Project X-CLEAN, 1981 Trans Am 2nd Gen, LS2, 6 spd

[oldguy]

This is my first post on this forum. I have been lurking quite a while and the projects and information here are great. Thanks to all.

This is our newest project, a 1981 2nd gen Trans Am.

Let me tell you a story of its acquisition first, then I'll get into the plans and details of the build.

I had been looking for a customer for a clean, unmolested, 2nd gen Trans Am for over a year. As all of you know, rust and accident repair can add 10's of thousands to the build cost. Its always much better to wait and find something clean to start with. This customer wanted to start with a clean, no damage car for this build. As always I browse CL and the bay to see what was is available, call up the seller, hear the stories, then go take a look at them. Most all had some kind previous damage or rust. Couple of months ago I see an add on CL for this one.

The great thing was this one was located about 20 miles from the shop instead of 200. Price he is asking is fair. Says it is a "survivor" with only 64K on the ODO. Heard that before though. I set up the appointment, and drive over to the guys house. Decent neighborhood. When I get there the garage door is down. I ring the bell, guy comes out, tells me a few things about the car and pops the garage door.

Well.... as soon as the door popped open I about s#%t the pants.

Sitting in the garage is this unmolested, original paint, original interior 1981 Trans Am Turbo. I've seen and worked on a lot of cars and MC's and I kid you not, this is one of the finest TA's I have EVER seen in original condition. While the decals were dead and flat, the paint work was in excellent condition. There were a few minor door dings and the front and rear caps could use a respray, however the exterior of this car look 2-3 years old, not 31 years old. Crawled underneath, popped the trunk, all were perfect.

I took a look on the inside. The interior too looks like it just rolled out from Detroit. Not a rip tear or even a smudge on the door panels, carpets were fresh looking and clean too. The only problem inside was the steering column was disassembled, I mean ALL the way, and dropped down. Seems the guy could not get the ignition to work which would allow the car to start and run. This guy really took the column apart too. I think he got in way over his head when he did so. I looked at it for a few minutes in the garage and did get it to crank using the switch, though it wouldn't run.

We negotiated a substantial discount due to the non running status and disassembly and closed the deal for my customer.

Called the roll back, got the car loaded, with us following the wrecker. When we get back to the shop the wrecker drivers dispatch had called and two people had seen the car on the flatbed had called and asked if the car was for sale. Pretty incredible! The buyer did call them back. He was offered a great profit from one buyer right then and could have doubled his purchase price. He did turn down both offers however.

When we got back to the shop, I put the column back together and adjusted the ignition switch. I did get it to crank, but no fire. Back when, 20-30 years ago, somebody installed on of those top of the line viper alarm systems. This is the one where you had to go under the dash and cut and splice the circuits and the alarm acted as the switch. 2 hours later with lots of soldering and re-splicing it was out. Threw out a basketball bunch of alarm wires and controls.

Hit the key and the car fired up after repriming the carb, sweet... We did drive it around for a while and the car was tight and drove great. Everything worked as it should have. Good deal!!



Sorry for the long winded explanation, but I thought it was a pretty good story.

Now for the meat. Here's what I am doing to the car for this customer.

Installing a 2006 LS2 6 speed with 36K from a GTO.
Complete Pro Touring suspension including tubular upper and lower control arms, adjustable performance shocks, new rear leaf springs, solid body mounts, subframe connectors, new brakes, paint and interior. Pretty much the whole car.

Now those few sentences while brief, encompass quite a bit of work, which I'll detail for you as I go. Right now in the build I am at smoothing the firewall and getting ready to bedliner the underside and start reassembly. Paint is yet undecided as he may want to keep the original paint, we shall see ;-).

I'll also detail out motor mounts, accessory drives, frame notch, etc, to show what works and was doesn't.

Here's the pics as the car was delivered the first day. More to come, hope you enjoy.

[oldguy]

Here's the LS2 with the 6 speed as delivered.

[oldguy]

Here's a taste of what the engine looks like now. Many things have been done to it which I'll detail later.

A little engine porn .

