LS Swap in 78 Vette

donnie_19

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 20, 2012
Messages
305
Location
Troy, MO
Swapping a LQ9 in my 78. Mating up with 2004R with 2800 stall convertor. Updating A/C to Vintage or Classic air. Installing front A Arm bushings and shocks along with Jeep Steering Box.
Old engine and transmission are removed and cleaning and painting engine bay.Going to be a fun winter.
 
Yup, got some work to do....but when it's done....:banghead:

then it's time to....:trumpet::beer:
 
I just stopped by the hanger where Donnie's working on it, the car looks like it's going to turn out nice. I also may be able to clean out some of the spare LS parts in my garage.
 
Thanks for stopping and advising. Sure alot to digest but looking forward to the challenge.
 
Sorry I missed the fun Gary/Donnie. Hanger is going to be a busy place this year. I plan on replacing the old school 427 in the Blue Angel 69 when I get back from wintering in Florida. All Aluminum BB is in the planning stages up at Competition Marine. More to come as we exit the planning stages. My main requirement is to be compatible with the stock GM L-88 hood and its air chamber. Also Heads need to be a compatible height so the Hooker side pipes fit with no fender mods.
Gary, I was thinking Don would be better off keeping the new Holley Avenger ECM rather than jury rigging a GM LS ECM with EFI-Live. Lets talk pro's and cons of the two approaches.

Bullshark
 
Not too familiar with the holley. But the GM stuff is cheap, widely available, and suupports 400hp on the LQ9. On my LQ9, I was planning an L92 head and cam swap. But the stock motor with exhaust and mail order tune is nearly 400hp, 400ft/lbs and breaks my stock 7" wheel and tire combo lose easily. I think Don is going the same direction.
411 ecu $50, mail order tune $75, and a pick and pull harness is hard to beat for the cost.
Any chance that aluminum block is an LS7, or are you going old school there too, 502 or 540? Just enough to scare Chip in the passenger seat anyway.

Sorry I missed the fun Gary/Donnie. Hanger is going to be a busy place this year. I plan on replacing the old school 427 in the Blue Angel 69 when I get back from wintering in Florida. All Aluminum BB is in the planning stages up at Competition Marine. More to come as we exit the planning stages. My main requirement is to be compatible with the stock GM L-88 hood and its air chamber. Also Heads need to be a compatible height so the Hooker side pipes fit with no fender mods.
Gary, I was thinking Don would be better off keeping the new Holley Avenger ECM rather than jury rigging a GM LS ECM with EFI-Live. Lets talk pro's and cons of the two approaches.

Bullshark
 
Not too familiar with the holley. But the GM stuff is cheap, widely available, and suupports 400hp on the LQ9. On my LQ9, I was planning an L92 head and cam swap. But the stock motor with exhaust and mail order tune is nearly 400hp, 400ft/lbs and breaks my stock 7" wheel and tire combo lose easily. I think Don is going the same direction.
411 ecu $50, mail order tune $75, and a pick and pull harness is hard to beat for the cost.
Any chance that aluminum block is an LS7, or are you going old school there too, 502 or 540? Just enough to scare Chip in the passenger seat anyway.

Sorry I missed the fun Gary/Donnie. Hanger is going to be a busy place this year. I plan on replacing the old school 427 in the Blue Angel 69 when I get back from wintering in Florida. All Aluminum BB is in the planning stages up at Competition Marine. More to come as we exit the planning stages. My main requirement is to be compatible with the stock GM L-88 hood and its air chamber. Also Heads need to be a compatible height so the Hooker side pipes fit with no fender mods.
Gary, I was thinking Don would be better off keeping the new Holley Avenger ECM rather than jury rigging a GM LS ECM with EFI-Live. Lets talk pro's and cons of the two approaches.

Bullshark
I purchased a Holley Avenger system 550-400 for my old SBC. Considered using the computer and wiring harness but after looking at it might work. Smaller unit than Chip uses.
 
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I think Don's link said it all. I don't think mail order tunes are worth a nickle and if you need to change it, your screwed. I know this statement will draw some fire, but EFI-Live is a band aid approach for GM stock ECU's and by the time you buy all the capability you need to do a decent tune, you will pay damn near what the Holly costs. Even then it is a much harder "hit and miss" repetitive process. He already has the Holley kit that can be updated to a HP configuration. It will easily support LS like systems with sequential injection, cam and crank sense, wideband O2, knock sense, dual fan control, additional I/O etc. etc. Much better and more flexible, not to mention self tune. We can adapt the LS wire harness or modify the Holley harness that came with the system.

I'm not going with LS, mainly because I want something compatible with the L-88 hood setup. That points to the "old school" BB block configuration. We are having an aluminum short block made as we speak. Chip is thinking a set of high flow aluminum Eldebrock heads along with a custom modified intake that will fit with a four barrel Throttle body multiport injection approach. Looking at ~700 street able HP I will use the Holley Dominator EFI system. Overkill I know, but I already have it. HP would work fine for this no boost setup.
 
Learn something new every day. Just thought the Holley was tbi, no provision for crank/cam/maf sensors. This is going to be an interesting project, keep the updates coming.
 
Removing the dash today for the A/C upgrade. Hope to get the engine bay painted and front end back together.
 
Stock A/C is out. Dash and all components removed in about 3 hours. This what I started with.thum_267250eeb2f3257fa.jpg
Dash removed and all dash parts in about 1 1/2
thum_267250eeb3462ca7a.jpg
Then the A/C box had to go.thum_267250eeb385412f2.jpg
Then the outside box is removed took about another hourthum_267250eeb3b45b11f.jpgthum_267250eeb3e1e7aea.jpg
Bullshark showed up after all the work was done to have cold beverage.
 
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Since interior heat has been a major problem before, thinking about some kind of tunnel and floor board insulation. Any good options. I already have the insulation under the carpet.thum_267250eebe331fdd3.jpg
Also while I am at this point in the mod is there any function to the charcoal cannister in the drivers side fender well?
 
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Since interior heat has been a major problem before, thinking about some kind of tunnel and floor board insulation. Any good options. I already have the insulation under the carpet.thum_267250eebe331fdd3.jpg
 
fatmat quieted my 442 really well, but that has to go under the reflexit.
You still have a charcoal canister? If yoou want to keep emissions, you can hook to the purge solenoid.
Oh, if you need a vss, I've got a spare dakota digital that runs inline on your speedo cable ($25 with extension cable). You can check with Chip to see if the ecu needs it.
 
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