LTX Jimmy/ Beginners Swap Guide

[Ghettogmc23]

Hello All,
I recently finished the long journey of swapping my LTX into my truck. I waited to post a build thread because I thought it would be more helpful to others who find themselves in my shoes: lost. So now that it is officially running I will post from start to finish and hopefully my issues will help others who are wanting to swap but are a little intimidated.
I know that my work is not perfect and there will be countless times you will yourself asking "who would do something like that" or maybe more like "how is it possible to mess that up" and thats the point of it mostly. If your okay with knowing you will think this then read on...

My background: I live in Northern Indiana so snow is rather common and with it comes alot of rust on older cars. My dad has had a 1964 Nova II that he has owned since before i was born so needless to say i grew up fascinated by cars and couldnt wait to get one of my own. My favorite growing up was an 80's style El Camino cuz i liked the little windows behind the door lol.
Dads Nova


The trucks background: I purchased the truck at 15 for $150 from my brothers friend. He had hit a pole and smashed the grill into the radiator along with hood, core support, frame horn, etc. Fixable but in rather bad shape altogether. Rusted rockers, busted steering column, no 4wd, doors rotted, just to name a few extra issues. But i fell in love with it and lets be honest without a job i was more interested in the price. Everything i know about cars has more or less been tested on this one.
It started as a basic 4.3 TBI which i was constantly doing anything i could to. It ended up blowing a head gasket my senior year of high school and shortly after graduation it spun a rod. So at that point it was pulled, machined,bored .040 cuz the cylinders were that worn, rebuilt with a cam, and put back in action. Course at this point i had bought a new DD so it was rarely driven due to wiring issues. After that i put a Powerdyne supercharger on it with a 2114 intake and vortec heads, but still couldnt get the wiring issues figired out. So i gave up on it for a while....

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The engines background: (kinda long but i like to be dramatic about my work) So about 2-2.5 years ago they opened a Take-A-Part about 20 miles from my hometown. before then it was all just basic junkyards. Priced off of make and model, plus sports cars seem a little rare to them so anything camaro was out of my price range. One day while strolling through TAP i noticed an interesting intake on a chevy V8 and thought it was just the coolest. I had been trying to get my dad to go fuel injected on his 350 so i decided that id pull this intake and pcm, etc to use on his, but didnt feel like doing that much work that day. When i talked to him about it he wasnt very interested and said "Im old school and dont wanna lose the carb for something i wont understand" lol. At that it got me thinking though "if i can do all this work to a V6, why not just step it up to a V8 and have a variety of options on parts? a SBC has millions of different combos to it, and with a cool tunnel ram intake like that one why not start with this motor?" Pause for a moment.... remember the fact that i bought this motor for its unlimited aftermarket support..... laugh at me a bit..... ok now continue. So i went back the next day with nothing but a lunchbox full of misc. tools and my fiance who spent more time on her phone than helping (its about the moral support though lol). Arrived at 10am and had the motor in the truck and back home by 2:30pm. Donor car was a 1995 Caprice with no hood, no front fenders, the entire front assy. off the motor was gone, no balancer, no wiring harness or pcm, nothing. But hey its a SBC how hard can all that be to replace.....

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So it begins......

[Ghettogmc23]

Teardown: motor was relatively clean inside. still had a good cross-hatch on the cylinders.
Builld tip #1: MAke sure to keep ALL extra parts in a box. I bought everything brand new and still found myself looking for parts in the box i was gonna throw away. Learned that not all parts are easy to replace, especially the coolant crossover setup. Also, before you even tear into it, identify the year of the motor. I started buying sensors and parts and didnt realize that 92-93, 94-95, and 96-97 are all different in certain ways.
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[Ghettogmc23]

I tore the motor down, decided to go online and buy a set of corvette aluminum heads with stainless swirl port valves, screw in studs, upgraded springs, the works. So bye bye cast iron. I had the block machined .030 even though it was uneeded because i had already bought forged flat tops for it. polished up the crank (didnt even need turned at all), forged Scat I-beams, all Clevite bearings, and some Hellfire rings.
build tip #2: Do your homework. I looked at my parts list and thought i had it all planned. When i took it to my machinist he schooled me so bad lol. Make sure you know what you want from your motor: N/A, nitrous, boost whatever. Be sure to know what you want for deck height! It makes calculating quench and everything else easier. I didnt plan this so i had a little bit of work to do lol. I wont explain quench and all that cuz im not an expert but the forum has tons of info on it and everything else as far as machining.
After that it got painted. Big thanks here to my mom who is awesome at masking stuff for paint!
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build tip #3: piston rings. I searched online and found that most recommend Hellfire rings. So i got them. PLEASE invest in a ring filer if you do the same. Nice saturday evening, garage open, radio on, nothing to do but work...... and i cant cuz i cant file the rings. I knew i would have to but thought i might pick one up locally. Maybe some can but around where i live even the speed shop didnt have one in stock, most couldnt even order one. Nobody around town had ever even used one before lol. Dont even plan on picking something up locally if you know you need it in advance lol.
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[Ghettogmc23]

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measuring ring gap. sorry forgot to upload in last post.
I got the short block assembled. Time for the rest
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ARP studs
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Torque down
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Clevite kit just to be safe
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LTX next to my dads fully forged blower motor. He only paid $1000 and bought it like it sits + blower, carb, and distributor.

