The Automotive Thread

Fuel and air filter were done. I'm now debating on the tranny and differential....I was going to have them done when I had the cooling system flushed and oil changed, but after 9 hours in the waiting room (And then another 4 or 5 hours the next day as they tried to figure out why I now had a CEI), I've kind of shined it on for the time being.

 

I had a Mustang that had both head gaskets blown with no milkshake in the pan. The gaskets failed in between the cylinder and water jacket so coolant would go into the cylinder, be burned off in the combustion chamber and blown out the exhaust. I had to top it off constantly but it never leaked a drop.

But, Ford's are known for head gasket issues compared to a SBC, so I'd keep checking the little stuff first.

 

Interesting turn of events....My Z hasn't lost a drop of coolant in days, and I haven't replaced the radiator cap yet. I'm guessing something had shrunk up while the car was sleeping and after 200 or so miles it swole up and sealed itself. I have no idea what it could be though, the t-stat gasket was replaced when I had the cooling serviced, so that's a brand new gasket.

 

I got the title to my Z28 today....Yay! It's officially mine!

Now I just have to decide which route I'm going to take with it. I could modify it, and have it as my forever toy car. Or I could make a point of keeping it box stock.

Modifying it would put me immediately upside down in the car, but if I'm keeping it forever....who cares? When I say "Modifying" it I'm not talking about home done, DIY, projects like a 17 year old might do. I'm talking SS hood, Eibach lowering springs, Bilstein shocks and struts, 17" Z06 wheels, tubular control arms, poly bushings...shit like that. And it would join the millions of Camaros that've been personalized.

Or I could make sure that I keep the car box stock. It's a solid, original car. The only real problem with the car is that it's lived it's entire life on the Oregon coast and the salt air was not kind to certain parts...like the plenum cover and probably every bolt on the vehicle. So it's probably never going to be a pristine survivor on the Barrett-Jackson stage.

I've been in contact with a consignment auction company about liquidating some of my vintage baseball cards which will net me somewhere in the vicinity of $15K.

The reason for my conundrum is the hood needs to be resprayed and I'd much rather have an SS hood, and one of my control arms is cracked and should be replaced. It's going to cost a few hundred more to replace the stock stamped control arms with upgraded units...and once I start modifying it from stock, I may as well just go all in.

So should I keep it stock and let it continue to appreciate (Although the salt air corrosion will slow the appreciation) or should I just say "Fuck it" and make it my own?

 

Make it your own.

 

Yeah, what he said. Do what you want, don't worry about resale value. I think that people who obsess over their car's resale value are cock-suckers.

Also, Toytoy, I had a piece of advice about your mysterious coolant leak:

1) Pressure test your cooling system. You can rent/borrow a pressure tester at most auto parts stores. It makes a world of difference when finding coolant leaks.

2) If the pressure test is inconclusive, you might want to try a UV dye in your cooling system, then check the engine and hoses with a black-light after a couple of days.

Slow coolant leaks can be a bitch to find, because as you're driving, the coolant dries off.

I remember this one time on Jungle Julia's car, she was losing about a quart or so of coolant a week, but I couldn't find out where from.
Well, eventually one coldish day, I was doing something under the hood of her car, and I noticed a small plume of steam coming from one of the heater hoses. The hose itself was good, but the fitting it was attached to was really rusty, thus compromising the seal.
I cleaned all the rust off, and reattached the hose with a healthy dose of silicone sealant, stopping THAT leak for good.
Because it was so small, it just evaporated away as soon as it got into the atmosphere.

Sadly, that wasn't the last coolant leak on her car; last week her radiator started leaking, so I'm using this as my final push to begin her LS swap. I have amassed pretty much all of the parts I'm going to need for it, so it's about time I got started.
Updates will be coming soon.

 

I replaced the radiator cap with the correct GM cap today and the car hadn't lost any coolant, so what ever the problem was, it seems to have remedied itself. Thank God I didn't panic and throw stop leak in there, that shit can't be good on the system....I lost a heater core once from using it. It gummed the fuck out of the core and I had no heat. In north Idaho. In the winter. That sucked.

 

I could swear I read somewhere that if you haven't flushed a transmission by 100,000 miles you shouldn't do it at all. My truck is a 2006 F150 with 150k on it and I was wondering if I should do that.

 

Trans flushes on high mileage units are a very bad idea, if you were a one owner who had it done every 50k it would be one thing but at 150k the most I would do is drain and fill, we stopped selling flushes at every dealer I worked for because of the problems it created.

By and large flushes are a waste of money, there is a reason we called them wallet flushes.

 

See, now you're thinking like a gearhead!

Seriously though, I'll be putting that 2.8L V6 out of its misery.

- When you drive that car, and you floor the gas, it doesn't go any faster, it just makes more noise (and it's not even good noise! It's a V6 with a Flowmaster 80 series!).
- Transmission is starting to slip.
- ONE. LEAK. AFTER. ANOTHER.
-Parts that are getting harder and harder to find; not impossible to find, mind you, but you can't just walk into any parts store and get whatever you need IN STOCK like you can with an LS V8, because THERE ARE MILLIONS OF LS's ON THE ROAD.
-The magnet on the oil drain plug consistently has more metal fuzz on it than I like to see; something(s) is wearing out in there.
- Ancient, outdated emission controls and electronic parts waiting to fail.

