Chevrolet Camaro 1967-2002 - 5.3 Turbo '81 Camaro HELP

Ok so I'm about to begin building my Camaro. As the title says, it's an '81 so it's the last year of the 2nd gen. The 355 and 4 speed are getting thrown out for the 5.3Ls iron block truck motor with a 76mm turbo slapped on from On3 Performance and a t56 out of a wrecked '01 NHRA Firebird we bought. Currently it's got 4.11 gears in the rear and drum brakes. I would like something like 3.42 or 3.73 out back with some discs. My solution was to just steal the complete rear end out of the same Firebird. Along with that I am going to upgrade the suspension. The car will be more of an AutoX/Road Race car so I was really wanting to find a somewhat affordable coilover kit. If I can't find one of those I'll go with the Hotchkis TVS kit with some caltracs. But if I swap rear ends to the modern f-body rear end will those kits still work? So if anybody has done a swap like this or anything like it has any advice it would be greatly appreciated.
The car is a t-tops car so I know I'm going to need a cage. Summit has a few cages but I've heard fitment is not great. S&W I've heard good things about. But would you recommend that I just take it to a fabrication shop and have one made and TIGed by them?
What motor mounts will I use for this swap?
As stated, ANY help would be greatly appreciated.
Here's the car...
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/312992_1562067334114_1308240638_31752280_171387362 7_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/321126_1562067134109_1308240638_31752279_177574205 3_n.jpg
Thanks!

look me up on youtube as fourohsicks.I did a 78 with a 6.0

Look at Wolfe Racecraft for a cage, I have seen some of theirs in a few cars, they fit tight and tuck up very well.

look me up on youtube as fourohsicks.I did a 78 with a 6.0

Checked out your videos. Looks like a nice, good running machine, but it doesn't help me out unfortunately. Now that I'm getting into this build and have my motor I'm starting to realize the obstacles I have to overcome. I've read that I will need to have a custom wiring harness made for this build. I've read that painless performance will do that and reflash the ECU. Did you have to do this as well? I would like to have to whole OBDII system in the car so I can use HPTuners to tune it. Is this necessary or how did you tune yours?

Look at Wolfe Racecraft for a cage, I have seen some of theirs in a few cars, they fit tight and tuck up very well.
Thanks. I'll check them out.

Here she is after removing the bulky truck intake and fuel rails.
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/408790_1690619907848_1308240638_31824597_208863540 1_n.jpg
$400 from a salvage yard doesn't buy you the cleanest motors but the owner and a few of the workers assured me it ran very nice when it was in the '00 Silverado. We've been going to this yard for years for numerous hot rod builds and I have no reason not to believe the guys.
And here she is after some cleaning and disassembly...
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409307_1690620187855_1308240638_31824598_178840798 9_n.jpg
Better but nowhere near done yet. When I get the majority of muck off I'll tear into the internals and make sure everything checks out then off to the hot tank to make sure all the grease and muck is gone. After that the block will get some black paint along with the valve covers.
Now I need to talk to PSI and have them make me a wiring harness after I send them an ECU to reflash. I'm also getting some new fuel rails with a return system and some 60 lb/hr injectors and a new fuel pump. Once I get my Sebring sold things should progress quickly.

Got the rest of the motor torn down. Decided not to touch the internals. It was a $400 motor, if it blows...it blows. I bought an electric die grinder and am in the process of buying a porting kit from Summit so I'm gonna see what kind of natural porting talents I have. I'm not going to overdo it...just going to try and match the intake and exhaust ports to my gaskets and clean up the ports some. It's a learning experience so if I mess up I know where to get another set of heads. It will still be cheaper than paying someone else to do it.
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I also ordered my engine harness and ECM from John at PSI. I highly recommend PSI. John was very knowledgeable and very helpful.

Get a rear out of a late 2nd gen some came with 3.73 posi, disk brakes and there pretty strong.

