Hi All,

Wanting to try to document my LS swap into my 92 Camaro for myself and for other to reference. I haven't seen much in terms of truck motors with 4l60E being swapped into these cars so I figured I would post up my progress. This swap will be budget oriented and I will be trying be using as much OEM stuff as possible. I might end up doing some upgrades to the 4.8 down the line but that will not be apart of this thread. Seen below is the picture of the truck motor I got for free from my neighbor. He was swapping a junkyard 6.0 into his square body so he gave me this one for free. Pretty much just a long block with intake and throttle body.

 

Engine Mounts

Engine mount adapter kit I went with the dirty dingo kit (DD-3550C). The price for this kit was $115 for powdercoated but was definitely worth the money. Bolted right up to the engine and had 2" of forward rearward adjustment.
https://www.dirtydingo.com/shop/prod...oducts_id=1322
My car was originally was a V6 car so I had to go out to O'Reilly's and get 2 V8 engine mounts for $11 a piece. Bolted right up to the subframe and engine swap kit great!

 

Oil Pan

For the oil pan I went to rock auto and got one for a LS F-Body 98-02. The Truck Oil Pan is much deeper and even though I could have pushed the engine back with the motor mounts, but I would have felt uncomfortable with it hanging so low. I looked at different options like holley but for aftermarket support going with OEM style was what I decided on. You will also have to get the matching oil pick up tube for the oil pan and the truck windage tray will have to be modified since the F-body pan tucks up close to the main caps.

 

Engine Fitment

So installing the engine mounts and oil pan I dropped the engine in to see where everything lined up and you can see there is ample space with the F-body oil pan and the adjustable engine mounts. At first we tried it with the v6 mounts but where the mounting was on front k-member it pushed the engine too far back that is why I switched to the V8 engine mounts. I have also seen multiple people mention that even with the F-body oil pan you have to notch the back of the K-member but you can clearly see you don't have to in my case.



You can see F-Body pan does not hang past the lowest part of the subframe.

Clearance to the passenger side head and firewall

Clearance to the driver side head and firewall

 

Transmission

For the transmission I decided to just stick with an auto transmission for the time being because they are super cheap (much cheaper that a t56). I tracked one down at my local salvage for $250 since it was a high mileage 200K unit. Remember there are 2 versions of the 4l60E 93-97 which look exactly like a 700r4 and the 98+ that have the 2 piece bellhousing and 6 bolt tail shaft. All chevy 1500s are where you will find the 4l60e most frequently. Now you need to make sure to source a 2wd trans (which I only found 3 at a yard with hundreds of trucks) and I looked specifically for one behind a 4.8 or 5.3 since I am not sure if the V6 would have the same stuff. While I was in the yard I used the Truck VINs and this tool: https://www.vindecoderz.com/EN/Chevrolet which after typing in the Vin will show all the RPO codes. This is helpful if you can't physically get under the truck to take a look at the transmission. I believe the RPO code you are looking for is M30

200K M30 2wd 4l60E from chevy 1500

Transmission mount on 4L60E's sit too far back and the cross member needs to be modified. You can also see that the torque arm is generally in the correct spot for the F-body tailshaft. Will need to test fit to find out for sure.

New F-body tailshaft housing bought on Summit for $80 is the exact same length as the 2wd pickup one so it was a direct swap.

transmission with F-body Tailshaft installed. I didn't notice until I tried but the torque arm mount from the 700r4 will not fit on the 4l60e. Need to source one of those now.

 

Hey man. Good luck with your build. There are a few builds including mine that has done this swap successfully. Here's the link to mine. Cheers.


https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/ltx-...o-ls-swap.html

 

Transmission Mount
I modified the stock v6 2 piece transmission mount to move the mounting holes further back for the transmission mount. With car level, the tailshaft was about 2-3 degrees pointed down. It looks like the transmission still sits higher than the original 700r4 though. I was able to source a torque arm mount off of ebay for $68 shipped so that should be arriving this upcoming week to see how the torque arm fits and then how the drive shaft fits.

Drilled new holes about 1/2" further back on the crossmember that bolts to the body.

Drilled new hole about 1/2" further back on the crossmember the main crossmember.

2 piece crossmember assembled.

Still good clearance at top of transmission to transmission tunnel

 

I don't know what you plan to do for exhaust, but
​​​​​I did the same thing as you until I discovered I would have low ground clearance when I hook the exhaust to the s.e. headers.

I wound up fabricating a transmission cross member for better exhaust clearance.

 

Yeah, I was just looking through yours and I didn't think about that too much at the moment. I will have to do a deeper dive once I get to the exhaust routing portion. I know there is a decent amount of room on the passenger side but I just have to figure out the driver's side. Thanks for the heads up though!

