Just thought I'd share with anyone interested how my project is coming along. This car started life asa 1984 V6 Berlinetta Coupe, automatic. Since I got my hands on it, I have converted it to a manual transmission, replaced the factory digital dash with my own custom fabricated setup. I've been slowly building a 383 in the garage, taking my time, painting the engine and little detail items. I pulled the V6 out yesterday, used Easy-Off oven cleaner and the pressure washer to degrease the engine bay. Seperated all of the wires that actually goto the engine vitals from all of the ECM crap under the hood, plan to seperate the crap permanently after I consult the service manual and verify that I can do so without affecting things. TodayI spent the majority of the day cleaning the engine compartment some more, installing new motor mounts, and repairing the battery tray. Here are a few pics of the project for now, I'll post more later as I update my progress.

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Here are a few more pics.

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And a few more...

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looks like its gonna be a beast, 383's are awesome! i plan on swapping one into my car someday. keep us posted.

 

I'm wondering how you made the dash and what did you do with the digital one?

 

I took the digital guage cluster out, disassembled it, utilized the shell to fab up a cardboard template, and then transferred that to 1/8" aluminum sheet. I made cardboard circles of the actual guage diameters, used these to set up the autometer guages configuration. I discarded all of the digital instrumentation pieces. I pinned out the factory wiring harness and cut out the wires that I needed, mated them to a different plug connector, and installed the female end of the plug on the new guage console. Here are a couple of pics of the panel.

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*******....thats awesome...

 

Nice gauge cluster my old man found some plastic that was thick enough and that had the same grain pattern as the dash that we used for my cluster, then we used a pillar pod for the volt and vacuum gages it turned out pretty nice. I also like the way the motor is turning out. Keep us up dated

 

Well, I got the motor installed this past weekend, after I gutted all of those ECM wires that I no longer needed. The engine bay looks so much cleaner without all that spaghetti. The Tremec went in okay, had to modify the crossmember a little. The torque arm is going to require a custom bracket, however. I think I'm going to fab one up out of 3/16" steel, or 1/4" aluminum. I have to resolve an issue with the power steering pump as well. The pulley for the pump lines up in the same groove as the water pump and alternator. The pump has a single groove pulley currently, so I'm going to try and find a double or triple groove pulley that will solve that problem. I have also got to modify the radiator/fan shroud cover to secure the aftermarket aluminum radiator in place. I'll try and get some pics in the next day or so. I have to go out of town for a couple of days.

Scott

 

absolutely beautiful engine. What plug wires are you using? I Need some for my motor that work with headers.