anobii

Picked up an 86 2.8 sport coupe for free a few weeks ago. It was my dads car, been sitting for like 7 years. The 700r4 was toast and the 2.8 had long been removed to put in an s10 blazer. I've wanted to do an LSx swap in it for a while...


white wall tires and all. lol!


The body is pretty straight. It was actually painted not long before it was parked. The rust on the roof is shallow and will come off with a quick scuff.






The interior is ok. It's a little Funk nasty with 7 year old winstons in the *** tray and the busted dash pad. mostly just needs a goood cleaning and a few replacement parts.


All i can say is thank god the interior isn't burgundy... :barf:

I stripped the under hood junk and took most of it to the scrap yard. $68 later I went engine shopping.


I pulled the trigger on what I thought was a 335k mile 5.3L from a wrecked 01 silverado. I paid $250 intake to oil pan from a pick n pull. Though it looked like hell on the outside from the wreck, what i actually got was a very low mile 5.3 that had been replaced semi recently.


Pulled the oil pan to find it was extremely clean, the valve covers were spotless underneath. If this engine had more than a foot over 30k miles i would be surprised.


I was gonna go with an LS6 cam, but i ran across a special deal on ebay through Jegs store. $50 off a purchase of $200 or more. I picked up a Jegs .560" 216/220, which is a hair bigger than an LS6 cam, for $250 and got $10 ebay bucks to boot. Slipped out the stock wobble rod and replaced it with the Jegs.

anobii

A quick shot from the pressure washer and a can of paint later i had a presentable engine.





Picked up a used Vic jr for 200 shipped from another forum. Had planned on the performer, but I couldn't pass up the deal on the Vic.

Stopped with the engine work for a pit and went to work on the car. Got most of the rest of the junk stripped from the engine bay. I'm going for minimal wires, and as little extras as feasible. The idea is to make every thing as easy to get to as possible.


Borrowed a friends LS1 block and an empty Th350 case to fab up some engine mounts, trans crossmember, and get the engine alignment right.


Using the OE 2.8 clamshells. Fits like a glove.




I've got about 1/2" clearance between the K-member and the panat the top and like 4-5" from the rear of the K-member and the front of the sump.

The problem is this. The sump hangs 2-3" lower than the K-member. Thats just bad news all around, but you can see how i fixed it here: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/fabr...5-3-truck.html

anobii

I'm ditching the AC. AC sux. I needed a blower box that that cleared the cylinder head, and I wasn't about to pay over $100 for a ac delete box. Thats money I could spend on go fast stuff. :P


Fiberglassed up an extension to the OE piece. I used the wrong type of foam as a mold and it melted some and collapsed. Looks pretty rough in this pic.


A little sanding and a little gold bondo later...


...and bang! actually looks pretty cool with the odd shape.

anobii

Did some engine bay painting the other day.









Picked up a color mismatched set of IROC wheels on CL for 50 bux. Sprayed one when I did the engine bay. Need to get some center caps.

That pretty much brings me up to date on the swap progress. Advance Auto has a deal running for 20% off online orders + get a $50 coupon on a future $100 or more purchase. Im gonna order my MSD 6010 tomorrow for $286, then when I get my $50 coupon, I'm gonna order my trans rebuild kit. Cant beat $100 off.

Jaysz28

iTrader: (30)

Looks good

I always love a sport coupe build!

jazzdadss

Nice work!

cosmick

Red block looks good, but in a blue car?

anobii

Im doing a mandatory color change. I hate blue lol! The car will be black with satin black stripes and trim when I'm done. I always do exterior paint last. I have a tendency not to be gentle to paint while I'm doing this much work to a car and i don't like doing things twice. :P

cosmick

I retract my prior inquiry

25th327RS

iTrader: (2)

Props on the heater box mods! I was shaking my head when I seen the first pic, but became impressed with the few that followed. End result is clean and neat

anobii

Here's the latest.

totally couldn't wait to stuff the engine in. Won't be able to get my trans kit for another week or two. I had been working out all of the little things like making an oil sending unit adapter.

anobii

and working out the kinks on my alternator relocation.













The alternator is from an 01 blazer, the idler is from a mazda 626 timing belt tensioner, and the upper slide adjuster is from the 2.8 v6. The rear adjuster I had to make from scratch. Also, somehow there is actually a belt the correct length available for 16.99 at autozone.

anobii

And then comes the stuffing.














I might have to modify the blower housing, i've got the engine slid an inch forward on the mounts. we'll see when the trans goes in. It all depends on if the drive shaft fits this way.

murderedoutRS

This is a clean build, im staying subscribed to this sir!

cprmn14

iTrader: (3)

looks awesome man!! keep it up

anobii

Been a while sice i've had time to upload some pics to show progress. got the swap done and running. Got most of the interior done. Next is body work.

