Another way to skin the cat; the High Torque 292 LS swap

[dayj1]

The first order of business was the mounts. I've done several swaps, but this is the first time that I had a SBC and a Gen 3 motor sitting side by side. So, armed with my trusty tape measure I came up with adapter plates for the stock towers and mounts to place the motor just where I wanted it. I made these mounts out of 3/8 plate. There pretty much run of the mill plates, except that the SBC mount holes are 1/4" below the Gen 3 mounting holes. This will raise the motor by about 1/4".

Here are the plates in the middle of painting:



I also needed to modify the passenger's side tower. First, I removed the top of the tower:



Then a duplicate of the mount "top" in flat steel:



Welded together and a rough pass with the flap wheel:



Gusseted under the edges to add back some strength and blasted:



All done, in paint:

[dayj1]

It was around this point in the swap that I decided that I wanted the new engine to have an old look; Chevy orange and all. I was going to need coil relocation brackets. There are several choices out there for car coils. Truck coils, not so much. I decided that I wanted them behind the heads. So, the fabrication started.

The brackets started as simple angles to bolt to the back of the heads. I center drilled some spacers out of 3/4 rod on the lathe:



With coils attached:



Painted and fully assembled. Notice that they aren't exactly the same since there is just a little less room behind the driver's cylinder head:

[dayj1]

After a coat of Chevy orange, the engine went in:





Those are Gen 5 Camaro exhaust manifolds. Here's some shots of the clearance to explain why I made the plates to raise the motor by 1/4" and why I removed the "hump" from the top of the passenger's side tower:

[dayj1]

I ordered some LS/SBC valve cover adapters on eBay and some plain Jane orange sheet metal valve covers. I also had to throw the intake on there just to see how it looked.



I liked the look of the LS1 intake. But, it wasn't quite what I wanted and things really went off the rails.

Friends with water jets are cool. Especially when you need things like a square bore to 3-bolt TB adapter:



I ordered up a Holley intake and attached the adapter:



And a test fit of the TB. That's the #1 shop dog, Vance, in the background, BTW.



Here is is sitting on the engine:

[dayj1]

I took a break from the engine for a little while to work on my radiator.

I took the stock 4 core radiator to a local shop and, $50 later, it got a clean bill of health. I had the heater hose outlet on the tank brazed shut while it was there.

After a little tin-bending:



And some paint:



For a lower hose, I used the piece on the left:



The upper hose was cut at the the tape:



The upper hose also needed a reducer on the water pump end:



Istalled:



And, since I despise worm clamps, some spring clamps:

[dayj1]

The truck didn't originally have power brakes. I sourced one of the small dual S10 boosters from a '93 model at a salvage yard and fabbed up a bracket.



I threaded the pushrod in the booster to 5/16-24:



I turned down the end of the original '72 pushrod and threaded it to 5/16-24:



The two rods were joined with a coupling nut and installed along with a C3 style master cylinder that I had left over from another project:

[dayj1]

I went to the local Parker hose store and had them make up a flexible high pressure hose for the power steering about 20" long. Then I bent up and flared the ends to match the metric steering pump and standard box.

Here are the parts:



And installed:



I also modified some SBC wire looms and crimped up a set of plug wires:

[dec010974]

I am dying to see/read the rest of this post. im interested to see the wiring and tuning for this application. I had a dream I completed a swap, just like this, using the same combination of parts such as intake and throttle body. I assume your going with a speed density tune? good luck. Clark. don't forget to spill all the beans. knowledge is power.

[dayj1]

Originally Posted by dec010974

I am dying to see/read the rest of this post. im interested to see the wiring and tuning for this application. I had a dream I completed a swap, just like this, using the same combination of parts such as intake and throttle body. I assume your going with a speed density tune? good luck. Clark. don't forget to spill all the beans. knowledge is power.

You can see all the details above, but, nope, I'm running a MAF. If you have questions on anything, let me know.

[lt155ruck]

Would this be considered in the "stock" location or inch back etc?

Originally Posted by dayj1

The first order of business was the mounts. I've done several swaps, but this is the first time that I had a SBC and a Gen 3 motor sitting side by side. So, armed with my trusty tape measure I came up with adapter plates for the stock towers and mounts to place the motor just where I wanted it. I made these mounts out of 3/8 plate. There pretty much run of the mill plates, except that the SBC mount holes are 1/4" below the Gen 3 mounting holes. This will raise the motor by about 1/4".

Here are the plates in the middle of painting:



I also needed to modify the passenger's side tower. First, I removed the top of the tower:



Then a duplicate of the mount "top" in flat steel:



Welded together and a rough pass with the flap wheel:



Gusseted under the edges to add back some strength and blasted:



All done, in paint:

[dayj1]

Originally Posted by lt155ruck

Would this be considered in the "stock" location or inch back etc?

Using the bell housing mounting surface as the point of reference, the plates that I made move the "LS" engine 1 inch forward of the SBC.

[lt155ruck]

Thanks for that, I'm not sure why that seems to confuse me... must be getting older.