Where did you get your A/C bracket from? BTW Nice build!

Thanks Jazz'!

Here's a link: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...-brackets.html

Thanks! one more question for ya. Did you have any problems with your urethane mounts? I have the Prothane mounts ready in their clamshells and it doesnt seem right? The metal insert in the mount is offset but offset the same way so that when installed one is offset forward and the other rearward?? this would put the engine in Krooked. What are your thoughts?

The second pic is better to show the offset. Thanks in advance.

I didn't have any problems with mine. I would say take one of them apart, rotate the insert 180 degrees & put it back together. Worth a try.

Wish I could but the flange tabs (for mount failure) can only be one way. Grrrrrr!

They only go in one way. Mine look the same.

I haven't had time to work on my car over the past month or so (busy with lots o' work!) but I did have a chance to make it over to the junk yard today with Luis (Motobooks). I scored two door sill plates & a nice gas cap (more to follow on that) & Luis scored some real nice stuff off of a 1984 15th Anniversary Trans Am that someone had totally trashed.

Anyways... on to the gas cap. Now I know this doesn't really have much to do, okay... nothing to do with my LS1 swap, but I figured I'd go ahead and share anyways. I'm sure most of you are saying "big deal... it's a gas cap!" But it's one of those things that has always bugged me about the third gens. You see, I don't like pulling my gas cap off and having to set it on my rear hatch. I'm always afraid I'll get distracted and forget about it, then drive off and lose it. So, my idea was to find a gas cap for my car that has a strap to connect it to the filler neck like on the newer cars. What better place to do this than at the junk yard, right? So, to make a long story short, I found two that would work. This one is off of a 1996 S10.

I found another one for Luis on a 1999 Suburban. The other one I found was on a 1997 Grand Prix, but the strap was broken. They both screwed on perfectly though. The strap on the Grand Prix one didn't actually connect to the filler neck though. I may try that one later if I don't end up liking this set-up.

Moving on... Here's the cap pulled apart prior to cleaning complete with red JY paint. grrr.


Here it is back together after cleaning. I actually got about 99% of that damn red paint off of it.


Installed:

I moved the collar that goes around the filler neck up to the top of the neck so you guys can see it better.

Here what it looked like before:


After:


I'm sure this has already been figured out somewhere before, but I just figured I'd share in case some of you haven't seen it yet. Any input from the peanut gallery?

...

I forgot to mention that gas cap was a $1.99 upgrade!

Just finished reading all 10 pages. Nice build, seems your running into and solving all the issue others are facing. I love how you created a new wiring diagram, that's going to help out a lot of people. Can't wait to hear this thing running.
Keep up the good work!

Thanks Dieseldog! There have been quite a few challenges. Yeah, I figured the new wiring diagram might help some other "wiring challenged" people like myself and I'm good with CAD, so why not. I can't wait to hear it running either! LOL. I have been real busy with work here lately, so maybe before the end of the year I can get it running.

I haven't had any time to work on the car, but I have bought a few new things for it.

First off, Adaptive One brake pads for the LS1 brake swap


I went to Summit a few weeks ago when I was in Ohio and got this heat wrap for my wire loom near the A/C box

I kind of wish it was black though.

This exhaust system was on sale, so I bought it too. It saved me quite a bit on shipping.

I really only bought it for the 3" mandrel bent intermediate pipe. I will put the muffler & tail pipes on my '88

There was a set of BBK ceramic coated exhaust manifold replacement headers there at Summit that were more than half price, but I needed the exhaust system more, so I got that instead. Now I wish I would have bought the headers too! Oh well.

Hopefully this weekend I will be able to spend some time working on the car.

good to see an update!

Thanks. Yeah, hopefully I will have a real update this weekend with some real progress. I really want to get all of the wiring cleaned-up. I need to be taking advantage of the nice weather!

you and me both man, it could go strait down hill at any time. lol.

Yay, I finally found some time to work on the car. I spent most of the day installing the new cat-back exhaust. Actually it was just the half of the intermediate pipe that goes over the rear axle from the Summit kit, the muffler & two tail pipes. I decided to install this stuff because those exhaust pipes get in the way around the garage. It turned out to be quite a PITA. I messed around with it and got it looking pretty decent, but I just cant seem to get it right. The tailpipe on the passenger side sticks out about 1" to 2" past the lip on the rear bumper while the driver's side is pretty much even with it. (Be glad that you had someone else do this for you Luis! )

I also need to move the right side pipe toward the right side of the car more to make it symetrical with the left side. Muffler clamps will be replaced with welds eventually. I also got my adjustable panhard bar installed while I was back there. I'm also going to get these installed while I'm back there when I get some more time.


