Hey Ya'll,

I am brand new at this forum and looking for some clarity
and direction.

Here's what I am looking to do.

I want to swap an LS1 and a 5 or 6 speed into a 69 Camaro with the
capability of being able to use it as a reliable daily driver,
be able to throw the family in it for a Saturday cruise,
and be able to take it for an occasional romp down
the drag strip.

I want to retain all of the creature comforts like the A/C PS,
PB, Cruise control etc. (If Mom is happy, everyone is happy)
I want to have the reliability of EFI ,be able to pass emissions
testing etc.

Is there a single supplier or company that makes a conversion "kit"?
I'd like to do a "one stop shop" thing rather than piece it together
from different suppliers.

Is what I want doable?

Any comments, advice, recommendations etc are invited.

Thanks in advance,

Elon

 

i think speartech sells engines and wiring harnesses. if i were you i would just buy a wreck camaro.ls1 swaps are not "kit" swaps.

 

I believe street and performance has everything needed, hotrodlane.cc

 

www.hotrodlane.cc

 

I bought the 3-bolt style motor mounts from autozone, for a set of poly-urethane motor mounts, as well as transmission mount, bought the S$P style adapter plates off ebay for $39 + 8 shipping. Had them powdercoated, and they're nice. Overpaid for YearOne crossmember, and had to relocate it. Don't do that. Do a little research, esp on this forum, and you'll find much better solutions. You can pay alot to street and performance, or do it like I am and save over a thousand.... which will just get dumped into the engine... but that's where i'd rather have it.

Mine's a '67... I'm going Autometers for gauges. I aint payin for the manual tailshaft conversion just to use the stock speedo. I hear the motorized adapters are over 300 bucks too. A nice set of autometers or stewart warner gauges should be awesome, over a blank cluster panel from www.summitracing.com. That'll get me a 5 inch illuminated 200mph speedo, 5 inch 8k rpm tach. I'll add a four-gauge pod on the console for fuel pressure, battery, oil temp and pressure. I won't have idiot lights or indicators, unless i figure out a way to do that, but i'm not overly concerned. The relays are not in the unit.. so function will not be affected.
Be sure to upgrade your rear end when you do the swap if you don't have a 12 bolt rear, esp if you're going the T56 like me. I've got the 8.2 inch 10 bolt with 2.73 rear gears, which i hear will shatter in no time. If you're a do-it-yourselfer, i'd upgrade the rear end for cheap. I've been junkyard hunting for a while. Looking for a nova rear. Check out this article. .... www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/48518/
good luck.. hope i've helped a little...!
olly

 

give detroit speed engineering a call ...they are the one stop shop that can do all that for you...for a ummmmmm price....wont be disapointed.... www.detroitspeed.com

 

I would do alot of salvage yard hopping and DIY in addition to using some of those contacts.

At the yards you could get a full loom for the engine compartment and the dash and run a gage cluster from a LS1 f-body...

During one swap we got the engine compartment harness from one car at one yard and the dash/ecu end of it from another car at another yard. Then a ECU from a third yard... etc.. Just got the individual parts from the lowest bidder as all three wanted too much for it all but wanted less for one individual section than the other when the place did still have all of it.

Get a hold of this book



http://www.detroitspeed.com/ProTouringBook10.html

And if horsepower upgrades are in the works too..

Get how to tune and modifiy engine management systems.

 

This sounds doable. I remember reading in a mag of a company that sells the front subframe for 69 Camaros with all the clearances needed to bolt in the LS1.

The most difficult part is mounting the LS1 to the frame and finding the added clearances for all the drive accessories. If you can retain all the stock accessories locations then that would simplify the whole install plus give you stock belts and other items to work with if future failure were to happen.

Things I think you need to think about: (Note I am installing a LS1 and 4l60e into a 1986 El Camino or G-Body)

1. Where to mount the computer? I decided to mount the computer in the passenger side kick panel like my stock computer. Although it is much larger than stock I plan to fabricate a special cover to secure it in place.

2. Cruise control- I went with the Corvette drive-by-wire setup which requires a extra electronic box and the Corvette petal. I modified the petal slightly to clear my transmission tunnel and was no big deal. The benifit is that all you have to do is hook up 4 wires to the cruise stalk switch and you gain cruise. Also no throttle cable to deal with since the servo drives the throttle body.

3. Most important is mounting the LS1 and transmission. If you can find the front subframe that is already engineered with the mounts and clearances for a stock LS1 accessories be it F-body or Corvette that would be worth the expense and solve the headaches and custom fabrication. Just "BOLT and PLAY."

4. After mounting the rest is just details like radiator, cooling fans, wiring, ectra.

5. Wiring- nothing beats a custom wiring harness. Although you can rework a wiring harness and make it work an experienced shop can fabricate a good looking and WORKING harness to just plug up. I went with SpearTech for a custom harness to my length specifications so I can mount the computer in the passenger compartment instead of in the engine bay. SpearTech also incorporated the drive-by-wire which required the following: Corvette throttle body, Corvette petal, electronic box, and the petal to box harness. The harness was 100% new, incorporated all connections and eliminated all unneccessary items. The harness requires just a hand full of wires to connect to make it work. Also the computer will need to be edited to elliminate some functions that are not required and that are removed from the harness. SpearTech can make the harness anyway with any features you want from 100% stock to bare minimum. There are other harness manufactures out there but SpearTech is what I went with. Great support and techincal information to my questions.

I purchased the motor and transmission and harness from SpearTech and drove to pick it up. He started the engine for me while it was sitting on the crate with the custom engine harness so I know it all works and the engine runs. I am expecting to just turn the key and this thing will fire right up assuming I have done my job and connected everything up right. John at SpearTech hooked up 3 wires to the battery and key switch to start the engine as the harness was that complete and simplified for my application.

I am almost ready to start my motor up and so far my experience in installing an LS1 into my El Camino would lead me to believe a 69 Camaro might be easier if I can purchase a subframe already fabricated for the mounting of the LS1.

This is just my opinon as I haven't looked at a 69 Camaro to contemplate such an install, but I believe as I have listed above to be doable and maybe easier.

 

Street and Performance www.hotrodlane.cc or try tennessee auto www.tennesseeauto.com they sell the BRP install parts and also sell salvage engine/trans combos.

I second using Speartech for the engine harness and PCM re-program.

There is a ton of info on the site, so do a search for this topic and get ready for hours of reading.

Also try: www.pro-touring.com or www.lateral-g.net there are a few guys there that have done this swap including myself.