Hi all, I have made some good progress on my car so far and wanted to share what I’ve done in a build thread. I picked up this rusty slapped together lsx swap 1985 Chevette this summer in trade for a beater car and bike I had laying around. It was from New York but I couldn’t find a build, I did find this though.

http://bangshift.com/general-news/ca...olet-chevette/

I bought it with intentions of seeing how far I could push my speed for dollar on a car with zero consideration for creature comforts or looks. It was known that there was coolant in the oil and may need an engine, it was very rusty, and will likely crumple under a hard launch. I’m willing to gamble.



The man I purchased it from bought it in New York and towed it home. He drove it and realized it was getting hot, couldn’t figure out the issue (or did) and parked it. A month passed and it was on craigslist again where I found it. It came with winter tires and a functional heater, it was driven in the NY winter!



It had a 1998 LS1 that I was told was stock, an adapted mustang t5, s10 10 bolt open differential, and I believe a Jegsters roll cage.



I started with trying to figure out why the engine had coolant in the oil. I was told it had new head gaskets so I tried retorquing the heads and found one head ported and the other not, odd. Put it back together with fresh oil and did some burnouts, seemed to run good for about 5 minutes and didn’t seem to get hot.



One more drive and it overheated pretty good so I pulled the heads. I found a new piston and also a cracked liner and block on that cylinder. My theory was it dropped a valve, they replaced the head and the piston and didn’t notice a hairline crack.




Time to pull the drivetrain





I found a used LS1 shortblock for $400 across state. I borrowed my father’s car instead of driving my truck on the highway hundreds of miles, it actually worked out quite well!



I haven’t used my Duramax for towing as much as I hoped so I sold it and picked up a more fun daily driver. 2006 Trailblazer SS AWD, it came with lots of performance parts and winter tires on rims. I love this thing!




Back to the Chevette... The LS1 I picked up looked pretty good so I just went ahead and cleaned it up and reoiled it. The old engine had an ls6 cam so I stabbed that into the new one.



The old stock heads I ported to match each other and they turned out nicely but the previous owner knicked the seats really bad with the grinder and I didn’t feel like investing money into machining and shimming. I picked up some 799 heads for $350, cleaned up the deck, swapped over the ls6 springs and they were ready to run. By the way, the craftsman spring compressor works phenomenal and is only $35!




Installing the lifters, GM mls gaskets with copper spray, heads, rockers…







The old T5 transmission grinded in 2nd and 3rd. I planned on putting new synchronizers in it and running it but found a known good 1994 Cobra T5 for $400 so I picked that up. This is far from an ideal transmission behind this engine, but for the sake of cost and getting this to run quickly, it will work.



The car currently runs and drives, I will update with more pics and info soon

 

That's freaking awesome!

 

Thank you! Is that an Olds in your pic? Looks like a fun project.

Sometimes you have to get creative when working by yourself! Torquing down the pressure plate.



After trying to find out why my new T5 wouldnt adapt to my engine, I realized a few differences. The T5's offered for Fords came in a few variations with different torque ratings, ratios and different input shafts. My old one turned out to be a 4 cyl T5 rated at like 2XX lb / ft and featured an input of .75" shorter length and different tip diameter. No problem, swap the inputs! Wrong, the gear ratios are different as well so the input drive gear has a different tooth count. After a week of debating on machining what I had or getting a new, i found one of an odd length that I felt would work, it was the perfect length. That set me back $130




I currently dont have a hoist so my friend let me borrow his. Not having a truck anymore sucks in some ways but the Trailblazer got the job done.



Got the two mated. The c-clamp was used to test clutch operation


Ready to go in. (Headers are just for show, they dont fit in chassis)

 

Nice work. That car basically weighed nothing, so the engine only has to pull its own weight. Should move the number on the speedo pretty quickly.

 

Very cool build!

 

I assume this was the one that had a turbo at one point? There's video explaining that the motor was hurt. The piston is probably not new. It's common for them to get scrubbed squeaky clean if coolant is getting into the cylinder.

 

Its on an unturned ls1 ecu aside from a base VE map from an ls6 (fighting exhaust leaks so cant tune) but it sure pulls hard in 3-5. 1-2 I'm combatting traction issues. Thanks for the interest guys!