 

Yea, not a problem. That's what the threads are for.

 

Torque Arm Interface

Was able to to get a little more done on the car the other day. My torque arm mount that I got from Ebay arrived, and I put it in and installed the torque arm. It looks like the 3rd gen arm has the profile opposite of the 4th gen. arm so I will probably cut the rivets off the rubber mounts and swap the 3rd gen mounts to it. Also I am assuming this is caused by the extra length of the tail shaft but the torque arm comes past where it would be on a 700r4. This is with suspension compressed as well. I don't see a huge problem with this.

Torque arm comes past the mount from where it would be on the 700r4.

Profile is flipped for 3rd gen and 4th gen torque arms.

 

For the intake I wasn't sure how people were able to get a way with the truck intake. I didn't want to cut reinforcement out of the hood so I sourced the most expensive part of the swap. LS6 intake I got for $400 on facebook. Came with throttle body, injectors, and fuel rail. The LS6 intake I believe is better than the LS1 because has alot less Vacuum ports which really keep the engine bay clean. I will also be using a DBW throttle body so that gets rid of even more lines and wiring. However the fuel inlet interferes with the truck coils so I will see if I can bend the inlet to clear or I will have to find different coil brackets that move the coils over.

Complete LS6 intake

Installed on the engine with DBW throttle body

 

It is important that you measure the Driveshaft Angles at both Ends of the Driveshaft, once it is installed.

The Transmission Cross-member that you made, may have altered the Driveshaft Angles too much.

 

I will make sure to do that. Any factory recommendations I should follow?

 

Was able to get some more work done today and finish up the torque arm mounting. I ground out the rivets on the 4th gen and 3rd gen rubbers and swapped them. I used M6 hardware to hold the rubbers in. I will probably sway this out for a poly bushing down the road. Mounting looks great now thought.



Also wanted to start on the front accessory drive bracket. Finding a factory 4th gen setup is almost impossible for a reasonable price so I decided to go down the aftermarket route. I still wanted to stick with the OEM look so I went with the Holley Low Mount Accessory Drive Kit (20-155). This combines the alternator and power steering pump bracket into one and provides all the hardware you need. It works nice since also don't have to tap holes on the truck blocks for the alternator bracket. Comes with a great book with all OEM parts that are compatible. I ended up finding a truck alternator in the junkyard for $25 and it almost looks brand new. The power steering pump is a saginaw type II TC pump which I plan on sourcing from a 5th gen camaro.



This kit works with the 98 F-body damper pulley offset as well as the truck pulley offset (but you need to purchase a spacer). I plan on sourcing an 98-01 F-body waterpump, crank pulley and tensioner to close this area out.

 

Got some more work done the past couple weeks. It gets pretty cold in the great state of Wisconsin so I only work for an hour or so each day when I get time. If you are going to reuse the windage tray from the truck pan, you will have to modify it in 2 spots.

1) Cut it back from the front of the engine since it contacts the front of the F-body oil pan

2) The oil pickup tube mount is not in the same spot as the truck pickup tube mount so you will have to cut around where it would mount.


Since I am also going with DBC, I have been working on a pedal mount adapter that will work with the truck DBC pedal. I have 3D printed some prototypes so far and have yet to try it out. You should be able to able to reuse the stock pedal mounts without having to hack the studs that are in there out. I did this by doing a 3D scan of the fire wall and modeling in inventor.


It should also clock the pedal so it faces the correct direction since the factory pedal comes off at an angle from the fire wall. If anyone is interested in the 3D print files let me know and I can get them to you.

 

Very Cool, I'm in the process of doing the same thing. I was actually looking at the 4l60e mounting position and wondering whether to buy a cross member.
I also used an ebay oil pan and the pickup tube hits somewhat of the same location, I was just going to cut a small enough piece for it to clear.

 

following!!!

 

Hey all,

It has been awhile since the last update but I got some more for you. Neighbor came over last week and we planned an exhaust routing. I didn't really feel like modifying the trans crossmember so I decided to make a Y-pipe style pipe and send it under the bell housing and out through the stock exhaust location.

I modified the stock truck manifolds and welded v-band clamps onto them since they are more compact than 3 bolt flanges. I don't have any pictures at the moment but when I take the exhaust back off I will take some photos. I believe there is someone that has already done this located here: Modified truck manifolds. They are cast steel and weld really nice. I cut them at the same location as that thread but did not extend them down. I welded the v-bands on where I cut them. The V-bands that I bought were from amazon: . They are more expensive but they have a male and female side that helps with alignment and sealing when most other v-band flanges are flat.

