[QUOTE=soloc4;6178592] RH side, notch is 1” recessed.
This is at full droop, the gap increases slightly at ride height.
When I built the frame rails I used 2 X 3 tube and welded 1 X 3 tubes on the outside face 4” apart to form a “notch” for the coil-over. I also welded a 1 X 3 “filler” on the inside, opposite the notch to space my upper control arm mounts properly. This would be similar to what you will have to do in order to fill the gap between your k-member.

 

Thanks a ton for the pics! So it appears at least by eyeballing that you notched the frame rail about an inch inward as well for clearance? My main piece of square tube is flush with the original sides of the inner fender well, and it looks like yours is too. I'm assuming both of our "add in" frame rails are going to be close in location.

EDIT: spoke too soon. I just saw that you added some info to your post. So yes, it would be 1" more or less then.

 

Thanks for the pics. I lowered my car over 4" bascally by moving suspension up higher into frame. This eliminated any room for rack to clear front of engine.

 

Soloc4 just curious if you noticed any chassis deflection with wheels on the ground (suspension loaded) vs wheels off the ground (suspension unloaded). Do the mounting bolts for the strut tower brace line up loaded and unloaded.

Reason I ask is that on my build, even with a lot more bracing than you have, my cross brace (I dont have strut towers anymore) flexes inward about 1/4" when loaded. I originally built the cross brace with the suspension unloaded, only to find out that it wouldn't bolt in once the engine was in and car was on the ground.

Not near as nice as yours but i'll own up to it. 4th gen lower control arms and spindles on a custom sheet steel k-member.

 

Comparing pictures, I see the difference between our concepts. My entire suspensions load is carried by the K-member and frame rail, were yours is directed to the upper tube of the forward cage. This is very sound engineering and will provide excellent stability as long as the upper brace is in place. My strut tower brace serves no purpose as far as the suspension, it's there to stabilize the cowl area. I originally was going to build an engine cover/air box in the triangular area but the bend into the throttle body was too abrupt. Long post short, your upper mount points are plenty strong for the suspension with the brace installed, but it needs that brace for it's stability. I would not worry about the deflection with the brace removed, you just have to unload the suspension when you want to remove it since it is carrying most of the load. I hope this helps.
P.S, from the looks of your fenders in the back ground, you've moved your front suspension forward a bit. That is really going to help balance the car. Keep up the great work.

 

Yeah the front wheels are moved 5" forward. The car scaled at 60/40 stock and is now 52/48. The entire build thread is on this forum under home brew road racer.

 

 

Angle of the lower conttrol arm going the wrong. Still cool1

 

 

 

Looking great my friend! I can't wait until you finish her and take the first drive. That'll make 2 vette suspension 3rd gens out there haha. Keep up the pics.

 

Yeah, I’m like a dog in the park (squirrel!). I’m all over the place, but I can call the wiring done, the suspension is done, just needs tuning, as you can see I’m working on the exhaust so I should be firing it up soon. I should have started with a finished car like you did. How is your car doing?, you own stock in a tire company? Good to hear from you.

 

It's funny you mention preferring to start with a finished car. The whole time I was doing the conversion I was wishing mine was not finished! It made certain things nice like having the engine and everything else in place to know where clearance was needed, however working around a nice paint job and constantly having way too much in the way of what I was trying to fabricate got very tedious. I guess there will always be ups and downs of any method. The exhaust looks great though! I will be following your updates like usual.

As for tires, the ones I currently have on the car are surprisingly sticky on the street, and will really only spin in 1st gear or on colder days in 2nd gear. You pay for them though! I think the set of mickey thompson rears ran me right about $600, but they are on their 3rd or 4th season now and still holding up decent. Well worth the cost to me.

 

Just finished welding the mid exhaust the last 2 nights, about 8 hours and 1 1/2 bottles of argon, and I still have the tail pipes ahead. I'll send those out to get ceramic coated and maybe do some body mods. Speaking of tires, 3 or 4 seasons on your car, with that motor? Impressive! I've got to loss those 20's, too DONK for me, but they were cheap and they fit over the brakes and they will get me through shakedown. You have a point about the paint, I've beat the hell out of mine knowing it was going to get painted after the body work. Look forward to hearing from you, maybe we'll discuss a rear axle conversion, full on C4.

 

yea its less stressful when paint isn't that nice

 

Man this looks great. This is exactly what I was thinking of doing with my exhaust. What mufflers did you use?

I just have to figure out how to do my cross member and the x-pipe with my TKO 600, which is smaller so it should be ok.

 

Where and how did you do the power steering lines? I am doing a LS3 into a 91 Z!

Thanks
Mike

 

The mufflers are Magnaflow 4" x18" round with 3" inlets. They are welded together with SS plates spaced 2" apart. Since the center section of the rear differential is stationary, I can tuck these up along the driveshaft (more difficult with a live axle). The transmission mount started out as a BMR LS swap piece that I modified with 4" 1/4" wall tubing, cut in half and 2" extensions on each side to form a U shape then the middle sections were removed (jig this on a table before you cut), the cuts are at a 22.5 degree angle which follows the frame rails and the original locations of the mount arms. There is a center plate between the arches for additional support. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask, I will usually answer fairly quickly.

