It's about time I start the build thread for my car. I've been working on this for a while so most of this is going to be providing the backstory. For starters, here's the car I'm working with:



It started out as a 5.0 (LB9) auto car. But more importantly an LS1/T56 combo is going in.

Here's a shot of the engine and transmission before I added the heads and intake.



Here's more specific information on my swap:

Engine:
- 98 LS1 w/ stock short block
- PRC Stage 1.0 LS6 Heads with Brian Tooley Racing .660" Lift Platinum Spring Kit
- Mystery Cam (it was in the engine when I got it, but all I know is that the lift is right around .600")
- Rev Xtreme Catch Can
- Fast 92mm Intake with a Fast 92mm Big Mouth Throttle Body
- Stock LS1 Fuel Rails with 36lb FAST injectors
- Upgraded with 411 pcm and harness built by harness and modified by me since it was initially build for my 87 hardtop.

Fuel:
- Stock 88 camaro fuel tank
- Custom AN fuel lines
- Walbro 255 fuel pump
- Corvette Fuel filter/regulator

Exhaust:
- Hawks Stainless Works 1-3/4" Headers with 3" collectors
- Custom Built Y pipe
- Mufflex 4" catback with Magnaflow Muffler

Transmission:
- T56 from a 98 Camaro
- Hurst Billet Plus Shifter
- LS7 Clutch Kit with LS2 Flywheel
- Tick Master Cylinder and Tick Remote Bleeder
- Hurst Shifter

Drivetrain:
- Stock 88 camaro 10 bolt (until it breaks) I have plans to upgrade in the near future.
- 98 Camaro aluminum driveshaft

Suspension/Steering:
- UMI on-car adjustable torque arm
- All new Moog steering parts with UMI tie rod adjusters
- KYB Struts
- Hotchkis lowering springs on front
- All stock rear suspension (for now)
- UMI Subframe Connectors

Brakes:
LS1 Brake upgrade with hubs from bigbrakeupgrade.com
Power Stop drilled and slotted rotors
Rebuilt and Powdercoated LS1 calipers

 

Here's what the engine bay looked like before the engine was pulled.

 

And here's it is coming out:


As you can see I used the method where you drop it out the bottom. I like that method, but I the wooden furniture dollies from Harbor Freight did not... I kept breaking casters on them. The plastic dolly I have seems to hold up pretty well.

 

I had the engine bay painted with Dupont Chromabase Basecoat/Clearcoat. Here's what it looked like when I got it back.



In case you were wondering, the front of the core support has also been painted and cleared with the chromabase since this photo was taken.

 

At this point I'm need to check piston to valve clearance and pushrod length with my new heads. I have Texas-Speed 7.35" pushrods that were installed when I bought the motor, but I'm sure they're going to be too short. Regardless I have adjustable pushrods that I'm going to put in to check the correct length.

My heads were milled to 62cc chambers which isn't too much so I really hope I don't have ptv clearance issues. I plan to use the clay method tomorrow to check.

Here's a shot of the heads as they arrived on Thursday.

 

Since I had to disassemble some of the harness to convert it from an 87 to an 88 I realized just how much I hate that brittle plastic looming that is one these harnesses. After being exposed to years of heat it pretty much crumbled when I went to take it off.

So I went and got some Techflex F6 which in my opinion is much better looking that than plastic stuff. Here's the entire rewrapped harness.



Here's a closer shot of it.

 

Here's what my calipers looked like when I got them



Yeah not so good...

But wait, after a lot of cleaning I powder coated them and baked them in my powder coating dedicated toaster oven.

And here's the final result:



And with everything assembled.

 

Here's the y pipe I built using some 3" bends and a Flowmaster dual 3" in/4" out merge.



I'm glad my neighbor has a lift...

 

I checked my piston to valve clearance this weekend. I had plenty of clearance so I bolted one of the heads on with my GM MLS head gasket. I brought the #1 cylinder up on top dead center on the compression stroke so that both the intake and exhaust valves were on the base circle of the cam. Using my comp cams adjustable pushrods, I checked the pushrod length. I was a little surprised that the required pushrod length is 7.300" with 0.075" of preload on the lifters. Just to be certain I used the EO/IC method to confirm the lifter preload assuming 0.047" lifter preload per full turn of the bolt. I got about 1.5 turns when using the 7.300" pushrod.

