Hey Everyone, I wanted to make a new thread with the progress of my car that also contained a bunch of information in one spot regarding the custom work i did to keep my swap costs to a minumum, after all my other build thread was Sh!t in kindest words Anywho. Here's a breakdown of the costs for my swap: Engine: $1500 (Complete engine + Harness) Transmission: $250 Accessories/Pan/Intake: $500 Headers: $150 Mod parts: $100 Y-pipe Parts: $130 Wiring bits (Fuse box, connections etc) - $50 Tq. Arm bushing - $18 Cooling peices - $40 CAI - $50 Miscilaneous - $400 Grand Total: $3188, And ive sold about $400 in parts off my motor + $1000 for my old motor/trans = $1788 total cost. Here's my build from start to nearing finished (As of july 19/2008) Heres my car; its a 1989 Chevrolet camaro iroc-z. I got it august 13 2006 for my 16th birthday. Its been my baby since, and at 17 now, ive spent every penny ive ever earned on it. The motor: Spiced up a little: LS1 parts on w/ first test fit: My first mounts i made (didnt work, motor sat too far ahead): Painted the engine bay: Camaro during the fact on the stands: Fuel Tank mounted: For my fuel tank, i used a tank out of a 2000 t/a. I removed the evap wiring and left just the charcoal canister for the fumes to vent through. The fuel filler neck was cut & shortened. The wiring harness is the same colour coding as the thirdgen, so it just cut/spliced. Hopefully it works out okay. Here is my custom motor mount i made: I used some steel strap at school and custom welded a u bracket cause i couldnt afford the spohn ones. I welded the mounts to the k-member because i didnt really want to deal with the bolts, and i plan to go to a tubular k-member in the future anyways, so i can just replace the k-member eventually, however they work well, im happy with the outcome.

Here i welded, & supported then painted my mounts, i know their not the pretties things ever but they work



Bought some bullet fuel rails and painted the LS1 intake. Eventually abandoned both:



Pedal and TAC module, more on this later.



Big Gap here.



Engine is mounted along with an LS6 intake, i made a CAI out of plumbing from home Depot as i needed something to fit my LS6 MAF & the intake i bought. Worked out well, im happy with it.

Bought a bunch of parts to make my headers:



Here is my first modified header:



Turned out very well. Learned alot, i had to make spacer rings for the 1 5/8" tubes would seal tight in the 1 3/4" flanges. Word of advice, for hte passenger header, line up the 2nd from the front tube as it will saave alot of bashing to clear the a-arm mount.

More info comiong on drivers header.

Here is my motor now (july 19th)



I put stock fuel rails back on and painted my CAI. The fuel rails were changed because i disliked the way the truck wiring went all over the intake. Due to the fact taht the truck intake normally has wiring running down te top of it, i did my best to clear the wires around it. I think some corvette FRC's will clean it up a fair bit so that explains my rails.

Heres a shot of the truck wiring re-arrange for the car intake:





The fuse box is from a cavalier, and is mounted beside the battery so hid it sorta. Theres a single wire from the battery to the fuse box. The TAC module is mounted on the side of the strut tower, and then ill mount the ECM where everyone else does. The wiring has to cross the intake at one point which sucks, but it was un avoidable because of the harness shape. We deleted alot including EVAP, rear 02's, cruise etc. Im planning on putting in a f-body harness next year when i re-wire the entire car so it will be cleaner.

Here is my chassis mount tq. arm



Its not finished yet, its deflecting and im not happy with it. Its an extremely temporary setup. Ill replace it soon. I just put it in so i could drive the damn car haha. Its simply a clamp idea that holds onto the bushing.

Heres a starting of my brake setup:




Id like to use the LS1 master cyl. The front brake would be an un proportioned setup and the rear is an ajustable prop valve.

I put in a Trans cooler cause the lines from my 4L60 were big for my rad and i figured the cooler would be better for abuse on the trans




Heres my passengerh eader mounted up. Lots of clearance for my spark plugs. im content:



Here is my DBW Pedal, this was harder then i anticipated.







For those of you un aware, the thirdgen firewall is curved in the pedal area. The truck pedal i used is flat and is way wayyy to long to fit in. I reused the lower stud, welded abracket down the one side to support it and drilled a lower hole and put a bigger bolt in. After that i had to re-weld th the pedal arm to where i liked it. It looks pretty sketchy, sketchy counts in my books and i love the feel of it.

And another brake shot. For those of you unaware, im running 12" LS1 brake on all 4 corners.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask!

