hey guys,

Just checking back in and giving update on my project camaro, its earned its trust as a daily driver now and way to much fun. Everyone seems to like it, still got few bugs to work out. Gas gage is still wierd, ever since i put new fuel pump in tank, always reads full or twitch. I wanted to ask all the other Ls1 swap guys : what temp does your engine run at with stock thermo?

Hope my pictures come tho

Thanks,
Mike

 

Using the autometer sending unit and my stock 83 temp gauge it's just under 220 the whole time.


Looks good too, though you need to put that PCM up under the passenger side dash. Where'd you get that CAI?

 

hi,

Thanks for the reply, my pci is stuck there in that position due to the fact i reworked the wiring harness some cuttin away what i didnt need and wiring was short and tight, I got the mounting hardware off a newer camaro and it sits secure in that, The CAI i built my self, it comes out under the passanger side bat tray with a cone k&n , I made my own gage cluster with all auto meter gages, but using the stock sender unit to my gage and its off little, i still have to go back and install the auto meter gage sender on the block and its crazy tight in there, tip: install this before you get passanger side all wired up, heater hoses, ect

 

Good tip with the sender on the pass. head... I installed that before I put the motor in, but I didnt wire it until I had the HVAC stuff back in. What a pain getting that one wire on there. Especially since on the sender you have two nuts...and you have to hold one and turn the other. Such a pain...

I cant comment on the temp thing tho... Im running a custom tune and a 160 thermo. My car rarely goes above 165 while cruising, and I can sit in traffic all day long with the car never goin above 180. Even while running hard it never sees anything higher than 180. This is confirmed by both the autometer gauge/sender, as well as a scan gauge that shows what the stock engine sensor is telling the PCM.

Justin

P.S. Swap/car looks pretty good!

 

What size fans are you using on your radiator?

 

Stock LS1 fans from the 99 Z28. Also, I removed a lot of my plastic pieces from around the radiator. I installed a new GM air dam from Modern Day Muscle. I was worried about cooling with the plastic pieces removed. I did it because Im running a 4th gen washer bottle behind the bumper. Cools fantasically so Im leaving the plastic out. I removed the part that sort of "ramped" the air up and back.

I should also mention that Im running the LS1 radiator as well. I used the stock 99 radiator, radiator fans, and A/C condensor. So its all there...

Justin

 

Wow, yours looks so much like mine... I like it


Only yours is quite a bit cleaner lol

 

I using after market duel 700 fans, tried to get a good pic, still got to tidy up in there but it never ends am I right haha

 

Also got me some new floor mats, can also kinda see gage cluster I made with the auto meters, those leather seats got for $100 outa a 98

Anyone ever had trouble with fuel gage before? ever since I put a new pump in the tank, it always readys full or pings around little, now just stays on full, I traced the wire from cluster to gromit under carpet in the back, to the unit, looks good, I did run 12v power through it one time * dont ask* would that have damaged fuel level unit? Only thing thats wrong with it atm that bogels me and im not looking forward to taking out tank again, No swap guys had that problem before ? or replacing a fuel pump? I was just thinking might have bad conector conection on top of the tank, im work on it some soon.

 

its very easy to damage the wire inside the tank that goes from the sending unit sensor to the connector at the top..
chances are, you tapped on it, and it now has a intermittent connection.
bad news is... if this is the case, the only way to fix it is to pull the tank, and re solder the wire.

 

Darn...good looking car man. Things dont look too out of sorts under the hood. It would look 100x better if you mounted the PCM inside.

One request...can you snap a pic of the fuel rail covers back by the HVAC box?? I want to get a set, but its so darn tight back there, that I dont know if there is room to get the whole cover on. Then again I have a custom HVAC box...so I might have made it bigger that the stock 3rd gen.

Good work again!! You are right about it never ending. All those little things that go overlooked when building it will start to pop up and remind you they are still there. And all the wiring and all. I made my harness, and I tried to keep it neat, but it just seems to get out of hand. Especially when you realize you forgot a wire and you have to fish it into the loom and all.

