My Turn: Chevello II

It only looks like more because I didn't take it entirely apart and start from scratch. I'm sure I'll have issues with that at a later time.

SO: Chapter 2.

At work I noticed one of the guys had a set of new brakes (calipers and rotors) for his C5 under his toolbox. Asked him what he would be doing with the takeoffs, and he offered them to me for free ninety-free. Very nice. I just have to wait for him to install the new parts. It's been nearly a year at this point. Good thing I wasn't holding my breath.

But, figuring that those brakes wouldn't fit into 15" Rally wheels, I needed to figure out what to do. Since I'm cheap, when the same guy offered me the wheels from the same C5 after putting new ones on, I went ahead and picked them up.



A little quality time with the floor jack and a tape measure to figure out adapter size...



Ooooh, meaty



Adapters arrived, and of course I couldn't wait until I had disc brakes on to try them out.





I got to drive it to a cruise night shortly after I got the wheels on, and boy was it a handful. I'm not sure if it's the worn out suspension or the 2-1/2" wheel adapters putting too much leverage on the worn out suspension, but the car is all OVER the road. It's very hard to keep straight, and there is a funny bind in the rear suspension that I haven't looked for yet. On a big, slow bump, the back of the car kind of binds on the left side and wants to kick to the right. It would seem like a tire rub, but there aren't any marks on the tires, the inner wheel wells or lower control arms. I'm sure the problem will make itself known at some point.



It needs to sit lower by a couple of inches and I'll be pretty happy with the stance.

The entire time all this was going on, I was trying to figure out what to do about an engine. The 307 hadn't really been helped by a new timing chain, valve seals and a carb rebuild. I toyed with the idea of just putting 305HO heads on and a cam in it like I read about in a thread on the HAMB. Then I considered putting a big block in it since I've never had a BB car, so here is my opportunity. I looked into it and read tons here at TC and all over the place. What I found out is that a BB is out of my price range. THen I started considering SB options. 350, 383, 400, 406. Checked out my options and looked into costs, but even that, though people say how cheap engines are, is out of my price range. Thought and thoughts went through, always considering, going over options and such. The trail led me to LS1Tech where I began to read about actual inexpensive engines.

From what I read, just about anything I considered would have required lots of running around, finding machine shops, trusting them with my meager funds, and then doing a lot of assembly work myself. At least until I hit on the LS engines. It seems that these are much less likely to have worn out cylinders and even other parts when run as high as 200K miles. The older smallblocks mostly always seemed to be pretty much done and needing a rebuild at 150K. I'd always liked the 96-up 350 Vortec and the engine management, so I always thought I'd put one of those in a Chevelle. May as well start with any junkyard 350 at that point and go through all the mess of buying, disassembling, cleaning and rolling the dice on whether the parts are even any good then deciding on oh hell all that stuff that needs deciding on when you build an engine. Not fun for me.

So, researching the LS engines, I decided that my chances were much better going with that since I wouldn't have to even open the long block. I would get my SFI fuel system and have an actual modern engine. I started to look for a 6 liter truck for a donor.

I couldn't find one that fit into my $3K budget for the entire swap, so I started checking the online junkyards for the right one. Of course, I wasn't able to find the legendary $300.00 6.0 complete with harness and trans. I settled on an LM4 aluminum block 5.3 from a Buick Rainier, and rolled the dice to see what showed up after I placed the order.

This is how it arrived.



It was wet inside the plastic and smelled nasty. Not bad engine nasty, but moldy something wet nasty. Had me a little worried, but not too much, so I found a buddy with a pickup to get it home for me



At which point I realized I didn't have any bolts to attach it to the engine stand :/

So, along with my beautiful junior assistant, I started disassembling it anyways.



During which I discovered that some of the front bracket bolts could be used for attaching it to the stand. It was pretty annoying to be cleaning up my work toolbox a couple of days later and finding a whole bag of the correct metric bolts. So, problem solved.

But I got it all cleaned up and ready to put the pan on.





Then, last weekend when I got the pan all torqued down, I went to put the dipstick in. Um, you know, it's a funny thing about the Buick Rainier, the dipstick goes into the oil pan, so they don't even drill the boss in the block for one. So I had to, once again with the help of my junio assistant to hold the vacuum hose.

I don't mind being watched. It leads to my little goofs being pointed out before they become big mistakes

My list of things I need is down to

Exhaust, PS pump, Starter, wire for the harness, fuel pump, filter and lines. Pedal and gaskets arrived today, TAC for the DBW should be here tomorrow.

