GMan 3MT

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The LS6 intake, Proform Valve covers (141-264) and coil mounts mocked up. The factory fuel rail hits the coils. I bent it up slightly, but not real happy with it. May look into aftermarket fuel rails. Also, broke the front most drivers side exhaust bolt when taking off the stock manifolds. It's close to the surface, so should weld out easily.

GMan 3MT

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Hedman 45720 Mid Length headers mocked up. Wanted to go with mid lengths in order to run cats and to try avoid all the low ground clearance issues with long tubes. Not looking for every last HP. Went with bare steel headers so I can get those and the y-pipe coated later at PolyDyn with something a bit better than what Hedman puts on.

Clearances look ok here, but I know it'll change once it's in the car with the trans at the right level.

Worship my Tick plug!

GMan 3MT

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Pulled the accessories and water pump off to continue to clean the engine. This is what 200k+ miles looks like. Geez...

The before and after.




As you can see, I really didn't use my Dirty Dingo much after the valley cover was installed. I'll keep it around as it's 'universal' but ended up not using it again so far.

GMan 3MT

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Back in the car, this time to check the header clearance and mark where to notch for the A/C and oil pan clearances. Using the Spohn trans crossmember for now, but will get something made for better exhuast routing at a later date, before I get the exhaust work done. The stock valve covers are easier to get the engine cradle to slide under the car from the side. It's always a bit nerve racking lifting the nose that high.

GMan 3MT

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Crossmember modifications.

GMan 3MT

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While the grinder and cutoff wheel were out, I went ahead and notched the shifter hole for then T56.



Made some cardboard templates for the new steel required for the crossmember. Emailed my CMC buddy a cad file and got these back. 1/8" and 3/16" plates.

GMan 3MT

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One thing I wasn’t happy about was the A/C adapter that was recommended on TGO (AA0443) . It just looked poor quality in my hands. Hawks recently updated theirs to a machined block (AA2593-Fitting), so I gave theirs a try. However, with either one, there is still an interference with the bolt and the hose end. I took the setup along with the crossmember for welding to my machine shop to get sorted out. We ended up deciding to trim down the bracket and enlarge the hole to accept a socket head cap screw.

This is what I picked up.

GMan 3MT

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As you can see, there was a lot of trial fitting. I did end up using a 1/8” spacer on the passenger side after reading here of a tendency of the engine being a little crooked with the Spohn mounts. Had my CMC guy make a few of these when he cut my plates for the notches. This would give me a little more clearance between the headers and the crossmember.



Here's the spacer installed, and the modifications made to the A/C bracket.

GMan 3MT

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The Hawks fitting also needed a die run over it to clean the threads. Should be plenty of room.

GMan 3MT

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One thing that was starting to become more difficult was removing the dipstick. The tube had been pushed and pulled a few times to make way for the headers and whatnot. It was starting to hang up and I was nervous that the dipstick could break. I ordered a flexible one by Lokar.



Painted the crossmember and got it all back in the car for another check. I think/hope this will be the final installation of the engine crossmember paired it with a Spohn trans crossmember that will eventually get replaced. Good enough now to get the location correct.

GMan 3MT

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Read an article on SuperChevy.com about Heatshield Products 140020. Decided to give it a shot. Not sure what I was expecting, but it's a bit disappointing opening the box.

GMan 3MT

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Lots of parts bolted back on, including the heatshield.

Since the stock fuel rail contacted the coils, it gave me a reason to buy aftermarket fuel rails, not that their needed for the hp levels I was shooting for. Bought a set from FaSSter that came with the rear crossover. Installed a Schrader valve (#13-005 from Diesel O-rings.com) in the passenger side plug to allow me to check fuel pressure. Sealed with Teflon tape for now, but will replace that with Permatex Aviation Form-A-Gasket No. 3 (#80019) before firing it up.

The ported throttle body that came with my LS6 intake looked like it was ported by an amateur. I got lucky and found one on LS1Tech, ported by Potz who was no longer in business. I think it’s an '98-'99 throttle body since the ‘cam’ is the smaller size. I hope the cam size/shape doesn't cause any issues later (anyone know?).

Also installed are the LS6 front (12602544) and 5.3L rear (12605716) crossover tubes along with an Elite Engineering catch can.

thorhallr

Cool build, will be doing the same thing soon so all this info is gold,
Subscribed

rurnt88

iTrader: (1)

Great build and narrative. It's nice to see someone who really knows these cars take on a project and document it. Keep it coming.

