Just want to start my own build thread so here it is. this is a project that started over a year ago and im hopping to have finished by next year. I bought the car in 2004 and it started out life as a 3.4 auto. in june of last year i put in a 5.7 lt1.







the new v8

 

An LT1 swap! Nice!

 

Nice work

 

Then after i got the new motor in i realized i had very low oil pressure.

 

Right now the car is at the paint shop. Im hopping to have it back Monday or Tuesday that's what they told me.

Appearance wise im going to install hockey stripes and and black lettering for the camaro on the back and i want to get a nice set of black rims with a chrome lip. I want to do a few appearance mods in the engine compartment but i just dont know what yet .

Performance wise the car has CC502 cam, magnum 1.6 roller rockers, CAI, magnaflow cat back, aluminum drive shaft, 3.42 gears, and a mad z28 tune. I plan on doing a trq converter and mid length headers still.

And i still have to go thought the suspension do control arms, panhard bar, subframe connectors and few other things.

And no i wont be installing any z28 badges. its not a z28 so its not getting them plus it makes it look like a v6 with exhaust LOL.

 

Very Nice!! keep up the good work

 

If you guys want to see something really interesting look at how much lower the v8 sits in the kmember. You can barely fit your hand between the motor and the cowl on the v6 and on the v8 its no problem at all.

i wonder why they sat the v6 so much higher.

 

Nice swap! and a nice looking car!

 

Just out of curiosity, how hard was it to do that swap?

 

Honestly i thought it was fairly easy. I think the hardest part was running the body wiring harness and front strutts and springs. the old strutts were so shot they didn't want to come apart.. I have a very crude write up in the v6 section on how to do the swap and whats needed.

I think the biggest thing to deter people is the cost. i pieced my set up together and took my time and it still cost me . you could probably get a Donner car and do it cheaper but there are no promises. i think k-member was 75, 150 for the rear axle with brakes and every thing, 1450 for the engine,tranny, accessories wiring harness, pcm and every thing you see on the pallet, 350 for magnaflow catback, and 100 for the aluminum drive shaft, paid like75- 100 bucks for the springs, trq arm, fuel lines and a few other minor parts, and 100 for the engine bay wiring harness. I think all in all it cost around 3500-4000 to do that doesn't deduct what i sold all the old part for which was about 500-700 on because i just wanted them gone. on the flip side i replaced a lot of stuff that had nothing to do with the swap. like you don't need struts and shock i just did them, i didn't need new brakes and rotors i just did them and i bough high end ceramics. I also have a new fuel pump which is needed but it was also easy to do while i had the axle out. i broke some stuff by accident to.

i probably could have sold my car for 1.5-2k and got a z28- for 4500-5g. but Would i do it again? absolutely i though it was a lot of fun and i know what i have. i have 4g in the swap, 2500 in the rebuild and another 2500 in to the paint job thats getting done. And honestly im glad i spend every penny of it. it sucks i got stuck with a crappy motor and the junk yard in bristol pa wouldn't stand behind it though even though they claim to test them and warranty them.

if i had one regret out of my whole project it was i didn't paint the engine block when i rebuilt it LOL. oh well next time it comes out ill do it.