LS1 Swap

Wow Andy! I must say that the car is coming along superbly. Looking at these pics is really cool because I can see all the effort you put into this as well as what the car looked like before I saw last week.

[meissen]

Looks great so far!

[JSTALT1]

good luck getting it all in, looks like its coming along good

[Emulsifide]

Quickie update. Not too much has been happening with the car this past week. I've actually been trying to figure out what I want to do with the wiring for the car. With the body and engine bay harnesses being set up for a 98 3800 and the engine harness being a 2001, there's some MAJOR re-pinning of multiple connectors that needs to happen. However, I do have on hand complete 2001 body and engine harnesses. The advantage to swapping all of the wiring is that I don't have to re-pin anything and everything works right off the bat. This means, it's impossible for me to screw up and then spend months trying to get the damn thing to start or to get a single gauge on the dash working properly. The other advantage is that the body harness I have has all the provisions for all the "finer" things I'm missing on my bare bones base model camaro (power locks, power mirrors, power windows, motorized seat with lumbar support, keyless entry, keyless trunk popper, fog lamps).

With that, I began stripping the interior out of the car today. I got everything out except for the actual carpet (I wanted to save this for last while I wrestled the dash out so I didn't bust up my knees on the metal floor). Here's what I have left to deal with:



Here's the new body harness:



It all looks pretty daunting, but after reading over all of the wiring schematics and pinout guides from GM's 98 and 01 service manuals, removing the harness and putting another one in place of it is cake compared to re-pinning.

I will probably have it all finished up in a day or two...more like a week given the rate I work at but I could care less at this point. I just want it done perfect and I'm willing to take the time to do so.

[ktl711]

Epic post! Thta's some great progress! At this rate, you'd better make a reservation for a spot on our caravan out to the Meet & Greet!

[Gottork]

gratz

[Emulsifide]

Mega UBER update:

A lot has happened since I last posted. Let's start with the first batch of parts:



We've got a bunch of summit tubing bending tools, stainless steel brake and fuel line tubing, new strut mounts, Moog tie rod ends, Moog strut isolators, Moog upper ball joints, Lakewood drive shaft safety loop, and a BMR HVAC block off panel.

I got the block off panel because I accidentally destroyed part of the HVAC box during tear down. I figure I can block it off for now and leave 100lbs of A/C equipment (and the heater core) off of the car. If I miss it, I can always pick up a complete HVAC box off of eBay or something. The HVAC box is still in the car controlling vents and allowing for fresh air to circulate in the cabin.

Here's what I did to get that working properly:



As you can see, there's a couple gaping holes in the center that need to be plugged up in order for airflow to properly push through the vents.

The solution was to take a piece of old dryer vent tubing and chop it up into this:



The gaps between the plastic and the tin were then sealed with household silicone/latex caulk.


As I said previously, I'm taking all the small parts for the car and treating them with POR 15:



Treating the wheel wells with the Peel Away 6 worked pretty well, but took a really long time to strip:


If there's ever a next time, I'll make sure I get a hold of Peel Away 7 like I initially wanted to do.

I finally got the car bundled up in it's Type-R cocoon for painting:




I debated about pulling off the rear bumper and painting up the backside of the car for a couple days. I finally decided to do it and I'm glad I did. I found this underneath:





Yuck. By far the worst rust is on the backside of the car. For the moment, I tore out the bad metal/rust and treated it with Eastwood's Rust Converter. It's pretty neat stuff. It turns the rust into a neutral state and turns it black which shows you that it successfully converted. I went ahead and did this all over the car:




After sanding the entire car one last time, it was time to finally paint the car today.

My paint mixing/prep station and air compressor setup:



The air compressor setup consisted of a TP Tools coalescing air filter that was plummed entirely with HVLP compliant fittings. The hose is a brand new dry 1/2" line. Between the hose and the gun is a throw away air filter and a digital pressure regulator. Adjusting the pressure at the compressor outlet is not accurate enough to get proper pressure at the gun. Overall, I'm very impressed with how the setup performed. I've been told to throw an oil separator into the mix, but since the air compressor is brand new, there's hardly any blow by with the cylinder rings. I'll eventually end up adding one in the future.

