LS1 Swap

Andy you are awesome! I can't believe the progress you've made on your own. Can't wait to see the car in action. Hopefully my car will be up an running by the summer M&G. Keep it up!

[98blackbeauty]

Your making good progress, can't wait to see it done at the dream cruise.

[Emulsifide]

No pictures tonight. It appears there's definitely going to be some clearance issues with the driver's side portion of the exhaust. I'll get that figured out.

I managed to assemble the majority of the front suspension tonight. I need some new ~1" 3/8 grade 8 bolts and nuts to hold the bottom of the struts to the lower a-arms since they were not included. That's definitely holding me up at this point. I also had a hell of a time tonight with the steering rack. I managed to unscrew one of the old tie rod ends without loosening the jam nut...which appears to be frozen. Go figure. I did this with the rack on the car. Tomorrow, I'll yank the rack out again and throw the damn rod in my vice and get that nut to come off.

Other plans for tomorrow include the following:

1. Piece together the rest of the front suspension and tighten everything down.
2. Assemble the drive shaft safety loop and install.
3. Install the drive shaft.
4. Install the fenders and some plastic pieces.
5. Potentially begin the rest of the work in the engine bay (radiator, wiring, brake lines, etc).

[01CAMAROSS]

will be checking one of these out, need it, done too many trannys on my back..

Take it back Jess!

Those are the ones that bite you in the ass!

[ktl711]

will be checking one of these out, need it, done too many trannys on my back..

orly?

[Iroc'nthe87]

orly?

busted!

[Lucky SOB]

will be checking one of these out, need it, done too many trannys on my back..

orly?

[MP81]

Looks good under there!!!

[Gottork]

As you said, it's a transmission jack and it works AWESOME. I got it from Harbor Freight.

will be checking one of these out, need it, done too many trannys on my back..

[Emulsifide]

Update!!!!! It's in!!!!



I only had a 2 hour window this morning between 8am and 10am to do the work. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Later tonight, I managed to get the torque arm relocation mount / tranny mount in place along with the torque arm:


[img]http://emulsified.smugmug.com/photos/963239446_ybZ3Q-L.jpg

I also goofed off and loosely bolted up the front lower control arms to see how awesome they look:



If I bust ass for the next nine days, there's a good chance I'll have it finished up for Dream Cruise. We shall see...

[Emulsifide]

what kinda jack is that, looks like it would be awesome for a transmission

As you said, it's a transmission jack and it works AWESOME. I got it from Harbor Freight.

[Gottork]

what kinda jack is that, looks like it would be awesome for a transmission

[MP81]

POR-15 is a great paint for a used diff. We painted the 10-bolt in Sam's Monte, and man does it look sharp!

[ktl711]

Lookin' great! The first test drive is just around the corner!

[Emulsifide]

Good update!!

First, I finished the rear end brake lines. Screw GM for using standard inverted double flares on the T junction and then metric bubble flares on the hose ends:



Holy crap!!! It's starting to look like a car again!!!





We've got Strano springs, J&M rear control arms, Koni yellows, Russel stainless steel brake lines, ws6store.com slotted/dimpled black rotors, and Herron Performance bump stops.

Nothing is tightened down, but that's ok. I still have to source some decent rear calipers and then paint them. I also still have to install the rear control arm relocation brackets, but I can't do that until the car has a full weight load in it and it's on the ground.

At this point, I need to finish up moving the proportion valve for the rear to be a little more hidden in the engine bay and then I need to fabricate a plate to cover the hole in the firewall where the clutch master cylinder used to go through.

Those are the only two things I need to do before I can drop the engine in!!! I'm shooting for drop in to be this weekend at the latest....