Fixing up a '71 Grand Safari

Not a lot to show for a whole days work. I did take part of the day to gather and store all the extra parts in the barn loft, which will allow me to get the trailer out of the driveway, which will allow me to move the car closer to the garage, which will mean a little bit more shade during the day.

Upon some advice I ended up ordering a condenser for a 1996 Caprice. It was a much better option than the universal condenser I was previously considering. This condenser already has the hardlines run in the correct location. This unit was a bit shorter in height than the previous unit. I was able to reuse the original rubber mounting cushions. I had to relocate the upper driver side mount toward the fender. Because this area is boxed I had to drill a hole and use a self tapping screw. It took quite a long time getting the exact combination of location and extra rubber correct. In the end it mounted tight and secure.



After a lot of trial and error I ended up marking and putting the lower radiator mounts on the radiator and then installing them together. As you can see below the condenser lines fit just right. I still haven't figured out a good solution for the upper mount. I can't find a piece of steel the right size to make something and I cannot find a metal break. I also cut a piece of heater core hose as a cushion between the core support and the radiator, just in case.



The PCM mount came in while I was working. I was hoping to mount the PCM tucked away and hidden in this location, but after test fitting it I realized that this option isn't going to work. It would also cause an extensive amount of modification to the wiring harness.



This leaves me with a lot of less desirable options for locations of the PCM. This seems to be the best option so far for several reasons, but I'm not sure how I feel about it being this close to the radiator.



The radiator and condenser have a gap of a little over an inch, which is more than ideal, but it is as close as I can get them and seems to be close to the original distance. I will need to add some air dams to keep the air going through the condenser.



I took the gear selector fork off of the old 350 turbo transmission and it fit on the 4L60E. At first it seemed certain it wasn't going to fit but after a lot of coaxing it finally came together. I'll have to remove it one more time to install the neutral safety switch when it comes in.



I finally got the BRP transmission crossmember fully mounted. I continually regret purchasing this kit. The crossmember kit is essentially a universal kit. The bolts in the center transmission mount were too short. When I contacted the company they told me to just go buy longer bolts. The transmission crossmember requires an extra bracket on the driver side. The instructions with the kit, which must be downloaded in a PDF from the internet, do not include this extra bracket and show pictures of a different crossmember that is longer and do not require the extra piece. When I looked up instructions for different types of cars it does include this extra bracket. Also, the bracket does not fit the car as instructed. Given all of this I began to suspect I was sent the wrong kit. I contact the company again and they informed me that this correct and to ignore the crossmember in the directions. Also, the bracket shown requires holes to be drilled in the frame, but it mounts on top of the frame. This means there's no way to located or mark where the holes should be. I ended up having to hold my finger in the hole on top of the frame where the bracket will mount and try to match that location with my other finger on the bottom of the frame. I've had three people look at the instructions and try to understand how this piece should be installed and none of them can figure it out. I eventually just took the piece, ignored the instructions, and found a way to make it fit.



I then disassembled the extra bracket and used it to help locate the second bracket hole by holding it under the frame. I basically used a punch to draw an arc indicating the possible locations for the second hole and then reinstalled everything correctly, held my finger over the hole and guessed the best location. Again, the reason I ordered this kit is that is appeared, because of the description and instructions which I viewed ahead of time, that it would require no drilling or modification.



At long last, everything was bolted up and tightened down.



There are quite a few pieces on order that I'm waiting to come in. This thing is starting to look like a driveable car.

 

Can you cannibalize the original upper radiator/fan shroud, by cutting the upper radiator portion away, then install cushions between it and the radiator?

 

Howdy Brandon! I bet April is thrilled with the new "look" for her dining room table!? Looks like your project is coming along well though. Thanks for the detail and the pictures.

