I want to put an LS1 or 2 Corvette motor into a 1987 El Camino AND a 1962 Corvette. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Is there anyone out there that has done either of these two swaps?

 

Here is a link to info on an LS1 --> 59 Corvette.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversions-swaps/423725-project-finally-finished.html

Should be pretty similar. If you use the search feature searching for El Camino and Corvette, you will find other discussions as there have been several

Good luck, great sounding projects

Pat

 

There are many LS1 powered C1 Corvettes out there, and you can do anything from an engine swap to a full drivetrain swap. Most people are going for a replacement chassis and drivetrain at the same time. The C1 had a lot of room for improvement in both ride and handling. You can drop a LS1 into a stock frame pretty easy, but the side motor mounts will surely interfere with the original steering column, so you will need to upgrade to a new R&P steering box and column to clear the mounts. As a general rule, anything that had a smallblock in it to begin with, will accept a LSX engine with almost no effort. The motor mount adapter plates available from a number of sources will put the motor and trans mounts at the same place as GM put them on side-mount engines. Obviously, the 62 uses the front mount, and this makes you have to weld mounts to the frame. One of these cars with a LS1 and all C4 corvette running gear, will ride well, go around corners like a go cart, and be fast enough that you can seriously scare all your friends! I took my neighbor out for a ride in mine 2 days ago, and he still has that silly grin on his face!

Regards, John McGraw

 

Thanks Pat. I looked at Johns pictures of his project and it is truely a work of art.

John,

Thanks for your input. The 59 is a master piece. Do you have posted what you did about the fuel tank and also the wireing?

Did you paint the car and frame yourself? Did you use Clearcoat?

I see that you have a different dash cluster in it than the 62, was this to take advantage of the wire harness or is this what a 59 looks?

Who supplied the frame for you? Ive seen a couple of different ones in the ads. Ive heard that Jim Myers does a good job.

Jerry

 

John,

Thanks for your input. The 59 is a master piece. Do you have posted what you did about the fuel tank and also the wireing?

Did you paint the car and frame yourself? Did you use Clearcoat?

I see that you have a different dash cluster in it than the 62, was this to take advantage of the wire harness or is this what a 59 looks?

Who supplied the frame for you? Ive seen a couple of different ones in the ads. Ive heard that Jim Myers does a good job.

Jerry[/QUOTE]

Jerry,
I used a stock dimension Stainless Steel tank from Rock Valley that has the pump inside the tank. You can use the original tank and an external pump, but the noise and ocassional inlet starvation will be a problem. Rock Valley builds a nice baffeled pump sump inside the tank that works real well, and is real quiet.
I wired the car with one of Ron Francis wiring harness kits. The stock harness can be used, but If you are planning on buying a harness anyway, then save the money and wire it with a custom harness kit like Ron's. All the wires are labeled ever couple of inches, and you can install all the additional circuts that you need for the modern accessories. The fuse box is an 18 circut one that gives plenty of circuts as well. There are several circuts on a C1 that are not fused at all, and this is a disaster just waiting to happen. I also set anther 6 circut fuse panel behind the kick panel just to feed the individual circuts for the engine controls. Most poeple will feed them with a common fuse, but if the fuse blows, you don't know what failed. On mine if one of the driver's side coils fails, then only the fuse for the drivers coils fails, it sure makes troubleshooting a lot easier!

I painted the body and chassis with Single-stage urethane and did not use any clear. I do my own painting, and I like a car that is easy to touch-up just like my restored cars. Single-stage urethane touches almost as easy as my lacquer cars, bit is way more durable. I give up a little of that mile-deep look to the paint, but it is a worthwhile trade off. The paint is still very slick and good looking. I have had to touch-up several boo-boo's already, and it sure nice having single stage on the car.

The dash cluster is one that I farbicated myself. I carved a wooden plug, and then pulled a mold of it, and then molded a new cluster in fiberglass. I wanted to use modern gauges, but still wanted to keep the feel of a C1 instrument cluster. By moving the tach up alongside the spedo, I was able to move the steering wheel forawrd almost 2". I was also able to move the seats back about 1.5 " and lower the seat bottom over 1". This combined with a 15" wheel, allows much easier accesss to the car, something that is a real problem on my restored C1 cars. I am 6' tall and tip the scales at over 250, so anything I can do to get in and out of the car easier is time well spent! I still can't drive the car with the top up without leaning my head, but you can't have everything! I don't plan on having the top up much anyway.

This chassis comes from SRIII Motorsports and is a geat chassis. Jim Meyers does nice work as does Art Morrison. That being said, I could not see going to all that trouble upgrading the front suspension and sticking with the solid axle in the rear. Billy Dawson at Corvette Corrections builds a real nice rectangular tubing frame that takes all C4 suspension like the SRIII frame does, but is a little easier to build since it uses transverse leaf springs instead of the coilovers like mine. Billy's frame also tucks completely out of sight like the original frame where the SRIII one hangs down under the rocker a little. This deep triangulation makes the SRIII frame incredibly stiff and the car corners very well, but many object to the frame being visible under the rockers. Billy is a good friend, and his chassis is first-rate, I just wanted more of the WOW factor. A budget alternative is to just install the Jim Meyer front crossmember setup and leave the rear alone, but I just can't see going to all this work and leaving the old rear suspension alone. The meyer setup is Mustang II based as well, and while a nice geometry, setup, it does not hold a candle to the C4 or C5 front suspension. I am doing a C2 right now with C5 front suspension, a C4 Dana 44 in the rear and a new LS2 engine in it. This car will be a driver just like the 59, but with 100 more hp!

