After years of dreaming of reviving my camaro and doing the LS1/T56 swap, the work started on Saturday. This car is my first car, and I really wanted to have something that really turned heads at the cruise-ins and events at my local dragstrip (Beech Bend Raceway. That's right I see LS Fest in my future next year ). Since this is a "restoration" I decided the best place to start would be the engine after spending too much time in the past working on the body on cars first and eventually losing interest. The plan is to upgrade all of the mechanical stuff first and then upgrade the body and the interior. I know there are a lot of swap threads out there, but I figured I might as well give it a shot too. I'll try to take pics of everything along the way, and I know I'll be spending a lot of time on here researching and asking and answering questions.

The LG4...the single most dependable engine I've ever had. Too bad it was also weak and got terrible gas mileage.


Spent most of the weekend pulling the engine and trans. Needed the k member out anyway to notch it for the ac compressor, so I decided to drop the engine/trans out the bottom.


The 1998 LS1/T56. I have a video of it running before it was pulled somewhere. Will try to post that too when I find it

 

Right on, you'll have fun with the build. My car was also originally a lg4/700r4 combo and did the switch to a ls1/t56. Its like the combo was meant for the car lol.

Keep us posted with everything and if you need some ?'s answered, let us know

 

Theres so many swappers now its impossible to keep track of y'all!!!

Have fun building it, your gonna love it

 

Thanks guys. All those swaps out there are helping me a lot with mine. I've spent a ton of time already on here looking at other swap threads. I'm sure the questions will come when I start the wiring especially since this is a carb car. I've always wondered why there hasn't been any posts where people post a good detailed spreadsheet for the wiring. I've seen one, but it wasn't complete.

 

Going from lg4 to ls1 is actually easier for wiring because the lg4 barely has much wiring as it is lol.the only things you have to wire will be the guages,reverse light,fuel pump and a few small other things depending on what you plan to do for wiring harness for the ls1.

 

Yes... I miss the days of being in the minority. Now its time to figure out something different to make the car stand out again haha.

Good luck with your swap OP!

J.

 

Well if it makes everybody feel better I can honestly say I've never seen a third gen in person with the swap. Actually I've probably only seen a few third gens in my area that are actually nice.

For an update on the progress, last night I removed the A-Arms from the K member and used a drill and a wire wheel to clean the k member up. That thing had years of oil/dirt/surface rust on it. I have a quart of Por 15 ordered so that shouldn't ever be a problem again! In the meantime, I hope to have the k member notched for the ac compressor today.

Since the front suspension is apart for the first time ever as far as I can tell it's looking like it'd be a good idea to order a bushing kit. Any suggestions?

 

Swaps are still attention getters no matter where you go

Any aftermarket bushing kit will be better than worn out originals. Poly vs del-alum is personal preference

 

there's just something about a red camaro with 15" silver 5 spokes...good luck with your build. i'm just about done with mine, wish i would have done it years ago!

 

How about 14" Berlinetta rims???

When I have both cars at the track, they seem to raise a stir. Even when only one is out, it gets attention.

 

That's what I'm talking about! I look forward to working on the car every night. Speaking of which, took some measurements for the k member notch today and cleaned up more parts. I need to order my headers and a bushing kit tomorrow. I guess I'll go with the 1-3/4 primaries but haven't decided on the collector size yet...

 

go with 3", if you want to maximize the 1 3/4" primaries, that's the ticket.

 

Doing some wiring research tonight, and I thought I'd might as well throw this out there. I have a 98 ls1/t56 from a Z28 camaro. I've seen where tons of people on ls1tech have complained about the 1998 pcms. I guess now is as good a time as ever to decide to find a 99+ pcm or stick with the 98 pcm I already have. I'm not trying to sacrifice quality with this build by being cheap, but at the same time, I don't want to spend money on something like that for no real benefit. Why do people hate the 98 pcms so much? Should I just keep mine and have it tuned? I'm looking at having mine tuned by Frost either way. I just want to get this decision out of the way so I can figure out the wiring.