 

Shareholders of ̶e̶̶m̶̶b̶̶a̶̶l̶̶m̶̶i̶̶n̶̶g̶̶ ̶̶f̶̶l̶̶u̶̶i̶̶d̶̶ ̶̶m̶̶a̶̶n̶̶u̶̶f̶̶a̶̶c̶̶t̶̶u̶̶r̶̶e̶̶r̶̶s̶̶ turkey gravy producers won't be thrilled that the dining table is no longer a stain collector. Rather, has it turned into a research facility for Frankensteining wiring harnesses

 

I have spent a tremendous amount of the little time I have researching things online, but I don't have a lot of pictures to show for it. The investment of new neuron connections seem to be something that is only evident in future payoffs. I've just been having to spend 10 minutes here or 5 minutes there during the week and then stay up late and try to read as much as I can from the internet about what steps to take next. These 18 and 19 hour days are getting tiresome but the end is in sight.



I found out my PCM does not have the correct hardware which would allow my air conditioner setup to be operated by the PCM in the way that I would like it to, so I'm going to have to get a different one. This project is so far over budget at this point it feels like telling the surgeon amputating a gangrenous toe to go ahead and take the pelvis.



I haven't been able to find any steel the size I need to make the upper radiator mount. I have been scrounging through the scrap piles of local body shops and the scrapyard trying to find something I could use. Most of the metal on cars today is so thin it's barely able to be used as panels on cars, least of all structural support. If I had a bead-roller it would open up a lot of doors to make thinner metal sturdier. I did end up getting the quarter panel below from a Tahoe or Suburban. I'll use this, somehow, to make the air dams that will keep the air from bypassing the condenser and radiator. I haven't figured that part out yet, but I know it has to be done, so I'll have to make it works somehow.





I finally got tired of people flaking out about manifolds and just bought a set of 5th generation Camaro manifolds, hoping they would fit. The set I bought looked pretty rough in the pictures, but the person I bought them from was nice enough to sand blast them before shipping them. I sanded them down further and prepped them for paint.





Header paint is expensive. That's all I've got to say about that. I had originally planned to paint the heat shields silver to more closely match what they originally looked like, but I already had this cast grey in the heat resistant paint so I used it. I was surprised to find that I actually like this color combination better. It's a bit more low key and blends in better with the crusty looking engine and engine bay. I was not about to try to remove the head shields and deal with all the broken bolts so I had to tape everything off, which took a long time. It kept springing up summer showers while I was trying to paint, so that also delayed things.





I painted the manifolds black because I figured they would blend in better as they aged. I ended up putting on two coats of "very high heat" resistant primer, two coats of basecoat and two coats of clear coat. I'm not sure, but I hope that will prolong the typical manifold paint flaking that always takes place. Or maybe the paint will be too thick and it'll all fall off. Only time will tell. I coated the inside of the tubes as well at the advice of someone I met in the store buying the paint. Maybe it will help cut down on the heat and paint flaking, or maybe not. Again, I didn't figure it would hurt anything and time will tell.





I got a lot of small things mounted like the evap solenoid block off plate, the coils, new spark plugs and coil wires, the exhaust manifolds, the starter, etc. One of my new plug wires was bad so I've had to order a single one from the dealer. They must be made out of gold. $$$.





The exhaust manifold on the driver side fits great.





The passenger side is either touching the frame, or it's so close it would have to be measured in microns. I'm not sure how much of this flange I can grind off without effecting the way the exhaust will mount together, so I'm going to let the exhaust shop handle this to their liking.





One great thing about having a father that's retired is he can run and get parts during normal business hours. Dad dropped off my transmission yoke at the driveshaft shop and then picked it up when they had made a new driveshaft to my specifications.





I think I jacked the car up and took this measurement around 5 times, on 5 different days. Each time I would think I had the measurement taken in the correct way and then I would learn something new that made me realize I needed to remeasure or double check what I had done. I installed the driveshaft holding my breath and it fit exactly right. Relief.





The yoke had just the right about of run out. Now I just hope the BRP transmission mount got the driveline angle correct, as it was advertised to do. My experience with the rest of their products on this car has left me less than confident.





