56 Chevy (RIP)

[jwhotrod]

i used Paul Hortons LS motor mounts and his transmission mount kits as well.
the rack shaft passes below the mount and outside of where the headers are so hookup will be easy.

[Snake72]

Thanks man, that's helping to fill in the missing pieces. Working on installing new control arm bushings and ball joints. A press makes it pretty easy job with minimal swearing.

[jwhotrod]

im putting an LS3 with a Tremic % speed in the truck. thats a Payer styrofoam block in the truck currently i dont have the engine yet. im glad i could help.

[dsraven]

Curious if the frame end of that engine mount has, or will have, support or a vertical brace.

[jwhotrod]

you cant see it here but yes there is a vertical stiffener/brace that runs from the bushing to the boxing plate on the inside of the frame rail. i am very cautious about strength in parts. When i cut the C notches for the rack i didnt like the way the frame looked, thought it may be a weak spot to support the front sheetmetal. So i put braces across the notches.

[Snake72]

Finished installing new control arm bushings from energy suspensions, thought I ordered black but got red. New upper and lower ball joints installed as well, the upper ball joint is a POS and I've already ordered a different brand. Rebuilding the control arms is not particularly fun, but it's done. Reassembled the suspension and moved onto the dreaded rack and pinion. This particular crossmember geometry puts the rack higher in the crossmember creating oil pan clearance issues, especially with the rack hard lines coming out the top of the cylinder. To improve clearance you can "clock" the rack hard line positions by removing 2 screw in rivets and rotating the steel body 90 degrees forward. The info I had said to use vice grips to grab onto the rivet heads and use a hammer to gently turn out counter clockwise. I tried for an hour and just ended up with bloody knuckles. My solution that worked waaaaaay better was to cut a slot in the rivet head, making it a screw, and it turned right out no problem. I then used a pipe wrench and cheater bar with a little propane heat and rotated the steel portion 90 degrees forward. Moved easy. Redrill for the rivets in their new position and gently tap them in (self threading). Now I need to remake the hard lines to fit, I've heard of people bending the stockers but I'm going to try and cut the middle of the line out and have flex hose pressed on.

With everything reassembled, I took the truck off jack stands to see the ride height. Everything is square, level side to side, 2 degree rake. Love it. Rockers are 8" off the ground.

[Snake72]

I still have steel mock up struts in place of the coil overs, hopefully it will sit the same once I have shocks installed.

[Snake72]

This is my solution to the power steering hard lines and routing. The hard lines are bendable but I opted to cut the middle out and had local John Deere dealership install compression and hydraulic hose, rated for 3000 psi. Cost was $90 but should work.

[6DoF]

proper custom application on the rack, i love seeing those things

[Jason 56]

Looking great. I like the stance!

[Snake72]

Took the summer off from working on RIP, super busy with softball/baseball, family trips, fixed up an old fishing boat, and now back to it. I'm at a crucial point needing to get the engine location finessed so I can fab some motor mounts, clearance firewall/trans tunnel if needed, figure out steering linkage route, fab trans crossmember, finish cab floor, etc. All hinges on motor location. I have an Amazon holley 302-2 knockoff oil pan on order, hopefully be able to lower the engine another inch and set back another inch. I don't want to go into the firewall because the AR5 shifter is already too far back to work with a bench seat. I'll have to get creative on shifter design, needs to stay bench seat. Here are some mock up pics

[Snake72]

couple of approximate trans location, you can see how far back the shifter is already and may end up a little further back yet. Will need a bench seat type curve shifter

[68Gold/white]

Job well done!!!
Man, a lot of thinking went into this!!! Makes me dizzzy.

I like rolling restorations, but you made the best choice.

Blending the black paint in won't be too difficult.

Carry on!!!

[Snake72]

A lot of thinking indeed, should be a ball to drive though! I swapped oil pans, the knockoff holley 302-2 gave me way more clearance and was able to get the engine lower and positioned much better. To fit the new oil pan I had to cut about 4" off the 5.3 windage tray because the tray sits too high in the front where the new pan reduces height.

While I had the pan off, I took a good look at the LS bottom end, had some sludge and baked on oil...like it went way too long between oil changes. Some very fine metal particles in the sludge but not of too much concern. After everything is mocked up I'll refresh with new bearings and hone the cylinder walls as well as new gaskets, timing chain, oil pump. Probably clean the heads up and reassemble.