 

Uncommon PCM in the event of replacement
Requires a special tuning suite to even read it
Limited capabilities when the engine becomes more than stock

 

Yeah my brother switched from a '98 pcm to a '00 pcm. Had it re-tuned and was able to get more out of it. Also put in a different timing curve table from a switch whenever he wanted to activate the nitrous.

I would ditch the '98 pcm and go with a newer one, IMO.

 

I think it's about time for an update. I've been doing a lot of buying over the past few days. Going to stay with the stock gas tank so I still need to get the fuel lines and the fuel pump. Ordering the hawk's t56 crossmember tonight and will eventually get the headers when I can bring myself to shell out the dough

Since everything is apart. I'll be replacing all of the front steering and suspension components with new Moog pieces. Upper and Lower radiator hoses are coming. Corvette fuel filter is on it's way as well. Like I said, a lot of buying, but that's what this swap is all about right?

I'll be sending my wiring harness off to Pocket tomorrow. I had originally planned to do the wiring myself, but I've learned I'll be moving soon and need to get the car running asap. Will also be having the pcm changed over to the 411 type and having all of the emissions and the VATS tuned out by Frost from LS1tech.

Hopefully I can get the engine bay cleaned, prepped, and painted this week if the weather cooperates.

 

Another thing I've been thinking about. Is it absolutely necessary that get an aftermarket torque arm for my swap? Also I can just keep the transmount for the torque arm with the Hawks crossmember right?

 

you can reuse your torque arm, but you need the correct transmission mount, one from a t5 or t56 will work. the mount off of your old 700R4 will not.

 

Get in line man! Pocket may want to think about cloning himself!

 

The T56 I bought cam with the torque arm mount attached so I should be good. Thanks for the tip

 

Haha I'm assuming he's doing yours too? I bet he can make a harness in his sleep now. It's nice to have the peace of mind to know that I'll be getting a good product in a few weeks.

 

I've got an update for you guys and a question. All of my steering and front suspension parts are in. It looks like I ordered the entire Moog catalog. Also got the upper and lower radiator hoses, corvette fuel filter, kyb struts, and an AC coolant diverter valve.

Also painted the K member and sway bar with POR 15 yesterday. Looks great. Will update with pics soon.

Before I start putting the steering and suspension back together, I'll need to cut the coil springs. How much is everybody cutting on the stock springs to get the right stance with the LS1 engine? I know the aluminum engine will be quite a bit lighter than the original engine. All I really want is the stock ride height on my car. If it matters I have stock sport coupe V8 springs.

 

Yep, he's doing mine too. I'm sure he can do them in his sleep by now! I second that peace of mind comment. I hate wiring. So it's nice to be able to send the harness off to someone that knows what they are doing & that does it for a fair price.

 

Well it has been a long time since I've updated my thread, so here's the recent progress. Received my wiring harness from pocket a couple weeks ago and it's finally getting pretty warm outside here so I'm ready to get back on it. Spent some time this weekend working on mounting the pedals and it brought about a couple questions. I'm really wondering if I didn't do something right when I drilled the holes for the clutch master cylinder because they are pretty close to the wiring grommet that comes through the firewall whereas a lot of others I've seen are at least an inch to the right and above the grommet. To locate the spot for the holes I just bolted the pedals to the brake booster and drilled through the holes in the clutch master cylinder bracket on the pedals. The bracket doesn't look bent at all so I figured that was the right location. Obviously the green holes show about where my holes are. Thoughts?



Another thing that is bothering me is that the clutch master cylinder rod doesn't seem to reach the stud on the pedal when the pedal is up. I'm not sure what's going on here since it's out of the car and will definitely have a better chance reaching there than it would in the car... Maybe the rod isn't fully extended? Anyone else had this issue?

 

Well I've been making some real progress as of late. Hoping to have the car running in a couple weeks since I have [virtually] every part needed at this point. They're either at my house, on their way to my house, or being overlooked. There's nothing too special going on here but this is what I've got...

