Low mount AC on 1st Gen Camaro LS2 swap....

[shan]

Hi Guys,

I have been looking for a specific answer to my question, and have trawled through pages and sites - had no luck.

I am from australia, and we had variations of the LS engines in many of our local cars. In my case, I have an L98, which is a variant of the gen4 LS motor.



The harmonic balancer arrangement is confusing as USA info and images do not exactly match ours, but from measurements taken, I appear to have the corvette/cts-v style setup.

This LS will be going into my 1968 Camaro, with standard chassis.
I am using the complete holley swap system (headers/engine mounts/cross member). Only just bought the gear from summit, so is latest iteration.
I do NOT want to notch the crossmember (lots of paperwork in australia to get mod's like that approved).
I have classic auto air, which uses the Sanden 508/507 style AC compressor currently.

FYI - I’ll be going high-mount for the alternator…..come to terms with the fact it can’t be low mounted without notching the crossmember. I would still like to hide the AC if possible.

I found low-mount AC brackets from various vendors, but when I read the fine print, many say the “may not” work with Holley v1.0 and v2.0 engine mounts.
Then other posts have mentioned issues with low-mount AC clearance depending on your balancer.
Then of course, is which compressor you are running. Seems like the mini variant of the sanden unit might be necessary?

Leaves me a little uncertain….

My questions:

1. Has anyone used the Holley engine mounts, AND combined it with a low-mount AC bracket, to successfully clear the cross member on the 1st gen Camaro (standard chassis) with the Corvette style balancer?
2. If so, which brackets were used and which compressor was this achieved with?

Thanks,
Shan

[Chevy Kid]

I can tell you it will not work with the corvette balancer. I am using 4th gen Camaro brackets (same as gto/ Holden?) I then spaced everything out .750, and used a truck balancer. My alternator is down low, but real close. It doesn’t hit anything.

For the a/c, I’m using a Sanden 7176 compressor. I made my own bracket similar to the dirty dingo low mount, but it’s closer to the block. A DD bracket won’t work. (I tried!)

Frame is not touched!

[shan]

Thanks for the reply - very helpful Chevy Kid.

- Custom bracket required for AC, along with the 7176 compressor
- Truck Balancer

I would love some more information though please!

Some questions if I may??

I take it your AC is running off a separate belt then (rear of the balancer pulley). Is that right?

Which 4th gen brackets are you referring to exactly?? The accessory brackets?

What bracket did you use for the alternator then?

Did you use the Hooker/Holley mounts etc? Just want to make sure we share the same base setup.

Everything I have read seems to indicate low mount is difficult to achieve for both AC and Alternator without notching crossmember. Seems like you did it just fine though. Definitely need to understand in more detail if you have time to share the info.

Thanks!

[Aussie]

Where in Australia are you.

we were unable to low mount without notching crossmember

i now run Holley mounts, but now with Drive Junky set up

[shan]

Hi Aussie,
I am in melbourne.

Drive Junky looks nice, they have a low mount system as well I notice?

https://drivejunky.com/product/low-ac-ls-drive-system/
"THIS SYSTEM WILL CLEAR STOCK CHEVY OLDER FRAMES WITHOUT EXCEPTION.
It was designed to do that.."

Not exactly cheap though....the good stuff never is. I does look nice and I do note it is a complete kit....hmmmm

So Aussie - you notched, but added the drive junky stuff later? You are running it low mount?

Sounds like low mount can be done with GM accessories - getting the AC and Alternator low.....just requires some mucking around.

Been reviewing Chevy kids comments some more....

Truck Balancer
GTO brackets and accessories (I think)
Custom AC bracket pushed out .750 inches
Everything else spaced-out to suit

Does sound a little fiddly.

Chevy kid - be great if you had some pictures...

[Aussie]

I’m in Melbourne also, happy for you to come and have a look, send me PM

they sound expensive but you get very good accessories, and by the time you piece everything together not much difference

[Ptzanos]

I’m also trying to do low mount a/c .. Ls3 in 68 Camaro .. have you had any luck ?? I’m thinking the small sanden compressor with the low mount dirty dingo bracket but I haven’t seen anybody confirm that it would work ..

[cwylie]

Its a total pain in the rear to do on a stock subframe if you want the engine low down and remotely close to the firewall. I build brackets to get the smallest sanden compressor as close to the block as possible. With my Holley mounts, I was going to have to completely rebuild the motor mount by the compressor and make a pretty extensive modification to the subframe. I decided to just run a concept one driver setup.