I worked on it for a few hours tonight and got most of it together.
Need to find 2 spring seats to get the pass side head together, but I took some pictures and it looks ok.
Let me know if there is something ugly or wrong with the color selsction.
The headers will be blasted and painted later.











and here are the 2 LT1's in the garage,

 

looks tight but yeah the headers at beat lol

 

Thanks.
I am going to get the other head done and put some small things on the motor and then tackle the wiring harness.
I am just going to clone my friends harness that's on his motor sitting by the garage door.

 

lookin good zepher, but i was wondering, soon i hope to be doing a LT-1 swap and i just saw the picture of the back of the engine, and was wondering where is the distributor???

 

Sweet! What kind of waterpump is that?

 

Distributor is now called the Opti-Spark and is mounted to the front of the LT1. It's that yellow thing underneath the waterpump.

 

It's a stock 96 SS waterpump with a Firehawk Plate on the front of it.

 

He isn't doing lt1 conversion, he just going full lt1, notice the t-stat housing located on the waterpump instead of a remote t-stat.

Edit - I gues i'm a slow typer

 

Lookin good. I didn't know they had different plates for those waterpumps. Have fun when the opticrap goes out on you

 

The opti I am using should have 40K miles left on it (hopefully).
I might have to tear it all apart again tomorrow. I need to check a couple of things that I am not positve about, one being the cam dowel length, and the other is the waterpump seal on the timing cover, I damaged it while putting it on, which is a common problem.

 

Looks good! When do you expect to have it running?

 

Nice when's she gonna be running?

 

looks vary nice, can't wait to see it running one question though your going to put new headers on it right?

 

nice, good work!

 

Looks really good man. The intake looks almost like mine before I had it powdercoated.

 

looking good Zeph!

Long tubes, huh?

 

Thanks guys.
I hope to have it running very soon. I am using those headers, just need to get them blasted and painted.
I have to take the front of the motor apart again, seems my dowel pin on the cam is set for a 94. I am going to see if I can just pull it out a bit or I'll replace it with the dowel from the old cam.

I can't remember how to put the crank hub on.

 

Looks good dood, we dont see ya much on nethirdgen.org... Anyway looks like you put a little TOO much silicone on that water pump. Too much silicone isnt a good thing and can start a leak.

 

Yep I saw that orange silicone right away. Kinda jumps out at you. I did notice the intake's red seems way brighter then the other...whats up with that...

On to the praise!
Loving the block off plates on the back of the intake! Firehawk plate is sweet! Nice work Zeph! Loving it!

Makes me wish the 82s LT1 was done.

 

That engine will look really nice in your car.

 

no clue about LT1's , but there is no need for any silicone on a SBC water pump, that's what the gasket is there for

looks nice

only three problems I have with it are that you don't have a ram air hood ,you don't own a firehawk and the block itself looks like crap.

might as well add a type-r sticker somewhere , but hey it's your car , hope it runs well too

 

H_Himmler, uh..sometimes people do use silicone as a way to help prevent gasket leaks also.

Plus, you won't be able to see 90% of the block when its sitting down in the bay.

With all the hard work he's put into his car (visit his website)...you have absolutely no right to bash what he's done and accomplished.

How about we put a Type-R...etard badge on your forehead?

 

do it once... do it right.

something he doesn't understand (hence why he spray painted his car about 17 times

he has excellent ideas sometimes , but the way he executes them can be pretty questionable (like his ram air + firehawk engravings..." or his camaro steering wheel inside a TRANS AM !

we all make fun of ricers when they slap a TYPE R sticker on their honda or VTEC sticker that doesn't belong on their civic... what he did is no different, it's pointless , just like arguying about it.

it's his car so whatever , I was merely stating my opinion , just like everyone else in this post

 

btw by using silicone you can only create leaks water pumps come with DRY gaskets, meaning you slap them on and go. No silicone is necessary (unless you don't have a gasket then you have no choice, but obviously a install with gasket looks much cleaner than one with silicone as proven in the pics).

like I said, I wish him luck , I just think if he's going through all this trouble he could have repainted the block, but hey , live an learn, I've done stupider stuff in the past and learned from it...

