1987 Corvette Z52

[Basement Paul]

That's the endgame. Hopefully it's reliable like it was before so I can forget the pain too.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Saturday we did a bunch of figuring. The first was how to get heater hoses onto the water pump that's 1-1/4" from the frame rail. Turns out there are molded 90 degree hoses designed for this, so those have been ordered.
Spark plugs got gapped, anti-seazed, and installed.
Then we went to the air intake. I bought a stock intake from a C5, but I can't find any way that this will work, so we went back to the stock air filter assembly and went about trying to adapt the two together. The end of the molded plastic on the air filter housing used to have a lip on it to accept the MAF sensor and we cut that off to make it a smooth 3.5" place we could clamp rubber or silicon hose to. The current throttle body is 4" dia. I ordered a 4"-3.5" reducer and some extension tubing to cover the big opening. The biggest hurdle is that the angles are not the same. I think the parts I ordered, and I ordered some stuff I may or may not use, will help us deal with this securely.
The upper radiator hose is too short, but has the correct sizes on both ends, so I bought a couple different hose extension tubes that should be able to bridge this gap also. The lower radiator hose looks like it will work with just a small trim on the end.

-BP

[wxo]

I love the picture of Fred's big smile in his role as Master Chief of the project.

[Basement Paul]

The Great Overseer.

-BP

[wxo]

Don't broadcast that too much. Trump might hang a DOGE badge on his shirt and take him to Washington

[Basement Paul]

Yesterday got the upper radiator hose figured out. I bought a couple different aluminum radiator hose extender pieces and ended up with the 135 degree bend one that seemed to work really well. Only one cut of the original hose and a few extra clamps and we were good to go. There was a hose support bracket on the driver's side that had to be removed, and the bolt for the fan replaced, but otherwise this was pretty straightforward.

The air intake wasn't too bad either, but I did buy several different aluminum tubes and rubber/silicon couplings in preparation for this. It ended up with a 4"-3.5" reducer off the throttle body, and 8" long 3.5" tube with a slightly flanged end going into the 3.5"-3.5" sleeve on the original air box. This rounded flange helped deal with the slight angle that was there, and we used the more flexible of the couplings to deal with the rest of the bend. The two studs that hold the air box down are a hokey design and they would fall out with regularity, so we were able to drill a hole in the tab on each one and screw them down so they wouldn't fall out anymore. No picture of this upgrade though.

I had heater hoses on order, but despite being shipping on Monday from Colorado, the USPS was unable to get them to me by Friday (or Saturday for that matter) so that will be one of the things for next week. I also bought a 160 thermostat, but realized when I went to install it that my car has the integrated thermostat/housing combo. So I'm going to by a rotatable one to get the angle a little better on the lower radiator hose and this should accept the thermostat that I already bought.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

It's been awhile since I posted, but things are slowly happening. Currently the heater hoses are all hooked up, the new swiveling water neck is installed, and the lower radiator hose is in place. That required a cut in the straight part of the hose, and an aluminum sleeve to bring it together, but I think it's solid and good to go.
A couple weeks ago I went to install the old driveshaft into the new transmission. NOPE! Even though the 700R4 and the 4L60E are the same on the outside, for some reason my newly built 4L60E would not accept the yoke from the old 700. After spending way too much time trying to get it in there, and lots of cursing, I decided to see if I could get another yoke in there. Dad had one from a 350 sitting on the shelf that looked good enough, so I took it to the trans, and will only mild coaxing, was able to get it to bottom out, no problem. Unfortunately, the 350 yoke was the wrong length, but it helped me decide to order a new Corvette yoke. And yes, these are specific to this car. The old yoke had a rubber ring and steel vibration damper on it, which I don't care about, and on an old Vette Forum, found a guy giving the correct Spicer part number to replace the stock Vette one. It even have the step where the damper goes, just no damper.
THEN i start seeing places like Summit want over $1000 for this part!!!! Nope. So I go to my homies on eBay and find one brand new in the box for $82 + shipping. After I got it, I slid it in the trans before attaching it to the driveshaft, and it went in smooth and easy. Go figure... So I had Newbury Auto Parts swap the new yoke to the driveshaft, and on Saturday I installed it with no real issues.
Then I installed the new transmission pan with a drain on it, and got the new Lokar transmission dipstick installed on the firewall too. I hooked up the shift cable bracket when I did the pan swap, only to realize the new shift lever doesn't have a hole in it for a cotter pin, OR and groove in it for a C-clip. WHAT? Not quite sure what was holding the old cable on this trans before, but I think I'll try to grind a tiny flat spot on it so I can drill a hole in it for a cotter pin.
After that, I'll start working on transmission lines and after that, the exhaust, which won't be too fun, but at least I get to cut and weld stuff.

-BP

[wxo]

the new shift lever doesn't have a hole in it for a cotter pin, OR and groove in it for a C-clip. WHAT?

BP, you might want to consider something simpler like this: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=pushnuts if you can find the right diameter.

[Basement Paul]

I'm thinking that's what they had on there based on the marks on the stud. Since I beat on it more than a normal human, I would feel better with something more positive. For normal function, I think that would probably suffice though.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

So as I get older, I realize that my eyesight is not what it used to be. Especially up close where wearing my glasses actually makes it harder to see. I was thinking about the shifter not having a hole OR a groove, and thought that was crazy, so I took another look this Saturday (with my glasses off cuz when I'm under the car on the floor, everything is close) and sure enough there's a little hole right there where it belongs. So I found a clip and put the shifter all back together.
Then I went after the transmission lines. I still had the hardlines from the 700R4 trans. One I had to cut up front to be able to remove it, but all the pieces were there. I was able to get both lines basically back where they were, but the one got bent up apparently when I was removing it, so I cut about a 6" section out down low and connected them with a hose, making sure to flare both ends slightly and double clamp them. So at this point, those are done.
Next week I'll be back under the car, attempting to hook up the exhaust. Hopefully things line up enough for me to hack and weld and get the gasses all contained. If not, I'll at least get it close enough for Hutter's to finish with little effort when it gets sent in.

-BP

[Basement Paul]

Yesterday we took to making an exhaust system that would function with our "new" combination. The headers I bought, although stock replacement for the LS1 exhaust manifolds, still exit towards the rear between the 3rd and 4th cylinders VS the original motors center drop which also went straight down. So after the first attempt to fit the original Y-Pipe to the car made it very obvious I was going to have to remove the pipe at the flange and back some, which ideally would have been right where the dummy converters were. So I cut them just behind those, leaving around 15" and a slight angle to contend with.
The H-pipe shown in the pictures is from my white Mustang convertible. I cut the converters out of it and sold them on ebay a month or so ago, and kept what was left "just in case". It was good that I did, as I used a good portion of what was left to make new connector pieces as they were the same size as the factory Vette pipes I was connecting to. The LS1 came with a turndown pipe and flange, which gave me some adjustability to my custom pipes. After a few hours of cutting and grinding (no swearing this weekend), we got the new pieces tacked into place. I'm satisfied with how this turned out and it will work for now as long as the motor is stock. If I make any other performance upgrades, it will need a true dual exhaust with larger pipes.
Next week we'll pull it back out and weld it all together, and move on to something else. It's definitely starting to look like a car again.

-BP