Hey guys,

I just picked up this car Thursday, been a lurker here reading up on some of y'all's projects, and I gotta say, I haven't seen a car on these boards that I haven't been impressed with. Good Job!

I got this car with a project in mind. I'm wanting to do a 5.3 Turbo-project with her, with a built auto or manual transmission behind it. I'm still not sure as far as far as the transmission goes, but I know what I want out of the motor.

She came with a 3.1 V6 Auto when I brought her home. I've seen places saying this is a factory equipped motor, but I don't know if it was a swap or if it's factory, so I'm just going to assume that it's a factory motor (no one ever really swaps down, am I right? lol.

She's pretty clean, only a couple rust spots that are easily patched or fixed, but I do have to weld in a new floor-board under the driver's seat. Floor rotted through there, and the seat dips. The piece of board straddling the rot is working fine for now, but even with these issues, I still came out ahead. I traded my 1987 Honda Accord LX-i 5-speed, straight across for it.

I've got a few ideas in mind for her as far as motor goes, but you could always throw in suggestions!

Here's a couple pictures of her, plus a couple edited pictures (just putting a black-and-white/exposure tweak):

 

Edits:

 

car looks good a little work and it will defanetly be a nice car

 

Thanks, definitely can't wait to get the project started.

 

Project has officially started. I picked up a front bumper cover off Craigslist. He wanted $130, I told him $120 and he'd have a deal, so he agreed, I came home with the bumper, sanded it down, did an emblem shave (mainly because the emblem was broken), sanded again, and shot it with some primer black. Not done with it yet, as I had to get ready for work by the time I had the last coat of primer black on.

When I get home, I'm probably gonna lightly sand again, but will likely wait on finishing it until tomorrow. It's last coat is going to be Satin finish clear. I left the headlight buckets gloss black, and the look should set it off. Can't wait to see what it looks like, and I can't wait to get my hands on a set of decent fenders. That's when I get to put the bumper on .

Anywho, here are some pictures.

These three photos are pictures of the defects/damage found on the original bumper, you can see in these photos why I'm replacing the bumper.

 

Here are pics of the replacement bumper and the mini project that I'm working on for it.

 

Hmm. Seems a bit quiet in here. Not very fun for a build thread. Heh.

 

ohh you know ill be watching it dude!

 

Yes I do, lol.

 

So Sunday I went up to Sioux City to pick up my fenders, I paid $80 for them, and the guy threw in a rear bumper, but it turns out it's for a Camaro without the ground effects, so that's a bummer.

I don't have any pics of the fenders on my computer, but I had to scrub off some rust. Once that was done, I painted and clear-coated the fenders and I got around to putting them on the car last night. Here's the after pics, the before pics are earlier in this thread, of course.







Here shortly the car will be painted to match the bumper and fenders, I like that color better (Walmart brand matte-black and Krylon Crystal Clear Satin-finish Clear coat).

 

you need a different hood

 

Why's that?

 

How many shade of black this car has lol

 

Lol just two, the black I got it with, and the black I put on lol

 

Nice hood!

 

I guess I don't get it? lol. What's with all the attention on my hood? lol

 

Nothing is wrong with the stock flat hood. I'd keep it flat and actually be different from everyone else - haha imagine that! If my engine would fit under a flat hood I would probably run one, or at least the IROC hood.

Keep up the good work!

 

Thanks! Well, it largely depends in the direction I go motor-wise. I'm debating between a turbo'd 327, a NA 454 at around 700 hp or so, or a 454 with a single turbo.

 

Well, I haven't done too much, I got a new spoiler end for the passenger side, it's painted up and ready to be put on. I'm respraying the car gloss-black for now, I'll go with a better paint job at a later date.

Still have yet to do:
1.) Install new spoiler end (it's in pristine condition)
2.) Straighten out the passenger side quarter panel
3.) Chip out some bondo cracks and re-fill (until I can get around to actually replacing the quarter panel
4.) Cut out the rotted floor-pan on the driver's side and weld in a new one.
5.) Get ignition **** figured out, installed, and put the interior back together
6.) Replace headliner (Or take it out and figure something else out, but I'm not sure.

