When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
LTX and LSXPutting LT1s, LS1s, and their variants into Third Gens is becoming more popular. This board is for those who are doing and have done the swaps so they can discuss all of their technical aspects including repairs, swap info, and performance upgrades.
Figured I'd show my swap. Maybe it will give me some motivation to brave the cold and finish it. I didn't take a lot of pictures in the beginning and the lighting was horrible so sorry in advance.
I started with a 1986 Camaro with zero rust, 60k original miles, no engine, a rebuilt t5, and Boyd wheels. Then I bought a 1998 Z28 with a T56 and debated actually tearing it apart. Luckily I sold the roller to someone who had an engine and trans so hopefully it is going back together. I'll add more details later. Now for a few pics...
Last edited by Black18Ice; Aug 12, 2015 at 07:16 PM.
So I am using a fourth gen engine bay/fuse box assembly and had a couple questions. Can I eliminate the starter and ignition relays? I've been looking at the drawings and I think I can but wanted to double check. Also, the fourth gen has two pink ign wires that splice together and split up into the fuse box. Do I just connect the third gen pink to this and be done with it? I believe some of these go to the ignition relay so if I got rid of that I'd have to figure that out. Just wondering who else has went this route and had these answers. Thanks.
Okay, well I hope you did not cut anything. The 4th gen system is quite a bit better than 3rd gen wiring. What I did for my swap is I pull the fuse and remove the wiring for only the TAC and ABS. I left the rest. Basically what you can do is one of two things:
1. Pull the dash and adapt the hood harness to work with the 3rd gen dash harness which is what I did and thereby eliminated all the 3rd gen tpi crap from my IPC fuse box.
2. you can leave a lot of the circuits on the 3rd gen dash and 4th gen bay fuse box and just feed the power wires with one of the fused wires coming off the box.
The only thing about this is that 3rd gens have one or two feed wires for the entire electrical stystem in the dash and cab. In addition they are all fusible link protected and all fed at the starter. The 4th gen is fusible link and fuse protected and all the power is gotten from the fuse blocks.
If you want to install the box it is well worth it because it is neat esp. with wiring protection. If you are good with wiring I can give some assistance if you like. I can provide you with my conversion pinouts if you want. The other thing is that the bulkhead connector on the 3rd gen has the black goop, the 4th gen is basically a sealed transition plastic piece with a bulkhead connector in the car. Since you have the box and if you did not cut anything I can recommend that you get your self a body instrument panel wiring hanress from a 4th gen.
Doing this will basically leave you with a relatively clean wiring harness in the car which can be diagnosed with a schematic. You will need either schematics from both cars or the factory manuals. Both are available online with a little looking.
essentially if you go the route I suggested you will take your dash out and graft wires from the 3rd gen harness to the 4th gen harness. It will take you some time, in my opinion worth it, many others don't. Up to you! good luck
Ya I'm hooking up the c100 wires to my fourth gen under hood box. I'm pulling every wire I don't need, abs, emissions, etc. I really just need to know about the couple things in my last post then should be good in that area until I get to the c207. I have the wiring schematics for both cars but just wanted to check before I took out those two relays. I'm 90% sure I delete the starter relay but idk if I should keep the ignition.
As much as I like my '92 Z I still would have a hard time tearing down a perfectly good 4th gen for my mod. There are just too many LSx engines in the wrecking yards. Anyhoo good luck with your swap. Looks to be a good swap car.
IGN relay feels the PCM ign fuse and fuel injector fuses among other things. The starter relay basically gets a signal from the gear selector that enables the starter to engage (for your 86...in 88-89 they added another circuit in there for vats but you don't have that so it's irrelevant.) I would leave both relays where they are because it is better to have skinny wires signaling the relay to give power to the fat wires as opposed to doing what gm did in our cars. ( if you Hadent noticed by now they ran the fat starter wire through the park neutral switch. Not sure about manuals though. In there infinite wisdom gm did the exact same thing for the headlight switch- but that's something else entirely.
Ok. I'm keeping the ign relay and going to keep the starter relay for now. I won't use the starter relay since the third gen never used it and isn't really needed but I'll keep it in case I change my mind.
Well it's driveable but not completely finished. Here's a pic of my 3" y pipe. It's followed up by a powerstick dumped at the axle. Ignore the air intake and my finger in the exhaust pic. I'm going to update the cai later. Still to come are new wider wheels, ls6 intake, 4th gen rear with 4.10s, and gauges.
Umi sub frame connectors
Founders adj control arms poly/rod
Founders adj panhard bar poly/rod
2010+ camaro brembo front brakes from BBU
Koni on car adjustable struts/shocks
Ground control weight jacks
Global west lower control arm bushings
Founders caster/camber mounts
C5 Z06 motorsports 18x10.5 18x9.5
Speedhut gauges
And some other random items...
Going cammed ls3 with a dry sump. Just a couple random pics. Added a two step and 58x conversion box. Also changed to speed engineering headers from racing innovation.
Why the dry sump? It is very expensive and a pain to package. A high capacity road race wet sump with trap doors works great.
After reading a lot on the Corvette forums I found this to be not true on ls2/3 engines. Only a dry sump can withstand sticky tires on long corners on road courses, which is what I plan to do. Also I got some parts used. My original plan was that though but I changed it as it's still cheaper than replacing the engine.
I sure did not come to that same conclusion. It's simply a matter of keeping the oil pickup submerged, having adequate oil reserve capacity, and adequate oil drain back rate. The people with problems are usually creating their own problems by not understanding the cause & effect of their mismatch of parts and oil fill.
Looks like you already bought your parts so what's done is done and more talk won't help either way. You didn't do anything bad, it's just going to be a pain in the butt and expensive.
I sure did not come to that same conclusion. It's simply a matter of keeping the oil pickup submerged, having adequate oil reserve capacity, and adequate oil drain back rate.
The people with problems are usually creating their own problems by not understanding the cause & effect of their mismatch of parts and oil fill.
Not wanting to argue but if that was the case then no one would dry sump. Oil pools up in the heads so I was going to do drains with a bigger pan and baffle. I'm really not spending that much more on this kit. Either way I went this route and wanted to show if off. No one questioned Detroit Speed for doing it...
Not wanting to argue but if that was the case then no one would dry sump.
That's broken logic. Both dry sump and wet sump can work. Both can be problematic too. It's just a matter of putting the right parts together in each case.
Clean install. I like the GTO intake pipe. Have you considered boxing the air filter in and routing a supply from outside, like maybe from behind one of the headlights? Has anyone tried this with success? not wanting to hijack, I think it was very resourceful to use the GTO intake pipe. It looks good.
