llorracs93s10

iTrader: (5)

Well this swap will be a very slow process but I figure I'd first start this now since some things are being done now, parts have been purchased and just to start it nice and early to give me enough feedback from others to get the right part, the FIRST time!

Background on the car is that its a 1985 Monte Carlo SS, bought by my Mom and Dad back in 1986 and has been in the family ever since. It was a daily from 86-early 90's than was parked when my sister was born in 1991. It than was resurrected from its long lay-off back in the early 2000's when my brother got it for his first car. It had a new paint job put on it in 2002 and was only on the road for a few months before my brother got into some trouble with the police and he had to give up the car. So from 2002 to about a few weeks ago, it had another long lay-off from being a driven vehicle.

Well unfortunately, my s10 {swapped in a lt1/t56 frame off resto was totaled} had an accident, I had a opportunity to finally work on the Monte. So as of right now its going to be the small parts to get it road worthy again. After its road worthy, I will drive it for a few months before Winter than the savings begin for the big mofro of a drivetrain to be swapped in.


Here's a few pictures of the car before we started to do some work....










Now the reason the car is in the body shop...


So as of right now, the car has the complete brake job done. New drums,hoses, calipers, rotors, and stainless steel hard-lines all around. It is in the shop getting the front bumper repainted, the rear wheel well patched, rear bumper fixed and the other rear wheel well touched up. All the cosmetic problems were stemming from the s10 accident when the lady hit my s10 into the Monte.

So other than the body being fixed, here's my plan for the lsx swap of the car...

6.2l engine:
-swap out the l92 intake for a ls3 intake top-end
-swap in a cam {depending on if I keep VVT or not} with springs
-swap in a oilpan that will fit damn good without too much hanging under k-member
-mod the front accessories to fit the car intake...I have some ideas from others doing it on the s10 forum that should work with no problem.
-L92 heads staying stock besides springs for cam
-DBW TB will be used
-swapping in a 06+ vette gas pedal to accommodate the DBW
4l80e:
-keep it stock
-upgrade to a aftermarket torque converter...Suggestions?

Rear:
-QP drop in 9 inch

I am trying to make this a stout 6.2l/4l80 swap with just a cam upgrade and intake. Not looking to make it a weekend warrior or a 10 second car with tons of $$ dropped into it. But I would like it to be a turn key start, idle, run like a raped ape and still retain A/C ect. Its more of a cruiser, that will haul xxxx and see the strip every once in a while.

So as of right now, the questions are,

-Seems like the headman long tube headers work well with a certain motor mount, which mounts would I need for that?
-Current Performance wiring will be modifing the stock harness as a stand alone harness, anything needed for the stock gauges to work? I eventually want to have it with autometers, but for now the stockers have to work.

Anyways thats enough of a post for now....the next post or two will be the upgrades I have as of right now...enjoy and PLEASE make suggestions, I am not one that shy's away from others opinions to make it alot easier of a swap!

Thanks, Justin.

llorracs93s10

iTrader: (5)

Ok, so I went to the body shop on Tuesday and saw the car in mid progress and I am getting really excited!

Heres the progress!

Before:


After:


Before:


After:






Front bumper was spider cracked all over from the s10 hitting it...so heres progress




full car shot


Stripes have been taken off because in order to get new ones, its 300 bucks or so for a full set and I am looking to get the car completely repainted in year or two, so it didnt make sense to spend the money twice.

I also got a phone call tonight at 7pm saying the car was done in the paint shop...Can not wait to see it Sunday!

llorracs93s10

iTrader: (5)

So now its getting really good! My power plant came in to my dads work on Weds....so of course what do you do when you get a new motor? Tear it down and check it out! 45 minutes later...she became a shortblock....

Just incase you all didnt believe it was a 6.2 lol...
















One off...


And the second


Good signs here, pulled the valley tray as well and it looked great in there. No signs of mis-use or anything. Very clean!



Lots of cleaner is in my near future




Yanking the pan
















Thats the progress so far. This will be a slow process since money is now at a 0 balance since I had to have a bigger badder motor, lol. Plans are to just take it one step at a time. One very good thing is that it spun over very easy so that was another great sign! But I do have a few things I know already from reading on here:

-FI v6 gas tank with sending unit
-Racetronix in tank fuel pump
-vette fuel regulator

One question I had, I thought I saw that someone posted that a vette alternator would bolt up to the front truck accessories, if so is that true and will it be smaller of a amp? I am trying to keep the front accessories as a budget since I will be modding the front brackets to allow a car intake to seat and still retain truck accessories. I was told either a 07+ truck water pump or a 2010 camaro pump would work.
Other than that opinions and suggestions are welcome! I might be able to snag a set of f-body fans from my buddy who's house it is at so I do not have to worry about searching for some. Radiator.....What should I do for that? Aluminum needed or what?

01cherryreds10

iTrader: (9)

I suggest getting the racetronix sending unit with the an fittings on it, and the pump of your choice. Also before you fill the tank up with gas, drill the tank near the filler neck, and in the filler neck right after the flap for the gas nozzle and run a tube connecting the two. Aftermarket tanks have venting problems, and it takes me 15 minutes to fill my car up because of it.

llorracs93s10

iTrader: (5)

Yea, I remember reading about that! Thanks man. Question I had for you is I know you went with the BRP headers after using the pacesetters, hows the coating holding up? My buddy wants me to go Stainless, which would be great, but first I do not think they offer stainless for this swap and secondly, I do not have that type of $$ to drop on stainless, lol.

llorracs93s10

iTrader: (5)

Thanks guys....And just because ...Here's some more pictures! Car is done at the paint shop. I have never seen the car in a garage let alone one with painters lights and I like it! Needs a damn garage now...

oct03gto

iTrader: (15)

