[Way2qwk4u]

Working on making a build thread on this project. Been a many year deal. Was my dads high school car. And when I inherited it from it was still riding on tires that were installed before I was born. Started out life like this.

[Hammertime Mike]

Good luck on your project. Having been your Dad's car makes this extra special.

[Way2qwk4u]

Originally Posted by Hammertime Mike

Good luck on your project. Having been your Dad's car makes this extra special.

Yup it has been fun. Getting to the end though. Well they are never really done but 2020 was the year I wanted to really get after it. So now that I got pretty far and am just working on finishing some small things figured I'd post about it. Not the kind of guy that tells a story much. But have been reading and learning from the great guys here.

[Way2qwk4u]

Got the motor set in place. And Like I knew would happen eventually ran into my first issue. The swap pan I had picked up fit in the bay. But the drop in the pan was laying on the backside of the crossmember. So I could not tilt the motor back any at all. Looked good but was not going to work. So I had to order the pan that BRP sells for this swap. Got it in and replaced and it fit perfectly. Now I will have to re figure how I am running the oil cooler lines because the new Moroso pan does not have the AN fittings that the other pan had. But at least it is in. I got pretty into finishing it up at this point so I did not take many pictures at this point. But got the 4L80E installed. No tunnel mods. Crossmembers in. Got the cooler lines made up and installed. Shift linkage installed and the factory floor shifter converted to the OD pattern. Headers dropped in. Passenger was no problem the drivers side barley kissed the crossmember. Fixed that issue. Ran the fuel lines. Installed the pump in the tank. Installed the filter on the frame. Ran my new battery cable to the front. Installed fuel pump electrics. started on the wiring harness. Measured for new driveshaft and took the old one to get cut down. About 1.75" place downtown does nice work. They called and said the old one was like a bent noodle. So it was time for a new one. Got that installed and all buttoned up.

[Way2qwk4u]

New baby came yesterday :-) Maybe I will have some time to fix this photo issue this week while I am home getting everyone back on track.

[Way2qwk4u]

Finally got started on the swap. Pulled all the connections. Pulled the hood. Got the lift setup and got the old motor out. Not an easy task to do by yourself. Got the old motor set down on the floor and secured. Got things prepped to start cleaning the engine bay. Radiator showed up at the office was worried about its condition after looking at the box. Plus its the 3rd package that FedEx has said I signed for and left but every time I have been an hour away.

[Way2qwk4u]

Dad had the car sent back to his friend in Alabama who restores Pontiacs for a hobby. Paid the guy piecemeal to get it back in shape. Looks pretty good. Dad and I went down and brought the car back home. After that it sat at his house for about 8 years and he did not do much of anything with it. This is how it looked when we got it back home.

[Way2qwk4u]

Got the car rolled out of the garage and into the driveway. Washed it all down. Then sprayed it down good with degreaser. Let it sit and the pressure washed it off. I did this probably 4 times. Looks a lot better. Kept going till I could not see anything else coming off the frame. Washed the motor down as well. Lubed the cylinder bores and sealed the engine up. Then the fun part was getting the car back in the shop by my self. Luckily I had a 12 volt winch. Was able to attach that to the garage and use it to pull the car back in.

[Way2qwk4u]

In 2012 my Dad called and asked a really goofy question. He asked me if I would trade my rarely used Polaris 500 sportsman for his LeMans. Well of course I'll take that trade. So I took it home and got to work getting it back in shape. Installed 4 wheel disks. Changed the iron intake to a performer RPM. Added a new carb. Changed the distributor over to HEI. Added an MSD Digital 6AL. New wires etc. Also car was still running the factory shocks. So changed those as well. After that added the hood tach and new head lights. Makes a big difference in driving at night. The car still had 2 of 4 OEM T3 headlights. Swapped over to HID lights and and Halogen low beams. Was a big difference. When swapping the brakes over found out that the rear calipers would not clear the factory 14" rally wheels. Had to get some steel 15" wheels for the time being. Started driving the car and enjoying it.

[Way2qwk4u]

Was talking to dad, he was thinking the motor might have been from a buddies formula FB. Any way to tell from the casting numbers? It did run good. Got the car frame de greased and wiped down. Painted the engine bay. Installed the motor mounts. And started to get the new motor ready to drop in.

[OCMDGTO]

Silver w black top looks fantastic! Very nice ride. Was the brighter light as simple as swapping headlights or was there a wiring change?

[Way2qwk4u]

Originally Posted by OCMDGTO

Silver w black top looks fantastic! Very nice ride. Was the brighter light as simple as swapping headlights or was there a wiring change?

