LS1 T-56 Monza

[80 MONZTA]

This will mainly be a street driven car, would like to take it to a dragstrip or autocross once in a while. I bought it in 1990, it was originaly grey but a previous owner painted it red. The clear coat started to peel several years ago, and now only the sides still have any clear left. I unhooked the A/C shortly after I bought the car, pump was tied to the inner fender and at the time I could not make it work with the long waterpump. One goal is to have A/C work again. It has just under 97,000 miles on the body. I have plenty of work ahead, still need to do S-10 convervsion up front and looking to use a 9 inch out back. (Scratch the 9 inch, I picked up a 8.5" Blazer rear more details here.) Planing on adding subframe connectors as well. Here is the latest pic I have, taken maybe 2003.

80 monza front arizona 04.jpg (22.69 KiB) Viewed 8867 times

Next pic's were taken about 1992 or so.

80 monza front 01.jpg (34.34 KiB) Viewed 8867 times

80 monza hood open 03.jpg (39.16 KiB) Viewed 8867 times

Rear spoiler, or whale tail that was on it when I bought car. At first I liked it, but now I am looking for a spyder type spoiler. Actually I bought the side pieces, just looking for the center section. They are all horibly warped, so I want to make one out of fiberglass. I have plenty to keep me busy, so it is low on the priority list right now. Also in this pic, I had glasspacks aprox under the front seats with pipes coming straight out under the axle, in 1994 I kept the glasspacks where they were, but routed the pipes to the passenger side so they would go over the axle and exit in the stock location, but true duals all the way. The glasspacks scraped on just about everything, so next time I will have mufflers in the stock location, hopefully all pipes will be tucked up enough to prevent draging on everything in sight.

80 monza rear 02.jpg (32.08 KiB) Viewed 8867 times

[80 MONZTA]

Just picked up an ls1 with a 6 speed out of a 2000 Firebird. I got everything that I thought I would need to stuff it in my Monza, hopefully I didn't overlook anything.

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I am not sure how many miles are on this engine. Here is what I was told by the guy parting it out. This motor-trans was from a wrecked 2000 Firebird with about 10,000 miles on it and was dropped into a 1995 Firebird, not only motor-trans, but the entire front clip including interior parts. By the time it was all together he put about 5,000 mile on it when it then got the drivers side quarter pannel torn up, so he got fed up with it and sold it to the guy that parted it out. I have to say it looks pretty clean on the outside, with plenty of dust. The water pump and idler pully's are still black and not shiny like my '97 truck with 130,000 miles on it. The flywheel and clutch look very good to me, I have not seen many though. I will get pic's of those tomorrow. After taking a bit of unessasary stuff off, like the EGR and AIR equipment I took the valve covers off, and this is the cleanest engine I have ever seen inside. Too bad the oil in it was in need of changing long ago, in this pic the only thing dark in it is that oil.

ls1 head.jpg (120.09 KiB) Viewed 10899 times

[Yenkoboy]

Sounds like a great deal. Good Luck with your project.

Mark

[bill1978v8]

Looks like a clean engine. Good luck and post pics as you can.

Bill

[80 MONZTA]

Here is the tired 305 just before it was pulled out. I put that red wire loom on back in about 1991, next stuff will be black only.

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And here it is after.

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I found that I have a crack in one of the mounting points of the drivers side lower control arm. Kind of SCARY, glad I got it off the street when I did, I will try to get a good pic of it soon.
Today I quickly lowered the LS-1 in the engine bay just to see how much room there reallly is. Didn't really know how close I could get to the firewall without the trans on the engine, so it didn't really help me much. But it did look really good seeing that engine in between the fenders.


Here are some pic's of the interior, too bad the white plastic is horibly deteriorated. It is so bad that it has holes in a few places. I put the grey carpet in about 1992. Just bought auto carpet from Menards by the foot, they only carry Black now. I remember that I used some liquid nails in spots to hold it in place, may be fun to remove.

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Interior C.jpg (83.44 KiB) Viewed 9158 times

Yep, I cut the console to install the B&M shifter. And yes that is a blue kick pannel, the only ones I could find that had the vent built in them back when I needed them. I have black ones now, whole interior will be black.

Interior D.jpg (71.63 KiB) Viewed 9158 times

[dwragon]

Hey, any updates?

