Howdy, I posted a few months back about doing ls swap into my firebird. I bought the engine and auto tranny as a set from a 2002 camaro. then for various reasons had to hold of on it. Now I'm getting back into it and have a few questions.

How do I mount it to the k-member and have it properly positioned so that i everything down the drive line will match to where it should be. I've read that with this setup I can reuse my same drive shaft w/o any lengthening or shortening, which would be perfect because its the same length as the aluminum shafts in the ls1 4th gens that i want to upgrade to when I find the right one. I can fab my own k-member side mounts as i have the steel and welder to fab them for free. Is it worth saving the cash and fabing my own or is it really much more simple and easier to buy a set online? I have some fab experience, but I've never done a engine swap where it wasn't a sbc into a car set up for a sbc. If the bought mounts are the way to go which do u guys recommend?

I set the engine into the car to get a feel for how it would sit in and look and noticed the clearance of the oil pan to the k-member is very tight, and have read it can be a issue. I read in another post that u can notch it or u can heat it with a torch and beat it back a little with a sledge hammer to give that little bit more clearance. While i have the tools to notch it it seems a little messaging with a hammer would be easier simpler. is that acceptable or should i bit the bullet and notch it properly, or leave it alone and its not an issue at all?

For the fuel delivery I was thinking of swapping for a 4th gen plastic tank.
Just looking for a conformation that 99-02 f-bodies came with a plastic tank that i would be looking for. V8 only, or would a v6 tank have the same fuel pump and the rest?

I got the blessing from the old lady to buy everything that ill need to get her up and running again with the tax return money I'm getting in a few weeks so anything I need to buy will wait for that to come in and ill be full speed ahead on the project again. Im wanting to do the swap on the cheaper side but willing to spend money on the areas where the money spent really will be worth it in the saved time and frustration.

 

mounts will depend on whether or not you plan to have a/c. if not, get a set of the 1" setbacks and reuse the factory clamshell stuff. If you're going a/c, you'll need to clearance the kmember and use the spohn mounts.

i had my kmember clearanced in the back for more oil pan space. Cut and weld is really the only way to go on this. some can install without doing it, but i'd like to have some breathing room.

using a 4th gen gas tank will require the v8 pump and figuring a way to get the guage to read correctly (different ohm rating than 3rd gens). I thought about using one too, but decided to get a walbro for the 3rd gen tank, corevette regulator/filter, and calling it a day.

 

Thanks for the reply. Ya im not going with ac, between the T-tops and being in Michigan, its not worth the hassle on a toy.

Can u possibly steer me into the right direction on wich plates u went with? There are so many out there for different set-up would be easty to grab the wrong ones.

I was originally planing to go with the pump and regulator like you. My roommate has a ls1 in his 2nd gen Camaro and did the same thing, but during the summer when it had the 350 in it i filled her up to full and leaked gas everywhere i went till i was just under 3/4 tank. So i need to replace the tank anyway and thought it would be easier/simpler to just replace the whole tank with the 4th gen and deal with the gauge.

 

the mounts that i got are almost identical to these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/LS1-C...item415661a953

any that look like this and are 1" set back (4 holes on long side, 3 holes on short) will do ya good, so just shop around a bit and you should be able to get something for $30-40

 

Id be majorly pissed if I bought an engine and the harness looked like that. There is zero excuse for that kind of laziness. The PCM is about 12" away in plain view and takes a whole minute to unbolt and drape over the engine

 

Now you need the connectors, or a different harness.

 

Ya at the time i bought it i didn't realize how close it was to being a full harness, now i know that it was just laziness. Since it is cut like that ill need a new harness, and if i need to go out and buy a new harness and ecm i might as well just buy it from u all pre-sliced for the bird. If they had unplugged it I might have tried to save the money and prep a harness on my own, get frustrated and buy from u anyway. O well, i bought it for 600 with the tranny and it has 40,xxx on it so even with needing a harness and ecm its still a steal.