In all honesty I thought that the 7.350" pushrods that I had would be too short considering I'm running a GM MLS gasket, 243 heads with stock valves that are milled to 62cc chambers (0.015" I believe), and an aftermarket camshaft. I kept second guessing myself, but I kept getting the same results.

Any ideas as to why they'd need to be so short?

 

Well I checked it again and kept coming up with a required pushrod length of 7.375" assuming .075" preload on the lifters. Because this contradicted what I was getting before, I brought every single cylinder up on TDC on the compression stroke to check the length on all 16 pushrods. The 7.375" measurement held true for every one. Assuming the new pushrods here, I should have this motor buttoned up this weekend.

 

Nice start! You will love it when you are done! Oh wait, You will never be DONE! LOL.

 

Thanks! I have no doubt I'll never be done.

Just hoping to get this thing "done" and back on the road before it gets cold here!

 

Since I switch over from the 806 heads (Perimeter bolt) to 243 heads (center bolt) I am expecting to have clearance issues between the coils and the ac box. I've seen numerous references about people using truck coils. I have the square truck coils without the heat sinks. Comparing the truck coil brackets to the f body brackets, they do look like they are going to mount quite a bit higher on the valve covers, but are these the coils that have worked for some people?

I would assume the the round coils with the heat sinks would work for sure, but I don't typically see anyone differentiating between the square and round truck coils when talking about ac clearance.

 

Truck coils dont clear the stock fuel rail, needs a bend

Check out LSA/LS9 valve covers for centerbolt cover mounted coils

 

I looked into those LSA/LS9 valve covers and they looked to be really expensive. I did notice a couple third gens at LS Fest last weekend that had those covers though. I saw that the Holley LS covers were center bolt cover mounted coils as well, but they didn't provide what I wanted for the pcv system.

I suppose I don't mind bending the rail a little if I'm careful enough not to kink it.

 

Here's how the engine looked a couple days ago.

 

And here's what it looks like as of a few minutes ago.

 

I had my FAST 36lb injectors in there, but my tuner recommended that I stay with the stock LS1 injectors until he tunes it. The car definitely is not drivable with the current mods anyway, so this is just for checking to make sure the engine starts and runs without any issues or leaks.

 

So I ended up bending the fuel rail to clear the coil pack last night. I taped up the fuel rail and used a deep well socket and an extension to put it where it needed to be. That was nerve racking! I really took my time though and there are no signs of it being kinked at all. I wish I would've taken a pic last night, but I didn't think to do that.

At this point I just need to install my coils on the passenger's side, plug in my wiring harness, and install my headers. Just about ready to drop the car on the engine.

 

Nice clean build, looks great! Subscribed....looking forward to seeing more progress.

 

Thanks! I'll have to say it would've been done a whole lot sooner if I wasn't cleaning and/or painting every piece that I'm putting back on it. Hopefully it'll be what I want it to be in the end though. I'm hoping to get a startup video posted up within the next week or two if I didn't screw anything up on my wiring .

 

Wow,looks something similar to what I will be doing. Its very impressive, and it looks extremely clean. One thing I love about an engine swap of this nature, you literally scrap all of the 20+ year old problems. looking forward to seeing it all together!

 

I appreciate the compliments. You aren't kidding about scrapping old problems. Once this thing is done, it'll practically be brand new

Speaking of being done, my loctite 242 is supposed to be coming in today to use on the header bolts. Which means the headers are going on and the engine and transmission are going in today! I've been getting a lot of comments from the people in my neighborhood about my car build. It's been all positive so far, but we will see if that changes when I start it up with open headers haha.

 

As promised here are the pics. The first one is an overall shot of the engine in there.



And here's on with a little closer shot of the engine.



