Its been a long time since Ive posted on here. Well its time to get familiar with all the things I forgotten about swapping these cars. When I first did my turbo transam there was no cxracing kit and everything was custom made. That has been solid but now in hindsight, there are improvements Id like to overcome.

I now acquired a GTA which i always wanted with a digital dash and digital hvac. I want to take most of the good elements on my current car and drop it into this chassis minus the roll cage for now since its a big hassle for street driving here. Fore the most part thats no problem. I have to find out what wiring difference are to make the dash work correctly. I also want to have fully working ac in this car, which its currently missing the condenser and misc parts. My question for the group are 2 fold.

Does anyone make a turbo t4 kit that retains ac? I plan on doing a tubular k member to give myself as much room as possible. And who's got a gta ls swap with digital dash, any tips on what connections I need for ac and gauges..or pretty much same as any other transam?

If you got a turbo ls swapped gta..post it up. I need inspiration for the new money pit.

Few pics of the new summer sleeper.

If you dont have any under hood room, could do a rear mount turbo.

im just barely starting my LS swap on my 91, so im not helpful...

Thats ok lol, The fun of the swap is solving problems. I dont think any of the tubular k member account for ac in the stock ls placement. The turbokit i have will have to be modified or I try fbody stock manifolds flipped to give clearance for ac and rework somethings. Plan is to stay front mount which makes things very tight..which is already is. Where theres a will and a big enough credit card...theres a way. Its only money i dont have :P

*Update*

I just placed my order for the Spohn tubular k member with the tubular control arms. This is noted to allowed for the factory ls1 fbody compressor in the low mount location. My plan is to run the factory compressor or a smaller sanden unit there and have the passenger side manifold modded or a log made to work around that area and incorporate the ac lines etc. My friend who is great with stainless and aluminum welding is going to take this project on. We are thinking of maybe trying to squeeze oval exhaust and bends with many hours of pie cuts to get the exhaust flow I want and fit within a tight space. That might require quite a bit of trickery but im determined to have it all. Front turbo mount, cold ac, and adequate exhaust flow to still keep the motor happy. Its only time and money right?

Anyways heres whats been happening the past month. The drivetrain is out of the grey car now atleast. Time to buy parts over winter.

Shouldn't be too hard to squeeze everything in there. Hit up ls1tech in the conversions section. There's no shortage of interesting creations over there

There is absolutely room for the Air Conditioning Compressor.


My Father frequently would install one just to use for the Intercooler System, when the Vehicle does not even use Air Conditioning.

-Marcello III

So far I haven't come across anyone running ac on a ls swapped transam with the compressor in the factory Fbody location.

That's not exactly going to be found on ls1tech.. Though there are man great builds for sure. But that's why I posed the question here specifically to the 3rdgen crowd.

How hard it will be..thats going to depend my friend to get crafty with pie cuts.. Oval bends and oval to round transitions. Was just hoping to find some good examples to replicate from as what worked for a hotside. And what compressor was used and routing of ac lines.

That would give me a better idea of what to pre-order VS buying piles of parts to cobble something together.. And decrease the Nickle n dime aspect near the end of a build lol.
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Oh yea you'll find it over there. You'll just have to look deep. The nickle and diming, hahaha. It doesn't matter how well laid out you think your plan is there will always be some form of it involved. Good luck

You have to get creative Reggie...

- Rob

Lol I'll rephrase, havent seen many threads of a TURBO swap with forward facing manifolds and ac . Im also running fbody accessories and trying to add al the creature comforts to this build.Ac..cruise control etc, Ive given up on the high hp roll race straight line action. I want to enjoy the car more in the summer everywhere. Tubular k member to take some weight back out of the front,still make 700whp and not sweat my nuts off.

Alot of debate about using the spohn member to give me the clearance for the low mount ac compressor or use the favorited umi and modify something or use a small sanden compressor or custom passenger side manifold to get it done.Time will tell in spring when things start getting bolted on again.

You could use a hooker turbo log manifold and then high mount AC with truck accessories.

You could still use F body accessories

Oh, Well, I still stick by my suggestion. I'm not a fan of tubular K members, so I would notch the factory part, and just plumb around it. It won't be easy, but nothing good ever is.

Sounds like he wants to be spoon fed anyways. He'll have to figure it out like the rest of us. He's not the first to do what he's looking to do and isn't gonna be the last. It's actually fairly simple to get it all in there, the main ingredients for a project like this is time and money

I did more digging and decided to cancel the Spohn and order the Umi. I dont want to run the risk of potentially having the front tires sitting back in the wheel well months after the purchase and not getting support from the manufacturer. I opted to get the tubular control arms also for factory spring setup.

