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Howdy y’all, I might as well start a build thread for my new to me 99 camaro. I am new to fourth gens, and actually cars in general as I’ve only ever had GM trucks and a Jeep in the past. I look forward to learning about these cars.
This is currently a v6 car, but I bought a v8 k member, and I’m going to get a 5.3 from a Tahoe that a buddy is parting out before he scraps it. I’ll update this as progress is made on the car, but the first stage will be fairly budget oriented, so progress will be slow.
A buddy of mine has an AMX that he will be dropping a 5.3 in as well so we will have a fairly friendly rivalry. We plan to drag race and do street car thing with the cars. They will both get turbo charged after a year or two of being N/A.
Hell yeah. Get another Camaro back on the road. How many miles are on the engine? Are you putting the transmission and engine from the truck in? If so, get a little converter and cam work done while it is easy. Headers and exhaust will help. It will reap big rewards for the AMX challenge. Look in the Marketplace. Lots of parts in there. Good luck and work some long hours to make it happen.
I was under the impression that the V6 auto would work with the LS truck motors. The whole first phase of both cars is extreme budget builds. That is why I got a factory LS1 k member instead of a fancy piece like TRZ. Being in Canada cross boarder shipping and exchange rate are brutal on us. If I find local deals I’ll go for them. I only paid $750 CDN for the car. There are deals around, you just have to be patient enough to wait for them.
I picked up an 06 GMC Yukon XL to be my donor truck for the engine swap. I got a deal on it and paid $800, with almost brand new tires on it, and plan to make more than that on the part out of it. So it looks like I will be running drive by wire on the Camaro.
My buddy with the AMX also picked up a donor truck for 800. He got an 05 Sierra. We didn’t notice until later that he got the L33 aluminum HO 5.3L. He scored big there.
i also got a K frame out of an LS1 car off of Kijiji (Canadian version of craigslist) so I think that I have most of the stuff required to make the swap.
So so far I have spent $1675, including the Yukon, and have made $350 back off of it, leaving me at $1225 into it so far
I finally started working on my car on the 1st. I didn’t get a lot done on the first day, I pulled the hood, the A/C condenser, and the radiator. The second day, I got the engine, transmission, and the transmission dropped out of the car. By the end of this weekend it will be a roller with the LS subframe mounted in the car and able to push it around or out of the shop for a bit if needed.
I made a bet with with one of my technicians at work. He said the car won’t see the road in 2020, and I said that it will have plates on it by June 1st, so I have 5 months to get the 5.3L in it and ready to go.
I got my LS subframe in the car. It is now an LS roller instead of a V6 roller. I kicked the car outside so that I can get the shop floor cleaned up, and get the engine and transmission prepped and ready to go into the car.
I got the LSX innovations billet brackets for mounting the power steering pump and alternator in the stock F body location, but with truck spacing, using a truck steering pump. These are super sweet billet pieces, and everyone knows that billet parts mean racecar.
I also stole the bell housing form a 4wd 4L60E for the Camaro 4L60E, but all my friends are telling me to go with a 4L80E from the start and forget about the 60. I am trying to do this as cheap as possible and put my money in the right places and not waste it. Are there any transmission cross members for the 4L80E that also have mounts for the stock torque arm, and how hard would they be to convert to a tubular adjustable one in the future? if I have to spend money on nice things now, it had better be something that I can use down the road as well when I am running low 10s into the 9s or even 8s.
I know, but I will need a cross member for the 80 that also has a mount for a stock torque arm, as I don't feel like I require a tubular torque arm at the moment. I also want to be able to run a tubular torque arm with the same cross member in the future so that I don't have to spend that money twice.
04-21-2019, 11:56 PM
Just another 4th Gen truck motor swap. 
