And so it begins! Ghost's 68 project

[Ghost's68]

Here’s the LS3 just about stripped down. I don’t think I got much pics of the short block but while it was ripped apart I did end up cleaning the pistons. I had the time so did it anyways.


Some random goodies as they arrived...

[Ghost's68]

Once engine and trans were in and in final position. I went ahead and threw the whole front end with the new Brothers truck radiator support. Got my new Entropy radiator installed and started to try and figure out where I wanted to put its temp/fan controller. It’s not very bulky but I just didn’t care for having wiring all over the place. I was able to find a pretty cool neat tucked away spot for it. Fright below the battery tray. As you can see in the pic it’s cleanly out of the way and still easy to get too. Didn’t have to drill holes either. I just used a provision on the support that was all ready there.

[Ghost's68]

Here’s the rear end after getting it back from the shop. Notice someone had fun with the welder? I left it there since I got a kick out of it! Hacked off the old caliper brackets that were welded on at an angle and the pan hard bar mount. Got everything all cleaned and POR15’ed the whole rear end.


Using a old droid phone with the Torque pro App and a Bluetooth ECU dongle ad my temp gauges. Works really well actually and nice I can graph certain data points and read codes. Might upgrade to a cheapie wallyworld Tablet to have bigger gauges until I get a set of the DD gauges.


Here’s the old engine bay setup. Not bad visually but had a lot of issues I found when removing the engine out. PO used the stock SBC stands and appears to drilled holes through the side to mount up to the engine swap plate. Think LS1 side bolt design. Also found some cheapie undersized hardware to bolt the stands and plate together. All bad!



Here’s the new donor heart next to the patient. Was able to score a used LS3 for a killer deal.

[Ghost's68]

Ordered up a CTS-V oil pan and was sent a F-body style pan instead. Took a second to figure out. Called up PSI and let them know and they sent the correct one after shipping the wrong one back. As you can see, the f-body pickup tube won’t work with the LS3/CTSV windage tray.

[Ghost's68]

After reading a lot on what long tubes work with the LS swaps I decided to give the Kooks for the TBSS a go! Ordered them on Saturday and had them at my door by Monday (today). I also ordered new GM MLS exhaust manifold gaskets as well as ARP header studs.





As many have had issues trying to install them with 4l80’s I ran into the same issue. The headers hit the trans ear. So I ended up just hacking off the amount needed to clear. I did have to file it after a bit to get a bit more clearance as it was really close and didn’t want them tapping.




Here they are installed. Really good clearance and no other modifications were needed.

[cornerstone]

Thanks for the picture overload Lots of work done in these! Shes gonna be a beast

[Ghost's68]

Originally Posted by cornerstone

Thanks for the picture overload Lots of work done in these! Shes gonna be a beast

A lot of pics all at once since I wanted to post updates for most of the work I’ve been doing since. Now they will just be regular updates. Is it weird I just want to hear this thing brap brap braping? Lol

Takes me longer to do things since I have this weird obsession with doing a lot of reviewing on everything I do. Since most of what’s being done is new to me and have no experience doing, I like to make sure it’s done right and I don’t mess anything up. Lol

[cornerstone]

Originally Posted by Ghost's68

A lot of pics all at once since I wanted to post updates for most of the work I’ve been doing since. Now they will just be regular updates. Is it weird I just want to hear this thing brap brap braping? Lol

Takes me longer to do things since I have this weird obsession with doing a lot of reviewing on everything I do. Since most of what’s being done is new to me and have no experience doing, I like to make sure it’s done right and I don’t mess anything up. Lol

You ask is it weird? For this crowd I would venture to say it’s the norm... but my dirt bikes go brrraaap brrraaaap , and my v8 goes rumble rumble. 😊 well hopefully in the not to distant future.

[Ghost's68]

Got the drive side header in yesterday. Did have to modify the trans ear and a small bit of the block to fit the driver side. Over all, it went in a lot smoother then the passenger side.




I purchased a Painless classics wire loom. Looks tons better then plastic stuff you usually see. I’m going to try and tuck it behind the fender so it’s not just hanging in the engine bay. I have to still finishing the hot wire from the battery, just waiting on some packard 56 connectors.

[Tork?]

Any pics of how low the headers hang with your drop kit?

[Ghost's68]

Originally Posted by Tork?

Any pics of how low the headers hang with your drop kit?

I’m running stock crossmember just on a ECE 4/6 spring spindle drop. You can see they tuck really nicely. Driver side has about 8” and passenger has around 9” clearance.

[Ghost's68]

I was able to get my radiator hoses and belt situation all figured out. Took some measurements and went out to the store to try and find a hose that would work. After about an hour and two different places I was able to get hoses that I could use. I did have to trim the ends to fit as both were to long. I also ended up using some T-Bolt clamps to hold them in place. The standard ring worm type in my opinion look ugly and suck. They strip out easy too.





One of the most annoying things to figure out was my belt length. For one not all manufactures use the same methods to list belt lengths. So after 4 belts I found the correct belt length. I went with the Continental Elite V-band belt. Placed my tensioner in the center of the hi low marks. Just where I wanted them. The other belts would put me either past or just on either marks.

[Ghost's68]

My MM catch can showed up and got it installed. I went with the LS head mounting setup as I liked how it sat there. It’s a really nice piece. I also got my intake all done and painted it all black and installed. Also worked on checking my wiring to make sure I had power and continunity where I needed. The old battery was bad so I opted for an Optima red top battery. Just need to install my trans cooler, gas tank, run some trans/fuel lines and I should be able to fire her up.

[Tork?]

