J's T/A

iTrader: (2)

Looks great.. the corvette tray changed with the LS2.. apparently the new version is better than the one with the wings on it.

Your build is very similar to what I want to do to mine later. The 376/480 is almost a no-brainer.. I am curious about the sender setup on the harness, what did you find?

The BMR k-member looks nice, I may of missed it but what coilovers are you going with?

alan91z28

The coil over kit is from BMR that i am using. Pretty much i have been using all BMR suspension parts. I am very happy with them and have had no issues to date on all the rear suspension parts, subframe connectors, torque are, k member, etc. All fit and finish has been very good

On the coil over i had though to make two modifications. The top strut tower mount did not quite fit my existing 3 stud mounting bracket... i am not sure if these changed at all over the years but i had to mill out one of the slots to make it fit right, no big deal but i was kind of surprised as all there other parts have been such a great fit right from the box.

Also the coil over bottom thread adjuster that goes on the strut needed to have its tab cut off and re-welded to fit right as it was not in the right plane... again no big deal but a little bit of a surprise

On the LS376/480 i bought the GMPP controller specifically made for it. I haven't completely figured out how i am going to do the water temp and oil pressure gauges. I am going to use my stock gauges. The controller takes both the water temp and oil pressure inputs, it only needs the water temp for the controller. It outputs a signal for the oil pressure, not sure yet it is compatible with the stock gauge. No output for the water temp so need to something for that. Once i figure it out i will post my results

Spike-Z

iTrader: (4)

Not yet, Ill get to it next week!

J's T/A

iTrader: (2)

Sounds great, any updates on what you do with your harness and senders/guages would be great...

Also, I would love to hear about your ride quality impressions etc.. with the bmr k-member coil-over setup.. your build looks like good fun, I can't wait for my car to be out of paint to get back to work!

87CIZ

iTrader: (8)

kind of surprised you went with the 9 inch. we're still in the break in period on our ls3 swap into the 99 SS. But it sounds amazing, i can't wait to get to the track this summer.

alan91z28

Made a lot of progress this weekend...

Worked on getting the whole front end in and putting in the tick master cylinder

In my car which is an original 5 speed the tick master cylinder fit in without any clearance issues, not a lot of room but it fit. To make it easier once i had it up and in i ended up screwing studs through the firewall into the tick to bolt it up which made it eaiser

One thing i noticed that i will need to work on is the electronic pedal assembly for the LS3 is pretty large and i am going to have to do some work to get that to fit with everything else. I had to pull out the relays and module in the under dash convience center that has the hazard flasher, old choke relay and audio alarm panel, that will need to be moved to get the pedal to fit, but we will see

alan91z28

The front end went in pretty straight forward... My friend Rich and I didn't have much trouble getting it all in. Parts utilized were BMR coil over kit, BMR wonder bar, BMR k member, Baer front disc/wheel assemblies and moog for idler, rods, etc. The sway bar is a pontiac trans am WS6 based on Bruce's recommendation froms Hawks.

The BMR suspension components are all working out very well, they are well built and finished and fit up well... the only mods we have had to make are to the top plate and coil over threaded bushing tab as i mentioned above

The other thing we did was to drop the fuel tank back down and change the feed and return line out with a piece of new continuous line we can run to the fuel filter and tee we will hook up next week. Originally when we put the tank up we utilized a piece of dorman tubing 18" long with a barbed splice to another piece. We weren't ever completely happy with this and i found that dorman makes a whole kit for nylon fuel lines (kit 800-300) that allows you to professionally put on fittings just like the factory. using a couple of dorman 10 foot lines pushed on a couple of quick connects and put those up, now we will just trim to length and push on a couple of quick connects that go right to the tee and new filter and it should like it came from the factory that way

https://www.dormanproducts.com/cgi-b...tegory_list=:0

87CIZ

iTrader: (8)

are you determined to use the dbw throttle body? holley makes one same size for the ls3 that is cable driven and has the throttle bracket with it. i will get pictures later if you are interested.

alan91z28

Yes I am going with the electronic throttle pedal is my plan.