Since this is my first painting experience outside of using rattle cans, I expected this to be somewhat of a mild disaster. Amazingly, setting up the Eastwood Concours HVLP gun was uber easy. After mixing my paint properly and setting up the Devilbiss DeKups liner system, I initially started out halfway between the widest and shortest fan pattern. I did the same with the paint flow setting. I took the first few spray hits out on a nearby box and was stunned. The spray pattern was perfect and the coverage was fantastic!

After a couple coast of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator, here's the results:







There's a couple of spots that need touching up, but nothing serious. I will be doing that with eastwood's rattle can version of Rust Encapsulator.

Here's what I looked like after spraying for a couple hours:



Stupidly, after getting excited about the perfect spray pattern I nailed on the first try, I totally forgot to put on my head sock! My hair was covered in paint. I had to take a scotch brite pad into the shower with me and literally scrub my hair to get it all out. Not cool, but I've definitely learned a lesson.

If you recall, I was going to topcoat the Rust Encapsulator with Eastwood's Extreme Chassis Black. I'm deciding against doing this because a lot of people on Eastwood's forum have been having issues with the product lately. The Rust Encapsulator does not have to be topcoated and should be able to stand up to the abuse. Therefore, I'm deeming the painting complete!

One more thing regarding the paint:

When painting, make absolute sure you get a hold of a proper respirator. This is the overspray buildup that occurred after two coats. Imagine that going into your lungs. Yuck.

Now that the painting is done, I can finally begin assembly. However, there's a few more parts I need to nab.......more specifically, parts needed to install these:





We have here the entire valvetrain off of a brand spankin new LS6!!! I nabbed these off of LS1Tech.com by chance two weeks ago. I got the complete heads, cam, pushrods, rockers, rocker guides, timing gear, and timing chain. The parts literally have zero miles and the assembly was never turned over while bolted to the engine. I'm actually going to go ahead and sell off the cam since it's a little small for my power goals. I'm thinking about going with a custom EPS cam that a guy on LS1Tech.com used to fake his wife into thinking her car ran stock...until she jammed on the pedal. The car ended up making 430hp/415tq with a damn near stock idle thanks to a high LSA.

Well that's it for now. Assembly should start shortly!

[Gottork]

WOW awesome, keep up the good work..

[Emulsifide]

Update:

Still sanding like mad in the engine bay. I wasn't able to source Peel Away 7 locally. Home Depot carries P.A. 6, so I settled for that. It takes a really friggin long time for it to eat through the wheel well coating. To conserve time, I'm only going to be doing this to the front wheel wells for the moment. I'll do the rear wells when I tear the car apart again this upcoming winter.

I've also been cleaning and painting a bunch of parts. Things seem to be going smoothly, but May 29th (the day of J-Body of Michigan's 10th annual BBQ) is approaching quickly. Weather.com is reporting really good weather for the majority of this upcoming week, so I need to be done with prep probably half way through the week. Spraying paint will happen thereafter with assembly immediately following!


Quick question. Does anyone have any suggestions for some really good cutoff wheels for a Dremel? I need to reluctantly hack off a chunk of my engine block for the LS6 valley cover to fit:



Any ideas?

[Emulsifide]

Thanks for the comments guys. Alrighty. Here's the latest:

First, goody update:


Sam Strano lowering springs. Now if I could only stomach the fact that I need to cough up $850 for the Koni Yellows I need to run these springs properly!


Stock 00-02 Camaro SS 17"x9" rims. I got these for next to nothing and plan on doing something like this to them (picture shamelessly jacked from ls1tech.com):

I will probably leave out the red stripe, but we'll see.

As far as the car itself goes, EVERYTHING has been stripped from the engine bay to the rear of the car:





Now begins the rigorous cleaning and sanding that should put me well into next week. I have a week off from work starting April 30th, so I'm going to try and crank out all of the painting between now and May 7th. Once that's done, assembly begins!!! Oh and in the meantime, I'm also cleaning up a bunch of parts I took off the car. I've been successful with getting POR15 to work properly with rough surfaces, so I'm going to use it to coat everything that bolts up to the underbody (brackets and such).

