I made a decision on the new wheels, called to order them and they are out of stock until the end of June! Just my luck. It gives me some more time to change my mind again. haha

Is this what you used for your antenna Prokill? http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...a-44-UA20.html

 

No man. Ours is shaped kinda like a flat bird in flight. It has wings. lol The one you found may work just as well though. I would do a search for options and check reviews.

 

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, I saw that one too. Thanks.

 

A few "glamour shots" of the new brakes being assembled from Scott @ BigBrakeUpgrade

 

Woohoo! My brakes finally arrived today. They turned out awesome! I was a little worried when the box arrived. One of the corners was split open, but I didn't find any damage on anything.


They came well packaged. It took me like 15 minutes to unwrap the first one I didn't want to cut into the wrap and risk scratching the powder coating.


Rebuilt calipers w/ Solo Bleeders & new brake lines



A quick mock-up


I'm still toying with the idea of putting Trans Am decals on the calipers like this


My new driveshaft is supposed to arrive on Monday. So, I'm at least making a little progress

 

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Very nice! I will be talking to Scott @ BigBrakeUpgrade soon!

 

Yeah, you won't be sorry. He's a great guy to work with and he does really nice work! I started installing my new set-up today. Pics to follow

 

Luis (Motobooks) has been coming over to help me try to get the car back on the road. We've been making some pretty decent progress on it considering the little amount of time we have had to work on it.

We worked on cleaning up the driver's side wiring and hoses. It looks much better now.


Here I am working on cleaning up the vacuum hoses at the back of the intake.

I am going to order some nice billet double hose clamps for those crazy braided fuel lines. Hopefully that will clean it up the way I want it to. I am not happy with the current configuration.

We also removed the cheesy ground wire that went from the negative battery cable to the body ground point. Here's a picture of the new beefier body ground wire installed on the battery cable nut.


While I was goofing around with the vacuum hoses, Luis went to work doing some detailing on the front of the car. Here's kind of a before and after pic in one. The driver's side has been done & the passenger side hasn't.


Huge difference between the two areas!

Here's another before & after for the passenger side:
Before


After


Final product:


Cool nose badge pic!


Luis also gave me a set of smoked turn signal lamp housings which he installed as well.

Everything turned out Awesome Luis! Thanks, I really appreciate your help!!! By the way, the pics are courtesy of Luis too. Just thought I would give credit where credit is due.

 

And here are a few pics of us attempting to get the front end back on the car. That damn spring was a PITA! Even with the spring compressor on it!

We zip tied the spring insulator to the top of the spring so that it wouldn't move on us trying to get it up into place. The insulator was a little deformed, so it would have been really hard to get it up in there correctly otherwise.

But we did finally conquer it before we had to quit.


I think the other side will be much easier now that we kind of know the trick to it.

 

Here are a few pics from the other day when we went to pick-up Luis' "new" Turbo T/A:


Coolest part was... I got to drive it home!



Here's a link to the new thread for his new car in case you want to check it out. https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...rbo-trans.html It's a really sweet car and he got a great deal on it! Lucky bastard! Yeah, I know, I'm just jealous!

 

Oh yeah, the new Denny's driveshaft is now under the car. And we tried to install the "new" windshield wiper motor that I got for the car, but the connections were all wrong. Maybe it was for an earlier third gen. I'm not sure if they were different between the earlier and later models.

The output shaft seal on the steering gear box recently started leaking. I had a bottle of AT-205 Re-seal sitting on my shelf, so I added half of it to the power steering pump along with the power steering fluid. Hopefully it is now worked into the system and will seal it up like advertised. I think turning the steering wheel in both directions quite a bit should have pumped it into the system enough. I dumped the other half of the bottle into the engine just in case since it has been sitting so long.

OE Wheels is supposed to be getting a new batch of wheels in this coming week, so I should be ordering new wheels for the car here real soon. I will be glad to get that over with.

 

Coming along nice! Been a long time coming

 

Thanks man! Yeah, no doubt. I can't wait to get it back on the road.

 

I decided to fill my radiator this past weekend. Kind of wish I didn't. I filled it about halfway full of distilled water and then checked for leaks. No leaks. So I decided to go ahead and fill it the rest of the way up. I added about half a can of CRC Enginkool and the rest with distilled water. Once finished, I look under the car to see this...

That's right... it was leaking on both sides of the radiator. Turns out, the right side was leaking from some kind of sensor bung and the left side was leaking from the tank gasket. What really makes me mad is that this radiator really isn't very old at all. I put it in the car not too long before I decided to do the LS1 swap. It probably has less than 500 miles on it. So I think I may try something like this from Summit to get away from those silly gasketed plastic tanks. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/su...FUPl7Aod3zIAtg Have any of you used this part before?

