70 Chevelle LQ4/T56 Build
09-18-2012, 02:31 PM
#1
Staging Lane
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Alright guys im new with the posting stuff on this website so bare with me. ive been researching and pulling information from this site for about 2 years now and all of you have been a huge help. So i have some time off i figure its time to return the favor!
Soo in 2007 i picked up a 70 chevelle for a project about a month after graduating high school. Some people use grad money for books and college tuition... i used the money for a car! lol Talk about a guy with his priorities in line! it started as just a standard restoration. Started with tearing down the chassis, having the whole thing sandblasted and powdercoated, along with all the control arms then reassembled the chassis with all polyurethane bushings. Then proceeded to start on the metal work. the car was pretty solid but at the same time needed alot. I ended up replacing right and left floor pans, center floor brace, patched 2 small sections under the rear seat, full trunk pan along with all the trunk braces, inner and outer wheel tubs on both sides, right and left quarters, and patched 2 smalls spots on the one rocker.
Ok, now for the part that everyone on here is actually interested in... about 2 years ago a job came in at the body shop i worked at. take 2 wrecked g30 express vans and make one good one. long story short i sectioned the frame in a place that made that bad one no good to anybody... well besides me
so i got the "bad" van for nothing with a perfect driveline in it for nothing. thats when i decided to do the whole modern engine swap with fuel injection and hey while im at it might as well throw a 6 speed behind it!
Not too long after pulling the engine i found a t56 out of a 2000 firebird on craigslist for $300. the guy told me it was missing 5th and 6th gear. i figured for mock up it was an easy way to not spend a lot of money right now and keep moving forward on the project and id just have it rebuilt later down the road. and if the trans turns out to be no good i know i could part it out and make my money back. just out of curiousity tho i started reading some forums and turns out that 5th and 6th gear problem is common and its a 30 dollar part in the tail housing. im praying i get that lucky!
I started the shopping spree after that. i had energy suspension chevy v8 engine mounts i had bought a couple years ago that i knew would work. i then ordered "dirty dingo" engine swap adapter plates that put the engine in the same place a standard v8 is supposed to sit in the engine compartment.
when it came to mating the engine to the trans i did something that i havent seen anybody else do yet. i had all the clutch linkage for the 4 speed and the hydraulic clutch set ups were so expensive. i found out that a muncie bellhousing will bolt to the back of an ls block and they make a conversion plate from the muncie bellhousing to bolt up to the t56. sounds a little more complcated but it really wasnt and i saved quite a bit of money doing it that way. the muncie scattersheild was a hell of a lot cheaper than a factory t56 bellhousing.
engine sat in there perfect with plenty of clearance on the oil pan
next getting the body back on the frame. i was able to use the lift in my garage to lift just the body, roll the chassis underneath and lower it ontop. then go under the car on a creeper and make my marks where the trans tunnel needed to be cut.
for the trans tunnel i got a few rough measurements front and back using small strips of sheet metal and transfered them to a piece of sheet metal. cut it out and got the general shape bending it around a telephone pole. lol do what you can with what you got! my uncle has a roller at his shop tho so i took it there and finished the radius how i wanted it that way.
i then slid it in the hole and marked it and trimmed it and until it fit the way i wanted it to.
welded it...
and painted with 3M Body Schutz to match the rest of the underside
i went with dougs chevelle swap headers. just like everyone said they are a tight fit up against the floor. i had to bolt them to a work bench, heat with a torch and tweak them a little bit but they fit good now. the only other clearance issue i had was on the bell housing. i just had to trim about a half an inch off the bellhousing where the starter mounts.
Soo in 2007 i picked up a 70 chevelle for a project about a month after graduating high school. Some people use grad money for books and college tuition... i used the money for a car! lol Talk about a guy with his priorities in line! it started as just a standard restoration. Started with tearing down the chassis, having the whole thing sandblasted and powdercoated, along with all the control arms then reassembled the chassis with all polyurethane bushings. Then proceeded to start on the metal work. the car was pretty solid but at the same time needed alot. I ended up replacing right and left floor pans, center floor brace, patched 2 small sections under the rear seat, full trunk pan along with all the trunk braces, inner and outer wheel tubs on both sides, right and left quarters, and patched 2 smalls spots on the one rocker.
