...hehe, and so many thought i was getting rid of it since the car was being "parted".

my plans for the car are not 100% set in stone so i'm just kinda going in a direction right now. the biggest thing is that the car is paying for all the upgrades itself (or with sweat equity) which is the cool/fun part of this project. majorly small budget, and i thank any and all that are helping me.

as it sits with no motor/trans




how 'bout a little extra "whoa" for the new "go"?


feeding the new motor will be a task the old pump couldn't handle, so i picked this up:


and the new-to-me shortblock, got this for trade for my built th350. arp rod bolts and 11:1 diamond pistons:


make sure you check back in this thread, as i'll be sure to update it as i go along...it'll take a little while with the holiday's coming up, but i should be able to hop on it hard around tax season and hope to have it ridin' by the spring shootout dates!

 

I was worried, when you started parting out your combo, but seeing your going to do a LS swap is awesome! good luck witht the project, what are the plans for heads?

 

stock 241's with a set of 918's for now...i'd love to do a set of patriot 5.3 stage 3's one day...but i know plenty of guys running low 11's and into the middle 10 second range on stock 241's...

i gotta question about the brakes that i haven't been able to get a straight answer on. what do i need to do for brake lines? i'd like to keep mine as they're fairly new, and would rather not have to fork out the coin for a set of braided lines. whats this i hear bout some special banjo bolt?

 

All of the people who have been following your exploits on the Racing forum but never come here are going to be shocked when you first post back there with this combo.

 

hehe, i hope so! i'm just so ready to start actually going fast, lol!

 

i was waiting on you to do this..lol great car for this swap .

 

you should stay with the whole "305" theme and do a slightly bored out 4.8 and make a Gen III 5.0, lol. Wouldn't that be funny!!

 

hehehe...eeeehhhhh....no i've been in this game long enough to no longer be worried about the whole 5L thing, i wanna go fast now! if i had the money i'd buy a 6.0L and build an l92 headed 408...

i gotta figure out the header thing. i really don't wanna spend the $890+ for the hawks headers...i think it's ridiculous that they don't offer those in mild steel so that budget oriented people can afford to do this swap. i've been kinda kicking around the idea of modding a set of 2210's, but that's an aweful lot of work...we'll see...maybe somoene will have a set of swap headers for sale...

 

I re-used mt stock front flex lines with my C5 brake swap and just used the C5 caliper banjo bolt with new copper washers. Worked fine for me although I have since upgraded to braided all around because I wanted too not because I had any troubles with the stockers aside from a slightly mushier peddle feel than I wanted. I figured they were balooning a bit being so old and whatnot

 

i got ya, well mine are only about 3 years old, so i'd like to not have to replace them right now.

 

I thought the headders Sheldon modded turned pretty good.

 

score!



traded my slicks for these + cash...

 

After further review, I think you're going to have to do better than that for it to be "OFFICIAL". . .

 

I would lose the drilled and slotted rotors. They will only hurt braking performance and are just for looks.

You might check out Hedman, I read someplace a rumor of LS1 swap headers from them but nothing was said about what chassis they will be for.

*EDIT* Did you get any of the covers (front and rear) for the engine or any of the smaller, hard to find parts? I bought a block and crank and didn't get that. Learned the hard way that crap is hard to find. Might be easier to find a blown 4.8 or 5.3 on ebay and rob what you can from it if you don't have it.

 

PM Neil here on the boards, he has a brand new set of Hawks 3rdgen LS-x swap headers, Y-pipe for sale. Tell him Mike sent you.

 

You mean this? https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/ltx-...into-game.html

Not a peep since.

 

The car is a drag car and already has good drag brakes out back. this is going to be a HUGE improvement over stock, so even if braking suffers a little, i'm sure it'll still be far better than stock junk 10.5" rotors...and yes, i really just want the looks as far as the rotors are concerned. i have a set of stock rotors that i've already turned sitting on the shelf if i need them.

I called them a couple of days ago actually. They are currently pursuing the ls1 swap market, but not releasing any dates or builds. They did tell me to call BRP Muscle Rods out of Cumming, GA and see what they're up to. so i called BRP as soon as i got off the phone. the guy that answered the phone is actually doing an ls1 swap in an 85 IROC, and is currently working closely with hedman's hustler division out of Alpharetta, GA. the plan is to have another set of quality ls1 swap headers ready for production by the end of next month...they'll be available in regular or stepped, with different size collectors, ect. he quoted me at $799 for a set of coated mild steal headers with a stepped 1 3/4"-1 7/8" primary. the only catch is that you have to use their motor mount pads, which are also not yet available.

this is FIRST HAND information straight from BRP Muscle Rods

i don't have them in my possession yet, but i got some on the way...helps that i hang out with aLOT of ls1 guys

 

Regarding the drilled rotors... They probably are still an improvement over your stockers. What makes for good rotors is LOTS of steel as air is a poor heat conductor but steel is fantastic. Most of the name brand aftermarket performance rotors have far more material and weight to them even with the cross drilling so they do in fact perform better. The cheapo no name aftermarket drilled rotors are often just drilled stock rotors which yes are less than ideal and really where the bad rep comes from.

Easy way to tell is look at the flange where the rotor meets the hub and compare the new ones to your stockers... The good ones are TWICE the thickness here ( more metal ) and will work better than stock. Of course you should be able to tell just by weight alone as the hi-perf rotors (eradispeed, EBC, etc. ) are HEAVY but they do work well.