That's the simple stuff. I have decided on a power-plant and drive-train.

I'm going to go with a 350, build it up with forged internals, better cam, port and polish heads, or buy better ones (maybe port and polish them, too), slap a pair of Turbo's on it (one at first to see where it's at and see if I like it, if not I'll put the second on there) and set 'em around 8-10 psi (this is a maybe, I'm not even totally sure how for I'm pushing it), on a TPI system, tune for obvious reasons, injectors, pump, etc...

T56 manual conversion, probably going to go with the clutch assembly from a 4th gen, trans too most likely, built up for the torque.

Ford 9" posi rear with 3.73's or higher ratios.

 

Sounds good. If you are going to turbo it I would get the GM crate motor 260 HP 350. Use the low compression GM aluminum heads.

 

I've got a motor lined up that I'm going to slap some low-compression, good flowing heads on.

 

Seems like your busy for sure and will be a cool car when done. Are you going to paint the car for real or just leave it spay bombed

 

It'll get a real one towards the finish-mark. Gloss black with silver stripes

 

Hey guys, got an update for y'all. Hit a tight-spot in money and I really needed to sell something...

Ah ha, scared ya didn't I? No, I really did have to sell something... I sold the 3.1/700R4 combo out of her, lol.

Had to pull it out a little sooner than I would have liked, but now I am just that much closer to getting my 350 in there (still have to buy it.) Guy called me for the motor and wanted it today, so I pulled it last night. I've got some pics for y'all, and a few candid ones of me and some accidents that came from brain-farts. Hope you enjoy the pics.

This one is after I started unhooking all the lines, components that would get in the way, etc.:


The exhaust... well, let's just say that it was worthless. When I cut it off the car, just the impact alone broke the flange off the cat. I just had to lift on it to separate. (And I had to pound the drive-shaft back into the trans to get it to come off the pumpkin.):


I still kinda laugh about how the little 3.1 looks like a huge motor from the front:


And of course, the car had to fight me the whole way. Just my luck with vehicles, I suppose:


But back to what I was saying, yeah, she's pretty tiny when looking past the facade:

 

I think after all of this nonsense with EFI, I'm just going to save myself a headache and just go carb'd. But I could also make my own harness... Hmm.:


Well, out she comes. I forgot about borrowing a spreader bar, so we ended up using a come-along to level it. Before leveling:


Had to move the car back a little:


And after leveling. Had to make do with what we had, lol.:


One of the brain-farts I had. Forgot to drain the tranny, so ended up with a large puddle on the floor. Was a little burnt.:

 

Yeah, she's a little dirty, has had a rear-main out for quite some time. Oh well, not my problem anymore. And got $250 that I really needed out of it, so no complaints.:


Still got some gutting to do on the car yet, but she'll get there. She won't be driven in the cold, nor rain if I can help it, but I think I'm going to leave the wipers on just in case I get rained on on the way home from a cruise or something.:


And here she is, patiently awaiting her V8 suspension up front, a Ford 9" rear 3.55's or 3.73's on posi (Suggestions? Thinking about running lower, too, but not sure.) 350, T56, and all that wonderful stuff. I'm really thinking about going aftermarket K-member.:

 

Yea, definitely looks burnt. I'm a fan of the "mad max" look to the car.

 

I'm just in love with the black on black. Just wish it could be black on black on black, lol. Stupid gray interior... ha.

 

that's not difficult to change...

 

No, indeed it isn't lol

 

Hey looks good, don't know if you ever changed motor mounts on one of these beast. It's a huge pain, it's easy to do with two people, one from top one from bottom. Just get a long box wrench for the bottom. And some grease to hold the washer in place lol. Did mine with the short block in so yours should be way easier. But you got a nice starting point to work with. Looking good

 

Thanks, man, I'm tryin'!

