LS1 Swap

[ktl711]

All of the power features I get are well worth the work.

Be careful what you wish for! Think twice before you accept the gift/curse of those power windows! Lots of people would kill for your manual regulators!

With that, I have some great pictures of a box I received in the mail today:
Yikes!
The box is of course a full set of Koni struts/shocks. Here's the puzzling part:
Who the eff ships car parts padded with a purple baby blanket??

Hmmm... purple baby blanket? Better check that box twice for stowaways!

[ktl711]

I may just buy a good 01 air bag controller and re-pin the body harness to use the old connectors off of the 98 body harness. Any suggestions/ideas?

You might want to get yourself a 2001-2002 column while you're at it, as your new harness will probably support the redundant audio controls that were optional in the Camaros. Those would be a nice addition to your car.

[Gottork]

looking great, wish I had your enthusiasm to get mine done..

[Emulsifide]

I had a summer day today, so I worked on the car for a while.

Wiring is about 95% done at this point. I believe I've found a solution to the airbag problem. I'm going to re-pin the airbags with the old connectors (since I have both the male and female ends) and I just picked up a 99+ airbag controller that came out of a completely undamaged car.

Remember the rust on the floor in the last set of pictures I posted? It was rusted damn near all the way through, so I cut it out today and welded a patch in place. I used automotive seam sealer on it to make it totally waterproof. The Both the floor and the underbody in that area need to be painted again with rust encapsulator. No big deal. It's fixed and done with.

After patching the hole, I decided to start working on the manual to auto tranny tunnel adapter plate. When converting to an automatic transmission, there's a giant hole in the tranny tunnel that needs to be covered up. That area where the hole resides also provides the shifter with two mounting points to keep it steady and sturdy. I started out with a 12"x12"x16ga mild steel plate. I then installed the shifter and checked for clearance with the center console:





So far so good. I then took a couple of stand offs I had laying around, chopped them down to the proper size, and tapped them for M8x1.25 bolts. The final product is the following:






Yeah, I know the weld penetration sucks, but I was running out of gas and getting impatient. It doesn't need to be super strong or pretty. The next step is to chop out a hole for the shifter cable grommet, lay down a bead of seam sealer, and then pop rivet the thing into place. It will then get coated with rust encapsulator on both sides. Problem solved.

Lastly, I took a trip on Sunday to Battle Creek to meet LSxDreamer and bought a bunch of parts off of his parts car. I got the following:

Leather seats:


SS Hood!!!




The hood is definitely aftermarket (not SLP), but it appears to have very good fitment. There's a hole in one of the ram air tunnels because the own prior to the parts car owner had an alternator relocation kit (used for big beefy turbo systems) and needed to clearance the hood for it to fit. I plan on fixing the hole and I'm also considering painting the hood myself. It would be a good test to see if I can paint the exterior of a car. Block sanding is going to suck, but whatever. I'm up to the challenge.

I'm waiting for my power locks and window regulators to arrive before I button up the doors. I'm also waiting for some automotive (high temp resistant and fire retardant) wiring loom to arrive so I can get the engine bay wiring harness squared away and installed. Once the tranny tunnel adapter plate is finished and the floor patch is painted, I will put the interior back together. Concentration will then be shifted to the rear of the car (rear end, gas tank, fuel/brake lines, etc.)

That's it for now. Stay tuned!

[Kwazrollinz28]

very nice!!!!

[esoteric18]

Very nice great motivation for my 408 build, I was wondering if you think I may be able to keep my interior harness instead of going this route?

[Emulsifide]

You can absolutely keep your body harness. I could of kept mine and made it work with the 01 engine harness. However, I wanted more than to just make the engine work (power windows, locks, mirrors, alarm, etc.) Because of this, I decided to swap the harness.

www.lt1swap.com has the wiring schematics for your car as well as ls1 pinouts.

[MunsterZ28]

ya you are very lucky to have manual windows, ive wanted to swap but cant find the parts.

[esoteric18]

You can absolutely keep your body harness. I could of kept mine and made it work with the 01 engine harness. However, I wanted more than to just make the engine work (power windows, locks, mirrors, alarm, etc.) Because of this, I decided to swap the harness.

www.lt1swap.com has the wiring schematics for your car as well as ls1 pinouts.

Thanks a bunch for the info

[Emulsifide]

Loom up the wazoo:



Now I can finish the engine bay and engine harnesses. Wewt.

[Emulsifide]

Bay harness is complete:



Sorry for the poopy picture. It took me a couple hours to get it done, but it was well worth it. It looks like a brand new harness now.

The next step is to mount the harness and pop a battery into the car to test all of the new power accessories. I will be tearing apart the engine harness as well (AIR delete, A/C delete, EVAP delete, etc).

[Gottork]

WOOOHOO one more step closer

[LSxDreamer]

Lookin good!

[Emulsifide]

Thanks for the comments guys!

Minor update:

Got a bunch of parts in the mail yesterday:


UMI Performance lower control arm relocation brackets
UMI Performance adjustable panhard bar
UMI Performance non-adjustable torque arm (adjustments will be made at the UMI torque arm relocation tranny crossmember I have)

Also got a bunch of new stock parts to replace crap that was either in sorry shape or I broke:



Most importantly, I also got a brand new shifter cable with an intact grommet so I can finish up the shifter plate.

Tada!


Painted to prevent rust:


The only thing left to do with it is seal it from the bottom with some body sealant and then paint that side. If I get time to do anything tomorrow before I go celebrate father's day, I will being reassembly of the interior!!

Lastly, I laid the bay harness into the engine bay. Looks pimp, but I forgot to get a picture.

Hopefully I will have another update tomorrow.

[ktl711]

Wow, this car is going to be HOTT!!! Do you have any ideas for how you're going to paint your SS hood -- are you spraying it yourself, and are you doing any special stripes, or 35th Anniversary stripes, etc.?