header and it clears with the steering column in the original spot. Don't have a problem at all with the headers heating up the brake line. If I get a chance tomorrow, I'll snap a picture of my driverside closeup to give a better view.
ive got the SLP shorties. They fit, though they are tight. If you remove the motor mount through bolt on that side and jack up the engine as far as you can without breaking the dizzy cap, sometimes removing the valve cover helps, depends on how it sits on the head, you can wiggle them in. i ended up with the tube hitting my steering shaft, so i had to unbolt it under the dash and push persuade it over a tad to get clearance.
The idea of moving the column towards the fender by enlarging the 3 sheet metal screws did not work for me. I did not get the clearance needed as well as this idea pushes the whole column off center when coming thru the dash bezel under the gauges. Since the column intermediate shaft has a joint at the top right under the brake booster, it actually kicks the column and steering wheel to the right as a direct opposite reaction of what the mounting plate at the firewall is doing. the two nuts holding up the column under the dash are not adjustable left to right. I had to modify the intermediate steering shaft by flattening the half round sections of the shaft to match the flat sides...worked perfect and did not take away any strength from the shaft. good luck.
I moved the steering column over a 1/4" and bent several of the hard brake linds out of the way. They wiggled right in with about 3/8" clearance to steering shaft.
Maybe you're right... I remember something about one of the GMPP aluminum heads that they used on one of their 383ci crate engines having raised exhaust ports, and causing someone some problems with headers awhile back. Must be a different set though.
