ig109

Well It has been going on for a while.. It all began right after the first of the year.. I found out my wife was pregnant with our first child.. I was told "if you ever want to do this you better do it now" So i dove in head first..

Car has been with me since I was 17.. It has been through several engines and trans.. It currently had a 350 and T5 from.. along with a 3.23 limited slip rear.. I have an ZQ8 disk rear setup too but that will go on later..

I bought me a set of the Year One 17" Monte Carlo SS wheels and sent two out to Weldcraft to have them widened 1.25 inches..

ig109

Sold all the original stuff out of the el camino (for a good amount of money.. much more than i thought)

It then sat in the garage for a while.. I travel alot for work and I wasn't able to do much.. I welded up the holes in the firewall that I would no longer need.. smoothed it up.. Made a reinforcing plate for the powerbooster/clutch mastercylinder area.. Then threw down some lizard skin..



I picked up my LQ4 from Sams Riverside Auto Salvage in Des Moines Iowa for 850.. COMPLETE with Accessories.. ECM.. harness.. factory air box, Trottle pedal.. AC compressor.. EVERYTHING...

Picked up a T56 from A&B auto parts in Ohio.. Tore the tailshaft off of it to modify for mechanical speedometer.. found this on the magnets..



Tore the trans down and found where the pieces came from pretty easily..

ig109

Called A&B auto parts and they agreed to fix the trans so i called up Tick Performance (Great Guys to deal with) and ordered 1/2 syncro assembly.. a carbon blocker setup.. and they threw in a free T shirt..

Bead blasted and ultrasonic tanked the trans case.. just waiting on parts to put it back togeter.. In the mean time i cleaned every part of the LQ4 in the glass bead cabinet and ultrasonic tank at work.. put it back together with the empty trans case.. and checked for fitment..





Making some custom engine mounts using poly suspension bushings from Thorbeck Brothers..

Ordered a smaller PS pulley to clear my Steering box for now.. Plan to go rack and pinion later and I will reinstall the factory pulley then..

Now am i crazy or have i read that everyone says you have to run the high mount AC on these things..

I had no issues with clearance of the compressor in its stock location.. none at all..
I pushed the engine back as far as i could without the ignition coils hitting the AC box.. The T56 shifter fell right into the T5 hole in the floor.. Seems like the fitment will be cake except for the HX55 downpipe hitting the AC box.. But i will post back on that later..

psiconversion

iTrader: (5)

Is that the pan you are going use?

Jon
PSI

ig109

I'm kind of on the fence on that.. the truck pan fits but is low... the h3 pan is still very low for my tastes ( just finished an ls2 t56 into an 87 mcss) I am thinking about just getting this one all mocked up and marking it with a frame mark for depth and such and modifying it and the pickup tube to fit what I want.. with the turbo I want as much capacity as possible

ig109

Didn't get too busy last night.. got my wipers put back into the car.. modified the HVAC harness to move the blower motor relay back inside the car.. finished sealing the HVAC box to the firewall..

Waiting for my Dad to finish my dashboard recover back home in Carrier Mills... Once that is finished i can put all the dash back in..

Working on making what will hopefully be my third and final set of G body / Hydraulic Clutch pedals.. I think i have them perfected this time.. the last set worked flawlessly but was a bit of a bitch to get the clutch rod on and off the pedal.. I think this set will be the final set..

I may start modifying them and selling them online once this is all done.. just putting the pedal hanging off the side of the factory brake assembly causes flex issues.. I have modified the factory bracket to include a brace.. and can include a clutch switch as well.. I think i may put a bottom and top of travel switch so that a person could put a two step on this thing if he or she wanted to..

pmgm

iTrader: (5)

Nice build... I used the ctsv pan no problems..

classiccaprice

iTrader: (2)

Nice work everything is so clean..

darren roar

iTrader: (1)

Nice build, like the wheels. Good luck.

ig109

Thanks for the compliments guys..

Well over the weekend I finished up my engine mounts.. Got the engine positioned where i want it.. and realized that i bought the wrong PS pulley.... But never the less here are pics of the engine sitting in the bay with its weight on the frame...



Started mocking up the turbo since i am bound and determined to keep it on there.. Realized that I am going to have to modify the passenger side log manifold to allow clearance for the downpipe.. So i cut the front port and the upturn off of it this morning on the band saw at work..