 

Since this car has a Rack and Pinion steering I had to move the PS pump to the lower position with a high mount alternator (Holley kit) and I'm also using a Hydroboost brake booster which are plumbed in series. The PS pump feeds the pressure inlet port of the HB unit and the pressure outlet port feeds the R&P pressure inlet side and the outlet port of the R&P flows to the cooler which is mounted under the radiator (there is a bracket I made to house the oil and PS coolers) and then the outlet of the cooler is routed back to the PS pump return which is teed with the HB return line. Not sure if the pictures show all of this, there are more detailed pictures in the cooling section of this forum. (someone else asked this same question). I hope this helps.

 

Awesome man! My exhaust currently runs under the rear axle, so there's some clearance there. I'd love to see pics of the crossmember. This is something I'll probably start working on very soon. Nice work!

 

There are a few detailed photos in the exhaust section of this forum under “beginnings of my 3” dual exhaust”. I’ve tried to take some photos of the cross member installed, but they don’t turn out well because everything is painted black under the car and there is very little definition.

 

Just checked that out, awesome work man!

 

Exhaust finished, need to adjust the length of the tail pipes and add tips. Once that is done the entire system is off to be ceramic coated. Then I can finally fire this thing up.

 

Looks good. I like the exhaust running down the middle of the tunnel like that. It should help protect the driveshaft, especially on my conversion, I have a carbon fiber driveshaft I got very inexpensive

 

Exhaust system is finished, it’s off to be ceramic coated. I’ll post more pictures when it comes back and after it is installed.

 

Exhaust system is finished and installed. The coating is titanium ceramic and the fit is amazing. The completion of the exhaust marks the last of the mechanical systems fabrication, time to move on to the body modifications.

 

Very nice work!

 

what i want to know is what are those stands you have the car on and where can i get some

 

The company is called "myliftstands". They are expensive, but for me they work out great for setting up the suspension and in this case gave me a lot of room to work under the car to mock-up the exhaust. They are adjustable with 2 height settings, 7" and 14", with the car resting on it's wheels on the stands, I have about 24" of clearance under the car. With my low ceiling a lift was out the question here.

 

On the ground and outside for the first time in 25 years. Attempted to start the engine for the first time, engine cranks over but will not fire. I will post results when I figure it out.

 

I am surprised to see someone else use the Eaton fuse block on an LS swap. I have been using them for my harnesses too

 

Sorry for the delay, I promised I would post when I got the engine started. It turned out to be crossed fuel lines. I ran dual 3/8" fuel lines from just forward of the tank to the LH frame rail at the front via the trans tunnel. There are flex lines from that bulkhead to the engine and I connected the return line to the pressure side because I'd forgotten which was which. Problem solved. I had my wife start the car since I was going to monitor everything, IT"S LOUD! She wasn't expecting that and immediately turned it off (I had to laugh, she wasn't amused). After restarting it was missing on 2 cylinders and backfiring like a shotgun blast (cops showed up). That was the signal wires for coils 2 & 8 crossed at C2 connector at the ECM. So everything runs smoothly now, but I have no throttle pedal. Apparently the pedal and the ECM don't speak the same language, get code P2138 and I'm working through that at the moment, so I still have not driven it yet. Stay tuned for future updates.

 

[QUOTE=soloc4;6331879]Sorry for the delay, I promised I would post when I got the engine started. It turned out to be crossed fuel lines. I ran dual 3/8" fuel lines from just forward of the tank to the LH frame rail at the front via the trans tunnel. There are flex lines from that bulkhead to the engine and I connected the return line to the pressure side because I'd forgotten which was which. Problem solved. I had my wife start the car since I was going to monitor everything, IT"S LOUD! She wasn't expecting that and immediately turned it off (I had to laugh, she wasn't amused). After restarting it was missing on 2 cylinders and backfiring like a shotgun blast (cops showed up). That was the signal wires for coils 2 & 8 crossed at C2 connector at the ECM. So everything runs smoothly now, but I have no throttle pedal. Apparently the pedal and the ECM don't speak the same language, get code P2138 and I'm working through that at the moment, so I still have not driven it yet. Stay tuned for future updates.[/QUOTE

nice yea those mufflers are straight thru once broken in should mellow out a little if still prob adding some resonators will tame it down some
I had same issue with the backfire lol

 

Got it running after having Lokar clone an SSR pedal to my Lokar pedal. I've also installed a pair of seats from an Acura RSX. Now I just need to drive it.

 

 

Drove the Camaro for the first time today, it went well. The suspension is firm, but not harsh and handles very well. The engine has WAY too much power for the tires, but that can be attributed to a learning curve since very thing is new on the car. The car is LOUD and attracts a lot of attention. There are a few things I need to address, but for a first drive, I feel it went well. This should conclude the fabrication aspects of the project and I will begin the body work this winter.

 

WOW, this is outstanding work. I tip my hat to you.

Louis

 

Thank you, it’s been a long journey with every aspect of the car having been customized. I was fortunate that the initial drive went so well. I appreciate all of the support I have received from this forum, it’s a great group of people.

 

I found something that I wasn’t expecting. The pinion reinforcement plate/forward carrier mount is bent a 1/4” from the torque of the engine. The original was 1/4” plate steel, so I made a 1/2” thick plate to replace it. The mount is 2” diameter by 2” high urethane bushing. The upper plate was folded over the pinion case.

 

What have you been doing to that poor car?

 

You can’t find the weak link unless you stress test the chain. Rolling burnouts seem to be it’s signature move.