69 Camaro Conv. - LS3 Transplant

[Jon69RagTop]

First of all, "Thanks" to Greg for the suggestion on rectifying the oil leak. I did not go the route of replacing the bolts with studs, but did take your advice regarding removal the two rear bolts near the area of seapage, one at a time. Cleaned thoroughly with q-tips and smeared ARP thread sealer on each bolts and torqed back down to specs. Acutally a little thread sealer proceeded to ooze our exactly where the oil was weaping, no more oil leak.

Another item which was really bugging me was the radiator core support and the visual "stamping wrinkles" present from day one, along with a couple stamped factory holes in the top of the core. I definitly should have taken care of this earlier, but no time better than the present to get'er right.



Welded a couple washers in the holes and filled the rest with weld. Ground down the balance and used a skim coat of filler to smooth out the balance of wrinkles. Resprayed the core support, taped off the motor side portion and shot the front side by removing the grill. Turned out really nice and very satisfied now with the appearance.


The past weekend I tackled the exhaust. I reused the Dr. Gas X-pipe from previous exhaust, but had to modify the front 45 degree bend on one side to to match the spread of current headers. Did I mention laying on your back under a car re-doing exhaust kinda sucks. I really pleased though how the modifications worked out. If it wasn't for the opprotunity to play with more tools, I'd probably have jobbed this out.

After the transmission area and outlet of the x-pipe, I wanted to get the exhaust piping closer to the floor boards, so I ordered a "u-bend" and messed around with the some paper templates. First I traced the bend on some poster board and used them for practice to determine exaclty where I should cut. Keep in mind guys I've never even welded prior to this project, so I might be proud here of some pretty trivial stuff compared to what you all can fabricate.




After having every joint "tacked" for routing purposes, I proceeded to remove the entire exhaust system. The planned "ball and socket" joints right before the mufflers made this easy an easy removal, took less than 10 minutes.
Placed pipes on work table and finished all the welding, added O-2 bungs and painted with VHT "Flat Aluminum" for protection from rust. I'm very happy with the end result.




I'm probably going to attempt to reuse the tail pipes which I cut from the old system, but if this is too big of a pain in the ***, I'll probably drive it like this it's under power and head over to an exhaust shop. Who know, one weeke removed from this past weekend and I'll probably be motivated to finish it myself, back under the car we go.

Here's the engine bay after a little more work.

[GregWeld]

Good job Jon! I knew you could do it!!

Keep on keeping on... a little here - a little there... next thing you know - you'll be motoring!

[70rs]

The project is looking GREAT! I like what you did with the core support too.

[Jon69RagTop]

Not sure how many of you have thought about or used the Spectra Tanks, but I ordered mine through Rock Auto. Anyway, as you can see by the photos, they indexed the fuel feed line and return line pointing at a 45 degree angle towards the rear of the car, that’s issue number one. Issue number two was plumbing, and since I’ve read so much about today’s fuels and how they break down rubber lines, I knew I should be using PTFE spec lines which have an inner Teflon core. This obviously necessitates the use of AN fittings now, and I’ve never worked with making my own lines before. This stuff from www.pegasautoracing.com is top notch. Very easy to work with in comparison to my first attempt, “Push Lok” from Summit. I could never recommend that product again, and Summit must have loved that return.

I bought 3 Swagelok fittings, two of SS-600-6-6An for the 3/8” feed lines, and one SS-500-6-6An for the 5/16’s return line at the tank. These are not cheap, but neither are gas leaks above hot exhaust. I did not want to get cheap on this part of the project, and ease of installation was very easy. Quick note if you ever try and source the SS-500 on-line, it won’t come up as a valid part number. Find a Swagelok dealer and call them, because they can get it. Plan for 5 days lead time.

My feed line from the engine bay was ordered through Tube Tech, and he offered to take care of the pluming needs for the rear of the car, Corvette filter and everything. Just didn’t believe after all I’ve read that Braided Stainless Lines consisting of hose not made of PTFE material would be a good long term solution. I’m quiet please with the results and chosen path for routing along inner rear frame rail.



The engine bay, air conditioning, radiator hoses, wiring, etc., all done. I completely rewired the charging system as well, and I can say with strong conviction this should be a very reliable system. Mark from MADD Electrical, www.madelectrical.com California is a great guy whom I’ve used in the past. We elected at this point in time to rewire the headlights too with relays, reduces the stress to the wiring and eliminates sending voltage all the way from the fuse panel. I’m excited to see the results of this.


The ECM which came with this harness and engine (Regal Performance) is an odd looking duck, and there is no real quick way to mount this *******. I fabricated a bracket as seen below and mounted it upside down above the glove box. See pictures. This will require me to make a new inner glove box of course, but to me it seemed the best location. Harness had plenty length for routing to the passenger side of interior as well.



Need to finish up the balance of wiring in the interior compartment, dash/gauges etc. I’m getting very close to driving this puppy, hope to fire it up by the end of March. Keep your fingers crossed!!!

[KPC67]

coming along nicely

[XcYZ]

Awesome, I hope you fire it up soon, Jon!

[waynieZ]

Nice work. It looks great nice and neat. Don't forget the video of the start up.

[GregWeld]

Looks good! You made the right decision not using any rubber hose... I wish someone would have told me that - the first time around... would have saved me a little effort but, oh well...

[Jon69RagTop]

Yes, I will video the start-up.

And Greg, I beleive it was one of your posts about fuel lines which gave me the direction.

As always, great web site for sharing project info.

[waynieZ]

Your contributing with your update too.. Nice job on the bends on your exhaust.