 

I wasn't really even meaning that from a structural standpoint. IMO they are a waste because of reduced surface area for pad clamping. Modern day pads do not gas enough to need the venting that those rotors are supposed to provide. They will indeed be better than the stock brakes on the car though.

 

You can use your factory lines Matt, I did. you just have to turn them to were they are straight up not at an angle. You will not have any issues. That is the way I am running mine. if you want to come look at mine you ae more then welcome to
And concrats on the new direction. Looks like I am headed in the right direction with mine finally. low 11's here I come

 

not an enourmous amount to report, but i did get the passenger side front brakes mocked up...after attempting to clean these calipers, i'm just going to get a new set...but atleast i got these for the core! (50bux each, yikes!) ya'll will be happy to know that the wheels DO clear the ls1 brake calipers with a 3/8" spacer...pretty excellent if you ask me! these are the 15x4 with 1.625" backspacing.

 

those would need a huge spacer if you bought the 2.XX" backspacing version in 4" wide rim. Luckily the strange brakes fit over them with no mods needed.

 

i believe you'd be correct, but why anyone would by the 2.25" backspacing ones when our cars ALREADY sink the front wheels in with skinnies is beyond me...my front wheels are now nearly flush with the front fender and look just like the rears now...

 

Looking good

 

no real progress to speak of other than i've made some definitive descisions about the combo:

gonna run what i got, which is a set of stock 241's with ls6 springs, a baby cam by comp: 212/219@ .050", .553/.563 on a 115lsa, ls6 intake and tb and my 11:1 bottom end. i'm also going 4l60e with a Vig3200. to round out the combo i'm gonna go with a 3.89 rear gear. that should put me through the traps close to the top of third and will be a nice cruising gear. i'm also gonna start daily driving the car again come spring time so i'm gonna try to get this done as quickly as possible.

only thing else really to report on is that i got my spohn motor mounts in the car today. my ls1 front brake conversion is nearly done and has a fresh set of calipers/pads and i'm now just waiting on my banjo bolts to show up from gm parts direct. those should be here tomorrow.

 

score! how 'bout some square truck packs WITH harness WITH brackets! christmas present from my 'rents! thanks mom and pop!



sorry this is taking so much longer than some of the other builds but i'm in school full time and am doing this on a shoestring budget

 

looks good, I have no idea if I have the truck or car coils, but I still can't bolt mine into the kmember, so a front plate might be on order next week. Still haven't towed the car to the shop and my tow rig broke down and is leaking, so that has to get fixed first. Oh and there's more and more snow coming

 

Cool deal on the new parts Bro

 

banjo bolt just has a hole drilled trough it for brake fluid to go trough it to the caliper when it goes trough the banjo fitting on the brake like which has copper washers on each end of the line

 

whoa, seriously? thanks...i was more or less referring to what kind of banjo bolt do i need to use, not what is a banjo bolt...lol...

anyhow, i got the gm p/n from scott and ordered the correct banjo bolts from gmpartsdirect.

and they are special...specific to these calipers only from what i can tell, they have are a 10mmx1.0 thread pitch, very fine threads, much like all the bolts on an ls1 block as well (very fine that is, not necessarily 10mmx1.0). they're also not available through any regular parts house as the aftermarket (dorman, motormite, etc) is not currently making these bolts, hopefully soon though. i even went as far as to call the local chevrolet dealer and phil at the parts desk was only able to find them along with brake hoses, which came to $90/each...a little high if you ask me.

futhermore, the brakes are hooked up and working correctly from what i can tell, the car can't be driven currently so the won't be tested till the new motor/trans is in the car, lol!

 

lol my bad i forgot to add that part well atleast you got the right part so thats always good

 

headers are here!





a quick question, what are you guys doing for the 4l60e dipstick tube (i don't have one, and i'd rather not run the fourthgen one as it puts the tube way out into the middle of the engine bay.). also, what are you guys doing for a throttle cable?

 

dipstick is lokar man. throttle cable can be lokar or the tpi one IIRC.


niiiiice headers, i'm fabbing my own this week out of busted up 4th gen ones. my total cost should be under $90

 

here's a couple of spy shots of what i got going on right now. and a HUGE thanks to Kevin of KCG Performance for all the help on getting this bad boy together!

 

don't forget that plastic dumbell looking piece in the rear cover or else it won't have startup oil pressure as it's an oil restrictor with o-rings.

 

thank you sir! it's already in though, it was in when i got the shortblock.

 

I like the look of them there goodies mm hmm. Dang I'm having the most hardcore speed jones right now bleh! Make the bad man stop sending all this cold and snow!

 

When you plan on having it in the car Matt

 

i've got one cylinder head on, i may get one more on tomorrow or something. i'm hoping to shove the engine in the car on tuesday afternoon

 

here's what i got done tonight:

 

Nice to see my $100 went to good use!

I thought the throttle cable half-moon was on the drivers side, like the TPI and LT1?

 

Oooooo.

Perdy

 

just picked this up this morning. RPM Stage V just refreshed with Red Alto clutches and Kolene steels by local automatic OD guru Gary Marshall:

 

Nope.

 

You work fast. Wish I could.

 

what throttle cable? the tpi cable will not work

 

Need the throttle cable from a LS1 4th gen that didnt have traction control

 

thanks!

 

How are you going to have the ECM tuned, out of curiousity? Doing it yourself, or will it be done by someone locally? I'll be attempting the 'drive-with-my-laptop-on-my-lap' tuning with my LT1 in the summer lol.

 

i'm going to have a buddy help me with it.