I have 2 '81s. That's as late into the 2nd gens as you can get and neither has discs. Now I'm not sure of the gears in the other but I'll check. I've been playing with the idea now of swapping to a Ford 9 in. because we have quite a few at the farm just sitting there.

I'm doing an 81 with aluminum 5.3 super t10 combo...I'll be keeping my eye on yours...ur lucky with that 6 speed!

I'm doing an 81 with aluminum 5.3 super t10 combo...I'll be keeping my eye on yours...ur lucky with that 6 speed!

I thought all of the aluminum 5.3s were fwd? What did it come out of? Yeah we have enough spare cars and parts laying around that I can build a few more cars after this lol. I have another '81 with a 355 and a Saginaw 4 speed that I was just planning on restorign, but the body is shot so I bought this yellow one as a parts car. Then thought, "Why am I making more work for myself? I'll just use this one..." lol. That then progressed into making a badass race car. If I didn't have the t56 I would have just used the Saginaw, but having another 2 gears will be nice for cruising around...

No doubt 2 overdrives let's you run those short gears out back...the aluminum 5.3 only can in 25% of silverados with extended cab...it also has flat top pistons with floating pins, 10:1 compression and ls6 heads stock it is rated like 10 or 15 hp/tq higher than normal 5.3

No doubt 2 overdrives let's you run those short gears out back...the aluminum 5.3 only can in 25% of silverados with extended cab...it also has flat top pistons with floating pins, 10:1 compression and ls6 heads stock it is rated like 10 or 15 hp/tq higher than normal 5.3

Ohhh...so is that the Lm9 motor? I know the Lq4 and Lq9 are both 6.0s but never knew the difference until a week ago when I decided to look it up. The Lq9 comes stock with the Ls6 heads and Lq4 doesn't so maybe that's the difference between the Lm4 and Lm9 too? Are you doing anything else to it or just gonna run it as is?

The TA's have them some times another good swap is an explorer 8.8. They have 3.73 posi with 31 spline axles and disk breaks.

The TA's have them some times another good swap is an explorer 8.8. They have 3.73 posi with 31 spline axles and disk breaks.

Well I'll definitely keep that in mind. That may be the way to do it so I can just get it in and be done with it. But my problem with doing that, and same with the Ford 9 inch is that I'll have different bolt patterns. Not a huge deal but I don't really like that. My GTO has the 5x120.65 bolt pattern which is incredibly close to the 5x4 3/4 so it's nice being able to freely switch rims between the 2 and makes any money I spend on wheels/tires seem more worth it. It would be nice to only need 1 set of race wheels/tires.

Got a little bit more done on the '81...
I put my drag set that I bought for my GTO on and man does it look good!
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/420902_1716253708677_1308240638_31835356_152084267 2_n.jpg
No motor and it's already got the front wheels in the air!
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/420389_1716253868681_1308240638_31835357_166321031 7_n.jpg
M/T ET DRAGs for the rears.
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/430640_1716256428745_1308240638_31835361_617971642 _n.jpg
And GTO spares/skinnies up front.
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/420658_1716256748753_1308240638_31835362_121132457 _n.jpg
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Some fresh paint on the block.
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/418672_1718934295690_1308240638_31836155_603537147 _n.jpg
I've got the dash pretty well taken apart and it was a major PITA. Clearly the previous owner was a hoosier and I wanted to strangle them so bad. Every nut, screw, and bolt under the dash was a different size. I just have a little of the heating/cooling stuff to take out and it's not going back in. We're just making sure I'm left with defrost in case I get caught out in the cold.
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401460_1718933495670_1308240638_31836154_116205014 2_n.jpg
And I got some mail! New gasket set arrived. I'd like to add that that shit ain't cheap! And the new timing chain set came in too. Still waiting for the computer and engine harness to come in. No hurry though...still have to clean up a few of the accessories and reassemble the motor.

A WS6 trans am from I think 77-81 will have the rear disc brakes you want with the 8.5" 10 bolt.

A WS6 trans am from I think 77-81 will have the rear disc brakes you want with the 8.5" 10 bolt.

