Happy Memorial Day to all,

Of the 4 vettes I own, only one was roadworthy when I bought it. Two had to be towed to my house, one sans engine, and I limped the other home after I bought it. I did frame off restorations on my '64 and '69 (over 20 years ago) and now I am contemplating doing a C3 with an LS engine.

I found a '73 that could be a good starting point, the owner started to restore it and has given up. There is no engine or tranny, the door posts and the frame around lower windshield have been replaced, the frame is said to be solid. I am planning on seeing it in person in the next day or so. Since the front clip has been cut out from the doors to just behind the inner fenders, it probably should get an entire new front clip.

So a few questions before I commit to this project.

1. Since I prefer steel bumpers front and back, can I put a 70-72 front clip on the car fairly easily? Would it just involve putting in bumper brackets for the steel bumper or is there a lot of other work involved?
2. It seems like there are a lot of resources out there for the LS conversions, basically entire kits are available, are there any areas that are a potential 'gotcha' in these conversions?
2a. The mechanical part of the conversion seems pretty easy. Since I will have the body off it should be able to get the engine, exhaust, gas tank, etc. all in place without issues. My question is how tough is it to get the electronics all worked out, for example the ignition, gauges, etc?

The goal is to end up with a 70-72 looking coupe, with black interior and perhaps the Monaco orange paint (not correct for 70-72 but I love the color).

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Scott

 

Should be pretty much cut and dried replacing clip with 70 style. I have one in the yard going on a 75 vert eventually. Scared up a pretty complete set of bumpers and brackets on Craigslist. Planning on leaving air tank in place and fabbing brackets from there.

 

As far as the LS7 swap, you will need to decide on wet or dry sump for the oil.
I went dry and had to add an external oil tank and breather.

For my 69, the LS7 sat right on my original steering. I ended up installing rack and pinion steering to get room for the original LS7 oil pan.

I am still mid install and currently working the wiring. I have the factory harness and need to find a place for the new fuse block.

Otherwise the install is pretty straight forward and documented.
Silly things like thermostat housing, power steering pump, accessories brackets all need some research but the info is out there.

My work is here:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-in-my-c3.html



Scott

 

Some folks are passinate that any under structure for given year stays intact during any modding,

The 73 nose was a redesign, that 5 mph stuff,
Will a 68 to 72 front clip mate to a 73 very much so, how hard the project is turns on how close to orginal is a must?

A lot of the 73 under structure simply will not fit in the chrome bumper nose so are you willing to step back to whatever collision protection a 68 to 72 had,

My 69 had a 73 to 79 modded clip, i liked the look but scored a new ecklers 68 69 clip for a couple 100,
I am going for a road race look if i run numpers they will be fiberglass fakes, not that a real chrome bumper offered a heck of a lot of protection stock....

All my life i have had buggies and kit cars that had pretty much zero safety stuff....

 

The 73 didn't have a wiper door. Aren't the tips of the fenders, near the windshield, different? No corner trim? Will they align with the 73 hood?

 

Did you get that aftermarket oil pan that is supposed to both fit and allow room for the power steering?

http://www.brphotrods.com/products/6...tte/index.html

Scott

 

Did you get that aftermarket oil pan that is supposed to both fit and allow room for the power steering?

http://www.brphotrods.com/products/6...tte/index.html

Scott

 

Don't know if the pan will fit the LS7 but I have the stock LS3 pan in my car. It fit just barely with the steeroids but I have since converted to Borgeson and it fits no problem. This is a wet sump system.

 

 

LS1, LS2, LS3, (can be had in dry sump confguration) LS9, LSX, all amazing engines, but the big thumper LS7 is like no other. That said, the valvetrain size and geometry in stock form is at its reliability limit. It is well documented and can be delt with, and to many, well worth risk/effort/cost. You would be well served to just Google "LS7 valvetrain failure" and take gander, you'll be glad you did.

 

 

Not rockin the boat but have you considered doing a Gen 1 427? Much easier and capable of plenty of power.
I dont trust those GM heads far as I can throw them, "fixed" or not. (LS7)So add the cost of a good aftermarket...some will say "I dont race it", doesnt matter they can let loose at idle and still take everything out. Sky aint falling, just saying. Gen 1 parts have come a long way and everything fits.
Doesnt take too much to make an honest 550-600hp these days

Heck, if youre going to spend say 15k+ may as well do an SB2.2 the parts have really come down in price and a streetable 700+hp pump gas stroker is realistic.

 

I did a 6.0 LS2 block that I had re-sleeved by Race Engine Development. He specializes in engine sleeving. He cuts the old sleeves out and then puts in Darton sleeves. They are ductile iron sleeves that are much stronger than the stock sleeves. Then rough bore to 4125". I bought a Manley 4" stroker forged rotating assembly so 427 cubes. LS3 CNC heads. 230I 240E .610 lift cam. Did 480 hp at the rear wheels on the chassis dyno and was very streetable. Tuner said it was an easy tune. So that's about 550-570 hp at the crank. Stayed with the wet sump pan.

Might be a bit cheaper and possibly a better engine overall than a LS7?

I did the Borgesen box swap with the LS in my71 C3 and had no clearance issues. My original steering a complete rebuild. Price was similar between the two.

One thing I didn't like on my LS C3 swap was the LS Fbody oil pan hung down below the cross member. If I did it over I would use a C5 oil pan.