74 Panel Wagon LS1 T56 Street Car

[74Sleeper]

I have been building a 74 Vega panel wagon for about a year now. My plans are to have a pretty serious street/strip car by the time I'm done. I started with a 73 wagon but I couldn't get a title for it so I pulled the front clip off of it (I always liked the early Vega look better than the later Vega look) as well as the rear bumper and some other miscellaneous parts. I then found the 74 wagon with a clean title and used that as my starting vehicle. Last fall a friend and I began to cut the car apart and put in a full back half and cage. That was all finished by last spring at which point I was finishing up my mechanical engineering degree and getting ready to move so I put the Vega on the back burner for a couple months. Once I moved and had time to get back on the Vega, a friend and I found a wrecked 01 Pontiac Transam WS6 for a drivetrain donor car. We pulled the LS1 and T56 out of the TA as well as any other needed parts. I just finished taking the whole front end apart and have the parts on order to do the S10 front spindle conversion on it. I am thinking about getting the car together with the LS1 and T56 in stock trim so I can run it down the track summer of 2013 because I am dying to drive this car! The plan is to then take the car back apart and do the necessary body work as well as build the engine and trans in the winter of 2013. I would ultimately like to have 500+ RWHP and be in the 10's consistently once I am done with the car. Let me know what you think of the build and if you have any suggestions. I will post pictures shortly.

[74Sleeper]

Just a couple pictures.

[74Sleeper]

By the way, how did you guys clean up your engine bay/inner fender wells? Just a grinder with some sand paper? Sand blaster? I would like to get all the undercoating and old paint off to start fresh.

[spyderracing]

My kinda project

[avewhtboy]

Hey nice to see another LS project going on, since you have them, could install the front and rear brakes from your
donor car.

[74Sleeper]

Hey nice to see another LS project going on, since you have them, could install the front and rear brakes from your
donor car.

Yea, I was planning on using the brakes from the TA. The rear brakes from the TA will go on with custom brackets but on the front I will be using a 15" wheel so I don't think the front TA discs will fit. For now I am going to stick with the S10 discs and see how that works for me.

[74Sleeper]

For the guys out there with an LS swap, how did you get your OBDII port hooked up to your car? Did you use the engine bay harness from the LS donor car and run the OBDII port from that? Anyone run the engine bay harness with the fuse box, headlight setup, etc. from an LS car?

[grandam75]

For the guys out there with an LS swap, how did you get your OBDII port hooked up to your car? Did you use the engine bay harness from the LS donor car and run the OBDII port from that? Anyone run the engine bay harness with the fuse box, headlight setup, etc. from an LS car?

If you put the ECM inside, the easiest way would be to connect any OBD2 port directly to the ECM dataline cable. If I remember right all that is needed is this cable, +12V and two ground connections. Just grab any OBD2 connector at the junkyard.

[v8astregt]

Very cool project!

And you definitely don't need 500+ RWHP to get solid 10's.

My Astre is about 325 rwhp and running 11.47.

Meanwhile my heavier 98 Trans Am, when it had a cam, but stock long block otherwise (FAST 90/90 intake), was putting down 432 rwhp and ran 11.70 before. That HP number was pushing your limits of a stock LS1. You'd have to go with AFR heads to get over 500 RWHP.

500 rwhp will be low 10's no doubt, if not knocking on 9's, if you can get it to hook!

[waybad]

[74Sleeper]

Very cool project!

And you definitely don't need 500+ RWHP to get solid 10's.

My Astre is about 325 rwhp and running 11.47.

Meanwhile my heavier 98 Trans Am, when it had a cam, but stock long block otherwise (FAST 90/90 intake), was putting down 432 rwhp and ran 11.70 before. That HP number was pushing your limits of a stock LS1. You'd have to go with AFR heads to get over 500 RWHP.

500 rwhp will be low 10's no doubt, if not knocking on 9's, if you can get it to hook!

Thanks! Yea I would love to be low 10's knocking on 9's with a naturally aspirated engine, would save lots of money and in my opinion, it takes alot more skill to go fast naturally aspirated.

[74Sleeper]

So I am getting close to having the S10 knuckle swap done on the car and I am wondering what you guys use for the upper control arm bump stop as well as the lower control arm bump stop. I have found an upper control arm bump stop that seems to be common to Chevy's, OER 384220, but cannot find any dimensions for it so I don't know if it will work for the Vega. If anyone has part numbers/brands that they have successfully used I would really appreciate some help on this one.

[74Sleeper]

I have progressed quite a bit on the car lately but have just not had time to post any pictures so I will do that soon.

I am wondering how people on this forum have mounted their alternators for an LS1. I am keeping the factory Vega steering box so the stock LS1 alternator location will not work. I have tried an alternator accessory bracket from a 5.3 but that won’t fit without massive modification and even then the alternator won’t clear the hood. Suggestions?

Also, has anyone here tried running a 5.3 oil pan in order to clear the factory steering drag link? The 5.3 pan is a lot shallower in the front and deeper in the rear, so I was wondering if it would clear without modification because the LS1 pan will need to be cut and modified in order to work. Suggestions?

[monzaaddict]

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33358

simple alternator bracket
http://ls1tech.com/forums/conversions-h ... ans-3.html

cheap oil pan modification
http://ls1tech.com/forums/conversions-h ... 6-gto.html

[1100kaw]

I like your project, especially the long roof part.
I havent done it yet, but i have a pic of drivers side alt mount i found. Basically its the orig. low mount moves up to head and quick easy custom bracket added to it into another head bolt to stiffen it up. Play with that idea, looked really simple in the pic, i will try to find it and post for ya.
I modified an F-body oil pan so i could set engine as low as poss and still clear the inner tie rods.
pics in my prject journal 72vega GT ls 5spd.
I plan on building my own harness. So much needs to be removed. I have a truck harness to cut up. I bought a PIN OUT book from E bay seller for $25 has everything you need to know. Pin to plug. You tube even has videos of guys building harness s.
Keep pics coming.