I bought an oil filter for a 2004 Avalanche, because that's what kind of engine I have in the car. I got home, filled it full of oil and realized, I have a 2004 Avalanche engine in my car, but the oil pan for that engine is now sitting in a barn. I have a Holley oil pan on the engine. So I gave the oil filter to dad for his next oil change on his Suburban and bought the correct oil filter, a PF48. When I went to install the oil filter it suddenly occurred to me that there's nothing to screw it to. Go back in time to earlier in this story and I purchased the Holley oil pan, which comes with two provisions for turbos, if one were so included to add them. I'm not using turbos so I plugged the holes with the provided plugs. I had assumed at that time, without thinking, that the piece pictured below was an adapter for a turbo. Fast forward to me looking at the oil pan like a calf at a dried up sow and I immediately realized that piece was the oil filter adapter, but where had I put it? At this point my entire garage looks like that jar of loose screws and nuts that old men always have in their shop and I had no idea where I had put this thing. Was it in one of the boxes I'd stored in the barns far away? Was it in dad's barn? Was it in some random box in my garage? I had no idea. I ruminated on this for quite a while and finally gave up and as so often happens when you have succumb to defeat, suddenly it occurred to me that I thought I had wrapped this piece up and put it in a storage pin sitting over my workbench. When I looked, it was right where I thought it might be. What a relief. 40 foot pounds later (and 1/4 turn past hand tight on the filter), I had an oil filter on the car.





My childrens' babysitter called in late last night with a stomach bug so I had to take off work and keep them. I used this time to take a field trip to the steel supply store in Nashville and picked up two pieces of 1/8" steel, which they cut to my specifications. Unfortunately, they didn't have a metal brake. I'll use one of these two pieces for the upper radiator mount. I'm still not sure how I'm going to get the piece bent into shape, but at least I have the steel now. The other piece will be a mount for the PCM and new fusebox.



I spent a ridiculous amount of time reading about what kind of fusebox I would want to order for my needs for this car. There is so much information it is entirely overwhelming. Fortunately I found a superb write up online about this very topic. I printed out every page of the write up and put it in a 3-ring binder and have been using it like an encyclopedia for a pre-internet research final due at 8:00 am tomorrow. I was up past midnight one night trying to figure out all the correct connectors and pieces I would need to order and how they would fit together. After looking at my options I have decided on a way to mount the PCM that I believe will not only be the cleanest appearing installation, but may also still allow me to run the air filter over to the driver side of the engine.

 

Wow, it's amazing how much is involved in a "simple" swap to the newer drivetrain.
Thanks for all of the details, it's all very intriguing. Keep up the good work.

 

A lot of time went by and I was not able to get any work done on The Caprice for various different reasons. When I was able to get work done it was very sporadic. All of the following projects were completed a little at a time as time, weather and parts permitted, but for the purpose of making things easier to understand I am going to combine the pieces together.



The original engine harness on The Caprice had these diagnostic ports. This was apparently an idea GM tried that did not work well and was quickly discontinued. The result for me was a lot of extra wires and a confusing page of spaghetti on the wiring diagram. I finally bought an original shop manual for the 1978 Caprice, which was somewhat confusing. I've wanted to buy one for a long while but was never sure exactly which one to get. Several models are contained in one book, such as Camaro, Malibu, etc, and they are all listed on the cover, but Caprice is not mentioned and is only listed as "Chevrolet." The frustrating part is that we used to have all these books back when Dad had the GM dealership but an employee stole them so I wasn't able to keep any of the old manuals when the dealership closed.





A computer would plug into these ports and perform various diagnostic functions. I called one of Dad's old mechanics that used to work on these back in the 70's and 80's and he said you could use them for different things, like starting the car from under the hood, but that it was essentially a big flop and no one used it.





Many of the wires were spliced together from the factory inside the harness. I used a multi-meter and wiring diagrams to determine which wires went to what pins in the firewall bulkhead connector.





I stripped out as many wires as I could and eliminated the diagnostic port and then labeled the remaining wires.





I ended up with only 4 connectors on the firewall connector.





I had to remove some of the factory tape that GM had used to cover and seal these factory splices. It was a thick type of material covered with a gum substance. I de-pinned each wire, wrapped the exposed area with black tape and then covered it with head shrink tubing with sealant to be water tight.





I then covered the wires with black tape.





And reinstalled some of the original loom. The red wire that splits from the top will be for the high setting for the HVAC blower motor, which takes a full 12 volts. These connectors were bad about melting the harness connector, and this car is also afflicted with that issue, so I'll be adding a new weather tight connector and probably adding a weatherpack connector for the remaining wires on the connector like I'm using on the underhood fusebox. The single wire on the bottom is the old wire that powered the HEI. I will now be using it to power the relay that will power the side of the fusebox that will be ignition positive.





