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

7 minute(s) of a 224 minute read

.....the trans crossmember tonight.

Before any mods.



Before doing any cutting I stood the crossmember up in my 6" bench vise and straightened out the tips. Note the series of punch marks where I plan to start drilling some holes.



I used a drill that was about the same size as the width of my cutoff wheel to drill the holes. A quick slice with the Sawzall across the end and I'm ready to use the cutoff wheel.



The cutoff wheel work goes quickly and accurately since most of the material on my cut line has been removed by the drilled holes.



Next another trip through the bench vise to bend and straighten out the flanges and make them even with the bottom of the crossmember. Finally I used the vise like a press and flattened out the ends.



That's all for tonight, I'll fit it up under the car to check for fit and cut some filler pieces next.

.....on the crossmember tonight.

Fitted it up and found that the tips didn't match up to the frame.



A little bit of careful bending in the bench vise took care of that.



I scrounged up an old bracket made of flat steel plate that just happened to match up with the .135" material thickness of the crossmember to cut up for the filler pieces. After some work with a Sawzall and grinder it's now ready to weld.



Now to hit up my friend with the MIG welder for a favor.

6-17-2009

.....from the bottom of the car.

I knew there was probably a 1% chance of them going in, and of course they didn't. The next time the engine is out they'll have to be set in place in the engine bay and the LS3 will have to be carefully dropped down onto the mounts.

Well, at least I took a picture of them.



While I had the exhaust system on my mind I spent a little time modifying the muffler hangers, this pretty much consisted of making a couple brackets from 1-1/4" X 1/8" angle iron to bolt onto the hangers. I need to have a center to center distance of 26" for the muffler outlets and the hangers currently put them at 24".

That's all for tonight, gotta keep chipping away at it.

6-18-2009

.....to the hanger brackets I made last night and started fitting up the 3" PYPES X-crossover exhaust.

The angle iron hanger brackets move each muffler towards the outside of the car by one inch, and move the mount for the pipe clamp back by about an inch as well. The 2-1/2" PYPES tailpipes were already expanded to 3" to mate up with the 3" muffler outlets, so the 2-1/2" muffler hanger clamps needed to move back a little to keep away from the expanded transition that can't be clamped onto.



Spent some time positioning the tailpipes so they would have plenty of clearance. The tailpipes were put in place first and attached to the muffler and tailpipe hangers, then the mufflers were slipped onto the tailpipes and supported with a floor jack.



The mufflers are tilted downward slightly near the center of the car to lower the inlets, this was done to gain a little bit more floorpan clearance for the inlet pipes.



After getting the mufflers located where I wanted them I found that I needed a 15" measurement from the outside of both inlet pipes. The PYPES X-crossover with the muffler inlet pipes slipped in comes just a little wider at 16". In order to move the pipes inward by 1/2" on each side I needed to cut 1" off the end of each one where it enters the X-crossover, due to the 45-degree bend of the pipe.



The two cuts were easily done with a big tubing cutter, now I have my 15" dimension. I'll trim about 3/4" off the ends and extend the slots of the X-crossover where the pipes slip in so I won't end up trying to clamp on the pipes where they start to curve.



The trans crossmember is temporarily in place to check fitment. The inlet pipes leading into the mufflers will need to be shortened by about 8" or so to bring the X-crossover rearward some. Before finalizing the pipe lengths I really need to get the trans mounted and the headers bolted on the engine.

Having a driveshaft in place to check for clearance above the X-crossover is a must, I have to be careful not to move the X-crossover back too far.



A look at the profile, ground clearance will be pretty good especially for a 3" system with big mufflers.



Still looking pretty innocent from the rear.



Nothing has really been finalized at this point other than perhaps the tailpipe locations which are pretty close but still need minor tweaking. This is a good start and gives me an idea of how the 3" exhaust will fit the car.

That's all for tonight, I'm exhausted. ;)