[Ghettogmc23]

Next step: valvetrain
Okay to some this may be basic knowledge or worthless knowledge depending on preference and whatnot. Double roller timing chain. Thats my personal choice just cuz i like the thought of it. Now, a stock LTX CAN NOT run one due to the water pump drive, however if you run an electric water pump you can. I researched it and now its here also. Put your timing chain on and smear thick grease on the outer edge near the timing cover. Install your timing cover WITHOUT the gasket to make sure you have clearance. rotate the motor once or twice and pull the cover off. whatever parts have grease need ground down. repeat until no grease is on the cover and finally install with the gasket. Gaskets arent thick but it gives that extra room in case your not supercar perfect at your work.
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Also make sure to measure your pushrods. For me i went a little longer than stock cuz it seemed to fit better with my new rockers and everything but every motor is different and if your this far into it a quick measurement is worth the work. As for sealing the water pump drive i think i read it on here to use a quarter, put the seal over it to kinda press it in place and just silicon it. working so far

[Ghettogmc23]

So now a quick post for just the 4wd s10 crowd. Check your oil pan. Yup, factory lt1 pan wont work. So you can buy aftermarket or make one or whatever but you still have on issue: the windage tray. Personally i talked to my machinist and he agreed it should cause an issue. So we just cut the studs off the main cap bolts for the windage tray. The Canton pan i bought had one built in anyways so good deal.
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Installed an oil pan stud kit cuz it looked cool and made it a little easier. Plus im sure the clamping force is better like it always seems to be with studs.
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new professional products 58mm tb

[Ghettogmc23]

Next step: Ignition
Now as we all know there is no distributor. Instead we have the Optispark. I personally like it, but learned it can be improved.
1. Loctite the rotor screws. It increases life at high RPMs. how? it doesnt self destruct itself by breaking loose lol.
2. 24x conversion. I dont know much about this setup cuz i saw a price before info and gave up lol
3. LTCC conversion. This setup was straightforward and seemed like my personal favorite so i bought it. With that i needed 8 coils so i hit up ebay for a set and bought pigtails. Then came the brackets. Online you can find a huge selection of what others have done and most are custom setups. Mine, I was lookin at the motor with the coils laying on the intake. I told my dad i wanted it to mount on the valve covers like an LS and my dad said "go home, give me a week and if you dont like it dont use them." A week later i painted the brackets and this is what it was
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Ive read its good for a few hp but more for reliability and, my personal favorite, looks awesome!

[Ghettogmc23]

Now during the time the motor was going through this transformation, the truck was going through this
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and finally
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[firebird_1995]

Great writeup!! Thank you so much for sharing! It looks great!

[Ghettogmc23]

Now, this is where the beginners guide comes in to play.

It looks like my truck was done but was still far from it. At this point i was ready to install all the accessories and everything else, but i couldnt. The impala bracket would not clear the frame on my truck. So i bought a camaro bracket, only to find out it does the same. Ive heard the corvette bracket will clear but at that point i called on my dads fabrication skills and he made me a bracket for my alternator that tightens like a V-belt setup but still uses a serpentine belt, even if its only like 25 inches long lol. Im also not running power steering or anything so that made it easier.
After i got that out of the way i tried to start it. It cranked and cranked with no fire. Checked the LTCC and the lights were blinking. Looked it up and it said bad optispark. pulled it off, checked the pin alignment and put it back on. still no start. So i ran all new ground wires. Still no start. Checked all my wiring and it was good. Still wouldnt start though. So i put it on the battery charger and after charging it started. Shut it off and tried to start it again and no start. Checked the LTCC and the red light was blinking. So i began to question the box and gave up.
A few days later i tried starting it again and still wouldnt. Hooked up the battery starter and started right up. Shut it off and tried again and wouldnt start. Did this for about a week, and come to find out the harness from the wiring harness to the optispark was cheap and not connecting properly. So ordered a new one from ws6store.com and viola ran fine.... the first try. After that it was hit and miss if it would start. Seriously?!?! What was the deal!? Checked all the wiring, all plugs, replaced the opti harness, checked the LTCC, checked the opti alignment, even bought a new battery. WHY A RANDOM NO START!?!?!?!
Well, its because i was dumb and didnt charge the battery when i got it. The one i was originally using was junk and when i got the Optima it was almost dead. Threw it in my DD for a week or two and put it back in and havent had a problem since. I was mad, but at the same time i went back through and double checked everything so now i dont worry about any of it being wrong lol. So was the Opti harness bad? yes, it would fail even on the battery charger were as the ws6 has never failed.
I spent at least two months on this issue and didnt want to post it on the forum because using the search button i showed all the symptoms of a failed optispark. Being that i bought a cheap ebay brand opti i believed it every step of the way. I feel bad about it now but that dang opti is just so sneaky sometimes. Just thought id post my issues so maybe some others can use it for their swaps. I was worried about this swap because i had never heard the motor run, had to rewire all of it, rebuilt the motor, it was just a little scary cuz every time i had an issue i had to start from step 1 and check EVERYTHING. It was definitely worth it tho once i got to drive it.
So with that the last update i currently have is my C5 air intake. Other than that ive brought this up to speed and am gonna update as i make progress, hopefully including photos from the 2013 LTX Shootout.....