LS1/t56 swap

6 minute(s) of a 132 minute read

mocking it up with my mounts

passenger side tacked in

drivers side tacked in

let the fun begin! this was literally the worst thing ive ever welded. It seemed great on paper! when it came to actually holding those pieces together and getting the tig torch in there to do it, it was brutal! luckily I have an extra poly section for the engine mounts, it did not like the heat very well..

it never fails... right after I got the last part tacked in, I looked over and saw the starter location...... I didnt plan for that at all.. and also didnt have a starter. The plan is to box these mounts in on the engine side, just have not done it yet.

factory Fbody starter, fits!! The back side of this mount is slightly different, 5 bolts on the engine vs 6 on the other side. Completely spaced that out, gotta modify it slightly. but still have to box them in so no big deal.

The steering got a bit in depth. Im still not 100% sure what im doing with it, its very very very tight... everything has to be synced correctly. If its not, I way as well just not finish the car! ill get something figured out for sure.

I did a comparison on borgeson and flaming river chromoly DD joints, Really had to build my engine mounts around these and pick what worked the best in this application. I literally could not find any information on these as far as dimensions go, figured I would add to the net of information and maybe help somebody out.

Borgeson 014946 3/4 DD x 17mm DD
Flaming river Chrome moly FR1932 3/4 DD x 17mm DD

few months back, I decided to pull the trigger on getting my CTS-V trans converted to the fbody style and also get it fixed. Turns out I didnt have all the parts I had thought I needed.. Some were impossible to find... and worth gold.. I decided I didnt want to deal with that.. half the reason Im doing this build was to have readily available parts! The t56 is sadly a dying transmission.. and the whole covid ordeal didnt help any as far as parts supply goes.. so.. in the name of having to proceed with my build, I sold that transmission to a friend who has a ctsv, and bought a new Magnum-F t56 close ratio transmission. End of the day the gearing will be much better, in stock for its about equal with my old built t56 i believe. The magnum-F is basically tr6060 internals, in a t56 housing setup to fbody spec for the shifter location. The standard magnum is a hair longer, I didnt want that for driveshaft angle reasons..

literally sat in the box for 3 months...

Finally did something with it! put it in..

testing it out.. trying to get a feel for the seat location

on we go.. more cutting, trying to come up with an idea on how to mount the back of the transmission, and have room for exhaust.. literally been thinking about this for the past 8 months lol.

More mockup and thinking

This is what I was able to come up with. Red is 2x4 box, yellow is 1x3 box for the seat mounts, green is probably 1.75 dom tube and same with the grey that ties it back to the frame and goes through the 2x4 box. I will have a driveshaft loop in there also. I have some metal on the way, in the process of ordering a driveshaft also.


making progress! and have a plan!!! Also got a bunch of interior parts last weekend to help me figure out exactly what to do with that, and the cage.