Made some good progress this weekend getting in the new stainless fuel and brake lines. I got the set of lines from Fine Lines out of Ohio. They came pre-bent and matched very well what the originals. Only needed to run the one Fuel feed rail as i have the regulator and tee in the back.

Also got the LS3 crate engine auto flexplate changed out with the new manual flywheel and Spec clutch. My friend and I tried putting it in with the engine / trans all mated up from the top but it didn't look promising once we got it lifted so we took the trans back off and just dropped the engine in. Needed to take the cover off the windshield wiper motor but other than that it worked out well and with the AC delete looks like it shouldn't be much trouble to get the headers on. Also the BMR K member gives a lot of space so as I mentioned I left the Corvette oil pan on that came with the LS3.

Next need to get the trans mounted up from underneath and get the wiring worked out... I have a new LS3 wiring harness and computer from GM Performance Parts that I will be using.

J's T/A

iTrader: (2)

That looks GOOD. I am really curious how the whole thing works when you are done.. dyno numbers would be really interesting since not too many of these 376/480s have seen a dyno.

alan91z28

Yes I am very interested in what the final dyno will be as well on this engine combination

What type of air induction package do you guys recommend? I have started looking at K&N stuff, but would appreciate any feedback on what has worked best for you guys

BMR Sales

Parts look good! Nice job on the car sir!

Let me know how you like that dbw throttle body, John over at Speartech convinced me to keep mine so I did.

J's T/A

iTrader: (2)

For cold air on my LT1 I bought a big 4 inch j-bend from summit, put a big K&N on the end and done. Should work well for you, I am working on a heat shield. This link shows the pics https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/post...33-post17.html

alan91z28

Bruce got my headers and rest of exhaust shipped to me. We will be working on it this weekend, hopefully get the rest of the driveline all in and the exhaust to the point just need to get the connection pipe between the cat and muffler fitted

Also i picked up a unused piece of CAMARO pattern material for the seats. I have those type of seats from the car right now, but they are only fair condition and also in red. I am converting the interior to black and now should also be able to have the CAMARO pattern on the seats. I am working with Bruce to get the covers made and installed with this fabric

So now we are getting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and with spring even showing up now in NW PA of course getting anxious to be able to get it done and run it, but still a lot to do!

IROCJoyce

iTrader: (4)

WOW! You have done so many nice upgrades to your car. My 305 envy's your monster LS3.

alan91z28

Thanks, it is coming along pretty good... wish it was ready to drive!

Yesterday we made some pretty good progress. First up we got the transmission in. Since mine is was a 5 speed already as you can see i didn't have to trim too much. Used a air powered saber type saw blade and die grinder to open it up from my finger back in the pic

The pro-5 shifter fits good as you can see

The drive by wire pedal as you can see is pretty tall. Had to take out the "convience center" relay panel to get it to look like it would fit. Hoping to get that mounted next weekend

1bdbrd

iTrader: (1)

I see you have the normal pro 5.0 handle on there. I HIGHLY suggest getting a short stick for it. I drove my buddie's car with the normal handle, then my car with a short stick and it was night and day different. Mine is a Lou's Short stick but I am not sure if they are still making them or not.

alan91z28

Thanks for the tip... I will need to look for a short stick.

The other progress we made this weekend was on starting the exhaust, using Bruce's long tube headers. They went in and fit very well. With the AC delete there was no problem getting in the passenger side even with the engine sitting on the mount, did not need to lift the engine at all.

These headers have nice thick flanges and used GM gaskets and Stage 8 locking header bolts.

Once the header's were in the fun began. Getting the tubing past the cross member is going to be a little fun. I am using the heavy BMR cross member and looks like with the tubing that came with the headers i would have to notch the cross member. Instead we worked on cutting the exhaust tubing and doing some re-weld. Need to get some flaring done so didn't get that done

Working on the back we are going with a large 4" tube into the muffler after the high flow CAT and a single 4" outlet. Bruce sent a nice kit for that as well and looks like that should be able to mount up without much effort and only a little cutting and weld

alan91z28

Here is a shot on the passenger side with the AC delete box, lots of room as you can see.

