1987 Corvette Z52

[Basement Paul]

The "crossmember" that I was talking about is just two front frame support brackets that are plenty beefy, and clearly in the way of my pan, so I went to work with a grinder and a whizzer wheel. After a short while of that we test fit the motor and was able to easily get both mounts in place and it cleared the supports, but I didn't like how close they were at the V up front where I left a little of the supports, so when we pulled the motor back out, I hacked those little leftover ears off too so we should be good to go.

This week I need to get an oil pan on order. Something more conducive to performance driving and hopefully get that installed next weekend. Once the motor is set in there, then we can get to work getting all the little details bolted up to the engine as it sits in the engine bay to see what will work and what will need to be modified.
The torque converter will be here this week, and the trans should be showing up next week sometime if what they told me is correct.

More to come.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

So apparently it's been awhile since I've posted. The new Circle D torque converter, flexplate, and adapter parts are here along with the RPM rebuilt 4L60E Corvette transmission. I also decided to buy a new road race oil pan assembly from Canton. It was expensive, but with the price I will be able to get for the stock Corvette parts on ebay, it will offset this considerably, so I went for it.
The transmission is mounted to the torque arm but is still strapped to the trans jack in case I need to move it back out of the way when I go to put the motor back in. I also got the oil pan and pickup installed on the engine. Next is getting the harmonic balancer off, but it has a 200+ ft lb bolt in it so I'll need a serious impact to get it loose, or get the flexplate on so I can hold the crank from turning. I have a newish one I'm going to put on there because the rubber is all dried out on the original one.
Then I'll have to figure out what to do with all the original wiring coming out of the firewall that went specifically to the old engine...

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Also, if you look at the picture with the dipstick poking out by the oil pickup in the last post, that's the original dipstick. I bought an aftermarket one, but am leaning towards just using the stock one, but need to contact Canton about this to verify it will be right, or if the new level should be lower.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Over the last couple weeks I got the oil pan buttoned up. The newish harmonic balancer is installed. GM helped me yesterday to keep the engine from tipping over when 240 lb ft was applied.

I really have to work on figuring out what to do with all the extra engine electrical wiring that's basically in the way and unusable. Not sure that just cutting and protecting the wires is the right thing to do, but it appears that they all go inside the car and do not just plug into the firewall as I had hoped. I just want them out of the way as there is minimal space behind the block and the LS1 harness is going to need a place to go.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Last Saturday we put the flexplate on and set the torque converter in the trans. We attempted to install the motor with the trans in place, but that's just not real in this setup, so next time we'll pull the trans back a few inches and try again. I scored a set of shorty BBK headers this week off FB Marketplace that are in nice used shape. They'll flow better, which is an added bonus, but I really bought them because they are a lot lighter than the stock cast manifolds. Win-win.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Yesterday got the trans back off the torque arm and out of the way. The motor got installed again, hopefully for the last time. We swapped the O2 sensors from the stock exhaust manifolds onto the headers too. We got to the point where we were able to get the driver's side header bolted loosely onto the heads in the car too. The passenger's side will be attempted next week. Hopefully it goes up there without issue from under the car like the driver's one did. I need to order gaskets for these so I have them for next week. Luckily the stock bolts worked perfectly on the headers, so I didn't need to search for new hardware.
Then onto the hundred other smaller things that need to be done...

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Saturday got the transmission installed onto the back of the engine and bolted back into place in the torque arm. The speed sensor on the back of the new trans appeared to be leaking so the rebuilder sent me out a new one. Seemingly it is just one bolt that holds it into place, but I basically destroyed it completely trying to remove it. The plastic is SOOO cheap. I ended up with vise grips hooked to one of the wire leads to be able to get it to pop out. The new one was also pretty hard to push in. It's just an oring seal around the outside that's very tight. That took way longer than it should have, but it's done.

Next time I think we'll get the torque converter bolted up, tighten the engine mounts, and get the headers in place hopefully.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

This past Saturday the first thing we went to do was attach the torque converter to the flexplate. With the supplied M10 bolts all seemed to take thread by hand without issue. The spacing on the converter was good so no spacers were required. Once I got to tightening them with a wrench, things took a turn, as they say... SOMEHOW, the M10 bolt started to spin like the threads were pulled out on the converter. Keep in mind at this point I haven't put more than one foot pound of torque on them. I could actually see the base of the bolt spinning inside the converter nut. WTF? So I pulled the bolt back out and it is clear these bolts are too small for the threads on the converter as just barely the outside of the threads had shiny marks on them.
Monday morning I called Circle D Converters to verify that M10 is the correct size for the converter. He said it was, which is a shame because now I have to pull the converter back out to figure out what is really happening. The converter I got is based on a GM core, and I'm guessing at some point someone opened up these holes and nobody at Circle D checked them. They offered to make a new one right away, but I told them to wait until I get it out and inspect it. If it's as simple as putting bigger bolts in, no sense in making a new one. So back to the transmission jack we go. UGH.

We were able to get the passenger's side header installed. Unlike the driver's side, where it came up from the bottom during installation, the passenger's side went in from the top. The dipstick had to come out and so did the first coil. It will have to come back out though, as it is just hitting the frame on the 2nd tube and will need a little fine tuning before I can tighten it up to the block. The good news is that the factory dipstick should work with the headers. The bad news is that the fuel lines are right up against the header...