Nice progress! Did the catch can come with the black push lock fittings or did you add them on? Also did you try the stock plug boots with the Kooks? I've heard stock LS3 wires don't fit some headers. I have an ls3 in the garage gathering parts so been following your build

[Ghost's68]

Originally Posted by Tork?

Nice progress! Did the catch can come with the black push lock fittings or did you add them on? Also did you try the stock plug boots with the Kooks? I've heard stock LS3 wires don't fit some headers. I have an ls3 in the garage gathering parts so been following your build

When you buy the MM kit it does come with the two pushlock fittings you see. It also comes with about two feet of standard hose. I ended up buying the XRP pushlock house since I think it looked pretty cool.

I don’t think you should run into any issues with the stock boots. There is really good clearance next to the boots. I can see maybe having to remove the metal boot protector maybe. Hope to see your stuff come together soon dude.

[Ghost's68]

I got my Boyd’s fuel cell installed and lines ran. Decided to mount the corvette FPR right next to the tank as it seemed like a good spot. Got my wiring to my pump all hooked up as well. My modern vintage wiring came with fuel pump wire and relay. Super nice harness I must add.

[Ghost's68]

One of the biggest pains to figure out was my Derale trans cooler! Due to the size of this 40row cooler I wasn’t able to put it anywhere under the bed and I really didn’t want to run it up by the radiator so I had my buddy who is a fabricator come over and we came up with these brackets that were needed. I went with right under the passenger side of the cab. Mounted to the outside of the frame and tucked in nicely. Running the lines through frame via bulk head. Super happy how it came out.

[halfstep]

Great looking project and nice execution/attention to detail.
Couple of questions...
How is the Modern Vintage wiring harness? Anything you liked or didn't like about it? and did you re-wire the rest of the truck. looking at the ModVintage site, he appears to have a c10 focus and integrates with AAW and Dakota Digital. i'm curious if he has a routing pattern for our c10's thats particularly neat or helpful or is it just a quality harness that looks neater because half the stock components are deleted.
Also what cam did you put in your LS3?
Thanks.

[TruDom]

nice build.
i like that wrinkle black finish. is that from a rattle can?

[Ghost's68]

Originally Posted by halfstep

Thanks. I'm not at that point yet, but it's good to get some hands on feed back. They sound like a good way to go for the harness. Always curious about cams - interesting how many people get custom cams now. Like the silver color on your truck too. Looks good and is not very common.

For being a Faux Patina paint job, the silver goes quite well with the red interior. Truck was not painted by me BTW Lol

Originally Posted by TruDom

nice build.
i like that wrinkle black finish. is that from a rattle can?

Yup! looks pretty cool and matches the Fast intake manifold lid quite well too. Here’s a pic of the rattle can.

[Ghost's68]

Finally got around to doing one of the upgrades I’ve been wanting to do since I got my LS swap running, got Dakota Digital Gauges. Went with the HDX’s with the black face. Since running my swap I’ve been using on of those OBD2 blue tooth dongle and an old android phone running the Torque app. It certainly worked at the time but the small screen was getting old quick, not to mention the battery died really fast lol.

Here’s the old set up


And here’s the new setup! Man these things are super nice. When running the LS swap, wiring is a breeze! I choose to not run the DD sensor wiring since I wanted to keep things neat how I have them currently. Went with the BIM-01-2 to read all my engine data. Nice with my setup I even get speed off the BIM. took the time to clean up the wiring behind the gauge and originize things while I was in there.

Old gauges


Here’s my son helping papa with install


Gauges all done

[Ghost's68]

I got tired of using my IPhone and and Bluetooth speaker to listen to tunes while I was driving so decided to upgrade the stereo. This radio came with the truck and never really worked. It certainly isn’t the original stereo. I was hoping since it had the knobs that weren’t connected to the body, the dash wouldn’t be cut up. But sure enough, the dash was cut. It appears at one point it had a standard deck in it. then when the deck that was in it was put in a plate was made out of aluminum to allow stock style decks to be used. It gave it the appearance of an uncut dash.

Anyone ever see anything like this before?



So after seeing it had a standered deck opening cut, I decided to go with a Kenwood media player deck. This thing is half the size of a standard CD player deck. This does not play CD’s and is intended for Pandora, Spotify, iPhone music streaming etc etc. I don’t even own CD’s so this was a no brainer lol.



PO also cut holes in the doors and installed 6x9’s. So while I was upgrading the sounds I went ahead and threw in some new Kicker OS 6x9’s and ran all new wiring. It feels good not carrying around my bulky Bluetooth speaker.

[Ghost's68]

I ordered up a set of the delux side markers. Originally when I bought the truck it came with the Clear delux style markers. I always liked the original orange/red look. Also truck never had them wired in so I took the time to get em wired up. I did wire the front to blink with the turn signals. So when the lights are on, markers are solid. When I use the turn signal the side signaling will blink. Love how the truck looks when it’s lit up.



Here’s a shot in the dark with the parking lights on. Sexy.....

[Ghost's68]

She’s far from pretty! I would consider her a pig with lipstick. I ran across these stickers one day on Instagram and thought to myself, “that’s totally how I feel about this hunk a junk”. Bought them then placed one on the rear window and another on the driver side vent window.

[TA_C10]

Looking good man, I hope they make those deluxe side markers in LED form cuz that's what I would like to install.

Can you explain a little more for us newb's on the gauge wiring and lingo?

What is DD sensor wiring issue you spoke of? And what is the BI and the wiring your talking about?

I am going to be running my old samsung phone with the torque app as well before I can afford the DD(Dakota Digital guages). I really like the look of the stock with some upgrades However I am also installing a power inverter so I will be able to power my phone that way without worrying about dead phone battery