 

Well, I used silicone since I had no gaskets last night. SBC gaskets don't fit. I have gaskets now.
The Firehawk and Ram Air plates were given to me, so I put them on. I normally don't turn away free parts.
The block looks good, just the front and back parts were painted with Chevy Red, which turned out pink!

Oh, and I only spray painted my car once.
Maybe you can give me one of your Type-R stickers.

 

maybe you can give jim85iroc the $$$ you owe him for that bad starter you sold him , haha :lala:

once ? lmfao , yeah ok. not that it matters but just going from memory you painted some of it black once , then the whole thing black, you also at one point painted a stupid looking flame on it , so that's three and that's just from what I remember

but anyways, free parts or no free parts, you asked for opinions and got mine. Take it or leave it , it's your hackj.. I mean your car...

 

Zepher were did you get the EGR block off plates and *** the lil bitch that posted (bashed ya ) your engine looks good bro

 

Opinions are like "you know what", everyones got one.
BTW, that starter deal is between Jim and myself, so unless you are Jim, it's no concern of yours.

Those block off plates are from Street And Performance.
They came with my friends motor, but he bought the TPIS ones and gave me those ones.

 

thank you Zepher

 

H_Himmler - your a fukin dikhead, read the rules, and respect peoples cars for wha they are https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=143760

Zepher - not sure about the f-body opti's, but on my vette, you can buy a kit to vent it which prolongs its life. Basically, you stick a hose in one of the 3 holes at the bottom of the opti, plug the other two and splice that hose into a vacum. Every little bit helps and those things are expensive. The motor looks awesome by the way, thats gonna be a super sweet car when its done.

Later,

Dave:hail:

 

The 95+ Opti's are vented. Mine is from a 96 SS and has the vent connections on the bottom.

We got my friends LT1 into his 82 today. Looks really nice in there.
I'll post some pics of that later when I get back home, gotta run out for a bit.

 

Hey Zeph, looks good. I'm not too keen on the used opti though. They're a real PITA, so whenever we have the water pump and stuff off the cars at the shop, we always change the opti. If you're that close, might as well.

H_Himmler: No wonder you got banned! 15 posts and you're already runnin' at the lip?! Sheesh, what a jerk.

 

Well, its about time you got that motor together. I love that intake style.

 

I would put all new parts on this motor, but having no money makes it hard, so I am forced to use used parts. It was working when pulled and I have another spare used one if this one craps out.
I do plan on converting over to the LS1 coil packs as well, which still uses the optical part of the opti which makes it last a lot longer since no spark goes through it.
It's also very easy to get these off when they are in a thirdgen.
In my brothers 96 T/A, it's a bitch to get to.

 

Thats cool. I didnt know if it being in a thirdgen would make it a bit easier. I know how hard they are to do in a fourthgen! Whew. No thanx.

 

Try changin the wires on vette... you gotta have really small hands.

Wasn't sure about the other opti's, just tryin to help ya out.

Dave

 

Does your opti have the ignition coil wire on the left or right side?

 

Zepher, dont let ignorant people bother you. I think it looks great. I have always admired your work and ideas very much. Spray paint or no spray paint I think you car is sweet.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it.
I don't have a lot of money (actually, I don't have any), which is the main reason this swap is taking so long. It's been a year already, but I am very close to completion.

I got the motor and tranny installed today, looks very nice sitting in the engine bay.
I'll snap some pictures tomorrow. I am really really tired right now.
My brother broke another set of gears in his 96 Trans Am, so we yanked off my rear to put onto his car.
He has ABS and Traction control, so we had to put his axles and brake brackets onto my rear, put my axles and brake plates on mine, put mine together and onto my car, and do the same with his. Swapped both rears in about 3 hours.
So today I bolted up the tranny to the motor, put the tranny and motor into the car, swapped 2 rears, helped Julian with his LT1 swap for a bit, cleaned up the garage so my car would fit, which it barely did (I'll take a pic of the garage, you can't really get in there now), and that is how I spent the last 12 hours.

 

yeah I feel you on the money situation. I want to save up money for my Firebird, but it seems like most of the money I get goes towards the daily driver, maintnence and all, it sucks. I am jobless at the moment, but hopefully not for long. At least you are doing constructive things with your time, and not getting into trouble and stuff.