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LTX and LSXPutting LT1s, LS1s, and their variants into Third Gens is becoming more popular. This board is for those who are doing and have done the swaps so they can discuss all of their technical aspects including repairs, swap info, and performance upgrades.
Hey all, just wanted to get a thread going on my 92 LS swap to document some things and get some info/tips/input from you guys doing the same work. I've been at it a few months now so I'll upload a bunch of pictures and keep tracking progress from there. Any help/tips are appreciated!
wanted to get the engine bay painted while everything was out. went with a sherwin williams artic white single stage. turned out great, was very pleased with this being my first actual automotive (not rattlecan) painting project.
now onto the undercarriage. I ended up going with Eastwoods Underbody Rust Encapsulator prodcut after much debate with por15. I'm happy with the result, went on easy and looks great. Time will tell on durability. Took about 6 cans to do the whole undercarriage and k member
onto the fuel system. ended up going with a walbro 255 pump, corvette filter/regulator combo with -6an adapters, and running all new -6an PTFE line from the factory fittings to the fuel rail. Had all lines made up at the local hydraulic shop (this is the way to go people! don't mess with cutting your own lines and putting fittings on. I was in and out in 30 mins and price was just a little higher than if I bought hose and hose ends myself)
aux trans cooler b&m 70266 mounted. this is about the biggest cooler i could seem to fit without too much modification. Also chopped the ears off of the 4l80e to make room for install
your car is coming along nicely and the engine bay turned out great.
your swap is almost an exact copy of what i'm currently doing on my 1984 Trans Am. it's slow going, but i've been making some good progress this summer. i'm most nervous about the wiring. i want to modify the harness myself to save a good chunk of money, but worried i'll screw something up.
here's a link to my build thread: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...-am-build.html
rear end back in the car. went with a founders panhard relocation kit to make room for the future 2.5" true duals. Also machine shop sneak peak
When you have the car sitting on the ground you"ll want to verify that the Panhard bar is still pretty close to level. Most of the time when you lower the body side mount to make room for the exhaust tubing the Panhard bar ends up angled. There are axle side brackets that UMI makes to correct this if it is angled.
I think single stage in the Arctic white for an engine bay was a good choice. I went with single stage DuPont Arctic white for the underside of my hood and was actually impressed with how it turned out.
Thanks but that link just discusses trans coolers?
Roy
The top of the page shows correct cooler orientation (fittings on the top or sides). His orientation may cause issues with the system cooling efficiency.
From the .pdf: It is not recommended to mount the cooler with the fittings pointing down as this may create an air pocket in the cooler resulting in reduced cooling efficiency. When mounting the cooler with the fittings on the right or left side, the lower fitting must be the inlet with the top fitting routing the fluid back to the transmission
awesome! thanks for that, must have missed it during installation. I will correct to proper orientation. I should have some more updates on the build this week to post.
I didn't see anything about a converter so I thought I would chime a suggestion. A converter will make/break the entire swap, as dumb as it sounds, so I felt it necessary to bring this up.
I recommend a high efficiency 9.5" lockup from reputable company such as Yank.
What else can I say? I was able to use a stock Camaro shifter for 4l80e which feels more reliable and simple than anything aftermarket. And cheaper. Just throwing that out there.
HPtuners was also a great investment. Almost immediately made the $$ back unlocking other people's ECU with it. Highly recommend tuning yourself. It will also give you the power of diagnosis from the driver seat. i.e. scanner reads trans temp, wideband info, and logs everything, very handy.
I didn't see anything about a converter so I thought I would chime a suggestion. A converter will make/break the entire swap, as dumb as it sounds, so I felt it necessary to bring this up.
I recommend a high efficiency 9.5" lockup from reputable company such as Yank.
What else can I say? I was able to use a stock Camaro shifter for 4l80e which feels more reliable and simple than anything aftermarket. And cheaper. Just throwing that out there.
HPtuners was also a great investment. Almost immediately made the $$ back unlocking other people's ECU with it. Highly recommend tuning yourself. It will also give you the power of diagnosis from the driver seat. i.e. scanner reads trans temp, wideband info, and logs everything, very handy.
I'll be using a 3500 stall 10.5" billet single disc lockup from Pat's performance converters (local company). Should work out great. For the shifter, are you using factory 3rd gen shifter? If so how to you adapt the linkage to mount to the 4l80e trans? Pics would be great
i used a B&M megashifter made for a thirdgen with a 4L80E i installed in a 1972 camaro. it worked perfect so i suspect the stock 700R4 shifter cable and bracket from a thirdgen may work with the 4L80E. that's what i intended to do with my swap, but i haven't got that far yet to try it out.