I also decided to address my trany pan last night. I swapped out the deep cast pan with the chrome stamped one that came on the trany due to ground clearance issues.

Here are before and after pics of the different pans with the camera at oil pan / K-member level

The deep pan was just too low.

Here it is with the chrome pan. Nothing hanging down now and you can see all the way back to the rear sway bar.

lookin good!

If that was a vert, I would be sooooo jealous....lol

Your car is kinda what I want mine end up looking like. Minus the rims.


Very nice!!!

LOL. Thanks man!

Yeah, I'm leaning towards some Corvette rims for it in the near future. After I get this swap finished of course!

Luis (Motobooks) & Chris (badredbrd89) came over yesterday, so we tackled putting the rear springs & shocks on my car (BTW, it was nice to meet you Chris). It was a pretty simple task.



Then I took the passenger side cat off & Luis modified it so that it wouldn't contact the firewall any longer. It's not a major update, but progress is progress

Anyways, Merry Christmas everyone! I hope Santa brings you lots of hot rod goodies!

...

Yep. I just finished it yesterday!

Belated April fools! There hasn't been any progress since what was done on post #470. You must be bored Luis!

I wrote this long post about what has been going on and what my plans are, but I lost all of it thanks to what appears to be the site crashing.I think I did everything this little emote is doing! I can laugh about it now.

So anyways, I don't really have time right now to rewrite it all, but I will give an update soon.

I think I have decided to go with these wheels though in 18"

This is a member's car (Carlos). They should look pretty cool on my car though.

Those look cool.

...

Thanks guys. I'm glad you agree with me. I will be looking into them in the next few weeks. I want to have this car back on the road before Autumn rolls around if possible.

...

Haha, very funny! Yes, 2013 would be nice! It's good to have goals, right?

What color do you think I should powder coat my calipers in? The rear ones are already silver, which will match the new wheels. Do you think I should stick with that or maybe switch over to blue to match the car? I think red would stick out too much.

...

Finally... my first weekend off since Christmas. So I decided to work on my car. I've got quite a few goodies in over the last few months, so I figured I would install a few of them. Here's a list of my recently purchased items:
NEW windshield wiper motor
PW motors & PDL actuators
A/C compressor
All new Moog front suspension pieces
PHB relocation kit (new exhaust is currently hitting my PHB)
Stereo system - Kenwood head unit w/ HU mount
Intake Y-pipe w/ coupler & filters

This week I am ordering my new driveshaft & sending my spindles in to be modified for my big brake upgrade. Then all I have left to get will be tubular adjustable LCA's and wheels & tires.

Yesterday I got my custom ram-air intake installed. I'm pretty sure my hood won't close with it on there though! Here are a few pics of that...

The filters line-up perfectly with my ram-air scoops on my hood. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will fit, but I highly doubt it.



Here's how much I had to cut-off of the Y-pipe to make it work.


I also replaced the hoses back by the gas tank & installed high-pressure hose clamps on the return line. I believe the discolored breather there in the pic is for the gas tank. One of the tabs broke off that holds it into the bracket. So I broke the other one off too and ended up threading the remaining shaft using a 6/32 die. It holds it there securely on the bracket for now. Not sure how long it will last before the shaft snaps off though. I was very careful using the die on the shaft so that I didn't snap it off while threading it.


I attempted to install my PHB relocation kit, but ran into some issues. For some reason I couldn't get the brackets to align properly, so I'm going to have to take it all apart and try again. There were no instructions that came with my Founders kit. I'm sure I'll figure it out. It did give me quite a bit more room for my 3" exhaust pipe to pass through there though.

My plan is to get the car mostly back together, then have it towed over to my mechanic to have him finish the swap for me so that I can get it back on the road this year. I just don't have the time now to work on the car with all the other "paying" work I have to do. Hopefully I can find the time to work on it some more this week. I still have a ton of stuff left to do before I can take it to the mechanic.

...

It can stay like that for awhile until I have to put my hood back on. I guess I'll have to go back to the plan of modifying my ram air box that came with the hood. I wanted to find a Y-pipe that had a 4" outlet and dual 2.5" inlets, but never did. I'm sure that would have fit. oh well. Maybe I could have Herb make me one

Small update...
I sent my spindles off to Scott over at BigBrakeUpgrade.com on Friday so that I can get my LS1 brakes on the car. I sent him my calipers too so that he can get them powder coated correctly and rebuild them for me. He is also going to powder coat the spindles & hubs for me. I also ordered the SS Earl's brakes lines & solo bleeders. That should round out my brake system.

