My 73 Camaro

[MtotheIKEo]

Family, house, savings, etc... all come first, and being the single source of income for the family I kept spending on the car to a minimum. With nothing pressing to spend my bonus from 2017 on I was able to put some of it towards the car. I have wanted to put an LS in a 2nd gen forever and now I had the chance.

I picked up a 5.3L pullout, FiTech Ultimate LS system, Tanks Inc fuel injection tank, and got to work. This is very basic swap by now so I will spare the details, but please feel free to ask about anything if you want more info.

IMG_2448 by Mike F, on Flickr

Stripped down and cleaned up. Holley oil pan and FiTech intake.

IMG_2468 by Mike F, on Flickr

I kept the TH350 for now, T56 is the next big project.

IMG_2557 by Mike F, on Flickr

Cleaned up the firewall a bit, mostly just welded all the holes shut.

IMG_2475 by Mike F, on Flickr
IMG_2566 by Mike F, on Flickr

And then it was in. I bought Speed Engineering headers for $190 that fit pretty good between the frame rails. The passenger side O2 bung won't work as it would hit the floor, but the driver side fits good. They hang a little low but for the price I can deal with them.

IMG_2603 by Mike F, on Flickr
IMG_2777 by Mike F, on Flickr
IMG_2779 by Mike F, on Flickr
IMG_2785 by Mike F, on Flickr

Griffin dual pass radiator and C6 fan. I'll build a shroud for this later, and I'd like to get it PWM somehow. This has kept the car cool in the 105* heat without a problem. Runs right at 197* when moving, fan kicks on at 205* and it never goes any higher.
IMG_2781 by Mike F, on Flickr

Speed Engineering bracket for PS and Alt, I bought this hoping to use all of the truck accessories, then needed to switch to a LS1 water pump due to intake clearance.
IMG_2780 by Mike F, on Flickr
IMG_2776 by Mike F, on Flickr
IMG_2778 by Mike F, on Flickr
IMG_2775 by Mike F, on Flickr

[MtotheIKEo]

After working through some tuning issues and putting a couple hundred miles on it, I drove it back to my hometown for a local car show. Car ran great and, even with the th350, I calculated 18mpg round trip.

So the car will be like this for a couple years likely while I save for a T56.


IMG_2743 by Mike F, on Flickr

[ULTM8Z]

little bit at a time... I know it well. I'm into my 27th year getting my 71 where I want it...lol

your 73 looks great.

[WSSix]

Very nice, Mike! Enjoy the drive.

[rustomatic]

Very cool! When we force ourselves to think of these things from the perspective of the average person, as opposed to the car-obsessed motorheads that many of us are, the jobs we do are not so simple; this includes the "basic" LS swap. The LS is nothing but (awesome!) contrast to all the crap I used to deal with in the days of carbonators and points--they will never be missed.

As for the T56, I spent a couple hours yesterday obsessing over the concept of the Nissan CD009 transmission as an alternative. You can get one brand new for almost half what a T56 costs, and they are supposed to be pretty stout. The Sloppy Mechanics guy (Matt Happel) has put one in his latest LS project . . .

Thanks for trying to get this site back on track with the excellent DIY hotrod!

[dcracing]

Are you going to put a/c on any time soon?
Good looking car.

[MtotheIKEo]

Probably no for a while. I need to put tires, brakes, and I want to put a T56 in it before I worry about AC. Windows down cruising is fine with me here in the desert.

[glassman]

I almost never use 6th in my T56. I found it on CL and then had it rebuilt by a race shop, its good for 700hp or so.
But the fit is tight, i did'nt tunnel, but have a high speed vibration i haven't been able to find or fix, but that is for 90+.
On the track i've had it up to 126/128 ish, in 4th with 3:73's, 6500rpm, didn't have enough track for 5th. If i had it to do over, i'da looked more into a TKO500 or 600(can't remember the difference between the two.)
Or look into Hurst Driveline conversions (?), i would def go that route for the total package. After doing my whole t-56 conversion, the price was the same as their's but without the driveshaft!

anyways, just my 2 cents. Enjoyed watching your build...mike