One step forward, two steps back.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

The driver's header is installed. I found a shorter bolt in my old car bolt collection that worked. It just needs the EGR block off installed and it's done. The passenger's side I did have to beat on the tube quite a bit and also grind on the frame support of the car as well as the collector flange too. I'm not 100% sure it's ready to go as the motor is still not in it's exact mounted location...
We pulled the trans out on Saturday after I looked with a mirror to see that the suspect hole had no threads in it.... So out it came. With the converter on the floor, it was easy to see the lack of threads, as well as some weird sleeve pressed into this hole specifically. In the other two holes were just one section of helicoil (about five threads) which was a little concerning. I talked to Circle D this morning and Brady the Mgr was ready to get me another one shipped out right away. I was looking on their website this weekend and decided to try to upgrade to one of their converters that is new, and not reman, and thus more HD and also brand new and more expensive. He quickly said he would get one of those built and ship it out at no extra cost to me. OK, so that was pretty cool of him. At no point was I anything but nice to him, so maybe that helped... And this is not my first Circle D converter. So hooray for good customer service.

This will set us back a little bit, but there are some other things we can tackle in the meantime.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

I got a notice yesterday that my new converter has been shipped and I should have it by Tuesday. That's quicker than I figured.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Last weekend we got to putting on the front accessory brackets, at least enough to make sure they would fit without modifications to the surrounding areas. I will have to find another hose to go from the pressure side of the power steering pump to the rack as the steel tube from the C4 is way wrong for this application. Maybe a C5 one will work? Not sure yet. We buttoned up a couple EGR holes in the headers too.
The new torque converter showed up this week. I guess I should have just ordered the better one initially, but I guess I just didn't realize how crappy the reman unit would be. It's such a difference in quality for not a lot more money. In this case, it didn't cost me anything but my time and aggravation.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

So speaking of aggravation, LAST Saturday I made an attempt to install the fancy new torque converter. I never made it past the converter on the transmission stage of the program. I spent an hour and a half screwing around trying to get the converter to set fully on the trans but no matter what I did, it just wouldn't fit. I took the converter home and called Circle D on Monday morning. After calming down over the weekend and before I called them Monday I came to the realization that the fancy replacement converter was actually the WRONG ONE and was not made for the "LT" transmission in the Corvette, it was their "LS" version, most likely for a Camaro type scenario. Luckily for me the input shaft on the trans of my Vette is too large and would not let me seat the converter at all so as to not mess up my transmission later.
After talking to Brady the Manager at Circle D, he confirmed I was correct and he sent me the wrong one. Great. He did apologize many times and I told him to please have me the correct one before Friday so I could work on it again on Saturday. I had it by Thursday.

This one fit much better as it was sitting correctly on the converter within two minutes of me going under the car. The rest of the transmission alignment and attachment to the block and torque arm took way longer than the last time I did it with the first converter. I apparently lost my mojo and struggled considerably. As of right now the torque arm is bolted up tight and the motor and trans are loosely attached at the dowels on the block. So next session should get them bolted together for good hopefully, and the converter tightened to the flexplate. Now that everything will be bolted together and the motor will be aligned where it's going to be, I can recheck my header clearance, my accessory clearance, and anything else that may be hitting or rubbing.

No pictures this week as I was just happy to get past this part and was ready to go home.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

The trans and motor are hopefully together for good. The converter is now bolted with one set of thin shims to the flexplate. The acceptable range was 1/8"-3/16" and I was a hair over that according to my 3/16" drill bit so I shimmed it with supplied parts. The 700R4 inspection cover is not the same believe it or not. The bolt holes are in the wrong spots so I'll have to see what a 1996 Corvette inspection cover looks like, or similar 4L60, non-LS one. I could survive without it, but I would prefer to have it on there especially in the dirt.

Now that the trans and motor are correctly seated, I went back to the passenger's side header and yes, it was hitting a support bracket on the lower frame area. I removed the bracket and cut about three inches off of it, but that should theoretically fix the header clearance problem. We'll find that out next week.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

SO after some research, the inspection cover I have should be correct, but it's not. This tells me the trans I got, although I believe did come from a 1996 Corvette, was at some point rebuilt with an S10 4L60E case and had the important parts from the Corvette added to it. The only 4L60E case I could find with only two bolt holes on each side of the angle on the case are from S10s. Go back one post and see what I'm talking about. I found one on eBay that should be here this week. I hope it fits. If not, I'll be going without.

Saturday the power steering / alternator bracket install went pretty well. The power steering pressure hose I bought was for a C5 corvette and it actually worked perfectly here. Then we went on to modify the mounting of the power steering cooler, which was pretty straightforward. So we'll call that part done for now.

We also got the passenger's side header hopefully installed for the last time. It has over an 1/8" clearance at the frame, and since this is sitting on urethane motor mounts, I don't expect much movement from the engine. And if it does hit, it will barely be touching the frame with the flange, and I'll worry about that later.

Still a million other things to do, but at least some progress in the right direction.

-BP

[wxo]

I know how it feels to be moving forward again. I've been driving Silvia on and off all winter and she willing starts and runs well. It's well worth all the pain to get her there. I kinda forget the pain.