The engine went in pretty smoothly. The square truck coils did not clear the AC box at all. In fact, it was a direct hit on the box.I was watching other things and I actually broke the rearmost coil on the passenger side on the ac box. So you can see in the pics where the coil bracket is removed on that side. A new coil is on its way and the bracket is going under the knife. At least I haven't scratched the new paint... yet. I had to make the hole for the shifter a little bigger during installation, but that was pretty easily done with some tin snips.

I still need to work out the final routing of the harness,change out the wiper motor connectors, and make my cold air intake so I can lengthen the MAF wiring.

 

Installed from bottom or top?

 

Installed from the bottom. I meant to take pictures of the process I used, but I got so caught up in getting it in I forgot all about the progress pics. I've learned that one of the keys to doing this way is to have the weight of the engine and transmission as evenly distributed on furniture dolly as you can. Being able to roll it around easily will make or break this method.

Here's the procedure I used:

1. With the rear tires on jackstands, lift the body with a lifting sling wrapped around the frame horns.

2. Roll the engine and trans in. Lower the car down on the engine/trans to the point where you can get the wiring that passes through the firewall through the grommet. (I cut a 2" hole under the AC box to hide the wiring).

3. Once the wiring is through and the grommet is seated, install the AC box.

4. Then lower the engine down the rest of the way and make sure the brake lines and wiring harness are positioned in the correct spots for final install.

5. Fine tune the position until the 6 engine crossmember bolts can be installed. Then it's all where it's going to be. To get the hawks double hump transmission crossmember in I started the nut under the trans mount first and then manipulated it until all 4 crossmember-to-frame bolts started. I did not need to make any modifications to the transmission crossmember.

If my coil would've cleared it would've been a perfect install. The hawks lsx long tubes are very close to the frame rail on the passenger side, so that's what made going in from the bottom very appealing to me. Plus I feel that it was the best way to avoid damage to my fresh paint.

 

That's probably how I will do mine. Could you post some pics of the lift points. (I mean the places that it is upon the air). I want to get an idea of the positioning and pictures always help. That ls1 sitting in there is a nice sight to see.

 

Maybe what you're looking for is what was shown in the photo above? This is basically the same thing I did when I installed the new engine. Since I was repainting the engine bay I wanted to take off the fenders and front bumper cover anyway. It can be done with a chain with the front bumper cover still on, but the chain would be hooked to the sway bar mounts instead I believe.

Here's the photo again. If this isn't what you need let me know.

 

That's it, for some reason that photo wouldn't come up on my computer at work before. Thanks

I can lift the back like you did, but the front I have no idea what I will do yet. I will probably prop it up by the sway bar mounts.

 

I put my engine and trans on a creeper..probably not designed for that much weight but its very low profile. As you can see in the pic the engine on the creeper is only about 23" tall. Then I jacked the car up with a large jacks on each side. Once I got it high enough to clear the engine on the creeper I slide the engine/trans under the car. I bolted the load leveler to the engine then lifted the engine/trans enough to bolt the k-member on it. Then a raised the engine/trans/k-member and also lowered the car a little at the same time. Once in position I bolted the k member to the car. You don't have to get it super high if you can find something low profile to set the engine on...my ole craftman creeper has done the job several times lol

Just another way to do it if you don't have the means to get the car way up in the air.

 

I like the way you did that jbenge. There's definitely a lot of good ways to get them in. I'm surprised the casters on the creeper have held up. I bent two casters on the Harbor Freight wooden dollies. I have a plastic dolly from HF that does the job every time.

 

I finished up my cold air intake last night. I may eventually powder coat the clamps black, but I haven't decided yet. Thoughts?

 

do you think the heat from powder coating will affect the seals in the calipers?

 

I am so jealous, how did you swing it so that your car came stock with an LS1.

looks very clean, hopefully mine will look similar when I am done. Great work!

 

I can't say for sure, but I think it'd be too much heat for the seals. It's 425 degrees in the oven and it takes quite a bit of time for the calipers to heat up before the powder coat flows out. Honestly it's not hard to remove the pistons and seals. It'd probably be a good idea to go ahead and replace the seals while you're there anyway. They do make high temp tape that is safe to put in the oven if you do remove the pistons and you want to mask off the cylinder.