On a positive note, my steering gear box is no longer leaking. I thought about putting some AT-205 in my radiator to see if it would seal it

I also noticed that I don't have the spring correctly seated on the left side of the car. So now I have to fix that as well. Why does it feel like I am going in the wrong direction? I am supposed to be making progress instead of making my list of things to do longer.

 

I got a few new parts in over the past few days as well.

The only thing I was lacking to complete my tubular suspension. Picked them up during the Independence Day sale.

The next thing I had a machine shop make. You Camaro guys won't care, but you guys with GTA's might be interested.

They aren't exactly the same as the factory buttons, but as close as we could get them. They look much better than this...

Yes, that's hose
Here's a comparison pic

I will probably start selling these if anyone is interested. This batch is made out of aluminum, but they can be made out of plastic too.

 

thats a bummer on the radiator. keep your head up, it seems like at the end all the little things like this pop up!

i'll be sending a brand new driveshaft back to get rebalanced, so i feel your pain.

 

Well, since I now have to replace the radiator, I am thinking about switching over to waterless coolant. Seems like a pretty cool product. Check it out...
It's a little expensive, but never needs to be replaced and prevents corrosion.

 

I ordered a new heater core, hood latch, exhaust band clamps, front smoked marker lights, hose separators, firewall grommet & 3-row all aluminum radiator on Friday. Hopefully that will be everything I need to wrap up this swap. I will be calling Evan's Cooling on Monday to order my waterless coolant. I am going to attempt to take Wednesday through Friday off next week so that I can finally make some progress on the swap. I really want to at least get it running if possible.

 

What are you using for your master cylinder and brake reservoir?
Cars looking great. I look forward to some vids when it's done.

 

Stock booster w/ LS1 (4th gen) master cylinder. See post #331.

Thanks Heritage! I will post some videos when I finally get to that point.

 

I took a few minutes this morning to install the new hose separators that came in this week. While in the process I had a moment of clarity. Just putting the separators on suddenly made it clear what I needed to do to make the fuel lines look the way I wanted them to. I removed one end of the return line so that the lines weren't crossing any more, then made a few tweaks on the hard lines here and there and this is what I came up with...

That's exactly what I was looking for. And the coil cover fits on there much better now too. Only thing that sucks is that I will need to pull that cruise control bracket back off of there and paint it since the braided hoses scarred the crap out of it, but that's not that big of a deal.

I am going to try to deal with the remaining wiring today if time permits.

 

I have finally had some time this week to spend working on the car. I worked on radiator upgrade items last night. More on that to come. Tonight I worked on a few items at the rear of the car. I have had a problem getting my upper panhard relocation bar on. I finally came up with a solution this evening and got it installed.

I had to cut the metal on the body just a little and bend it out of the way so that the bar would bolt up properly. You can't see it real well, but I wasn't about to take the bar back down for the picture.

There are quite a few things going on in this next pic...

Tubular adjustable LCA is now installed, SS band clamps added on the muffler & red sway bar poly bushings have been installed. If you look hard enough you can see my cat Carlisle doing this . Luis calls him Car.

I will take a few updated pics of the radiator tomorrow and do a little write-up about what I had to do to make the radiator fit. Stay tuned...

 

so I also spy a racetronix fuel pump hotwire kit in that last pic????

great progress man!

 

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You spy correctly Jason! Thanks.

 

Thanks Luis. Who knows... maybe he was flicking me off.

Yeah, I think I just got lucky with the radiator situation. Whatever it was, I'm just glad it all worked out in my favor for a change.

 

The new Champion CC951 3 core radiator came in two weeks ago and I have been fiddling with it on and off trying figure out how to make it work. There were a few challenges, but I finally overcame all of them. My GTA came with the dual fans and as you can see in the pics below, the upper dual fan radiator cover does not work because of the way it offsets toward the front of the car in the middle.


That's as far as I could get the top plate on because of that offset in the middle. So... what to do? I actually came up with an easy solution. I will write more about it in the morning.

 

So, my idea was to run over to the salvage yard and pick-up a top plate from a third gen w/ a single fan. Then I figured I could just cut it up to fit and then I would have to buy the shroud & dual fan set-up that's made for this radiator to make it all work. Once I removed the single fan top plate at the salvage yard I realized the it didn't have the offset like mine. So I was hopeful that it would solve my top plate issue. To my surprise when I got back home, the top plate bolted up perfectly AND the bolt holes for the single fan were close enough to being in the correct place that I was able to reuse my stock dual fan set-up. WOOHOO! Here's what it looks like at the moment...

Luckily the single fan top plate allowed me to keep an almost stock-looking appearance, which is what I try to do as much as possible.

