Took her to her first show today. There is a car show in Hastings, MN every other week and we drove down there. It's over 50 miles down, and the car ran great! In 6th gear, at 70mph, the motor is at 1500rpm. Drove 120 miles and the gas tank needle never moved from full. It runs strong, and drives tight. We are very pleased. The car was very well received tonight, that really made us feel good.

 

Maybe the gas gauge needle is stuck

You two rock. Build the car, DRIVE THE CAR, show the car. That is what I'm talking about!

 

Watched the gauge go up while filling it on the way down, and it was pretty close to expected. The tank has a bit more capacity than stock though, and the tiny gauge in the console just doesn't have the resolution of the large dash mount gauge, so we will see. When the tank reads half, we will fill it and figure our initial milage. The trip has helped settle the new leaf springs as well. Now the passenger side is only 1/2 inch higher than the driver side. I think in a few hundred more miles, it will finally be settled out. This morning there are still no drips or leaks under the car. It was really fun to show the car and tell people the story. Got a lot of double takes as people walk by (there were a lot of Camaros from the Northstar Camaro club), and notice something isn't right. A lot of older guys got a real kick out of seeing hotrodding still going. It was really cool when my wife would answer questions, a lot of guys would ask her "who did this for you?" and she would look them in the eye and say "I did it." That was pretty fun to watch!

 

Wish I could have gotten my wife to do my swap, would have had fewer headaches,LOL. Great job. How far are you from Monticello, I was up there working in March. Maybe be back next year.

 

We are about 60 miles or so out of Monticello.

Looks like the fuel gauge may need a little work. Used 5.9 gallons of premium yesterday and today for a total of 157 miles. While this mostly 5th and 6th gear driving (approx 100 miles of it), it does include a bit of tooling around town, and a few accidental full throttle moments. This is already 26.6 mpg! This car is now the absolute best milage vehicle we own. The next best is the deisel which runs between 17 and 19mpg. The Suburban has been hitting between 15 and 18 this last year, but its a CA emmisions vehicle and doesn't seem too fond of the ethanol in the gas here. When we travel in it, we have hit 23mpg across ND. The toy car is now the gas car as well! I love this engine/tranny combination!!!!!!!!!!!

 

a lot of that is also your gear also. I had the same engine and tranny combo in my formula, but with a 4:10 gear and with the propper tune still was getting 28-29 mpg on the hwy. That was the gratest thing about the car, besides it running high 11 sec passes!

 

Gearing is everything. We have 3.08 now, and will be upping it a bit just to get 6th gear off idle. 3.42 to 3.73 sound like they will still return great economy (not really the goal with the car, but nice to have), and all 6 gears will still be usable. We really don't want to go so steep that 1st gear is nothing more than the "Tire Destruct" setting. Remember, the little 225-70-14 tires are not going to harness the power that well. Meaty slicks and dragstrips are not in the cards for this car.

 

Hey 67rsss, how about a video of the car being driven around??? Would really like to see it

 

If we get some decent weather, we will do that!

 

Took a little footage today, we need to edit it into something entertaining. SInce it was shot at a local school parking lot, no high speed passes, but we did hit it a little getting onto the freeway. We need to see what we can do to make it informative and entertaining, and not too long...

The squeaks are finally showing up. Lots of things to re-tighten now that we have had a few heat cycles on it. May be a work in progress, but it is a FUN work in progress. Can't wait to do this again. Wish someone would pay for the next swap, now that it is running, we don't know what to do! Time to start on the donor frame for the Impala...

 

something i you didnt mention. what did you guys use for a driveshaft?

 

old LS1 looks right at home

 

We got the donor driveshaft when we bought the motor. Once everything was in and settled, we took the measurements our local drivline guy asked for, and took both drvieshafts to him. That afternoon, he had the T56 yoke onto the original driveshaft, new U-joints, balanced and ready to go. The original driveshaft had to be shortened a little, so that worked out well. Look around for a driveline shop in your area. If worse comes to worse, there are a lot of mail order places (Inland is one of them), that will fabricate you a new steel or aluminum shaft for a reasonable price.

 

i think i'll go to the boneyard first. funds runnin low, then take it too a local guy.

 

It cost us $150 to have it done. You need the yoke for the T56, and your old shaft. Your old shaft is a little too long, so that works out great.

 

i dont have the old (68) shaft but i have the new one, that i got with the motor so i have a yoke. i figure i'll go to the junkyard and find a straight 2nd gen shaft. it'll be easier to find and should be long enough. 150 wont kill me but i have checked online and those custom ones get expensive fast.

 

Do you have A/C? If so how did you do it? Assuming the ls1 compressor won't work.

 

We didn't use the AC, but lots of people do. You have to either modify the crossmember, or relocate the A/C compressor higher. I don't know if there are other mods to the AC system to be made, but there are several people on here that can answer you questions on AC hookups. StuCool did it.

 

Here are the driving Video's you asked for. We are not great movie makers, and didn't have anywhere to really run it that I could record. The first vid is just a short movie hitting a freeway ramp with traffic. The other is just driving the car around in a school parking lot.
View Video on FQuick

View Video on FQuick

 

Well, she is breaking in pretty well. Starting to get the squeaks and rattles we have been looking for. The car is definately handling well, and we have had no mechanical/electrical issues so far. We highly reccomend this swap to anyone that wants a car that starts right up, gets good milage, and has a bit of torque on tap!