I picked up the LS3 from an 09 Vette with 18K on the odometer from Gus at Cleveland Pick A Part. Very clean engine. It has been in the garage for a few weeks and I finally got started on it after removing the fuel injected 383. It is sold to a forum member who is excited to have it between his frame rails. I will deliver it the first weekend in October to him. I stripped down the LS3 to just the motor and wanted to get it in to do trial fitting of everything first. It will be in/out many times I'm sure before finally resting in the car. As usual the first thing went wrong. The motor mounts were not correct and put the engine f=to far back for my liking. I did manage to get them where I want it just so I can measure and fit everything. Next time out I will replace or rework these mounts to work. The Vette Accessories will not fit due to the power steering pump hitting the upper control arm. I was determined to make them fit but there is a big clearance problem. A smaller pulley might make it work but it will have to be quite a bit smaller. Might have to go to the F body setup. I just like to be different.
Everyone told me the LS3 pan would not fit. Well they are wrong. It is tight with the Steeroids but it does fit with little room to spare. I bolted on the Quick Time blow shield and just bolted up the T56. Clearance is way better wit hthe LS3 in the tunnel than with the Gen1 SB. I will have to rework the trans crossmember and put in a longer driveshaft. Gee this one is for sale and it has about 1K miles on a brand new shaft. . More to come later, this is just the start.

Starting point




Old vs new




Its in


Bellhousing bolted up


T56 in


Somebody is tired


Clearance with LS3 pan and Steeroids

 

Looking great Gordon

Im hoping to be following in your footsteps this winter if the funding is there...

What did you not like about the motor being further back? Just accessibility to service things? Or firewall fitment issues?

 

Wish I could have had a chance at your 383. How much did it go for?

 

You'd think that it would be easier (and cheaper) to get a custom made pulley for the PS pump than to rework the whole thing for and F-body setup.

Can you get one of those idler pulleys converted to fit the PS pump? They look a bit smaller. Just pondering?

 

Looking good Gordon. Plenty of clearance with the steeroids.

I saw a black C2 today with an LS7 in it today at LS Fest. What a show this is!! There is something here for everyone. You will have to bring yours down next year for the fest. Then there will be 3 LS C3 vettes here.

 

That is my brother in laws car. Take a close look at it there is more detail in there than you can imagine. I have driven that car and it is unreal to drive. I was going to try and make the Fest this year just could not do it time wise.

 

It was very tight to the firewall and to the heater box. I could not even back out the bolt I had the chain to on the back of the cylinder head. There was maybe 1 inch between the firewall and the head. I was also worried I may not get the bellhousing up there with it that far back. I probably could have made it work but I am also looking to move the coil packs and this will free up a little room. Also will probably run the harness back there and need some room for that.

The funding is getting expensive. This is definitly not going to be a low budget swap but not trying to break the bank either.

 

I also seen your brother inlaw.That car is sweet. Eddie and Ihave the only Ls powered C3's at the LS fest.You missed a good event.Hope you can make it next year.Charlie

 

Nice work! Keep those pictures coming!

 

I'm guessing you tried the 1" setback plates. I had the same firewall clearance issue with my 6.0/Richmond 6 speed swap. The 621 bell housing was even touching the tunnel. The standard plates worked fine for me.

 

I'm learning this as well.

I was supposed to be bringing the '68 to our shop this week to start the disassembly, but out will have to be pushed back a couple weeks.

 

Yes this is what Ihad. I can modify the existing plates so it is in the correct location without to much problem. It was so close to the firewall I could not get the bolt out of the head from the chain for lifting. All is well now. When I remove the engine again I will modify the plates.

 

This is going to be fun, you always do a great job documenting your projects

 

Gordon, what is the advantage to the ls3 376 ci over your existing? One of my friends has the Procharger on his and he has mid 500 RWHP

 

Probably a few more HP. Just wanted to do something different and the LS motors have always been quite interesting. I have he car pretty much torn apart at the moment and will be updating a few other things along the way. Cam and tune on the computer should put me in the 450 to 470 RWHP range is what they are getting.

 

I had a big issue with the accessories. Everyone says the Vette ones will not fit the early Vette chassis. They are correct but don't tell me I cannot make it work. After much work and trial fitting and searching the internet for hours I finally got it figured out. The Vette pulley is very unique to the LS motors. Not only does it use the largest pulley diameter it also uses the smallest shaft size and it is unique to only the Vette PS pumps. Well this presented the challenge. The PS pump pulley was into the upper control arm. It was not even close it just layed up against it. I tried a different bracket from Kwik Performance. It was better but still not enough. After searching long hours I finally came upon 3 pulleys that are smaller in diameter that they say should work. Off to Advance Auto. They had all 3. One is a Jeep pulley, one is a Ford pulley and one is for a Chevy Corsica. The diameters were all pretty close at about 5 3/4 ish. The stock one is 6 3/4 ish. I figured I needed about a 6 inch or smaller. Well the shaft diameter proved to be the issue. The Vette shaft is is .660. The Corsica is the standard GM .750. That won't work. The Jeep shaft is .622. This is possible I will just ream it out some. The Ford shaft is right at .660. Pulley looks good also. So it is between the 2 of these. The Jeep pulley has windows to allow easier mounting of the bolts also. I just have to do the final mockup and see which one looks and fits better. I will also have to trim one of the control arm mounting studs back about 1/2 inch. No problem as there is plenty of stud there. I am going to use the Kwik Performance brackets as I like the looks and they are lighter. It mounts the pump about 180 degrees different than stock so the reservoir will have to be relocated/modded. No biggie. I will post up some pictures soon. My Photobucket account for some reason has not been working for the past 2 days.

 

I love it when folks tell me it cant be done, or it wont work..

 

I thought the Kwik bracket used a non-vette PS pump with the larger f body/truck shaft diameter. Also you could try the original vette bracket with a f body/truck pump and there are a few smaller diameter pulleys that could work.

 

Kwik actually makes 3 different sets of brackets. One for the Vrtte, one for the Fbody and then one even for the truck acc. All 3 of those use different spacing from the block and different balancers.

The Fbody pump is a reservoir style pump where as the Vette pump does not have a reservoir, it uses a remote tank so it will not fit the stock Vette bracket.

 

Can you swap out the pump for an fbody or truck PS pump in the vette or Kwik mount? If so you have a wider selection of pulleys. I used a Dorman 300-201 pulley