I thought I would start a thread on our lastest project. This car is my dad's 1965 Vert and we have had the car in our family since 1979. My dad has been driving the car a lot more over the past months and we decided some work was in order.

After some discussion on the work that might be necessary to help work out the hot start issues associated with the stock fuel injection I convinced (didn't take much) to put do a complete update on the car.

The car has undergone substantial work in the years we have had it, including paint, interior, top (have the original hard top as well), wiring, suspension, power steering... etc. Needless to say, we had a great platform to start from.

The upgrades will include...
2006 LS2 engine
Keisler TKO600 5 Speed Conversion with Hydraulics
Vintage Air AC
Dewitts Radiator with Electric Fans (for LS Series Engine)
HPM Custom Fuel System
HPM Hydroboost Brake Upgrade
HPM Custom Exhaust to Factory Sidepipes
SMC Peformance Harness and Electronics (turn key for engine, electronic throttle, etc.)
Steeroids R&P Conversion


Here are a few pictures of what we started with...







The first upgrade was to a set of killer wheels, this really looks great and thanks to all of the great information posted in this forum finding the size was a snap!



Once the engine was received it was test fit with the accessories and pan and then disassembled. As I mentioned the engine is an LS2 from a Corvette and was purchased from SMC Performance.

The original FI 327 was removed, prepped and is being stored. We are undecided as to selling the engine and FI or keeping it for the future. Same with the transmission, stored for now.

The new engine was stripped down and was given a new coat of paint, just to clean everything up. Original engine..



After a coat of paint, we are excited to get this in and fire it up!



While we were waiting for the trans and a few other parts we decided it was a good time to tidy up the engine bay. 40+ years of holes and changes were cleaned up. Anything we did not need was cleaned up and painted. All of the brackets, etc are to be blasted and refinished as well.





Just a side note, we realize that this thread will not be for the purists out there. We have decided that all would be done to preserve the original character and personality of the car while making it a great driver.

Comments and questions are welcomed and we will update the thread as we progress.

Stay tuned...

 

im really glad to see someone not afraid to follow their passion by bringing an icon up to date with the latest performance options while saving the old parts for posterity.....

might i suggest a removable cross member at this stage for ease of trans. servicing??.......jmo.....

 

Presuming the engine is original to the car those would also be my thoughts on saving all the original parts. Making everything reversable would be a good way to go for an original car.

I would normally agree on the usefulness of a removable transmission cross-member but, if the car is original, would think more about that modification as it wouldn't likely be reversable. If not, I have some information and a couple of pictures of the removable cross-member we built. Just send us an e-mail and I can send you the information.

Best of luck with the project.

Rich

 

We have discussed the removable cross member, but we are going to see how hard/easy it is to put in the new trans with the engine in before we decide to cut it.

Once we see how that fits, we will go from there. We have been assured by Keisler that it will go in without cutting it.

 

Nick, it will ask me how I know. I can work on the old stuff dads car really looks good my 65 looks just like it, will have to drive that one up in warm weather. I know all of your work will be 100% as always. Just looks diff with you working on the older one.

 

Definately MUCH less complicated than a C5 or C6...

 

I love the car and I think its going to make a super nice car with the changes first rate!

 

Oh yeah tell your dad I said nice gloves!!!!

 

keep the engine and tranny that belong to the vehicle. you never know
down the road what you will do. i bet it will help sell it if you have too. i keep almost everything i replace.
jim

 

If that is the org motor and a true F/I car worth 15,k more with that motor for sure....

 

Very nice, thanks for taking the time to share. I look foreward to the next update.

 

Depends on how much you want to do with it.

 

Last night we disassembled the stock power steering system to make room for the Steeroids setup.

We also took a big chunk out of the fuel system as well. The stock tank was modified with a steel bung welded in for the return line.



The stock pick up from the tank was cut, flared and fitting with a tube nut and a -6 AN adapter to connect to the fuel filter. Stock sender for the fuel level will be sent to the new Autometer gage.



The filter from a 1999-2004 Corvette was used. Feed and return lines enter and exit via Fragola adapters and -6 fittings. A custom made adapter exits the fuel filter and goes into the fuel pump. Walbro 255 lph High Pressure/ High Volume Pump handles the fuel feeding.

Just have to run the feed line to the front of the car and drop a power line to the pump, she will be ready to rip.

Keisler Engineering is visible from my office window so I stopped by there last night after I left work and picked up this little gem as well...



Have enough parts now to get the engine back in and get everything lined up. Hydroboost and hydraulics are the name of the game in the next few days.

 

Nick, as always very nice work on her man. Just when ever give me a call on the C5 coming up to you man...

 

A little more progress made on the car over the weekend.

We test fit the engine to the transmission and after taking the necessary measurements we needed two additional spacers on the CSC. This made a total of 4 spacers (1"). Swung by Keisler on my way home from work on Friday and picked them up.



Everything fit together as expected... at least on the ground.

We dropped the engine back in the car and had it in and out for various things over the course of the night. Once I settled on what motor mounts and plates I wanted to use we attempted to put the transmission in the car. We quickly saw that it was not going to work.

Keisler's instructions (for a stock engine) say to install the bellhousing and the transmission simultaneously while rotating the parts together to make everything fit. We quickly saw that this was not going to work for our LS installation, nor would I ever want to attempt to service the trans, clutch or hydraulics in this manner.

We ended up cutting the cross member. I am going to have a custom cross member bent up and bolted to the parts remaining on the stock frame. We cut it in such a way that at some point if it was to be reattached, it could be done.



We did end up having the trans back out twice more before the night was over, so the cross member modification was the right thing to do.

We have been working on the accessory drive as well. We have been told that the stock C5 accessories will work and in a nutshell, on our particular car with our setup, it won't.

I got a Vette setup from Kwik Performance. The other reason for the new brackets is I wanted both sides to match, since we have to use an aftermarket bracket for the AC, I used the same one for the Alt/PS bracket. Great prices and great to deal with. I would recommend them to anyone.



After several iterations of pulleys and power steering pumps I finally found something I was happy with. In addition, I moved the power steering pump in on the bracket as far as possible. Having a mill here certainly made that a viable option. Our car had a lot of shims in the suspension and it was just too close for comfort to the belt and fittings for me.

The picture above it before the bracket modification. Next up is the hydroboost setup, AC and water pump.

 

Are you sure your AutoMeter fuel gauge is going to work with the stock fuel sending unit? Midyear Corvettes used a dual-powered voltage-divider sending unit circuit for the fuel gauge, which wasn't used on any other GM car; unless the AutoMeter gauge is specifically designed for this midyear Corvette-unique circuit, it may not work. Every AutoMeter fuel gauge I've installed used the GM-standard simple non-powered resistance-to-ground sending unit circuit.

The (upper) C1/C3 diagram below shows the GM-standard circuit, and the (lower) C2 diagram shows the '63-'67 Corvette-only "experiment" circuit.

 

The C2 sender will not work with the autometer gauge. The C3 sender is the way to go.

R/
Jeff

 

Guys thanks for the heads up.. I just talked to the guy at Summit and he said.. OH YEAH, np here is what you need.

Do you know if I can just get a C3 sender and put it in this tank?

Great info.. thanks again!!

 

Yup, fits right in there with no problem

R/
Jeff

 

Thanks again, I will pick one up!