wildcamaro

iTrader: (15)

Ok I have been wanting to post my new "On Going" LSX conversion. I already own a 98 Z28 H/C/I car and i just love the power compared to traditional V8 cars. I am a mechanical engineer and I thrive on the new technology and efficiency even the original LS1 brings to the table, because those Ford weirdos are impressed with 412 hp out of the new stang, but guess what? GM has been doing that since 1997 with the ls1. Anyway enough about that...

I got a 1981 Chevrolet Camaro Berlinetta off of my buddy who ditched in favor of an 88 mustang 5.0 (i know what irony). The car was bought with a 454 and turbo 400 combination in it off some crazy rednecks. They cut a frickin cicular hole in the hood for the air cleaner and made a "custom" sunroof that we had to silicone shut. The motor and tranny were put into a tube frame chassis Nova that was laying around.

I already purchased a 5.3L long block and Borg Warner Super T10 that coincidentally was out of a 1981 f-body. I went with the 4 speed stick because my 98 Z28 is an automatic and I really wanna bang some gears, because I have driven a performance stick car (mustang lol) but never owned one myself, because who am i kidding you never really bang hard gears on a car that isnt yours.

I mentioned in the title that this was a BUDGET build, and when i say that i mean it. I see others who put write "budget" in their build yet they have TKO600's with hydraulic clutches with almost always Heads and Cam fuel injected LS1/6/ even 7s. My approach to this project is like the old days where lightening the car as a whole is much cheaper than performance parts, especially for LSX's.

This being said I am going to run either an edelbrock or GMPP single plane intake with probably a rebuilt 750 Holley. As far as the motor itself I am going to clean up the runners and bowl area of the heads (worked awesome on my LS6 heads on 98) and see if i cant find a thinner head gasket to pick up some compression. I would also like to eventually get a used cam or even run my stock 98 cam as it has 10 extra duration and 0.030" lift advantage over the stock truck cam. Other than that I will be running stock manifolds from a truck or fbody, 2.5 inch exhaust (maybe side dumps lol), and an open diff out back unless I find a cheapie spool. Now dont get me wrong I am on a ridiculous Budget (<$3000 including car) but by no means will their be any corners cut or poor worksmanship, this baby gets done the RIGHT way.

As far as the car it self since its an original L6 Berlinetta I am going to pay homage by keeping it ALL Berlinetta on the exterior/interior. Everytime i see an LSX swap into a second generation camaro it is almost 90% of the time a Z28 or Z28 clone, and the other 10% are usually Sport Coupes. I have never even seen a restored or original Berlinetta in person let alone a V8 one. My car has a spoiler although i wouldnt have minded if it didnt. As you can tell by now I am going to be building this car as a sleeper. Heck i would rather start with a 3300lb. Berlinetta than a 3650lb. Z28 (yea right

I am looking to have this car done by next summer, but we will see what happens...My main priority is getting the car driving under its own power before stepping up the performance (2.73 rear gear and 3.42 1st gear should be interesting lol)

I will be updating as i complete various phases of the project, because i know some times it helps to actually see pictures of certain things and to know what fits and what doesnt (ex: mating 4 speed and LS motor)

Hope you guys dig it! Let the journey begin!
Ok here are my pictures of the day we brought it home out of storage....

narx66gmc

i like it!! keep us updated for sure. didnt Berlinettas have a vinyl top? if so, that may be a good way to cover up the ugly *** sunroof.

SPDMETL

What trans has a 3.42 first gear ?

wildcamaro

iTrader: (15)

After checking the build sheet (pics to come) i realize that my camaro started life as a light blue metallic Sport Coupe with the mighty 229 V6 making 110 horsepower, that is hilarious...but it should be cheaper now since i dont have to buy the berlinetta wheels and badges. it does have body colored ralleyes so it aint terrible...the weight should be the bare minimum for a camaro that year...

The borg warner super t10 came with a 3.42 first, 2.28 second, 1.50 third, and 1:1 fourth...that tall first should make up a little bit for the 2.73's out back...i cant believe the guy before had a 454 big block and kept the 2.73's...i told you they were wild!

wildcamaro

iTrader: (15)

Ok here is an update on my build....I already bought a 2005 5.3 LM7 engine complete with harness, intake/exhaust manifold, water pump, and coils for $600 bc it only had 40k miles on it....then i modified the harness for standalone fuel injection set up and sold it for $200 because i decided on going carbed bc it is a lot cheaper.