Also on Friday I ordered my new 700hp capable 3" steel Denny's drive shaft. That will give me some piece of mind in case I decide to add some power adders or move up to a bigger engine down the road. I should have it in a few weeks. Denny said we are ordering them faster than they can make them!

That pretty much takes care of the last major item I need for my swap. I read in an LSx swap article that Speartech now makes a 2" firewall grommet, so I want to check into that. Wheels & tires are really the only major thing I have left that are semi-related to the swap. (rear tire size for the dyno tune) And then the Dyno tune once I finally get it back on the road. So maybe by this fall I can be driving it again.

I'm really not looking forward to selecting a set of wheels for it. There's just so much to choose from. And I can't seem to make a decision which way to go. Luckily I still have a little while before I need to make that decision.

I received this e-mail from Scott at BigBrakeUpgrade.com this evening:

"Hi David,

Parts (spindles & calipers) showed up today, I got them all prepped for powder coat, they will be heading out in the am for coating. I would expect the Supreme Coatings to have them to at least next week Wed. I will keep you updated as the progress continues.. If you have any questions at any point, just let me know.

have a great day!
Scott"
It seemed like above and beyond customer service, so I thought I would share it with you guys.

you are going to love the brake upgrade!

Hey Jason! I haven't seen you around in awhile. I hope all is well over there on the west coast... of Florida that is. Yeah, I can't wait to have a good stopping third gen. I'm not sure I've ever had one before.

These guys are great , You definitely get everything you pay for and more !

I did the LS1 big brake upgrade four years ago. I still smile ear to ear when I really need a fast stop. You definitely get what you pay for. The original brakes were seriously lacking.

Did you try to put that hood on yet?

No. I'm almost positive that it won't fit. My best guess is that the intake set-up is about 2" too tall. If I remember, I will try putting it on the next time my friend Luis comes over.

I have a suggestion for you.....

Both sides Battery will need to go to the rear if it's not already there. It would be nice to be the only one with this setup but I hate to see a brother in need

Great minds think alike! Thanks for the help with it. Did you convert over to a speed/density set-up? The darn MAF takes-up a lot of room. I was attempting to take advantage of the air coming in from my RAII hood. My eventual plan is to build a nice ram-air box that sits above the radiator to mate-up to the hood. Maybe use an upper radiator cover like you have and build the box on top of it or something.

By the way, my car looked just like yours when I first bought it. Same color even. So, needless to say, I've always liked your car.

dprest, making a functional box would be cool.....i would like to tackle something like that on my z, but that will have to be later. i told the wife, as soon as the rearend is done and i'm satisfied that it will hold together, the car goes to the tuner....finally.

thanks! and you're welcome! Yes, the car has been on speed density from day 1 even though the maf was on there. I think Tracey was only using it for air temp readings. I'm guessing you can maybe work something out to use your hood but will probably need to go s/d and lose the maf. Good luck either way you go. For what it's worth, I've always liked your car too, even if I didn't know what was hidden under the blue. When we were trying to pin down the paint color, I showed your car to Dad and asked him what he thought.

It looks like you are from the Cincinnati area Prokill according to your video, correct? I go up that way on business every once in awhile. Most of my family lives in Canton, OH. I like it there... in the summer!

I did some research today on a few things and thought I would share my findings with all of you. First up... 2" firewall grommets - I found two:
http://www.speartech.com/product_p/grommet.htm
http://www.sealsit.com/grommet_single.asp?x=1
I am going to call Speartech this afternoon and probably get that ordered.

Next... windshields. I was looking for one with an antenna built into it so that I could remove the power antenna from the fender. The glass shop I talked to said they do not make them. ...back to the drawing board.

I spent a few hours looking at wheels last night and still can't make a damn decision! lol

And I just got an e-mail from Scott saying that the powder coater should be done with my brake parts by tomorrow. So I should be getting them back soon.

Yes, we are from the Cincinnati area. I did away with the antenna and had one installed underneath the headliner, just above the windshield. They are available from best buy for like $20 and are HD radio.

Thanks man. Sounds like a good plan. I will look into that. Does it pick-up radio stations pretty well?

BTW, your intake turned out really sweet.

Yes it does and thanks man. I can't wait to pick her back up. We're expecting another 15 rwhp out of the fast 92 and t/b. A few more than that on the street where the ram air will actually be used. I'm wondering if there's a way to tell the gain at 120 mph. lol