hicksport

I finally have the cash to do my swap, I'm looking for advise and or comments on where to buy all the necessary parts. I'm buyin the rear suspension from umi, where is the best place to get the rest? I would like to do a one stop shop if possible, headers, fuel, motor mounts, ect. Harness is done, t-56 is being built right now.



Thanks in advance!!

oscarfromla

iTrader: (9)

I could provide my input but you need to provide more detail on what you are planning to do with the car, e.g. what motor

hicksport

1992 Camaro, ly6 with cam swap and retaining the vvt, acc worked out, still have the truck intake for now looking to see which hood will clear it. T56 for trans, already have an lt1 t56 in the car now so shoulkd be an easy swap over. Just need motor mounts and headers and fuel pump and what ever else you all can think up.

Thanks again.

Iroc'nthe87

iTrader: (5)

The best "one stop" place would probably be hawks. However, that is not going to be your 'cheapest' option.

Ace

iTrader: (2)

lt1 vs ls1 t56s have different front parts and don't mate up..

differences are

input shaft
bellhousing
front trans plate
clutch/slave/master

I ended up selling my lt1 trans and getting an ls1 version.

These swaps are killer for the amount of small parts needed.

techrunner

sounds like the a t56 is in there, and will be replaced. just meant that his crossmember for the trans is already done. check the stickies at the top of the forum out. its gonna be way cheaper to get stuff from all over though. look at spohn too for suspension stuff, i think i'm headed that way eventually. as far as the truck intake, you'd need a lot of cowl to clear it, just pick up a used ls6 intake (non egr, off a vette or a 01-02 f-body). how are the accessories worked out? the vvt will screw up the waterpump spacing if i recall correctly, you would still need to use car accessories, but use spacers to match the truck water pump and crank pulley

hicksport

Yes the tranny is an lt1 at the time but the ls tranny is at the builders right now. Just went ahead and did the swap so that I could get that part out of the way. Cant use a an ls6 intake cause the ly6 is a rectangle port headed motor.
I went to mast motorsports today to buy a cam and springs, pushrods and cam phase limiter, to do the cam swap.....
I left there with no parts and the feeling that I wasnt good enough to be in there facility or to use their parts since im not running thier ecm. Thats all I am going to say about that.
Will be calling texas speed in the morning to order all of my parts at a better price and a more complete package, thanks to Matt at texas speed.

Looking for an intake tho and im guessing ill need a water pump off of a 5th gen camaro?

White'89

iTrader: (8)

If you are ok spending extra money you can get everything from Hawks. But a few bucks here and there with as many parts as you need for this swap adds up.

Hawks 1 5/8" swap headers= $50 cheaper via their ebay store

And thats just one thing I've come to find

hicksport

Ok so the oil pan and pick up tube are here and the cam, springs, cam phase limiter and gaskets should be here monday!! My acc deal has fallin thru so looking to use 2010 camaro acc system has anyone used these?

hicksport

Ok it's been a while but here's a bit of an update. Went with the 2010 Camaro intake and fuel rails/injectors. Still working on the accessories using the truck stuff for now and I'm just one of those people that doesnt take "no it won't work" for an answer very well. Pics to follow; coments please. Texas Speed cam and springs and limiter installed. Tranny and clutch sitting in the gaage waiting to be installed. Let me know what y'all think about the accessory position and belt routing.

Thanks
Collier

hicksport

Just looking for so creative suggestions or even a "hey dumbass that **** aint gonna work" would be nice!! This is a great site with tons of info but with some what limited advice.

Thanks

coolmarocrzy

iTrader: (2)

Just based on your belt setup.. I know you won't take no for an answer.. but that green clamp on the main belt probably won't hold for long on first start up.. haha Seriously though, it looks good from here. Did I miss what you were using for a K-member setup? I don't think that a/c compressor will work with the stock k member.. I could be way wrong though.

I used those cheap motor adapter plates from ebay on my ls1. I'm not using a/c so I didn't need the sphon motor mounts. It allowed me to use my stock small block motor mounts, just changed over to poly bushings in the mounts.

I don't know what the other guys use for pumps.. Aeromotive? or maybe the stock ls1 pump with the ls1 tank and all. I know that can be done. I'm sure some people even do a fuel cell in the rear trunk compartment. I actually sumped my stock tank and used a bosch pump that is exterior mounted under the car.

Those hawks headers are way too expensive for our cars.. and thats all I got to say about that.

I'd like to see some pics of this car and your progress.. Thats kind of the fun part about having a thread about your build.. You get to show it off a little. So lets see it!!

hicksport

Update on my swap, still gathering parts but I'm at the end of the road!! All I need are headers?? What are your opinions on which header I should go with? LY6 with cam swap and keeping the vvt, should I use the 2 inch stuff that hawks has or some of their smaller units? What about brp? Thier stuff looks nice but fitment is unsure, an for the price I think I would rather have the stainless?? I am using the stock K member and will be notching it for the ac, Already installed Hawks tranny mount.

