I picked up a complete LS1 with harness and a T56 transmission that I will be dropping into my chevelle. I've swapped many motors into this car from 283's all the way up to a 540ci monster, however this will be my first install of an LS motor. I'm not very familiar with them and look forward to learning from everyone here.

Here's the 383 I pulled out last weekend.


I'll toss up some pics of the new goodies shortly.

 

2002 LS1 I picked up off of ebay, but it was local so I could go pick it up.


I live in Arizona and located the T56 in San Diego so I took the family on a weekend road trip to go pick it up. LOL



I've heard that the F-body pan fits, but it's extremely tight to get in. Can anyone tell me if the F-body pan fits with the 1" setback mounts or does the motor have to sit even further back? I'm thinking of just notching my crossmember and boxing it back in. I'm not worried about keeping it original since the car is already back halfed.

 

I made my own adapters and used tall/narrow Chevelle mounts. Used the F-body pan and set the engine as far back as I could. I have about 3/8" clearance between the front crossmember and pan, and 3/4" between the firewall and pass head. Also had to raise the tranny tunnel up about 1.5" to clear the transmission (and to leave enough room for install/removal)

 

That motor looks awesome in there! Thanks for the input. Do you have a build thread on here? I was thinking of mounts like these. http://dirtydingo.com/store/index.ph...=1_206_305_335 Are they similar to what you made yourself?

 

Thanks, although it has a turbo now.... I did have one a few years ago, it's probably gone by now. Those look pretty close to what I made. I'll see if I can dig up a few pics.

 

ahh I see you moved your frame side mounts. Right now I can tell that my front top motor mount bolt will be way forward of the ls top bolt and my bottom bolt about 3/4 of an inch forward of the bottom ls bolt. My frame side is welded right now and I think it might give me issues. Looks like I will be cutting them off and starting over fresh.

 

Look at the stickies, I think you should be able to find a complete recipe of parts to do the swap. There are several pans available to make the swap real easy. Yes you might spend a few bucks now, but the pain and suffering you will save later will make it all worth while. I used a Canton pan and filter base, Holley, Mast and several others also have options. You will love the way the LS performs.

 

Hope it's going to be as fun as the 383 was If you don't sell it, I'll be picking it up in January LOL

 

I had the day off and got a lot done today. I started by removing the engine harness, flywheel and clutch assembly, a/c and alternator.



Once I removed everything it was time to test fit my Dirty Dingo mount adapters.



I then dropped the motor into the car to see what kind of trouble I was going to be in with the F-body oil pan. The motor dropped right in and bolted up, but the oil pan is hitting the cross-member on the corners and will not tip back enough. It's not bad so I think I'm just going to modify my cross-member to accommodate. I've read that the CTS-V pan is a better option for the chevelles and I can tell that it would fit without hitting, but it also hangs down lower then the f-body pan which I did not want.





Plenty of clearance for steering.

 

I cut a T on each side of the back of my crossmember and then reshaped it with a bfh and welded it back up. Now I have good clearance with the F body pan. I could have set the engine back a bit more, but I think it will look nicer this way since it's not so close to the firewall.



Here's how the pan fits now with the modification done.

 

I messed around with the trans tunnel a little bit today. I cut it down the middle and opened it up, but I didn't go far enough forward. After bolting on the bell housing I can tell it needs to be even bigger up front.

I then slapped in a clutch pedal. This is an original 4 speed car so I just had to slide out the old cut off clutch pin and slide my new pedal into place.

I haven't found any write ups on this, but it appears that my original clutch linkage hole in the firewall will work for the master cylinder as well. Is this correct? I really hope I don't have to cut another hole.

Here's the fit with the master just pushed through the existing linkage hole.

 

I like the way you notched the frame for an fbody pan. How far is the passenger side head from the firewall now?

 

Thanks, At the closest point I have 1 1/8" from head to firewall. The valve cover is 1 1/2" away from the firewall.

 

awesome swap!!!! ill be following it!

 

i'll be following this 1, love those a-body swaps

 

I love A bodys! I keep telling my brother to scrap his 350 for something LS. He also has a 64' Malibu.

 

Wow. Manual steering and brakes gives you a lot of extra room.

 

It's still tight on the steering. I will be swapping out the manual box for a 97 jeep power box for sure. I'm going to use a dirty dingo kit to relocate my alternator to the corvette type of layout to give me more room.

 

Do you have anymore pics of your frame notch?
Does the pan now sit inside that notch area?
What exhaust manifolds you going with?
Pics of the tunnel surgery?

 

Nice swap. Having a friend complete the same swap in my Dad's '64 SS now...