Well I'll definitely keep that in mind but I think my chances of finding discs on a 3rd gen F-body are much higher. The car won't be moving under it's own power for a while still so I'll figure something out.

you can have a machine shop drill the explorer axles to chevy lug pattern

you can have a machine shop drill the explorer axles to chevy lug pattern

Interesting...this is definitely worth looking into. Any idea on the price of getting this done?

No I don't, but considering I've seen those rear end setups sell for as low as $150 on craigslist I would say it would be worth looking into.

No I don't, but considering I've seen those rear end setups sell for as low as $150 on craigslist I would say it would be worth looking into.

Hell I can get one cheaper than that at a salvage yard I'm sure. I'll definitely look into it. Guess I'll be making some calls to some machine shops. Thanks!

Got the car up on a "rotisserie" of sorts today.
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/424092_1729743005901_1308240638_31839757_392424614 _n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/431053_1729743605916_1308240638_31839759_169813073 _n.jpg
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It should help with fixing the few small rust spots, running the emergency brake cable, and the gas line.

The TA's have them some times another good swap is an explorer 8.8. They have 3.73 posi with 31 spline axles and disk breaks.

Checked into doing this swap and I'm pretty sure we're doing it. I did some research on the rears to find the years I need to look for. Upon, going to the salvage yard just to check them out I found that some of them come with solid axle and some with IRS. Now, because I'm building the car for road courses and AutoX, I'm putting heavy thought into swapping in the IRS rear. My question is...Is this possible or what complications would I run into?

Is it possible, yes. Is it easy, NO. There are a few IRS kits out there for our cars, but they are major $$$$. The frame widths would be the biggest headache to installing it in the Camaro. I doubt an Explorer and a Camaro have the same frame widths. The axles would have to be made to fit the width and the mounts for the cradle would have to be fabricated.

Is it possible, yes. Is it easy, NO. There are a few IRS kits out there for our cars, but they are major $$$$. The frame widths would be the biggest headache to installing it in the Camaro. I doubt an Explorer and a Camaro have the same frame widths. The axles would have to be made to fit the width and the mounts for the cradle would have to be fabricated.

Yeah I'm not looking to spend big $$$ on a kit. The rears from the salvage yard only cost $150. Gpa is a genius when it comes to fabrication. I have total faith in him. If only we had some of those fancy high dollar machines I know we could do it without a doubt. But, if not, I'm only out $150. I tried looking into maybe finding a Cobra IRS rear but I doubt I'm going to find any and if I do it's probably going to be crazy expensive.

IRS would be sweet, you would have to find a rear that would be strong enough to hold with all that hp/tq you want to put out, no?

IRS would be sweet, you would have to find a rear that would be strong enough to hold with all that hp/tq you want to put out, no?

That's why I started thinking about trying to find IRS out of a Cobra. But I just don't see it happening. I'll probably just go with the Explorer IRS and see how long it lasts. If it has no problems...fantastic! But if something breaks...then I'll probably go back to the salvage yard and get the part/parts I need. And if I keep breaking the same thing I might check into the aftermarket and see what's offered. Being that the suspension is out of a fairly large SUV with towing capabilities it should last for a while. I looked into maybe finding IRS in a GM truck/SUV but anything that would be big enough to handle my power is all 6 lug.