Justin

P.S.... Sorry I meant to comment on the fuel gauge thing. Just curious...why dont you just put a 4th gen tank in there? You are already using an aftermarket gauge and all. You only have to modify the filler neck a bit. IN any case...I have a 4th gen tank, and the appropriate gauge to match, but it still sucks. Stays above full for a long time, drops to 3/4...when its actually less than half. When it hits E....its empty. Like...not even a fume. Kinda scary how fast it drops when it starts to drop. Im going to drop the coin on the Autometer programmable one. Then I know it will be accurate.

 

can i make some suggestions on some simple ways to make yours look neater?


first off, that wire snake walking across the back of your motor... starting from the firewall connector on the right.... route it UNDER the brake booster. then along the back across the bellhousing, then down to the bottom of the AC box near the framerail. all of the wires still reach, but you dont see them at all.


next, ditch that breakage prone heater bypass valve... and you can then ditch the hardline on the framerail that goes with it.
you can route the heater hoses two ways.. either over the top of the motor, similar to how you have them now.. or run lines with molded 90s on the heater core end, and route them along the framerail, similar to how the hardline is now...
im from that pic, im assuming you have a "tee" in for the coolent air bleed line near the radiator.. if you change that to a straight adapter, theres nothing you need to plug with the bypass valve delete.
as far as routing the coolent air bleed line, if you stick it back behind the tensioner, and have it go down low near the heater core hoses, then over to the radiator, it looks alot neater and cleaner.


polished alum pipe, stainless steel, painted steel, or molded rubber 90s look nice. hardware store PCV doesnt... sorry, but it looks cheap to me. i dont mean to offend, but thats how i see it... $5 can get you a nice metal bend you can use.. or shop around... personally, i like the look of the molded rubber 90s.
also, that toilet pipe adapter between the maf and the moroso air inlet would look 200 times better if you got a cheap rubber doughnut coupling instead...
once more, just my opinion...

if you took the PCM and mounted it under the dash, that would really clean up that side of the car.

the clutch master cyl reservoir mounting bracket could really use some low gloss/satin black paint... aloing with the rust spots near the strut tower mounts..

im really not trying to pick out problems with your car, just giving tips on little things that could really make it look killer.

 

Yeah I agree, there are lots of things I need to do in there. That pic is several months old now and some things, like wires, have been addressed. and the 4th gen washer tank is coverend now. I am also in the process of deleting all that AC crap, know where to get a delete box? after that I may wrestle the ECM down inder the dash. I do like the idea of painting the master cylinder resovoir bracket... why the hell havent i done that yet? lol I think the biggest thing keeping me from doing dress up stuff is laziness, and theres always some other stuff to do, like suspension, whatnot else... but yeah, thanks for all the suggestions and I hope to get it looking better soon.

 

My pcm wiring limits its location, I would love to have it outa the engine bay from the elements, but you have to totally rework all the wiring to have it inside the car, this would cost extra $ and time, and needs to be well planed out. I looked at the newer z28s when I began my install and it was in the engine bay so I figured it would be fine.

Ill get a pic of the fuel rail covers to yah. I picked up a new set and some floor mats dirt cheap. $25 for the covers. All I had to do is sit down and custom fit them in, cut, file and trim untill it looks neat. Once you get them trimed up neat to fit they pop on and off with the clips on the rails.

I kept the 3rd gen tank cause I never had a problem with it. I wasnt sure if the 4th gen just bolted right up so I stuck with the 3rd gen. I took it out to install the new fuel pump, and I was very carefull with the unit and double checked all my work so I didnt have to go back in. One thing I know that I might have done to damage the wiring is hooking 12v power ( fuel pump relay power ) to the fuel level sending wire- ( 1 pink 30 wire ) , now I did this at first because I thought hey pink = hot right? yah , well the fuel pump wire is ( 1 tan 120 ) DOH, that was only thing I could think that damaged it anyway, but I figured was a common mistake, was wondering if anyone else had same problem. If anyone has any info or comments please feel free, I would be most thankfull.