The second issue with the radiator was the height. Even though it has the same measurements as the stock radiator for the most part, it sat up too high when it was dropped into place. To solve that issue Luis & I had to remove the rubber mounts and trim them down to where it was just a flat rubber pad on both the top & bottom mounts. The rubber condenser mounts had to be trimmed back as well.

The third issue was the interference with the power steering cooler lines. With a little tweaking, that issue went away fairly quickly.

The final issue was fan blade interference with the radiator on the left side of both fans. Even though the holes on the top plate were pretty close to being in the correct place for the upper fan mount points, they were off just enough to twist the fan motor frames when bolted down. This caused the fans to touch the radiator on the left side on both fans. My solution was to add a spacer (and longer bolt) on both frames on the left side. That allowed me pretty even clearance between the radiator and fan all around. You can see the silver spacer on the right frame in this picture.


You can see in this pic (left side of pic) the limited space I had to work with because of the Wonderbar that's on the car. And on the bottom right side of this pic you can see the power steering cooler lines that had to be tweaked.


In this pic you can see how the lower fan mounting bracket is distorted because the bolt holes in the upper plate weren't exactly in the right place.


Hopefully all of this information will help some of you in the future. I know this radiator get mixed reviews, but for what it is and the reasonable price, I don't see how you can go wrong. The one I received looked great. We will see how it performs on the road.

 

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Thanks bud!

 

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For the Champ Rad, you can use neoprene rubber and make your own gaskets. If you order a sample (includes ship), you can shape for both bottom and top: http://www.rubbersheetroll.com/samples.htm

You can also shim the fans --> shroud just to make sure you don't rub a hole in the fins. The wonder bar does make it a challenge.

 

Thanks TEDS', but it's already installed and ready to go.

I trimmed down the stock rubber insulators and it fit perfectly. I shimmed the fan frames as necessary as well to get the correct clearance off of the radiator. Also in the pic above you can see that Luis painted the top plate on the radiator. It turned out great!

 

I have been making a lot of progress here lately. Luis (Motobooks) has been helping me out quite a bit too. So that helps a lot. Thanks bud!

Anyways, most of the wiring is done except for the A/C wiring and OBD2 wiring. I will finish the OBD2 wiring today. I still have a little ways to go before the A/C wiring is done. I energized the electrical system the other night and there was no smoke, so that made me happy.

Yesterday Luis & I tackled the install of the new heater core. And boy was that fun... NOT! Really, it's not that hard of a job. It's just the tight space you have to work in and the bolt/screw at the top of the cover that make it so difficult. Here are a few pics:

This is the frame that the heater core mounts to. We used Dum-Dum putty to create a seal to the heater core since the new core was slightly smaller than the old one.


We had to modify the mounting bracket quite a bit to make it fit the new heater core which is a little different from the stock unit.


Here's the other side showing the Dum-Dum seal.


You can see that the new tubes needed to be sealed since they are different than stock.


Finished product. Sealed with Dum-Dum putty.

So that completes my cooling system. Everything is now new and hopefully there will be no more surprises.

 

While I was messing with the A/C I noticed how dirty my blower fan was.


So I decided I better clean it up. Maybe it will help with the air quality of my A/C system. I'm not sure if it will, but it can't hurt.

I had a heck of a time cleaning the blades near the base.

Two hours later!


I am going to clean the firewall housing too before I put it all back together.

 

I also finalized my fuel lines & strut tower brace as well.

I removed the cruise control bracket and repainted it. After it was completely dry, I re-installed it and used 3M double sided emblem tape to attach the hose separator to the bracket so that the fuel lines won't move around.

 

Here's my high tech ECM hanger... patent pending!



It was the best I could do on short notice. I actually kind of like it though for the time being. I will come up with something better after I get the car running. I am going to try to make that happen today actually if at all possible. I at least want to crank it over a few times to get the fluids circulating through the systems. We'll see what happens.

 

Yesterday Luis & I got all of my little odds and ends taken care of so that I could at least crank the engine over a few times. That was a good feeling to finally hear it turn over. I didn't hear the fuel pump prime though, so that has me a little concerned. I will have to look into that. Carlisle supervised us to make sure we did it right


My supervisor must have fallen asleep though because I had a close call while working on the new A/C compressor. The tag on it said to be careful that the unit might be under pressure. I took the bolt off and nothing happened. So I took a screw driver under one of the corners of the cap and gave it a slight tap with the hammer. That freakin cap launched off of there like a rocket. SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME!!! I was extremely thankful that I got back behind the cap when I tapped it. Pretty sure I would have been severely injured otherwise. So, if you get a reman compressor, make sure you don't remove the bolt all of the way before you pop that cap off of there.

Here are a few pics...

The new A/C compressor is now installed. As you can see, the stock A/C hoses fit on there, but...

