JonRagTop

Vintage air uses a Sanden compressor, and I bought the holley LS accessory drive mount kit. Those instructions will tell you which compressor to buy, think mine was a sd7 but verify that via the kit you buy. Most kits tell you which accessories to buy.

kwhizz

Jizzaldo

updates?

JonRagTop

Well for those of you that have performed an LS swap, you'll understand the feeling. Today I drove the car for the first time, took it up to get some gas and cruised around for short time. Pretty much running open headers right now, but before I finish the exhaust I wanted to be sure I had no major issues.
Here's a pic of the limited exhaust run I have right now, just enough to get the mid length headers to be routed outside the x frame and turned towards the rear.

My preference on the first drive is to always keep the hood off. No better way to keep an eye on what's going on.


Overall what a fun afternoon. I will enjoy the balance of the exhaust fabrication, need to start thinking about a new rear end. The unit in the car is an original single drive with 3.08 gears. I'm thinking a moser with 3.55 gears to go along with ASA cam and 4L70e transmission gears.
I'm open to some input here guys, this is mainly a cruiser. The adrenaline rush will come from the Camaro.

Metal Shop

I'm doing this 12 bolt out of a chevelle http://www.impalas.net/forums/showthread.php?t=10577

1961ba427

iTrader: (26)

I hate to be the barrer of bad knews, but there is a lot of misinformation in the article your link leads to and in the posts before it. I also do not intend to come off as a know it all with all this, but instead just hope I can help ya'll out.

First of all, the 64 B-body rears use the same 17 spline axles that the 58-64's use (in fact back to 1955) NOT 28 spline axles like someone said.

I can put you in touch with someone who supplies a 30 spline axle conversion along with other parts to beef up your stock rearend if you'd like. He races one of the only Stock class 409's in the NHRA (I think the only) and uses the stock housing still.

I run a 12 bolt myself. I wish it were as easy as that article says.

To keep the same overall rearend width of 60" overall from axle flange to flange, you need a 12 bolt from 64-67 Chevelle, a 67-69 Camaro/Firebird, or a 68-72 Nova.
The 68-72 Chevelle and Monte Carlo 12 bolt is an inch wider at just over 61". A 65-67 Chevy II 12 bolt is 58" for a nice narrowed rear, but try finding one.
My housing is from a '67 Camaro, but I bought it years ago.

The article says that they are practically a bolt-in, but the Camaro & Nova rears are leaf spring suspension so you have to use a donor 59-64 housing to transfer the upper & lower control arm brackets, and the panhard bar bracket from. It also says that you need to have the coil spring pads welded on, but that is wrong too. The coil springs do not mount on or to the housing at all. They sit on a pad attached to your lower control arms (like Fox body mustang suspension). I can't confirm or deny the article's claim that the Chevelle housing's lower control arm brackets match right up, but I've always been told different by other 58-64 owners who've swapped 12 bolts in.

__________________________________________________ ___________

For my 12 bolt swap, I took the 67 Camaro housing and a spare 61 housing to a fabricator friend and he built a jig to align everything....then welded it all up. The upper control arm bracket ends up partially on the cast center section of the 12 bolt housing so he added some extra bracing and used nickel welding rod for that part. This was about 15 years ago and it has held up fine to a big block, 5,500 rpm convertor, and 10.5" slicks. I use a Moser 33 spline spool, axles, and C-clip eliminators.

If I were starting from scratch now:
Due to the going rates of any of the 60" wide 12 bolts, I would instead run an 8.5" ten bolt out of a '71-74 Nova since they are the same width and nearly as strong. OR I would just use a bolt-in Ford 9".

Don't overlook 65-70 Impala 12 bolt rears either. They are over 4" wider, but can be bought much cheaper and you can have the housing narrowed to use Camaro/Nova width axles and at the same time swap to 9" style housing ends for bolt-in axles with pressed on bearings to eliminate the c-clips.

When I first swapped to the 12 bolt, I used the completely stock '61 suspension, but I've since changed all of that. I currently run Metco Billet aluminum LCA's, UMI double adjustable UCA's, (two...I added a driver's side arm) an adjustable panhard rod, and custom UCA to frame crossmember brackets that have 3 mounting points that allow the instant center to be tuned. I am most proud of a bolt in crossmember I designed to mount Aluminum coil-over shocks without any frame modifications. The only thing I would like to add is a rear drag bar/anti-roll bar.

For what it is worth I have several friends who put these big cars into the 9's and 10's (a few knocking on the 8's) with the same mostly stock style suspensions and frames.

Metal Shop

Thanks for the info. I had just read the article. and thats about it. I would rather use my stock housing, if I can make it handle 500 crank HP.

1961ba427

iTrader: (26)

I didn't break a stock 17 spline posi with 4.88:1 gears with a mild 468 and 2800 stall on slicks, but that was only for a few years before I upgraded to the 12 bolt because I figured it would be better to do it BEFORE I broke the stock rear.

Your case really depends on how much traction you get. I think with upgrades you would be fine with the stock rear unless you do a lot of hard launches on sticky tires.....or have a manual trans.

Aubrey runs his upgraded original '62 housing in his Stock Eliminator 409 / 4 speed car and hasn't had any failures. Last I heard, it ran very low 11's @ 120+ MPH and 1.70 sixty foot times. It is only used for racing so it gets ran hard.