[oldguy]

Here's the good old lump when it came out. 4.9 Turbo, 350 Automatic.

[oldguy]

OK, lets talk about what works and what doesn't in regards to LS2 installations into 2nd gen Firebirds or Trans Am's .

First off this is an LS2 out of a 2006 GTO and as it sits it will NOT fit. Here's what YOU need to do.

1. Swap out the oil pan assembly complete from a 1999-2002 Camaro or Firebird LS. This kit should come complete with everything in it. Pan, pickup, windage tray, dipstick, bolts etc. You can pick one up on the bay delivered for about 330.00, brand new. You can then sell your GTO parts you removed for about 250.00.

Here's the old GTO pan parts swapped I swapped out.



2. Get some stock 1980-81 Camaro frame mounts with inserts. If your doing a Camaro, you already have them. You can source these for about 10 each delivered on the bay with rubber inserts. Its an Anchor 2622. I powder coated the mount and installed energy suspension mounts internally.



Now the mounts will fit directly on the subframe, however if you want to use a low ac mount like I did you will have to relocate the frame mounts back 1" from the stock camaro location. The subframe is drilled already for the stock mounts for camaro's.

3. Get some Dirty Dingo Mounts, Muscle Mounts-Adjustable LS GM Car Solid Engine Mounts DD-62515L. These are for Camaro's thru 1981. They run about 99.00 for the pair and allow you to adjust them to suit your placement.

After I mocked them up I did cut and reweld to remove the excess mount and the branding. You don't have to though.

4. The stock trans crossmember will work great. Cut the mount off, flip it over and reweld it on. You will have to redrill the crossmember mount holes in the subframe, but no big deal.



Also tranny clears EVERYWHERE with tons of room to spare, EVERYWHERE, nothing to pound or massage.



Total cost for mounts as they come less than 150.00. Add for the Energy inserts.

This is cheap and guaranteed to work . Hope it helps all of you that want to install an LS into a 2nd gen. I know there is not a lot of info that is clear out there.

Here's the mount mockups in the subframe, pass side.



Moved with frame notch



Drivers side showing alternator clearance. Clears the dropped factory Pittman arm and drag link too.



Also the oil pan clearance. I have it pushed as far forward as it will go and still give me about 3/16" Also show ground clearance

[oldguy]

You still of course have to test fit the engine, several times....

I am going to use the stock GM, GTO ac compressor. There are conflicting posts about using one, as they are variable ac compressors as they come stock. You can use one though if you convert it to fixed instead of variable. I'll detail that later. Here's the first test fit of the package in the subframe in the car. Many test fittings were done both with the subframe in and out of the car to insure perfect fitment for the customer.




Deciding how much notch to cut. Needed about an inch to insure enough clearance. The fitting side is a little tight but still have about 1/8" clearance. I'll detail out the fitting I made to run the ac lines in a later post.



Notch cut and 3/16" plate tacked in.



Finished notch for ac compressor. Final grinding to do yet.



I hope these posts help others who might decide to do an LS swap in a 2nd gen. It seems the info that is out there is very thin and not very detailed.

I love what I do and feel that if you can help someone now, it will come back to you many times over.

[srh3trinity]

What headers are you running?

[oldguy]

What headers are you running?

They are Dynamaxx for LS swaps for Camaros. I called Dynamaxx to see if they would work for TA's and they said no, as the ws6 lower control arm braces would not fit. i ordered them anyway and figured I would do what needed done to make them work. The way I have it set up with the mounts and engine position gives plenty of clearance. While the pics don't show the ws6 struts, I did test fit them and have about 1/2" clearance. Perfect !!

[WS6]

They are Dynamaxx for LS swaps for Camaros. I called Dynamaxx to see if they would work for TA's and they said no, as the ws6 lower control arm braces would not fit. i ordered them anyway and figured I would do what needed done to make them work. The way I have it set up with the mounts and engine position gives plenty of clearance. While the pics don't show the ws6 struts, I did test fit them and have about 1/2" clearance. Perfect !!

I'm surprised they even knew about the WS6 braces. Seems most companies don't have a clue that cars with the option had that rod.