For the exhaust pipe I bought a universal 2.5" mild steel kit from Speedway motors that ran about 175$ shipped Here. it was nice because they had slip joints where you can slide the one in and figure out your distances and then tack and cut excess. No need to be holding it.

Then we just started cutting and testing fitting and tacking it all together. For couple hours for a few days we were able to figure out the routing and finished welding it up today.

Passenger side manifold to y-pipe. I will probably end up re-routing power wires since it is a little close for comfort. you can see an almost 90 turn down is required on this side.

Driver side manifold to y-pipe. This one went more straight down but the merge in the manifold still makes the clamp pretty close to the firewall. I am going to watch this one to see if it ends up hitting.

Driver's side underneath. This is where I located the O2 sensor since flipping into the back side there would not have been any room. This has more than enough room to get a wrench on it and tighten it.

Where passenger side down pipe meets crossover pipe. More than enough clearance around everything.

Backside of passenger downpipe where Passenger side O2 sensor will be located

Outlet of Y-pipe falls perfectly in stock location. Still have to make sure that tires fit but I don't see a problem here.

Here you can see how low it hangs. It isn't perfect since it still hangs about 1.5" below k-member but I am happy with it.

Overall shape and routing. You can see the down pipes for either side are because of how different the truck manifolds exit. I also flattened the center section to help with clearance.
I think it turned out pretty good for the amount of money I spent on all the material. I got the truck manifolds for free but they are always dirt cheap. So if you can weld, I believe this is a definite alternative to having to run long tubes with a modified or aftermarket trans cross member.

Drew

 

Here are the photos of the modified manifolds.

Driver side manifold

Passenger side manifold

 

Well everyone. The day has come and the engine finally started with the turn of the key! Weren't even any check engine lights. I did tune out the other things that we were deleting like oil pressure, second O2 sensors etc. I also realized that I missed other information like how the accessory drive turned out. I will include those in here.

Accessory set up with Holley kit. Power steering pump was a GM saginaw type II. Using a camaro ls1 waterpump.

Lower radiator hose was a modified 2.8 v6 3rd gen camaro hose that was shortened.

Stock 4th gen ls1 camaro upper radiator hose fits perfectly.

Power steering line. You can see the hard line that has -8an fitting coming from the top of the power steering pump. This is holley part No. 198-202.

Powersteering line I had made at my local hydraulic line for $40. I specified -8 JIC fittings which will work with the -8an fittings on the steering box and the power steering pump

Overall shot of the engine bay in the state to get it running. I plan on getting rid of the big inlet pipe and use the stock air box. Before I pull the engine out I am going to wrap wiring and loom it all to clean it up.

 

What is that power steering pulley off of? Would you happen to know if it fits the old stock power steering pumps?


Looks good!!!

 

The pulley is also from Holley since I knew it would work with the p/s steering pump. Part no. 97-152. I don't believe it will work with the older pumps, only the newer style ones.

 

ahh dang. i'll try look into it though! thanks!

 

I took the engine and transmission out today to get ready to get back going on body working so I thought I would take some time to show over all shots on how things are routed.

 

Looks good! I see a 3.4 in the background!

 

Hey everybody. I want to give an update on this. 4.8 is working great with the 4L60E. Transmissions squeals but what do you get for a $250 transmission. Had some mishaps with a leaking injector which caused me to throw a rod but I found another motor for $200 on market place. Car is also painted now which is very exciting! Also if anyone is wondering, I made a custom adapter to connect the LS throttle body to the factory air box which is pretty slick looking.

Base Coat is On!

Clear Coat!

More Clear Coat! Color is a factory GM color Hyper metallic Blue. First time painting a car myself and definitely learned alot.

Everything re-assembled.

Lots of havoc!

New Engine in

3D Printed Adapter

Engine Bay as it sits

 

I'd like to see more about the electric throttle bracket. What did the pedal you used come from and how well does it all work?

 

91 rs Camaro LS 4.8 with the 4l60E swap ..SMALL WORLD .. I would also like to see how you did the whole throttle...I'm currently scratching my head.. my original throttle cable was on the driver's side but now we on the other side

 

Exiled. I did a 3d scan of the fire wall and designed a bracket to use the existing throttle pedal bolts. I don't have any pictures of the final print but this is in theory how it worked. I cut up a stock 3rd gen pedal and welded it to a modified truck pedal. I ended up not going the DBW route since for some reason I lost throttle control so something must have happened in the ECM.

 

pretty cool build...

im getting anxious to start mine

 

Have done 8 or so Ls swaps since that last post, but, still haven't done my 3rd gen...