My 92 with the Ls1 almost done
 

Well after spending all day chasing down a little ground wire that owned my ignition system I was finally able to take it for a 20 foot cruise out into the sun.

I still cant get the brakes to bleed as I didnt bench bleed the master cylinder.. im not a huge fan of brakes so im not sure what the **** is up with that but im sure ill make a mess in doing it

heres a couple dusty pics

http://www.306motorclub.com/dj/done1.jpg

http://www.306motorclub.com/dj/done2.jpg

http://www.306motorclub.com/dj/done3.jpg

http://www.306motorclub.com/dj/done4.jpg

And a little movie of the open header madness.. need quick time.. stupid camera..

http://www.306motorclub.com/dj/gta.mov

nice lookin engine bay! ill soon be doin the same swap..what was the most dificult part of the whole swap?

well i would say the brakes and suspension.. unless you can find people to help ya... my friends all abandoned me :rolleyes:

the engine goes in pretty easy... the wiring was simple as i used the entire 99 harness and spliced in the lights.. power antenna.. door locks.. power hatch.. the rest is just plug and play..

i didnt use the a/c or heat tho and will probably pay for it but its just a kick around car so i dont really care as I will probably put it in some day down the line if it matters.. heated seats and a 12V fan are cheaper :)

did u modify the transmission crossmember? wat tranny are u using? also did u buy the motor mounts from thirdgenresources?

i have spohn mounts for the engine.. bolted in after a bit of heaving

the tranny crossmember is a spohn peice too with the torque arm

the tranny mount is an energy suspension peices as the stock ones wouldnt fit

lookin good except for one thing. I would not suggest leaving the airfilter like that or you will be pulling hot air right off the headers. I'd try and get the intake up in front of the washer bottle and move the fuse boxes.

What all was involved with the under-dash wiring? That's the thing that scares me about the swap.

You have some mean looking meats tucked under that thing :)

in a year ill be going with a ram air hood and prolly find a way to get the 4th gen airlid in.. so i just spent the 12 bux and did it temp like that.. i could also put a sheild there or something.. for what im gonna drive it its not gonna matter too much

theres no movin the fuse boxes.. as theres no where to put them :( i suppose i could take out the washer resovoir but i dont think it would look that good...

i used the dash from the 99 so it was just plug and play as far as thats concerned :)

Answering dumb swap questions. :)

sent you a pm. said you used spohn mounts, any particular reason and how did they work out for you? i need to find a set of mounts and all the websites i find like thirdgen resource or others seem to sell spohn under their name at a higher premium. if they work nice i'd like to know so that i don't have to fab up my own. any input on them would be appreciated.

I used Spohn's mounts because they' were pretty much the only ones out at the time. F-Body Motorsports or Thirdgen Resource or whoever that is that sells the kit w/ the crossmember was reselling Spohn, so I just went to the source...same conclusion you've come to.

They bolted right onto my '82 crossmember w/ no problems, the LS1 factory mounts dropped right into place. Highly recommended!

appreciate the insight. so was there any added fabrication to them then as it seems that only 3 of the 4 bolt holes on spohns will line up with my stock setup?

i have a set of motor mounts for the ls1 if you need them Jeff. they were professionaly tig welded. they line up with three original holes, and you have to drill the 4th if i remember right. i mocked the car up with them, then ended up going tubular for exhaust reasons...
:)

my suspension is tubular on this one as well. i just ended up ordering spohns and i'll have to wait and see i guess.

all the 4th gen stuff why diddnt you jsut buy a 4th gen just as cheap as the swap cost you

ls1 with 28,000 miles with harness, computer and trans: 2,700
mounts, crossmember 100

sell L98 350 with 75,000 miles $1,100
sell L98 harness $150
sell 700-r4 $450

L98 roughly 220 rwhp and 15-18 mpg
ls1 roughly 290 rwhp and 18-20 mpg

$1,100 total out of pocket for full running ls1 swap. find me an ls1 donor car with that type of mileage that will work and i'm right there with you.

;)

can't forget the headers though. $700 additional out of pocket, just short of $2,000 total. still worth it though in my book.

:)

blatent stupidity... seeing something that i couldnt have and tryin to swap it in :)

and by the time its all done.. i coulda had 2 4th gen Ls1's..

but they still wouldnt be a blue 92 GTA with an ls1 like i always wanted :)

if you can find me an ls1 for that same price i would do it

Nice pics! Thanks for sharing. I'm getting really close to putting mine together. I'm waiting on my wiring and headers from Hawks but that might be delayed a little bit now due to a death at Hawks. Other than that I just need o2 sensors and fabricate a CAI and a y-pipe. :D

average going rate here in michigan for an ls1, 4l60-e, wiring and ecm is 2,500-3,500 depending on mileage of course. sometimes you can get lucky and find one with a manual but they are tougher.

After all the whiny help me posts from your T56 swap, I'd advise against trying an LS1 project. No offense, but if you had that much trouble w/ just a trans swap...

hehe i did ahha

only to find out they shipped me the wrong flywheel :doh: causing a warped clutch. and very hard installation

other than that it was pretty easy goin. id say people overrate the pedals installation. i ended up using 4th gen pedals it was easier for the clutch master cylinder rod,

going rate for an ls1 out ehre is like 6grand

and it sells to :bs:

if i were to do an ls1 it would be fully built...

the stock ls1 can handle alot of power.. why would you wanna build something again and chance ****ing it up unless you are going nuts with the combo

for 3 grand you can get one with about 60k on ebay with a trans and shippin would be about 3-400

your in cali tho so spend 3-5k on a entire car and put everything in for emissions and whatever and sell the rest


i finally get the exhaust on this friday.. thank *** for speartech's site.. copyin their exhaust :) id also like to know what hawk's did with his resoivoir for his wipers as that would give me alot of room to clean up the wiring box and mount it on the corner there rather then jammin it in the corner


GTA91.. gl with your swap.. i love that dark green color and ur choice of wheels :)

Car looks awesome Ace. Wait till you can get it on the road and have some fun. Then when someone asks whats under the hood, you pop the hood and they say, "what the heck is that". You just grin.

Also, I see you are using the red coolant. I would drain that stuff as quickly as possible and put the green stuff in. The red stuff doesnt do well in an "open" system, after it mixes with air it starts turning to a sludge, which can cause some problems.

Thanks man, I like it alot. Can't wait til its done though.

This true or not??

damn dexcool.. didnt know that about it.. thought they were all open systems.. i probably wont be doing much driving this year so ill plan to swaper out next year

Don't swap out the DexCool, the systems for the LS and LT1's should run it due to the aluminum heads. I run the orange Prestone (same as DexCool) in my Mustang and LT1 and have yet to have a problem with this sludge you are talking about.

heh, no, they run it because they have a deal with texaco chemicals to work together to develop a antifreeze that lasts 100,000 miles.


the antifreeze thats worked in litterally 1000s of diffrent models of alum motors, and alum headded motors from every other make works fine.







athough if you mix dexcool with standard green antifreeze, it also sludges up.

id reccomend flushing it the best you can, then putting in the prestone "mix with any color" standard antifreeze... run that, then next summer, change it again for the same stuff. :thumbsup:

that 2nd change is a little overkill, but it cant hurt. after that, consider it clean and run whatever you want.

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sea...by=&sortorder=

There are horror stories in alot of these threads.

If you have the total cooling system from the LS1 car then it would be fine, but I would use the green stuff with the 3rd gen. radiator and catch can. I'm using the green with no problems, but thats me.:D