There are many different correct ways to combine the original wiring and the new wiring to power the starter, fusebox and alternator. Below is a diagram of how I chose to wire these accessories.







I laid out the harness inside the engine bay to get an idea of where I could mount the PCM and where the wiring would need to be spliced for the fusebox.





After a lot of consideration and deliberation I ended up with a mounting solution. I was finally able to find some 1/8 steel by going to Nashville to a steel provider. I first mounted the PCM.







Then I began measuring to mount the fusebox.





Getting a perfectly tight fit with an angle grinder took a while.





The underside.





Getting everything laid out and fitting correct took a lot of testing, measuring and drilling. I mounted the breaker on the topside so that I can see the reset button.





I mounted the distribution block I'll use for the ground on the underside.





The plate will mount like this.





My hope is that the air filter will fit under the PCM and this area can act as an airbox as well as protect the wiring from the elements.









I also needed to add a mounting support for the rear.





So I used this existing hole that was already in the fenderwell.





I had these items in my scrap pile, so they will become the rear support.





The bend on the mount was difficult because of the complex angles involved. They included bends with twists in order to correctly line everything up.





Below is a picture after welding it all together. The fusebox on the original Avalanche sat in this area and the wiring harness originated from this point and went straight to the engine over the front of the driver side valve cover. Because at this time I am not able to modify every wire in the harness this location will work well because the harness will fit back near its original location in relation to the engine. I will use the extended piece on the rear mount I made below to have a clip to hold the wiring harness in place.





I rounded off the edges of the harness mount.









And then I made a panel to hold all of my large relays that are too large for the micro relays used on the fusebox.





I used a steel brush and put a coat of primer on the mount so it would be easier to handle while I'm working on it inside at the dining room table. I'm not sure what was going on with my welder on the relay-panel but I could not get a steady bead. It was more than strong enough but looked terrible. The irony is that the other welds turned out OK, but they are the ones that had to be ground off. This simple panel took almost two full days of work to complete. Getting the holes drilled in exactly the right spot took a lot of time.

 

I turned the dining room into a makeshift laboratory. I have about four binders of emails, charts, diagrams and instructions on how to get everything wired together. Fortunately, a lifesaver of a person compiled a great article on how to wire a fusebox similar to the one I have and put it on the internet. The one he used was different than the one I'm using but it was close enough that I was able to make it work. Just learning about all the different connectors and sizes and parts involved and then making sure to order the correct pieces to make everything fit together was hours of investigation. I spent more than one night up past midnight researching and compiling the correct parts to order for the fusebox. If I had directed this much effort into academia I would have a masters degree by now. I ended up calling the company that makes the fusebox to distinguish the differences in their products so that I made sure I ordered the right one. I ended up ordering a dual buss fusebox, which means each of the two columns of fuses has its own power source and ten micro relays are in the middle. I'll power one buss with a direct 12v from the battery and the other will only receive power when the key is on. We took a vacation for a week during this time and I printed out several internet threads and emails I've been exchanging. Each night when everyone else would go to bed I would sit up and read over all of the information, reading and re-reading until I could finally begin to wrap my mind around the process. Besides understanding how everything is supposed to work, understanding what parts to order was a huge task.





To build the fusebox first you insert the correct size seal and measure out the right distance of wire.





Then strip the wire.





Crimp on the correct end for the connection type. I purchased this special crimping tool and it was well worth it.





This is the crimped connector with the weather seal crimped as well. The particular fusebox I ordered uses female connectors with a tang that holds them in place once installed.





I borrowed this tool from a friend of mine and it made working with the wire much easier.





I have never been able to do a good job of soldering wires together. The solder would never create a good connection. I knew with as much soldering as I would have to do on this project I needed to learn how to solder so I did a lot of reading and watched a lot of videos on the internet. I found out that the list of things not to do seemed like a list of everything I had been doing when trying to solder. One of the biggest keys was using solder flux.





The flux is applied to the area and melted into the wires. Once melted it draws the solder down into the wires, causing it to flow in and around the desired area rather than pool above and roll off the wire. It's also good to use for cleaning off the tip of the soldering iron.