Also I installed the FabBot AR5 adapter which allows me to bolt the transmission directly to a stock 4L60e bellhousing, very high quality piece and supplied hardware. I had to clearance the trans tunnel at the firewall and have plenty of room now. I'll mock this up to find final shifter location. I threw in the bench seat and a 2" wood dowel for steering column, will likely be ordering a 30" tilt column.

[68Gold/white]

Any thoughts on tires and wheels???

[Snake72]

You don't like the wood ones?? 17" black steelies with stock hub caps is the plan

[68Gold/white]

LOL, I DO like the wooden wheels!!! I'm expecting you to be a trend setter!!! Wheels seem to be just getting bibber and bigger!!!

Steelies and hub caps would be my choice!!!

I like the 5.3 engine choice. A 4.8 would have worked also... I have a stock 2005 Silverado SWB 2 WD pickup. The 5.3 is mighty powerful for that pickup. I like it just the wy it is. Gets 20 MPG with 3.73 gear (towing package), AT.

[Snake72]

Here is what I came up with for motor mounts. Spent way too much time doing this. First I had to figure out exhaust, I found these ls swap cast manifolds that tuck up to the block really well and then get the approximate steering shaft angle. Once that was established using the stock shaft for mockup, I started making templates for the mounts and found what worked. Used 1/4" plate for the mounts and tacked together. I have to cut the perches yet but they will be welded to the crossmember. After mounts are fully welded I'll need to make up a transmission crossmember and then work on steering shaft and couplers to a new tilt column.

[B52bobardier1]

Be careful creating your transmission crossmember and don't do what I did. My crossmember wound up placing too much upper push and lift on the tail shaft cone on the 4L60E in my Pontiac Catalina convertible.

The result was a cracked tail shaft cone casting. I kept having fluid leaks that I would have bet money was coming from the vent tube. But no, it was a barely visible crack in the casting. I now have a used 60E casting with a new bushing and seal that is installed but I need to modify that crossmember to prevent this from happening again.

I guess its possible that the rebuilder over torqued those six bolts or it was a casting flaw but I doubt it. Though the car only has about four miles on it since recently being able to move under its own power. IDK.

Rick

[dsraven]

B52, curious what your rear suspension lookks like. i wonder if the rear axle is able to move the pinion angle under load/decel and that is possibly whats causing the trans stress.
snake, not looking to hijack your thread, just curious about the above comment.
on my 57 I used camaro LS engine mounts that bolt the rubber part to the engine, then made some wings for that to connect the dots over to the frame. i worked around the LS camaro exhaust manifolds. the frame connectors bolted to a flat bar welded to the boxed frame. this allowed me to remove them for engine removal/install and also could easily be remade if the power plant were to change. the driver's side was made so that the steering column was able to pass under/through (sort of) the frame connector.
i had installed a TCI MII front suspension but was pretty sure the wrong cross member was shipped as it wasn't even close to fitting my frame. after a bunch of cutting and angle checking i got it to fit but I also had to do some rack work for oil pan and vibe damper clearance. i ended up fabbing the steel crossover lines from steel brake line. the vibe damper was quite close to the rack when done. i used an LS camaro oil pan that came as a kit with everything but the windage tray. i modded the "truck oil pan" windage tray as well. I did have to mod the firewall as the engine sat low and rearward otherwise the room in front of the engine was pretty tight for fans etc.
nice work, keep at it and you'll be driving in not time.

[Jason 56]

It’s amazing how much work goes into making these trucks awesome. Reading your thread reminds me how much it takes! Build on, it’s coming together great.

[Snake72]

I ordered a few steering U joints, support heim, DD shaft and a new tilt universal column from speedway. I wanted to makes sure the steering clearance was figured out before final welding the motor mounts to frame. I tell ya, the $299 tilt column is a nice piece, very solid turn signal and tilt operation. I made a little brace from scrap square tubing for the shaft support heim joint, its solid. FYI the sequence for u joints was 1" DD column x 3/4" DD, shaft, 3/4 x 3/4 U joint, shaft, 3/4 x 17mm u joint for stock vette rack.

[Tempest67]

looks good.

I will be needing a steering column and have been looking at Ididit units that are almost $1000. I have also been told to stay away from cheap Chinese columns as the parts in them will not last.

Please provide details on your new column


Thanks,

[8man]

Nice work!

[Snake72]

Tempest, I'm sure this is not near the quality of Ididit or Flaming River, but hopefully better than the Amazon specials. Super happy with it so far. Here's the link.

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Unive...Raw,67289.html