(Photographer's Snapchat: JP_DoezIt )

1988 Chevy Camaro - V6 - T5 Manual
(Swapping to 5.3 LS with LSA blower and T56 Magnum F)

We'll I've only been planning and slowly working on this for the last 3 years.
Finally the time has come to engage in this build.
This thread will be a record of work in doing this swap as well as a place to answer any questions and for me to give any insights along the way.

The quick backstory:
My first car was a 89 Camaro RS. v6 with the 700r4, hardtop.
I was 16 at the time and the car had 64k on the odometer. It was flawless other then the paint needing to be redone as the Florida sun had done no favors.
The summer after I got the car, my father, grandfather, uncle, and I painted it. To this day people still tell me it was the best painted car they've ever seen.
Sadly one night coming home from work a person pulled out from a stop sign and ran into me.
The car was totaled and that ended that.

Now I'm close to 40 and I've never lost the love for the 3rd gen platform.
I've owned many sports cars over the years, a 4th gen Camaro, a FD RX7, a BRZ, a FRS, a Cobalt SS/SC....so on. But I've always come back to my first car love.
So now after years of piecing together every part and finding the right body, here we are.


Project Fenrir:
(Fenrir the monstrous wolf of Norse Mythology.
Fated on the day of Ragnarok to break free of his chains and devour the god Odin.)

Couldn't think of a more fitting name.
An unassuming little V6 going from wimp to beast of a machine.
I purchased the car running but shortly after buying it the engine gave out.
I wasn't yet ready to begin the swap so lucky I had a 2.8 from another 3rd gen and just swapped motors out so I could enjoy it as is.
After a tune up, a few mods were done in preparation for the big swap. That mainly being switching the seats to 5th gen Camaro Leather seats. Putting a set of new Torque Thrust M's on it.
And sourcing a cowl hood. This was most critical as the swap will include an LSA blower.
I've enjoyed the car as it came from the factory for a few years. I've even done a performance benchmark to compare from stock to modified later.

Here are the results:
0-60 mph - 11.0 Seconds
60ft - 2.50 Seconds (peg leg rear, even on good tires and launching as hard as possible ((nearly 5k RPM) with no tire squeal the 60ft is just horrendous)
1/8 mile - 11.32 Seconds
1/4 mile - 17.71 Seconds

As far as I can tell this is pretty much inline with what a 2.8 v6 was doing off the factory line.

So lots of room for improvements.
Lets start listing them:

5.3 LM7 Truck motor -
Gen 3 crankshaft
Gen 4 rods
Summit LS Forged Pistons
Sloppy mechanics "Best Cam"
LS9 head gasket
Trickflow GenX 215 heads
Sharp Roller Rockers
Melling Oil Pump
ICT Billet Accessory brackets for LSA

LSA -
Hand ported
Griptech 2.38 pulley
Zl1 lid with reinforced brick
EWP150 Coolant Pump

T56 Magnum F-
Tick performance Shifter
Tick performance Slave Cylinder

Quick Performance 9in Rear -
3.89 posi
35spine
LS1 style brakes

Exhaust -
Speed Engineering Long tubes
Hawks Sinister 4in with Hooker Max flow muffler

Suspension / Brakes -
UMI Tubular Race K member
UMI Wonder bar
Speedway Tubular A Arms
Founders Performance Caster/Camber Plates
Founders Performance Adjustable TQ arm
Founders Performance Adjustable Panhard bar and Relocation bar
BMR Lower Control Arms
BMR 1.5in Drop Springs
Hawks T56 Crossmember
Big Brake Upgrade spindles - Ls1 calipers
Russel brake lines
JEGS Quick Ratio Steering Box
JEGS Subframe Connectors

Fuel -
Aeromotive In-Tank Fuel assembly Hanger
Walbro 450lph pump
Holley corvette style fuel filter/regulator
Deatschwerks Fuel injectors - (93lb at 58psi)

Interior -
Haltec Rebel LS Ecu
Vintage Air Surefit A/C
Speedhut electrical to mechanical speed box


I think that does it.
I'll add more if I recall later.
I have to give a big shoutout to LSXMatt, as a lot of the planning was based on his own LSA swapped Camaro.
Also big shoutout to 3rd Gen Guy who's informational videos have been a total god send.
Shoutout to Fireball****** as well and generally to all the Youtube 3rd gen content creators.
As well as this forum.
It's because of communities like this that people like me can find the info we need.

