Full rear end lock up at 50 mph messed up my Z pretty bad. Pretty much everything under the car was destroyed. Picked up a v6 body for cheap and decided to put in some goodies while I was at it.

Old torque arm


Old rear, look at the top of the carrier where the pinion walked on it. Then notice the chunk missing out of the actual carrier itself. I believe the pinion nut came loose allowing the pinion to walk towards the carrier.


Picture of the engine bay of the shell


Taking the engine out of the Z


Frustrated the body is an inch too low to pull it out


Finally out


Everything out


Rolled the entire K member, engine, exhaust, trans as one piece into my garage


First valve cover pulled


Just a look under the other

 

Taking off the heads


Down to the short block


About to remove the stock timing set, a lot of slack in the stocker


Next step is cam removal


Trying to get a close up of my front cam bearing, it was a little worn but not nearly as much as I expected it to be after 130k


Just a picture of the tops of the pistons before I took them out


Down to bare block


Cleaning up the heads


Goodies package one


Goodies package two

 

Freshened up bottom end, speed pro rod and main bearings, durabond cam bearings, new rings, new melling select oil pump with white spring, arp hardware everywhere


Heads on with beehive springs, 1.6 magnums, GMPP guideplates, hardened pushrods etc


Getting ready to put it in


About how high it needs to be without blocks under the rear wheels


Finally in

 

Nice!

 

Very well done so far. Any tips/tricks or bumps in the road you care to share as this topic comes up very frequently?

 

Yep I wish they had offered that color on T/As.

I looked at your boxes of goodies and got excited, I love putting motors together.

 

so did you just reuse the stock pistons and put in new rings, or what?

 

couple of comments, removing the front tires/wheels will give you more room to pull the K-member/motor out thus alleviating elevating the car so high, and, putting some old steel wheels under the rear tires to help elevate the entire vehicle will help as well. just a few of the things I do when I pull the motor out from the bottom - awesome job by the way

 

Glad to see you stayed with the LT1!!!

 

nice... that looks like the trick flow intake i had on my car before i added the ram air hood/airbox

 

Well first off, bag and label every single bolt you remove from everything.

Things you will need for the conversion

V8 K member
Cherry Picker
Adjustable jack stand (Makes things so much easier)
Torx bits for the two bolts underneath the master cylinder
V8 driveshaft
V8 PCM
V8 trans
Metric sockets for the k member
Breaker bar
A dolly under the k member helps with wheeling it around
A creeper under the trans will allow you to push it without dragging

Some tips

Make it easier on yourself installing the trans cooler lines onto the trans before putting in the drivetrain, its nearly impossible to put them in with the trans in the car.

When installing the k member back in do so without the wheels on. It becomes extremely difficult trying to line everything back up with them on. Also there is a "nipple" on the k member that lines up with the frame. Before trying to install the bolts on the bottom of the k member line up the nipple to its proper hole then begin to bolt it up. It's also nice to have a low profile jack under the k member when reinstalling to raise or lower it to make it easier to line up the bolts

Make sure to label every connection that is taken off the engine to allow you to easily put them back on when needed.

The oil pressure sensor sending unit on the back of the intake is extremely fragile. When moving everything around try not to hit it.

Yes I reused stock pistons with new rings, for the setup I'm going to be running I don't need anything stronger. All of the taper and O.O.R. measurements were within spec. Factory crosshatch pattern on all eight cylinders after 130k miles. I did do a fresh hone on the cylinder walls though with the rings of course. Someday I do intend on turning it into a 383 and possibly boost it, but not for a while.