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Got a set of "stainless steel" C5 headers from Amazonian yesterday. I saw in other posts that C5 headers will fit if you cut the collector off and weld it back on at a 45deg angle.
I also test fit the transmission empty to make it easier to maneuver. Going to be a lot of fun when its assembled and 145lbs or so. Looks like it has decent firewall clearance. Good ground clearance too I may reuse the deep truck oil pan.
Round 2 test fitting. From todays experience I think I'm going to have to attach the trans to the engine after its lowered into the engine bay but not into the pedestals, then attach the driveshaft and cbeam, then drop the engine into the pedestals. If anyone has other suggestions please let me know. Heads and oil pan cleared nicely, both C5 headers need to come from underneath to install. Good driver side clearance Good passenger side clearance Oil pan clearance good Both sides look good
Now its time to clean and paint under the hood and build this engine. I decided on summits 8707 cam, 226/238 with .600 lift. Ls2 intake, estore special 92mm throttle body. Should be fun to drive
Sunday funday was able to clean the block, hone the cylinders with a 400 grit hone for the moly rings, then we went to the local car wash for a quick soap and clean. Wiped the cylinder bores clean with paper towels then sprayed with wd40. Brought it home blew out all the threaded holes with compressed air then extra spraying with wd40 to keep flash rust down. Hope to finish cleaning the internal passages this week and start the assembly.
Wow Bandit your making pretty good progress. Curious if your pistons where dished or flat tops? I would run the LS2/LQ9 pistons if your going to buy new pistons (flat tops)? I saw on ebay you can get them for $200-$300, for brand new pistons/pins/rings. You going to clean up the deck surface?
The only clearance issue is going to be the passenger side coil pack. I just moved mine up some more on the valve cover. The #7 spark plug is going to a tight fit to get in. The rest are easy, but the passenger side rear plug is a bitch. I'm running the longer in length truck spark plug wires. Your gonna have a pretty cool ride when your done. Not sure if you seen but you can get TCI paddle shifters for your 4L80E transmission, so you can drive your car like a manual if you wanted.
I will be running a set of 706 heads with new valves and PAC 1219 springs. They were milled .006 to clean up so with the stock dishes pistons i should have close to 10.4:1 compression based on articles I've read about lq4/706 head combos. New rings of course and will most likely do the plastigage exercise even though the bearings and crank look great. Can't be too thorough as I don't want to pull this beast back out once it's in.
I did scrape off the deck surface carefully with a razor to get all the old gasket material off. It was a pain and time consuming. Never had that much time involved with the old small blocks they seemed to be much easier to clean.
Can anyone give me a part number for the small c shaped bracket that holds the power steering pump in place on the main bracket? I'm using a c5 alt-p/s bracket and may end up fabbing that little guy if need be.
Can anyone give me a part number for the small c shaped bracket that holds the power steering pump in place on the main bracket? I'm using a c5 alt-p/s bracket and may end up fabbing that little guy if need be.
Not sure if this will happen for your build as your going the C5 accessory stuff and different motor mounts than I did, but I had to trim my hood slight for the C6 alternator/bracket to fit. If you want a factory looking cia kit, I would use the later C4 rad support/bracket stuff. I found some cheap C5 stuff on ebay, I sure with the correct adjustments you could get it to work.
I already bought a fancy aluminum rad for a early C4, so I'm not sure which way I'm going. At some point I was going to install a turbo.
I found this old gem on my computer, my turbo test fit. The turbo is a tiny S480/T-6 1.32 a/r (large frame turbo). You could easily run a mid frame turbo on these C4's.
Last edited by Mike Holmen; Apr 1, 2020 at 10:29 PM.
Mike let me know if you decide to sell that radiator.
Small quick project today installed the seat cushion suspenders to replace the rusted metal stuff that used to be there Driver side was mostly intact. Passenger side was dust
It took a few days here and there to clean the ridiculous amount of grease and grime and rust from the engine mount shells, but finally got them painted and prothane guts installed.
Hey Bandit, I run a 85 vette rad, so my top coolant hose is two hoses, joint together with an air hose coupler (that I bought from my local hose shop for $2) and put a 1/8in npt so that the heads steam/coolant can flow back to the rad. I also used a C6 vette power steering hose return from the rack to pump. The water pump heater hose outlet ports need some tweaking, as they might infer with the frame rail.
Have you welded up the headers yet? Very cool build buddy. You going drive by wire or by cable?
Hey Bandit, I run a 85 vette rad, so my top coolant hose is two hoses, joint together with an air hose coupler (that I bought from my local hose shop for $2) and put a 1/8in npt so that the heads steam/coolant can flow back to the rad. I also used a C6 vette power steering hose return from the rack to pump. The water pump heater hose outlet ports need some tweaking, as they might infer with the frame rail.
Have you welded up the headers yet? Very cool build buddy. You going drive by wire or by cable?
Thank you sir! I've read that a 98-02 f-body radiator hose may work but thanks for the tip. The heater core pipe assembly has a port built into it for the original engine to steam vent I'm hoping to use that and maybe do a 4 corner steam vent system. We'll have to see once the engine is in which may take another month to get it built plus build the trans. I haven't messed with the headers yet, again a function of getting the engine/trans installed. But I'm more excited by the day to do it! I keep ordering parts that I know will be needed and it's a killer not being able to work on it like I did with the trans ams as a bachelor
Hey I can relate, I did my car over Christmas break several years ago, not sure how but I did. Surprising on how fast everything went together. I did a bunch of pre-planning prior, but all that went sideways once I got into my project. All in all, my car was alot of fun to build. It gave me alot of joy on doing it I just kept using a bunch of C6 parts from rock auto and everything went together pretty decent. Back then I was going to run a turbo/supercharger and go the 4in stroker/LS3 cnc head route, but of course back then I had bunch more money.
Surprising on how much fun my stock LQ9/700r build is with 2.73 gears. Still a very fun car for how little has actually been done to the car.