Chris, your looking good there bro, ITS IN isnt it haha. Im sure once you get all the wiring leveled out you can go back and clean everything up. You might have to make changes so its one step at a time. You can always go back and replace that CAI, some of it looked plastic or pvc, I dont think that will hold up to the heat over time. Im in GA it gets hot as hell here and will test a car's limits. I understand how much $ and time can go into it. I want to say my total restore/upgrades cost is roughly about $9k over past few years. I got deal on engine, trans, harness, all acceseries, driveshaft, mounts, pipes, rad, everthing basically outa wrecked in back 98ss for $2300. why? I had this car since I was 16, its seen alot and means alot to me still. No car payment and my insurance is $32 a month. Im getting around 24 mpg highway with no evap, no air pump, and a vented gas cap.

I found a pic of the days back in no mans land to show everyone wanting to swap, just hang in there, and it all come together. I did everything my self, except the subframe conectors and exhaust. I had a shop do the exhaust and im not happy with it. I had a friend that wielded so he helped me with that when needed. Hope pic comes tho it old one.

 

Got a neat video of my brothers 98 ls1 powered/ 4l60 trans chevy truck at the track vs lightning. First time at the track and thats him losing traction off the start. Its old video but dang its cool, check it out.

http://home.comcast.net/~hough113/video.html

hope it comes tho

 

What part of GA do you live in?

 

True, however I used a stock harness ('99) and modified it myself removing all the wire that was not used, re-bundled it and when the PCM was in the engine bay it was pretty tight. When I moved it into the cabin I had too much wiring. I actually had to trim some back on a smaller section of the harness (not the main bunch) because there was ~6 feet of extra wire.

 

Yeah...it doesnt seem possible but the harness will go in... I was actually able to get my PCM up behind the dash where the stock ECM was. Fit right up in there. Had just enough wire. Only I extended the "C" plugs because I was also using the 99 fuse block, and needed them to plug in like factory. However If I was wiring it in without the fuse blocks, I could have gotten away with it.

But really...it would take a good amount of work to do it that way now. The way you have it doesnt look bad. Maybe you can fab up a nice cover for the pcm or something to dress it a bit.

Is that silver canister behind your radiator your overflow bottle??? Just curious.

J.

 

Im in Augusta, that drag strip we go to is in Jackson, SC.

Yah, thats my over flow, got it from ( Street and Performance ) , forgot real price but it was cheap. I need to polish it up, its all alum so its light.


Ever since I guted everything I didnt need out the front , my car sits like 1-2 inches higher in the front. I had a couple friends point it out to me. Anyone else after the swap notice how much weight you lost from the front?

 

You gain that extra inch in the front just from swapping in the LS1 combo... Its alittle over 100lbs less than a standard iron block SBC. If I remember correctly. Plus anything that you ditched would have lost alittle too...

When I did my swap, I basically rebuilt the entire under side of the car as well. I did bilsteins and a set of lightly used eibach pros. Somehow, my car came out almost perfectly level. I didnt ditch any isolators for the springs or anything. I was planning on having to pull the front springs back out and cutting a half a coil off and trying it that way. As long as your coils are indexed correctly in the a-arm...then everything should be put together correctly. You might have to cut some of the spring to get her to sit down nice and level. I actually wanted mine a tad lower...however the fact that she sat level was such a relief, that Im leaving her alone for now.



Justin

 

Hey again guys,

Sorry I have been gone so long, job, GF, new house, ect taking up most of my time. I still have my Camaro and love it as much as ever. I keep thinking back to when I droped the motor in there and wish I added all the parts I really wanted to but was working on a tight budget. So here lately I was thinking about getting back into a serious rebuild. Headers, cam, heads, springs, pushrods, rockers, ect To keep things simple I wanted to do headers first, but I am using stock torque arm, stock trans brace wielded up beefy with back plate to bolt on 4l60e, tuned for just 2 o2s, and $700 worth of exhaust from local shop. I just couldnt afford the hawks lts with brace, arm and all that set up. I was wondering if anyone was around my mods and got after market headers that worked with this same setup, before I breakdown car and order and return 2-3 sets of headers that dont work. 30,000 miles on the swap no major problems except maintance. If anyone could shed some light on this first issue of headers would be awsome.

Thanks

Mike