I remember when those hoods came out, forgot all about them. Good score!

 

Ok man, Ill be the first to say, your a complete jackass for actually keeping up on your build thread. Most build threads I come across peter out in the baby stages of the build, after about 3-5 pages, then 3 more pages of people asking questions to a poster that hasent been on the board in over a year. This, combined with my lack of attention span makes for a very breif jaunt from reality, which is good because I dont spend all day on ls1tech. (which the wife hates)

However, here you come with your 3 year long thread catching my attention with great detail and explination of everything which happens to intrigue me to the point that I have spent 3 hrs reading every post from day one. Then, just as we start to see a light at the end of the tunnel, you disapear. (cool, everyone understands life gets in the way, not downing you in anyway, just sayin)

I will say, awesome project. absoutely amazing car with an amazing engine. however, I expect to see a video of this car moving under its own power before this thread dies.

Thanks man for finally giving me something to actually look forward to logging on to tech about. good luck and again, awesome car.

now, back to reality for me.

 

This has got to be the BEST post in this entire thread!!!

Heh - yours & mine both...


Count on it, amigo - thanks!

Well, thanks for the awesome post, that was great, I got a good chuckle out of it! And I'm really glad that people seem to enjoy this.

Happily, I DO have a little bit of progress to report - I've just taken some of my Christmas money, & fired it off to Rock Auto for a new water pump from a 2010 LS3 Camaro. I've tried & tried to think of a way to get the truck water pump to work with the L76 intake manifold, & everything that I've come up with so far either doesn't work (flipping the TB over, etc.) or is nearly as expensive & at least as much hassle (paying to have a custom spacer made to move the TB forward). So, I just said "Screw it, it's only money, right??" & ordered the different pump. It's the simplest, easiest solution, even if it costs a bit more...

 

wouldnt an LS1 f-body waterpump work?

 

No. He is keeping the VVT. It protrudes out of the timing cover.

 

Actually, the F-body water pump would work. You need 1.5" spacers, that Mast, as well as a few others sell. Mast charges $200, but I've found them on eBay from someone else for half that IIRC. Thats how I would go, personally. F-body water pump with spacers, F-body power steering spaced out 3/4" (you can buy the spacers from McMaster-Carr for a couple bucks), F-body alternator spaced out the same as the power steering, truck crank pulley (to account for the accessories spaced out 3/4"), and a Vette tensioner (the Vette tensioner is 3/4" shorter than the F-body, again, to account for the accessories spaced out 3/4" and the pump spaced out 1.5"), and lastly, a truck A/C bracket and compressor. Its the best way to go for 99% of swaps.

Figured some of this might be useful info, FWIW.

 

No offense intended (at all!), but the whole spacer idea just doesn't seem to me like the best way to address the issue. For one thing, having a set of spacers between the water pump (or whatever other items) & the block is just going to be less rigid than using the proper part in the first place, there's just no way around that - and when you have torsional/lateral loads on the parts in question, that's not an inconsequential issue. On top of that, you're also adding another set of gaskets, & another opportunity for a coolant leak, in addition to the extra costs of the spacers.

In any event, the new water pump is scheduled for delivery tomorrow, so I guess it doesn't matter anyway. I'll post "before & after" pics once the new pump is installed so that everyone can see the differences for themselves...

 

I did the spacers on my L92 with VVT and it turned out great. If you need any ideas for how to make the accessories work, drop me a line.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGeXQ...eature=related

 

I vote for some up to date pictures of the GTA...

 

Hey, thanks for the replies guys. I've got a little bit of progress to report, just need a little bit of time to edit some of the pics, etc. I'm hoping that I'll be able to do that tonight.

 

OK, I still haven't gotten around to editing the pictures yet, but thought I'd post a quick update:

I've always thought of the wiring harness as a winter-type project, so I've been looking at that lately. I've created a spreadsheet to help me keep things straight, & started listing all of the different wire colors that I'd need to keep the factory wiring scheme consistent (well, as much as possible, anyway).

I also started looking on-line to see where I could get reasonable (read: smallish) quantities of the different wires, & it didn't take me long to realize that A) no one offers most of the colors, and B) even if I DID find all of the 40+ different colors of wire, it sure as hell wasn't going to be even remotely affordable!!

OK, fall back to plan B - went to one of the larger junkyards near me, found an '02 Yukon (which was pretty much the newest GM truck I could find) & grabbed as much of the engine harness as I could reach. Cost?? A couple hours on a Saturday, & $12 + a bit of tax. I can live with that. I'll probably go back within the next couple of weeks & grab another one, that way I'll feel a bit more comfortable with my "stockpile".