Thanks for any advice!!

1ADan

iTrader: (4)

really interesting route for the accessories - think you may be onto something for the budget guys. if it all fits under the hood, you could probably make a good chunk o change selling the adapters you made.

hicksport

Thanks I would be more than happy to make some more of these!! I just hope that I have enough pulley contact on the crank pulley? What about the header question? Ready to buy just not sure of which ones. We have a pretty good exhaust shop here for the y pipe .

hawksthirdgen

Hi,
Shoot me a PM with a phone # or call me in the office on Monday and I can go over some of the options with headers and exhuast for your swap so I can hopefully help you make the choice that works best for you.

Thanks,Bruce
www.hawksthirdgenparts.com

hicksport

Ok talked with bruce at Hawks and I'm gonna order their complete system. I know it seems high$$$ but I just got to thinking about the system that I had on my 4th gen SS and I had about the same amount of money tied up in it and loved it. FLP long tubes off road y and 4 inch mufflex cat back. But for the begining Im gonna run these shorties and do a dyno run to get an idea of power, then install the long tubes and the full system to show the gains. Here are pics of the engine with shorties ready to install.

hicksport

Okay made alot of progress in the last two days, here are some pics!! I can't believe how well balanced the motor is on the mounts, very easy to rock back and forth? What have you guys been doing with cruise control and vacuum line harness?

hicksport

Oops- out of order, but here's a finished k member pic.

hicksport

The swap is moving along quite well just triin to finish up wiring and get the y pipe finished for the shorties. One question, is it okay to plug and or cap off the heater hoses on the lsx water pump? Just want to get this running and on the dyno before I get the hvac all finished out.

BlueZee28

iTrader: (30)

Yea it won't hurt anything, you just won't get heat in the car till you run the hoses to the firewall. If you're gonna cap it off just run a hose from one outlet to the other.

dynodanmanda79

iTrader: (1)

Exactly what Bluezee said ^^^ You don't want to cap the water pump outlets off for the heater hoses, just use a single piece of hose and go from one outlet to the other

dynodanmanda79

iTrader: (1)

Like this:

hicksport

Thanks for the info!!

hicksport

Hey guys, just a few more questions. My swap uses the e-38 ecm and from what I can tell it has no tach output without using the "body control module" that I dont have....... My questions are what can I do about a tach signal and cruise control, I think I have found the vss output, but not sure. Any input is as always greatly appriciated.

hicksport

Little update got the shorty headers on and the y pipe installed, really close to fireing it up!!! My question is what about vacum lines? Im running the l99 intake so it has one port on each side of the throttle body and one big one in the rear which I would guess goes to the power brake booster, there is a small one in the back of the intake but its not open and or wasnt used from the factory can I just break and or cut the plastic off the end of it and use it for the hvac vacum line?

Thanks again!

hicksport

Okay got it to run today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hell yea i am so happy that it fired and ran, i cant wait to get it on the road now!!
Questions are: What thermostat are youll running? I borrowed a friends scanner so I could monitor all the vitals cause I dont hve all the gauges working yet, it was running hot so I killed it and checked water levels and the thermostat housing was cold but the temp readings were almost to 260 when I killed it!!?? I looped the heater hoses like everyone recomended. I let it cool down and tried it again, still started getting hot and the thermostat housing was still cold, after a few minutes passed by I sweezed the lower radiator hose and it was warm and the radiator fluid level moved when it was squeezed so I guess it finally opened.? Didnt have a chance to restart after that, found some wiring that I wanted to redo.
Here is a short cell phone vid of it running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tAQV92k2FQ

hicksport

Anyone got any ideas??

Pocket

iTrader: (24)

Air in the system

Pop the line off the steam tube near the TB under the intake and fire the engine. Let it run until a steady stream of coolant comes out then reconnect the line. Top the rad off and it's ready to go

hicksport

Thanks for the reply pocket!! I took the steam line off the radiator and put a vac pump on it and kept adding water to the radiator that I thought was full..... It held alomost a gallon more water than it already had and it was full when I started doing the suction, I was pretty amazed at how much it held. Thanks again!! Still looking for a good pinout of the E-38 pcm....

hicksport

A bit of an update, got the car running but it wouldnt idle with the cam I installed so called a local tuner to have him straighten things out. Well come to find out the original tune was done with efi live and all the tuners here use hp tuners, so no luck there. Took the car to the local dealer and had them reflash the pcm back to stock so that the local tuner could work with the program. The car is sitting in my driveway dead will not crank.....
So I bought hp tuners myself to learn tuning as this goes along. Still no luck, sent original pcm back to tuner with efi live to reflash and get the car back on the road. Now just waiting on fed ex to get the shipping done.
If anyone has knows of a good tuner or you yourself have done any standalone harness/computer work with hp tuners please reply to this post or shoot me a pm, I just need a little advice and have a few questions.

