....: Short update

18 December 2010

Short update

I haven't gotten as far along as I had planned. But, that's how projects go, don't they? With the advent of cold weather (it gets cold in that unheated garage around 6:00 pm), the Christmas season, and the usual other distractions, work has slowed quite a bit. I want to get the body on within the next couple weeks so my wife can use her side of the garage before the real bad weather hits. I got her a new snow blower for Christmas just in case. Progress since the last post:

Engine accessories reinstalled - had to change out the stock LS2 water pump (wp) for a LS1 because the LS2 pulley is not deep enough to run the LS1 brackets/belt. However, the LS1 wp has bolts that hold the rear cover on and these bolts hit the timing cover, requiring the bolt heads to be ground down. I had to remove the heater hose fittings and tap the holes for the 90 deg offsets (again) and tapped a hole (1/8" npt) in the wp boss for the steam line from the heads. You can see the stainless line in the pix below. That's a MAF with air cleaner from Street & Performance and the AC brackets are made by Josh at Custom Image Corvettes.

The steam vent at the top of the head and the vent line routed under the MAF.

The LS1 pulley sticks out further to accommodate the F-Body brackets/pulleys/belt.

The vent lined attached to the fitting I drilled into the wp boss at the thermostat housing boss.

The vent line passing under the MAF.

Driver side exhaust manifold adapter for LS2 made by Dan at VetteWorks. I got the first set made. They fit the stock flange and have a 2 " long section for fitting the exhaust pipe.

I will have to offset the exhaust pipe slightly to clear the clutch lever.

Passenger side.

Magnaflow exhaust kit in for mock up. It's made for stock Big Block C3 vettes and almost lines up perfectly with the stock LS2 exhaust w/adapter.

The X-tube.

I'm still debating if I want to go with factory C3 side pipes or stay with this MagnaFlow. The pros for the side pipes area just that - they're side pipes and look cool. The cons are that they are loud and the sound is at your ears rather than at the rear, there is no performance advantage, and I would have to buy them and fab the connectors. I have the MagnaFlow kit, they make great systems, and the performance factor will be an improvement over the stock system of the donor car. But, I'll still have to fab the connection.

No comments:

Post a Comment

1973 Corvette Project

This blog will chronicle the tale of my '73 Vette project car. I've been a Corvette hobbyist since my first vette, a 1973 silver with black leather interior, L-48, 4 spd coupe. It was my first, and only new, Corvette. Subsequently, I owned a total of seven Corvettes; a '77 coupe, '68 roadster, '80 L48 4spd, '73 coupe, '94 coupe and this '73 project.

It's obvious that the '73 is a favorite of mine. I found this one in an AutoTrader in October of '06. After talking and negotiating via email, I decided to buy it. It was an original BB, 4 spd car with 52,184 miles on the O'meter.

Now this is all according to the guy I bought it from. History of the car:

The seller's uncle bought it from the original owner when it was six months old. He pulled the BB and hot rodded it with a SBC for years, garbaged out the interior by cutting holes in the door panels and rear compartment doors and back of the compartment for speakers. I shouldn't bad mouth him, though. I cut a hole in the passenger side dash panel of my first '73 to mount an eight track (yes, I'm that old!!) player so it would look factory.

Then he passed away and the seller's older brother had it for years until my seller got it. He pulled the SBC but never told me what he did with it. He installed the following: new 4-core radiator, new shocks, new calipers and rotors, new rubber bushings in the suspension (missed the trailing arm mounting and control arm bushings, though), all new heavy duty u-joints, new windshield, and pulled the gas tank and had it cleaned and sealed. It had the CenterLine wheels you see in one of the pictures and the aftermarket hood scoop.

It was located in East Mesa, AZ in a desert suburb of Phoenix and I towed to my house in Flagstaff, a distance of about 160 miles from a elevation of around 1,000' to 7,200'. The trusty old Dakota made it.

The first thing I did was buy a set of '72 stock ralleys, rings, and center caps from a guy on the corvette forum and mounted 234/15 BFG Radial TAs on them. I will eventually put a set of 17x8 Vintage Wheel copies of ARE TorqueThroust Originals on it. I found a stock '75 hood to replace the existing hood w/scoop. When they put the scoop on, they cut a hole in the stock hood for the air cleaner, making it impractical to glass back to original.

Then I towed it on a U-Haul trailer 2,500 miles to CT it with the poor old 2000 Dakota that had 184,000 miles on it.

My plans: My original intent was to put an old school SBC in it. Then I thought about a GMPP Ramjet 350. I just sold a '94 Vette with an LT1 in it that I was going to upgrade to a LT4. I have the LT4 heads, hot cam kit w/1.6 rr, and an LT4 intake that I had the top ribs polished and cleared. So I planned to build an LT4 to drop into the '73. Meanwhile, I'd been watching EBay for LT and LS motors. I've also been following a thread on the corvette forum on LS-C3 conversions.

Well, I bid on on EBay for a LS2 w/5,800 miles on it that was still in the '07 vette, won, started a dialog with the owner, Ray, and started doing more research. Ray just installed a custom built LS7 last week in his '07 and pulled my motor last week and crated it for shipping. I used some FF miles I had to fly to Seattle to see the LS2 and rode in Ray's car. I'm sure Ray will post some info and pics of his new motor and ride.

Ray has been a great guy and a source of a ton of advice on the LS2. I talked to Dan at Vetteworks, the folks at SpeedHound and SuperPowers, Josh, from the corvette forum. Josh and I have pm'd and spoken on the phone about my conversion and he has really been an absolute wealth of information.

I'd like to thank Josh and all the other gear heads who pioneered the LS-C3 conversion and who are making this project a lot less a blind drive like I thought it would be.

I'll install a T56 6 spd, upgrade the suspension and steering, redo the interior (I bought a set of '04 ZO6 black leather searts for it, too), do some minor glass work and try to paint it myself.

Okay, from here on my updates will be on posts. Jump in with comments and suggestions. Any one in the SW CT area who has some knowledge, wrenching skill, cold beer, or the need to supervise, give me a shout - an extra wrench and a torso that can bench press a t56 6 spd are always welcome.