I guess it's time to start a build thread since I recently got the itch to work on the car. Little back story, I purchased this car around 11 years ago. It was in pretty good shape and had a decent running 305TPI. I had the car painted and threw a set of 20" replicas on it to enjoy at our local cruise ins. Fast forward to now, the car has been sitting for 5 years without a drivetrain or interior due to changing directions in the build multiple times.
I am hoping that the finished product is something I can take on the power tour with no worries. Several changes will be made to the inside and out; 4th gen dash/seats/console along with a stock hood/5" hawk spoiler/18" replicas and lower factory stripes.
I'll have to do some digging to find a picture of how the car looked when I bought it. But here's how it looked when I pulled the motor.

First time seeing daylight

And where I'll be working on it from here on

First bath, not bad for 11 year old paint.

 

First means of business was locating a power plant. I found a super low mile camd LS3 from a Camaro. I'm still on the hunt for a t56.




I can't tell if these pictures are huge or not. If they are, let me know and I'll go back to resize them.

 

Car looks good... Cant wait to see more.

Im planning on doing the same swap in my 92 once I finish college and have the money.

 

Thanks! I've been looking forward to doing a swap like this since I bought the car. I'm anxious to get it together but at the same time I don't want to rush bc I only want to do this once.

 

A couple of small updates. I sold the chrome 20" Iroc replicas that will be replaced by 18" Iroc replicas. I received those a couple weeks ago and I'm really happy with the new wheel.



I'm currently scuffing up the bottom of the car so I can apply new undercoating and while doing that I am going to replace/upgrade the stock suspension.

 

Nice build I like the wheels.

 

Sweet! I've been thinking about doing a ls swap too. Keep them posts coming!

 

Nice start.


I did the same build on my Firebird a few years ago. You will definitely like the performance of your new setup.


Here is my thread, maybe it will help you out.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/ltx-...swap-91-a.html

 

Thanks Lonnie! I'll be sure to look over your link.

 

Small update, still working on cleaning up the bottom of the car so I can undercoat it. The functional louvers that I ordered from Kerry at camarolouvers.com showed up at the beginning of the week. I am extremely pleased with Kerry as a business man and the product he has produced. The man was very professional and answered all of my emails extremely quick even the ones sent on the weekend to my surprise. I am very anxious to source a stock Iroc hood so I can mount these! I highly recommend his product to anyone that is on the fence about making a purchase.

 

Nice build. Good decision on dumping the 20's.
Keeping the DBW?, cruise control & A/C for tour?

I liked the hood, why are you going with louvres and tall wing AND stock suspension?

 

Thanks. I will probably stick with the stock tb that came with the motor since a wiring harness was included. I haven't decided if the car will have AC yet or not. That seems like a tall task with the dash swap. I still have the ss hood if I want to change the look up but I think I'll be sticking with the stock hood because of the Hawks 5". I'm wanting to get the car back to looking like an Iroc. The only stock suspension that the car will have will be the factory sway bars. I plan on replacing everything else.

 

OK, thought maybe you might have some aero ideas with louvres and wing.

 

Nice start so far. I'm interested on how this turns out!

 

Where did you get the wheels? Are they 18x8 or 18x8.5?

 

eBay, were listed as 18x8

 

Which ECM do you plan on running? Are you going to run a conversion box or run a 58X compatible ECM? That's the dilemma I am in now.

 

I have a harness and ecu in a box at home that came with the engine so the next time I remember I'll drag it out and check it out for you.

 

Since my front tires showed up today I had them mounted and had to test fit them to one side of the car to see how they looked.


And also test fitting rear louvers

 

Finally found a T56 that I thought was worth the asking price and pulled the trigger. The built T56 showed up the other day. I'm still cleaning the bottom of the car so I can apply undercoating. Tomorrow I plan on dropping the k member to prep it for paint and to be notched.

 

I am making some progress with applying the brush on undercoating to the bottom of the car. Today I spent some time going back over the spray on undercoating that I used on the inner fenders since it dried a red/brown color and looked horrible. This is a very time consuming process.

 

I haven't updated this in awhile, so here's a couple progress pictures. Finally to the point of being ready to drop the k member for paint and mounts.

Swapped out my stock rear for a disk 10 bolt with 3.73 gears. I need to track down a set of drilled/slotted rotors to match my fronts.


Ls1 brakes assembled and waiting to be installed.

 

Still slowly making progress. The motor is in the car but I still have a long ways to go. The transmission and clutch, 4th gen tank, 4th gen dash and all of the wiring still need to be completed.

 

Little update, motor and transmission are now finally in the car. I also rolled her out to wash and snap a couple pictures.

 

You mentioned the engine is a cam only LS3. I have seen some pretty stout numbers from the 5th gen crowd of upwards near 500 RWHP. That's a lot of grunt for a 10 bolt to survive.

 

I don't have anything in this rear and it was better than the factory 10 bolt that wouldn't allow the car to even roll. So this is temporary until I find what rear I'm looking for. I did however have a set of 4.10s/10 bolt in my 4th gen that had a pretty stout 6L/Ls3 heads/MS3 cam and a 3600/4L80e that took a lot of abuse and never gave me any trouble. I'm sure it was running on borrowed time though