This is actually a different car, that one is a 4 door. Project red rocket I think? I was thinking that too, but that piston is different and has a notch and coding on it unlike the others.

 

Small update:


This engine is an ls1 and I added 799/243s so with that it switches over to centerbolt. Instead of buying new covers and coils new, I searched around and found nothing on craigslist, forums etc.


I decided to pay a visit to the local junk yard "light truck parts" in Kalamazoo. The lot is mainly GM trucks and it is huge.


I actually found my old truck there, a 1987 Chevy s10 from Tennessee that had a swapped Mercedes OM617 5cyl 3.0l turbo diesel. The thing was clean and a lot of fun. Sold it to a neighbor, blew an oil line, toasted the engine and ended up here somehow. Pretty disappointing to see its current state from what it was.





I searched and searched but all the trucks I found either were missing coils or they were heavily corroded as the hoods are left open. I eventually setted for the cleanest complete set I could find. Here is the victim.








My friend drank a lot of coffee and was ambitious to pull them so I let him have at it with snagging the coils and valvecovers.





My car has custom exhaust manifolds so I couldn't use any of the plug wires they had there as they would rub unfortunately. I will tackle that later.


The drivetrain was ready to go. We began sliding it back in with some finesse, it got late so I laid it in the mounts and stuck a jack under the trans.





The next day was Sunday and it was downpouring. I really wanted to make good headway over the weekend so I called around to my friends and eventually found a nice canopy to catch some of rain and allow to continue with the install.





Got the trans and engine mounts in, just snugging up the bolts

 

My friend linked me to one of those Craigslist adds. I was curious to know how that car drove. Looks like you are giving it the attention to keep it on the road versus pulling at apart for parts. Keep it up I'm intrigued to see more.

 

My best way to describe it is oversized go kart haha. Its crude, hard to get into, cramped, but a lot of fun. I'm trying to salvage it! Thanks for the interest

Engine was in so now I had to plug all the connections back onto the engine and get it ready to fire up.



At this point it would turn over but backfire out the intake. I was a little discouraged but also happy that it turned over. It had spark, it had fuel but the timing was off. I double checked all connections and made sure the coils and injectors were all in the right connector, still nothing. Compression check revealed 30psi on all cylinders. Maybe valves too tight? While checking I noticed the valves were always open at tdc whether it be compression or exhaust stroke, I knew the cam timing was somehow off. Its been years since ive built an engine and I missed the timing dot on the rusty gear and aligned to the cam dowel. Embarrassing but got it fixed with no bent valves etc.



And the moment i've been waiting for, started up instantly!




Youtube Link:
I was so excited to have this thing running again with a new powerplant.

 

I'm a 24 year old guy and don't have my own house yet and in Michigan, progress for me during the winter usually stops. I ended up finding a house to rent out that had a three place garage. Its not heated but I will buy a kerosene heater. I will say 75% of the reason I'm renting this place is so that I can continue working in the winter.


The owner left the garage kind of messy and he will get one stall for his BMW which is fine.





Time to clean it up to make room for my Trailblazer and the Chevette





A few beers and an hours work and it's plenty useable for me!








So at this point in the build the car starts, but that was about it. The car had the coils draped over the innerfenders as the ls1 wires were too short. After searching for a cheap solution on what would work with my homemade flipped manifolds, I broke down and ordered the MSD Universal LS plug wire kit. Its pricey but they look nice and fit good.





New wires all installed





The car now runs and drives, it is untuned though and I have no wideband to help determine where my afr's are. I decided to invest in hptuners because I'd like to learn how to tune. I went to school for automotive engineering technology and took a tuning class so I wanted to try and apply what I learned. I picked up the Hp tuners pro off a member on here. The program is super easy to navigate and there are plenty of tutorials etc on how to do anything. I started with copying over the VE tables from an LS6 engine and a few other parameters to keep the engine "safe". I put maybe 50 miles on it and closely monitored my plugs to ensure no lean conditions. Seems to run pretty good!





Oh and of course, a demonstration of the power to weight ratio. Roll on burnout from 1st to 2nd, it will do them in third too but I went easy on is this time

 

Very nice.