LTX and LSXPutting LT1's, LS1's, 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.
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Anyone have any idea's? The drivers side bolt went in with relative ease. But the passenger side hole is way off. I have heard of people having trouble getting both bolts in but this seems so far off I don't know how I am gonna get the bolt in without taking the spohn mounts off and elongating the holes so I can move the mount or something.
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Make sure there is no polyurethane material inside where the long bolt slides through on both mounts. I had a poly mount that I couldn't even stick the long bolt through until I drilled out the material within and that was when the mount was on the workbench.
Loosen your bolts on the mounting kit on both the engine side and the frame side and also on both sides of the engine. This will give you a little more wiggle room. Then try installing the long motor mount bolts. Then tighten everything back down.
The bolts for the mounts on the kmember side, we had to leave both sides loose to get it to sit in place and get the bolts in, then tighten the mounts up.
The k-member mounts are Spohn, and they are definately on the right side and the right way. I will try loosening the bolts on them. This was a PITA the first time installing them, I don't feel like redoing things
I'm hoping that possibly I won't run into this problem since I am using their tubular k-member also. There really wasn't any wiggle room on where to mount the pedestals. and you're right, its a huge pain trying to tighten or loosen those mounting bolts.
Thats REALLY far off. It looks like something isnt installed correctly. I know you said everything was...but double/triple check it. Its not hard to flip something around, check it, and just not realize it.
For what its worth, when I put mine together, everything lined up perfect and went together like a breeze. Not to say that you didnt get a crap set of mounts...because that can happen.
J.
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ARE shortblock, Ross custom boost pistons, arp rod bolts, ARE ported oil pump,
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That looks about the same as the SECOND time I dropped my engine in. Completely normal with poly mounts they are a major PITFA to work with. I did a full mock up build before I did a final assembly and made my own mounts so trust when i say they were lined up perfecto the first time they were. Well when i pulled everything out for paint and finishing then tried to reinstall that pic is damn close to the kind of gap I had too. As mentioned above a few times I loosened all the plates and used big ( i mean 6' long big ) pry bars and wiggled and jiggled until I got all the bolts back in. Tighted it all up and alls well that ends well
Not to thread hijack, but holy cow, a 6 ft pry bar?? Where did you get that? My friends and I were out our local Harbor Freight looking for one like that yesterday and the biggest they had was like 2 1/2'
I come from a family of Steamfitters and we have a fab shop. When trying to muscle around 24" pipes that weigh in the ton range you need all the leverage you can get. 6' is small believe it or not. We have much much bigger levers although they pretty much sit in the shop nowadays as conversation pieces. Most sites have far too much safety reg to let men lift or push that kind of weight on their own. We're an odd bunch though... Scandinavian background and rather large LOL. My older bro is 350+ pounds and he aint very fat.... I'm 6'2" 230ish today and Im the smallest one ( even smaller than my sister haha ). Pretty much any UA fitter in the Toronto area knows who we are. Heck most construction trades know or have heard of us. My older bro would have entered strong man competition if he wasnt so busy with his career and raising kids etc etc
The pry bar we call the cordless diesel is really worth a few laughs
I may have to take my entire front end off to use a 6 ft. pry bar lol.
EDIT: Well I loosened the K-Member mounts and they barely moved. The holes are still WAY off. I doubled checked both the clamshells and k-member mounts. They are on correctly.
You guys are always doing this. You put in the motor mounts which do have some play in them because the bolts are smaller then the holes they go through.
Gravity of course pulls them down and in and then you guys just tighten them up without thinking, and now of course they are too close together.
You either need to push them up and tighten them down at their high point or have them loosely bolted to the k-member so you can still position them and install the motor to them then tighten them down like I did.
Another reason why I like installing the whole shooting match from the bottom. I mocked up the motor and the k-member while the motor was sitting on a dolly. Things went butter smooth.
Aaron is most likely right. You gotta just loosen things up, get everything started, then tighten it up. I didnt realize things could get that far out of whack without something be wrong.
You guys are always doing this. You put in the motor mounts which do have some play in them because the bolts are smaller then the holes they go through.
Gravity of course pulls them down and in and then you guys just tighten them up without thinking, and now of course they are too close together.
You either need to push them up and tighten them down at their high point or have them loosely bolted to the k-member so you can still position them and install the motor to them then tighten them down like I did.
I tried that. There still isn't enough room.
I took the mounts out completely and drilled out the k-member holes so they are now the same size as the Spohn holes are. I haven't yet tried to put the motor back in yet, but I am hoping it gives me enough wiggle room.
Good progress mitch! lets hope after you do this that it will drop right in!
Let me know if you need any help. Ill be back at my parents during christmas break and i could swing out to give you a hand. (Im living in detroit now for school for a year, then out to UofBC for 5 more years of school lol)
lol yeah it looks ok, Idk I had a tubular k-member so it may be different. I tried every way possible and couldn't get it to go in so I tried it this way and I got one side down with the mounts and plates first, then I was able to get the other side down.
I had the same problem, 1 side was about 1" off. I needed to loosen the bolts for the adapter to K-member, slight them up/outwards as far as I could, tightened back down then the whole then fit like a glove. I even called Sphon up, he had never heard of any problems.
for my car i actually bolted the spohn k-member to the engine while it was on the engine stand. When we did my buddies car a while back we had issues getting his in place. I'd much rather do it out of the car than in the car.
Well, I tried that method multiple times Dynodanmanda. Doing it that way leaves the k-member to conversion mount holes about 1/2 inch off on either side or 1 inch off on one side if you leave one side bolted in. I can't forsee anything working other than drilling new holes in the k-member. I will take pictures tonight.
Well I tried again for like 4 hours tonight, I flipped my poly inserts upside down to see if that would help, nope. I tried dynodanmanda's method, nope, I tried loosening the bolts for more wiggle room, nope, I tried enlarging the k-member bolt holes for more wiggle room, nope. This can't be normal. I am still way off.
One thing I am curious about is how the clamshells are supposed to mount to the engine. I am 99% sure there is only one way to do it because I tried to do it the other way but the block interfere's.
) 
