92BLKL98

Last year the Z28 died on me the trans broke the output shaft so I decided since the motor had so many miles on her (275,000 miles) this was a great time to upgrade.

Since I'm working on my swap to an LQ9 with a 4l60E I would like to know if there is really much monetary value to my L98 I am removing for my LS swap. Engine runs good but the tranny needs an overhaul. Complete TPI with complete unmolested harness and ECM with an MSD 6A ignition and Moates Ostrich tuner module plus SLP 1 3/4 Jet Hot coated headers

I did not want to buy a new car (just don’t like the new stuff). With the wife’s permission I decided to go for the gusto and install an LS engine and 4L60E automatic trans I’m hoping for 400 RWHP. I may be crazy but I’m expecting to spend about $10,000 on the conversion but it will be fun.

Thus far I’ve replaced the rear end with a 4th gen 10 bolt with a 3.23 and Torsen gear case and a coil over kit on the rear end. I also replaced the Spohn torque arm (also going to sell) with a Jegster T/A due to space limitations with the exhaust system for the LS power train. That Spohn unit is huge, too big for this conversion. So far I’ve got a completely adjustable tubular rear suspension set up.

I spent this weekend cleaning stuff up and removing the factory PCM and wiring up to the engine compartment so I could run my battery cables to the rear of the car and also wired the Racetronix Hot Wire kit. I ran all of the wiring so far in the passenger compartment with the factory wire harness, I have the interior completely out. I wanted to keep everything out of the elements so all wiring will follow factory wiring and through bulkhead feed throughs.

I do not have the engine and trans yet. I have been working with Pocket on a package including the LQ9 cast iron block engine with L92 heads and LS3 intake with a Comp Cams cam with springs and pushrod kit from Texas Speed. He is also doing the plug and play harness and a rough tune on the PCM to get it running for a dyno tune. I am planning to use MTI racing in Marietta GA to dyno tune it.

92BLKL98

Progress for today so far has been to remove the front end suspension so I can drop the engine and trans out the bottom of the car. Next is to remove fluid lines and harness to the engine and make room to drop it out. I found both shocks are shot out and it needs a good clean up I can't believe how greasy dirty this car is I'm going to have to get creative to clean it up it needs to be sprayed with simple green and pressure washed but in the garage this is gonna be messy.

92BLKL98

This thing is gonna be slow going but then I want it as perfect as I can get it. Wednesday night I got off early from work and decided to pull the old 700R4 to make the job of getting the old stuff out easier. The PS pump had a leak and had been spraying PS fluid all over the place so it was very dirty. The engine is to come out this weekend hopefully. I hope UPS will find my headers they lost for me.

Zach/90\irocZ

iTrader: (6)

With wife's permission lol with out her permission my car wouldn't have gone as far as I did but she also the moderator cause it could gotten more crazy lol

Can't wait to see the out come judging by your chin spoiler you have a very clean car
My next focus is restoring the beauty new bumpers chin spoiler and paint just need to find a good shop

Sucks when ups looses your things hope you get them

92BLKL98

Yeah my wife is pulling the reins too but she has a very spirited horse in the bit.

My car is fairly clean due to the fact I had it repainted in 2008. Looked nice but it is showing a few flaws I want fixed, the bumper cover and spoiler have some spider cracks that need attention and there is some cracking on the left fender where a small repair was done at the time. I plan to get those fixed as soon as I complete the LS mod.

I did get my headers. I had to go to the address where they sent them to pick them up.

Zach/90\irocZ

iTrader: (6)

Lol that must of been odd lol hi there you have my box lol

Yea from my understanding only way to fix the spiderweb effect is to get new bumpers as its the plastic bumber cracking which will show thru to the paint

I was thinking a matte pearl white would be cool maybe I should get some plastidip and play around with that and or vinyl wrap

92BLKL98

It is a new spoiler, according to some of the painters I know at work most likely due to paint mix being too hard with no flex. They are saying the shop should have used a flex additive to the paint. I don't know I'm not a painter. Since being painted the car has only seen 2500 miles.

