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1970 GTO Version 2.0

196K views 433 replies 75 participants last post by  andrewb70 
#1 ·
I know it is not a Chevelle, but being that it is an A-body, I thought many of you might be interested. As many of you know and many don't, my 1970 GTO was done in October of 2002.

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/features/0304phr_1970_pontiac_gto/index.html

Since then it has lived a rather quiet life. Mostly in storage. Due to some issues in my personal life and a lack of interest, the GTO was a bit neglected over the last 4-5 years. Well that changed this past weekend. I finally sold my fuel injected 502 big block. The engine will have a happy home in a Chevelle.

Stay tuned for more details and future upgrades and pictures.

Andrew
 
#2 ·
Glad to see you back Andrew. Chevelle or not I'm sure your welcome here. I for one will be looking forword to seeing what you have in store for the next generation of your 70 GTO. Lots of new stuff since 2002 :D.
 
#11 ·
GM LS3 6.2L crate engine (P/N 19201992) based on the corvette is like 435hp stock... With headers and maybe a cam you should have 450+ driveable HP... Put a T56 6 speed behind it and you'll get good mileage too.. at least double the 502....:D
 
#14 ·
Today I dropped off the big block at its new home and picked up an L92 truck engine. The big ugly truck intake will need to go, as will the water pump and balancer. I also picked up a take out LS7 cam, LS7 valve springs with retainers from Jeff Schwartz. I will post pictures of the new engine tomorrow.

Andrew
 
#15 ·
Are you planning on keeping the shaker hood? Sorry to hear about the RX7.
 
#16 ·
The shaker will definitely stay. I am not sure if I will go with a single plane style intake, or if I am going to do something similar to what Year One did on the new Bandit cars. Don't shed a tear for the RX7. It gave its life so others can live.

Andrew
 
#17 ·
Might I suggest a better cam than the LS7. It is a fairly good upgrade, however when you consider the time and trouble of installing a cam there are certainly better options out there. The LS7 is limited in that it was designed to make power of course, but also to pass emissions. Thats why people are picking up 50+rwhp on C6 Z06's with a cam and headers. However, I do understand when the price is right it might seem worth it.
 
#18 ·
Andrew is no stranger to the LS world and while I agree with your post I understand his goal. The LS7 cam will have valve events very close to what the L92 heads will like and the stock valvetrain will go for thounsands of miles even if the car sees track time without an issue. If you have conservative goals there is an advantage to using OEM parts. If it were me I'd go bigger on the cam and swap out the springs every 30k miles or so.
 
#20 ·
When I got home this afternoon I found some Edelbrock goodies waiting for me. Here are the engine mount plates:



Judging by the engine cradle these mounting plates will put the bellhousing in very close proximity to where it was before. This is critical for me since I am not changing anything rear of the engine.



The Edelbrock headers came with a complete gasket and bolt kit, but I am going to use the stock MLS exhaust gaskets and bolts. The stock gasket matches the headers well.



The headers are gorgeous!!!





The L92s feature variable valve timing. Since I am going to swap cams I will need a non VVT front cover. The balancer will also be swapped over to a C6 Corvette unit.



Shot down the intake port:



Andrew
 
#22 ·
The headers do look nice and I will be interested in what you do for the shaker hood. I would like to keep the cowl induction working on my 70 along with the flapper door. Bczee made a custom air intake to work with a LS6 intake. If Year One would sell copies of their Bandit setup you could prolly modify it to work in both of our applications.

Mast performance? was tuning the VVT system. If you have any thought of keeping it you may want to look for them on Ls1tech.
 
#23 ·
When we did the engine mounting we kept it as close to stock so things like the air cleaner to hood seal would work. The Edelbrock intake for the carburatored LS series engines is located very similar to the location on a SBC or BBC, that should allow the use of cold air "flapper" door hoods.

Andrew: The same applies for you as well with the shaker, if you use a OEM style LS series intake then there will be quite a bit of fabrication required. Did you know Edelbrock also makes a throttle body for the OEM intake that will make is cable rather than Throttle By Wire.
 
#25 ·
Parts are slowly starting to trickle in. I got the proper cam gear to use with the LS7 cam. I also got a take off C6 water pump.

For the sake of my sanity, I removed the lifter valley cover just to double check that this engine does not have Displacement on Demand. It does not.



Andrew
 
#27 ·
Dan,

I am actually still living in Bowling Green, KY, but I will be moving back to the Chicago area sometime this summer.

Received the Keisler aluminum bellhousing today. Nice piece.



Andrew
 
#29 ·
Andrew,

I was wondering if you are going Hydraulic clutch? I ask because I am trying to determine what I am going to do. I have a LS3 engine with a TKO and have the similar LS bell housing going into a 69 Chevelle. I thought about going mech linkage and trying to fab some mounting provision for the ball stud. I know most will say why do that but from my personal exp. I never had anything against them with 4 speed cars in the past. I am sure you will be up and running way before me so please post a little blurb about that if you remember. BTW I dig your car:thumbsup:

Thanks,
Tom
 
#31 ·
Tom,

Thanks for the compliment! The bellhousing that I am using is exactly the same as yours. If you look on the drivers side of the bellhousing, you will see a cast boss, similar to where the ball stud would mount in the block. On my bellhousing that boss is drilled and tapped. I am assuming Keisler made that provision so people can try to reuse the mechanical clutch linkage, although looking at pictures of your frame, it does not look like the z-bar mount on the frame matches up with the boss in the bellhousing. Using the stock linkage would also require a custom z-bar.

