It's actually happening! I got the elky on the rack today and drained all the fluids in preparation to yank the old motor. Now the real fun begins. I'm thinking I will go ahead and drop the fuel tank, cut out the old exhaust, remove the old fuel lines and remove all the miscellaneous stuff from under the car now while it's up in the air. LT1 motor and 4L60E are all done and ready to go. Who Hoo!

PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously take a ton of them. They're great for reference and we enjoy them here. :lol:

I'll do it. Starting tomorrow. :)

I can't figure out how to upload pics here. :-(

For creating a member page Click Me (http://elcaminocentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=9447&highlight=gallery+admin)

For adding pictures to a post after creating a members page (or hosting them someplace else) Click Me (http://www.elcaminocentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=8925)

Cool! Here you go. Thanks for the help Poltergeist.

http://elcaminocentral.com/albums/79Cabalero/79_Cabalero_1.jpg

This guy is primered. I bought it out of a wrecking yard where I have purchased other project cars in the past. He is in good shape body wise with no rust. Interior is toast. Motor is tired so............

http://elcaminocentral.com/albums/79Cabalero/LT1_Motor.jpg

I got this motor off of a local member on the second gen camaro forum last year and had it rebuilt by a local machine shop that I have used over the years. I also got a 4L60E transmission with it and had it rebuilt and updated. i.e. full lockup converter.

Here ya go.

http://elcaminocentral.com/albums/Hotrod-s-79-Cabalero/LT1_Motor.jpg

http://elcaminocentral.com/albums/Hotrod-s-79-Cabalero/79_Cabalero_1.jpg

Hmm..... enlighten me please. :)

You linked the pages instead of the pictures. Next time when you are in the page with the picture you want Right Click on the picture and select properties. In the window that comes up you will see the address for just the picture. This is what you would use for displaying images.

Got it Poltergeist. Thanks again. :)

PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously take a ton of them. They're great for reference and we enjoy them here. :lol:

Ditto..please. I'm about to do the same thing and need all the tip & tricks as well as the difficulties that you run in to.

Here's mine out of a 95 Vette:
http://home.comcast.net/~pjlbrown/lt1_2.jpg

I got the exhaust cut out yesterday and today I removed the gas tank, driveline and automatic transmission. I also got everything disconnected underneath so I'm pretty close to getting the motor out. The underneath side of this car is a greasy, oily mess! I can't make up my mind what to do about that. In the past I've tried scrubbing with simple green with limited success. I could load the car up on a trailer and take it down to the local 25 cent carwash er $1.25 but I'm not sure how much that will help either. There is a guy not too far away from here that blasts cars with walnut shells but I'm not certain that would work on this stuff either. Any suggestions?

87SS will those headers clear the cross member? If so whose are they? I think you've got the good one with the A/C on the driver side. I eliminated mine because of the interference with the crossmember. Course in Oregon you don't need A/C except for maybe 2 weeks out of the year. :)

That's beautiful!

87SS will those headers clear the cross member? Not sure yet, they came off a friends Vette and for the price I couldn't pass them up. I have to ask him the brand name, everything he buys comes from SLP. Nice to have deep pockets!

I think you've got the good one with the A/C on the driver side. Nope, it's a Vette Lt1 with Z28 accessory brackets. I pulled it out a buddies wife's 95 Camaro after she put it into a concrete center divider. Bought the whole car for $965.10 from his insurance company. The 4L60E is currently being gone through with the addition of a mild shift kit and a 2500 lock up converter. :onfire:

Here's what it looked like when I finished with it! ;)
http://home.comcast.net/~pjlbrown/leftover2.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~pjlbrown/leftover3.jpg

So did you eliminate the A/C also? I finally got the motor out today and the engine well is a mess! I decided to go ahead and spend the time to do it right so I am removing the front end. I got one side of the car off today as well and stripped off the A/C suitcase. Managed to break it though. :( not sure if I will need to buy some parts out of a wrecking yard or not. I just got the A/C delete box from American Graffiti but it looks like I may have to replace the plastic stuff inside the car under the dash.

hotrod - any header/exhaust manifold for your G-body will work with the LT1. The exhaust ports on the LT1 are the same as the good old small block. Just buy a set for a 305 and you're all set. I originally had a set of long tubes for a G-body and had plenty of room. You can also use LT1 Impala exhaust manifolds and build the rest of the system from there.

Peter I hope yours will clear the motor mounts, it looks really close.

The manifolds I have now are from the 94 T/A. They should work OK for now shouldn't they?

Peter I hope yours will clear the motor mounts, it looks really close.Also got a pair of Vette manifolds should I run into problems...hope not though.

The manifolds I have now are from the 94 T/A. They should work OK for now shouldn't they?

Yep they should work.

Well the front end is off the car and I will be steam cleaning the frame, firewall and undercarriage tomorrow. After that I'm going to go through the front suspension before I drop the motor in. Reinstalling the fenders, etc. I will probably save for last.