Zach/90\irocZ

iTrader: (6)

Oh I see yea I have no idea about that they should beable to fix that

V6canvas

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like you have a decent plan so far, and a good car to start with! I was able to get $300 for my L98, don't know if that was high, low or typical. With the different exhaust routing, (from stock thirdgen to LS long tubes (hawks) and custom Y pipe) I've found my trans tunnel gets pretty warm. Only recently a co-worker told me about a coating called Lizard Skin that sprays on like paint. They have sound deadener and thermal barrier coatings. If I ever take it all apart again, I'd be looking at doing that to my car.

Hope the engine pull went smooth. Don't forget to pull the rad and condenser out when you pull the motor, I left the condenser in, thinking it was out of the way. Nope.

92BLKL98

Been a while since I posted but been real busy with other stuff. I removed the engine by dropping it out the bottom, so easy; I will never remove an engine in a unibody car any other way. The night before last I removed the engine harness. Last night I started removing other components the fans, radiator; condenser and getting it ready to pressure wash the engine bay. My plan for now is to remove most everything from the firewall as possible except the HVAC for now then wash it, then I will remove the HVAC unit and paint the engine bay I have plenty of rust on the battery tray and some very minor surface rust on the fender wells and of all places on the cowl panel. I also want to reroute all wiring and vacuum lines as possible out of sight.
One thing I’m wrestling with this car being a ’92 has an airbag steering wheel, while I’m removing a lot of wiring and unnecessary stuff should I remove the airbag stuff? I know some will say it is necessary and when you need it is there but, it is an ugly steering wheel. Opinions/Ideas

R13_Braz

I am. Not only because it's annoying, in the way, weighs more than I like, and it's ugly.... but because my steering wheel has started coming apart on the top portion and I'm tired of the foam rubbing off into my hands... not to mention I don't trust it to be safe. When I got hit by a redlight runner going 80mph in my 79, no airbags, I walked away with bruises. I can't say that it'll be the same with this car.

I've already removed most of the modules and sensors. Have a couple more to go, myself.

92BLKL98

Well finally got a chance to hook up with Pocket, what a great guy. I spent a couple of hours at his home yesterday talking cars, swaps, and everything hotrod. Man how neat talking this stuff with the drag strip in full swing just behind his home. I could have stayed there all day. I picked up my 6.0 LS engine and trans with his very excellent harness, computer and various components. Everything was complete and ready to go. Got home late last night so I waited till this morning to unload stuff from the truck but first had to do some routine maintenance on my Jetta move then move the old L98 from my engine stand and onto an engine dolly. Did not have time for pics but I have some shots from Jon as he was working on the engine. I am really excited to get this going but I know with my schedule at work plus my other hobbies and upkeep of the house this is going to be slow.

92BLKL98

Yesterday I contacted Precision Industries about a torque converter for my set up The rep said based on my mods I would be happy with their Vigilante in 2800 - 3200 RPM stall. A friend of mine today at work said it would be fun to drive but would be difficult to keep cool due to the heat generated by the converter, all this based on his experience with other high stall converters. He suggested no more than 1800 RPM. The car already has an external trans cooler I installed some time back. Based on the mods listed in my first post what do you guys think, anyone with their own experience.

yaj15

iTrader: (3)

Shouldn't be that hard to keep cool with a separate cooler for the trans fluid. A lot of guys with 4th gen LS1 cars are running 4,000rpm stalls with no fluid cooling problems. Yes higher stalls are harder on the trans and the fluid but with an external trans cooler shouldn't be a problem. Make sure you get an SFI approved flex plate too. The stock flex plates were not designed for the extra forced stall puts on them. Ha ha I cracked 3 stock flex plates in my car with stall before I upgraded to an SFI approved flex plate.

1,800rpm stall is too low for a an LS motor. Stock stall in TBI and TPI motors is around 1,500 rpm. Most of the stock 4l60e tranny's from GM performance have a stall of around 2,300rpm. From what I have seen and from talking to a couple of my friends with LS motors, around 2,800rpm-3,000rpm stall is great for good street performance. The technician you talked to pointed you in a the right direction. Those LS motors are great at making power in the mid to upper rpm range (4,000rpm and up) and really wake up with a stall that is matched to that rpm range. What kind of gears are you running?

For a TPI motor a good stall range would be 2,200rpm-2,500rpm. With the torque TPI is made for you don't need as high a stall converter to get it up in the power band.

92BLKL98

OK, that's what I was thinking. Did not think about the flex plate but that sounds like good advice. I think the SFI flex plate is cheap insurance. Gears are another thing too as I'm running a 3.23 10 bolt. I don't plan on a lot of strip duty but want a good powerful (fun to drive), reliable, and efficient street car.