I also bought a super t10 transmission set up including the trans, correct 621 big block chevy bellhousing,clutch fork, drive shaft, cross memeber, and shifter for $300

This is where it gets good...I was browsing craigslist and i found an L33 all aluminum 5.3 with 200k miles on it for $300 and i couldnt resist buying it because it weighs about a 100 pounds less then the iron block 5.3, also the
L33 has the ls6 heads (casting #799) on it. These heads have the bigger intake/exhaust portsas well as the bigger 2.00" intake valves, compared to the 1.89" intake valves of the regular 5.3 (LM7). Another benefit is the L33 has 9.9:1 compression bc it has the flat top pistons with coated skirts, whereas the regular 5.3 has 9.4:1 compression with dish pistons.

Even though the L33 needs a rebuild I would rather have all the benefits (weight, compression) over the regular 5.3 because in my eyes 100 pounds off the nose is equivalent to approx 15-20 horsepower in a 3300 pound car.

Ill post some pictures as soon as i get home to upload the pics.

Now i am going to sell the 40k mile 5.3 and wait til the end of the build to rebuild the motor, that way i can sort everything else out and still have the engine for mock up. In my next post i will list everything needed to connect the old school 4 speed super t10 to the newer LS style motor...

Thanks for readin!

bczee

iTrader: (12)

Good going on the project plans.. I'll be following.. Well be a good sleeper..

Rick Speed

iTrader: (55)

Should be a cool fun car when done. I'm halfway through my 79 TA project.

wildcamaro

iTrader: (15)

hey rick speed...any problem areas that you can help me avoid? What engine mount adapter plates did you use? Also did you have to use the muscle car (lh8 hummer) oil pan? I was looking at the relationship between motor mount and cross member and this truck oil pan dont look like it is going to cut it.... thanks

Rick Speed

iTrader: (55)

Don't use the Truck pan... I used the Fbody pan with the carshop 1" set back plates. It fit perfect. I did also install the muscle car pan also and it fit but hangs a little lower. So the fbody pan was the best. I used the small block engine stands and mounts with the 1" set back and it fit perfect. I also used the fbody accessories with no issues.

mice13

iTrader: (9)

^ what rick said! i have the same setup, motor slipped right in with no problems. good luck w/the build!

wildcamaro

iTrader: (15)

ok so if i use the fbody accessories, do i have to swap the truck balancer for an fbody one? i was wondering if i could just make spacers for the fbody brackets to compensate for the truck balancer being spaced further off the block.

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

Buying an F-Body balancer would be cheaper and simpler than creating 3/4" spacers and finding longer metric bolts. If you have ever priced metric bolts in The States you'll know why.

I suggest trying to buy a balencer from someone who went to an under drive pulley if you can. Even from the 'zone they are only $65 which is hardly breaking the bank - even on a budget build.

Problem #2. I don't know if you are using the factory AC, but if you are the spacing forward scheme won't work unless you use the "truck" AC bracket and compressor.

Don't forget to replace the crank bolt when you swap balencers. The originals are torque to yield (i.e. one use only) and a new one is less than $10 from GM. Something else to think about.

wildcamaro

iTrader: (15)

Yea that makes sense, the bolts are hard to find at a good price. I already did a cam swap on 98 z28, i wish i would of put an underdrive pulley on now! lol. I used an arp bolt for the balancer on it and the arp bolt definately helped on the installation of the balancer because it is slightly longer than the stock one, alllowing you to drive home without worrying about pulling threads out of the crank.

I am going to wait to do the motor until i have everything i need to rebuild/cam swap it. I am a believer that the less time the cylinder walls are exposed to the outside the better, especially since i dont wanna have to overbore. I thought about just changing the oil pump to fix the oil pressure issue, but after i took the intake off and saw 2 inches of dirt on the valley cover I decided that a full rebuild is the only way to make sure the engine runs good at the speeds i am going to be driving it!!! Only bad thing is i will have to survive the "breakin" period of the engine, which will be hard since I wanna bang that 4 speed!

wildcamaro

iTrader: (15)

Ok here is an update on the Camaro...I got her all nestled into the garage finally after waiting about 5 months to do so!!! First thing i did was strip the front clip, trunk lid, tail lights, and gas tank so i can go to work wire brushing the entire belly of this beast!

My first concern is going to be rust repair, because lets face it these northern cars suck when it comes to rust! I got rust in all the typical places...lower rear quarter right in front of the rear tire, a little spot between the dash and the windshield, corners of the trunk right by the weather stripping, and the entire driver floor pan is already cut out and i have the new pan roughly fit into place. I wanna fit the motor and trans before i burn in the floor pan that way i can have easier access to the trans mount. The frame rails though are beautiful which is all i could ask for, because i would rather fix body panels than frame rails.