I'll need to start going through and arranging pictures of the disassembly and build to post later tonight.
Sorry for the long post, look forward to answering any questions.

 

Going to be a fun car and a fun build.

 

Thanks!
So much to do.
Lets catch up to where I'm at now.
As stated I picked up a GoodMark cowl hood. The lid from a ZL1 sits high enough a cowl hood is needed to clear.
I planned on buying a new one if possible, but ended up getting a good deal on a used one. The car will be completely stripped and repainted after the swap is complete. Probably sometime next year.
In the meantime I painted the hood with color correct paint spray. I won't have access to a paint booth until next year so had to wait for a good cloudy windless day.
It didn't come out too bad all things considered. The needed section of the cowl hood was cut out to make room for the intercooler hose lines.




While I was at it, went to billet hinges for the trunk lid and sanded down then repainted the trim pieces back to satin black.



Come time to start the job, and of course I took a ton of pictures in the engine bay so I could reference later anything needed for fitment.
This engine bay isn't winning any awards anytime soon. Don't worry, we'll be fixing that.
Say goodbye to the old 2.8.

 

Full disassembly commences.
Anything and everything is being pulled out of the engine bay.
Essentially almost nothing taken out will be put back in.
Dropped the engine from the bottom by removing the k member bolts and transmission crossmember bolts.
Just as she was put in from the factory. A lift would of been nice, but got the job done with a cheery picker/engine hoist.
She's crusty in a couple places but thankfully nothing to major to fix.
Just a side note to others dropping out the bottom. I had to remove the alternator as it wouldn't clear the subframe coming down. Your mileage may vary but it's something I had to do.
I'm just thankful the floor pans are all in one piece. T Tops are nice...until they're not.



And with that we roll the old 2.8 and T5 out and get them out of the way.



A little sneak peek in the background of what's to come.

 

Pulled the wiring harness out from the C100 connector to the ECU. Getting the wires to come out the passenger fender was surprisingly easy enough.


It'll be trimmed and shorten down to just the basics in time.
I will be retaining the original dash and gauge cluster. So a few connections will remain.

Engine bay is looking pretty bare now.



The interior starts to come apart now.
I will be putting a Vintage air a/c system in.



Next up I pulled the rear end out and dropped the fuel tank.
Fuel lines and brake lines were taken out.
At this point the underside of the car is essentially bare also.
The underside will be wire wheeled, cleaned up, prepped, and then painted with Eastwood's Encapsulator plus product.
But first the fuel tank needs to be addressed.

 

I had planned on doing a tank sealer but after pulling the ring and taking the hanger assembly out.
Well, the inside of the tank was pretty much perfect. The grey coating on the inside was in great shape and I saw no reason to do any type of sealer given it's state.
The outside on the other hand. Years had not been kind. Wire wheel, sanding, and a good scrub later. I was ready to Por15 the outside of the tank.




As always, make sure to follow the directions for using Por15.
Metal prep solution must be used before the Por15 to get the best adhesion.

Once the tank was done it was time to start assembly on the fueling system.
I picked up an Aeromotive in-tank hanger assembly. It will make running fuel lines much easier.
I really wish they sold them with out the fuel pump included to save a few dollars.
You get 2 options. a 200lph and a 320lph version. For my goals a 320 would not be enough. I opted instead to go with a Walbro 450lph pump instead.
Swapping the pumps on the hanger was simple enough. And in she goes.



Afterwards I measured and made the outlet and inlet fuel lines to run to the fuel filter/regulator.
PTFE stainless steel lines from Evil Energy. -6an outlet and inlet. From the filter it will go to -8an to the fuel rail.
Of course wanted to test the pump and also test for leaks in the line. Put fresh gas in the tank and then pumped it into my lawn mower.



With a successful test concluded I began to bundle and run the wires as needed.



Speaking of wiring...

 

As seen in the earlier image the wiring harness is quite a mess.
For most people including my self at first, it seems daunting.

But as long as you do a ton of reading and think it through its not as bad as it seems.
First things, first is the lay the wire loom out and cut out or remove all the old sheathing.