Also here is a pic of the underside oil pan to k member. We mounted the brake line to the BMR K member with some standard mounting clips for a clean install. The brake line also has good clearance to the pan you can't see it from this angle. All the fuel and brake lines are stainless from Fine Lines out of Ohio, they have all been a good drop in fit and well made.

Also this oil pan is the standard vette pan that came with the LS376/480. I bought an F body pan but since this fit we figured no sense in taking it apart.

alan91z28

One question for the group, we installed the Extreme Duty drive shaft yesterday and one of the things we thought was a little different is the amount of spline shaft that sticks out of the T56 with this shaft. Would have thought it would have been more like 1" vs this about 2"...

What do you guys think, is this normal?

SheldonZ28

iTrader: (1)

Is the rear suspension hanging down? That would draw it back a little bit. Looks to be a bit on the excessive side, but i guess aslong as you have minimum a couple inches in the hole, she'd like that

alan91z28

I have the car sitting now on all four tires so that pic of the driveshaft is with the car down in position... i guess it is the standard length as it is a standard part number Extreme Duty from Spohn, just seemed more than i was thinking.

Doing a little more reading again on the stickie swap links I see that the whole cross member / long header saga has been an issue long since i started my swap... i read Ghettocruiser's stickie on the topic and that was the same thought we had... make your own cross member so you can run the headers straight through instead of the un-natural run around that is now being tried.

Got a bunch of channel and rectangular tubing etc today, going to go at that this weekend to try and get that done. Also i noticed that they really finished off inside a lot better the Y pipes now than from the early days, i will take a pic but mine is as nice as can be especially compared to some of the original posts from a couple of years ago where the tubes were just left running together

SheldonZ28

iTrader: (1)

Making the crossmember isnt all that hard.

Took me about 3 hours to fabricate mine. Basically made the 2 angle iron peices and bolted them up. made the center peice the trans bolts to, then tacked in the peices for the humps, took it out and welded it solid.

When ever i remember to take a camera to my shop with me, ill get some pictures of it

alan91z28

My friend Rich and I worked on the exhaust and cross member all day yesterday. We definately decided to ditch the original end around type exhaust from the header around the cross member and to the Y pipe.

We debated on how to do it but we decided in the end the best option we believe was to modify the existing BMR cross member and go above it with the pipe running from the headers back to the Y pipe. This is different than what others have done, but since we have mounted the torque arm on a completely seperate independant cross mount to the new frame rails further back this was an option for us and we believed would give the best installation for our project as it makes for a clean cross member and a pretty high mount for the pipes... we will find out!

First off was modifying the existing BMR cross member. The BMR cross member we are using is BMR TCC023 which is for supporting the T56 M6 and does not have any torque arm mount provision. It mounts right to 2 of the existing factory bolt locations on each side of the frame runners

After mounting this up to the frame and T56 we could observe that on the drivers side we could run the pipe from the header back to the Y pipe through the "hole" between the car / transmission / cross member.

On the passenger side it was too tight. The pipe was going to hit the angle frame of the cross member and not enough "hole" to get the pipe through over top of the cross member between the transmission and car frame.

To accomodate the passenger side we started with the BMR cross member and did the following modification.

- Cut the cross member tube on the passenger side of the transmission mounting point
- Welded in 2" of pipe to make more "hole" on the passenger side. The pipe we used was 1" that we could with some grinding on the ends slide into the existing BMR pieces and then weld up. The BMR is about 1 1/8" outside diameter so we then welded in a 1/8" rolled plate to finish it off so once painted you would think that is the way it came from BMR
- On the passenger side mounting plate for the BMR cross member we added on top a new 1/4" plate. This allowed us to weld the existing BMR mounting to it and drill holes in this new plate that will bolt up to the factory mounting points. Once welded and drilled we plasma cut a nice angle on it to make it match up nicely, etc