Swapping the lights was just changing over to non sealed beam glass and then adding the HID kit. The glass I got has the reflector to cut down on the glare to other drivers. The HID kit was pug and play. And I have them wired as the highs and it does not bother traffic coming at me. (well I never get high beamed)

[Way2qwk4u]

Built the relay and fuse panel. Relays are for low and high speed fan and for the fan on the trans cooler. Had to wire and terminate the relay panel. All outputs are fused separately. Signal wires go to the terminator to control the fans based on coolant temp and trans fluid temps. Got the cooling fan mounted. Using a windstar fan. 2 speed fan with the shroud. It actually fits well. Keeps the engine temps at idle in check perfectly on only low speed. I will know better once I can get out this spring and drive it. Fans good deal on rock auto less than a $100.00

[Way2qwk4u]

http://Way2qwk4u.quickconnect.to/mo/sharing/g9bGW0F6P


Lets see if this works.

[Way2qwk4u]

Got the new radiator installed. Made up AN fittings for the power steering lines. Found out that the new pump does not come with flow valve. Ordered new flow valve and installed. Had to find hoses for the radiator. Found the hoses and got them installed. Filled the motor with antifreeze. Plumbed the fuel to the rail. Installed the ECU. Ordered and installed a new lokar throttle cable. Installed trans dipstick. Filled the motor and the trans. Filled the tank with fuel. Did the initial setup on the terminator. Checked for leaks and started the motor in the car first time. Open headers was nice and loud. Had to add temporary extensions to the headers to get the Wideband to read right. And was able to finally back the car out under its own power. Which is always a good feeling.

[Shiny]

Congrats!

[Way2qwk4u]

Drove the car off and on during the summer on the weekends. Started to plan other upgrades to the car. First on the list was the suspension. Seeing that the stock shocks were on the car and that the other bushings were cracked and worn. I placed an order with UMI Performance and installed their full stage 3 kit and installed it on the car. Unfortunately I cant find the pictures of that or of the new Dakota Digital dash install. Car handles so much nicer with the new suspension on. Made a world of difference. I recommend UMI and their products.

The Dakota dash really made the car nice to drive and gauges easier to read and kind of solidified the Pro Touring or RetoMod theme. I like the old car look but wanted some of the modern touches. This car was never numbers matching and it sure is not a GTO or collectible in that sense. I do find it cool that of the car shows I have been to, I never see another Lemans though.

Also while under the car doing the new suspension I took out the stock carrier and gears and installed a set of 3.73 gears and a posi-traction unit. Installed new bearings and seals and installed a rear cover and bearing cap braces. I am pretty sure based on tooth count that the stock ratio was close to 2.73. I know that it would hardly get moving but once it was going it cruised really well.

All of this work was completed in 2014-2015. I also installed a new Kenwood head unit and new pioneer rear deck and kick panel speakers. My uncle had already butchered the dash metal to install a Sparkomatic some "wally world" brand I guess radio. It was around this time I began contemplating the next steps for this car. The original 350 still ran excellent but time had taken its toll on all the gaskets. They were all starting to leak and the motor was due for a refresh. Story from my father was that it was rebuilt in 1980 and was from one of his earlier cars. I cant remember if it was a GT-37 or another car he had. The trans was a TH400 with a TransGo shift kit in it as well. So by this time the motor and trans had about 35 years on them.

So it was a difficult choice for me on what to install in the car. I really wanted to stay with pure Pontiac power. But after doing the research and making various budget sheets and pro/con lists, I settled on going LS. I just at this point in my life could not justify the dollar per HP ratio. Where I work almost 98% of our fleet is LS powered and I get first dibs on any retired vehicles. Also I already had a fully rebuilt 5.3 that was siting on a stand in the garage.

So in 2016 I started gathering parts together for the swap. I wanted to have it all ready so that I could enjoy the car while I was working on getting things together. I finally had every thing together this year. And I really got started in November and took the car off the road. Before that I had the car ran on the dyno to see where it was before I got started.

297 Tq
228 WHP

Goal would be 600- 700 WHP

[Hammertime Mike]

I do like the Dakota gauges . The headlights too, help add the updated look to a classic car. You've made yourself a classy ride!

[Way2qwk4u]

Originally Posted by Hammertime Mike

I do like the Dakota gauges . The headlights too, help add the updated look to a classic car. You've made yourself a classy ride!

Thanks working on it. Hope that it all comes together. I have a lot more updates left to post.

[Way2qwk4u]

Also got the battery mount finished and bolted in. Need to finish installing proper cables and mounting breaker and fuses. Decided to change the front grille insert color. And installed the new cold air intake tube and filter. Worked on the cold start and idle tuning. Started working on installing a transmission line pressure transducer. Started to clean up the wiring under the hood and need to get car on a big lift and finish cleaning up the fuel lines and wiring under the car. And then get the range selector hooked up to the reverse lights as well. Also got all the other bulbs in the car swapped over to super bright LED bulbs and electronic flasher.