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LTX and LSXPutting LT1s, LS1s, and their variants into Third Gens is becoming more popular. This board is for those who are doing and have done the swaps so they can discuss all of their technical aspects including repairs, swap info, and performance upgrades.
This weeks project, plus some more cleaning/painting. Anyone want to come brave removing the old front springs? Hate dealing with them! I'll post up some more pics as I go.
Nick-
They are less of a pain to remove, and less dangerous, by far, if you undo the INNER side first.
You are taking every thing off, so it's no big deal.
Cheers-
Had mine out after the rain… but more snow and SALT on the roads now. Probably Spring, next time.
BTW, that "Wonder Bar" will not fit, if you have the factory dual electric fans.
Good luck.
Phil
Made some progress today. Got all the steering linkage out, front brakes, struts, spindles, springs and A-Arms. Taking the springs out is still one of the most nerve racking things I have ever done on a car. I ended up chaining them to the A-Arm just to make sure they didn't go flying (they tried BTW). Turns out even with the control arm unhooked you can't get them low enough to pull the spring so I had to pry it out, which was even more fun. But anyway, it's all off now. I'll yank the steering box and K-member tomorrow and start prepping for paint. You know how I LOVE to paint.
Nick-
They are less of a pain to remove, and less dangerous, by far, if you undo the INNER side first.
You are taking every thing off, so it's no big deal.
Cheers-
Had mine out after the rain… but more snow and SALT on the roads now. Probably Spring, next time.
BTW, that "Wonder Bar" will not fit, if you have the factory dual electric fans.
Good luck.
Phil
Fits fine on mine and I have the dual fans, isn't even remotely close (1.5-2 inch clearance). Normally I would take the inner side off first but the strut mounts were already out to paint the engine bay. No sense in adding weight to the projectile
Didn't get a whole lot done today, got sidetracked by other stuff. Old K-member is out and I cleaned up some of the parts I have to re-use. Sand blasted the old backing plates and will get them painted tomorrow.
Old K-member coming out
Old and new K-member together, should be good for some weight savings!
Front subframe pre-paint
Backing plates
Cruddy
The joy of rust removal
Ready to paint
Knocked out a bunch more the past couple days. Subframe is finished, most of the parts I am re-using are either painted or in the process of being painted. Laid out all the new parts to go on (I am missing a washer dammit!). Now I just wait for the subframe paint to harden and then I can start putting it together again.
Finished backing plates and 1 spindle
Last shots of the unfinished subframe
Finished and unfinished spindle
Huge a$$ front sway bar rust proofed and waiting for paint
Nick, have you seen the thread about BMR K member torque specs being off?
They say 125 or 150 foot pounds, when you want 75.
Also, you may want to also use spacers under the back tabs. Sometimes they are needed for a correct fit.
I can't find the thread on this, but someone chased this around a good deal in Spring of 2013. I used the extra spacers when I put mine together.
I did not know about the torque specs, but they come with spacers you have to use for coil over's. I haven't snugged it down yet so I'll see how the back bolts do when I tighten it up
edit: I just torqued it down, fits perfectly with no issues. I used the spacers on the front 4 bolts and nothing in the back per the instructions. Maybe the other car had frame damage?
I did not know about the torque specs, but they come with spacers you have to use for coil over's. I haven't snugged it down yet so I'll see how the back bolts do when I tighten it up
edit: I just torqued it down, fits perfectly with no issues. I used the spacers on the front 4 bolts and nothing in the back per the instructions. Maybe the other car had frame damage?
Great yours snugged right down. Guy I was talking about snapped a couple of bolts (at 135 or so foot pounds!). After 2 tries, he went with spacers and 75 foot pounds- then all was well.
Maybe there was damage, and maybe just production variance over the years. Mine needed spacers, too. It's 5 years older than your car.
The back two tabs, are the ones that needed the extra spacers
Mine might have been in a LF fender bender by the first owner. Years ago- i bought it in 12-86. Can't say for the other car, just that he had to do the same as I did to get BMR to fit.
Starting to come together. I've been sick so I haven't been doing much at a time but the steering box, steering, coil overs and spindles are all back on.
Very, very clean work. May be considering going this way with my GTA as well. Definitely going to follow the rest of your project. Keep up the excellent job!
Probably be awhile before I get much else done while I scrounge up more parts. I will be fitting the drivetrain in the coming weeks (and removing it again) but will likely be stagnant for awhile after that
Milestone reached, engine and transmission are in the car! And that is where they are gonna stay! MUCH bigger PITA then I thought, mostly because the K-member is so small and light it was impossible not to move it around putting the engine in. The original plan was to go from the top but the position of the motor mounts compared to an SBC made it too far away to reach with the hoist. Once the K-member was back in the right spot the rest was cake. BMR's stuff fit perfectly. But regardless, my original plan was to pull the engine out again after I did some fabbing but it is staying put now until the car is done (that much of a headache to put in). Once everything is done and the way I like it THEN I will pull the engine and rebuild it, since it is a perfectly good motor as it sits. Anyway, popped a few pics.