No matter what upgrades you make as far as 30 spline axles, spool, posi, cap upgrades, bracing, etc. you are still dealing with an 8.2" diameter ten bolt ring gear. A lot better than the little 7.5" or 7.625" F-body rears which hold up well into the 12's, but still smaller than the 8.875" 12 bolt or 9" Ford rear.

JonRagTop

These x-frames are a challenge when it comes to hanging exhaust. I can't imagine what a shop would charge for a custom exhaust on a frame such as this, lots of angles to deal with. I'm running the mufflers parallel to the frame in the center of the car along with running a flex pipe to absorb some of the twist. Also welded in a v-clamp and made a custom hanger on the engine side of the muffler, want to be able to completely unbolt the system with relative ease, while still maintaining rigidity in the system.

I'm very satisfied with the first section of the passenger side, hopefully the time it takes for the drivers side will be about half.

Chose to exit the frame between the wheel well and where the frame drops down to floor board level, want to keep everything tucked up as close as possible. Left 1" between the top of the muffler and the floor pan, with the muffler this close to the engine it will have some heat in it which I don't want transferred to my feet. :idea:


This is my work bench/welding table along with the saw I bought, really like the compact size and quick cutting capability of this Femi saw.

.

Jizzaldo

Where did you mount your ECM and Fuse panel?

kwhizz

JonRagTop

ECM is front drivers side core support and fuse panel is inside the car right next to the factory fuse panel.

Jizzaldo

OK, thanks.

ls1nova71

iTrader: (4)

Quick question on the radiator. I looked up on Entropy's site and they list an Impala radiator for 63-68, is that what you used? I have a friend who's getting ready to do a 59 Chevy, which I would think would be the same s your 61.

JonRagTop

Sorry for the delayed response, yes that is an Entropy unit.

Brand new rear end from Moser Engineering, bought it un-assembled via miscommunication I guess, but in the end it did save me around $350. Anyway I opened the case containing the third member and now I'm getting a little aggravated. Is it possible that moisture in the assembly lube can cause this much rust. I'm thinking they should take this one back and send me a new one, price paid doesn't warrant a rusty part.
I'd like your thoughts, am I being ridiculous?

I'd like to add the ups driver brought everything into my garage the day it arrived, I made sure my wife was home for the delivery. I'm thinking somehow this thing got fairly wet before during shipment, not my problem. You agree?





I've been working on the car here and there, but must admit family time has crept in and the weather has really sucked. All good stuff, this is my winter project.

I went ahead and kept the Moser rear end, that slight surface rust cleaned right up so I painted everything and installed it. Bolted in with no issues, they must have a good fixture for the positioning of the brackets they weld on. No complaints at all.

This cart I made for the LS as I assembled it worked out nice for getting the rear end underneath the car with minimal effort.


I had to move the engine forward from the installation position I started out with. Originally I tucked it too close to the firewall which in turn did not give me enough room in the tunnel to raise the rear of the transmission high enough to net the optimum driveline angle. Had a slight vibration that would have driven me nuts on the Power Tour. Luckily I had originally purchased the Dirty Dingo mounts which that have three mounting positions, so after disconnecting the exhaust and the motor mounts I slid the motor forward to the next position on the adapter plates. This game me enough room to raise the tranny up 1/2" and netted me 4 degrees at the first u-joint. I also had sliced off 3/8 of an inch from the base of the carrier bearing, this helped bring the driveshaft angle down as well at the first u-joint.

So today I redid the initial connections of the exhaust, fixed a couple issues I wasn't pleased with from the first attempt. Looks much better now and gives me room to redo the fuel line and keep it away from the exhaust. You'll notice in the pictures I ran a flexible line from front to back, this is only temporary as I recently bought some hard line from Mark at Bent Fab.




Later this week I'll finish up the drivers side connection and then proceed to finish out the tail pipes.

Winmon

What headers did you go with? Very cool car!

59belair

Looking great Jonragtop. I'm enjoying following along and have gained some insight for my 59 LS1 in progress as well.
I hate it when people on the benches tell those in the trenches how it "should have been done",….. but…. it CAN actually save someone some $ and aggravation down the road if you remember to always try to install your 0-2 sensors so the active end is angled downward. when the sensor head is mounted pointing up, as on your passenger side, normal condensation in the system tends to collect in the unit which will shorten it's lifespan substantially.

Beautiful car Jon. thanks for sharing the ride

JonRagTop

Racing Innovations out of Kansas City.
http://www.racinginnovationandsupply...ers_p_184.html

Regarding the 02 sensors, thanks for the tip. You worded that very nicely.

Have you start a build up for your 59 yet?

Winmon

Thanks Jon.. Just doing some parts collecting for my swap in my '62. I do see quite a few guys using the Racing Innovations. I am torn between them and S&P's block huggers. I also have air ride and was thinking I might get a little more clearance with the block huggers by being able to come out up higher in the frames wheel radius (farther forward).

Speaking of o2 sensors, what did you use?

59belair

Well…. uh…. kinda.. ya…… but it's on another forum . My last couple of projects were early Vettes, so I kinda got used to hanging out there, and the locals were bugging me to see what this weird thing was that I'd been working on, so….. it's in the "other cars" section of the Corvette forum. you're welcome to come check it out over there however

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/othe...were-cool.html