Here are some pics from the build. I think its a 4th gen shifter, probably a v6 camaro unit.
Slotted the bolt holes for the bracket as pictured, bracket is either from 4l80e stock unit or the 4l60e unit.
The shifter 'ball' (linkage on the trans) was the large one also from V6 I believe. I went to JY and grabbed a variety but the large one fit the shifter so...
personally I do not like aftermarket shifters for a variety of reasons. I've owned in the past and never really fond of the ratchet style (more work) or anything that looks fancy/flashy (you can look inside the car and say 'ah, its modified') this way with the OEM shifter nobody can tell you've done anything.
No reason to touch the shifter while driving- I prefer let it shift by itself because A: less chance of human error and B: less fuss, more concentration on the road
With HP tuners you can configure two different shift maps. So if I want it to hold 1st longer or shift harder or not downshift sometimes, instead of downshifting the trans I just smack the momentary switch and it flips to another map with all new shift MPH and pressures/torque mgmnt.
Last edited by Kingtal0n; Oct 25, 2018 at 04:16 PM.
had some time to modify the factory truck lq4 dbw gas pedal to fit. I originally purchased the mounting bracket made by Hawks thinking it would make things easy. Turns out their adapter is not for the truck pedals, so modifying was the only way to go. pics to come
Last edited by irishhockey34; Oct 28, 2018 at 05:22 PM.
Oh I was looking over your trans cooler again, did your car have the X braces on the radiator opening in the core support and if so what were you doing about them? My Z has them but I wonder if they are really a big deal?
Oh I was looking over your trans cooler again, did your car have the X braces on the radiator opening in the core support and if so what were you doing about them? My Z has them but I wonder if they are really a big deal?
I decided to remove them. I also had to remove some of the air deflecting plastic that surrounded the cross braces to fit the trans cooler. Not sure how much they were doing, but I have a wonderbar installed and will have a strut tower brace also, which should really stiffen the front up. Not really worried about the original cross braces.
used a standard b&m megashifter on my 4L85E, the fittings bolt straight upto the oilpan bolts. so would think standard 700R4 cable and bracket would fit (already had megashifter in car with 700R4 before swap)
also decided to rework the lq4 wiring harness to allow the pcm to be mounted in factory location. the lq4 has the pcm mounted in the drivers side front engine bay, so quite a bit of wire needed to be added to get enough length to follow the factory harness routing around the passenger fender and under the dash. it took forever but end result should be nice
this kit allows for a truck balancer / truck alternator / truck ps pump to all be reused. I went with a ls1 style water pump, so I also had to purchase their water pump spacers to push the pump out to align with the truck belt arrangement. Overall fitment and quality is excellent. No complaints at all. Even allows for factory 3rd gen PS pressure hose to be reused without modification.
this kit allows for a truck balancer / truck alternator / truck ps pump to all be reused. I went with a ls1 style water pump, so I also had to purchase their water pump spacers to push the pump out to align with the truck belt arrangement. Overall fitment and quality is excellent. No complaints at all. Even allows for factory 3rd gen PS pressure hose to be reused without modification.
You really don't want steel braided fuel line rubbing a wire. That s*** cuts everything and electricity grounds to metal. That's a recipe for car going up in flames.
And if that is a fuse then it belongs in the engine bay close to the power source, not all the way at the back of the car. The fuse can't protect the wire from shorting between the battery and the fuse.
And if that is a fuse then it belongs in the engine bay close to the power source, not all the way at the back of the car. The fuse can't protect the wire from shorting between the battery and the fuse.
thats a racetronix premade fuel pump hotwire harness. the fuse holder is about 1" off of where the main power wire connects to the alternator post. As for the harness being tied to the braided line, I see you concern. However car going into flames may be a bit extreme. I will move it over to the soft fuel line to be safe. BTW, I have used your build thread as a reference throughout my project. Thanks for that!
However car going into flames may be a bit extreme.
I had a Corvette that caught fire this way. Fuel braiding rubbed through wire, wire sparked to fuel line and caused a leak, fuel caught fire from sparks. Wouldn't want to see that happen to you.
I had a Corvette that caught fire this way. Fuel braiding rubbed through wire, wire sparked to fuel line and caused a leak, fuel caught fire from sparks. Wouldn't want to see that happen to you.
you our are the Holley engineer right? Do you guys have any ideas for using the third gen shifter bracket/cable with the 4l80e? I’ve got a few ideas on how to make it work, wondering if you had any input.
I.E. see my thread on my LS1/t56 swap 