I threw the front clip back on the car/truck really fast to check for turbo clearance and there should be plenty if i can get the turbo pushed forward a bit.. going to have to come off the straight section with a 22degree bend upward and toward the inner fender just a bit.. and then a shortish straight piece and another bend to get to where the turbine flange will sit.. then I can rebore the log for the 1.5" ID sweeping elbow to be reattached..

Turning out to be a bit more work than i wanted..

1970 ls_c10

iTrader: (1)

sweet project im watching this for sure the el camino's are awesome!

cprmn14

Is the truck intake going to clear the hood?

ig109

Yes.. It clears the hood by about an inch.. once i clean all the porcupine plastic crap off the intake it will have even more clearance...

Now on to some fresh work.. got the turbo log manifold modified for the turbo except for one of the 1.5" pieces from the engine to the log.. I am waiting on them to come in at the local plumbing supply store.. They are a whopping 4 dollars each and the order wasn't enough for them to be able to order it quickly.. For as upset as i was to have to modify my original log i think this one will work out better..

Here are a few pics.. There should be just enough room in front of the compressor housing for an elbow and for the filter to sit where the battery used to sit.. I think the boost pipes can pass thru the inner fender and out to the intercooler ...

For now here are a few pics of the turbo sitting there on its own...

'64elco

Great work, project is coming along nicely. Thanks for posting pictures and ideas as it is helping me out. Working on a '64 El Camino that is going to get a turboed LQ4 and a 4L80 as well.

ig109

finished final welding on log manifold tonight.. was planning to work on the driver manifold.. but my back started acting up.. So im done.. Got the first piece of the 3.5 inch downpipe tacked to the Vband.. Need to pull the front clip back off to finish work on this but like I said.. my back is caput.. so.. im out..

ig109

I ordered more exhaust elbows to get the exhaust out of the engine bay..

I ran out and i have only made it to the toe panel of the floorpans..

I also went to rent one of those chain pipe cutters only to find that it only cuts up to 3.25 inch pipe.. WTF.. Oh well.. Sawzall it is..

Had a friend come out and help me remove the front clip again.. I am going to have to modify my "intercooler" by flipping one of the tanks over.. Also going to need to swage the inlet connections up to 3" as they are currently 2.5 and i plan to run 3" charge pipes..

Progress is getting slow but then again I took some time to clean up the wife's car and install the 2.5 inch drop on it this weekend so that took up a bit of my time..

Here is the car all cleaned up and with the drop...


Here are the wheels we plan to buy once the stock tires are bald..



The drop consists of stock 2012 Subaru Impreza WRX strut assemblies and 1" lift spacers cut out of aluminum by a good friend of mine on a water jet..

Rides better than stock and sits alot lower.. Now i just need to find a bigger rear sway bar.. to try and take some of the body sway out of it on turns..

ig109

Last night i was able to get the crossmember modified and put in.. Turns out a 2004R crossmember works great if you flip the mount over and extend it 1.5 inches.. a little 1/8 plate steel and some welding and it was done.. now to see if the driveshaft I used for the T 5 will work with the T56.. Fingers crossed!!

The crossmember worked good for me because of placement and because I am only running one 3.5 inch pipe out of the turbo.. Regardless... That was easy lol..



Hoping that tonight i can get the correct power steering pulley on there and finish the downpipe..

ig109

Got the downpipe done Tuesday night thanks to a friend coming by for motivation..







Now I'm waiting for the crossover pipe's pieces to come in at the parts store and I can mount the wastegate.. Its getting closer but i still can't see the end of this.. I still have like 2 weeks worth of night fabrication before it's anywhere near ready to fire.. Plus WIRING AND AC!! AH!

ig109

Finished the crossover under the car.. waiting for my waste gate flanges to finish off the hot pipes.. should have my 3.5 flex when I get home so I can finish the exhaust.. this will be the first time I will do first startup of a project and it will have an exhaust...

ig109

Finished the crossover mockup..


Got the harness all stripped of its unnecessary wiring and stuff..


Removed what is essentially a whole harness from the harness...



I don't have any pics but i got the harness all loomed to where the wiring goes through the factory wiring hole in the firewall below the AC box..

Now i just need to lengthen the wires to mount the ECM and fuse panel behind the seats in the smugglers compartment..

Ordered an Odessey PC1200 Battery to mount back there too..

Got all my fuel connections made up to the line in the frame.. waiting to finish the wiring before i have the line made up to the engine.. want to make sure i have room for it to run along with the harness..

Going to run wires for the cooling fans along with the engine harness as well.. just to keep the wires all together.. currently the harness is occupying the