MN-Brent

I was looking to get into another Vette, most likely a C5-Z06, but before my 82 was able to sell, I developed a rather loud tick in the passenger head on my last foray this fall, right before I was to get it inspected for an interested buyer. Knowing I wouldn't sell it this way and knowing I wasn't about to put any more $$ into the CFI motor, I decided to keep the car and take on the LS1 swap.

I picked up the ""How to Swap GM LS-Series Engines into Almost Anything" book and another building up LS motors. Love reading up on these. Cant seem to get enough of it!! I also joined the LS1TECH forum and absorbed info like a sponge.

I'm pretty stoked to get into this and think I made the right decision. The rest of the car has been pretty well updated, and the motor was the last domino. Ill try to keep this thread updated as I go through it.

So here it begins:

82 up in the garage:


Bought an LS1-4L60E from Contemporary Corvette (Fparts) on Ebay. Yep, keeping it an auto for now for budgetary/ease of install purposes. Here it is as delivered:



Tearing parts off for cleanup:



Cleanup of the valley and intake port area. There was alot of wet leafs, small twigs, and little debris bits under the manifold. I think the motor was cleaned up before it was delivered with the 1:10 ratio Armor All/Water detailers secret sauce as the motor smelled slightly of Armor All. The rest of the motor only had the usual, but mild case of grease grime:



LS6 manifold without EGR behind TB (on 01-02 F-Body's)

MN-Brent

My first big task will be to get the exhaust manifolds off. The rear bolt on both sides are broken off in the head as delivered WTF!! Going to use the left handed dril bit method. Have been soaking it with PB for 4 days now.

Tom's 79

This should be an interesting thread to follow.

Do you have any other mods in mind besides the LS6 intake? Cam change? Will you be doing your own pcm tuning?

Looks good so far!

MN-Brent

So far Im going to have a stock 2001 LS1, but with the obvious less restrictive air intake set-up and some type of C5 Vette shorty header (OBX maybe) that has the O2 built in and mate up easily to my original 2.5 inch exhaust.

I'm thinking of using Wait4me Performance for my PCM programming

For the wiring harness, Ive decided to mod my own harness the way I want it, rather than farm it out. Its a PITA, but its along the lines of the work I do professionally. It seems you either pay a small fortune to get it done right, or you dont get it done well enough for the money your paying. There seems to be no in-between, IMHO.

Once everything is proven good, maybe next winter I'll consider a cam swap-local dyno tune.

If I really get bored or frustrated with shelling out money for PCM work, I'll buy something like HP Tuners or EFI live.

Really dig the LS platform.

jordan89

This is going to be a good thread, please keep us posted with updates. I wish I could afford an LS swap, maybe later on in the future.

Jay71

I'm definitely following you for the ride on this one ... I want to do the same thing. I'm going on Saturday to look at a LQ9 (6.0) out of a wrecked Cadillac Escalade. I was bitten by the LS bug about a year ago and cannot stop thinking about it. The guys on this forum, and LS1Tech have been so helpful. Best of luck ... can't wait to see pics !

72LS1Vette

All the work is worth it when you fire it up for the first time with open headers.



Rick B.

PatsLs1vette

i agreef jesse does the pcm hell get it very close to what youll need with those mods done.Also if you dont want to use the Maf sensor hell set it up speed density then you dont have to worry about that plumbing issue of it.

markdtn

Neat

NassyVette

You should be stoked! You're gunna have an awesome ride when your done. Congrats I think you'll be thrilled with the LS motor.

MN-Brent

The update this morning is the exhaust manifolds are off. Soaking them for 4 days with PB Blaster (light squirts morning and night ) did the trick. My garage is also 40F right now, so that may have also helped with shrinkage. No heat or "Freeze Off" spray required. They just popped loose without a fight.

I think the original owner of this motor took a shot at some headers, and gave up after the first 2 bolts snapped on him while the motor was in the car. At least thats what I'm hoping.

Tom's 79

I thought I had read something a while back on ls1tech about certain year water pumps going bad early. I was just over at that site and could not find it again. Sorry, I didn't mean to bring something up that might not be an issue. If someone else knows about it fine, but otherwise just assume I made a mistake. Carry on!