They try to occupy the same space as the overflow tank. So, I talked to my mechanic and he said he can fabricate new hoses for me. Hawk's sells the block that connects to the back of the compressor that the new hoses will connect to.


I also got the firewall grommet trimmed and installed. This is the grommet that Speartech sells. You have to make one cut to open it up so that you can wrap it around the harness. I had to trim another 1/4" off to make it fit the hole. I will probably also have to trim it in a few places due to conflicts with the A/C housing. Had I known about this grommet when I cut the hole, I would have dropped the hole down about an inch or so to avoid the housing conflicts.


Finally got the A/C housing temporarily in place. So now I can finalize my A/C wiring. It doesn't appear that I will have to trim the housing for the back coil, but the engine isn't sitting level yet either. So we will see after I fix that issue.

 

I finally bought new wheels for the car. Yay! 18x8.5 for the front & 18x10.5 for the rear. I still need to order the spacers though. I will probably call OEwheels to see if they need to be lugcentric or hubcentric just to make sure I order the correct type. Some pics...

I mocked-up the front brakes. I still need to pull that front suspension back off and fix the way the spring is seated. And I still need to redo the seam sealer in the front wheelwells & apply the Herculiner undercoating.


I just mounted one of the 8.5" wheels back there for now since the 10.5" wheels are about an inch deeper backspacing.

Carlisle seems unimpressed.

Oh wait... that's the way he always looks!

 

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Thanks Luis.

 

When is this thing gonna be finished? Its lookin sweet! Im saving up to do an 5.3L swap in my '92 Firebird and im not sure at all of wha to do.. im getting my stock tbi harness combined with the 5.3s so itll be a plug n play deal but I have no idea about the gas tank, fuel lines, heater, ac, if stock accessories will fit.. I basically will just pay someone to do all of the details.. The only problem is that it is my daily so it cant be in the shop for too long.

 

Thanks! God only knows when it is going to be done, but I am trying to have it ready for March 1st 2014. There is a BOPC car show on that date that I'd like to bring it to. Hopefully it will be sooner than that since I would really like to drive it!

As far as your swap goes, make sure you save plenty of money. These swaps aren't cheap. Especially if you pay someone to do the work. You may want to pick-up another cheap car while your swap is being done. That way the swap isn't rushed. Also, make sure you do your homework before you even start the swap. There is a ton of information on this site that can help you through it. You just need to take the time to read through it all. Make sure you at least read through the stickies in this forum.

As far as the harness goes, if it were me, I would go to the junk yard and get a nice harness off of a V6 car instead of cutting-up your stock harness. That's what I did and it worked out great. That way you can trace wires from your old harness if needed if you do it yourself or you can send the 5.3 & V6 harnesses off to be combined while you are still driving your car if someone else is going to do the work. Good luck with it.

 

That's a great idea with the harness and the little beater car.. I was also thinking I could just get a ride around to work and college by my girl since we live close anyway. Your firebird has a gorgeous paintjob on it, btw. That blue will really stand out at a car show especially with those dished z06 looking wheels!

 

Thanks man! That's what I'm hoping for. A good buff & wax job should really wake that paint job right up.

 

"IT'S ALIVE!"
Reading Ghettocruiser's thread this morning & watching his video motivated me to try and get mine started as well. It wasn't easy, but we finally got it to run. Luis came over & we fiddled around with it for an hour or two trying to figure out why the fuel pump wouldn't turn on. Seems like the ECM isn't sending the signal to activate the fuel pump. My mechanic said it's probably VATS that is keeping it from working correctly. I am going to call Rodney over at Spare ECM & chat with him about it. We ended up removing the relay & "hot-wiring" the fuel pump.

That got power finally back to the pump, but the pump still wouldn't run. After a few minutes Luis and I think the pump tried to finally turn on. It made some weird noises like the rear hatch pull down motor trying to destroying itself, but that wasn't the case. So we can only assume it was the pump. Anyways, we finally just ended up using starting fluid to get it to start. Here's a short video...


So, I guess the gas turned to varnish in the tank even though I put fuel stabilizer in it. It's only been 2.5 years almost to the day! Man how time flies when you are... working your a$$ off! Oh well. If it's worth doing once, it's worth doing twice, right? Well, at least that's how my luck has been going lately. I think I may go ahead and put a new tank in it while I am back there since the stock tank was cracked where the filler neck and tank come together.

 

It feels good doesn't it! LOL

Congrats!

 

Heck yeah!

Thanks Jason.

 

I got the passenger side inner fenderwell all prepped for paint last night. The old seem sealer is gone and fresh seem sealer has been applied. I will probably apply the Herculiner this evening.


Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I also found a new gas tank with filler neck & cap on RockAuto for about $180 and shipping was only about $18. So I will probably order that today. Seems like a pretty decent deal.