 

I could probably get away with getting new connector and splicing it all together as it would probably need to be de-pinned anyway to prep the harness. But I couldn't find a place that would let me have just the connector so if i wanted to go that route i would have to buy the whole harness out of a junkyard anyway to just get the connectors.

 

And about those mounts, the one u linked me to said something about it might cause a problem with firewall clearance, is that a problem with the our cars or is he speaking about other cars that these mounts can be used in? And would these type bolt right into where the sbc mount bolted to the k-member or will I need to drill holes for them to mount?

 

He's saying he's not guaranteeing they will work for your application.

The way they work is the plates bolt to the engine. Then you bolt the SBC mounts you took off your factory engine to the plates. Then the engine mounts bolt to the mounts already on your K-member.

 

But note that if you use the setback motor mounts you will have to do some modifying on whatever transmission crossmember you buy. But if you buy the spohn mounts you can buy their crossmember as well and everything will will directly bolt up(most of the time )

 

Granted I haven't gotten everything from one source yet (because I haven't found one that has all of the features I want - or all the stuff from the same source means too many $'s), but I haven't not had to modify something yet.

 

I have another question. How well will my stock rear end hold up with the ls1 when its all said and done? I have to pull it out to swap out the tank and if its going to probably die then it might be a good time to figure something out for it while it out. My roommate has a 2nd gen posi rear sitting in the yard that i can swap for free. I know it would require me to figure out how the torque arm and stuff, wich is a pain but doable. my rear end is not a posi so i wanted to eventually swap it out anyway.

 

Auto trannies aren't nearly as hard on the rear end as manuals are. If you keep the rear ratio to 3.73 or lower, add a support cover, weld the tubes, and put in aftermarket axles, it should withstand "regular" abuse. Wheel hop will cause problems, though. I beefed up my rear as stated above, installed used factory 3.73 gears (the shop said they set up easier and better than typical aftermarket gears), have poly suspension bushings, lower control arm relocation brackets, and an aftermarket torque arm mounted to the transmission, with slicks, have about a hundred runs on it (as quick as 12.4 @ 110 mph, 3450 lbs going down the track). It's as quiet now as it was when first set up. I'll pull the cover in a couple of months to change the fluid before the racing season starts, so I'll inspect the gears at that time.

2nd gens used a few different rears, most of them 8.5", some of them 8.2", and very few of them 12-bolt. I ran an 8.2" behind the 396/TH400 in the '57, ran as quick as 12.0's, but it was not a happy camper (broke the bearing support off of the factory carrier). The 8.5's are a lot tougher. But, as you noted, you will have to modify the rear somehow in order to put in in a 3rd gen. It has been done, but you'd probably be better off getting an aftermarket 12-bolt or 9" made to be mounted in a 3rd gen.

 

Little Update.

Decided to fab my own mounts from the clam side of a sbc. Put the engine in and put the drive shaft in to make sure everything was lined up where it should be. The set the mounts in and marked where they should be. Pulled the engine back out and drilled new hole on the mounts and k-member, "messaged" the k-member with a torch and hammer to give some room for the oil pan. And finally put the engine back in







Got to dark to take a picture once i got it all in and bolted down.

Got a 4th gen gas tank and pump otw from a bone yard in Florida.

Got into contact with pocket and ill be sending him all my hacked up harness and he will get me all straightened out. man knows his stuff.

and finally think I've decided to go with spare ecm from ebay for my ecm. Read a few members on the boards went to them for theirs and were happy so will try to work with them.

Start working again this week now that its finally getting warm enough to get working on things ><. To bad i couldn't have been laid off when it was nice and warm out lol. Hope to have it all ready and waiting for the harness to come back so if all goes right next month it should be up and running.

 

Man I'm glad I live in Florida! Looks good so far. Do you have a link for the E-bay ECM's? I have a '98 ECM so I know I'm going to have to get a newer one.

 

a the link for the 0411 ecm is
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/LS1-H...item483f05a870

They are closed over the weekend so i am waiting for tomorrow to talk with them to make sure it will come programmed the way i need