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OMG, the inside of that engine looks like someone did their oil changes with foundation coating instead oil oil. Anyways, great work and I wish I had half the drive that you do.
The bad part is that the engine had less than 150k miles. I heard the engine run before I bought it and it was quiet as can be. I didn't expect it to look that bad inside.
Originally Posted by razor99
Wow, that car has come a long way! Very nice work, that's quite a revival so far. I will definitely be following this thread for future updates
I'm also trying something I've never used before. I didn't take before pics but we all know what our factory k members look like. Rusty and filthy.
I sanded and sandblasted most of the rust off and I'm soaking the k member in oshpho. We have an older guy at work who's a welder and swears by it. Worst case scenereo it reacts with the paint and I have a rusty k member again. I could live with that, but I don't think I'll have a problem.
I didn't take the engine bay down to metal except in spots that had rust, and after the coat of primer dried I could still see spots where it transitioned from bare metal to factory paint or primer. I considered spraying base color anyway because I'm not sure if it would even be visible with the engine in the car or not.
I ended up heading to the parts store first thing this morning for a quart of surfacer.
Learned a lot today. If I was doing this again I wouldn't have had the regulator at the gun and I would have bought a smaller cup. Those tight spaces aren't the easiest to spray.
New struts and mounts, primer, and door hinge kit. Installed struts and rolled the car out.
First time seeing it in the sun.
Realized I got in a hurry and forgot to install engine mounts before i installed control arms...
...whatever. I've put em in this way before, I'll do it again.
It's just a 4.8 but it opens up my options in the future for a bigger ls. I actually know most of the history for this drivetrain. The donor truck was my fathers, he left it to my brother, who I then purchased it from. The 4l60e was rebuilt in 2012/2013. I know the engine was religiously maintained when my father owned it, and I know it ran great right up until I plucked it from the truck. At 275hp, it's a big improvement over the tbi 350 that was in this car.
This is under the valve cover. Much better than the last engine. Lol
Im still scrubbing the engine. Dirt roads and a few oil leaks made a mess.
Don't be too hard on your phone's camera. Red can be REALLY hard to photograph properly. My car is dark red and depending on light, camera settings, the phases of the moon, etc it can look anywhere from the color of red wine to burnt ATF.
Finally got it clean, block painted. Installed f body oil pan and pick up tube, modified the truck windage tray to fit. New lifter valley, front/rear cover and oil pan gaskets.
Went with the cheap (car shop brand I think) ls adapter plates. Had to trim the right side clamshell a bit to make it work but no big deal.
I still need intake gaskets so it's just sitting there. I've got some left over silver base coat I used on a friends truck and considered using it on the intake but I think a new coat of flat/matte black will look better. Balancer is coming back off for paint too.
The 4l60 isn't in the car yet. I'm hoping to go in with it this weekend so I can get an idea of what needs to be done for the crossmember.
Car is coming along very well I think. That Buick engine looks like something we used to see back in the 60s with vent tubes and whale oil. Pretty decent looking truck for a donor, but nice to know the engine's history for sure. Interesting to see under the rear quarter too, no rust at all and clean. You located out of the snow belt? Keep us posted.
Car is coming along very well I think. That Buick engine looks like something we used to see back in the 60s with vent tubes and whale oil. Pretty decent looking truck for a donor, but nice to know the engine's history for sure. Interesting to see under the rear quarter too, no rust at all and clean. You located out of the snow belt? Keep us posted.
The donor truck was in really good shape other than the front suspension/steering. And the fact that there was no title.
Im located in the south. Still see a lot of rust on these t top cars from what I saw when 3rd gen hunting, not as bad as some I see on this forum though. Also, there was some rust behind the quarter panel. It wasn't much but it did make me wonder about the other side. I definitely took care of what rust I found.
Got the 4l60e installed and modified the factory crossmember. I did this back in November. At some point I rolled the car out of the shop and under my carport and covered it with a car cover. I hadn't had much interest in touching it lately until about a week ago when I lifted up the car cover.
Seeing all the shiney got me motivated again.
labled everything. Removed unneeded wires and connectors. Laid the harness out as it would lay from the factory..