Looks like the headers that were previously on the engine heated the plastic up on the solenoid a little too much. It was so brittle it pretty much fell apart when I touched it. Not only that, one of the studs broke off... Looks like I need another starter.



Here's the highlight of my week! It hurt to drop the cash on these but I know I won't regret it. These are nice! 1 3/4" primaries with a 3" collector.



Looks like I finally got a break on the steam line. I wasn't all that crazy about drilling and tapping the water pump so I was stoked to see that my radiator was made like this. It's a little hard to see, but the hole upper hole in the tank is threaded.



Picked up a fitting like the one below that screws right in. Steam line issue is resolved



411 PCM is on it's way from SpareEcm. Header gaskets and throttle cable are coming from gm parts direct are ordered. Hotchkis lowering springs arrived today. I could go on. Long story store is that I've been spending a lot of money.

 

What color are you planning on painting your engine bay?

 

Well I've decided to do a slight color change on my car and go from the original bright red to victory red. The bright red has too much orange in it for me. The plan is to paint the engine bay the same color as the rest of the car. Hopefully it will turn out ok.

 

If you haven't noticed yet, I'm slow but I'm still working on it. I worked all weekend to finish the engine bay this weekend so now it's ready for the engine. Here's what I did.

The car had apparently been hit in the driver's side front corner at some point so the battery tray was pretty trashed. Decided to fix that while I was at it. Here's what it looked like with the piece cut out.



Cut out the piece at a local junkyard and fitted it to my car. Here it is welded in.



Since virtually all of the job was going over factory paint, I scuffed the engine bay with some 400 grit sandpaper and a red scotchbrite pad. Then I applied SPI 2k sealer.



Next I masked the engine bay and sprayed it with 2 coats of Victory Red PPG DBC Paint and 2 coats of SPI Universal Clear.



I also used SEM trim black to paint the cowl area. No pic of that yet because the masking paper is still covering it but I'll try to get one this weekend.

 

Impressive work! That color is awesome, I love it!

I can tell you it's not fun trying to get everything back in your engine bay without messing up the new paint.

 

Thanks! I'm lucky enough to have a neighbor that likes red cars A LOT. He has 7 red cars so I was able to compare the colors and see which one looked the best.

As much as I'm looking forward to getting the engine going I'm hoping I can keep everything looking good in there. At least I have virtually everything to get it going other than a few random things I'm sure I've forgotten. Going to go over everything like you are though and clean it up and paint it before it goes in.

 

We need some progress pics bud! It's getting close to two months since you showed us anything. Snap to it!

 

Noted. I've taken a few pics along the way, so I will see what I can do. Hoping to get the engine in this weekend, and then I get to deal with the fun of getting it running. Hopefully there won't be too many issue

 

Good deal. Sounds like you're about a week or two ahead of me.

 

Well I took this video of the car Sunday night. Now ready to get everything back together and take it down the road open headers and all! This is the second startup. Luckily it went right in and started right up. Luckily no noticeable leaks other than a small drip from the radio drain plug which has been tightened.

 

As you can see in the video, the power distribution block, relays and the fuse block are not permanently mounted. I think I need to get some battery cables from a V6 or Fuel injected 3rd gen because those 4th gen cables seem to be way too long. Especially the cable that runs from the battery to the power distribution block.

When I had Pocket make my harness, I chose the "Relay center Hidden under battery tray" option. However, I've never seen any pics of how people route the harness for this. Also what are you using to mount the relays that are included? I'd like to get those wires off the strut tower and permanently mounted.

I have a short amount of time (11 days) to get this thing driving down the road before I am gone for a year, so I will have to get moving. Control Arm ball joints and bushings will hopefully be pressed in tomorrow. After a little paint, they should be ready to bolt up to the k member.

 

To tuck it under the battery tray, run the bundle through the hole in the frame near the blower motor, behind the fender and drill holes for screws to mount the relay bracket underneath

For drivers side battery cars, there is no hole in the firewall, so run it along the framerail in the stock sleeve, over the tray, then mount under or cut a hole and pass them behind the fender