Pro Tip: I showed up at the junkyard with a pair of wire cutters (aka dykes), pry bars, sockets, wrenches, screwdrivers, etc. - but the NEXT time I go, I'm going to take a hacksaw (should be a good bit quicker than the wire cutters when it comes to the big bundle that goes through the firewall!), a hammer (useful for knocking junked plastic pieces out of your way so you don't get nasty scrapes on the inside of your wrist!) & my Mechanix gloves. Hell, I might just throw in some bandages & NewSkin while I'm at it!

(FYI: I know that doing it this way is probably a bit of a PITA as far as storage goes, but I'm willing to deal with that, as long as I can get it done fairly quickly... <crossing my fingers>)

EDIT: I'm also going to be placing an order with Summit some time within the next couple of days, so hopefully that'll help me to keep this project moving... (Got some other stuff going on in my life that's requiring some time right now, but I'm hoping that at least part of that pays off pretty quickly!)

 

Little bit of an update, mostly just adding pictures since I see that I hadn't put up any pictures (like I'd thought I had) that illustrate the water-pump clearance issue that I'd been fighting. In the first one you can see that the TB is just contacting the outlet for the pump, the second picture is basically the same thing, just a little bit closer.

The third picture shows the interference between the TB & the KwikPerf FEAD setup when I tried to work around the water pump issue by flipping the TB over by 180 degrees. (To be honest, I gave serious thought to just adding a bit of clearance here with a die grinder - but that seemed like kind of a "hack & slash"-type fix, not doing it the right way...)

The fourth & last picture is just a comparison of the two water pumps. The truck (original) pump is on the top, you can see how the water neck comes out at approx. 11 o'clock. By contrast, the 2010 Camaro LS3/L99 water pump has the outlet that comes out of the pump pointing toward the front of the car, & works beautifully for my swap!!

I'll get 1 or 2 pics up once I get the Camaro pump installed, but for the moment I have the front of my engine kind of disassembled, since I'm trying to track down a part number...

 

Question on the truck vs camaro water pump.
What is the thickness of the tensioner mounting bosses? ie. distance from the face of the block to the machined surface.
I'm running the Kwik AC compressor bracket with truck spacing. The camaro pump will work with the existing bracket if that mounting point is the same depth.

 

Gary the 2010+ Camaro L99 waterpump tensioner bosses are off by quite a bit (I want to say an inch or more, but don't recall offhand). Take alook at this post with comparison pictures: https://ls1tech.com/forums/14001511-post36.html You could probably cut down your Kwik spacers to work.

 

FWIW, the difference in height from the flange that mates to the water pump and the aft of the pulley is 1.7" between the L99 and L92 tensioner (which is the same height as that for the LQ4). The L99 measures approx. 1.5" (per Clint), while the L92 is 3.2". I would postulate, then, that the difference between the L92 and L99 water pump tensioner mount flanges are the same 1.7" difference, and that you need an L99 tensioner to be able to use an L99 water pump.

EDIT: Oh damn, I forgot that KWIK does that stupid 'mount tensioner to our bracket' thing, and makes you buy an F-body tensioner anyway. I wonder how the spacers line up with the L99 stuff... I guess it works though, since the kit does work for truck AND 2010+ camaro applications.

FWIW, an LS1 F-body tensioner measures 2.5" flange-to-pulley.

Here's a pic of the three in action:
L92/LQ4
L99
LS1 F-body

 

Indeed it is. It might provide a "path out of the wilderness" (so to speak) while still allowing me to retain the VVT. I'd done a lot of thinking over the last two days or so, & had pretty much decided that I was going to yank all of the VVT parts out of the engine & chuck 'em into the nearest large body of water - but I'll give some thought to how I might be able to make this work. From the sound of it, I might be able to get away with buying the spacers (I still don't like the idea...) an LS1 water pump & the Vette tensioner (what years though?)...


ORRRR, I might just be able to get the L99 tensioner! <crossing my fingers>

Actually, the bracket that I have doesn't have any provision for a tensioner - just alternator & power steering...

And -just as a random data point- if anyone has a swap project that is able to use the L92 FEAD, the LS1 tensioner seemed to work well (used a long straightedge to check it's alignment with the crank pulley, it seemed to be very close...).

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I really appreciate them.

 

Annnnnd, FINALLY...