[80 MONZTA]

Not much progress, other then buying a Griffin 16x26 radiator (sure does look nice). I have been trying to decide how to clean up the undercarrige, and even if I need sub-frame connectors or not. It would be easier to build a trans cross member off of sub-frame connectors, but that is the only thing that would be easier from using connectors. Also deciding what to do with the motor mounts. I was going to add some pics, but wouldn't you know the batteries died on the camera.

[dwragon]

Take a good look at "The CAVEMAN Project", It has a really good design on some engine mounts, mounted in front of the lower A arms, as well as a floorpan strengthening/ transmission mount. When I put my LT1/t56 into my 76 wagon (which already had a 400 th sized transmission tunnel from the factory thanks to being built in conjuction to the V8 monza) I used the monza frame mount with a peice of I think two inch box tubing about 4 inches long. Drill a hole in the box tubing to mount it to the 2285 corvette locker motor mount mounted to the block,(on the LS1, mounted to a plate on the block if that is required, I haven't gotten that far on mine either) and then weld to the monza mount after determining the correct positioning. Also, if you have a donar monza, look at the trans mount. If it is like my 76 Vega gt wagon, instead of having the transmission crossmember using two bolts horizonally (to 75?) it may use four bolts screwed vertically, with two positions available to mount the cross member. Because mine had this option, I was able to use a peice of 3/8 angle iron to relocate my transmount bracket further back. If you have a donar monza, you could cut this out and put it into yours.

[80 MONZTA]

I am really thinking about using solid motor mounts made similarly to these by Spohn for F-bodys. I think with the 6 speed manual, it would be better to have the engine as solid as possible to avoid miss shifts.

Spohn fbody motor mount.jpg (51.8 KiB) Viewed 10309 times

By the way, I am worried that I am going to wear out the trans just from shifting it sitting on the floor. No, seriously, I think I am going to wear it out.

[80 MONZTA]

Something fell out.

Rad core support.jpg (60.28 KiB) Viewed 10248 times

Replaced with this 1" O.D. seemless tube that a friend bent for me. It is placed just in front of where the original support was, and 1" cut off header support. I will weld some tabs on the tube to bolt the lower bumper cover where it should be. The frame was almost 3/16" too wide, so I pulled it together before welding this tube in place. Looking to box in the frame rails similar to the way they were with the old support.

Rad install A.jpg (63.82 KiB) Viewed 10248 times

Now a Taurus fan will fit.

Rad Fan install A.jpg (74.99 KiB) Viewed 10248 times

Still need to cut the header pannel for the radiator cap to fit, but I will wait until I have location of radiator set.

Rad Fan install D.jpg (73.85 KiB) Viewed 10247 times

[NixVegaGT]

Dude, I love the idea of this swap. Will it be the stock LS? If so the 7.5 might be ok with some mods... I guess it depends how you're using it. Where in Iowa are you? I'll be heading down through that way in Sept for a track day at Mid America. Maybe I could stop by for a peep.

[80 MONZTA]

Yes, the LS will be stock. For at least a couple of years anyway, then I may do some mods to it. I sure wish they would have put a 8.5" 10 bolt with the tourqe arm mount in the fourth gen F-bodies.
I am in Waterloo, maybe a little out of your way, but you are welcome to stop by. Is your Vega going to make the journey to Mid America with you?

[NixVegaGT]

I don't think it will be ready. I'm coming through with the SRT 4. I just don't think I'll get it together in time. I also need to drive it a little before I take it out on the track I think to get comfortable with it. Everything is so custom I've got to work out the kinks.

Good point about Waterloo. SOrry bro, it'll have to be another trip sometime. Keep the pix coming.

[80 MONZTA]

I test fit the engine with trans attached for the first time. Need to bump out the tunnel a little here for the reverse lockout to fit.

T56 A.jpg (68.41 KiB) Viewed 9997 times

Here after a little bumping of tunnel.

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This pic is with pass side head about 2 inches from firewall. If the shifer was in, it would be touching the emergency brake handle button. So needless to say, it will need to be shortened. I want the interior to look pretty much like stock, but I have been thinking of using a different center console. I noticed a Pontiac Sunfire's console may have some use, brake handle is off to the side and even has a cup holder, lol, just not sure what I want to do yet.

t56 C.jpg (64.93 KiB) Viewed 9993 times

[dwragon]

remove the reverse lock out (it may actually be the vallet lockout), the computer (if you are using the factory one) will never know it is gone. Eliminate the park brake from the tunnel completely, it makes the interior much cleaner, use a park brake from a 60's nova which mounts under the dash. on mine, I had to cut part of the tunnel out, about 4 inches.