Progess on this build will be very minimal for the next year or so. In the next few weeks I'm going to start on my uncle's '66 Lemans convertible cloned to a GTO. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the car, but it's not much to look at now anyways. The body is pretty well disassembled already due to the cloning process .He got the car when he was 16 or so and drove it for a few years, changed a lot of the suspension, and swapped in a few different motors. The motor in it now is a 462 BB with the '72 HO heads.
Now, he's wanting to go the Ls1/t56 route. If you read my first posting in this thread, I mentioned a wrecked '01 NHRA edition T/A that we have. So, we already have the motor and trans. But, years ago some assholes stole a bunch off the motor. They took the Ls6 intake, computer, coilpacks, and maybe some other things that I can't remember. He told me to look for an Ls6 intake for it, but I'm trying to convince him to do something like the Victor Jr. with an older style air cleaner and an SD tune so we don't have to run a MAF. We'll see. He wants it to be a nice cruiser that he can take his little girls out for a drive in so he doesn't want crazy power. He wants somewhere around 400whp. Easy enough. Cam, tune, 243 heads, and the Victor Jr. should make that easily.
As far as interior goes I think I've talked him into putting in the interior out of the modern GTOs. He wants to paint it black with a white top so I thought the seats from the modern GTO would look fantastic. I, personally, thought that a metallicy black cherry/purple-ish would look great. I talked to the painter last week and he agreed with me and said he could use some black candy and shadows to make it really look good. I think the "crimson black" color on the newest Nissan Maximas would be a good starting point.
He wants a mixture of modern and classic looks on the car so he wants the car lowered and some bigger wheels. I mentioned to him using the 19" 5th gen. Camaro wheels. We'll see where this build goes. I'll post a link to the new thread here once I get it started.

cool build. never seen a car rotisserie like that before. I'm doing a 5.3 Turbo build in my 68 too. I bought the dirtiest 5.3 for sure, but I think yours is pretty close looking at the before pics.

cool build. never seen a car rotisserie like that before. I'm doing a 5.3 Turbo build in my 68 too. I bought the dirtiest 5.3 for sure, but I think yours is pretty close looking at the before pics.
Oops. Haven't looked at this in a while.
Yeah I don't know if "rotisserie" is the technical word for what that is, but it works nearly the same. I've actually changed my mind on my build, yet again, which I'll explain in my next post. Yes that motor was absolutely filthy. It looked like they submerged it in mud and ran the damn thing. BUT...once I got everything off and got into the internals a bit it was extremely clean. I was hesitant at first when I saw it, but everything worked out fine.

Well, after talking with Jon Barret of Magnuson Superchargers a couple days ago at the Power Tour, I've decided to go with one of their products instead of a turbo. I'm a sucker for that roots-style whine. Plus, the install and tuning will be much easier and offer a cleaner look under the hood. Jon recommended I go with their 1900 for my 5.3, but I think I'll go with the 2300 to allow myself room for more future growth. It's gonna' take me a while to save up to make this happen. So, until then, I'll be working on this for my uncle:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/554393_1785310755060_1308240638_31875475_127905905 0_n.jpg
I've gotten a little done on it since I last posted on this page, but not much. Just a little disassembly and things like that. It will be going to the painter in the next 4-5 weeks, though, so I need to get cranking. Gotta' verify that the BB runs, pull it, pull the trans, and get the Ls1/t56 dropped in.
I believe I've got him convinced to paint it the MBM *Midnight Blue Metallic* from the 2005 GTO keeping the white convertible top. This is going to be a beautiful car once it's done.
And I've finally remembered to get a shot of the donor car. It's too bad such a rare car sustained so much damage. Here she is:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/556742_1871305624878_2016699063_n.jpg

Changed my mind again after talking with some people more educated on FI than myself...going with the 1900 and e85.

Edit: Change my mind back to the 2300. I can't count how many times I've changed my mind on different variables of this build.

awesome build. not too many people built the late second gen camaros. i also have a 81 camaro that i did a 383 procharged set up on it. suscribed to this thread, i wanna see this bad boys progress!

awesome build. not too many people built the late second gen camaros. i also have a 81 camaro that i did a 383 procharged set up on it. suscribed to this thread, i wanna see this bad boys progress!

Yeah I can't quite understand why more people don't build them. Honestly, I get tired of the 1st gen builds. They're great looking cars...no doubt about that, but go to a car show and count how many you see. Now count the number of 2nd gens. I'd love to be building one of the early 2nd gens, but my budget was not allowing that. I'll warn you, progress will be slow for a while, but once I've gotten all of my parts, it will hopefully move much, much faster.

