I was able to clear the brake booster in a 70 Camaro with The Edlebrock Covers so you shouldn't have a problem.

Motor is pulled
 

Last weekend we pulled the motor.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps4bd86107.jpg
Thanks to Craigslist I sold off the motor and Chevy Rally wheels, nice to get that stuff out of the garage quickly.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps96004beb.jpg
Some of you might say priming the motor before turning the key isn't necessary, but I'm of the belief it can't hurt and doesn't really cost that much to accomplish. I bought a small bucket and drilled it for fittings both bottom and top. Bottom was the oil feed and top line was compressed air, used air pressure to punch oil in through the oil pressure fitting.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps3ee0695e.jpg
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps21d7f1a3.jpg
Installed the Lokar gas pedal, bought the floor mount version. That's gonna work out sweet, action shot my wife snapped because she thought it was funny looking with me sitting in the engine compartment.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps9057a006.jpg
Installed the fuel tank today with plumbing to corvette regulator.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps015dd5c5.jpg
Will finish up the plumbing this week, taking Thursday and Friday off for the install. Good buddy is coming in from Houston to help, going to be a fun time for sure.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps1e759a1b.jpg

Neat way to prime the motor :thumbsup: Good luck finishing the install

Time for an update
 

After some solid attempts to get the motor to sit low enough, I knew it was time to notch the cross member. The LS oil pan is much wider than the small flat area gm designed into the very bottom of this crossmember. I'm running the MAST oil pan, even if I chose the autograft pan I believe it still would have required the same cut.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...pse7b72947.jpg
Initial cuts are across the frame parallel to the base of the motor mount then proceeded down the edge towards the flat base of the crossmember. Score/cut two small relief triangles front and back and bent those inward prior to hammering the area flat to widen the flat base area.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps752990cd.jpg
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps7f498546.jpg
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...psbea2ab1c.jpg
Little fresh black paint and she is good as new.

A few parts
 

Had the drive shaft altered, installed an upgraded bearing assembly and had the rear portion of the drive shaft converted to a slip yoke. The bearing is cased in polyurethane so it's less forgiving for suspension travel but able to handle the horsepower. The slip yoke in essence reduces the stresses on the bearing.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...psb07f24eb.jpg
Bought the radiator and wiring harness from Entropy, nice piece for sure and very comparable to the Ron Davis radiator in the Camaro. Has the transmission
cooler built into it .
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...psc2cb92d4.jpg
Also want to give a shout-out for John Leonard over at Modern Vintage Systems for the wiring harness and flash tune. Very helpful guy, always takes my questions.

It's alive
 

What a week, lots done and so many high points. Sounds mean with open headers and the asa cam. Made a video on the iPad of the start up but for some reason it's not uploading to photobucket. Any ideas on what it takes to get that loaded let me know.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps1ed39c86.jpg
Got the intake dabbed up, probably will paint it all black with dei sound deadener, like the Kringle finish on that stuff. The engine bay will get some major attention to detail, I just started throwing wires and hose on so it could be started. The only thing that kept me from taking a quick spin was the computer was still sitting in the front of the engine compartment loosely on a beach towel.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps1981d951.jpg
Bought some PVC to help me route the first part of the exhaust. X-frame low riders can be a little tricky to get from inside the frame rail to the outside of the frame, but this really kept the waste to zero by playing with PVC first.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...psfd11371b.jpg
Still have lots to do, but now that it's running I will work at a much slower pace and enjoy the journey.

By the way, LSXRT's will not fit, that was my screw up. Need to put that on ebay, had to fed ex the Lsxr into the house for Saturday delivery. Whoops!!

Nice upgrades!!

Looking really good and I like the very clever PVC pipe idea! :idea:

Video of start up and update
 

http://youtu.be/lRGTlZJrtUY

This was the initial start-up, follow along for the rest of the story. Will add new video later next week of the new tune.

The initial tune was "way -off". It had trouble idling, and if I put it into gear the motor died instantly. I was getting worried I had a torque converter lock-up issue it died so suddenly in gear. Found someone in St. Louis that opened up the tune and made major adjustments. Came home today and figured within 15 minutes I could throw the computer back in and try to fire it up. Heading out of town with the family, figured I would be either depressed or elated based on the results. :headspin:

The tune was my issue, the motor now has no trouble idling, sounds very crisp on the throttle, and doesn't stall when put into gear. Time to move on to the exhaust next week and finish wiring up the dual fans.