Fuck all that shit. I'm nuking it from orbit and putting an engine from the 21st century in there.
Besides, you know that you've always wanted to do something like this!

 

How difficult is an LS swap into a 3rd gen F body? I'm guessing the heavy work (Dropping the engine itself into the car) is a straight up bolt in, but then the peripherals must be a nightmare. Wiring harness, cooling system, computer, and the million or so relays and sensors required to make everything work correctly....yikes.

 

Here's an idea for an internet business...

I want a Mystic Teal, manual, left side, side view mirror for a '96 Camaro. I'm sure there are plenty of nice examples in wrecking yards all over the country. I'd be willing to pay a premium for an OEM mirror that's already painted and I can't find one.

Why hasn't someone put together a data base of wrecking yards and their available parts? How awesome would it be if we had that information at our fingertips?

 

Call someone who owns a large junk yard and offer to tip them the cost of whatever they sell the part to you, if they can find one for you within a week. Let them do the work and give them financial incentive. Money talks.

 

http://car-part.com/

 

Thanks....I may have found one! WooHoo!

I wish they would put up more pictures, Chevy had a number of different greens that year and just putting "Green" in the description doesn't really help. Luckily a few of them said "Teal" so I'm pretty sure they'll be the right color.

 

Well Toytoy, the answer to your question is: DEPENDS!

I've been keeping abreast of the LS engine swap particulars for about the last five years, when I ditched the idea of swapping an LT1 (yes, the same as yours) into my Firebird. The parts for LS engines were just too plentiful, and the cost would be about the same.

Anyway, as far as bolting the engine into a thirdgen, that depends on which oil pan you plan to use; Holley makes a swap pan that's a perfect fit, but it's $400, so I'm doing the next best thing: using a factory 4th-gen F-body pan. The downside is that it gets REALLY close to the crossmember. Many guys have experienced rubbing between the frame and the engine, so most people cut a notch out of the frame and weld in a plate for reinforcement.
Engine mounts will need adapters; you can either run factory 3rd gen engine mounts with adapter plates on the engine block, or use 4th gen engine mounts with adapter perches on the frame. This is what I'll be doing, and I'm using this kit from UMI: http://umiperformance.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8_312&products_id=692

Practically every LS swap into a 3rd gen that I've seen doesn't have air conditioning, but mine will. For the factory a/c compressor to fit in a 3rd gen, once again, a notch must be cut into the front crossmember. Hawks Motorsports sells the insert that you weld in place for support purposes here: http://www.hawksmotorsports.com/82-92-ls1-conversion-stock-k-member-a-c-compressor-notch-plate-kit/
but I'm just going to make my own.

As far as wiring goes, I'm going to be following the instructions here: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/ltx-lsx/544768-ls1-harness-start-finish.html . My wiring harness is already stripped down as shown in that thread.
Wiring can get really complicated, or it could be a really simple, bare-bones setup, as seen here: http://www.lt1swap.com/2000harness.htm. I'm going to be integrating the 3rd gen wiring and the Tahoe/LS wiring, as well as tidying up some of the 3rd gen stuff: for example, I picked up a fuse box from an earlier 4th gen Firebird, and I'm going to get rid of the big, ugly relays on the firewall.
This way, the relays for the fuel pump and cooling fans will be tucked down near the radiator, in a factory looking covered box. I'll also be moving the (currently non-functional) headlamp control module down there as well. I'll be routing most of the LS engine circuits through that fuse box, and the factory fuse box (under the dash board) will still control the lights, wipers, etc.

The cooling system is pretty simple; you can get off-the-shelf hoses that will match the inlet/outlet locations for the engine swap with the factory radiator. They aren't going to be spec'ed for this application, but they are available (for example, I'll probably be using a Jeep Cherokee lower hose, and a flipped-around 4th gen upper hose.)

I'm going to be using all of the factory gauges for this; almost all LS-powered vehicles have computerized instrument clusters, but for one year only ('98) they still had conventional sending units. So I got those for my swap. The speedometer and tachometer may still prove to be a problem, but it's nothing I can't handle. I'll figure something out.

One last thing I wanted to mention was that this is going to be a drive-by-wire swap, so I'm going to have to make a bracket for the new gas pedal/ sensor. I didn't want DBW, but that's what fell into my lap, and ultimately, I think that will be an easier swap.

I want this thing to look like it came from the factory with a 4.8L LS V8, so I'm trying to use as many factory parts as possible.

There is also an issue with belt spacing: There are three different belt-spacing measurements on LS engines (in regards to how far away from the front of the engine the main drive belt is): 1) closest is the Corvette spacing. It's a rare setup, I'm not going to use it. 2) Next furthest away is the F-Body/ GTO setup. Also pretty rare (GM didn't make that many of those cars), and 3) Furthest away from the engine is the Truck/Van setup. Common as dirt, and cheap, too.
I have a complete truck setup (duh, I had a donor vehicle), but the alternator won't fit under the hood that way. I was originally trying to do a full F-body setup, but I found a way to modify the truck pulleys routing here https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/ltx-lsx/678779-86-iroc-ls-4-a.html . (My swap will look better than that, I guarantee you.)
If I can use the truck power steering pump and A/C compressor, that will make things SO MUCH easier for me, but I've heard reports that the truck A/C compressor won't clear the steering linkage in a 3rd gen. I'll have to see when I try putting the engine in the chassi.

That's all for now, let me know if y'all have any other questions.