GMan 3MT

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LS1 plastic tank installed using the same method as James Evans (z28evans). I used a Swagelok 3/8” stainless T (SS-600-3) right after the filter for the return line. Filler neck was shortened and then the bracket screwed in place.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Scored a pair of good looking LS2 243 heads from a GTO on Craigslist for $350. I’ll set these aside for now til I can get them ported and polished and rebuilt with springs to match whatever cam I go with.

GMan 3MT

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Since the original SS rearend had a meeting with a curb, I picked up another one on Craigslist just in case. Both have 3.42 gears with Torsens. One is a 3 channel (one on the right that’s a bit rough) and one is a 4 channel (from the wrecked SS). Ideally, I want 0 channel. Use the 4 channel pumpkin and 3 channel backing plates. Anyways, I hope that the hit from the curbs wasn’t too severe and decided to use the 4 channel rear end but with swapped in axles from the 3 channel since the SS axles were obviously toast. I may eventually try find some good condition 3 channel backing plates to put on there, but for now, these will do.

GMan 3MT

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Bought some new Raybestos rotors from Rock Auto and spray painted them with some caliper paint I bought to use on the rear calipers.

GMan 3MT

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Got the rearend in the car sans torque arm and brake pads and springs and sway bar but with the Bilstein (24-225397) shocks, Founders polyball control arms (23851B) and UMI single adjustable panhard bar with rotojoint (2036-B). Went with the single because once you get it set, I can't see needing to be constantly adjusting it.

The rear half of the 3" single exit exhaust from the b4c was hung as a placeholder. The new exhaust will be a 3.5" single exit, but still need to decide on a muffler.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Finally had all the pieces (was waiting on the spacers) to be ready to install the Brembos up front. The spindles had been modified to accept the custom brackets calipers. Had the 3rd hole tapped so I could use these as spares for the racecar in a pinch. The 'seasoned' 1le rotors (Raybestos 5994R) were cut down to create the hubs and ARP studs were pressed in. The 14” Camaro rotors had the bores slightly enlarged from ~2.65" to 2.78". All Grade 8 and 10.9 hardware. I did use Wilwood brake shims (240-4385) instead of washers since it was so tight.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Getting ready to assemble the front suspension, I took this picture as a reminder of what I had to tap the struts to reuse the factory bracket for the brake line.

Survey saaaays.... M8x1.25


Front suspension mostly installed. Again lacking springs/weight jackers and sway bar, but with rebuilt control arms and the big brakes. Control arms received Global West Del-Alum bushings (1022) and Howe 3/4” extended ball joints (22429). I was able to get the boots from Spohn (BJB-1) to work on these ball joints. Then I added the much thinner Howe boot on top to try keep a bit more dirt and debris out. J&M Strut mounts (24215) installed with the Bilstein struts (35-125228).





I managed to snag a ‘correct’ AC Delco idler arm (45C1065) and a Moog centerlink (DS1049) from Rock Auto and get those installed. There’s a thread around here about the Moog idlers arms not being the correct shape.

robguitargod1

iTrader: (4)

For the AC bracket bolt mod did you just drill the hole a little larger to accept the hex head bolt? Where did you buy the bolt?

We're at almost the same point in our builds too.

GMan 3MT

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Only the top portion of the hole was enlarged to allow the "socket head cap screw" to be countersunk. The shop supplied the bolt, but any good bolt place (Fastenal, McMaster Carr, MSC, Grainger) should carry them.

Maverick250

Good read man! I'll be a happy man if I get a fraction of these things done on my car haha

GMan 3MT

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I went with Ground Control weight jackers like I have on the racecar. 850 8” up front, 200 9” on the rear. I ordered 850/175 as I have 1000/200 on the racecar and wanted to try the 175 on it, and will use the 200’s on the streetcar.

Nice packaging especially considering they are chunks of steel.




GC accidentally sent me a much taller and stiffer spring. The left was the 9" 200lb from the racecar, the right the '9" 175lb'. They were quick to remedy the mistake on their dime.

GMan 3MT

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On the rear, I don’t really like the way the springs sit on top of the GC adjuster so the GC rears will get sold and replaced with something like what is on the racecar, modified Keyser adjusters (100 306) from Summit with trimmed down stock isolators to really locate the springs.