Poltergeist I'm thinking about getting a set of shorty headers for this thing now before I get too far down the road. Since I live in an area where we have smog checks in order to license a vehicle I need to get some with the AIR connections. Any ideas? I want to use shorties for ground clearance.

Even long tubes will give you plenty of clearence (mine had plenty). There are number of headers that have the air tube connections on them. I mostly looked at Hooker when I was doing my swap. One thing on air tubes; 95 and up LT1s can eliminate the air pump with a Technical Service Bulletin that was released. I'll try and find a link for it.

One thing you would need to find out for the area that you live in is what they are looking for on emmisions. Do they want you to follow the year of the motor or year of your Elky for the exhaust.

What year is your LT1? What did it come out of?

It came out of a '94 firebird. I'm not sure about what emissions standards have to be followed in a case like this. I'll check into it. I did some looking around on the internet last night and came up with a couple of different shorty headers that have the air connections. Edelbrock and Hedman both make them but Hedman's are the only ones to offer a 3" collector. Edelbrocks are 2-1/2".

If you go with an Elky style exhaust you could take the 2.5s to a 3 inch Y and then out the back. Or if you do a dual exhaust like I did you go to dual cats - Xpipe - mufflers then out the back. Either way would give you plenty of exhaust for the LT1 unless you are planning some monster motor.

Poltergeist, the motor is stock and will remain that way. I think I would like to go 3" duals back to the mufflers and then 2-1/2" the rest of the way out the back. Meanwhile I steamed the whole undercarriage and firewall yesterday and tomorrow I will try and get the front suspension off the car. Then its knock out the old bushings and get the LCA/UCA's hot tanked in preparation for powder coating. I'm going to haul them and the core support down to the powder coaters the first of next week and order my bushings from Global West once I have measured the old ones to make sure they are still the stock dimensions for my year. Still lotsa work ahead. :)

Control arms, core support and all kinds of miscellaneous parts off the front end have been hot tanked and are in the back of the truck waiting to go to the powder coaters on Monday. I sand blasted the firewall and the frame from the firewall forward today. If I can get enough heat in my shop tomorrow I will prime and paint it. I'm just going to rattle can it chassis black. Then it's replace the body mounts with poly bushings, rebuild all the suspension and brakes and start putting it back together.

Sounds like you've been busy. 8)

OK, I got a phone call from the powder coater today and the parts are done. I'll pick them up tomorrow and then I can put the motor mount clamshells together with the new poly mounts. The firewall and front frame was painted on Sunday with epoxy. I will install the mounts and then drop the motor in the car this weekend. I am waiting on the SC&C upper control arms and don't expect to see them for a week or more but the GW LCA bushings should be here the first of the week. I got the Eibac pro spring kit for this car today along with the motor mounts, body mounts and sway bar links from Summit. Still debating on what to do about brakes. At least with the motor in the car I can begin working on the wiring. Things are coming together nicely. I'm getting pumped! :-D

How about some new progress pix...

I didn't get as far as I had hoped I would. The new poly motor mounts are in as well as the new steering box and idler arm. I ran into a snag with the new draglink however. NAPA makes a premium line of heavy duty steering and suspension components and I have used them in the past. I purchased this draglink (part #NCP272-1151)however it doesn't appear to be a very good fit. The old draglink bolts up just fine but not this one. I went online and verified that this is the correct one so I am going to exchange it for another tomorrow. The thing that got me sidetracked was the decision to measure up all of the suspension components for Performance Analyzer's suspension program. With the motor out of the car and all the suspension off it makes it very easy to do this right now but it takes time. I finished up doing that today.

http://elcaminocentral.com/albums/79Cabalero/79_Cabalero_112205.jpg
This is where I was at on 11/22/05 when I decided to sand blast the frame.

http://elcaminocentral.com/albums/79Cabalero/79_Cabalero_120905_2.sized.jpg
This is where I'm at today.

http://elcaminocentral.com/albums/79Cabalero/79_Cabalero_120905_3.sized.jpg
Another view

All the poly body dushings are in! Waiting on UCA's. Should be here Monday I hope. Still need to clean up brake booster and master cylinder.

Well things have slowed down on my project. I decided on Baer brakes front and rear and they are 8-10 weeks away. ARGH! Since they come with their own spindles I installed the control arms, old spindles, steering rods and a 1/2" threaded rod instead of springs so that I can move it off the rack and work on other stuff. I will install the motor before I move it however. I also ordered a 9" Ford housing with the stock chevy 4 bolt end plates with 31 spline axles and UMI adjustable upper arms, GW lower arms and hotchkis front and rear sway bars. The housing is 3 weeks away. (must be Christmas :) ) I've got a 373 posi pumpkin that I could use but I'm not sure I want to go that low even with the automatic O/D. In the meantime, since it is that time of year my family has been busy doing other things. Merry Christmas everybody. :-)

Wow sounds like your going all out. The thing should be a beast when your done. 8)