Ive picked up my next project for the car

Here's some pics of the driver side header.

The 2nd and 4th tubes line up with a bit of muscle power. The tube from the 1st pipe was used in the 3rd position and the 3rd used in the 1st. The tube for the 1st cylinder needs to closely follow the 2nd tube in order to clear the engine mount which is why there are a few pieces in the fitment.

Had to cut off the square boss cast into the side of the block under the 4th exhaust port in order to get the header to slide up in easily, YMMV on this one.

You can see the small filler rings that were used to help the tubes fit the flange. When the flange is final welded they are completely buried in the weld.

count this as a book mark! im planning on doing this to my car save i will be lookin into a 6.0 iron truck motor. Same diff.


I feel you on the motor mounts... im lucky enough to not have had to deal with them as my car came with solid mounts when i bought it but my friend struggled with his lol... if i do anything itll be a weld job like urs or tubular K memeber FTW!

Keep the pics coming!

also you have more balls than i to try the DBW... personally when i was a mechanic i hated that system

was it just because the nice thick flanges you had to cut the block?


I'm not a fan of DBW my self. I do see problems in the shop from time to time with them. mostly PCM issues and some pedals. every once in a while the wiring. the PCM issues suck because everything will check out fine. the pedals are pretty simple to diag. though

There is a small rectangular bump on the block casting on th 5.3 that has no purpose. By cutting about 1/4" off it the header slid up in easily, otherwise it needed to be forced as it hit the firewall on the back end of the flange. Other installs may not have this issue depending on how high and forward the engine sits. We have custom motor mounts on this one.

Y-Pipe is made now. These pics are before it was fully welded. It ties back into the I-Pipe of the Magnaflow cat-back system.

Took me a couple of days to build it but most of the time was spent yakking and drinking beer. Shel did the full weld up on it after I cut and tacked it all. Having a lift would have made for a much easier job than having to keep rolling under the car. I have the burns on my hands and body to show how much of a PIA it is welding on your back under a car.

IT RUNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Didnt run for long as VATS decided it didnt like it running, going to buy some HPTuners credits tonight so i can tune it to get it running properly tommorow.

Dad was going to video the start up but we forgot the camera card

Will update tommorow, im hopign to get it down on all 4 paws and go for a spin!

CONGRATULATIONS man, that's gotta be an awesome feeling...


Of course, NOW there's no excuse not to post a startup vid...

good write up.

When your done come visit me and do the same for mine

Running is DEFINITELY a step in the right direction congrats Sheldon!

Well, i got it tuned and running properly! Got in the car, tuned it with my super laptop abilities (Not really)

Just turned off Vats, Enabled Cooling fans, deleted the DTC's that would get upset with the fact thats EVAPs gone, Rear 02's are gone etc, Ajusted my speedo setup, and got rid of a few other little things.

Going away for the weekend, going to spend some time when im up there working on another tune so i can add some spark advance etc.

After starting it last time i found my oil pressure gauge wasnt working so in quickly installed a mechanical one, that worked out perfect and i was reading about 55psi during 1200rpm idle. I also found that my Indash Tachwasnt working which is okay also cause i have a Tach in my console. Mechanical coolant temp will go in eventually, its not as important as the computer knows what the temp is.

Heres a vid of the start up, im slow on getting the scanner going, so ignore the wait time haha. Oh, and my "Oh crap" at the end, there was smoke coming off the engine and i thought it was my mechanical oil line laying on a header, burning haha. Turned out it was just my header paint setting in so im content again haha.



Im thrilled

And the nasty whining/grinding noise is the power steering pump which ate itself for lunch. More money into the black hole!

And I'd already tied the oil gauge line out of the way of the headers so I knew it wasn't burning.

I hated the way they drove... in all the trucks i drove there was an inherent lag in throttle response i didnt like.... although at the time i was driving my car carb'd which was instant and my bike which seemed to pre-empt my throttle inputs lol

lol PS pump failures FTMFW... i blew the high press line on my camaro while i was on the freeway and had to hump it back home 20 miles... haha same PS pump that thing is like a rock!

Di a little work on it last night, got my oil pressure an volt gauge wired in, not really anything big, but needed to be done.

Todays is the big day im hoping. Going to replace the rear brake line peice, replace the PS pump, put in my pedal connection, put wheels on, and hopefully go for a spin to see how everything works out.

Ill post up my progress tonight.

