The Mullet Missile - My 82 Z28 LS Swap

Drago

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Oct 26, 2020
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Shawano WI
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Tom
So here's my most recent project, an '82 Camaro Z28 that was one of the Indy 500 Pace Car replicas originally. Got this car with the intentions of going on Power Tour with my dad but that got cancelled this summer. I bought it about a year ago from a guy who had it 10+ years and it sat as a roller in his shed for the last 8. He said original paint was peeling so he primed over it, and it was parked because it needed some floor pan attention. So I bought it as it is now in primer and it needed some love in the floors due to a leaky t-top.

After buying it I bought an 06 Yukon XL Denali from an insurance auction with a good 6.0, 4l65e, and awd transfer case. It had light damage in the rear bumper and hatch and the title was deemed junk by the insurance company. I ended up parting out the whole truck, stripped it completely down and scrapped the shell. Ended up making money in the end and essentially had a free 6.0 as well as a complete Denali interior swap for my 06 Sierra crew cab. This took most of last winter, I'm a college student and do this in my free time. Throughout the spring I collected parts for the swap.

Basically the engine setup is the 06 6.0 LQ4 from the yukon, 862 heads from a 5.3, ss2 cam, pac 1218 springs, Melling stock lifters, BTR trunion kit, LS2 intake and injectors, G plus 92mm TB, Speed Engineering headers, LS1 oil pan, ICT Billet truck accessory relocation brackets, LS3 water pump. Trans is a 4l80e 2wd trans with CK performance shift kit and 3400 Summit Pro converter. All of this being run by a Holley Terminator X Max ECU. I'm using a Walbro 255 fuel pump in a stock third gen efi sending unit with -6an feed, c5 vette filter/regulator. I also sourced a ford 8.8 rear end from an 05 Ranger and had a local fab guy cut and weld my stock 10 bolt axle tubes to the 8.8 center. Used factory 90-92 camaro 28 spline axle shafts and installed new bearings and seals along with new stock drum brakes in the finished axle. I also bought UMI Performance control arms, panhard bar, and subframe connectors. Along with this I used a PA racing 4l80e transmission crossmember, driveshaft loop, and torque arm. Purchased LS1 Camaro brake setup and conversion parts for the front but have not yet gotten around to installing them. As of this week the car runs and drives but is not yet tuned or running perfect, it still has some learning to do. More pics and info to come!

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Drago

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Oct 26, 2020
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Shawano WI
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Bought the car Nov. of 2019 as a roller. Brought it home to strip the interior and see how bad the rust situation really was. Drivers side was a lot worse than drivers side but fixable. Dr rear footwell and in the front near kickpanel needed work. Patches aren't pretty but functional. Ground down and used POR-15 on all the surface rust spots.
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Drago

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Oct 26, 2020
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Shawano WI
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Donor came from copart, it was an '06 Yukon XL Denali with 220k on the 6.0. It had rear and light front end damage but ran and drove fantastic, insurance company junked the title so it could only be used for parts. Kept the engine and interior (for my truck) and sold everything else.

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Theres the Denali interior after I swapped it into my 06 Sierra 1500HD

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Drago

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Oct 26, 2020
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Engine was pretty filthy on the outside but some Totally Awesome dollar store cleaner and the pressure washer cleaned it up good. Under valve covers looked great and cylinders looked like brand new. Cleaned the block up with a wire brush and painted black

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I found an aluminum 5.3 with 862 heads from a trailblazer in the junkyard and bought it. Swapped my 317 heads from the 6.0 onto it and sold it that way, and cleaned and installed the 862 heads on my 6.0 for the compression increase. The 5.3 was the complete opposite of the 6.0, it looked incredibly clean on the outside, but it was a sludge beast on the inside. After lots of cleaning, lapping the valves, and installing the springs I put them back on the 6.0.

