Some F-body swap questions for you guys

[RED LS1]

Well, I'm definetely going through with the swap. 86 Sport Coupe with 10 point cage and 9 inch rear. I have a full T-type parts car and TE-44 with 42lbs injectors etc to start with....


I have spent some time doing searches but have real specific questions.
I'm gonna use the T-type frame pads like suggested but do they bolt to the subframe or will I have to weld them on? Should I buy the H+R parts kit?

How hard is it to splice the factory harness in to the F-body car. I have looked at caspers and it is nice but for $700? I think I can use the T-type harness.

I'm gonna lay it all out on the floor and loose all the stuff I don't need. The car is fully stripped of accs. So I want only the basic stuff.

What do you guys think?

 

[UR50SLO]

Hi

If you have the factory buick harness and it's in good shape then you can use it.

In order to make your factory gauges work you'll need to use the chevy sending units in

the buick engine.(oil press/water temp/ mainly) the wires for those come off the harness

in back of the brake booster. (Oil is tan/black) Coolant temp is green,Tach white, Look

at the specific diagram for your year but those are general GM colors. (If your car was a V8

Remember the stock tach will need to be re-calibrated for a V6)

On my stock Crossmember I put the engine where I wanted and then welded the pads

to the lower crossmember. Bolting is a real pain since you can't get to the underside

of the member easy. Level it/bolt up a trans mount or fab one and weld up the pads.

Done this body style several times so e-mail me with any questions,

And good luck!
~Scott
UR50SLO@aol.com

http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/hybrids/303155-hybrid-camaro-jan-hot-rod.html

 

[RED LS1]

Thanks for the reply. That pretty much answered my questions. This car is a simplified car already that was running a 10 seconed SBC so not much wireing in the car now. The guages are a full custom plate with all aftermarket stuff in there. No speedo and the tach is Autometer. I was curious about wireing up the ECM also. How much wires into the F-body fuse box?

I have the whole donor T-type and will be using it's frame pads. I don't have a problem welding them into place which is exactly what i'll do using a lazer level but was wondering if the subframe had the proper holes to bolt them in or not?

I'll be using my Spohn tubular torque arm and 200R4 cross memeber to line the trans up so no problems there.

I have an Aeromotive ext. fuel pump and may sump the tank and keep the origanal fuel sending unit in place.

Thanks for the help. I posted here for others to see when searching.

 

[Ws6Stealthbird]

I am also doing the same thing. I bought some T-type frame mounts, The white camaro has inspired me to do one when I saw it on the TGO board 3 months ago. What headers did you use, I picked up a set of used knockoff ATR headers and Im wondering if these are even going to work. Im about to mock up the engine in the car soon to get my motor mounts lined up. Im using a bop TH350, Spohn Crossmember for a TH350, with a spohn torque arm.

As far as the wiring. Im going to use the factory TPI harness to build a T-type harness. The two black plugs on the harness are the same as the buick harness. The wire colors are the same, I have both harness' so it should be pretty basic. The harness routing will be routed differently, Im going to try to hide as much of the harness as I can.

 

[Grumpy]

I have the engine harness and dash harness an cluster from a 3rd gen f bird that had a 3.8 turbo. .. all the guages worked in the dash .

 

[boostedgm]

ur50slo i seen pix of ur car a few times,impressive gr8 work from a fellow f-body owner.

 

[UR50SLO]

I am also doing the same thing. I bought some T-type frame mounts, The white camaro has inspired me to do one when I saw it on the TGO board 3 months ago. What headers did you use, I picked up a set of used knockoff ATR headers and Im wondering if these are even going to work. Im about to mock up the engine in the car soon to get my motor mounts lined up. Im using a bop TH350, Spohn Crossmember for a TH350, with a spohn torque arm.

As far as the wiring. Im going to use the factory TPI harness to build a T-type harness. The two black plugs on the harness are the same as the buick harness. The wire colors are the same, I have both harness' so it should be pretty basic. The harness routing will be routed differently, Im going to try to hide as much of the harness as I can.

I'm using a stock header(kind of) on the pass. side and a Hooker header on the drivers side. The stock drivers manifold cracks and that tells me there's excessive heat build up there and a design flaw. I used the hooker header on that side and put on a Vband clamp and made a new crossover pipe under the car to the other side.
On the passenger side header I closed off where the cross-over pipe would have entered in the back of the header and moved the entry to just below the turbo flange. That way all the exhaust gasses bypass the 3 cyl on the passenger side bank and hit the turbo direct.

The ATR headers should fit fine. What part of the TPI harness would you be using exactly? There are no connections or wiring on a TPI harness for Crank/Cam sensors or Coil Pack style ignition. All your gauges run from the drivers side bulkhead beside the brake booster.
The only haness for the engine I'd use is a Caspers or factory Gn harness.
E-mail me anytime if you get into trouble UR50SLO@aol.com
Be glad to help,
Scott~

 

[Ws6Stealthbird]

You are correct about the TPI harness, it does not have cam and crank sensors, but the buick harness does, you would have to integrate them in the harness.