I am swapping a 5.3 truck motor with 4L60e into my 82. Picked up the motor and trans a couple days ago. I've had this car since summer of 2000. I left it sitting at my grandmother's house back in 04 when I left for the Army. A friend and I are going to get it back where it should have always been. Right now she's looking rough. I have been researching the swap here for a couple of days now. I have a pretty good idea what I am in for. lol I hope so anyways. I have the complete harness. We are going to try and do as much of direct swap as possible. Instead of buying the ls1 accessories we are going to notch the K member and fab a new alternator bracket as well as the new cross member for the transmission mount. I am hoping to keep costs down where possible. Later, once the car is running and stable, I will look into performance upgrades; though I don't think that this car will ever be too wildly built. I plan to redo the interior myself. A custom sheet metal dash and console are in the works also. All of the fabrication work should be relatively straight forward for us. The wiring is where I think it will get interesting.

Sorry for the novel.

 

Can't wait to see it done!!!

 

I can't wait to really get into it. My buddy is doing most of the fab work right now. I am overseas working. I am really disgusted with myself for letting it get that bad.

 

The biggest thing is you're working on it and plan to bring it back to what it should be. I know so many people that won't sell their cars and let them rot. I pass a guy that has several cars ( olds 442 , smokey and the bandit edition ta , 70s z28 camaro) Just sitting in the driveway. I offered to buy the ta but he said he wouldn't even thought he hasn't touch that car in over 25 yrs!!!

 

So I have a wiring question. I try and keep things simple using the KISS method (keep it simple stupid). Sometimes that works, sometimes not. So in my mind, I don't have to monkey with any of the wiring for lights and radio or any of that stuff because it is all still there, all I have to do is add power and they work. With the LM7 I have the complete wiring harness. If I stick with the original accessories and sensors, I shouldn't have to change anything, just add power to the computer once it is all mounted. Is this correct? The starter should only need power to the solenoid via the ignition switch, that seems simple enough. My gauges are analog so I realize that I'll need to either find a way to convert a digital signal to analog or get new gauges. I'll probably just go with new gauges. I'll have to wire in a new fuel pump too. Haven't decided on switching the tank yet or not. Still tbd. I plan to use a drive by cable TB also. I don't want to deal with hanging a new pedal. For now I am going to use the th200c that is in it. Waiting for a rebuild on the 4l60e which will have to be wired up also. Am I missing anything?

 

Sounds like your on the right path I went with speedhut gauges with the gps speedo and couldn't be happier. Kinda the same thing I just did with my car pulled out all wiring but the starter, lights, wipers, and temp/oil sensor wires.

 

Well as you would know it, life happened. lol. My car was in Houston Tx at my buddies house. I live in Tennessee. On his way here with it the hatch flew off, he had the car on the trailer backwards. Talk about a mess. My poor car. It sat for about 8 months with a tarp over it because i have been very slow with my business and haven't had the money to work on it. He brought me a 92 donor car this weekend. Got a new hatch on it and all of the interior pulled out. My buddy was supposed to do a lot of fab work for me. I sent the money and parts, but it didn't get done. I have also gone a different route. My 5.3 never showed up either. I have since aquired a GM ZZ4 350 for it. It looks as though that and a TH350 are in the works for now.

I pulled out all of my interior and carpet today to find rust. It is bad but not necessarily dire straights.. Ill try and get some pictures up shortly.

 

 

Wow, sorry for the file size. I think that the rust is completely manageable. As previously stated, I have a 91 donor car that I am going to put the pans out of tomorrow and weld back into mine. probably going to be a long day.