Personally I am going to switch over to a hydraulic setup. The plan is to use the MC bracket from ATS and a MC from a 4th gen f-body. The throwout bearing will be either from Quarter Master or Howe. Once I get my clutch I will have a good idea of how much throw I will need and see what bearing will work best. I will definitely be documenting that portion of the build.

Andrew
 
#34 ·
Today I took off the truck balancer and the front cover. This is what the VVT system looks like:



The VVT cam use a single bolt to attach the cam gear and VVT mechanism:



The LS7 cam uses the typical 3 bolt style cam gear. You just have to make sure to get the correct gear with the right pattern of bumps for the cam sensor. I got mine as a handy little kit from Lingenfelter.



Once the cam was installed I bolted on an LS2 from cover along with a C6 water pump and balancer. With the exception of the hollow stem valves, and of course the LS7 cam, this is pretty much an LS3 now.



I also installed the AutoKraft oilpan. I really wanted to use an OEM style cast pan, but no one seems to agree what pan will work best. So I went with something that is proven to fit and retains the oil filter in the stock location.



Tomorrow I will be installing some Patriot Gold dual springs and doing some minor detailing.

Andrew
 
#35 ·
More progress over the weekend. I finished installing the Patriot Gold dual springs and hardened pushrods. I am pretty sure I went overkill on the springs, but I figure if I don't like this LS7 cam, I can just stab another one in it without having to worry about the springs.

Next I wanted to check the alignment of the Keisler bellhousing. I took the engine off the stand and placed the bellhousing against the block. Tick, tick, tick, tick...it was rocking back and forth. No good. I inspected it and it looks like someone dropped the bellhousing after it was machined. It put a slight dent on the corner and didn't allow the bellhousing to sit flat against the block. Little work with the file and it was good to go. This is a perfect example of why parts should be mocked up before installing them in the car. I may not have noticed this if I was on my back, under the car, trying to install it.

Next I wanted to check the alignment. I first measured the flatness. Very impressive, at .001".

Next I wanted to check the runout. I installed the dial indicator so it would ride on the inside of the bearing retainer register. This is what centers the transmission in the bellhousing. I set the indicator to zero.



Rotated the engine 90 degrees. Still zero. Good.



Rotated another 90 degrees. .005". Not bad.



Rotated another 90 degrees. .004". Great.



So the most the needle moved was .005". Divide that by 2 and you get total runout of .0025". Well under the recommended .005". Other than the minor issue with the bellhousing, I am pretty impressed.

Next it was time to see how the input shaft engages the pilot bearing. I am using a stock LS7 pilot bearing. I am happy with the engagement.



Then I wanted to install the clutch so that I can take some measurements for getting the right hydraulic throw out bearing. Everyone should have a nice clutch alignment took. This one is from Quarter Master and is way better than a plastic one.



There you have it, clutch and bellshousing installed. I am using a stock LS7 clutch on an LS2 flywheel. Heavy, but it will drive great. The distance from the clutch fingers to the outside of the bellhousing was 3.25". I will elaborate on why that's important later.



I used some high temp "cast aluminum" paint to add a little detail to the valve covers.



Time to start working on the car and get it ready for the engine. I want to redo some of the wiring as well as some of the fuel lines in the engine compartment.

Andrew
 
#36 ·
Today I got a few more pieces of the puzzle. I was exploring the Keisler website and I looked in the "clutch actuation" section. Their hydraulic kit seemed like exactly what I was looking for. I only got the partial kit that does not include the hydraulic throwout bearing. Keisler is in the market of selling Tremec transmissions, so the TOB is designed to mount on a TKO. I have a Richmond, so I will connect the dots from the MC. Looks like a quality piece and exactly what I need. The MC has a 3/4" bore and a travel of 1.5". That should make just about any hydraulic bearing puke its guts, so I will have to mock everything up and make sure that the bearing is not being over extended.



I also ordered a Quarter Master street throw out bearing.

http://www.racingclutches.com/product.phtml?p=53&cat_key=89

Andrew
 
#37 ·
Today I got some more parts for the swap. I got a starter, power steering pump, and a bunch of little parts to complete my accessory drive system. What I have here is basically the C5/C6 layout.



I also received the GM Performance Parts harness and ECU package. Pretty good value when you consider that it is very complete. It comes with a big relay center and an auxiliary fuse panel that needs to be mounted somewhere. Its fairly ugly so I don't really know where I am going to put it yet.

Andrew
 
#38 ·
The benefits of being a bachelor and living alone include being able to have a bunch of car parts in the living room and not hearing "THE DISPOSAL IS CLOGGED!!!" LOL

Besides the engine swap I am doing some suspension mods. I already have some coilovers in the front. The springs in the front are 550 lb/inch. They were marginal with the big block. I think they will work very well with the L92, so for now I am not messing with them. In the rear I currently have some springs that I got way back in the day, from HO Racing.

Who remembers them? If you do, your old!!!

I wanted the ability to adjust the ride height in the rear and more importantly have the ability to properly set the corner weights once the car is done. There are all kinds of solutions to accomplish this, I chose a very nice product from Budzter:

https://www.budzter.com/index.html

Not cheap, but the quality is outstanding and it is a true bolt on. No hacking of the rear is required and its fully reversible. I like that. The spring is 9.5" tall, 175 lb/inch from the Coleman Racing catalog.



Andrew
 
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