The promised combo Cruise night/ Date night with the wife is complete. Now I can begin disassembly. :disco:

I bought etching wheel cleaner to clean up the engine block before I put it in. You can see from the pics above that it isn't very pretty. Of COURSE it is the last thing to arrive. So, I can't start any real assembly before I get that and try it out. But I'll have time to wait while I am pulling the 307 and getting the engine bay all cleaned up. The biggest problem is space. Just about everything has to come out of the garage so I can work, and then when the day is over, everything has to go back in. It's easy when the car runs. Not so much when it doesn't. Even so, it isn't work, it's a hobby and an adventure.

I think all the neighbors will be happy when I get that holey exhaust replaced.

I was asked last night what the cost was up to this point, and I know that I was always looking for that info when making the determination to go LS, BB or SB. I'm only going to detail the costs involved with the actual LS swap, not every can of paint or Brakleen I buy unless it is something I needed directly for the swap. Nor will I count the endless hours deciding which engine to buy and things like that. So here we go.
Note that these prices are as of 06/02/14 or before.
From the online junkyard:
(Free shipping)
Engine (LM4 from an 04 Rainier) 695.00
PCM (04 Silverado) 105.00
TAC module (04 Silverado) 80.00

Online stores (includes shipping)
Accelerator pedal 50.71
MAF 59.79
Plug wires (engine only had 7 on it) 39.52
6.0 Flex plate (with the built in spacer) 55.14
Ex mani gaskets 24.14 (12.07ea 2 req'd)
Water pump gaskets 10.04 (5.52ea. 2 req'd)
Engine mount plates 49.97
Gm Musclecar oil pan kit 154.97

U-pull junkyard
Alternator 25.00
Extra 411 PCM with connectors (just in case I go cable throttle) 25.00
Windstar fans 22.00

So far with hard parts that totals out to 1396.28

Supplies (estimated)
Paint (4 cans, 2 of semiflat black, clear, cast aluminum) 36.00
Degreaser 25.00
Blue tape 8.51 (can't believe how expensive a roll of masking tape is. 8 and a half bucks? really?)
Heat shrink (oooh, multicolor) 9.99
Etching aluminum cleaner 34.49 (13.99, 20.50 I bought two different kinds)

1510.27 is the grand total so far. There are still plenty of hard parts to to buy and definitely plenty of supplies yet.

Yet to buy:
Starter
Fuel system parts
Power steering pump
Some harness connectors
O2 sensors
Air inlet tubes and filter
Exhaust



I've painted the front brackets with the cast aluminum paint, and the first one looked pretty good, but the rest sort of look like fake chrome. I had planned on painting the engine block with it but now, no way. I may just keep cleaning then hit it with the clear.

I'm also in the process of cleaning the built up dirt out of the intake manifold, but that isn't going well. About the last thing to try is Easy Off.

There's where we are. Cleaning, cleaning.

Here's what I meant about the cast aluminum paint.

The water pump I just cleaned with etching aluminum wheel cleaner, the AC bracket is the first one I painted. Pretty close, but a little too silvery for my taste.

The Caddy horns. A,C,D and F. They have a LOVELY sound. I'm not sure I want to put them on the Chevelle. I may replace the wimpy horn on my Nissan with them:


S10 harness. I bought it for cheap wire and loom. I would much have preferred to have a real 5.3 harness, but there aren't any of those at Junkyard Barbie. I think that there are people who wander junkyards just to pull fuses from fuse boxes. There were 4 of these (and a lot more car ones) and NONE had any fuses or relays in them at all. There were 3 94-up camaros, and they have nice, simple underhood fuse blocks, but there are no connectors on the bottom of them, they are hardwired. I made one futile attempt at pulling the harness from a Camaro, but that cowl covers most of the engine, and I just couldn't get back there.


Repinning the PCM connectors.


I should go back to the junkyard today, one of the 02 Camaros had the rear brakes still on it. Nah. I've got FUN to do.


Up to date total: 1560.27

Just got back from the u-pull. Got the harness and power steering pump from an 00 Tahoe, and the inside mirror from an 02 camaro (with map lights). Also shown us the air inlet from Thursday.



So, now I am fully set up to go either cable or drive by wire. I should be able to recover some cost at the end selling the bits I don't use.
+50 more 1645.27