Second go around
I have a 5.7 ls1 on the engine stand and have a Holley 302-2 oil pan on hand.
I went ahead and bit the bullit on a new Holley mid mount FEAD since I got zero front end parts with my 5.7 ls1. I believe this is the most complete setup I’ve seen. It’s hard to believe they got all that stuff in this one box.
Sometime in January I will hopefully have the car dug out of it resting place and start removing the existing running gear.
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When I picked the car up at the painters I thought it looked great. I loaded it on my trailer for the short ride home and I noticed the trailer tires were a little low. No problem, I had to pass a service station just a few miles down the road. I pull into the service station and park 90 degrees to a later afternoon setting sun. As I’m going around the trailer to air up the tires I have to do a double take at the rear quarter panel. I could see right through the paint!
I turn right around and take the car back and the painter is just as surprised to see me as I was to be there so soon. Without any explanation for the cause he agrees it’s not right and to repaint the whole car. So two weeks go by and I get the call that the car will be ready to be picked up that day. When I show up it’s in the final stage of wet sand and polish. The car is outside the shop in the shade and while it looks good, it doesn’t look right!?? Upon closer inspection I discover the painter has screwed up again and painted the whole car fawn, the original color! At that point I just loaded up my car and left. So to this day I have a fawn car with gold jambs and inner trunk lid! Not sure what color the car will end up being at this point.
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Good luck with the build!
I wish I had a tv show budget where you just order up what you need and it shows up in a few days but that’s not going to happen in my case! I’m hoping to stumble across a good used transmission that I can use to set the car up and get some use out of it before needing a rebuild, maybe too much wishful thInking? Anyone gone this route with any success?
The biggest downside to the 4l80 (at least for me) was the shear weight. About 200 lbs with converter and fluid, without a lift its a pain to install and remove. I have no experience with how they fit in A bodies, but I imagine they are not too bad since it fit just fine in my fox body (after some custom crossmember mounts), better than a 6 spd would.
Because of that, you'll need to move the mating plane forward from that position if you want to fit either of those transmissions under the stock floor while being able to achieve usable U-joint working angles.
Being that the block of the LS engine is nominally 1-3/16" shorter than the block of a SB Chevy on the back end, you can move the mating plane forward by up to that amount without pushing the front of the LS block or cylinder heads any further forward in the car than SB Chevy heads would be in a stock installation.
The Hooker forward-bias 64-67 A-body engine brackets are designed to do that for the user. The Hooker rear-bias engine brackets are intended for those using GM legacy automatics (i.e. TH350, TH400, Powerglide) transmissions, or those using a 4L60 or 4L80 transmission that are willing to cut/rebuild the tunnel of the car to keep the eng/trans mating plane in the stock SB Chevy location.
Car has 207k miles on it now and is getting the brakes and suspension upgraded, hope to be driving it again sometime this spring.