Regards, John McGraw

 

John,, Thanks for all the details on your project. It is all going to help me cut through the trial and errors for sure. I'll spend most the morning making calls on all of this I'm sure.

Have you seen the pictures of Pats Studeabaker? http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/jou...age=1&reverse=1
If they would have sold something like that back in the 50's They would still be in business. Nice job Pat. Thanks again for putting me onto Johns site, he has already given me a wealth of information that is going to help speed my project up.

The problem I'm going to have is my wife and I purchased another house that we are going to completely remodel before moving into it. The bids are do next week and I know that my time is going to be pretty much taken up on that project until we get signed contracts with a general contractor and they get started. The only good thing about it (well one of the good things anyway) is the 5 car garage attached to it for me.

Jerry

 

Jerry, thanks for the nice comments, glad to help. Studebaker had good stuff back in the 50s, they were just better engineers than businessmen! Better take care of the house first so Momma is happy, in my experience if Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! That way you will have a clear conscience when you are spending all day in that 5 car garage!

Pat

 

Pat,
Great looking project!


Regards, John McGraw

 

John,
After reading your info on the frames and all, I have really gotten into this. Now I have other questions regarding C5 frames. Have you heard of anyone putting a C1 on a C5 frame? It appears that there are a lot of them available for not to much money.

 

Jerry,
I have seen a couple of C1 bodies actually cut apart and put on an complete factory C5 chassis, but it was a butload of work, and not for the casual fabricator. SRIII makes a tube chassis for a C1 that uses all C5 running gear, and it would probably be a better choice. There was a guy on Ebay selling a rolling chassis for about $12K. I still like the C4 rear suspension and front-mounted trans with C5 front suspension the best, it is easier to build and less expensive in most cases. The C5 running gear does look pretty cool though. Their price for the All-C5 chassis is no more than for their C4 ones.

Regards, John McGraw

 

Mine is just about finished also. I put the Rock Valley tank in last week, and I'm about ready to fire it up. I'm looking forward to driving it this spring .. here is a link to my page, just click on the 1960 Conversion project at http://faculty.delhi.edu/purdysd Good luck.

 

I've tried your link and can't bring it up. I'll try again later. Since finding this site I have found a lot of nice people like yourself that are willing to share their experiences of the hobby we love. Looking forward to seeing your pictures. Jerry

 

It's down until Firday sometime. But like John I'd be happy to share any experiences, and construction details that I've gone through building the car. there are quite a few done now which makes it easier when a hurdle comes up. Next week I'll post a few new photos also.
Scott

 

Thanks again Scot. I will have to try and put some pictures up of mine I guess. My 62 I started on in 1980. A little here a little there. In 89 I got serious and stripped it completely and fixed the body seams and painted it with the Martin Seynoir Clear coat system. It is diamond white from a 89 Seville. At the time it was the only one out there that I know of. I painted it myself and did a pretty darn good job I think. I don't know if I'm up to painting it again or not, we'll see I guess.

In 1991 I had Glen Hall from the old Stereo Pak build a 400 engine for me out of a 72 truck. it is a 406 and runs pretty strong. About 7-8 years ago at Beech Bend Park near Bowling Green I got to run the Snake Skinner with Will Cokesy driveing it. Will is the Corvette plant manager. It was a blast. The Snake Skinner was an experimental that GM made out of a ZR1 prototype just to beat the posted statistics of the Viper. He got me by .066 of a second. One hell of a race.

It's time to redo the car again and I want to keep the same color but change the steering and the motor and transmission. I would like to get it where it's not as intimidating for my wife to drive. Hence steering and auto trans. In talking with John he has sparked an interest in changing to the new frame and suspension that is available. I have been looking into several of these products. John said that his SR111 looks is only changed by the area of the frame that is visible from the side view. I've looked at his pictures and can't really see what he is talking about.

Thanks for offering your advice, an be sure that I will take you up on it in the next few weeks.

I'll keep looking for your pictures. Jerry

 

Jerry, mine is a SRIII also. It's a pretty easy conversion. It would be really easy if you stayed with a crate engine or a modified small block. It takes a little longer if you do what John and I have by changing to a computer controlled LSx engine (and T56 trans as I did).

 

Try this thread for El Camino swap info, its a good start
https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversions-swaps/252644-ls1-swap-into-1986-elcamino.html

 

Scott, I was able to get on your web page today. You have been busy. I looked at the 60 & 62 and they look great. There are four different frame makers that I have contacted. SRIII, Car Creations and a place in Akron that their name escapes me right now.
The bids are do back on our house project this coming week and I'll know how broke I'm going to be. If it isn't as bad as I think then I can start ordering things.
Thanks again for sharing this info with me. When I get home tonight I want to copy your pictures for my project book.
Jerry

 

Jerry I was able to sell my original frame for $6000. and then buy the SRIII frame for $5000. So it was a good exchange. There have been quit a few original frames for sale however because of the number of people like us doing the swap, so I'm not sure what the market for the original frame is now.
Keep in mind that there is going to be some work with most frames such as setting up brake lines, fuel lines, emergency brake cables etc. The hot rod industry has most of this kind of construction covered quite nicely.

 

I had thought about that and maybe even reworking the frame back to original and selling it to some one that has the need. Probably better to just sell and get it over with. I have the motor, interior and everything else that I have changed stored in cabinets in the garage now. Thought I would have a big e-bay push to get rid of it before we move. I hope to get back to your web page this afternoon to copy pictures. Thanks again Scot. Jerry

 

Sorry for the delay in answering. Thanks for the info on the thread for the ElCamino. It is a rather involved thread. Tracking through it all is going to take a late,sleepless night. I will get into it though. Thanks again! Jerry