Converting my 1967 Camaro to LS power - budget build - bonus episode

Episode one, purchase and bodywork.

Episode two, mechanicals and interior.

Episode three, final details and the finished car.

Bonus episode, LS conversion.

Double bonus episode, converting the 4L60e tailshaft housing to a mechanical speedo drive.

Triple bonus episode, the details leading up to the purchase of this car and what it meant.

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This post is to chronicle the process by which I converted my 1967 Camaro from a 350/TH 350 to a 5.3 LS and a 4L60e. 

***

I got the bug to do the swap a couple of years ago. The LS upgrade gets me better starting, better driveability, more horsepower, and better economy. Plus the aftermarket upgrades available for the LS means a lot of future potential.

My objective was to do this project right, but also do it for as cheaply as possible. That means buying used parts that do not need major work, careful shopping, clever adaptations, and lots of research. I also wanted to accumulate as many of the parts I needed in advance, so that I could start and finish the project without having to chase down parts and wait for them to be delivered.

That last thing didn't work out so well, because it is impossible to know everything you will need until you are farther into the project. 

Also, the conversion process was a lot of work and frequently frustrating.  Every task seemed to be a struggle. "Easy" tasks often took hours. Custom-made parts too often needed to be re-worked. Parts that did not fit or were improperly constructed, fabricating adaptations from parts that were supposed to fit, accomplishing a task only to undo it because something else should have been done first... Very frustrating.

Having completed the project, would I do it again? Nope. I thought the aftermarket had this swap totally worked out, but that isn't the case. I did expect to work through some bugs, but for the most part this should have been a bolt-in swap. It wasn't.

The Car

My car is a base model convertible, which I purchased on eBay in 2007. Here's a purchase day photo of it:

It actually doesn't look too bad. At least on the surface. Originally I intended to build it incrementally by upgrading the 6 banger and putting brakes on it, then drive it around until it was time to dive deeply into it. But as most car guys know, mission creep is a real problem, especially when hidden problems are uncovered. It wasn't long before I had stripped down the car and started replacing the mangled quarter panels.

So it started as doing a slight upgrade and quickly became a ground up project. 

I think it came out pretty nice for a home build.

The Old Small-block 

The first motor I put in it was from a 1974 Chevy, making perhaps 180-190 hp in stock trim. Adding the 4 barrel, a mild cam, an intake, HEI ignition, and headers might have gotten me up to around 200-225. 

350s are as common as belly buttons, they're easy to build, reliable, and cheap. And they really run great. So I had a running, driving car, which means I was reluctant to tear it apart again. But a friend of mine knew I was considering the swap and teased me incessantly about doing it.

No one calls me chicken. Peer pressure did me in. So finally I decided to take the plunge. I pulled the old motor and transmission and sold them for $2000.

The New LS

First, I needed an LS motor. My son did a little checking on car-part.com and found a 76,000 mile 2002 5.3 LM7 (Vortec) out of a Silverado. It was being sold by Hanser's Auto Salvage in Billings, MT. I told them I wanted everything, all the accessories, wiring, and the PCM. Everything. And they did a pretty good job coming through for me. The package was $700. I think that's a buy. Plus, it turns out that it runs great, with no smoke.

It's a real advantage to start with a complete, running motor. I didn't want to rebuild it. Also, there are dozens of small parts, brackets, and fasteners already installed and complete. Plus you have the accessories, computer, starter, and everything else that you would otherwise need to chase down. 

Of course there's no guarantee that everything will be functional on a junkyard motor, or that everything will fit in the first gen Camaro, but at least I know what it should look like and how it's installed.

Vortecs are a lot cheaper than car motors, and there's a reason. The various Vortec accessories are different from car motors and many of them will not work for the first gen Camaro. If you choose the Vortec you have to keep in mind that you will need to change out the oil pan, serpentine system, exhaust manifolds, and intake at minimum. These can start to add up, to the point where the price of a truck motor plus parts might end up getting close to the price of a car motor.

Motor mounts

These adapters were $24.90 plus free shipping. They allow several mounting positions depending on where you want the motor to locate. Here's how they look with the clamshells installed:

After the first trial fitting of the motor, I found the adapters put the motor about 2 1/2" too far forward of the transmission mount holes on the new crossmember I purchased. Notice I installed them with the adjustment holes facing towards the rear. Since the engine mounting bosses are symmetrical, it turns out I had the adapters swapped side-to-side.

So I swapped sides, which puts the front-to-back adjustments pointing forward. This means I can now move the clamshells forward, which in turn moves the engine backwards. Problem solved, and the engine dropped right in.

Oil Pan

The Vortec pan does fit the 1st gen Camaro crossmember. The problem is, at more than 8 inches deep the pan hangs below the crossmember a couple of inches, which is a real problem for lowered cars in particular. Not so much of a problem if you're doing a 4x4 pickup swap.