I soldered each connection.





After a lot of that I ended up with this. Each weatherpack connector I ordered holds six wires, so I would create six wires at a time.





And then put the correct connectors on the other end using a similar process.





This is the finished product of the first connector. These connectors will provide 12 volts when the key is turned on. There's a lot of slow progress here. Each night I would work and get a few more wires finished up. I realized later on that I had installed every wire on this column below in the wrong hold and had to take them all out and move them. Then I realized I had not correlated the pins on the connector the the numbered fuse connector that I wanted them, so I had to unpin all of the connectors and repin them.





Although I didn't splice nearly as many of the wires together as many others do when building their own harness I did still have a good amount of wires that needed to be spliced together.





The solder flux allowed for a good, solid connection, which I followed up with black tape and heat shrink tubing with waterproof sealant.





Slowly but surely I began to get all of the wires that I wanted hooked to the fusebox separated out, labeled and put in place.





My youngest daughter always asks if I'm going to "work on my wires," and always wants to help. I don't let her hang around when I'm soldering with the lead solder, but she helps assemble the pieces together. All of these steps took a tremendous amount of time.





I used a string to measure for the new serpentine belt. I still ended up having to return two belts until the third one was close enough.





The hose coming out of the bottom of the throttle body goes to the steam vent port on the radiator.





This piece mounts on the back of the driver side fuel rail and is there in case of an accident to prevent the fuel rail from hitting the firewall and puncturing.





I reinstalled it in its original location.





I found that the vacuum port for the brake booster was plugged on the engine. This engine originally used a hydraboost system to power the brakes, which used fluid from the power steering reservoir, so the vacuum port on the manifold was plugged. I ordered a new fitting from the GM dealership but I couldn't figure out how to remove the old plug. After reading online I found that you have to depress the red portion of the plug while pulling out on the plug itself.





I replaced the booster hose fittings.





Installing the hose on the new fitting was a very tight fit. Some grease helped it go on.





I installed a new hose filter, valve and hose.





I ordered some carpet samples online.





And after a couple weeks the girls had a new playmat.





I could not believe how difficult getting the upper radiator mount was. Finding the steel was difficult to begin with and then I couldn't find anyone who could bend 1/8" steel. I looked into buying my own metal brake and reinforcing it with metal gussets, but even that was going to be a gamble. After several dead ends, finally one machine shop sent me to another machine shop that sent me to another machine shop that gave me the information for a final machine shop that was able to make the bends. I noticed that the angle on the rise didn't appear to be steep enough. After getting the metal closer to the appropriate size I tried to make it work but realized it wasn't going to fit correctly. I'm going to try to take the piece back to the shop and see if they will increase the angle of the bend.





After a lot of searching I found some radiator hoses that will fit. If I could find a thermostat housing that would point down at the 6 o'clock position at 90 degrees and would maintain use of the original thermostat I would have no trouble but after a lot of searching I haven't found a thermostat housing that fits what I'm looking for. In the future I may try to come up with something better, but for now what I have fits fine.





I had ordered the fittings for the new transmission lines quite a while ago. It was a long process to figure out exactly what types of fittings and adapters to make everything fit together. The radiator uses NPT thread and the transmission uses NPS, or visa versa, and the hard line uses an inverted flare fitting. At first I was going to use steel braided line but then I realized that the radiator fittings were on the driver side and the transmission fittings were on the passenger side so I decided to go with hard line. I went to the parts house and rented a flaring tool. Even with soft copper nickel lines this garbage tool wouldn't work. First, it didn't leave enough room for the line and adapter to fit inside the tool and then it couldn't bend the flares correctly and the threads on the cheap tool ended up ruining. I've used these rental tools many times, so I knew I was using it correctly. I went to every parts house in town and they either had the exact same kit or had no kit. After wasting too much time driving all over creation I gave up on rental tools. I have grown tired of poor quality rental tools in the past and have decided to order a good quality flaring tool. I am currently waiting for it to show up at which point I will be able to install the hard lines. After these lines are installed I can then have the exhaust installed.





Bad flares.