Alot of guys are not fond of tubular k-members for the street due to strength/longevity to crack. I dont plan to daily drive the car but do more summer drives and strip action. Shaving some weight would be nice but Im mainly doing it to gain workable space for both exhaust options and incorporate ac. Figuring out those things out will be more time/money solutions for sure but I have everything else to swap in that has worked well with no real reason to change. Fbody accs gave me enough room for the derale fans/shroud and bigger radiator. I have a spare truck manifold if I need to make another passenger side log with to suit the k-member with the compressor bolted up, I found a compact compressor and bracket to use in the low mount position Im going to try. Ac lines will just get custom made to fit around everything. Should be fun..and maybe pricey with other upgrades to the car i want to do this go around.

Its been a super busy few weeks and I unleashed the flood gates of the wallet to acquire just a few parts to hit this build hopefully in spring. Heres the list what i got so far:

UMI
- tubular lsx k-member and a-arms
- solid engine and transmission mounts
- spherical caster/camber upper strut plates
- lowering springs
- billet tie rod adjusters
- sub frame connectors
- weld in tunnel mounted torque adjustable torque arm

Hawks:
- lsx ac swap lines
- front spring isolators
- poly bump stops
- qa1 front dbl adjustable struts
- qa1 rear dbl adjustable shocks

Rockauto:
- ac receiver/drier
- 4thgen brake master cyl
- ac condenser
- ac evap core
- tire rods and centre link

DirtyDingo:
- low mount sd7 compressor/bracket kit

Aeromotive:
- drop-in fuel pump hanger assembly(swapping to hellcat pump)
- fuel trap door kit :O lol

Strange Engineering:
- S60 pinion seal(mines leaking)

Thats basically everything i got thus far. Im thinking of buying a painless engine harness thats truck length so it will reach into the original tpi ecm location. I had my friend look at the existing car and we decided that once the drivetrain is in the new car and bolt on the ac compressor it will be easier to see how much of the existing hot side we need to use if any..or buy/make log manifold and do a 4" oval downpipe, and from there im going to step up to a 4 inch exhaust all the way back. Thinking of the hawks 4 mufflex dual outlet cat-back and add a 4 qtp e-cutout before the muffler. i also need a slightly smaller/thinner intercooler since my 4 inch core might restrict airflow to the rest of the cooling/ac system.

Aside from all that..Im almost all set to tear down and gut both cars. Im trying to organize tying up my friends shop for about 2 weeks with both cars side by side would be best to knockout majority of the build and then scrap the red car once its a shell.

Welp, Ive torn Torched down to a a semi rolling chassis and had the diffs over rom one to the next. This took way more time than i expected due to the mis matched bolts and fitment issues due to the red car being hit in the front and rear. Eventually I got it sorted and replaced every bolt I got my hands on with new hardware. I struggled big time with the front springs and getting them compressed enough locally to put in the new car. Once i got the suspension pretty much handled, I moved to the front and put most what I needed to get the chassis rolling. The Umi and QA1 parts compliment each other nicely. I had to make a small modification to the front struts to work with the UMI caster plates. There is a sleeve that locates the strut inside the plate but the inside diameter needed to be opened up so that the strut slides all the way through the plate and put the top nut on. Get the 4thgen pedals put in with a 4thgen booster/master and clutch master. The power washed the bay and added some obsidian black pearl subaru paint and 1k clear coat. This thing looks sharp when the flashlight hits it and the blue/green metallic pops out to go with the gunmetal grey of the car. The hard part will be getting it running within the month and figure the ac system wired and working through the ecu. And then ordering up 4' oval pipe and piecuts will put me deep into debt lol.

Heres some plcs where its at now.

Welp after another solid week working on the car ..its not up and running yet..but its fairly close to being able to crank and power everything back up. lets catch up on whats been done since the last post.

I dropped the motor and trans in, both will have solid mounts this time as im tired of melting the poly stuff and the drivetrain was always off centre. I left the motor plates loose on the k-member as I figured it would make aligning things easier(WRONG). The trans was a bear to line up and mount the cross member but I eventually got it. This only made getting the adjustable torque arms even harder to install :P. i fought with trying to tilt the rearend angle down and the trans angle up to get it bolted on and get the trans side mount on. That was a 2hr adventure. once i got the car on the ground, I noticed the frontend was still sitting super high and trying to jounce the car felt like it was metal on metal and barely moved ( gotta revisted that later). I moved to the rear of the car so that i knew everything left to do was front side. This was time to do the heavily debated fuel access cut in the trunk. I got one from Summit and its the perfect size to get my aeromotive hanger assembly in/out. This is easy to put in and made changing pumps a breeze when they go. I need to eventually ditch the oem fuel pump wiring and do a hotwire relay kit to support bigger power to my hellcat pump. While I was back there I decided it was time to switch taillight harnesses and give the car the 91-92 GTA/Firehawk lights. I picked up a set of lights that were slightly delaminated for cheap and added a layer of Vivid headlight tint, which made them look somewhat decent. i didnt spend alot of time on them since the wrap didnt stick well to the small creases. I went to put them in and uh oh..the harness from Hawks was incorrect but they are sending me a new harness so no biggie. I then focused on installing the meth kit in the storage compartment and ran the hose to the front and the aem controlled in the centre console.