Zach/90\irocZ

iTrader: (6)

Yea 1800 way to low for ls motor don't get anymore info from that guy lol


Usually want to match cam up with your stall idk if you upgraded cam also but they will have recommended stall needed 3000 stall is good for stock ls motors and some cam motors just really depends on cam choice

I ran a 3600 on daily driver and was just fine I had external cooler with stock cooler
Higher stall does heat up fluid more than stock stall

Difference between a 2800 vs 3000 stall is very minimal

Also depending on how loose or tight the stall is plays a part also in how you like it
Mines was from revmax and generally have a tight converter vs others but that pure personal preference as some like looser or tighter stall

Again with gears 3.23 will do fine but a 3.73 gear is go to gear even 3.42 if you want slight increase in gearing manuals can get away with higher gearing on the street

yaj15

iTrader: (3)

You should be fine with 3.23's and a 3,000 rpm stall. A friend of mine has an '01 trans am with a stock LS1 with bolt on intake and exhaust mods 3.73 gears, 2,800 rpm stall with a stock 4l60e. His car is really quick and is running high 12's in the quarter mile with drag slicks.

I know the manual transmission guys prefer them over an automatics but, the correct high stall converter that is matched to the rest of the drivetrain really changes the performance in an automatic trans car in a significant way. You'll also get full control over the shift points and other parameters with that LS-style ecm.

92BLKL98

Cool thing about it is that Precision Industries will give me a free stall upgrade within 2 years if I don't like the first try.

92BLKL98

I think I will go to the 3000 RPM stall first try out.

92BLKL98

For the first time in about 5 months I got a chance to spend the weekend on the Z. With deer season and the holidays over I was ready for some wrench therapy. Started working on the light harness side of the C100 connector replacing the18 gage wiring from the connector to the headlights and fog lights and replacing all ground wiring. Also plan to replace wiring from the switches to the C100. While running I had some really bad voltage losses through the light circuits with dim lights. Everything was up sized to 14 gage wiring and new terminations for all circuits in the lights and C100. That black goo GM used to seal the connector was a real pain to clean out but the connector came out nice. The overall harness came out nice.

When I got done with the wire harness I opened the left wheel well liner looking for a decent route to run the harness outside the engine bay I found my nightmare RUST. Worked on cleaning out the sealant and corrosion damage and painted the outside in the wheel well area with POR-15. This weekend I plan to work on the inside wheel well area to clean the rest of the sealant and corrosion from the inside wheel well liner and treat and paint. I recon I found my access to the wheel well for my light harness there is no reason to cut another hole since mother nature made one for me just route out the rust and drive on.

While working on the wheel well I made the final decision on the front springs, I'm going to use the Ground Control kit with Koni's. I don't care how you look at it I do not believe that thin 20 gage sheet metal can reliably support the front end of the car for street abuse. Looking at the spot welds anywhere from 1" to 2" apart is a recipe for a disaster so the coilover kit on the front end is out.

92BLKL98

Spending some much needed wrench time on the Z this weekend just considering what importance if any for the plastic tupperware under the bumper cover in front of the radiator is it really necessary, and what about the two diagonal rods bolted to the core support? I have a hard time believing they are really doing much for structural support for the sheet metal core support. I'm really thinking about just dumping that stuff.

Rat89

This project is looking nice! Do you know how much distance difference it was for the tranny mount compared to factory? And can you use the fatory drive shaft?

TEDSgrad

iTrader: (4)

I would not alter the wind turbulence by removing. It doesn't amount to any weight. The rods will help with any 15 mph impact.
Good choice on forgoing the front coil-overs.

You can still add a plate that is usually sold with coil-over kits - helps to spread the load out - good insurance.

Pocket

iTrader: (24)

The plastic is air ducting. Minor help

The X bracing is to keep chassis flex/minor impacts from cracking the cheap radiator. Dumped mine with the first intercooler

92BLKL98

After many months I finally got the 6.0 between the wheel wells. I still need to clean up the harness install and rebuild the transmission but at last now I can see progress. The engine went in smooth as butter, I just hope the rest of it goes as well.

grngryoutmyway

iTrader: (1)

Good to see you back on it man, lookin good.