From the C100 connector you'll trace any and all wires you need for the swap.
The left side of the connector will be untouched mostly as this is the connections for the lights and wiper motor.
The right side is the primary engine connections. This is where you'll be doing most of the trimming and depinning from the connector.
The biggest two you will be keeping are going to be the large red wires going into the C100 connector.
These bring power from the connection point on the starter into the interior.
Everything else beyond that will be user specific. If you don't intend to keep gauges then a lot of the C100 connections can be de-pinned and removed.
Everything coming from the ECU side of connections will be removed or unused as well.
Check the forum for your models specific layout. The connections change between years and models.

After tracing wire colors and labeling connections I began to de-pin and remove unnecessary pieces.



Eventually what was a giant bundle of mess will end up possibly as simple as this.



Just to show how much you'll have left over, here is was was left of the unused portion of the harness.

 

Underside cleaned up and painted.
Fuel tank back in and lines ran as desired.
Cleaned up and painted the heat shields before putting the QP 9' in.
Koni rear shocks went in easy and the LS1 brake lines from Hawks worked perfectly after I realized I needed the backing plates that go on the LCA connector.
Otherwise simple enough install. Test fitted the 4' exhaust from Hawks and with the Founder's Performance relocation bar it fits really well. Subframe connectors were installed.
Here is the rear end sans the exhaust.



Next up I needed to do sound deadening on the firewall.
Per Vintage Air's instructions the old firewall mat can not be reused as space is extremely tight.
After doing some research I settled on the Amazon brand for various reasons. Testing showed it performed just as well and in some cases better then the big name products.
I'm not a fan of the branding marks all over it but thankfully once the dash is back on it will not be seen.



Before I could go any further with the vintage air install I first needed to address the engine bay.
A lot of wire wheel, sanding, cleaning, and prep had to go into place.

 

I started by taping off the engine bay.


Many hours of work later I was ready to hit it with primer.
Once the primer had dried I wet sanded it to semi smooth with 600grit.


After I was satisfied with the work I went to town on the paint followed by the clear coat.



While I was at it I primed then painted the cover plate that comes from Vintage air. It covers the old AC access holes on the firewall.



All in all I think it came out really good, especially for rattle can.

 

Looks like its already coming along nicely.

 

Thanks!
It's been a labor of love so far.

Now that engine bay was painted I could continue on with the vintage air install.
First by putting the cover plate over. I had already cut and trimmed the ring piece and the weld nut they have you take off before the bay was painted.
I started to put the brake booster and windshield wiper back on for test fitting also.


The ac and heater hoses were ran to the inside and the interior plate was installed.
I added an extra access hole and grommet to run the positive and negative cables for the Haltech Rebel LS.



Once the lines are ran the A/C unit was placed in. They are not kidding...the fitment is tight.
I'm hoping it won't interfere with the radio installation later.



Before that I installed the Hawks DBW adapter plate. Future note....this came back to bite me when putting the steering column back in. With the brake pedal reinstalled there is not enough room to work the columns triangle brace back to the firewall. It requires taking the brake pedal back off or taking the DBW bracket off. Both of which are a pain in the tight space you have.


The doubler bracket for the brake booster is sold by 3rd Gen Guy on YouTube. After getting the clutch in and testing it I am surprised how much the firewall does indeed flex.

 

Well now, talk about "fun".
Guess its time to debut the big boy.




I've had this engine sitting ready to go for almost 2 years now.
Can't lie the excitement has me pumped.
It was finally time to try and set this in the car. First thing first though needed to mount the Magnum up.
The slave had already been shimmed and the clutch and plate installed. Went with a Monster clutch as part of a Tick promotional deal when I got the slave cylinder from them.



With everything tq'd to spec it was time to do it.
Hindsight 20/20 and all it would of been so nice to have a lift in my shop.
But that just wasn't a reality for me and you make do with what you have.
The real question was going to be could I get the front end high enough to clear the Supercharger or would it need to come off?

It was quite a sight...but with the rear on cribs it was "just" and I mean "just" barely able to squeeze under the car.
As it stands my cribs are set to 12inchs when cradled and 13.5 when turned. I was very close to calling it and turning my cribs to get just another inch if needed.
But thankfully it did in the end go under with out major issue.



Another hindsight, while I was able to do this by myself.
I really should of had a second hand helping.
The older I get the more I feel it when I get up and down, over and over off the floor.

Now onto the next fun part. Pulling the engine and trans up into the body, hooking the K-member up and the trans mount.