The pics show the modified BMR piece (still a little more clean up to do but it should give you the idea of what we are doing)

alan91z28

Here are a couple of pics with the modified cross member bolted up. Our plan now is to make a set of slip on "S" bends from the header and flange them right after they exit the cross member "hole" for the final connection to the "Y" pipe right in front of the high flow CAT

alan91z28

Couple more pics of the modified cross member mounted up

alan91z28

The rear exhaust went up pretty easy. Bruce sent us 4" piping to mate with a high flow Magnaflow muffler and Random Tech high flow cat. All of this mounted up without much effort. Need to weld up the mount to the exhaust pipe in place of the hose clamp and pretty much done on this end leaving just the y-pipe to header connections to do next weekend and exhaust will be complete

A10Beav

iTrader: (1)

Nice work!

killer_kyle

WOW !! I think I am about to bite off more than I can do... I just picked up an 89 that I want to drop the ls3 in. This will be my first real rebuild project and now I'm a little intimidated..... I will continue to watch this post, I'm sure I will have many questions too... Thanks for all the great info in this post..

alan91z28

So far it has been quite a bit of work, but just need to take your time. Also helps if on this type of swap if you don't have a hard and fast budget you need to live by!

This weekend Rich and I focused on getting the rest of the exhaust sorted out. Our focus was to have a clean looking connection from the headers back to the y-pipe. We utilized the x-member we modified last week and started what would take us all day to fab up.

We chose to put in a set of flanges right after the cross member. With our modified cross member we didn't have too much problem fabbing up runners from the headers over the cross member and a nice flange on the ends. Each of these took about an hour a piece and then the real fun began getting those to connect to the y-pipe and remaining exhaust. That took the rest of the day but we got it... If we already didn't have the y-pipe that came with the kit and had some stainless 3" we probably would have fabbed our own y-pipe but we cut this one down and got the angles needed.

A couple of things that were a great help-

- Bought a dewalt 872 multi-cutter with 90 tooth carbide stainless steel blade... the blade alone is $200 but it cut the stainless tubing like a hot knife through butter making very clean cuts with no trouble cutting angles, etc... 1000X better than a chop saw

- Bought the flanges and also two sets of 2.5" "grab bag" bends from Stainless Works... having 20 pieces of various nicely formed angles allowed for in the end making a pretty clean set-up.

The pic below is everything all tacked together, all the seams need to be welded up and then the exhaust is getting pretty much done. Once we have all that done and mounted back up to the car I will take some more pics to show how it all fits... We think it looks really good, to do it the way we did it you have to have the torque arm seperate mounted to the subframe connector type set-up.

The couple other things i worked on earlier in the week was getting the front accessory drive on, which is the present corvette kit minus A/C... went on in about 2 hrs without any trouble

Also started installing the wire harness. That fits nice, the question i am tackling is where / how to mount the ECM and fuse / relay panel. Probably going to put on the passenger side since i deleted the A/C and the harness connections for these two are generally on that side

killer_kyle

Alan...
So I guess this is very off topic, I see you have a 4 post lift... any recondemations on a good lift ? I am looking at the pro park 8... any ideas for something better ?

alan91z28

I looked at a lot of different lift brands before i settled on buying a BendPak... I thought it was the best for the money. I liked the Rotary brand but they are really large $ and i don't think you can buy direct.

I got the 4 post HD12 model from ASEDEALS, link below.

http://www.asedeals.com/four_post_lift_specs.html

Mine is a 12,000 lb model i see they have now upgraded to 14,000 lbs.

While this may seem like overkill, i wanted a lift i could use with my truck, etc as well as one that i felt was very heavy duty. I also personally would not buy one that you do not bolt down to the floor. It sounds nice to be able to move around but i think from a safety viewpoint bolting to the floor is the only way to get maximum stability.

I am very happy with the bendpak... it came complete without trouble and was easy to assemble. I used my engine lift to get the runners in place which if you balance in the center while picking up aren't too hard to move. So far i have had zero problems, it works well, seems well built and would by another one.