This is how I originally planned to do it. I planned to mount the ecm on the driver side battery tray then run my intake to that side and cover it up. As soon as it was mocked up I knew I couldn't deal with those wires.
Currently working on lengthening each connection one by one and routing the wires inside where I will mount the ecm under the dash.
I'm also planning on playing with some fiberglass on that air/heater box. I'm gonna need clearance over the valve cover and I plan to close it up because I won't be running a/c any time in the near future.
The car keeps getting pushed out of the shop for other jobs. I've got it back in and ordered some parts.
I'm hoping I have everything I need to make it run. I'm hoping to finish the harness this weekend. I have not had the vats disabled in the ecm but I'm going to try a trick to crank it. I have the bcm and vats module resistance from the donor. If it doesn't work, I'll just have to buy tuning software sooner than I planned or have pcm tuned.
The car keeps getting pushed out of the shop for other jobs. I've got it back in and ordered some parts.
I'm hoping I have everything I need to make it run. I'm hoping to finish the harness this weekend. I have not had the vats disabled in the ecm but I'm going to try a trick to crank it. I have the bcm and vats module resistance from the donor. If it doesn't work, I'll just have to buy tuning software sooner than I planned or have pcm tuned.
At this point I just want to hear it run. I think that will give the motivation to get my *** in gear.
The car keeps getting pushed out of the shop for other jobs. I've got it back in and ordered some parts.
I'm hoping I have everything I need to make it run. I'm hoping to finish the harness this weekend. I have not had the vats disabled in the ecm but I'm going to try a trick to crank it. I have the bcm and vats module resistance from the donor. If it doesn't work, I'll just have to buy tuning software sooner than I planned or have pcm tuned.
At this point I just want to hear it run. I think that will give the motivation to get my *** in gear.
I really like following your progress.....But I have a question about the wheels?....Do I see a Mustang pony on the center caps?....Will a Mustang wheel fit an 88 Camaro?....
Looking great so far,can't wait to see completed,
JD
I really like following your progress.....But I have a question about the wheels?....Do I see a Mustang pony on the center caps?....Will a Mustang wheel fit an 88 Camaro?....
Looking great so far,can't wait to see completed,
JD
Yes they are mustang wheels but no they won't fit without adapters. When I first got the car running the tires that were on it were dry rotted. I had a set of mustang wheels with practically brand new tires just sitting around. I didn't want to buy tires for the factory wheels when I know I'll go aftermarket later so I just bought a set of cheap adapters to get me by.
I will say though, I think the 99-04ish mustang bullit wheels would look good on a 3rd gen if I found a set cheap.
i keep telling everyone it will be rotting in my front yard in 20 years and some young whipper snapper will stop by and try to buy it. Of course I'll say no, "I'm doin an ls swap". This project has gone on so much longer than I planned lol
I was looking at your thread yesterday. Good work on that car. Part of me wishes I would have gone back original with mine. I'm hoping I can get my hands on an original iroc with 5.7 before prices get too crazy.
I got some some work done yesterday but nothing pic worthy. Other than the parts I showed earlier I also finally got the right exhaust manifolds(f body), f body dipstick, and 4l60e torque arm bracket. I got the torque arm bracket installed and the torque arm its self is finally secure. The engine dipstick is in. I also bent up my 700r dipstick to work with the 4l60. I almost forgot that I never installed the torque converter bolts so I knocked that out.
Its looking more like a real engine(for better or worse) with the coils and wires now mounted. Might have some pics later. I've gotta run around and see if I can locate some starter bolts. I bagged and labeled everything but somehow those two bolts got away from me.
I hope enough people are reading this to give me an opinion..
My car started as a sport coupe with tbi 305. The sc badges simply say “Camaro” on the rockers, bumper, and dash. I’ve always disliked these badges, mostly the dash badge. I think the red “z28” or even the “rs” dash badges look so much better. I love the “Iroc” badges and door graphics, but I would never try to pass this car as an Iroc so I would never use those.
Im just curious how people feel about re badging a car after Its no longer what it use to be. I think switching to rs badges wouldn’t be commiting any crimes, but I really like the red z28 dash badges lol. I do feel like every time someone said “hey nice z28” I’d want to correct them.