One more thing. I went to a garage sale and nabbed all this today:


There's a rough estimate of just over 200 taps that I got. I bought them all for $80. They're all in outstanding condition and super sharp.

[ktl711]

Andy's in my neighborhood, so now I have a good excuse to ride my bike over there and either "consult" or perhaps even help on occasion! He's starting out with a real sweet Bright Rally Red coupe -- his car will make a nice addition to the Friday night Woodward scene!

[ITSSLOW]

I like the update and damn was it a nice update!

[98blackbeauty]

like the pic's of the parts and progress keep them coming! Looks like your doing a great job.

[BP_Z28]

Damn thats alot of parts.

[Emulsifide]

Back from the dead!!!!!

A lot of stuff has been bought, decided, and performed between last July and now. I apologize for not keeping up on this thread, but it's about to get more interesting.

Let's run down the parts I've been collecting:

eBay Headers (I hope they fit without hitting the UMI K-member. If not, the headers are going bye-bye and something of higher quality will be installed):


Entire 99+ fuel system (with Racetronix fuel pump and wiring harness):


LPP stainless steel true duals:




Z28/SS steering rack:


ws6store.com black zinc coated dimpled/slotted rotors, Hawk HPS pads, Russell stainless steel brake lines, Prothane motor mounts, MSD super wires, NGK TR5 plugs, ARP stainless header studs, and a UMI Performance strut tower brace:


New LS6 valley cover:


New hubs and UMI Performance lower a-arms:


I've got a bunch of other little parts that I can't even remember at the moment. I will post pics of those as things are installed.

Teardown of the 3800 went really well. It took me only a couple hours over a period of a couple days:






The slightly scary part:





Now that the powertrain is out, I've gathered up the following for underbody work:


We've got:
TP Tools coalescing air filter
High volume low pressure (HVLP) air fittings and couplers
Eastwood 1/4" digital air regulator
Eastwood inline disposal air filters
Painting googles with tear-off covers
Painting suit
Painting head socks
DeVilbiss DeKups disposal paint cup system (really effin cool)
Medium screen paint strainer
Eastwood PRE cleaner
Eastwood Rust Encapsulator
Eastwood Extreme Chassis gloss black paint
Eastwood Rust Converter

I have a couple more things on the way. Most importantly, a sweet Eastwood Concours HVLP spray gun. Most paint guns operate between 12-15CFM which is way beyond anything that my little Ingersoll Rand Garagemate can put out. Thankfully, Eastwood designed this gun to work on only 4CFM at 29psi, which works perfect for most small garage air compressors.

Before choosing to do this route, I gave POR15 a try on a sample piece of metal. I tried running through all the directions exactly how they specified you to do things, and I still couldn't get it to stick properly. I've seen a lot of people on many different forums saying really good things about Eastwood's system and the fact that the Rust Encapsulator product sticks to everything (including paint that isn't prepped what-so-ever).

I plan on doing the following:

Strip the entire underbody and engine bay of all bolted on items, wiring, fuel/brake lines, etc.
Strip OEM wheel well liner with Dumond Peel Away 7 chemical stripper
Clean everything using POR15 Marine Clean
Scuff everything up using 220 grit
Clean everything again using Eastwood PRE cleaner
Put Eastwood Rust Converter on the really rusty spots
Spray the entire engine bay and underbody with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator
Spray the entire engine bay and underbody with Eastwood Extreme Chassis gloss black paint
Coat the inner frame rails with Eastwood Heavy Duty Anti Rust (a waxy goop-like paint)

I also need to find something to use to recoat the wheel wells that's durable. Any ideas? Eastwood's underbody liner products are all rubber based and I think I want something epoxy based that hardens up nicely.

Oh and did I mention that I'm aiming for the car to be completely back together by May 28th? The next couple of months are going to be WILD!!!!