Heres some highlights of the progress so far.


got bored waiting for some parts to come in.









engine fitted, working out the rest of the cooling and fuel at this stage.

anobii

took a break from the engine for a bit and did some work inside. I had to get rid of the 85mph speedo and the dummy lights.














fireburd seats i've had since ancient times. lol! these are so much sportier than just about any camaro seat.

anobii

managed to stuff a hurst v-matic shifter under the factory console. Took some trans hump modding, but I make it work.

interior panels dyed black. Im going with a black/grey color scheme.

and yes you do see two hatch struts per side. They were all too weak to hold the hatch open in pairs, but with their powers combined, they will hold for years.

anobii

I had picked up some trailblazer manifolds and was planning to use them, but i decided to save them for a future planned Colorado swap. I ended up using the F-body manifolds, but I modded the flanges to use regular 2.5" 3 bolt collector flanges. Made them fit so much better, especially the driverside. I was pressed for time so i didn't get any before or during pics. I drilled and tapped the holes and bolted the flange on, then cut the excess off with a thin disk in my angle grinder. Here's the end result...







Then that brings me up to the current status of building/installing the exhaust. I plan to antique tag this one, and in VA antique tags means no safety inspection or emissions compliance, i.e no cats and short pipes. I love flowmasters and side dumps.








I had to mod the mufflers for offset/offset but they flow the same regardless.




Ground clearance isn't an issue. Even on the passenger side the muffler only hangs 1/2" below the sub frame.

here's a sound video.

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/anob...9b21b.mp4.html

grover85

iTrader: (1)

Great work and good invitation. I. Like the drain plug oil pressure port adapter.

STREETDEMON

cool build, i like the creativity and sticking to a budget. good work!

anobii

major update. Been a while since i had time to post any pics. Got a bunch done on the car. nearing completion pretty soon. Here's the progress so far.

Here's the condensed version of the hood. the full build can be seen here: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/carb...onal-cowl.html

anobii

For the last couple of months I've been doing body work. The car was fairly straight aside from the driver side door that had a bit of body filler. The worst of it was the factory paint was shot, and my dad had painted over it years ago with a single stage urethane. The paint peeled quite easily and pretty much needed to come off. I stripped it all down to bare steel using a chemical strip of methylene chloride and a pressure washer. The factory epoxy layer was a bear to remove. Once it was mostly stripped I hit it with the DA sander and a combo of 80 and 120 grit to get rid of the stubborn leftover paint and to abrade the steel for better adhesion of the new epoxy. Then i stuck a few spots of body filler and straightened the lines a bit. I got a 2 gallon kit from Summit of black 1:1 epoxy DTM primer and applied 2 full coats for prep and seal. After letting it cure for a couple of days I de-nibbed it and knocked out a few rough spots. I then shot 2 medium coats of single stage urethane gloss black, which turned out like total poo. Hawthorn paint... I had orange peel in the runs. Worst paint i've ever shot. No amount of gun adjustment or thinner ratio would make it go on smooth. When I got it thin enough to lay down a little it ran like water. I cut my losses and let it dry. after a few days I block sanded it with 400 grit and removed all of the orange peel and runs. I then re blocked it with 600. I went back with my original plan of a satin finish with gloss accents. I mixed up another batch of epoxy this time adding 10% thinner to the mix so it would lay down smoother and not build as thick. the result was the best satin finish I've ever shot. the epoxy should hold up better than any lacquer or enamel flat and its tough as nails.

Edit: I forgot to mention I swapped the front and rear bumpers to the 91-92 style and added the ground effects to match. As you can see from the pics. The side skirts hide the side pipes totally but they are plenty far enough away from them not to be melted. I coulda swapped hatches to get rid of the external third brake light, but I actually like it a lot. I did haf to take the deck lid off and reposition it to line up. What a total PITA that was.

Sorry if that's TLTR. :P I didn't get any pics of the body work progress. It already took long enough with out having to stop for pics. Body work is bitch work IMO. lol!

Heres how it sits now!















I'm half way through blacking out all of the lights. I still need to decide if i want to spray some gloss stripes. I need to get a grill, and a few odds and ends. Once i get the new weatherstripping put on and get it put back together I'll move back to some mechanical tasks I need to complete. One of which is the rear differential restoration and upgrade.

anobii

BTW, I painted it the first time inside the shop. My floors are now black. SMH. I painted this coat pretty much where it sits in the pics. I'm astonished there isn't a speck of dust nor a single bug in the entire thing. I'd call that a win lol!