Ok, now for the part that everyone on here is actually interested in... about 2 years ago a job came in at the body shop i worked at. take 2 wrecked g30 express vans and make one good one. long story short i sectioned the frame in a place that made that bad one no good to anybody... well besides me
so i got the "bad" van for nothing with a perfect driveline in it for nothing. thats when i decided to do the whole modern engine swap with fuel injection and hey while im at it might as well throw a 6 speed behind it!Not too long after pulling the engine i found a t56 out of a 2000 firebird on craigslist for $300. the guy told me it was missing 5th and 6th gear. i figured for mock up it was an easy way to not spend a lot of money right now and keep moving forward on the project and id just have it rebuilt later down the road. and if the trans turns out to be no good i know i could part it out and make my money back. just out of curiousity tho i started reading some forums and turns out that 5th and 6th gear problem is common and its a 30 dollar part in the tail housing. im praying i get that lucky!
I started the shopping spree after that. i had energy suspension chevy v8 engine mounts i had bought a couple years ago that i knew would work. i then ordered "dirty dingo" engine swap adapter plates that put the engine in the same place a standard v8 is supposed to sit in the engine compartment.
when it came to mating the engine to the trans i did something that i havent seen anybody else do yet. i had all the clutch linkage for the 4 speed and the hydraulic clutch set ups were so expensive. i found out that a muncie bellhousing will bolt to the back of an ls block and they make a conversion plate from the muncie bellhousing to bolt up to the t56. sounds a little more complcated but it really wasnt and i saved quite a bit of money doing it that way. the muncie scattersheild was a hell of a lot cheaper than a factory t56 bellhousing.
engine sat in there perfect with plenty of clearance on the oil pan
next getting the body back on the frame. i was able to use the lift in my garage to lift just the body, roll the chassis underneath and lower it ontop. then go under the car on a creeper and make my marks where the trans tunnel needed to be cut.
for the trans tunnel i got a few rough measurements front and back using small strips of sheet metal and transfered them to a piece of sheet metal. cut it out and got the general shape bending it around a telephone pole. lol do what you can with what you got! my uncle has a roller at his shop tho so i took it there and finished the radius how i wanted it that way.
i then slid it in the hole and marked it and trimmed it and until it fit the way i wanted it to.
welded it...
and painted with 3M Body Schutz to match the rest of the underside
i went with dougs chevelle swap headers. just like everyone said they are a tight fit up against the floor. i had to bolt them to a work bench, heat with a torch and tweak them a little bit but they fit good now. the only other clearance issue i had was on the bell housing. i just had to trim about a half an inch off the bellhousing where the starter mounts.
09-18-2012, 04:47 PM
#3
Staging Lane
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Fuel System I decided to go the externally mounted fuel pump route. I ordered a factory fuel tank with weld in fuel sump. that was fun cutting a huge hole in a brand new tank.
i mounted the fuel pressure regulator in the back just after the pump and ran all the fuel lines down the passengers side of the car.
i mounted the fuel pressure regulator in the back just after the pump and ran all the fuel lines down the passengers side of the car.
09-18-2012, 05:28 PM
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I ended up picking up a clutch flywheel and pressure plate out of a 2002 Z06 with only 20k miles for $100. the guy was going to the track and bought a set of slicks so he wanted to put a heavy duty clutch in it. thought that was a pretty good deal.
I had 2 sets of clutch linkage to use. i had the set out of the chevelle and then i had a set from a 79 maibu wagon my freind gave me. the z bar from the 70 was the right length but the one arm from the 79 went better with my headers so i just the arms off and made what i needed. then i fabricated the z bar bracket from scratch. im pretty pleased with how smooth everything works and the pressure of the clutch pedal. i cant beleive more people dont run this set up.
Yea i do plan on changing the oil pan. the truck one hangs too low. i want to get the car driveable so i can move it in and out of my uncles body shop at night to do the body work. once the body work is done im putting the engine and building it up a bit. thats when ill swap oil pans. this things already draining my bank account! lol
i kicked around the idea of keeping the truck intake for a while for cost reasons but after realizing there was no good way to make it look good a said screw it and went for the swap. lol the truck accessory bracket wasnt going to work for me anyway due to power steering pump clearance issues on the steering box so i had to come up with a new pulley set up anyway. i ended up ordering a "kwik performance" bracket system. unfortunately the website said the style pump i was running would work with their set up it didnt. i ended up having to cut off a tab and make my own spacers and drill a hole or 2 but that was still easier than fabricating everything myself from scratch, and it still has a really nice look to it.