Im definitely buying different badges because my stock ones (gold) don’t go with my color. What’s everyone’s opinion on this?
Theres a whole lot of temporary going on here but this is basically what my harness will look like. I’ve still got a ways to go to finish it off but I did a test fire today and it runs...for about 2 seconds. I’m assuming my vats bypass didn’t work, but it’s all good because I ordered hp tuners last week
Dang vats! I'm ready to see this thing in person when you get it done. Local kid just put a cammed 4.8 in an S10. It will stroll! I been trying to buy it.
I bet it will. There’s not much difference in a 4.8 vs 5.3. I have a 5.3 Silverado and I drove the truck that this 4.8 came out of. The 4.8 actually felt just as strong, but it had a tune, air intake and true duals.
Still figuring things out. The engine wiring is done for the most part. I received hp tuners and used that to delete vats so the engine will now run but I don’t have a cooling system yet so I’ve only ran it a few seconds.
I still need an air intake, the one pictured is from the truck and obviously won’t work if I run it to the driver side. I scored a brand new f body water pump for $30, still need radiator and hoses.
In the pic above if you look at the rear passenger coil you’ll see I’ve offset it from the rest. I cut the coil bracket and welded it up so it will clear the a/c box. I thought I would have more room than I do but it’ll work for now.
See the shiney bolt between upper frame rail and strut mount?
I thought this was a nice place for the little fuse panel.
Still have to clean/replace some of these parts. Also I forgot to mention, that is the truck accessory bracket on the driver side, I’m going to try to make it work at least for temporary use once I have a radiator so I can run the car for a while. If everything works out and the alternator clears the hood I may keep it
Gonna try to update the little bit I’ve done over the last few months with a couple different posts. Mobile version can be aggravating to work with sometimes.
F body water pump installed. Chopped up the truck accessory bracket and built an idler relocation bracket. Moved it just below the alternator like the aftermarket kits do.
::::EDIT FROM THE FUTURE:::::: when I test fit this hood I wasn’t using my head and didn’t install the rubber bump stops that sit on the body. The bump stops raise the hood up significantly and the hood will clear. Keep in mind this is not the factory truck alternator, it’s a 3rd gen alternator. The truck alternator sit way too high. The alternator in the pic is the factory 88 replacement part. It sits lower but still high.
I test fitted the hood. Would not close.
Cut out a section where the alternator hit and the hood will now sit flush. This is still a problem because I still plan on using the factory louvered hood and not sure if this will work with that hood. I will eventually go to aftermarket brackets that will lower the alternator and place an a/c compressor in the factory 3rd gen location on the top passenger side. Until I do I’ll probably just have to run this hood once the car is driveable.
Last edited by Billgluckman; 10-19-2019 at 10:55 AM.
Installed a new radiator, hoses, and a fan/shroud combo I picked up at a local upullit. I didn’t know until I went to install it that the v6 shroud wasn’t as wide. I made a post on Facebook trying to find a recommendation for a new upper hose(this hose won’t work in my swap) and I got attacked for my “lack of attention to detail” lol.
The lower hose is perfect. The upper hose has that high spot in the middle that will be in my way when I run my air intake. I’ll be trying a 3.4 camaro upper next.
Not yet I recently acquired an L98 i plan to put them on maybe this winter or next spring. Let me know if you decide not to use that y-pipe.
Well the y pipe now fits an ls 3rd gen.
Ground clearance won’t be great but it’s gonna get me by until I buy long tubes. Plus I learned a little making the bends. I feel comfortable now spending the money on nice stainless pipe to build from headers back when the time comes.
I’m horrible at documenting problems and what I’ve done to resolve a few I’ve had but i think this may help someone because I found zero info on this.
I hooked up my shifter cable to the trans last week and was having problems with the trans not actually going all the way into park. If anyone else has this problem, go get this shift lever
Started this little project too. I’m not sure if I’ll end up running these on the car for a while or not but I’ve always wanted to polish a set. I plan to paint the non polished area black like the old wheel above
Projects lookn good! I need to polish and repaint my rims.
its definitely a job. The funny thing is some chrome 17” Iroc’s popped up for sale today in local classifieds. I don’t need to buy them, but they’re pulling at me pretty hard
09-24-2017, 06:09 PM