Nice work. I like the red engine.

Flipping the transmission mount upside down on the cross brace is the same thing I did to get my LT1/T56 combo to work. I also had to slide the cross brace back and redrill those holes. No big deal though. If you do a body drop, you'll have to clearance the tunnel for the trans.

[oldguy]

I'm surprised they even knew about the WS6 braces. Seems most companies don't have a clue that cars with the option had that rod.

Nice work. I like the red engine.

Flipping the transmission mount upside down on the cross brace is the same thing I did to get my LT1/T56 combo to work. I also had to slide the cross brace back and redrill those holes. No big deal though. If you do a body drop, you'll have to clearance the tunnel for the trans.

Thanks, special red.

Yes, had to run the crossmember back as well.

However NO tunnel clearance required and the pics shown above are with the solid mounts installed during mockup at the lowest position. You can get your hand all the way around the trans for the most part.

[LeighP]

Nice work....Love the detailed posts and pics.

[oldguy]

"Nice work....Love the detailed posts and pics. "

Thanks, like to help.

[tazzz25906112]

Very informative and I love to see the various TA projects underway with LS power.. Nicely done indeed...

[T_Raven]

Nice project, can't wait to see some more progress on it

[oldguy]

Nice project, can't wait to see some more progress on it

I should be able to get some more info up in a day or so. Thanks !

[oldguy]

Been doing a little work on the factory wiring harness as we were waiting on parts to arrive.

On an 81 TA Turbo, they came with their own ecm. We took out the support wiring for the ecm out of the main harness and tidied it up quite a bit.

Also since we are running a seperate harness for the LS ECM we di-pinned the stock harness or wires not required.

Here's the before



Here's the not required wires



Here's the finished harness

[LeighP]

Man, I don't even want to look at that wire...I'm just wiring my car at the moment....arrgghh!!! lol.

I was thinking about the crossmember....might make things easier, not sure, but the 74 and earlier crossmembers bolt onto the subframe quite a bit further back than the 75-81 crossmembers.
If someone had an early one laying around, it might be worth seeing how they work compared to the late crossmember.

[oldguy]

Man, I don't even want to look at that wire...I'm just wiring my car at the moment....arrgghh!!! lol.

I was thinking about the crossmember....might make things easier, not sure, but the 74 and earlier crossmembers bolt onto the subframe quite a bit further back than the 75-81 crossmembers.
If someone had an early one laying around, it might be worth seeing how they work compared to the late crossmember.

Wiring is not that bad if you have good schematics and take your time.

As to the crossmember, the late model one did work well, however we flipped the mount over and had to redrill the frame for the mounting bolts. Really simple, of course after the fact .

[oldguy]

Here's our version of smoothing the firewall and cowl area on the 2nd gen trans am.

First thing we did was strip off all the ac parts, blower, etc. Then decided what we wanted to cover. On the ac and blower areas we hammered and dollied the raised portion back to smooth.





Then we made a paper pattern and transferred the pattern to 18 gauge galvanized steel.

As a tip, we use chip board, not cardboard or poster board. You can buy this at a box company. About 4 times as thick as poster board.



Then cleco'd it in place.



Once it was positioned and we were sure of the fit, we used 3M panel bonding adhesive around the perimeter, openings and other areas. We did prep the insert and factory area as required for bonding.



We bodyworked the panel to fit perfectly flush and also countersunk all the areas where the cleco's had been used. We then used duraglass to fill any imperfections as it is waterproof. We hardly used any filler. Then a final skin with rage filler. It is smooth.



We based it with DP 90, then we coated it with slick sand for blocking to make it perfect, and coated that with DP 90 epoxy as a sealer.





We also worked the top of the cowl and removed the lip/edge, welded unused holes closed, and worked the rest of the cowl. We finished it as we did the firewall





Our final coats were done with 2 wet coats of Hot Rod Flatz. We think it came out great. Here's the results.

Total hours around 12

[ryeguy2006a]

You are doing a super clean job on this car!! I like what you did with the smoothing of the firewall.