little more progress i cleaned and painted the water pump and pulleys and brackets. i also recived my dirty dingo lsx motor mount plates i bolted them on and instaled the motor mounts. i also streched the wire harness back over the engine to just have a look at the location of the plugs. i have a few Questions... one i bought the original 2 stage cooling fans from the donor car. when i layed the wire harness across the engine i noticed that the harnes had no plugs on it for the cooling fans.. is that a seprate harness???? same goes for the fuel pump. i was looking to run the f body fuel pump in my 75 tank.. as seen on Vetteworks. i like the idea of using as close to oem equipment in the build.

 

Fuel pump and fans will both run from a set of relays that will need to be put into place,
the ECU will have a negative output for each to control the relays. I'm not sure if the OEM
were in the engine bay fuse box or not, if you have that you should see the relays
labeled in the box. As far as a harness/connector if you don't see them in the harness they
might be cut off at or near the fuse/relay center.

Riggs

 

i planed on doing the build in small stages... example

#1 strip clean and paint engine and trans.

#2 instal engine and trans in car (test fit)
this would allow me to see how the trans crossmember lays out.
this would also detirmine the big block side pipe rework to ls style flange.

#3 pull engine (re weld and gusset over factory welds) not a step every one is into but the 496 has really took a toll on my front frame. i took the car to Drago's corvette to get alligned and when gary drago put the car on the rack he took some factory measuremnts of the car and found that my front shock towers were leaning in.. under further investigation he noticed a hair line crack in the under carrage of the cross member. he recomended me streaching the frame back out to spec with the spreader bar and fix the crack..

#4 will be cleaning up the engine bay and smothing out some of the fire wall. at this time i will be tearing into the 1975 factory wireing harness and removing the loom and identifing the wires for the swap.(the ls engine comes with its own harness.) so i don't really need the original harness with its conections.

#5 re instal engine and trans into fresh engine bay with the reworked trans cross member and (hopfully) bolt on the reworked big block side pipes. This should conclude . what i consider to be the hard part..

# 6 Form this step i will be looking at each individual system as its own little job

power steering hoses (braided steel with AN connections)

coolent hoses

fuel system (factory line that runs down the frame just reworked)
Use vette works adaptor for 2001 fuel pump in tank.

reworked ls harness and computer ( i think im going to use speartech)

trans coolent hoses ( braded steel with an connections)

i think im going to use auto meter gauges. i like the look of the 75 gauges in my car now. but..... i think its more cost efective to just get modern gauges. i gotta belive they are just more accurate.

finally drive shaft rework

im sure there is more but thats all of the major things i can think of at the moment..

 

didn't recive the fuse center... i'll look over your and gordams and otherpost to see what every one is using.. im guessing "painless" has a kit with factory plugs for the swap??? may be ill do some research n this tonight.
Thanks again Riggs. you have been a big insperation along with others on this swap!

 

If you're having the harness reworked, they can include a fuse relay center for the fans,
fuel pump, starter, and AC if needed. It didn't cost to much extra and it looks nice and clean.

Also make sure you attach your trans cooling line to the trans before you drop the motor
in the car for the final time, the fittings on the trans are nearly impossible to get to
once it's in the car, and also make certain you get the right fitting to adapt to the trans
thread to AN fitting , I think I have the fitting type in my build thread, if not Pm me and I'll find it for you.

Riggs

 

Trans cooler line fitting at the trans are -6 to 1/4 npt.


Riggs.

 

On the wiring. You should have 2 wires that control the fans through relays from the ecu. If you're running AC, you may want to have one additionally controlled by a trinary switch since AC request to the ecu is problematic.
Also, most ecu relay functions are controled by grounding, EXCEPT the fuel pump. That is a + voltage signal to the relay.

 

Good advice. ill get the hose and fittngs in there first.

 

thanks a million gary. this helps me alot!

 

I got started on the part of the build that is what i consider to be the least amount of fun... i purchased a "trowel" shaped Ryobi sander to clean up the fire wall, the sander worked great with a 60g pad. i had some remorse over not doing as good of job as i could before the 496 went in.. well now i feel i did a really good job. i started in with "por15's Marine Clean" they make a really good degreaser. after that i plasticed off the vette and tarped of the area around the lift and power washed the crap out of the under side of the vette.

 

Hopefully, the weather is fair tomorrow here in Mid Michigan, as i will be able to do some welding on the frame tomorrow. I also had a really good friend of mine stop by and purchased the 496 bbc today. he has plans of putting it in a 4x4 truck that he and his son are working on. as part of the deal we worked out on the engine i aquired a 489 balanced stroker kit from him. i was going to build another big block when we made the deal. now i feel i might put a turbo diesel in the 1984 1 ton... that being said im looking to sell the 489 It is fully forged H beam rods and forged crank. i was hoping to get about $1550 for the kit if any one on the forum is intrested. here is recipt that shows the 1800 dollars he paid to have it shiped.

 

i also had a Question. what Throtle cable is every one using and lenght. i was thinking about ordering it this week along with Trans tunnel insulation and isolation foam.

 

IIRC, the Lokar 36" cable is the one to use. It looks like you are missing the bracket that holds the end of the cable at the TB so you will need to buy a bracket also.



Rick B.

 

Well i got home from eary today. and while still in "work mode" i decided to drag out the welder get to it.. the factory welds on these frames are nothing short of embarasing. so with a lincon 110v mig i got to it.

 

wiped the engine bay clean, and got to work painting semi gloss black.

 

Nice work man!!

 

Thanks alot aj... hey you ever think of making your 496 fuel injected? i tossed the idea around with my 496.

 

Well i finished my interior last summer. and here i am again tearing into it i have had a push button start on the car since i was 19. all i did was have to turn the key forward and push the button and it started. well last fall at a major cruize here in michigan (BACK TO THE BRICKS) the damn push button start left me stranded at the show. here i am with a basic tool kit girlfriend by my side. hot wireing my own car... which leads me to my next dillema. i vaugly remember why i did the push button start in my car but i think the key start went out long ago.. but since i have got the car all torn apart again. i would like to adress the key start problem. i think that my nuetral safty switch was bad some time ago. so im going to get a new one, my question is where does the purple wire originate from??? because i have split my engine wire loom and traced the all of the wires there and have come up empty handed on the where abouts of this purple wire in the engine compartment.. i have the lectric limited wire diagram skematic and let me tell you. have a really hard time understanding it. its my take that the wire starts at the key travels to the nuetrall safty switch. then from there who knows??

 

just a little more progress! im getting real close to putting this thing in!

 

Looks real good, How soon are you planting it into the car?


Riggs