Plan on going back to the tuner for a full Dino session sometime later in December.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Jon,

From the youtube link, put the characters in between the = signs, in this case

lRGTlZJrtUY&feature

in between the bracketed text (it will show 'youtube' inside both brackets) that show up when you click on this icon https://lateral-g.net/forums/images/moviereelix6.gif that you'll see when you open up a new post. :thumbsup:

I just saw this 'illustrated' how-to that should simplify what I wrote.

https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=14032

Thanks Skip
 

I will try that.

http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps9057a006.jpg

Look at the head on that one. LoL. Car is coming along nicely. Wish you could have made it out to SEMA with us again.

Very Nice guys, I love this project.

Update time
 

Well, life has keep me busy. Work, holidays, dam cold, etc, been tough to find time for the project.

For those of you that have performed an LS swap, you'll understand the feeling. Today I drove the car for the first time, took it up to get some gas and cruised around for short time. Pretty much running open headers right now, but before I finish the exhaust I wanted to be sure I had no major issues. :drive:
Here's a pic of the limited exhaust run I have right now, just enough to get the mid length headers to be routed outside the x frame and turned towards the rear.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps960ed598.jpg
My preference on the first drive is to always keep the hood off. No better way to keep an eye on what's going on.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps09752a7c.jpg

Overall what a fun afternoon. I will enjoy the balance of the exhaust fabrication, need to start thinking about a new rear end. The unit in the car is an original single drive with 3.08 gears. I'm thinking a moser with 3.55 gears to go along with ASA cam and 4L70e transmission gears.
I'm open to some input here guys, this is mainly a cruiser. The adrenaline rush will come from the Camaro.

Nice project and great car! Taking the daughters is the best part of sure!

Thanks Greg
 

I always enjoy your builds and commentary.

Congrats on your progress Jon. :thumbsup:

Looking good sir. :thumbsup: I bet it's a hoot to drive now with the LS, huh?

A lot of time, a little progress
 

These x-frames are a challenge when it comes to hanging exhaust. I can't imagine what a shop would charge for a custom exhaust on a frame such as this, lots of angles to deal with. I'm running the mufflers parallel to the frame in the center of the car along with running a flex pipe to absorb some of the twist. Also welded in a v-clamp and made a custom hanger on the engine side of the muffler, want to be able to completely unbolt the system with relative ease, while still maintaining rigidity in the system.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...psd2b0606d.jpg
I'm very satisfied with the first section of the passenger side, hopefully the time it takes for the drivers side will be about half.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...psbdca8657.jpg
Chose to exit the frame between the wheel well and where the frame drops down to floor board level, want to keep everything tucked up as close as possible. Left 1" between the top of the muffler and the floor pan, with the muffler this close to the engine it will have some heat in it which I don't want transferred to my feet. :idea:
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps6932ce75.jpg
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps63693f82.jpg
This is my work bench/welding table along with the saw I bought, really like the compact size and quick cutting capability of this Femi saw.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...psdbdc5268.jpg
.

Looking good Jon.

What are you doing for exhaust in the rear? There's really no room back there to go over the axle, beside factory style which kills tire clearance.

You know your cars.
 

I'm open to suggestions, but realistically I was thinking of dumping in front of rear tires but with rectangle tips. What's your thought of going under the axle?

I think I would go with dumping in front of the rear tires.

I agree
 

After looking at it again, airbags and rear sway bar make it impossible to get anything over the axle.
Thanks Mark, and Happy New Year

I am about to post up a build thread on that 61 we did. I had to kick it out before the back tire.

Where did you get that saw?

Saw comes from Tricktools.com
 

:G-Dub:

What do you guys think
 

Brand new rear end from Moser Engineering, bought it un-assembled via miscommunication I guess, but in the end it did save me around $350. Anyway I opened the case containing the third member and now I'm getting a little aggravated. Is it possible that moisture in the assembly lube can cause this much rust. I'm thinking they should take this one back and send me a new one, price paid doesn't warrant a rusty part.
I'd like your thoughts, am I being ridiculous?

I'd like to add the ups driver brought everything into my garage the day it arrived, I made sure my wife was home for the delivery. I'm thinking somehow this thing got fairly wet before during shipment, not my problem. You agree?
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps75b36a0d.jpg
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...psa16ae98b.jpg
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps2884eef5.jpg
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps54f95aef.jpg

Well.... it is RAW cast iron (or Nodular Iron).... and that little bit of rust won't hurt anything... And you're most likely going to paint it??