Also if you are going to buy one make sure to get the extra length ramps... this gives extended drive on length so ground clearance is no trouble... do not know if standard ones would be ok, but i can say the extended length are very good clearance.

I use to work on jackstands like most, after having the lift i can't imagine doing this stuff any other way anymore, so if you can swing it i think you will be very happy having one

Ca[maro]88

iTrader: (2)

niccce

killer_kyle

Thanks for the info, I will check them out!

alan91z28

This weekend spent most of the time finishing up the exhaust... almost have it done.

Rich and I used a combination of TIG and MIG to get it all welded together. We then used some high temp ceramic paint to finish it off.

I think this worked out very well. We have the exhaust basically running straight back over top the trans cross member that we modified. This made for a very clean install and i think looks real good, take a look at the attached pics

alan91z28

Here are a couple of more pics of the front part of the exhaust showing the detail on the passenger side with the modified BMR trans mount member and exhaust going over top.

The other pic gives an overall view showing how it merges to the y-pipe and cat

FirehawkSS

iTrader: (2)

Dude seriously that kicks @ss! You have no fear of speed bumps with that setup. Looks awesome. Did you go with the 2.5" collectors on the headers? What else do you have left on the build?

alan91z28

Thanks and yes, these are Bruce's headers with 2.5" collectors... they are really well made and fit in the engine bay great... I definately give them an A+ on the headers, very well made and fit great.

I am hoping that we can progress to the point that by the end of next weekend we can actually start the engine.

Presently have a lot of things to tie up to get to the point.

- New Be Cool Aluminum rad is pretty much in, needs plumbed up
- Heater lines need to be run
- Steam pipe needs hooked up... i am going to run it to the rad
- High pressure power steering line needs to be modified to fit
- Fuel line from frame to engine common rail needs made and connected
- Fuel filter needs mounted and tee connected in back
- Wiring needs completed... working on this now... mounting new ECM where old ECM was in passenger compartment... fabbed up the mounting bracket tonight. Fuse panel i am going to put by brake booster above C100
- DBW throttle pedal needs mounted
- Tick clutch master cylinder to pedal needs mounted
- All fluids added
- New battery install

Quite a bit of stuff to knock off still... The weather is finally decent here and am getting the urge to drive it!

Some picks of the getting the wiring harness to the ECM location... i had to open up the bulk head walls some to get the large connectors through. Also you need to run the harness under the heater duct before the heater duct is in you can't get the harness through with the duct in place... i had to loosen it back off and slip the harness under

Will post some picks of the ECM bracket, etc tomorrow after the paint drys... it looks like it will mount up nicely

alan91z28

Last weekend focused on trying to get the wiring sorted out. A key item was to get the ECM and fuse box mounting located and squared away.

As noted above i am mounting the ECM in the same location as the original. This required an interface plate to be made to mate with the original mounting points. Not to hard to make just used some 20 gauge sheet and folded it in the press brake and sheared / nibbled the tabs to match the original, then drilled the holes.

alan91z28

Here is a pic of the new ECM now mounted up underneath the passenger side dash in the original ECM spot ready to go

Also i ended up deciding to mount the fuse/relay box right above the heater duct on the passenger side firewall it just wasn't going to fit right in the C100 area. Will get some pics

To bring the OBDII connector and DBW throttle pedal cable into the driver's side i enlarged the hole that use to have the throttle cable coming through

Ca[maro]88

iTrader: (2)

eh..i hate computers.

alan91z28

Here are a couple of pics of how i mounted the new LS3 fuse / relay panel... i located it on the passenger side right above the heater air duct.

The instructions did not come with any mounting advice. However the guy at Pace Performance was nice enough to look up the part number of the relay box and determine it had been used in Silverado's, Astro Vans, etc and he was able to come up with the corresponding mounting plate that this fuse / relay panel sits in. The part number is 15723696.

