Cranked for the first time last night and it sounds sweet to hear this thing running. Just wanted to make a quick post and say thanks to those that have helped with answers to my posts as we went along. I hope I'll be able to help a few folks out with what we've learned. This is an 88 TransAm GTA with a 98 LS1 and 4L60E.

For those that remember my most recent question, cranking but no start. Turned out the VATS bypass I had was bad. I would get two fuel pulses and then nothing. Replaced with a new one and fired right up. Put a scan tool on it and checked all sensors, turned things on/off, etc. and it looks good. Not too bad for a couple of wiring rookies. Would have loved to used a plug and play harness but money was an issue. We spent about 25 hours over two/three weeks making the connections ourselves. I tried to take some good notes and will try to put them in a spread sheet for anyone who might do the same combo later.

We do have a tranny problem, no fluid pumping so front pump must be bad. Should have checked it before install but won't take long to take care of this.

This is my son's car, he turns 16 in less than a month and we hope to be finished up by then. Still need to straighten out and wrap the wiring, reinstall dash panels, etc. and then get it over to the exhaust guy. Just hearing it run put a smile on our faces though!

Thanks again to everyone who takes the time to post what they've learned along the way.

 

congrats. i am on the fence as to pay to have my harness done to save time or do my own to hide everything.

i wish my first car was an fbody let alone one with an LS1.

 

If money's not a big deal but your time is, go with the harness! For us, money was a big deal, I could only help finance so much of this project before the boss started tapping her foot a little louder. You wouldn't believe how many times I heard "Tell me again why you took a perfectly good running motor out of the car?" She just didn't understand that a running TPI doesn't actually mean it's perfectly good.

Wiring was some work but turned out to be some good father/son time too. There were a few frustrations as we worked on it and I think it was good for my son to help work through some of that and learn not to give up. He learned some lessons in patience and putting forth extra effort to overcome.

 

very cool for a father/son project. i firmly belive that a person that works for what they have will respect it and take care of it.

i love the fabrication part of it so i will probably make it myself but it is tempting to have it made to get to the track. making a mustang fast is not hard but i love to fabricate which is why i went with the LS1.

i spent at least 5 hours today to make my stock AOD shifter work with the 4l60E.

 

got any pics of the LS1 GTA?

 

Congratulations Crewchef

 

Man that sounds great! Gives me inspiration to keep rolling on mine. Sounds like a great Dad/son project, I'm sure you will make sure he is careful with such a powerful ride. Getting these done while keeping the boss happy, or at least not unhappy, is just another challenge.

Congratulations!

Pat

 

No pictures of the final install yet. We're still working on cleaning up and wrapping the wires, mounting PCM, putting dash back together, etc. Should have all that done in a couple of days. Pulling the tranny back out over the weekend to replace the bad pump and off to exhaust shop on Monday.

Here's one picture of us dropping it in for now. I will post a few more when we get it rolled out and get the months of dust and dirt washed off.

 

Here's a couple of pre LS1 pics too. My son purchased this car when he was 14. It had 92K original miles and was in great shape for an 88.

STU COOL - yes I'm on him all the time about driving responsibly and I think he hears me. We've got a local 1/8th mile drag strip and I've told him we can go to T&T anytime he wants. Also told him he gets to pay for and fix the things he breaks at the track I think my next investment may be a tuner package, I could always drop the rev and speed limiters

 

Nice ride...I had a maroon 88 GTA with a Paxton blower on it...Kick myself in the *** for getting rid of it...
Would have loved to put a LS1 in it...

Looks like a wonderful father/son project.....

 

Where did you get your VATS bypass?

 

Got it from Dana at LT1 Wiring, www.lt1350.com. Super easy to install and he was easy to work with. When we were trouble shooting he provided some good advice and specific things to check. When the voltage measurements were off he immediately sent another one and that fixed the problem.

 

I am about a month or so away from finishing my 88 formula. I am glad to hear things worked out well for your swap. I hope mine has no issues when it comes to startup. I just got my harness and pcm back from speartech, and spend a good poryion of the day installing it. A few more odds and ends, and it will be that time for me. By the way, that is an extremely clean car. Keep us posted!

Chris

 

That's awesome...GTA's are my favorite 3rd gen.And it's great to see a good father son project go well

 

post some pics of the engine bay! Sounds like an awsome car.

 

Still have some work to do on securing the wiring where it looks better but it's running and everything seems to be good. Need to get PCM done to remove EGR, back 02s, etc. A/C will be next project to get finished but wanted to get it running so we could drive it for now.

Here's some new pics from tonight. Off to exhaust shop tomorrow to get some pipes run.

Check out those original miles on the odometer. Not bad for an 88.

 

Looks great. Congrats on a sweet project coming together!

 

Congrats on getting fired up man, Im also in the works on getting mine finished, I just put the motor in to mock things up while I wait for some parts to get here. Im going to be running it with a tremec TKO 600 5 speed instead of the t56. I'll keep you guy's posted as soon as i fired it up.

 

Congrats!

I'm hoping to have mine fired up in the next month or so as well, FINALLY.

 

Resurecting this one for an update. Replaced the front pump (Feb 18) and all was well we finally got her on the road. Just in time my son turned 16 on Mar 4.

More bad news, should have gone ahead and checked the transmission over good while it was out though. Got about 125 miles on it and 3/4 crapped out. We had purchased HP Tuners and were out doing some fuel trim logging and when he tried to accelerate it attempted to down shift from 4 to 3 but it wasn't there. Eased off and OD seemed ok so we went towards the house. Spent March 11/12 rebuilding and reinstalling the transmission. 3/4 clutch pack was shot, couldn't find any other issues. There are a lot of parts inside the 4L60E! If you're thinking of rebuilding your own here's a good link that takes you through it, http://www.firebirdnation.com/forums...showtopic=5660 Finally all seems good (knock on wood).

Son has been putting some miles on it, new drivers you know. We've been tweaking some things in HPT and are slowly getting a good tune on it. FYI if you keep the 3rd Gen guages and have HPT, change your tack resolution settings to 3/3 to get proper signal.

Front end is sitting a little high too, we may use some lowering springs or just cut a coil on these. I wish I had measured it before we did the engine change but I didn't. You can see it's higher but I couldn't give you a measurement on it.

Anyway, still a work in progress but I guess there will always be something we can fiddle with on this car. It's been a fun (although sometimes trying) project. Look forward to getting to the track before too long to see what it does there. Old L98 was pretty darn consistent at 9.5x.

Lessons learned - Plan and take your time, it will probably take longer than you thought. Try to get a complete pull out. We bought the motor complete except for accesories, needed all accessories, PCM/harness, coil packs, transmission and then what seemed like a million bolts and odds/ends. We probably would have come out cheeper if we could have gotten it as one package and it wouldn't have been near as time consuming. If money isn't an issue, get a conversion wiring harness.

Probably some grammar/spelling issues, please ignore I didn't have time to proof. Headed out to log some MAF frequencies and Dynamic Air flow. That's the other lesson learned, get HPT or your choice of tuner package. You'll be amazed at what you can scan/log and tweak for your combo.