I don't know... what I'd do - but I'd probably just clean it up and roll with it.

I had one come in like that. from condensation. As long as the bearings and seal surfaces are ok you should be good but I would call your sales person and see if it left the warehouse like that. They may exchange it. Why pay X amount to just have to pull rust remover treatment.

Update is long time coming
 

I've been working on the car here and there, but must admit family time has crept in and the weather has really sucked. All good stuff, this is my winter project.

I went ahead and kept the Moser rear end, that slight surface rust cleaned right up so I painted everything and installed it. Bolted in with no issues, they must have a good fixture for the positioning of the brackets they weld on. No complaints at all.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps8cd6cccf.jpg
This cart I made for the LS as I assembled it worked out nice for getting the rear end underneath the car with minimal effort.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...psc07e8650.jpg
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps61abfe9d.jpg
I had to move the engine forward from the installation position I started out with. Originally I tucked it too close to the firewall which in turn did not give me enough room in the tunnel to raise the rear of the transmission high enough to net the optimum driveline angle. Had a slight vibration that would have driven me nuts on the Power Tour. Luckily I had originally purchased the Dirty Dingo mounts which that have three mounting positions, so after disconnecting the exhaust and the motor mounts I slid the motor forward to the next position on the adapter plates. This game me enough room to raise the tranny up 1/2" and netted me 4 degrees at the first u-joint. I also had sliced off 3/8 of an inch from the base of the carrier bearing, this helped bring the driveshaft angle down as well at the first u-joint.

So today I redid the initial connections of the exhaust, fixed a couple issues I wasn't pleased with from the first attempt. Looks much better now and gives me room to redo the fuel line and keep it away from the exhaust. You'll notice in the pictures I ran a flexible line from front to back, this is only temporary as I recently bought some hard line from Mark at Bent Fab.
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...psbf25187b.jpg
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...psea85f217.jpg
http://i590.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps49196a2d.jpg

Later this week I'll finish up the drivers side connection and then proceed to finish out the tail pipes.

Love the flat top 61's, just so unique.

What are you doing for instruments?

What engine mounts did you use?

Killer project man.

Thanks
 

Not sure on the gauges yet, currently running auto meter for keeping tabs on oil pressure and water temp.

Might have the speedometer converted to electronic.

I used the Dirty Dingo motor plates, the ones with 3 mounting positions and then used Energy Suspension motor mounts, OE style buy out of urethane.

How does it sound with the Magnaflow's......??????????

Very happy with the mangaflow mufflers
 

This is my second set, the first ones were chambered and bad drone. These are much better, both ends offset.

A piece of unsolicited advice. Clean and re-weld the factory lower control arm mounts where they attach to the frame. You might even consider bracing the lower arm mounts.

Because of the three link design, a hard shift causes the rear to want to pivot on the upper link, putting added stress on the lowers. How do I know this? Because when I was younger, a nice second gear ripped the right lower control arm mount right off the frame, with near disastrous effects. To this day, I cannot tell you how I kept the car from flipping, as it kept trying to bounce completely sideways each time the now liberated control arm dug into the pavement. I crossed two lanes to my right, then back again and into the turn lane before I got the damned thing stopped.

This occurred on car on which my father had performed a frame off restoration, including cleaning and painting the frame. After my little bucking bronco of a ride, we opened a section of the rear floor board (under the rear seat if I recall correctly) to reattach the mount. There were no signs of rust, and neither the frame itself, nor the mount had torn. The then 30 year old weld had simply failed given the shock of a good second gear shift (admittedly, I was running a bored and stroked 409 (482 cubes) and a muncie 4 speed), but add the additional twisting forces of urethane bushings (which it looks to me like you are running), and those lower mounts might not be long for this world.

I added a second upper link when I repaired mine, but you really can't do that with urethane bushings. It still might be something to think about.

Please don't take this as a dig on your build, I am very much enjoying it, but I nearly lost my car that night to a simple, have a little fun hard throttle second gear. I'd just hate to see lose their car over something so easy to prevent.

Thank you for the advise, I truly appreciate you taking the time to post your experience.

I will put that on my list of things to do. :thumbsup:

Me too. Don't need that happening.