i wanted to use the factory injectors as well so i didnt have to deal with changing over all the injector connectors on my wiring harness to the ls1 injector plug style and that was more money i had to spend on injectors. so after some research i found that if you remove the truck injector tips and change the o-rings on the injectors they fit the ls1 intake perfectly. i then ordered a set of billet fuel rails for the ls1 and the injectors fit them perfect too. the only issue i had was that the truck injectors are shorter than the ones on an ls1 and the fuel rail hold downs were in the wrond place. about an hours worth of fabrication and i had custom hold downs that worked out great!
the only other thing i had to do was cut off half of the upper water neck on the water pump and put a throttle body spacer on. that gave me just enough clearance to run a regular rad hose with a hose clamp and have the throttle work freely.
fuel lines all hooked up with fuel rail crossover. as for the throttle cable i went to a gm dealer and ordered a bracket for a 98 firebird. i think it was around $8 and used the throttle cable out of the van. believe it or not it was the right length, mated right up to the chevelle gas pedal, and the right amount of throw.
I had 2 sets of clutch linkage to use. i had the set out of the chevelle and then i had a set from a 79 maibu wagon my freind gave me. the z bar from the 70 was the right length but the one arm from the 79 went better with my headers so i just the arms off and made what i needed. then i fabricated the z bar bracket from scratch. im pretty pleased with how smooth everything works and the pressure of the clutch pedal. i cant beleive more people dont run this set up.
Yea i do plan on changing the oil pan. the truck one hangs too low. i want to get the car driveable so i can move it in and out of my uncles body shop at night to do the body work. once the body work is done im putting the engine and building it up a bit. thats when ill swap oil pans. this things already draining my bank account! lol
i kicked around the idea of keeping the truck intake for a while for cost reasons but after realizing there was no good way to make it look good a said screw it and went for the swap. lol the truck accessory bracket wasnt going to work for me anyway due to power steering pump clearance issues on the steering box so i had to come up with a new pulley set up anyway. i ended up ordering a "kwik performance" bracket system. unfortunately the website said the style pump i was running would work with their set up it didnt. i ended up having to cut off a tab and make my own spacers and drill a hole or 2 but that was still easier than fabricating everything myself from scratch, and it still has a really nice look to it.
i wanted to use the factory injectors as well so i didnt have to deal with changing over all the injector connectors on my wiring harness to the ls1 injector plug style and that was more money i had to spend on injectors. so after some research i found that if you remove the truck injector tips and change the o-rings on the injectors they fit the ls1 intake perfectly. i then ordered a set of billet fuel rails for the ls1 and the injectors fit them perfect too. the only issue i had was that the truck injectors are shorter than the ones on an ls1 and the fuel rail hold downs were in the wrond place. about an hours worth of fabrication and i had custom hold downs that worked out great!
the only other thing i had to do was cut off half of the upper water neck on the water pump and put a throttle body spacer on. that gave me just enough clearance to run a regular rad hose with a hose clamp and have the throttle work freely.
fuel lines all hooked up with fuel rail crossover. as for the throttle cable i went to a gm dealer and ordered a bracket for a 98 firebird. i think it was around $8 and used the throttle cable out of the van. believe it or not it was the right length, mated right up to the chevelle gas pedal, and the right amount of throw.
09-19-2012, 06:51 PM
#7
Staging Lane
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Thats a nice build you have going. The LS intake looks real nice. Thats what I want in my camaro. Thanks for replying to my thread. I'm going to use yours as a guide for my build.
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09-20-2012, 08:59 AM
#9
Staging Lane
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Thanks guys!! i'm 24 and been around restoration all my life but, this not only is my first swap but my first restoration on my own. so please any suggestions and/or feedback of different or better ways of doing things is encouraged! happy to hear the positive comments so far
So i put my driveshaft in and it was hitting my transtunnel... i was hoping i wasnt going to have to modified my crossmember because i had it powdercoated back before i knew i was going to be doing this swap, but turns out i do.
flipped, shortened and rewelded. now it has to go back to the powdercoater.
So i put my driveshaft in and it was hitting my transtunnel... i was hoping i wasnt going to have to modified my crossmember because i had it powdercoated back before i knew i was going to be doing this swap, but turns out i do.
flipped, shortened and rewelded. now it has to go back to the powdercoater.
09-21-2012, 04:23 PM
#13
Man, your making good progress. !
I was able to use my TH350 Crossmember, just do the Cut, flip and weld successfully, and yeah the yoke is very close to my body support brace like yours, but lucky it doesn't really move much up or down. I've had not issue with it be close.