73ls1

Good luck with your swap.You have my phone # if you need some advice.I bought my ls1 from Fparts also. You will be very happy when you do your 1st burnout and take your 1st roadtrip getting fuel mileage in the mid twenties. Charlie

MN-Brent

Got around to getting some paint on the block and tranny. I'm inspired to black from the Ebay shots of the 600hp motor thats always advertised there.

Up on the hoist cleaned and ready for paint. I used CRC brake cleaner. elbow grease, and pretty much nothing else. Cleaned it up real good. It was like 0 degrees outside and I got the garage up to 55F. About passed out from all the spray solvent fumes!


In primer Duplicolor Engine primer:


Paint Duplicolor 500F Engine Enamel Gloss Black:



Valve covers painted with same primer and Duplicolor 500F Engine Enamel Aluminum Cast

78Vette-SA

You're already off to a great start and you probably don't need any more than is already here. But if I can help in any way feel free to drop a pm or email. I've been down this path many times and built, modified, and tuned a number of these motors for myself and others so would be glad to throw my .02 in if asked.

Good luck!

Aggitated Monkey

The black paint really came out nice

MN-Brent

Next installment. Been busy with work, holidays, etc. so I saved up the pics I have until recently.

Had both rear manifold bolts broken off flush. Tried to use a 3/16 drill and a square screw extractor, but the bolts would not budge. The screw extractor was ready to snap so I backed off and went to the Heli-Coil method. Actually Perma-Coil from Pep Boys. M8 x 1.25

Here is the semi-finished wire harness that I modded up myself. Basically snipped back all connectors that I'm not using, heatshrinked the ends, and tucked them back into the harness wrap. I have the underhood Painless 70217 kit for all new fuses and IGN relays, which will be mounted under the hood somewhere. I'll run a new Bosch relay for the fuel pump back in the existing ECM compartment behind the drivers seaat, where the old relay is that I wont be using.

Shorty SS headers OBX. These are a copy of the C5 corvette manifolds, which have been proven to keep up with long tube headers to ~4500rpm from a Car Craft article I recently read. I'm using these so I can mate up to my original exhaust Y pipe and keep my existing trans crossmember, to keep the budget down. I already have the donuts and mating C5 mid pipe pieces to make this happen. Thanks to CF members Convertz and DBS99MagredCoupe for the mating C5 exhaust pieces -pro bono!!

Engine removal. I separated the engine and tranny for ease of removal.


Removed 700r4. 2K stall. It was new last year. It sold locally within hours to an old street rodder dude. Great guy

Big Hole, needs cleanup

Both engines out

Mock up of the LS1 with LS6 intake manifold and C5 shorty headers !!

Eddie 70

Looking good Brent. I see you are doing the swap with the hood in place. Both times I pulled the hood just because I would have thought there was no way I could pull it like that. Good work. I will be keeping an eye on this one. You are going to have one nice ride when you get it all together. You will love the LS.

MN-Brent

Did a lot of work over the holidays. I had 2 weeks off and used the time as best as I could.

Clean up and Gloss Black appliance epoxy paint of the install area. Certainly not show worthy, but made me smile

Engine going in, easy as pie


Ordered a 4L60E tailshaft mechanical speedo conversion ($500) which keeps the VSS functional on one side and has the mechanical speedo gear output on the other. Assembly was as advertised. Nice piece of equipment.

Assembly of tailshaft pieces. Speedo gear is held onto the shaft with 3 set screws blue loctited.

Finished piece ready for install

Slip yoke. Not sure how I like this. I lost ~1 inch of spline engagement. The 4L60E is the same dimension as my 700R4 to the tip of the output shaft, which extends maybe 1 inch beyond the tailhousing. This set-up is with the "standard" LS1 swap mounts that has the motor mount sharing the bottom bolt with the adapter plate into the block.

Mock up of the intake manifold on the block. Exhaust all clears with some persuasion and the alternator & power steering pump are mounted up. Time for a beer for sure.

jordan89

It's looking real good. Can't wait to see her done. I've been following this thread since day one. I hope to get my swap started pretty soon. Good luck.