 

After I was unable to work further on the upper radiator mount or the transmission lines I moved on to some other items that needed to be finished. I installed the neutral safety switch.





I tightened down the fuel pump as well as the fuel pump line fittings.





Added some final fuel line clamps.





Finally installed this bracket for fuel lines I had welded onto the old exhaust hanger.





My solution to hold the fuel lines over the rear axle was to modify a standard hose clamp. The small screw on the bottom was the original and the clamp was only intended to hold two hoses apart but did not mount to anything. I got a longer screw and added a washer so I could mount the hoses on the frame, between the frame and body over the rear axle.





The clamps keep the hoses in place and keep them from rubbing on the frame.





The clamp mounted through a pre-existing hole on the back of the frame.





I installed the driveshaft strap, which with the new location of the driveshaft probably won't do a lot of good, but it's there anyway.





I put the bell housing cover back where it belongs.





The vacuum reservoir for the HVAC system holds extra vacuum for situations where the engine may have low vacuum. This allows the systems that use vacuum to maintain constant vacuum and a consistent operation, unlike vacuum operated wipers of old that would stop working when the engine was under a load. I'll need to break off this tab to have access to a vacuum manifold port.

 

What is this device?

 

Wow. Who would have thought it would take so much engineering? It will all be worth it in the end though. I'm glad to see your youngsters are taking an interest in what you are doing. They're the future of the car hobby.
Now, we're all impatiently waiting for the photo of your wife sitting in the finished car with a thumbs up, followed by a photo of you doing a burnout in front of the nosy neighbor's house.

 

This is great work, but once again goes to show that "just drop an LSx in it" is missing the entire point of how complicated doing a swap like this RIGHT can be. So many things to track down and do correctly and it all takes time, no matter how many "swap made EZ!" kits companies want to sell you...

 

I have a fair amount of experience with soldering, and I noticed a pair of items I want to bring up.
1) Though solder flux makes solder joints better, it is an acid-based chemical, and any joints made should be cleaned with Isopropyl Alcohol and an acid swabbing brush;
2) Though solder flux is good for getting the iron's tip ready to do the next joint, so will a piece of sponge wetted with water. It's cheaper, and a lot less smoke made while you work. Otherwise, excellent work on the comphter and fuse block mounting plate. There's no way I could ever be that good. I'm envious.

 

Oh, and a suggestion on the driveshaft strap: you could make a pair of thick supporting straps to hold a loop however far back to protect the driveshaft and floor, and attach it to the original strap.

 

That's an idler pulley that came with the Holley AC compressor relocation kit. The original compressor was down low on its own dedicated belt, so adding this kit ads a lot of length to the belt. This keeps tension on the belt and the harmonic vibrations down on the long distance between compressor and the other idler near the alternator.

Hahaha, that neighbor is now 94 years old and gets out every single day and rakes leaves. I honestly think her mind may be slipping a bit. It was literally 95 degrees outside and she was raking leaves in the direct sunlight while more leaves were falling off the trees than 10 people could rake up.

My experience with a lot of the swap kits is they aren't very good. I am strongly displeased with the BRP engine and transmission mount kit I got, for example. The Holley kit seems to be well engineered, but even with that I had to call them and spend almost an entire Saturday and subsequent calls on other days in order to get the correct components for their kit because they essentially sell the sanden compressors as 3rd party add ons to their kit and because of that they don't know the difference between some of the mini and full size compressors, causing confusion. I believe the biggest issue with LS swaps now, in my opinion, is the vast array of differences between all the years and knowing all the issues that come up with getting the parts to all fit together. Fuel rail systems, smog components, accessory drives and of course getting the computer programmed right to one, work, and two, control everything you want it to. There are A LOT of short cuts and I'm finding that many, or maybe even most, just take those routes because it's good enough, and honestly for them it probably is because they're mostly working on toy cars or a project they'll soon get tired of and sell. I've had this car for 21 years and I plan to continue to daily driver for years to come, so engineering it so that it will be safe, easy to diagnose in the future and easy to replace when parts fail is what is seemingly making this difficult for me.

Yeah, I've been using the sponge for the soldering as well. I had never known anything about tinning the tip of the iron or sponges or flux or anything like that. The effective difference in techniques is the whole world.