Used the neighbor kids Play-doh on the set of adjusters from the racecar to see how much I can trim the adjuster base down. *edit to add* I plan on using ES coil spring isolators (9-6101G) to reduce any noise, so that played a part in my numbers below. */edit*



With the numbers set, I sent out the GC fronts and a new pair of Keyser adjuster rear bases to be modified to add a little strength. Probably unnecessary, but I did see one, just one post, of someone who had the plate bend. I added some gussets and a ring at the top to distribute the load to the car.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Threw the wheels on to get some motivation to keep working. Me likey more than I thought I would. No bump stops installed yet and using 1.5" wheel adapters right now. I had previously calculated needing 1.7" adapters to get the wheels more in line with the fender lip. I may eventually buy a pair of 1.7" adapters.

GMan 3MT

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Got a little impatient painting the rear caliper flat black to try match the Brembos that will go up front. Made a big mess I think because I didn’t get ALL the brake fluid and/or brake clean cleaned off them first. Decided to splurge and get them professionally powder coated. I’m sure they could do with a rebuild anyways, so I stripped them completely down.

rurnt88

iTrader: (1)

[QUOTE=GMan 3MT;6141019]On the rear, I don’t really like the way the springs sit on top of the GC adjuster so the GC rears will get sold and replaced with something like what is on the racecar, modified Keyser adjusters (100 306) from Summit with trimmed down stock isolators to really locate the springs.



Very slick. Not something I see done a lot with 3rd Gens though they do offer 2-inches of adjustment.

What are your thoughts on coil-overs?

rurnt88

iTrader: (1)

Those 18's fill in the wheel well nicely! What sidewall height is shown? The teaser pic shows new tires, are they the same size as these?

StansFBM

Enjoying your build thread....I'm working on a build thread as well!

Question: what did you use to raise the front end up? I have a LS3 that I'll be eventually mounting to a T56 and I'd like to assemble it all before sliding under car. I saw a Youtube where a guy used an engine lift/picker. I'd be afraid spending much time under that

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

I'd need a really good reason to run coil-overs when the same can be accomplished (granted not as quickly) with spacers or adjusters. Stock setup opens up more options for shocks to match the front struts. Not to mention aesthetically, unused spring perches look funny. Downside is the GC springs at 9" are the shortest they offer, but realistically that'll be plenty short for street use. Between a 'heater hose mod', 3rd gen isolator, 4th gen isolator, and adjusters, I think I have any height I want covered.



The tires on the black wheels are 265/35R18 and 295/35R18. 275's & 295's coming soon to a post near you!

I used an engine hoist too. Engine was on a jack (wood under the pan) and the trans was on another jack. Hoist was hooked to an axle strap that was wrapped around my TDS wonder bar. For me, since I had no rear suspension in yet, the back of the car was on jack stands. I was more nervous about the car sliding back off the stands. If you have rear end in, it won't be as bad. I think getting the back of the car up high helps. I never really got under the car myself with the load on the hoist. An extra pair of hands is a must.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Now that I was waiting on the weight jackers and calipers to get done, I decided to tackle the fans. I’m set on using the third gen radiator. I had a pair of both LT1 and LS1 fans. I briefly considered using the LT1 fans (on right) and mounting an oil cooler in the holes with a kit Alan Blaine offers, but went with the LS1 fans (on left) instead since an oil cooler would be a ways in the future anyways. This isn’t something that’s irreversible, so that’s what I went with.



Modified the upper radiator support to accept the LS1 fans. LOTS of cut, trial fit, cut some more on both the upper support and the fans themselves. I mounted the fans upside down to avoid any issues with being close to the steering box. The fan shroud and radiator support both required quite a bit of grinding to fit nicely. In the end, the fans are pretty snug. Like others here, I don’t have anything holding down the bottom. It’s an odd feeling.

GMan 3MT

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I don’t plan on drag racing, so I am going to use the stock LS torque arm mounted on the trans. I’ve had bad axle hop under braking in the racecar and been told by a road racer who ran A-Sedan that the best fix was to cut off the front few inches of the stock torque arm and weld a section of bar to the front of the arm that then slid into a bearing on the mount. This is similar to what some of the current aftermarket ones do, but the new ones use a poly mount with a circular hole in it. To me that still left a possibility of bind.