I see you just a large hole the size of the sump.. I have a suggestion.. Bit too late for you to use it, maybe others will us it. I would have not cut it all the way out. I would have just drilled/cut 3 or 4 1" to 2" circle holes.. that way it would have acted as a baffle for the sump and help keep the fuel pickup in fuel when the tank gets low on fuel.
Keep the posts coming..
BC
I was able to use my TH350 Crossmember, just do the Cut, flip and weld successfully, and yeah the yoke is very close to my body support brace like yours, but lucky it doesn't really move much up or down. I've had not issue with it be close.
I see you just a large hole the size of the sump.. I have a suggestion.. Bit too late for you to use it, maybe others will us it. I would have not cut it all the way out. I would have just drilled/cut 3 or 4 1" to 2" circle holes.. that way it would have acted as a baffle for the sump and help keep the fuel pickup in fuel when the tank gets low on fuel.
Keep the posts coming..
BC
09-21-2012, 05:10 PM
#14
Staging Lane
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honestly once you get the general shape to the new trans tunnel its pretty simple. i kinda just kept hitting it down with a rubber mallet untill it was there i wanted it. tacked it all the way around from the top side. then went underneath and trimmed what you didnt need. it was easy to follow where to cut because of all the heat spots from the tack welds. i then welded it solid from the bottom side and seam sealed the top.
Man, your making good progress. !
I was able to use my TH350 Crossmember, just do the Cut, flip and weld successfully, and yeah the yoke is very close to my body support brace like yours, but lucky it doesn't really move much up or down. I've had not issue with it be close.
I see you just a large hole the size of the sump.. I have a suggestion.. Bit too late for you to use it, maybe others will us it. I would have not cut it all the way out. I would have just drilled/cut 3 or 4 1" to 2" circle holes.. that way it would have acted as a baffle for the sump and help keep the fuel pickup in fuel when the tank gets low on fuel.
Keep the posts coming..
BC
I was able to use my TH350 Crossmember, just do the Cut, flip and weld successfully, and yeah the yoke is very close to my body support brace like yours, but lucky it doesn't really move much up or down. I've had not issue with it be close.
I see you just a large hole the size of the sump.. I have a suggestion.. Bit too late for you to use it, maybe others will us it. I would have not cut it all the way out. I would have just drilled/cut 3 or 4 1" to 2" circle holes.. that way it would have acted as a baffle for the sump and help keep the fuel pickup in fuel when the tank gets low on fuel.
Keep the posts coming..
BC
09-21-2012, 08:58 PM
#15
I did the exact same thing with my fuel tank when I put fuel injection on my 1970 Chevelle 468 big block. Long story short even with a 1/2 full tank the engine would die or starve for fuel because of sloshing. Generally this only happened during faster turns or hard acceleration. I hope it works for you but it didn't work well for me.
You are moving very fast! Good luck on your completion.
You are moving very fast! Good luck on your completion.
09-22-2012, 01:49 PM
#16
Staging Lane
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I did the exact same thing with my fuel tank when I put fuel injection on my 1970 Chevelle 468 big block. Long story short even with a 1/2 full tank the engine would die or starve for fuel because of sloshing. Generally this only happened during faster turns or hard acceleration. I hope it works for you but it didn't work well for me.
You are moving very fast! Good luck on your completion.
You are moving very fast! Good luck on your completion.
09-23-2012, 08:35 AM
#17
TECH Fanatic
Looks good. Good idea on the pan, many options out there. You might be able to squeeze some fuel cell foam blocks into the tank via the sender hole. The only down side is that they will probably restrict the float.
10-18-2012, 07:07 PM
#18
Staging Lane
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still making progress but not much to show... got my crossmember back from the powdercoater and got that installed. pretty happy with how it turned out. ill have pictures of that soon. just working on metal working my nose so i can get that all back together and lay out my engine harness and figure out how im routing everything and where im mounting the ecm, fuse block, etc.
11-20-2012, 05:51 PM
#19
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i got the nose finished and back together. took a few pictures of the hood clearances
Got the fuel tank back out, painted it, installed the fuel sending unit it. we'll see how long it stays in there until im taking it back out to start over with baffles...
got a few pictures of the trans crossmember powdercoated and back in the car while it was up on the lift
just an under carraige shot since in was up in the air
Got the fuel tank back out, painted it, installed the fuel sending unit it. we'll see how long it stays in there until im taking it back out to start over with baffles...
got a few pictures of the trans crossmember powdercoated and back in the car while it was up on the lift
just an under carraige shot since in was up in the air