Then i swapped to the MGW shifter which I gotta say..its super stiff but makes such a positive shift sound.

With the motr/trans in..now I need to mock up the ac compressor and see how my exhaust needs heavily modified to fit this car. Which its going to be complete revamp of the hotside and cold side but not impossible,just will need alot of heat shielding. I had to cut up bot my manifolds from the previous car..nothing fits as good of the red car


Ripped the bumper off to install the CXracing 82-92 camaro intercooler and piping kits. The 3 inch core size fit up good.



Now its time to start wiring, I got a new painless harness and had to trim the it before installing it in my car, but the end result of trimming it down is solid, i ordered the extra long harness because I wanted to mount the ecu as close to factory as possible. This is where time really escaped me. i fished the harness through the oem hole,I taped it all nicely, need to decipher the poem











stuff (shorten and extend stuff) but that's where I'm at today.

So much tedious to wire and then test of but its close to powering up.

I also received my 4inch oval exhaust and cutout which look great. Installed the rad and new cover.

Anyone ever lose complete interest of finishing a build? I hit that point after thieves tried to take the car and hacked alot of wiring and damaged the digital dash on the car...

Ontario is the problem. Lol

This is my old 87 GTA.... I ls swapped it. Had some family issues pop up, sold it, and this is what the new owner has done to it. If your willing to go fender exit, there is plenty of room for ac lol. I occasionally talk to the old owner and could maybe get you more information if needed.

Ontario is the problem yes, cant change that for awhile.

And I ditched the fender exit in favor of having ac and run a full exhaust to keep the tone down. Fender exits are becoming grounds to have the car impounded here for awhile. No thanks

Well i Posted pictures when I read the build thread title. Just though I'd share images. I live in Florida where a car like this could be openly driven on the streets without any trouble from the law. Good luck!

Yea it's the same here in BC on the other side of Canada. I have a 4" fender dump and cops never bother a guy

Thanks, the exhaust right now is the least of my worries. I had a fender exit for years and alot of dirty cop looks but it was hooked up to a loud valve also ran a full exhaust out back to keep the volume down.

Toronto is cracking down on everything for modded cars. They are catching on to yanking the classic cars and riddle out tickets or seize cars now too. Used to be just the jdm and euro guys getting all the heat for being stanced out and flame burble tunes etc.

Right now Im weighing my options on continuing the build anytime soon or let it be someone elses project.

I honestly don't know how anybody calls Toronto or anywhere in Ontario home. Spent a month working there and couldn't wait to leave and never go back. Y'all need to start raising hell about how cops treat anybody with a hot rod. Cops know they can do whatever they want to you guys and they know nobody will do anything

Well boys and girls..Im Back for a little bit. Ill admit I was extremely defeated after the car was broken into and the mountain of electrical issues came about. I looked to sell the car and all the parts I had for it. The drive was gone after a Miade a big push to building it in the time frame I had and being soo close to the goal for summer just crushed me. After covering it up and stuffing it in my garage..my friends..some of you kept telling me to keep it and eventually get back on the horse.

Well one day it hit me and I said **** it lets make it rn for a few seconds might just revive me. So i got the bare minimums to make it fire for a few seconds. I bought some manifolds..cobbled some wires back together and twisted the key and it came to life. That lead me to calling a friends to dump the car at his shop and complete the fab work for me at his pace. Which brings me to this video of where its at currently. Progress vids will be coming up faster as its close to mounting the turbo in its new home and then piecutting 4 inch oval pip to death but its going to work with ac in the stock ls1 location! I will say..the hawks race exhaust setup..might be overkill with a e-cutout to be stealthy because this is going to flow alot more than my previous system.

Heres a peak at my ideas to help this thing stay cool but have the stock hood vent theme.



Im digging the look. Trackspec S2000 front hood vents and their universal corner vents make a perfect combo imo.
Thoughts?

Interesting. Unique too. They go with the hood.