I eventually found what I was looking for, an LG Motorsports torque arm. Problem was they were out of production. I finally came across one at Classic Industries. Ordered it and they literally sent me the one in their picture… sans the bearing and mount! I contacted them, they contacted LG, and I got lucky and they were able to send me the missing mount.

When it came time to install it, more trouble. It’s already a bit different method in that it slides into the bearing, then you mount the rear. I fought with it for quite a while, and eventually disconnected the front of the drivers rear lower control arm. This allowed me to swing that side of the rear end back, and line up the holes with the torque arm. Used a small ratchet strap to get the control arm to line up. I didn’t like it one bit. Everything just felt like it was in tension and pushing the back of the trans to the passenger side. Later I took it back off and elongated one of the holes in the torque arm. This time, I didn’t have to disconnect anything else and it slid in place.

Also installed a LS1 driveshaft, oddly enough, that I bought well before getting the SS. This one looks much lower mileage and nicer than the SS one.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Got the calipers and brackets back from the powder coater. I’ve never rebuilt calipers, and was quite surprised at how easy it was with parts from Rock Auto. Following tips from a thread on here, I placed the boot on the bottom first and worked it up from there.





Not quite a perfect match, but I think they’ll be close enough once I bake them in.





Installed Bendix pads front (D1050) and rear (D750). Fronts don't have the factory 'roller skates' so they can fit under the 18's.

I used ES rear bump stops (9-9137G) with spacers from Nook & Tranny. Much cheaper that other places and like the availability of replacement pads. Installed the rear springs with 4th gen isolators for now. I’ll trim the bump stops down at a later time.

rurnt88

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The tires on the black wheels are 265/35R18 and 295/35R18. 275's & 295's coming soon to a post near you!




Soooo, what's the connection with Vorshlag? Nice stuff. Wish it fit our cars.

rurnt88

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Rear Calipers turned out nice.

GMan 3MT

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I have a certain set of skills, but welding isn't one of them. The owner is an old TAMSCC (Texas A&M Sports Car Club) member from just before I joined. He's very particular.

GMan 3MT

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Got a pair of 3/16" custom spacers cut, again thanks to my CMC friend, for that tiny extra bit of front end travel to place under my J&M Strut mounts (24215). Added new ES poly bump stops (9-9150G) to the control arms. Again, I’ll trim these down later once I settle on a ride height.

GMan 3MT

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Decided to go with a truck 5-wire MAF (25168491). One less wiring hookup, don't have to find a place for AIT sensor, and it’s bigger. I left the screen in, tho may replace it with one from SaxonPC.

The truck MAF leads to ‘requiring’ a 4” intake. I bought the recommended upper 4th gen radiator hose for fit up. Not a fan of how some LS1 swaps have these two cross over each other. I was determined to make it work without doing that. Placed an order from IntakeHoses.com. Got their normal 90* and the tight 90* bend along with a 45* and 22* and 12” alum pipe. The normal 90* takes up a lot of space. I don't think I'm losing much going with the tighter radius. Then again, I'm that guy that runs a stock 270hp+ LT1 thru a TPI air intake.

Ended up not using the 22*, just two 45*s. A lot of time against the grinding wheel and this was the result.





The filter is a K&N RC-5102. Regular cone filters scream aftermarket and to me just look out of place. The size is way overkill, but it fits nicely in the tray like it’s supposed to be there, especially after I box it in. T-bolt clamps with Spectre hose coupler (9722) and MAF reducer (9774) to hold it all together.

GMan 3MT

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Installed. I'll rotate the clamps later as I know this won't be the final fitting. Nice thing about this filter is there's a stud at the end to help keep it in place. I'll make a very simple bracket to hold it wherever it ends up.

GMan 3MT

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Flew to Massachusetts to pick up a new set of wheels (with an '01 Leguna Seca Blue M3 attached) with the wife for the wife. Decided if she can get a new set of wheels, so can I.

Teaser pic


275/35R18 & 295/35R18 Continentals on clearance from Tirerack!

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Power steering should have been easier than it was. Like a few other things, I cut the hose during the stripping of the SS not knowing I could reuse it and gave away the thirdgen one with the TBI. After reading on here people using either or, I bought a TBI high pressure p/s hose and after a few attempts and bending it cleanly, I gave up and bought one for an LS1 (Gates 363170). This one fits much better IMHO with less bending to clear the intake hose.