Yesterday I gave my two weeks notice to my current employer because I've finally been offered a position that won't quite get me back to making "normal" money, but it's not TOO far off, so now I should be able to start getting some of the parts that I need to get this done...

I also have a little bit of time lined up with a couple of local guys who are willing to lend an extra hand where needed. One of them has already done a couple of LS swaps into thirdgen Camaros, & will be helping me with melding the two engine harnesses together.

Finally... I've also made a small bit of progress on the exhaust and my wife's gotten me a nice little "Christmas present" that I haven't mentioned here yet (I've actually kinda kept it "under wraps"). I'm hoping that I'll be able to post those items up within the next day or so...

 

bout time...lets have it!

 

awesome!

 

OK, here's the update on the exhaust -

I found that I wasn't really making any progress on the car, & was actually getting a bit discouraged by that, so I placed an ad, & sold the LQ4 engine that I mentioned a few pages back. Kinda bummed me out to do that - but at the same time, it didn't make a hell of a lot of sense to have the beginning of a new project around when I couldn't even make headway on the existing project...

With the money from that sale, I ordered this:


That is a Mufflex cat-back system with a Spintech muffler. And for those of you who might be thinking "That looks awfully BIG..." well, you're right - it's made with 4" diameter pipe. Here's a comparison between the new pipe, & the stock catback pipe:


(Yes, there is a piece of the stock exhaust tube at the bottom-center of the first picture as a comparison, but it's relatively hard to see the size difference.)

WHY did I buy such a large-diameter system?? Primarily because I'd gotten fed up with buying a part, upgrading the car to be a little faster - and then having to RE-buy the same, barely-used parts to accommodate the upgrade!! And I've NEVER forgotten how much fun I had as a kid driving those badass black Buicks when I worked at the dealership, so I've never quite been able to shake the idea of plumbing a hairdryer or two into one of my cars...

At the time I ordered, I didn't have the hard data to tell me what size catback would support "X" horsepower, so I just said "Screw it" & (unlike my typical decisions) leaned toward the large side of the scale. I figure this allows me to buy it once & FORGET about it, regardless of whether I ever turbocharge the car or not.

Those of you who are familiar with Mufflex probably won't be surprised by this, but for those who aren't - man, this thing just fits like a DREAM!!! This is easily the best-fitting aftermarket exhaust component that I've ever worked with, and one of the easiest-installing aftermarket pieces ever!! Honest to God, I zipped the old exhaust off with a reciprocating saw, then thought "Well, I'm just going to do some test-fitting so that I can see where the problems are going to be..." - and suddenly it was all bolted up & DONE!!!


Now I'll freely admit that this wasn't the cheapest catback out there - but OH MY GOD, for the ease of installation, & the way that it JUST. FIT. with very minor "wrestling" with it - man, I'll pay a little extra for that ALL day long!! And it really gives me a good feeling that they actually know what the hell they're doing...

Of course, now that it's all bolted up so nicely, I'm going to be pulling it all out again - because I'm going to need to drop the fuel tank so that I can weld in the rollbar that I need in order to compete at the speed I'm hoping to run...

Three final notes on this whole exhaust post -

The tailpipe you see toward the bottom of the third picture is going to be extended a few inches so that the exhaust exits a good bit closer to the back of the car - that is the one single thing that I really want to change. Having the exhaust exit beneath the car (as it is right now) allows the floorpan of the car to act as a "sound board" which makes the exhaust (and thus, the car) louder - which is exactly what I DON'T want. (That also contributes to the 'drone' that a lot of people complain about - and I definitely want this to be a driveable car, not just a 'race car with license plates'!)

Before making the purchase, I spent some time speaking with one of the guys at Mufflex about whether or not it's possible to have a free-flowing exhaust that's also fairly quiet - and he assured me that it IS possible! So, based on his suggestion, I'm going to be making a somewhat unconventional change to this catback - I just need to get the piece in question, & figure out just how I'm going to do it...

I'm also going to be making a couple of other little "tweaks" here & there to accommodate the way that I want the car to be built. We're mostly talking slight changes for the sake of reliability and/or efficiency - but one of 'em falls 100% into the 'FUN' category...

(I kind of wanted to also post about the Christmas present that the wife got me, but this has become longer than I'd expected, so I'll hit that another night - hopefully pretty soon!)


As always, thanks for the interest guys -especially given the slow pace of updates lately. With even a little bit of luck, I'm hoping to be able to show off a startup vid before long...!