 

You can do it. Just pay attention to the details and it'll come out looking great. Mine's going to look even better when I hear that cammed/open header sound.

I've been working on getting my gauges in tonight so I can actually see the oil pressure and to a lesser extent water temp when it starts up. Cutting, stripping, and soldering those wires in the dash isn't fun work. I've pretty much finished it up though. Expect a picture tomorrow of the final result.

 

Well the auto meter gauges are in. I'll try to get a picture to post tonight because the sunlight wasn't allowing me to get decent pics earlier. The one question I have left is about the speedometer. On one side, I've got a yellow and purple wire coming from the cluster that is supposed to connect to the VSS. On the other, I've got 3 wires that were put into the harness with the intentions of hooking up a cable x box. One is ground the other is a speedo signal wire, and the last one is a power wire of some sort.

What I'm thinking is that I need to connect the purple wire coming from the signal terminal on the speedometer to the speedo signal wire that was there for the cable x box. I believe this is the speedo output from the PCM. With no cable x box I was thinking the other two wires in the harness are unneeded. Does anyone know if that's right?

 

Since I broke the coil on the AC box I ordered a new AC Delco coil. While I was waiting for it to come in I modified the Coil bracket to get it to clear the AC box.



Here's a view of how much clearance there is:

 

Here's the pic of the Autometer Ultra-Lite Gauges that I installed. I still need to figure out what to do about my speedometer, but I'm leaning toward connecting the signal wire from the gauge to the PCM output unless I hear otherwise.

 

It runs! Albeit with a tune that is wayyyyy off. That's going to be taken care of next week though. It only too 4qts of coolant before the radiator and coolant overflow bottle were completely filled. I need to run it long enough for the thermostat to open so I can add more coolant.



Now I'm on putting the steering and front suspension on tonight. Hopefully to have it as a roller tonight or in the morning.

 

Nice progress! Glad to see you got it running. I always drill a couple of small holes in the thermostat to help in filling and eliminating air bubbles.

 

Thanks. I will probably do that next time.

 

love the verts man!!! lookin good

 

Thanks man. I'll try to get more of an update posted up here soon. I've been working on the car nonstop for the past week. The good news is that it is fully assembled now and it runs and drives now. It put up just under 400 rwhp on a dyno dynamics dyno with the rear brakes dragging

 

I thought I'd put up a video of the car since I've gotten it back on the road.


The car has been an absolute blast to drive!

 

Your link didn't quite work but I was able to copy and paste the address into the browser. Sounds good! Great color combo too.

 

Thanks for letting me know. Does it work now? I kept messing with the links because I couldn’t remember what I needed to do to make it show up the way I wanted it to in the forum. It appears to look good on my end now though.

Also thanks for the compliments. When I get another video camera other than my iPhone I’ll try to post up some sound clips of the exhaust at partial and full throttle. It really screams!

 

Link works now. How do you like the LS7 clutch? I just started another ls swap, trying to figure out what clutch/fly wheel/master cylinder to use any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Did you use a thirdgen clutch petal?

 

Great. I really like the LS7 clutch for my application. The pedal feel is great, and I'm a big fan of the stock driveability. The tick master cylinder is nice as well since I'm able to fine tune the fluid flow although I do believe it makes the pedal a little stiffer. I ended up going with the fourth gen clutch/brake pedals and the third gen accelerator pedal because I had them. I haven't noticed the firewall flex that others have mentioned with these pedals, but I'm not sure if they modified the bracket to accept the vertical bolt like I did. The third gen pedals wouldn't be a bad way to go at all though. I really don't think I'd make any changes to my setup if I had to do it over again.

What kind of power are you expecting to make?

 

Nothing extreme, just a bolt on LS1. May do a cam swap down the road so somewhere in the 350-400rwhp is where it will be. I was thinking about the LS7 clutch or maybe a monster stage 2 and definately will go with a tick master cylinder. Are you using a steel or aluminum flywheel?