Also replaced the worn A/C idler and tensioner pullies. When I went to put the new belts on, I discovered the engine already had a smaller crank pulley, I think it's an ASP underdrive pulley. So maybe it’s not as stock as I thought. Fortunately, I could still make out the p/n on the old belts and got mine exchanged (Continental 4040377 & 4060755).

rurnt88

iTrader: (1)

!

pwessels

Excellent write up!

GMan 3MT

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So my current dream wheel is a Fikse Profil 5. I just like the look of a simple 5 spoke. Not too thin spokes, not too star like, not too flat. Oddly enough, not many wheels fit my tastes. I have seen a few thirdgens (photos) with the FM5’s and they look good everytime. I was planning on repainting the Z06 wheels and using them for a few years til I could save for the Fikse’s. The Y2K wheels were close, but a touch too thin. One day on TGO I came across the deep dish Y2K wheels and realized they were a bit thicker than stock, and the more pictures I found of them, the more I liked them. Then I really liked them when I found out the price from OEWheels! Ordered a set of 18x9.5 and 18x10.5 for less than $500 shipped. Found some Continental Extreme Contact DW’s on sale at TireRack in 275/35 and 295/35 and ordered those too. Got the tires mounted and wheels mocked up.

Short valve stems installed. Painted the stick-on wheel weights with black rustoleum.




Only downside is the centercaps are chrome plastic while the wheels have a machined finish. I may either paint the centercaps or maybe try put them on a slow lathe/chuck and score them with fine sandpaper. Found a near complete set of lugnut covers I had from long ago. Matched them up with the correct GM lugnuts and was short two caps. Ordered a pair of OER (10028614) from Jegs to save the day.

GMan 3MT

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I initially was going to use a 4h gen coolant tank. I have this setup in Knocker, but with the battery relocated behind the main rollcage hoop. When I cut the hole in Knocker, it wasn’t perfect, and the tank didn’t sit nicely in the battery tray. I chalked it up to me not measuring or cutting right. I recently read here on TGO that I wasn’t the only one. It doesn’t fit exactly and there will always be a little bit of overlap.

I also started to have concern about the holes in the inner fenders. Maybe people here weld or smooth them and look fantastic. I don’t have the skill nor any real desire to do that. The old yellowed ones wouldn’t do, and a new one will soon yellow. The solution for me is the overflow bottle from Canton. It fits in the stock location, looks 10x better than stock, and doesn’t have the universal look to it. Ordered and received my Canton coolant tank (80-223). For the life of me I could not get it to even remotely line up correctly. There really isn’t much adjustment, but something was definitely off. Had to send it back to Canton for them to check on their jig.

GMan 3MT

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Made a template for the upper radiator hose out of a coat hanger.



Went to Autozone and bought 9 radiator hoses. 3rd gen upper, 4th gen upper and lower, Jeep lower, and a few that sorta matched my template. I had ordered a 1 5/16” T-coupler from JagsThatRun (1-5/16x1/4x1-5/16) so I was okay with having to splice two hoses to make the upper clear the air intake.



Ended up using the ’00 Cherokee Jeep lower (D71321), 3rd gen TBI upper (E71203) paired with and ’06 Saturn Ion upper (E72002) and took back the ones I didn't use. I’m pleased with the upper, but I couldn’t get the lower to cleanly clear the idler arm bolt like I’ve seen some people on here do. I threw a rubber cap over the bolt for now.



*edit* See post #140 for what I switched the Jeep lower to
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...ml#post6152177

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

I have a few pairs of parking brake cables stored away. I know one was from the b4c, I think one from an LT1 and one from an LS1. A bit of playing around and was able to put in the LS1 parking brake cables. At this point did a bit of reading to see how they are routed and attached to the car. A few people make their own brackets. I wish I had cut out the bracket from the donor. I think that’s the cleanest way so I’ll keep an eye out for someone parting out a car.



LS1 with the springs, LT1 without.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Finally got the spring adjusters back from the machine shop and installed the fronts. Used just a pair of stock thirdgen spring isolators on the rear since I think the rear adjusters might still be a tad tall even all the way lowered. The stance looks good! However, I discovered the rear end was sitting on the bumpstops and realistically a touch low for street use. Installed the front 36mm sway bar with greaseable bushings from TDS (200170) and the 23mm rear sway bar.