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| The flywheel is bolted to the crank, the clutch disc is positioned on the clutch installation tool next and the center floater installed. Note that the center floater is vented for dust evacuation and cooling. |
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| Next the second disc and the pressure plate are bolted down. Once the pressure plate is bolted down the alignment tool is pulled out. Your clutch is ready. |
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| The bellhousing is in place and ready for the transmission. |
The final components unsupplied with the E-Rod kit are the motor mounts which again you’ll have a choice of which to use. For our mount kit which we’ll get into in a future installment, we need a set of C5/C6 Corvette pedestals and biscuit style mounts both of which we sourced from Street & Performance (www.hotrodlane.cc).
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| Corvette C5/C6 engine pedestals bolt right up to the LS3.. There are a couple different kinds of pedestals, so make sure you get ones that look like these if you’re following along at home! |
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| “Biscuit” style motor mounts were also picked up from Street & Performance (www.hotrodlane.cc). |
There’s one more addition we made to our LS3 before calling it ready to drop in the car and that was the retrofitment of an LS1 oil pan. A good thing for swappers, all LS oil pans are interchangeable with one another whether you want a front sump, rear sump or even a dry sump setup from the LS7, there’s probably a pan out there for you. Several aftermarket pans are also available such as this new offering from Holley marketed specifically to swappers. Check out this (http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/conversions-hybrids/817787-lsx-oil-pans.html) helpful link on LS1tech for measurements on most of LS pan options. Fortunately for us, the LS1 (F-body) oil pan offers the shallowest depth up front where we need clearance for the crossbar of our subframe and whether you buy new or used LS1 plans are readily available! Worth mentioning, since each pan has different dimensions and depths, when changing the pan it is also necessary to change the windage tray, oil pickup, dipstick and dipstick tube. Here’s those part numbers for posterity’s sake:
F-body Oil Pan: 12558762 (this is an assembly that includes the gasket and hardware)
F-body Oil Pump Pickup: 12558251
F-body Windage Tray: 12558253
F-body Dipstick: 12551581
F-body Dipstick Tube: 12551577
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| Our brand new LS1 oil pan, windage tray, dipstick, dipstick tube and oil pickup! The oil pan has a baffle to help prevent the pickup from sucking air and the windage tray strips oil from the spinning crank to reduce parasitic power loss and speed oil return to the pan. One thing to consider, if you are running a car with serious suspension mods for road course use or drifting, you should install an Accusump oil accumulator. We have had starvation issues with LS motors when used in serious cars. |