This mount worked out great i just had to cut the back tab off it then it would mount right to my firewall and made a good sturdy mount

I am getting the wiring figured out pretty well... With the new LS3 ECM harness it is not too bad... once i have everything worked out i will post the details of what remained, how i modified the C100 wiring etc for this type of application

alan91z28

The OBDII connector and drive by wire throttle pedal wiring from the LS3 harness i put through the firewall where the original throttle cable was. Since i had to open the hole up quite a bit to get the connectors through a standard grommet would not work to finish it off.

I found some nice two piece firewall seals at Pegasus Auto that held the conduit in place nicely and sealed off the expanded hole with a nice clean look

ghettocruiser

iTrader: (4)

Lookin good man! Good work on the exhaust and crossmember. Looks like people have another option to look at now. I sorta want to mount my torque arm off of its own crossmember. But that'll have to wait until I have some more money laying around...which who knows when that'll be.

I REALLY have been thinking about adding in some random tech cats. I dont know if I have room though because I havent been able to find good measurements. I know you have things installed, but is there any chance you could grab a couple quick measurements for me? Like overall length, the girth at its widest, and how long the swollen center part is. I think I can sneak them in before the crossmember...but when I say sneak them in, I mean sneak them in. Things are pretty tight. Im just tired of the rasp...

Good stuff man!!

J.

alan91z28

Thanks,

Here are a couple measurements i took tonight on the random cat

Overall length is approximately 11"

Max diameter is ~3.9" for about 4" and then it takes about an 1" on each side to transition back down to the 3" diam

alan91z28

For the high pressure power steering connection I ended up using the pipe/hose from the '09 Corvette. I am using the corvette front accessories and the power steering pump has its connection on the bottom.

The existing 3rd gen pipe/hose was not shaped right, nor was the 4th gen 2002 pipe/hose.

The '09 fit up pretty well with only slight tweaking needed on a couple of bends, not much at all. This also ended up giving another cooling loop as you can see. I tied the loop to the wonder bar with a one inch clamp. The clamp on the pipe/hose came with it.

ghettocruiser

iTrader: (4)

Nice!! Thanks for those measurements. Thats perfect. Ill build a quick and dirty cardboard model of it and try to find a place to stick them.

Your swap is looking nice. All those nice shiny new hoses and parts! Next time my car goes under the knife, I swear Im not putting one old/dirty part back on. haha.

Thanks again.

J.

alan91z28

Here is how i connected the steam pipe. I bought a new Be Cool radiator which was pretty much a direct replacement re-using my original one piece electric fan. the radiator had a threaded 1/2" NPT port at the top that worked out perfect to connect the steam tube from the LS3 with.

alan91z28

We have really made a lot of progress in the past couple of weeks. I need to get some pics up to show some of the detail, but got everything done to the point that last Saturday actually was able to start the engine for the first time!

The engine roared to life on the first try and we ran it for about 1/2 hour total. Still some work to do though as once it got warmed up and i believe went into closed loop mode it did not like to idle very well and would eventually stall if we didn't hit the gas. My parts store OBDII scanner was not very useful other than seeing the basic RPM, coolant temp, etc

I decided to go with HP Tuners and have the Pro suite on the way so hopefully can get the idle understood this weekend. Part of the reason i went with HP Tuners is that their appears to also be an excellent course and book written on tuning utilizing this product which i also bought, will let you know

I will post how i did all the wiring, etc... a couple of things i learned-
- Tach interface from GMPP ECM drives tach well but is in 4 cyl mode so is only showing 1/2 speed on gauge, HP Tuner i believe can set this right
- Volt gauge works as expected
- Fuel gauge works well with mode as described earlier in this post
- Oil gauge did not interface correctly with GMPP ECM output, i suspected it wouldn't. I was able to verify though i had good oil pressure using my volt meter with this output but will have to modify my wiring / sensor plans to get gauge to work
- Temp gauge read hot using the passenger side port with seperate gauge. I am going to put the 3 pin '98 z28 gauge in the standard port area to resolve
- Speedometer did not yet get to try, i am driving the mech speedometer with the adapter box from hawks

Hoping to test drive within 2 weeks

cam-

Congrats man! First start up is always a great moment. Whats this book for HPtuners you refer too? I havent heard of it but then again I havent searched for it either