Hey guys, sorry I haven't been posting but not much going on. With all the turmoil out there right now Uncle Sam has been keeping pretty busy for quite some time. But I do have one tid bit to add for an update and will hopefully have around a week back in the USA to get some stuff done. I am trying to keep the car as stock looking as possible (with minor tweeks) and one of the things I really wanted was an Alcantara wheel to match my shift ****. Well the conundrum of the 88 GTA wheel is, since it is completely covered in leather everyone either flat out refused to attempt a recover or wanted $1200+ to ATTEMPT it, with no guarantees. So my solution was to switch over to an 87 GTA wheel (which I think is a better looking wheel anyway). I'm not going to use radio controls when it is done anyway so may as well go with the 3 spoke. The one thing that held me up was finding a horn button, which I eventually did here on TGO. So I got a much more reasonable quote of $350 on the wheel, which, I admit, is still steep but it was a feature I really wanted so I decided to eat the cost. So long story short, Got pics of the finished product, thought I would share
I actually found someone to recover my GTA radio control wheel in Alcantara and am awaiting it coming back now.
Awesome build, loving the attention to detail.
If I was planning on keeping radio controls, I might have tried harder. But I actually like the look of the simple 3 spoke better anyway. Thanks for the props, was hoping it would be long since done by now but life keeps getting in the way. No Biggie though, gives me time to do it the way I want it.
I just came upon this thread. This is very interesting. I started my rebuild of my car in December, it too is a 1988 GTA, same colors, similar options, except i had a digital dash to contend with and I also have the notchback option as well. (otherwise its the same car, well not entriely )
Anyway, you went from an SBC/T5 to and LQ4/T56 and I went from an SBC/700 R4 to an LM7/4L60E.
As far as rebuild goes, pretty much everything you did, I did aswell.
I found this very amusing how two cars with so many options in common, underwent the same type of treatment to the same extent.
(fuel tank, interior pieces removed, painting the engine bay and undercariage, oddly enough same accident damage, front suspension work and on and on)
Going to have about a week off coming up (finally), going to at least try and get everything done so I can at least put the interior back in. Maybe even get the hydroboost set up installed if I have the extra cash, so hopefully some up dates will be in order soon.
Put the 4th gen fuel tank in today, fit perfectly but there are a couple small problems that will have to be addressed at a later date. First the custom made adapter harness from racetronix was about 10 inches too short to reach from the fuel pump to the car side, so I will need to get an extension made for that. Other is the filler neck will need to be modified a bit. Other than that it popped right in. Also rust proofed the rear axle, still waiting on more paint to get here so I am stuck on that for now. So I guess I will while away my time cleaning some of the old parts and doing some more painting. Hopefully the paint shows by Thursday otherwise the axle is going back in and will need to be pulled again later on :/
Tank wired up with the too short adapter harness
Tank installed shots
Rear axle with the rust proof coating
What kind of rust protectant coating did you use for the rear axle? I am getting ready to do this on mine.
I may have missed it, but what is the benefit of using a 4th gen tank in a 3rd gen? can it be used w/ a carb setup?
I think one of the biggest deals is you can run the LS1 EVAP system with them. You need a 4th Gen fuel gauge, too.
I have the original 83 tank in mine. Using an external fuel pump.
I may have missed it, but what is the benefit of using a 4th gen tank in a 3rd gen? can it be used w/ a carb setup?
It's bigger (larger capacity), lighter, evap (as mentioned), stock pump will handle the higher psi needs of LS motors and has better control of sloshing fuel so that you don't starve the pump when cornering. Will need a 0-90 ohm resistor for the sender so the gauge works, if using with carb, would need a low pressure pump. I don't think I've heard of anyone doing it with a carb setup, but might be work looking into.
I have a LQ4 motor sitting in my GMC truck. 6.0L 190,000 miles. All original. Motor never touched. I still drive the truck daily. I have no doubt this motor will go another 100,000 miles. The truck is worthless, but I am saving the motor for something.
How did you deal with the drive by wire ?
I still haven't decided what I'm sticking the motor into. But it's going somewhere.
I use a C5 Corvette drive by wire. The pedal had to be trimmed, and it still took some creative placement to get it to fit in my '83's footwell.
Works great but it took some doing. Truck pedal could be bigger/harder to deal with.
12-26-2013, 04:05 PM
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