I think I'm going to run an after-market K-member, the passenger-side mount points were pushed back in the car a little bit, car hit a curb pretty hard at one point in time. Still drives a straight line, but it wants to pull to the right. Subframe isn't bent, just the holes where the bolts go got distorted.

Like I said, almost $2K and I'll be able to do it myself with no issues. lol.

Again, thank you, I try. I'm proud of this car, the work I've put into her so far, well, the way it means to me just can't be described. lol. This is probably the first car that I've put as much work into. I've spent so much time on it, I've forgotten the rest lol.

 

it's good to start a build thread. to remind yourself of the progress when you get bummed you're not driving it. promise, it'll happen. look in my sig and you'll see my build thread. goes to show that the cars can go a long way with time, effort and $$. only advice i'd say is while you have it apart, clean everything you want, paint everything you want and don't settle for a motor just to get it driving. go after the setup you want the first time. kind of wish i would have done an LS swap myself. but my N/A 550hp small block 400 is not to bad. good luck, anxious to see the end product.

 

T56

 

Question, do I even need the coolant over-flow tank?

 

You will lose coolant, just use a 20oz Mountain Dew bottle

 

What if I run aftermarket radiator? Trashed mine yesterday

 

I have a few other questions too, I'm pretty sure I know what I need, but I wanna run it buy you guys to see if I'm missing something.

Aftermarket tubular K-member (*)
Sub-frame connectors (*)
Trans-mount/cross member (*)
Trac-bar (*)
Ford 9" rear 3.73 w/ posi unit
Aftermarket sway bars (*)
350
Forged rotating assembly
Decent flowing heads (*)
Decent intake suitable for a blow-through carb (*)
T56 Race-built trans good for 1000tq
Clutch assembly [pedals from a 4th gen, anything decent aftermarket?(*)]
52mm turbo x2 with all the piping, wastegates and BOV's, t4 flanges, modified shorty-headers. (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)


(*) = Suggestions on your favorite manufacturer/distributor? lol

 

Well, got my motor.

5.3 out of a 2000 silverado, with 114k on the clock. Turns freely by hand with a socket wrench, but feels kinda gritty, so I'm going to rebuild it. Paid $550 for the complete engine, and another $150 for the complete harness (was cut for removal, but easy to put back together), computer, and fusebox. Truck it came out of was wrecked.

 

now we are GETTING SOMEWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

Haha right? Took long enough but it's happening!

 

so far so good man. i'll be keeping an eye on this

 

Thank you. Now to go do some more research on how some of these people got these motors into these cars. I heard it was LS1 mounts, and I'm pretty sure that's true, so...

 

So I seem on one of these threads that the truck computer and harness won't work. Why? My buddy's got a friend who put the same motor into a BMW and he used the truck computer and harness...?

 

Starting to look like a motor now, and not a pile of transformer vomit! lol



I'd upload more, but my computer wants to be a pile of **** tonight...

 

Finally got around to pulling the motor apart. Got moved into my new place last week, so happily I get to have the Camaro with me.

Turns freely, but binds. I'm thinking it might be that it's trying to lift the valves (I'm not turning it very hard) but I'm going to pull the heads sometime this weekend to look everything else over. Didn't see any metal shavings in the oil or pan, and everything looks pretty decent so far.

 

We'll start with the engine pics, because I feel like I got a lot accomplished this weekend in finding out the condition of my motor. Not the greatest, but definitely usable/fixable (Not so many pics, because they're alll more-or-less the same):












All wrapped up in its' condom, lol.



Just took some parts that I won't be needing off, minus reservoir (I still need that so it's off, but not going in the trash):

 

I'm gonna drive over to CB and slap you if you don't paint that engine bay while the motor is out.

BTW it's J2evvin from SCR. Glad to see you got yourself a 5.3

Also, even with an aftermarket radiator you will need an overflow tank.

 

If you're on Omaha Rides, I'm there too, LJ90RS.

I just need to pressure wash the bay out and remove some more stuff but I plan on it.