Thanks and good luck to everyone on their swaps!!

Demon355

iTrader: (1)

Pics of the engine bay now?

hicksport

Sorry for the delay on pics.

hicksport

A little update on my swap finally got it tuned and on the road, went to the track last weekend. 13.13 at 111mph on street tires and the tranny wouldnt let me go into fourth so Im pretty happy with it for now.
Dyno with the shorty headers and stockish exhaust 397.66hp 392.94tq.
Hopefully I'll get the long tubes and complete Hawks exhaust on soon and redyno, I'm hoping for another 30 hp at the wheels!!
Should be in body shop soon too, a kid backed into the front of the car last sat!!! At least he had insurance......

Here's YouTube link of dyno run :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X26fgxuqaU

Drvngstorm05

Hey just stumbled onto this thread and I can say i'm very happy to hear that you got it up and running! I recently acquired an L92 and am at the point of deciding whether or not to go through the trouble of keeping the VVT and running a newer management system, or just converting to a fixed cam and using gen III management for simplicities sake. I'd like to keep cruise control and have all properly functioning stock gauges on the '92 Z28 that i want to swap into.

That leads me to my questions, did you stick with the E38 pcm? have you figured out how to get all of your gauges to work properly? do you have cruise control? was there any issues using a manual trans with the VVT engine (i believe all cars that came stock with vvt had automatics so i don't know if that creates trouble with the pcm)?

I really love your build, and will definately be keeping track of it, be sure to update sometime so we can hear more about it!

hicksport

I did stay with the e-38 ecm and I have some mixed feelings about all of it. The e-38 will work with the 6 speed but it will not run the speedo and I dont think that the cruise will work either. With that said the e-38 needs the bcm (body control module) and the abs module to gove a vss signal for your speedo. Im still working kinks out of my set up. The vvt is very nice to have and keep the afm and or dod is another story. The lifters are weak so I would steer away from that but the vvt is in my op worth keeping. There is no tach output either from the factory but Ive read that pin 10 on x1 is a tach output and will work.? Hope this helps.

tylercamaro

iTrader: (1)

so you just used all the truck accesories, and notched the k member? what if you use the truck accesories and buy the k member swap, anyone know if thatll work?

hicksport

Yes I used the truck acc that I modified, the tubular k member will gine you alot more room to work with. Look at the pics you'll see what I changed.

hicksport

Another update: Got finished with installing Hawks Long tubes and the complete system that he sells. It gained 34 hp and 30 ftlbs of torque!!! It lost no power on the bottom and pulled better all the way through the rpm range. These heeders are the 2 inch primary version. Dont be scared of loosing bottom end power.

mille_3

iTrader: (3)

Did you ever get the speedo figured out?

hicksport

Yes, but the only way that I have found to make it work is with the dakota Digital converter. It was easy to set up and calibrate. The e-38 ecm isnt used without a BCM so it cannot read the signal that comes fromt he t56?

robguitargod1

iTrader: (4)

I'd love to hear more about your accessory setup and alt brackets, and whatever spacer you needed to put the idler/tensioner pulley on the driver side.

Here's my stock LS1 compared to yours just for the hell of it. AC was removed in this pic even though I'm committed to AC in my car.





Also, what water pump are you using? The top hose exits at an angle compared to the LS1 pump.

onefreakz

sweet build, what was done to the harness to make the ls1 work?

hicksport

Im using the LY6 truck water pump. Idk if you will be able to relocate your alt to the passenger side like I did. The LY6 has VVT which moves the front acc forward some. You can just set the alt on the water pump and put one bolt in it and then check for belt alignment.

The harness was just gutted and made into a stand alone harness, then I graphed it into my stock harness on my car. Nothing fancy.

TPI TERR

iTrader: (9)

any updates?

hicksport

No big updates, just been drivin it like I stole it!! Its a blast to drive and the look on the guys face that just bought his new mustang or camaro and is looking at the back of my car as I come around them. Its more drivable than what I thought it would be. Waiting on my rear to be built so I can take it to the track. Im hoping for low 11s.

Thanks for asking.

Flip 2

iTrader: (1)

Hey folks-
The "steady stream".... is this a trickle, or a healthy flow? So far I get a continuous flow, but not a lot to it.
That it? Or try again?
Thanks-

PS- thanks to Hicksport for having the subject in his thread.

hicksport

It wont be alot of volume, as long as its coolant and not air or steam you are good to go.

Flip 2

iTrader: (1)

Great, that's what's up. Thanks.

Pocket

iTrader: (24)

Yep, anything except bubbles