[stobin]

Here are some pictures of the new frame going in. To make it a lot easier, we strapped the front end of the body and used the engine hoist to raise the front end. This allowed more people to concentrate on the rear of the body. My buddy brought his very tall jack stands, and we lifted the body up and installed long metal beams underneath the rear section. To make it easier than lifting the whole body as a unit, we removed the tires and wheels, laid some towels on the ground, and rolled the car on the brake rotors under the body. We did have to manually lift the body just enough to get the frame to clear the low points on the floorpan, but with eight guys it was pretty easy. Total time was about two hours to pull it off.

[stobin]

Frame going under. The no tires idea made it a lot easier.

[stobin]

I had enough time to get the motor installed with all the extra help. This is the real motor, not the mock up motor in all the other photos previously posted. Now I need to get my ass in gear and get this thing finished!

[krisr]

[stobin]

WOW...Chuck Norris, The Rock, and Jeremiah Johnson approved. That is very cool. I cant even post pictures without wanting to throw the computer down the freakin stairs, and your posting video shots.

[Karch]

Bravo!

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by stobin

These concept drawings are amazing. I would like to get in touch with this artist and share some ideas I have on a rendering for my Grand Am. I am sure his work is not cheap, but the work speaks for itself. I have looked at the idea of incorporating some small fender louvers on my GA as well.

Roger that! I was going to ping your Build Thread w these images in case you'd missed them. Good to see you found this.

You will note that Don V. the artist is located in SoCal - your general area yes? Would be great to see his images of your car - if you contract him...on your build thread.

Your GA came to mind the 1st time I saw this Don Vierstra Creation
Dig the exhaust tip treatments

[mrrat1]

freakin nice stuff there!! Just bolt on bare rims save them rotors!! Sweet job!

[stobin]

I like the exhaust tip idea as well. I had looked at the idea after the latest Lexus LS 460 came out. The tips are molded flush into the bumper, and the size would compliment the size of the GA well.

[Big Injun]

Things are really coming along. Can't wait to see the finished product...and one of our local shows.

[stobin]

Thanks Dave...Looking forward to getting it out to some events. Any plans to have another show at Jim Wangers shop this year?

[Chief Wanabee]

[stobin]

Since I have started to make some progress on the remaining parts of the build, I wanted to post some new information. I have been busy with fabrication on the new MK VIII fan installation and custom intake tube. Up to this point I had been running a Taurus 16" electric fan. It was installed the 466 Pontiac motor and worked very well. The nice thing about that fan was that it fit inside the factory shroud. When I started mocking up the LS7 and radiator, I realized there was no room to run the factory fan shroud due to the forward position of the throttle body. This made it necessary to eliminate the factory shroud. Since it was going to be necessary to remove the shroud, this allowed me to have an excuse to remove a perfectly good electric fan, and swap to the 18" MK VIII Lincoln fan I had in the garage. My radiator is huge, and the Taurus fan looked pretty small. So I modified the Lincoln fan by removing the ears. Custom aluminum brackets were fabbed up to mount the radiator to the core support, and fan to the radiator. As you can see I still have a lot of room on the radiator. I think this fan will be overkill, but if any area of the car should have overkill built in, this is it. The next thing to do is build a new custom fan shroud to cover the top of the radiator. The radiator had to sit at a forward angle when the factory fan shroud was installed, so I decided to reposition the radiator in relation to the core support and built some new mounting brackets to mount it a little further back. I will remove the fan in order to sand down the modified areas and paint the entire assembly for a cleaner look. I will be running this as a 2 speed fan.

[stobin]

My other area of concentration on the swap has been the intake tube. A few months ago I picked up some various 4" aluminum tubing in strait, 45* and 90* bends at the local swap meet. Total cost I think was about $60.00. I started positioning everything to see just how I would be able to fab this system up. I originally wanted to buy an aftermarket intake kit with a box and modify it for a cleaner factory look, but I quickly realized there was not going to be enough room. So I started cutting back the tubes to get the correct length needed. I am positioning this on the passenger side area between the inner federwell and core support in order to get as much fresh air as possible. Once the intake is mounted I will be fabricating up a heat shield in order to insulate it from the underhood heat. I contacted Spectre Performance to discuss the engine specs to get a recommendation on a proper sized filter. I am working with Guy over the phone. I want to say that I have received terrific customer support from him. He has helped me with all the details of building a "CORRECT" intake for this engine. After explaining the size of the motor, and the intended use of the car he gave me some part numbers to look at. I purchased their HPR 9892B filter. This is a big filter. It is 7" tall with a 6" opening that you use an offset velocity stack adapter in order to run the 4" tube. Really nice parts. Since the velocity stack is offset, you can fine tune the position of the filter. I also bought their 4" coupler which I like because it looks just like a factory part, and has an accordion feature to allow some movement. So after fine tuning all the lengths, it was only necessary to have one 45* bend in the system to position the intake where I wanted it. I have the GM mass air sensor and mounting kit that will be welded into the tube based on Guy's recommendation regarding clocking position. I will need to weld a tab on the lower part of the tube to mount it somewhere to eliminate any flexing. I plan to powdercoat the tube in wrinkle finish black to get that factory look to it.

[Karch]

Try to locate the MAF sensor about 2/3 the way in along the straight run of piping. It is more important on the upstream side, that is, the filter side, thus the bias towards having it further back.

Looks good.

[ho428]

As much as I enjoy racing and winning with my traditional Pontiac, that engine is enough to make me consider turning to "The Dark Side"

[Karch]

Originally Posted by ho428

As much as I enjoy racing and winning with my traditional Pontiac, that engine is enough to make me consider turning to "The Dark Side"

I've got news for you, have you driven a boosted LS engine?
I drive one daily, and it's quite addicting.

[Chief Wanabee]

stobin, how's the build coming along?

[stobin]

Computer Issues....disregard.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by stobin

Computer Issues....disregard.

No worries, give us a heads up when you get the Dropbox issues sorted.

FYI: In case it looks diff on your device DB image links Showed up as locked here.