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So I've been working on this for a while now and I figured it's time to start a build thread. This place has been a wealth of information for me and it's helped me tremendously. I figured it's time to pay it forward so to speak.
I bought the car in August of 2013 but didn't have a place to work in yet so it sat in my Dad's garage. Here it is the day I got it home.
Good solid car with lots of work already done to it. Already had mini tubs, a 9" rear and 4 link. Rack and pinion front suspension done.
Got my shop finally done first part of 2015.
55 moved in April 2015 so I can finally get started.
Got a 2004 LQ9 6.0 and 4L80. It looks like there is a lot of room under there but the farther I got along the more I realized the space was pretty limited.
Ended up with the muscle car pan from GM. It hangs a little low but you can't beat the freaking price.
Pretty close to the cross member but it fits. Had to grind the ears off the front of the pan.
I'll take this opportunity to say I'm doing all this from a wheelchair. I suffered a spinal cord injury in 1999 that left me paraplegic and confined to a chair. It takes me a lot longer to get things done but I'm too hard headed to give up doing what I love.
Jimbo1367, shop is awesome, I shouldn't have waited so long to build it. I have 42'x50' enclosed with a 12'x50' RV storage on the side and a 20'x30' covered gable out front.
jmyers, you ever go to the Office Depot meet there off 365 first Saturday of the month?
Next was getting the cooling system and A/C laid out. I'm too old and fat not to have A/C
Got the radiator from Summit and the first A/C mount came from Vintage Air. Set it in there to figure out what I wanted to do with the core support.
Ended up taking the center hoop out and fabricating new supports that sit on top of the frame. This allowed me to set the radiator up under the top support. Used the Derale dual fan shroud.
Also ended up with the Holley A/C compressor mount as the one from Vintage air was just too high up for me. The Holley mount tucked it in nice and low and looks almost factory.
Here's the final product with the A/C condenser mounted too
I used too but I sold my Cobra and nobody wants to see my junky old ls1 s10. There were a few guys I used to go with but life happens and I haven't seen em in a while. I work a lot of hours and sometimes forget about the show unless I just happen to drive by and notice it. I will be looking forward to checking out your car when it's done though.
While the Holley Hi-ram looks awesome sadly it was not meant to be, the TB ended up way too close to the rad core support so there was no way to get an elbow on there.
I was able to return it to the vendor and got a Victor Jr and elbow. I could've used the truck intake but I just don't like the way they look. The Victor and elbow also helped down the road with cold side piping as you'll see later.
Turbo is mounted here as is the hydroboost and master cylinder. Turbo is supported by a bracket off the frame.
Went with a billet S480 T6 from Forced Inductions
Last edited by squarles67; 12-15-2016 at 12:19 PM.
Next was the hot side. Got most of my components from Columbia River
Modified truck manifold on the driver side. Rear facing with the crossover just in front of the trans pan.
I apparently didn't take a picture of the passenger side before I put it on but I used a corvette center dump manifold and welded a v band to it. I used 2.25" stainless and two 38mm waste gates
You can see the center dump Corvette manifold in this one. It goes down and loops right back up to the flange.
5" downpipe split into two 3 1/2". This goes down beside the frame with a Dynomax bullet on each. They'll both turn out with oval pipe in front of the passenger side rear tire.
This is the transition I made out of plain exhaust pipe
It'll all get wrapped later on down the road.
Moved on to fitting all the A/C lines
Pretty tight confines but I got it all in there.
At this point I pulled it all back apart, front end off and engine back out.
Had to weld up all the extra holes left in the firewall. The wiper motor was moved under the dash with a raingear unit.
You can also still see what's left of the old bell housing mounts in the picture above. There is a body mount right there as well so I couldn't just cut them all the way off. Got them smooth and looking good.
With the engine out I started on the wiring. Man what a task this has turned out to be. I pulled all the old wiring out of the car as it was in terrible shape. The original fuse panel only had 6 glass fuses and 4 of those were wrapped in tinfoil...lol.
Used an American Auto Wire classic upgrade kit. Here's everything laid out along with the Holley Dominator and harness.
Here's one of the gems I found working on electrical, this is the front marker light. Looks like it was having a little ground issue, luckily my kit came with all new sockets.
A before and after of the dash
A look at the new fuse panel
Just worked through one circuit at a time, took a while but I got through it. Hell the reverse lights even work. All soldered joints with shrink wrap.
Tore the engine down to checkout my junkyard purchase. Turned out to be in excellent shape. I almost re-used the bearings they looked so good but decided I better go with new ones.
Ported the heads, here is the stock exhaust
Ported
Made this handy dandy valve spring compressor because the want too much money for as simple as they are. Made is out of an old C clamp and some scrap metal.
It works like a charm installing my BTR double springs
12-14-2016, 09:03 PM
55 Chevy, 6.0, Turbo, Holley 
