ok, so i've poured over these posts until my eyes bled... d**n near literally for the last few months religiously trying to figure out a few things..


and there are soooo many posts that all have about 80% of what i need to know, or 1 post with 20% another post with 20% and 80% of the info contradicts the good info.

but... i've hit a few roadblocks that i haven't seen any definitive step by step answers to. and i cannot move forward with my car until i figure them out!

1. everyone says "you're going to have trouble figuring out hoses, lines, etc"

no one has given a solution -if- they ever figure it out. i'd like to think they were, or there are about 5000 garages out there with 3rd gen cars that have LT1 motors in them that aren't running because no one can figure out the hoses.

A. fuel lines are easy enough, i have that covered more or less using some adapters from a fuel pressure tester kit and some high pressure fuel injection hose.

B. Radiator hoses.... any part numbers??? any year make model ideas??? advice? or do i just have to go to vatozone and look at everything that loosely resembles the directions i need them to go and buy them all, return what i don't need etc? can't be the best solution.

C. Transmission lines to radiator:
the trans lines and fittings are bigger than what the3rd gen radiator accepts. how do i get past that? some people say replace the radiator with a 4th gen radiator, others say "you're going to have a hell of a time figuring that out" but no definitive answers. what did everyone else do?????????? do i need to buy the tools to MAKE new lines? i'd rather not lol. (though it is a good skill to have)

D. VATS system. i see wire diagrams, and "you're going to have a hell of a time figuring that out" but no definitive step by step answers..

"ok plug these in, go here do this do that and your car should start"

am i going to have to pull the info off of the ecu and just buy a new key cylinder for the car that it came out of????????? usually when you swap a key cylinder, you install it, turn the key on for 30 seconds and the dash does something after a while, and you turn it off, turn it on and the car starts......

why wouldn't that be the case now with my 91 RS ???

i mean... is there something i'm missing? are all of these issues so simple that people figure it out and don't bother posting responses? or, do they NOT figure them out, get ticked off and sell their cars? or am i MAKING these things into issues that they shouldn't be?????

I know a LOT of people have done these swaps, why can't i find definitive answers? I think part of my problem is that i'm trying to do things the right way and not hack them together, so am looking for the correct solution rather than just cobbling some stuff together. i can do that with no problem, just prefer it not to be ghetto. Ghetto installs are prone to failure. sometimes of catastrophic proportion.

maybe i'm not digging hard enough????? or... maybe half of the people who say they do the swaps don't? i don't know lol.

there's almost too much good info, it's daunting to dig through, can someone please answer some of these specifics or give me a link where they have already been answered in depth?

i'd really appreciate it.

 

1. I used the 4th gen radiator and it works like i did before i pulled it, don't know about using a stock third gen one but i do know it can work just fine.

C: I used the 4l60e lines and all fits like factory.

D: I used the bypass module on ebay,/ take out the left kick panel on driver side and connect the green and yellow wires and done with vats.

 

actually............... i think that answered ...... many days of research all in one go..

question i have though, does the 4th gen radiator FIT in the 3rd gen? did you have to omit the AC to use it?

i found a 4th gen radiator locally, and he has a condenser as well, just wondering if i should spring for both etc?

also i'd prefer not to have to fabricate extra crap in the nose to make the radiator fit, i'm not sure if they are the same size or not.

and.... it does make perfect sense to be able to use the 4L60E trans lines to a 4th gen radiator

 

by the way... your tail lights are awesome. i've been trying to find some like that.. they are 82-85 right?

 

Forth gen rad fit mine like a glove however the plastic lid won't fit without some fab, Idk about the AC i took that **** out.

 

Stock.

 

yah that's what i was afraid of..

I'm in Texas. gets freakin hot here. I need AC lol.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GM-VATS-or-P...c89c8f&vxp=mtr



???????????????????????????????????????

 

Yes sir . Or you can buy and aldl cable and tune it out your choice.

 

yah i haven't really looked too far into tuning it myself, i know a few tuners locally who said they would take on the task, the problem is i have to get it running to know what's up..

hate to send the computer somewhere for a few hundred bucks, have them tune out the vats, bring it back get it running then pay another few hundred to tune-tune it and still ultimately have to take it to someone with a dyno to really make it run right.

and programming is a learned skill / art. something which i'm not all that familiar with.. I have a lot of respect for people who CAN tune, and the people i know who do tune tend to be engineer / mad scientist types.. something i'm not. lol.

BUT.......... please endulge me. i know it takes morethan just buying an ALDL cable (which oddly enough........ i actually have already)

is there a free software somewhere that i can find?

am i going to have to sift through a bunch of lines of code or something to find what i'm looking for in the tune?

There is a tuning software for programming motorcycles (i.e. Hayabusa ECU etc) which i messed with quite a bit when i put a turbo on my bike (which i recently sold) the software had pretty much every option programmed into it, and you just kinda go through the different tabs and set up what you want, then burn it to the ecu.

i assume there's an LT-1 software out there that does this?

and i'm sure there are tons of threads? maybe i need to find a tuner's forum for that but im sure some of the info leaks over to this site.

but yeah... for now i'll buy the $15 part and go from there

 

First of all don't ever send your ecm off, tune it yourself, tuning out vats is a click of a key, it's that simple. LT1-Edit or Jet for the OBDII and tunercat for the OBDI. I started off with that 15 dollar peice, i now have the best tuned stock lt1 these boys can't hang with me.

 

#$*^@#*&$#@&*^$#@ !!!!!!

ok... so i found a guy that had a 4th gen radiator and some other parts, he lived close to my shop, so, i had the foresight to ask him to meet me at my shop and bring the parts instead of me meeting him at his house and buying them on an assumption that the parts would work.

long story short, the radiator DID fit in my car, vaguely...... but... the lines were too big to match to the radiator, so there was no reason for me to buy the radiator, because i'd have still had to mess with hoses or adapters or whatever.. i.e. STILL an issue with the lines not fitting..

so back to square one

again.. how are people doing it?

the radiator HOSES themselves are not the issue so much as the transmission lines to the radiator. they are larger than the stock radiator ports and the ports on the 4th gen are the same size, or really close if not...

given i got my motor from a cadillac, i assume they are bigger to help cool the transmission given the extra weight of the car it belongs in. the lines for this car are way bigger.

so.... advice on that?????


i cannot put a smaller flange on the existing tube, the tube itself is too large to fit in the port... the tube is almost the same size as the flange in question!

i may have to reduce it somehow but not sure how, i've never seen something that specifically does that.

i definitely don't want to try to fabricate lines, and i don't want to risk wasting money on 4th gen transmission to radiator lines and have them not work either. i don't have money to blow on "hmm maybe this will work" i have money to do it once... and have it work the first time, and even then i don't really have money to do that either lol.

 

Buy new tranny lines and put a flange on em and done? Your making this way more complicated then it should be, maybe your over your head.

 

go to NAPA and see if they have an adaper peice, theyre full of peices like that. Find out the size of both threads and tell them what you need.

If its a 4th gen radiator all you need is the 4th gen hoses and whala, maybe alittle trimmimg but nothing you cant handle. Just look and see what other people have done. I got a 4th gen radiator shroud too and it fit just fine.

Keeping AC isnt too bad, do a search and you will see the notch you have to make, I think you just have to cut it, flip it around, and weld it. not too bad of a job.

Lastly. Id recommend either sending your harness off to a member on here, or saving some coin and getting an after market one. If you have troubles reading a schematic your going to have problems