The worst place on the whole car is the area right before the heavy reinforcement that is behind the rear bumper. This panel is swiss cheese!!! literally, a frickin blow gun blew it apart lol! No big deal im just not sure if there is a patch panel available or if i have to make it. If you have any pictures of this section of one of your cars, let me get a picture of how i should be!

Im goin to take some more pics tonight because i know pictures are way better than words on these build sites!!! Thanks for viewing....

wildcamaro

iTrader: (15)

Hey whats up guys here is the latest pics of my "swiss cheese" rear valance and a couple other disassembly pictures. Hey mice I got pictures of the gas tank side of the rear valance as well as up close pics of the area behind the bumper on each side....do you think the rear valance patch will do it?

wildcamaro

iTrader: (15)

Ok i figured while i was posting i might as well throw up some pics of the transmission stuff...

Here is a COMPLETE listing of all the parts i needed to mate the borg warner super t10 transmission to the 5.3 (either the L33 or LM7) will also work for ls1, lq4, etc...

1. Chevy Big BLock Bellhousing "621"

2. Sachs NFW1050 Flywheel (You just have to remove 2 alignment pins on it)

3. Chevy Big Block 11" Clutch Kit Autozone part number NU5551-8 (not the best, but has a lifetime warranty lol, plus i work there and get a discount)

4. LS2/LS7 Pilot Sealed Bearing GM part number 12557583

5. Moroso Bellhousing Dowel Pins part number 37932 (You might be lucky enough to have your stock dowel pins which will work fine)

6. ARP LS1 Flywheel Bolts part number 330-2802

7. ARP LS1 Pressure PLate Bolts part number 134-2201 (again you can use GM flywheel and pressure plate bolts, but for a couple dollars difference it adds piece of mind even in a budget build.)

8. I also bought bellhousing to block bolts because I didnt have any metric ones. They are M10-1.5 x 40, and you need 5 of them. I bought a pack of 25 hex heads grade 12.9 so if you need a set of 5 let me know ill sell them for cheap.

9. I am going to try the standard throwout bearing that came with the clutch kit, but i may have to swap it out if i dont get the proper clutch engagement.

9. I didnt get it yet but you will need the clutch linkage kit and clutch/brake pedal assembly for your specific car. At $200 for everything I am going to look at swap meets before I pay retail.

Hopefully this helps someone out there that wants a good ole four speed behind their LS motor. The same set up will work for Muncies (wish i had that kind of cash lol), Saginaws, and regular T10. Not everybody got the cash for the TKO 5 speeds and T-56's, plus there's nothing like powershifting a 4 speed to wake you up in the morning lol. Any questions let me know....

mice13

iTrader: (9)

It looks like the valance patch will fix the left side but seems kind of small for the right side top rust, but will work. They do have the Inner rear body panel but i dont think you need the whole thing. For the inside i believe that is another piece called the rear cross panel (separate from the inner rear body panel) and i dont think they make that one for the late 2nd gens.

mice13

iTrader: (9)

Rusty pics are deceiving!

wildcamaro

iTrader: (15)

Quick update...since i bought that new motor (L33) I have been a little short on cash, but i was contacted by someone last night who is coming to take a look at my LM7 i have for sale for $900.
I'm including full wiring harness (A/C wires cut but still there), auto transmission flexplate, water pump, thermostat, belt tensioner, 6.0 intake manifold, throttle body, fuel rail and injectors.
This will def be home run and i can finally get a different oil pan and intake so i can check hood and crossmemeber clearance and also mock up the transmission. He said he will 100% take it, but those kind of people sound a little too good to be true but we will see....

speedtigger

iTrader: (16)

Check this link out: http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/pontiacdude428/tranny.html

Borg Warner T-10
Close ratio *** 2.20 1.64 1.31 1.00 *** ***
Borg Warner T-10
Wide ratio *** 2.54 1.75 1.51 1.00 *** ***
Borg Warner Super T-10
Close ratio 2 grooves 2.43 1.61 1.23 1.00 *** ***
Borg Warner Super T-10
Wide ratio 3 grooves 2.64 1.75 1.33 1.00 *** ***

I have never seen any borg warner with a first gear in the 3s. There were some Saginaw 4 speed transmissions with gear ratios in the 3s, but they wont last a week behind any power.