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Drago

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Oct 26, 2020
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Picked up an 8.8 3.55 trac lok rear end from an 05 Ranger at the junkyard and had it sandblasted along with my factory 10 bolt so that everything was clean and ready to be welded. Took them to a local fab guy and he welded my 10 bolt tubes onto the 8.8 center along with a Hiltsy mount. Here's a youtube video I made that goes over the whole rear end build with all the part numbers I used.



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Drago

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Oct 26, 2020
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Found a mid 90's Monte Carlo at the junkyard with some leather seats and grabbed those, and a different time at a different yard I scored a rear leather seat from a 4th gen firebird. The stitching pattern in the leather is actually identical lol I'll call it my poor mans leather interior swap. Used the 3rd gen seat brackets with some bracing to mount the seats to. Passenger side bracket had to be cut down so my head didn't touch the t top

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Drago

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Oct 26, 2020
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Don't have any other pictures besides this one but my fuel system consists of a Walbro 255 pump in a factory third gen sending unit with -6an hose to c5 vette regulator. I used a large portion of the factory 3/8 hardline then just more -6an lines and fittings to adapt it to the ls2 fuel rail. And yes I trimmed the lines from the sending unit because I committed the most unholy sin of all.. cut a hole for the fuel pump trap door.

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Drago

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Oct 26, 2020
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Engine and trans went in together, because I didn't think it would be easier to put them in separately. Well I was wrong and after fighting with it a for about 2 hours my buddy and I finally got it in and mounted. Had to cut ears off the transmission to get it to go in nice, and ended up using factory truck trans dipstick which fits ok but not great. Speed Engineering Headers went in from the bottom without any fitment issues. Wired up the Terminator X max and it fired right up. Idled at about 2500 rpm and after a few hours of searching for a vacuum leak discovered I forgot to put the rubber o ring on the intake for the throttle body. After getting the subframe connectors welded in and torque arm installed, the driveshaft went in and I took it for the first drive around the block without even cleaning any dust off. As it sits now its running and driving ok but computer is not yet completely self learned. No exhaust yet besides extension pipes off the headers so once that gets taken care of I'll start driving and letting it learn more. Even the way it is now I am really impressed.. by far fastest thing I've owned, in my eyes this thing is a ripper

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Drago

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Free 6.0? Sweet. Looks like a fun build.
yep, bought the yukon from copart for $1000 out the door, and sold everything except the engine and interior for a grand total of $2500. So the way I see it, for the cost of a little elbow grease I got paid $1500 and got a free 6.0 and interior. It has been very fun, especially being my first build!
 

Drago

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They make a kit now to seal up the hole, but looks like you're pretty nifty so I imagine you did yours up right.
Which hole are you referring to? Lots of holes in this thing lol also yeah noticed it's a lot quieter with more gas in it. PCM isn't mounted yet, as of now its just laying in passenger footwell but I plan to mount it vertically against the passenger kickpanel
 

DEEZUZ

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Which hole are you referring to? Lots of holes in this thing lol also yeah noticed it's a lot quieter with more gas in it. PCM isn't mounted yet, as of now its just laying in passenger footwell but I plan to mount it vertically against the passenger kickpanel

The sender unit hole.

And how do you have that much wiring to get pcm into the cabin?
 

Drago

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Oct 26, 2020
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Shawano WI
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Tom
The sender unit hole.

And how do you have that much wiring to get pcm into the cabin?
Ahh gotcha, yeah that plug in the pic came with the new sending unit I bought because my car was originally carb. Terminator X came with enough wiring to run all of it through the passenger fender and out the factory hole in the kick panel. Trans harness I enlarged on of the holes that was already in the firewall to 1 1/2" to run that through because that harness wasn't long enough to run thru the fender.
 

CMNTMXR57

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Sep 12, 2008
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Donor came from copart, it was an '06 Yukon XL Denali with 220k on the 6.0. It had rear and light front end damage but ran and drove fantastic, insurance company junked the title so it could only be used for parts. Kept the engine and interior (for my truck) and sold everything else.

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Theres the Denali interior after I swapped it into my 06 Sierra 1500HD

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Shit man, I'd have loved that dash trim bezel and all the door switches for my burb.
 
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