The car looks awsome. Looking foward to seeing the finished product with the engine in. Sucks about the s10. That was a clean ride. Hoping I can finish my LS swap in my 98 soon. I want to move onto my LQ4 4L80 swap in my 85ss Monte. Looking to put some twins on it. I have the car, and a running 2500 van. Waiting on pulling the motor till my shop is done in November. I'll be watching this thread.

llorracs93s10

iTrader: (5)

I wish I would love to have a TT setup on this car, but I guess I have to settle with a measly 6.2 N/A lol.

oct03gto

iTrader: (15)

LOL. I am going to fab everything up. It will be a retirement project. I won't finish it till I retire. (I'm 32)

It will be mainly a show car with 1200 HP on tap. 12 bolt diff, complete Hotchkis suspension, huge brakes. It will get used. But it was my first car, I want to build the crap out of it and leave it alone. Everything else get mods, demodded, built again only differant. This one is a one time build. Go big or go home. Haha

llorracs93s10

iTrader: (5)

Well finally the car is offically legal to be driven! First time in over 8 years....Besides re-doing the brakes, only thing this needed to be tagged for inspection and emissions was a horn and a gas cap!!! So now it is antique!! Took her to a few cruise nights, one 50 miles away and one right down the road. Rides really well even with a broken front coil, lol. Heres a few pictures.

For those of you who know of Wawa,...this was the first of MANY Wawa runs lol












Unfortunately, this is all the updates I have. Had a few people fall through on sales for the left over truck parts. Until than, I will not have really any money for the car...Hopefully, it will really start ramping up on $$ flow during the winter!

spacemanspif

iTrader: (5)

I went with the Autokraft/Champ pan. For some reason it isn't a vary favored pan on this board and prolly because it costs a little extra but to me it was worth it...it doesn't hang below the cross member and comes with a filter adapter so that you don't have to run a remotely located filter. I also do not have a problem filling my tank, not sure why but I don't, full throttle for all 15gal lol.

llorracs93s10

iTrader: (5)

Whats the price on the pan? does it come with everything like the pick up tube and all? And Im assuming you did not get a ''vented'' gas tank and thats why you are saying you do not have a filling problem?

85MikeTPI

iTrader: (9)

I believe the vette alt is clocked differently than the truck so the connections
May not be optimal when mounted in the truck bracket if thats what you're trying. Is the alt. you got not working?

The 2010 camaro water pump will fit the truck spaced accessories and also put your hoses in a nicer position for the monte radiator.

Aluminum 2row rad would be nice/better, but if youre on a budget, get the swap done and save the rad upgrade for later.

01cherryreds10

iTrader: (9)

Sorry just read the thread again. The coating is holding up pretty nicely up top where everyone sees it. They are a two piece header so you have to slip the collector on. Well I had to beat mine on so the coating didn't last very long in some spots underneath. If I were gonna get another set of headers (which I don't plan on doing anytime soon) I would definately go stainless. Something about stainless just looks awesome. The ceramic coating is a little flashy especially if everything under your hood is black like mine lol

85MikeTPI

iTrader: (9)

Again IMHO, many parts will need to be tweaked during the swap, I wouldn't worry so much about appearance from the start, but work on function..

For my swap I have custom swap headers in non-stainless (and already with surface rust). Once the swap is finished, they're getting pulled this Winter and being sent out to JetHot for a matte black JH2000 or JH2500 ceramic coating to math my all-black or aluminum enginebay styling also.. Any tweaks, modifications, etc on the headers during install will be hidden away for a lifetime under the coating. (Coatings don't all have to be polished flashy if you send them out, unlike buying headers pre-coated...)

llorracs93s10

iTrader: (5)

Yea, I understand but here's how I think we are going to go with this to take the best route with less down time.

-build motor on engine stand
-once motor and trans is ready to be dropped in, ship it to my buddys house
-install motor and trans for mocking with BRP headers/ X mounts
-Modify front accessories to whatever is needed to fit
-Once motor and trans are definately in spots we want, get cooling system squared
-Modify rear frame rails to give more tire clearance.
-Get QP 9 inch drop in rear installed
-measure for driveshaft
-get all fuel lines, ect. little items done
-pull drivetrain out completely
-modify gas tank
-Coat and paint undercarriage/engine bay
-Re-install everything!

Than drive the beast!

spacemanspif

iTrader: (5)

Oil pan was $350 using a group buy I organized with a company in FL. Yes came with everything (pickup tube and filter adapter). I also liked the pan because it has baffles to keep the oil around the pickup in hard cornering/accelerating/braking. I got the tank for a FI monte from 1Aauto.com PN: 1afgt00300 and a spectre sending unit for a GN from rock auto...not sure if either is vented or not. HTH

85MikeTPI

iTrader: (9)

I know you have it driving and looking good, but when you get further with the motor rebuild and want to save some time, I have an empty LS block for mocking up the swap that you can borrow. It only weighs about 100lbs and doesnt need a cherry picker to get in/out of the enginebay.

llorracs93s10

iTrader: (5)

Cool thanks man. I am pretty sure we will be set with the motor mods by the time we are ready to do the mock in.

One thing I did read and was curious about, PS pump - older steering box. Any issues with the pressure being too much for the older box?

llorracs93s10

iTrader: (5)

Alright for some updates on the build....heres where I have gotten with the lack of $$. Went from this....















To this....



















Thats it for now. I have Injectors already on hold from my buddy and I am waiting for the right deal on a ls3 intake with fuel rails. Other than that, until the wheels sell....or the s10 parts, I am short on the $$ for the motor upgrades. Soon as I can get the ls3 intake, I can temporarily mount it, mount the front accessories and than find out where I have to do the cutting and than I can move onto the next step to get all the front accessories 100% done before the motor swap begins.