 

Cool project and documentation. What's your plan for the exterior - keeping stock-ish?

 

Thanks, it's been a trip so far.
Far as outside, I plan to repaint the car to bring back it's vibrance. Its been repainted at least once before I bought the car.
I debated (and still am kind of) going to the RS spoiler but the mini spoiler that's unique to this year has kind of grown on me. You don't see or at least I don't see many of the small spoilers left.
I had custom Camaro badging made for the rear bumper and LSX badging for the rocker panels made. I'll post them up when I get time to grab a snap shot of them. Other then paint and badging no intentions to do anything else exterior at this time.

 

Pulling the engine and trans up was surprisingly not difficult to do.
A chain hooked to two bolts in the front heads and the jack on the rear of the trans crossmember. This allowed me to slowly bring both sides upwards and line the k member positioning tabs into the guide holes.



I ran into a slight issue. As has been reported by others the magnum F does indeed sit back a few more inches than the stock T5 did. And this is with my engine in the forward most position on the K member bracket.



Thankfully I was able to trim the tunnel at the back right up to the welded bracket piece and this allowed the shifter to clear.



I will have to either try to modify the boot cover or do something to shore up the large hole and insulate from road noise going forward.
As an aside the wiper motor as has been stated by others will not work. I read somewhere if the engine is moved forward it can clear but for me this was not the case. I have the engine in the forward most position on the k member and it doesn't clear. My only option is to clearance the tab on the blower so it fits in place. Or do like LSXMatt did and go to the Altima motor instead. I would like to retain the low/high and park feature so I will clearancing the tab to make it work.

But finally she's in and bolted to the frame.



I do have to change the power steering pulley as it just touches the Power steering box.
After some reading it seems everyone does the Dorman 300-202 pulley and that should take care of the issue.
The founder TQ arm mounted up without any problems and once I have all the wheels back on and the car sitting level I'll check driveline pinion angle and set accordingly.

Next step is to mount the A arms and put the new springs, spindles, and struts on. Run the brake lines bleed them. Start routing the wiring harness for the Rebel LS, and start filling all the fluids.
Drive shaft from PST who is somewhat local to me will be going in.
Getting into the home stretch now. But as usual, the old saying goes. 80% of the work takes place in the last 20% of the build.

 

Custom Badging:



Slowly working along. A arms, spindles, struts, and springs have been installed. Brake lines routed and steering linkage hooked up.
Replaced the power steering pulley to clear the steering box. Made up new braided lines for the power steering and started making lines for the intercooler plumbing.



Electrical wiring is slowing coming along. Fans are wired into the Haltech Rebel now and the Intercooler pump is also now wired in.
Trans has been filled with Dex III the clutch has been filled and bled and so has the brakes.
Waiting on a/c lines from Vintage so I can finish hooking it up and splicing the Interchiller system into it. If I'm lucky I might be able to start her in the next week or two.

Still a ton to do. Since I'm keeping the stock gauges I have a speedhut speedbox to drive the mechanical speedometer and that needs to be wired in also.
So much more to do but slowly starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Quite a project you've taken on.

Hope it's not to late in your mind, but I would not suggest trying to control fuel pressure with a Vette filter/reg. I know they are simple, but a 450 lph pump will probably overwhelm it. A good adjustable return style reg would be more reliable.

 

Ah, yeah I went back and forth on that for some time.
I liked the idea of a single fuel line running up to the front. I tend to be very careful about fuel and brakes when it comes to cars.
Typically anything else can fail and your probably fine. Brakes go bad or fuel goes wrong....usually not fun. So I try to keep those systems as simple as allowable.

I ended up finding Holley makes a corvette style regulator and they say it supports up to a 450lph pump.
After looking over the Walbro specs on the pump at 58psi at 13.5V they say it outputs 381lph.
I should be well under the Holley max suggestion.
If I'm wrong in that assumption I'll know pretty quickly. I do have a fuel pressure sensor on the fuel rail.

Thanks for the word of advice!
I appreciate feedback and if you or anyone knows where I might be wrong in my understanding I'm happy to take advice!

 

Gotcha. I did see you said "Holley corvette style fuel filter/regulator", but hadn't looked into their offering any further and just assumed it behaved like the "factory corvette fuel filter/regulator." Assuming you can trust Holley's specs, you should be fine.

