Hello everyone,


After sitting in the Quonset in pieces, for the past 7 years, I am finally going to get this car put back together. Originally, I had built a Gen 1, 4 bolt, 350 with World products SR Torqurer heads and a mild cam, nothing special. That engine ended up going into a 1991 Step-side Silverado, leaving my Camaro without and engine. Instead of going with a SBC again, I've decided to bite the bullet and do an "LS" swap. The engine I have is a L33 out of a 2005 Silverado. These engines came with flat top pistons, 799 heads and a factory HP of 310. They also have the 4th gen rods and floating wrist pins. Unfortunately, this is a high mileage engine with just over 300k miles. With this in mind, I am tearing the engine down and will be taking it to and engine shop about an 2.5 hours away next week.


The plan is to get the block and heads checked out and get any work done that they may need (1 broken header bolt in each head). I don't plan on porting the heads because I am only shooting for 400 to 450 hp. I want to keep it streetable and don't want to twist this car like a pretzel with it being a T-top. Below is a list of parts and mods I have already done or will be doing to the car. The drive-train is solid so this swap shouldn't take anything out further down the line.


Drive-train

400-450hp L33

TH350 with 2600rpm stall (for the time being)

B&M (Quicksilver shifter)

Spohn chromemoly driveshaft

Moser 12 bolt (3.73 posi)

Spohn adjustable torque arm

Lower control arm relocation bracket (with Spohn LCA)

Willwood disc brakes (all 4 corners)


Chassis

Spohn K member

Spohn Trans cross member

Jegs bolt on sub-frame stiffeners

Roll bar

Koni Yellow shocks

Ground Control weight jacks


That's everything I can think of for now. I'll keep the thread updated as the build progresses. I have already ran into an issue with regards to the swap. I purchased a LS6 intake that arrived with broken mounting posts. I am going to do a little write up on how I am going about fixing it. Thanks!

 

The intake manifold arrived with 4 broken or cracked mounting posts. I figured I'd I try to fix the manifold and just hang onto my refunded money.

What ever material this intake is made of is like sponge cake on the broken sections. Because of this there is a lot of tooth for any adhesive to grab onto. I did a bit of research and decided to give good old JB weld a try. So far I have to say it seems to be holding very well and wouldn't be surprised if the plastic broke instead of the joints. I ended up fully breaking off the pieces in the first two pics. I did this so I could get glue on both mating surfaces and not have any dry spots. I coated both sides of the break on both broken pieces with JB Weld, clamped them down and didn't touch them for at least 12 hours. I then ran a fillet of JB along the glued seam to reinforce the repair. I should mention that I also heated up all of these joints with a heat gun until the JB Weld sagged and thinned out a bit to make sure it flowed down into the material as much as It could. The 5th photo is a repair of a small crack like the one in the 6th photo.