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I got that^ sometime last week. After my uncle stole the t56 back that I had planned on using, I had to explore other options. Ended up scoring this. We've already strapped a new radiator to it, fixed the power steering leak, and drove it around our shop's lot to assure ourselves of everything working correctly. This works out well for me as I'm the proud owner of an '04 GTO and I can steal some parts for my own and sell the rest for some profit.
Now that I've got my tranny, again, I need to get my rear end. Once I've got that in, I can trailer it to a local driveshaft shop where they will build me something that hopefully stands up to the power. I could take some measurements and send those off to DSS, but I really don't trust myself to measure perfectly. Plus, this place does it much cheaper and I've been told they're products are fantastic. I've contacted Supercharger Connections and plan to buy my TVS 2300 sometime in the next year. All that's really left after that is suspension, fuel system, exhaust, cage, and gauges. Oh, and paint, which I may do myself to cut cost.
Hopefully, I can get a safe tune emailed to me so I can drive it from here in STL to Mooresville, NC for a great tune from Heintz Racing. I'd get all of the break-in miles out of the way on the way there.

I guess I never showed a pic of my other baby.

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/536510_1855498429708_904704547_n.jpg
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/527796_1855498229703_493729088_n.jpg

This one likes some love, too, but she's just gonna' have to deal with no mods for the next year or 2. :thumbsdow

Would like to know what motor mount should I use to sit this LS1 engine into my 79 Firebird, I purchase so 79 camaro motor mounts but they look to big to fit on the swap mount. So can anybody point me on the right path, and info on a bracket to move the Alternator to the side.

Would like to know what motor mount should I use to sit this LS1 engine into my 79 Firebird, I purchase so 79 camaro motor mounts but they look to big to fit on the swap mount. So can anybody point me on the right path, and info on a bracket to move the Alternator to the side.

I'm not quite that far. I'm seriously thinking about just making my own. With minimal fabrication skills and some measuring, you could do the same. Or...just go over to nastyz28.com and do some research there and ask questions. I know Dirty Dingo makes a motor mount for Ls swaps for Camaros, but I can't say if the Camaro and Firebird front subframes are identical or not. You'll be able to find the answer to all of your questions over there. Hell, you can probably find it here, too. Just create a new thread and ask away.

Another update: Scored this iron 6.0 block for $50 the other day.
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/376665_1922503144784_473998478_n.jpg
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It needs a little love so I'm gonna' do it right and get a full, forged rotating assembly. Just another expense on this increasingly expensive build that started out as something quite the opposite. Oh well, at least I can build it once and not worry about it for a while. That will leave my trans as being the weak link in this build depending on how hard I want to push the motor. I just couldn't turn my head to all of the options that the larger bore of the 6.0 brought. The almighty Ls3 heads are a bargain, high-performance
head. Might as well make the most of what I can and do it right, once.

Probably gonna' be the last update for quite some time.
We've gotten some work done on the above shown '66 GTO. It's now a running, driving car (No Ls swap yet. I'm wanting to keep it kind of traditional GTO so we'll stroke the Ls1 to a 389, run a Victor Jr. intake with a top mounted TB and old style air cleaner, and hide the coils.) and should be leaving the painter's place fairly soon.
I've postponed this Camaro build once again because I managed to acquire an '87 Grand National (build thread is on here somewhere). I've got a 370 Ls, 4L80, and GT47 turbo going into it. When that is finished in the next yr. or so, I'll start back on this. ...but it won't be Ls or even domestically powered. I decided I wanted to do something totally different and original. I want to turn it into a drift car. I've attended a couple drift events, have never participated, but have never seen a "classic", muscle car compete. Hell, there's very few domestics competing at all. Anyways...I decided I wanted to go a step further with the uniqueness. I'm going to put a 2J Supra motor and 5 speed in. I'll be able to attend a show or event and not run the risk of somebody having an identical setup as mine which is exactly what I'm after. ...and it'll be fun to piss off a few purists along the way.