 

You can deadhead an AFPR and run a single line to the engine bay, but it's not the best idea, esp boosted. The regulator is most effective when close to the fuel rails
Dedicated feed/return are preferable for high powered fuel systems

five7kid, good to see you're still around. Hope all is well

 

Big progress since last update!

Firstly, got the wiring in the engine bay all buttoned up.
0/1ga wiring going from alternator to starter to battery post. In line fuse of 300amp.
The Haltech Rebel has a 4ga wiring going to the post. In line 100amp fuse.
The vintage air is now wired up on the exterior.

Moving onto the interior wiring is the next step with progress being made there as well.
Initial boot up of the Rebel and calibrating the DBW pedal and throttle went smoothly.
I have a AEM 5in dash a buddy gave me and of course had to put a custom screen on it.
I'll be using the stock gauges in the car but will have this unit to the side for digital info.



Some of the wiring will include adding cruise control.
The Haltech allows for built in cruise control so I ordered some buttons for the various inputs as well as a ecu enable/disable "kill switch".



I'm in the home stretch now.
I do have some modifications to make on the dash carrier though.
This Camaro was a non-ac from the factory.
I added a/c from a parts car I have lying around as a temp solution but didn't swap the dash carrier. Instead only using the center vents for the time being.
Mainly as I didn't want to pull the carrier at the time and try to swap the Ac box's. I didn't want to have to run vacuum lines for the a/c box over the non-ac box's control cables.
Now the time has come to swap out and I find the parts car's dash is completely split in half and chunks missing in places. Totally unusable. -_-

I've looked around local to me but no one has a intact a/c dash at the moment and I'm needing to find a solution.
The non-ac dash's don't have the provision to mount the vents. But...thankfully they do have the tabs that the ac vent boxes connect to.
So after whipping out the dremel and cutting one outlet out and looking....




I came to the conclusion this could be doable. I can get the piece I need. Plastic glue it to the a/c vent box and then mount to the non-ac dash after cutting the fill plates out.

Here's the current mockup.


Some cleaning up and I think it's presentable.
Down side is the vent is not flush with the panel and sits just a little recessed into the hole.
But if that's the only downside I'm fine with it till I can find a proper a/c dash in great condition.

 

Cool build! Anything else going to be applied to the wheel wells after that encapsulator?

 

I haven't had a chance to really look into what options I have and decide on what I want to do with that just yet.
I do want to do something with the wheel wells just don't know yet.
I'm open to suggestions!

 

Years ago I read that U-POL was a good candidate for wheel wells but I have no idea if that is true.
When I get to that stage I plan to do a deep dive into seeing if something offers something specifically for this, or if people use truck bedliner or something else.

 

Bad *** 🤘

 

Been awhile since last update.
Holidays and family health issues on my wife's side has been taking up time for the last month.
Lots of progress though!

The engine has been fired up for the first time since last reported.


First test drive went pretty good, just a quick jaunt around the block and back.
Found a few things out of that. The BMR springs on the front can not handle the weight of an iron block LS and a LSA blower.
Spring travel was nearly bottomed out. Barely able to fit a finger between the fender and the tire.
Exhaust was just hung to be able to take it around the block.

So, I went ahead and went to UMI Weight jacks. 1050lb spring. This brought the front end back up and I was able to level out the front to rear.
Rides soooooo much better now.
So far I've been impressed with the Haltech Rebel.
My brother in law came down for the holidays and being a far better welder than I, he was able to weld the V band flanges onto the headers and we got the exhaust squared away.
Hood was fitted back on, thankfully my measurements were spot on and hood closed with out having to recut anything for fitment. Big thanks to LSXMATT for his videos as that helped me estimate how much I needed to cut the cowl hood to fit.

Interior is starting to go back together now that wiring is finished.


My father was kind enough to 3d print a bracket for the AEM dash screen.
All the stock gauges are functioning (though I may need to look at fuel level as while the tank is full the needle is pegged to the top).
Cruise control has been setup and works great.

At this point its finishing up the radio and speaker install, fixing some odds and ends.
I have to reroute the ac line as its a bit close to the header.
I've done a bit of driving shaking things down and then finally...well...
I can say......third gear pull the rear end wants to start coming out at the top of the RPM range.

 

Great update! Always happy to see progress on big comprehensive builds.
Keep up the great work!