This weekend marked another milestone. The SBC came out, the LS4 was mocked up, some tentaive mounts on the new frame were made, and we made sure the engine and transmission would go together. Chug was also kind enough to come out to give Mike assistance. They worked much more effectively together thanks to Chug's experience with engine swaps. I'm sure we would not have accomplished all we had if it were not for his help!

We used a couple car dollies under the cradle to slide it out through the wheel well, which was pretty nice. Mad things much easier.






So besides taking pictures and (sometimes) being the tool go-fer, I had the very improtant job of cleaning all the gunk off the valve covers!






We did, sadly, discover that my flexplate will NOT work after all. The stock LS4 flex plate is 'dished' or 'stepped', to give clearance from the face of the crankshaft bolts and the face of the torque converter. My flexplate is flat. We considered using spacers between the torque converter and the flexplate, but the available space wouldn't allow it, that offset lead to other alignment/fitment issues.

So I've shot an email to Meziere with the pictures of the OEM flexplate, with some comments and explanations, and asked them if they could make me a billet one. They <b>do</b> have a billet flexplate on their site that has a small built in offset around the crankshaft, but I can't tell from the picture if it's "deep" enough.

So for now, things are mocked up with the OEM flexplate.

After that was done, and Mike had created the new mounts, in went the new setup! Again scooting along on the dollies.






After the cradle was reconnected to the body, we put the OEM intake on to see how the fitment would be, and get an idea of spacing. It's pretty roomy! The decklid closes without any issues! There was around 2.5-3 inches of room between the intake and the 'beam' on the bottom of the decklid, and of course more room between the 'beams'.











Now that I have some ideas on the room I have to work with, I can start shopping for my aftermarket intake. Though I think for now, we'll use the OEM since we won't be running any crazy boost until the engine has 500 or so miles on it.

The last thing that's driving me nuts is this terrible water manifold/pulley setup the LS4 has. Look how ugly and convoluted this thing is!





I really want to get something nicer or cleaner or more minimalist steup for this. Or something. That will need to wait until Mike figures out how he wants to mount the accessories first. There are about 3 or 4 different accessory configurations on the LS motors, I think the Corvette setup is the one that brings it all close to the engine, which he wants to keep, but might still be able to flip stuff around.

Also, the LS4 (maybe all LS engines??) had a provision for an oil cooler built into the blocks! So no need for an adapter under the oil filter, just hook it up to the connections that are there! How cool is that?

[This message has been edited by Trinten (edited 06-04-2024).]

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Korey "Plastic Makes It Possible"
86 Pontiac Fiero SE #70123, gold on black options incl luggage rack,power windows,power door locks,sunroof,4 spd,black GT lace wheels,restoring it back to stock check out my build thread!
84 Jeep CJ7 "Dixie"
86 Buick Grand National bone stock
93 GMC Typhoon #1710 black on black bone stock

[This message has been edited by Trinten (edited 03-24-2023).]

Thanks Will,


Today we started to mockup the accessory drive. I say "we". I mean "Mike". I put the DeLorean horns on the car today and just sorta hung out and asked Mike questions. Though I did give him a good idea while he was working on the brake lines! So, score.

Anyhow. Not much room from the valve cover and the cabin bulkhead. He also found that we will need to put FieroGuru's awesome decklid hinges on sooner than later. The accessory drive needs to come up about another 1.5", which puts the fill cap right into the bracket. Mike did say if he needs to shift the engine and transmission back on the cradle some, it can be done with minimum impact to anything. There is plenty of room between the trunk wall and the engine, so the slight shift back would just put an acceptable angle in the axles. Right now it's placed so they are directly in line with the hub opening.

There is also no cleanup yet on the bulkheads. Mike doesn't like to remove anything until he knows for sure he's not going to use it.

The rear brake lines are all done. He had to flip some brackets around. We picked up some brake line for the front, I forgot I had brought over some stainless steel line last year (left over from fixing the brakes on my last Town Car), and he's a fan of the nickle-copper stuff. He came up with some great uses of the existing bolt holes on the front cradle. He wanted to try to route it without having it bolt to the cradle, so the cradle could come out even easier (if needed). Now it'll take undoing a whole extra 4 screws. lol

After some emails with Darth Fiero, who was kind enough to educate me on some things, and additional conversations with Mike, we realized the stock PCM was not going to do all he wants it to do. Thankfully, Mike is experienced at tuning multiple aftermarket units, so I've settled on the Holley Terminator Max unit for the LS1/4L80e. Selling my NIB HP Tuner unit if anyone is interested! Check the mall!

Also tossing up some pictures of the work that CowsPatoot and I (yes, I actually did some work this time!) did putting in the new Rodney Dickman motors, along with all the seals and the dew wipes. I cleaned all the tracks, cleaned rust off parts, helped remove rivets, used a self etching paint to protect things, and of course regreased things. CowsPatoot did the disassembly and reassembly. He also pulled all the crappy jute from the front area and put in the thermal/sound stuff I bought and used in the rest of the car. I am debating on if I went to put any of the fiber-padded stuff on top of it in places or not. Cow spent a CRAZY amount of time doing this for me, and I'm grateful.

For the doors, I will be using FieroGuru's images as a guide to put the sticky stuff on those, too. Again, not sure if I'll use the new jute, or use the fuzzy insulation which is thinner. The vapor barrier will go on too.

Okay, so first picture up....



Above: What is that thing? What does it do? It's just sort of flopping around there. There's not one on the other side. What does it connect to? Thanks!






Slick brake line measuring and routing by Mike, and effective use of pre-existing mounting points!








Check out that nice work by CowsPatoot!! He made sure to get around all the push mounts, and screw mounts, and what not.




Rusty window regulator!




Starting to get it cleaned up. I did fully disassembly it and use a variety of brushes to clean it all.




Covered up the wheels and hit it with self-etching paint in a light coat. Made sure the wheels were well greased.




Used the same paint to clean up the scratches and marks from when we were getting the rivets out. You can see some of the paint was running there.




And lastly, the completed frunk... which will now need to be redone a bit, since the bracket that Mike made for the 0411 won't be used now.

[This message has been edited by Trinten (edited 06-04-2024).]

[This message has been edited by Trinten (edited 03-24-2023).]