Goldhawg

iTrader: (7)

Ooh...aahh. My first car was a Viking Blue 71 Cutlass Supreme. Don't think you can beat that color. Can't wait to see it done.

Ablast

Any updates?

Ach1992880

I get a little closer by the day. The engine/transmission have been test fitted half a dozen times and everything fits fine after some minor firewall abuse. I'm not real impressed by the classic perform mounts that I bought as they do sit the engine up pretty high and the geometry isn't great. The mounts have to be pried together in order to line up with the frame pads, but i'm going with it for now. I'm at a standstill currently waiting for a set of 1 7/8 race version headers from speed engineering, the only thing keeping me from dropping the drivetrain in for good.

I did end up using the tanks, inc tank which is an impressive piece. I went with all new nylon fuel line front to back using the dorman 800-300 kit for all of the quick disconnects. I can't express how easy this kit was to use.. fantastic.

I have my cooling system ready to go, electric fans from a windstar with relays wired. I just received my stand alone harness from PSI this week and it looks great. I'm nearing the end of the swap, but have a large list of little things that still need buttoned up once I can get the engine in. All in all it's been more expensive than first calculated, but not terribly so.

I have on order all new gauges from speedhut to keep tabs on the new setup.

Once in, it's just a matter of plumbing cooling system, heater, vaccum, exhaust, belts, finalizing the engine side of my fuel lines, running the engine bay side of my harness, tranny cooler lines, have my driveshaft cut and balanced, figuring out an intake, getting a tune and then sitting back and having a beer.

I'm still scratching my head over how i'm going to adapt my stock column shifter. I have a universal kit that I had previously bought from shiftworks that i'm going to try to make work, but i'm prepared to go with a cable shift unit if that doesn't pan out. Swaps are fun, huh?!

Ach1992880

few updates. Gauges are on the way, harness is in, engine and transmission are in for good. The speed engineering 1 7/8 headers fit nice, the way the drivers side drops does require the engine to sit pretty far back due to clearance with the engine crossmember. With that said, the car is an original AC car and I still have clearance on the passenger side, although not much (1 inch?) I have my computer off getting flashed right now for a base tune and deactivation of the unnecessaries and will be getting a dyno tune from there. Ready to get this thing on the road, and hoping to do so before the weather turns but work and the full time "dad" job do have priority.

Ach1992880

Here are a few compressed pictures. It's up and running. I have to get the exhaust taken care of and an alignment done and I'm ready to head off for a dyno tune. Long journey, but right now it's feeling like it was worth the occasional hurdle. I don't really like the MAF sitting right next to the upper rad hose, so that may need to be addressed here before too long, but everything else is coming along nicely.

jjamm7667

Looks nice ..What kind of gauges do you have?

Ach1992880

They're speedhut gauges. For the price they seem pretty decent. I would personally prefer that the quad gauge needles sweep to the outside of the circle instead of the inside, but I'll live with it.

Ablast

Looking good. Any pictures of how you routed your fuel lines from the tank to the frame rail and the frame rail to the fuel rail? Fuel lines are next on my list. Also what did you do with the trans dip stick tube? Did you have to cut it? Mine looks like it will be close to he stock Cutlass hood.

Ach1992880

No good pictures right now of the fuel lines. I right now am using a bellhousing mount transmission dipstick. Short story, it isn't working. I have a flexible firewall mount one on the way that will be 13 inches longer and actually accessible. I used all nylon fuel line and the dorman 800-300 kit to press the fittings. Piece of cake. Not the slightest hint of a leak. I will try to get some pix.

'87 Monte SS

I am glad you like your tanks inc set up because that's what I'm using for my Monte SS. I'm also going with a PSI harness.
What did you end up doing after all about the column shift on your car? I am trying to figure out what to do on my swap.

Ach1992880

Prior to the LS swap, I had installed a 2004R transmission. For that swap I had purchased a shiftworks column shifter kit but hadn't needed to use it because i was able to make the stock shift linkage work. The 4L60 did require the use of the kit. Here is a link.

http://www.shiftworks.com/kugel.htm#kit

I did have to shorten and bend the rod to contour to the firewall, but it comes with a long enough threaded portion on each end that you have freedom to make that sort of modification. In the end it works great and feels sturdy from the drivers seat.

Ach1992880

It's on the road! Could never have tackled something like this without a resource like LS1Tech.com. I can't get over how great it drives, even though the tune could use a little attention. I had been a little concerned about a 3,000 stall converter on the street but it's nice and tight and only noticable when you get on it and come up on the converter. I can tell that this cam is entirely streetable and it seems to make power everywhere... but then again anything feels that way compared to the worn out 350 i removed. I can tell that i'm going to have to look into beefier tires.

dewchugr

Very useful thread for me as I have a 71 convertible and an 06 5.3. Question, do you know how much space you have between the hood and the truck intake?

Ach1992880

Using the UMI Performance swap mounts I have a ton of room between the truck intake and the hood. It's difficult to see when closing the hood but if I had to guess I'd say 2.5 inches, there is no issue whatsoever of clearance with a truck intake using these engine mounts.

Ach1992880

Snowing yesterday, but was able to get a short clip of idle and walkaround.

RacnJsn95

iTrader: (4)

Nice work! Nice looking car too!

Is that a GPS speedometer from speedhut? Any problems getting signal to read the speed?

Ach1992880

Thanks for the compliment! The speedo is just a standard programmable from Speedhut. Push a button, drive 2 miles, push a button, done. Easy to program and no complaints so far.