Taking the plunge: LS3 into '64 Tempest. Need help with shopping list. by b-man

12 minute(s) of a 224 minute read

.....through the hole in the firewall today. I carefully deburred and sanded the inside of the hole smooth with 180 grit paper and touched it up with some black paint to keep the edges from rusting beforehand.

Here you can see where the main harness branches off into several smaller ones, that part of the harness will reside just behind the passenger side cylinder head.



I cut the hole in the grommet to 3/4" using a piece of 3/4" I.D. tubing with the end sharpened, the main harness is about 15/16" in diameter. Using a fresh new razor blade I made a cut in the grommet.



The engine harness fits pretty nicely, there is enough room for it to tuck against the firewall away from the back of the engine. The grommet went in easily and will need some sealer around the harness later when I'm through messing with it, if I don't like the way it's working out I can buy an aftermarket split grommet later on.

The wiring provided (blue, green & pink) for control of the fan relays can be seen at the very bottom of the pic. I have two Bosch 30 amp relays here (0 332 019 150) that perhaps I can use for the fans, I'm not sure if they're the correct ones to use.



I need to come up with a bracket or plate to mount the ECM (Engine Control Module) in this spot just to the left of the passenger side kick panel. I can't get it mounted up any higher as it will interfere with the A/C unit. It will be up high enough to be out of the way of my passenger's feet, but still easily accessible.



I can mount this TCM (Transmission Control Module) unit over the top of the ECM, leaving about an inch of air space between them for cooling airflow.



With the engine side of the harness out of the way it doesn't look too bad in here. On the driver's side you can see the 4 fuses (#1- Battery, #2- Injection & Ignition, #3- O2 heaters, #4- Fuel pump) which can be mounted right next to the original fuse panel.

On the trans hump is the diagnostic port/check engine light unit. Closer to the firewall on the hump is the wiring rolled up for the cruise control, brake switch (for cruise control disengagement, needs to be a 4 terminal type of brake switch), tach, electric speedo (which I won't be using) and A/C compressor.

On the passenger side is the ECM and TCM units and fuel pump relay. The ETC (electronic throttle control) pedal harness has a little extra length that will need to be looped and tied up. All in all it should be a pretty simple and neat installation when it's done, of course figuring a few things out along the way will be more than just a little challenging.



Tomorow I'll try to fab up the mounting brackets I need for the ECM and find a home for the fuses, fuel pump relay and diagnostic port/check engine light unit.

8-16-2009

.....that I might need in my next lifetime.

Lucky for me I found an old bracket in my stash of junk that was already pretty close to what I need to mount the ECM.



All I need to do now is to remove what doesn't look like an ECM mounting bracket.



After trimming 1" off the right side and 1" off the bottom (losing the welded side braces in the process) and drilling & tapping the 4 holes 1/4-28 that mount the ECM the bracket is done. The firewall angles back a bit so I had to increase the 90 degree bend angle of the bracket by about 10 degrees to get the ECM to sit level and tuck up as far as possible.



The ECM doesn't sit any lower than the bottom of the A/C unit so it will not be in the way of my passenger's feet. I still need to mount the TCM to the front edge of the bracket.

The kick panel didn't need any mods, it still fits just like the factory intended. I can crack open the vent on this side to provide a bit of fresh air flow for both the ECM and A/C unit.



It's nice to have easy access to these units even if they aren't all that pretty to look at where they're mounted. Making things easier to service whenever possible is constantly on my mind during this build.

Well, that killed most of my day. Just figuring out what to do and finding whatever materials you need to proceed takes a lot of time, in a fully-equipped shop things definitely go a lot faster.

.....in the garage finishing up mounting the control units today. Once you get some major items in place it makes finding places for the other little things a bit easier.

The TCM found a home next to the ECM. The ECM mounts on four .300" tall standoffs made of 3/8" O.D. brake line tubing. Both units can be bolted to the mounting plate first, then the plate mounts on two 1/4-20 X 3/4" studs on the firewall.

The two studs are actually button head screws threaded into the firewall from the engine side after tapping the sheetmetal 1/4-20. They were snugged down enough so that they won't turn but not so tight that they strip that one thread out of the sheetmetal. A little strip caulk body sealer under the bolt head and flat washer keeps them water tight and helps lock them in place.



The fuel pump relay found a home on one of the ECM mounting bolts. I'll probably come up with a simple sheetmetal cover painted gloss black to hide the ECM/TCM/fuel pump relay unit later on.



This low-angle shot shows the wiring bundled up and pulled to the driver's side and zip tied to keep it in order. The white zip ties are temporary and will be replaced with black ones. I'll get another piece of black harness sleeving to cover up the colored wires and tidy things up when everything is finalized on the wiring.



You can barely see any of the wiring here, it really isn't visible unless you get down pretty low. I'm glad I didn't try to stuff it all up inside the dash.



Little by little.



Thanks for looking.

8-17-2009

Thanks for the kind words guys.

The A/C compressor will mount up top using some KWiK Performance brackets that I bought.

8-18-2009

Today I was looking for a good place to mount my transmission cooler. The air conditioning condensor takes up the space in front of the radiator where I was first thinking of putting it. There is not enough room up front anywhere behind the bumper.

I am considering mounting it to the passenger side frame rail and to the two floor pan braces just above it. It will go directly behind the body mount brace just underneath the passenger seat.



There is plenty of clearance between the exhaust system and the cooler, the X-crossover is directly across from it so the hot exhaust pipes will be as far away from it as would be possible. I can run the 3/8" steel cooler lines going across to the trans just above the trans crossmember to keep the heat transfer from the hot exhaust minimized as much as possible.



Does anyone see a problem with this approach? With the car moving down the road at normal traffic speeds I would think there should be plenty of airflow.

Would stones or road debris kicked up by the right front tire tend to damage it? The B&M Supercooler I'll be using is a plate-type design that is more resistant to impacts than the tube & fin-type coolers. It's not like there are a bunch of stone chips on the bottom of the floorpans already.

I know that cast aluminum framerail mounted coolers are available, but they don't look like they would cool nearly as well as the plate type cooler I have.

Any helpful input would be appreciated.

8-21-2009

.....for mounting the trans cooler.

I will mount it up front instead of taking the easy way out and mounting it under the car on the frame where it really won't do a good job and could end up damaged. I had to be reminded that there is a lot of hot air expelled underneath the car from the radiator, engine block and exhaust system.

The one I have is just too a little too big to fit behind the front bumper in front of the radiator and condensor, so I'll just downsize the cooler and get one about half the size so I can put it up front where it really needs to go. The 4L70E overdrive trans with the lockup converter shouldn't put out quite as much heat as one with a non-lockup converter that will by design slip at least a little 100% of the time.

You can see the top of the cooler here, it is 1-1/2" thick and there is only a 2-1/2" space for it. On the left it's just touching the condenser at the bottom corner, it has to follow the angle of the front bumper and grilles in order to fit.



This cooler is 10" wide (as mounted here) including the mounting flanges and has an 8" core width. I will replace it with one of the same design that is 5-3/4" wide with a 3-3/4" core, it will also be 1-1/2" thick like the larger one:http://www.summitracing.com/parts/BMM-70273/



Should get some pretty decent airflow here and not block too much airflow to the condensor and radiator.



It will mount the same as the trans cooler I have on my GTO shown here, but of course it will only be about half as wide. Plumbing will be done using 3/8" steel hard lines with inverted flare fittings (no rubber hose) like the GTO as well.







Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys, much appreciated.