I agree and I plan to color match them so it doesnt stand out as much

Slow and steady wins the race? Well its been very slow tedious progress the past few weeks. I wont bore you with the details. This update really shows a fraction of the hours my poor friend is sinking into making this kit not only fit, but be easy to service. The ebay manifolds took awhile to iron out how we wanted it to fit compared to my previous setup and eliminate a flex pipe on the crossover pipe. Then we made a plate to mock the turbo and it really showed how much work the oval will take to fit in the passenger side. The BFH wasnt enough and the air hammer got used to shape things around. Once the turbo sat nicely in place..the down pipe became the elephant trunk looking piece of hardware. Most of the exhaust will be aluminum which will be ceracoated inside/out. We thought of grindng the welds down smooth but rather wait till its been heat cycled enough and try to make it pretty once its running. Here are some pics how it looks now.










Oh did I mention the exhaust is aluminum

We are nearing the finish line. The exhaust is 90% complete. The wastegate is the last bit of fab work to finish the piping. The cold side is complete and the plate for the meth nozzles is welded in. I cant count the hours my friend has put into making this system in his spare time after hours at his private shop but it fits tighter than OJ's glove! As I was visiting last week to see progress on the hood also being cut for the vents and we sat down to chat about smaller details on fixing the door etc. I said..with the exhaust pretty much done,the car can run for a few minutes and we can hear what this race muffler sounds like if we hook up the battery. Justin said..i can hang back another 15 mins..lets start this pig!

The car was reluctant to start at first building fuel pressure and oil pressure on a weak battery but after the 3rd crank, Grey Wolf howled a new tone and i instantly was fired up about this car again. The Hawks Sinister 4 inch race muffler may seem like it would be extremely loud on paper but it actually has a nice low tone to it at idle. I was worried I probably wasted money putting the cutout on this system and it would be obnoxious as it stand but it really isnt. Its a clean sounding big muffler...and then once we opened the cutout and gave a baby rev...I could tell just how happy the motor is to breathe now and the turbo whistled through. I was soo distracted while recording I didnt realize I missed most of the video revving the car and getting good sound clips before we shut it down and went home lol. Ill get better footage this weekend. But heres some more sneak peaks of how it stands.

Youve been waiting long enough. My phone camera just doesnt give this exhaust sound the credit it deserves..nor my fabricator!!! Had a slight panic attack when the car wouldnt fire up and seemed to be losing fuel pressure after we buttoned up the wastegate pipe and put all the cold side on. Only to realize.."it aint got no gas in it!" Literally since the dash/body isnt working properly, I thought I had more in it and that hellcat pump sucked the tank dry on the initial start. After a fuel jug run, we opened the cutout and fired the car up to let it truly run for and heat cycle again. Man this sounds good.

With my motivation restored, we continued on to doing the body work on the hood and the driver door lock area which is coming along nicely. The only problem now is the front bumper is very badly aligned from the hood. Its sagging almost half inch from removing the center hood latch support bracket. I think we will need to remove the bumper to make something stiffen it back into place. I also need to find a local paint supply that can whip up some color match spray cans so we can get things looking somewhat decent. I think within the next month, the car might just be coming home and then focus on finish wiring repairs and adding in the other components for the alarm,boost control, meth control etc before I try to have it retuned.

Pictures:

The car is finally home, not without some drama of course.

We got the bumper support fixed, headlights aligned some more, hood vents body work complete, and the door patched back up and primed. Had a local paint supply shop mix up some color match after providing the gas cap that matches the main body panels. Sprayed everything, and its not the greatest match. The camera really makes it look worse than it is but I cant unsee it lol. At the sametime..it does look good from 10ft away and I can live it for now as i plan on getting this car completely resprayed in the oem color eventually.

With the body done, it was time to address other issues that came up from the last video of moving the car. A brake line developed a hole and leaked. The struts seem the be shifting in the mounts, I hear firewall flexing stepping on the clutch or brake pedal So its time to take Wolf home and continue on buttoning the underhood for vacuum lines,minor electrical and then leave the major dash stuff and lights last. Its been taxing on the wallet and my mental stability to get it this far lol.

i got excited i saw the body work around the key hole, and was hoping you were going to weld it up/shave it smooth/remove it..

then i saw the primer pic and got sad ...

Lol sorry to disappoint you. Shaved handles and door poppers look great but after having them on previous cars and installing tons of them back in the early 2000's, thats just not something id want anymore. I do want to get a set of the flush door handles instead color matched.

said nothing about shaving the door handles..
my comment was about the key hole

Same response, still wouldnt do it on my car.

If the key hole was shaved in this instance, the damage the thieves wouldve done to get into the car would have been worse breaking the window or prying the door between the door to cut the striker.