Sheldon

nice progress

Bit of an update guys, got the engine tuned again and its running like a champ. Was having messed up 02 readings with my custom sensors, i bought the right ones.

Got the car all ready to go for the first drive yesterday afternoon when i put it in drive to make it go, it did nothing.

Tore the trans out of the car, and realized that the stator pump had gone on it when i installed it, also realized its a 4L65e w/5 pin planetaries, so i guess this was a worthwhile discovery

The trans is suppost to be back to me for tommorow morning or late tonight, so the plan is to have the car rolling tommorow.

Hope all goes as planned, im dieing to drive the damn thing!

Sheldon

Hey Guys, sorry for my lack of updates.

Got the trans back from Mr.T and put it all back in the car, went for my first drive and found a few more "lucky" Surprises.

Brakes didnt work, powersteering pump was mega leaky, and trans was staying in safe mode.

Brakes, i re-bled them with an ajustable prop valve & full power front brakes, then i found a crack in my PS reservoir to be my leaky issues, and then the trans had to be pulled apart again for a new shift solenoid.

The car is now working great, stops quick, ps works awesome, and im working through my transmission tune to get it all working good.

Car has about 300 miles on it now since i finished it. Put a new dash in it yesterday, ill update that when i get the pictures off my cam.

Big thanks to my dad, my uncles, Justin (Ghettocruiser), Rumble, and everyone else who's helped me with information & encouragement!

Hopefully im safe saying im one of the youngest to ever put an LSx into a thirdgen! (im 17)

Good work man!!!! You have HPTuners and the willingness to mess around with the tune...thats moer than I can say for me! haha.

Def post up some more pictures or some vids! Congrats and enjoy her!

J.

Congrats! I've been following your build for a long time bc im getting ready to swap a 5.3 into my 88 IROC. All the info you have posted on here has really helped me answer some questions i had! Thanks for the good write ups! Congrats and go enjoy that thing now!

Nice work on the build, now have some fun with it!

Thanks for the kind words guys!

Had it at the first cruise night last night, and the car got alot of attention i was thrilled having it there!

Saturday im heading to St. Thomas Dragway to get some 1/4 mile times and see what this thing does!

Needless to say im so thrilled with the car!

Going to take some more pictures and get soem video's today or tommorow

Sheldon

What sort of times are you expecting?

Hey Kubus,

I never ended up getting to go, trans started acting weird, only giving me 2nd and 3rd gear again. I just replaced the solenoid, worried i fooked a 2nd one? This sucks. Im sick or replacing parts just so i can drive it!

Im hoping, with the drag radials on the back & traction i can get a 13s pass. I figure my motor is about 320ish hp. Ive seen lots'a stock 310hp ls1's run 13's, so im hoping i can do the same.

My rear suspension is acting funky, it feels like my rear diff is moving back and forth and the back end of the car feels like its swaying a hell of alot during a highspeed highway merge.

Ive got the 2000 t/a swaybar endlinks on my iroc sway bar. I checked at work and the iroc & t/a have different part numbers for the swaybar end links so im hoping thats my issue. Im going to buy a set of HD ones from work tonight and toss em on.



Bit of an update here guys. Car's been working like a champ, put about 500 kms on it since ive finished the motor swap.

Motor's been firing up on first crank, i had a major overheating issue. Motor heated up to 280*, and im a little worried i hurt something inside. Im going to do a leakdown test on it @ work and make sure i didnt hurt the head gasket or anything.
It turned out to be a low coolant issue, and my adaption for my steam hose broke, causing the engine to pump coolant all over the road. Fixed that and cruising temps now are about 190*

Im currently working on my interior for the car. Ive got the entire monsoon stereo system in it, Ls1 Dash, Console, Seats, doing LS1 door panels & A-pillars today, im pretty excited.

My winter plans are to convert to a 6spd and beef up the chassis. Subframe connectors, LCA Relocation brackets, ajustable panhard, Spohn Tq. arm etc.

Ill update some of my interior progress in here too.

Sheldon

That was going to be my suggestion Then the only shift solenoids you have to deal with is your left leg and right arm.

J.

wow great thread will def help me on my lsx swap in my 86 good job

congrats bud, i'm still jealous of the headers! Hope you're having fun with it. Now go get some numbers =D

Haha, thanks!

going to talk to my dad about getting it dyno'd soon. See if him and i can plan a date.

any pics of your exhaust work underneath the car?

so is it worth it going to a ls engine? im thinking of doing the same if not just drop a 383 or 400 in my 84 z28. but your ride looks and sounds awsome great work bro