Various websites show how to modify a car oil pan (Which often seems to come out looking like a hack job) or to pick a different pan. The Cadillac CTS pan is often mentioned. However, a deep dive into eBay found this little gem for only $229 and free shipping:

Here's how it looks on the motor:

Here's the truck pan for comparison:

The oil pan didn't come did not come with the adapter to thread on the oil filter, and I got rid of the OEM pan before I thought about it. Ebay to the rescue for $9:

The second trial fit was problematic. 

The pan hits the engine crossmember. Sigh.  

I don't know if it's problem with the pan design, the motor mounts, or the motor mount adapters. The pan is not very deep at the point of interference, so it doesn't seem like it would be the problem. The motor mount adapter kit is very similar to other manufacturers, which would suggest that the adapters aren't the problem either.

So what is the problem? Maybe the mount towers, since Chevy had several different design configurations? Maybe a different clamshell? 

So I have to change something. My choices are

• Notch the crossmember. This would keep the engine at the same height
• Experiment with various clamshells and mount towers and find a combination that raises the motor about an inch
• Modify the oil pan
• Modify the mount towers to raise the engine.

I really didn't want to notch the crossmember. I didn't want to mess with experimenting with a variety of motor mount parts. And I just bought the oil pan. So I decided to try modifying the mount towers to raise the front of the motor. Hopefully that won't change the u-joint angles too much or cause other interference problems. If it does, I will put the tower mounts back to stock and go ahead notch the crossmember.

(***Edit*** I have an untested theory, that I didn't put the clamshells far enough forward. There is still at least an inch of slide-back-ability on the trans crossmember. If there is more adjustment available in the clamshell mounting, that would put the pan's slope at a shallower place in relation to the engine crossmember, and then it might clear. However, I would need to shorten the driveshaft if this theory ended up being true.)

My first step in this modification was to come up with a jig to position the bolt holes, The new holes would be about 1 inch higher than stock, and be located precisely vertical of the stock hole. I wanted a simple jig that could be used on both sides. So I found a couple of pieces of thin metal from the scrap pile, about 4" long each, and the same size. I clamped them together for drilling. I measured to the center, and marked two holes on the center line 1" apart and parallel to the long edge. 

I bored the two holes, and now I have the two identical positioning pieces for the front and back of the tower, like this: 

I bent the lower corner of each piece out a bit, since the tower's width increases as you get closer to the crossmember. The top of the tower measures 2 1/2" wide, so I made sure the top of the jig was also 2 1/2" apart. I stuck a motor mount bolt in the hole in the tower and tightened it to hold the jig. I then put a level on the vertical edges to plumb them. Now the jig holes are vertical to the original mount hole. I rechecked plumb and started on the metalwork.

Since everything will be the same front to back and left side to right side, I made four identical brackets to weld to the top of the towers:

With another motor mount bolt slipped through the jig's holes, I know that the holes in the brackets are exactly positioned for welding. I also installed some steel tubing between the ears to prevent them from crushing together.

Here's what it looks like:

Now the pan clears:

And the engine sits in the engine bay with a good bit of clearance under the hood:

The raised position of the motor did cause a couple of problems. The air filter kit (see below) has to be kept as close as possible to the alternator pulley, or it will hit the hood. And the PCV, which is located on the driver side rear of the rocker cover, come right up into the wiper motor. 

As you can see in the above picture, my first try at fixing this was an elbowed PCV from a late seventies S-10. That would probably had worked if I hadn't raised the motor mounts. So I eventually found a plastic elbow the right size and used a short length of rubber tubing to connect it to the stock PCV. 

That worked.

Oil Sender

If you're using a mechanical oil gauge you will have to swap out the electrical sending unit. It's a simple change, just remove the old sender (found on the back of the motor, closer to the driver side) and thread in this 1/8"-27 NPT female to M16x1.5 male adapter:

You can connect the fitting for the nylon oil pressure tube to this fitting, and it's cheap at $9.95. 

You should be aware that it takes a special socket to remove the sender:

This is a 1 1/16" x 1" socket. Yes, you read that right, it has two sizes. I just happened to have one that I purchased many years ago for some other purpose. It's still in my tool tray, and it is the exactly correct, only possible tool that will remove that sensor. Wow.

Also, the sensor is tall. It has a plastic tower several inches long, and a typical deep socket is not deep enough. However, the tower broke off really easily, leaving the metal stub you seen in the picture above. 

The intake

I am amazed that Chevrolet could design something so unappealing that they had to cover it with a big plastic shroud. And it is tall, so it won't fit under the hood. 

I need an intake from a passenger car.

Make sure you get one with the right intake port shape. Mine's a cathedral port. After digging around on ebay I found a LS car intake for $200, though the prices can often run in excess of $400. Them things are gold, particularly the LS6 intake. The LS6 is supposed to be the hot ticket, but these are typically $600+. For not too much more than that you can get an aftermarket performance intake.

This is about the time you start thinking you should have started with the car motor.

When you're shopping for a used intake try to get as much stuff as possible, like the fuel rails, injectors, and throttle body. The more you buy in the package the less you have to chase down later. The Vortex fuel rails are different from the passenger car, and there are several throttle bodies and injector styles depending on the intake.

Mine came with the fuel rails and the injectors. I'm using my original cable-operated throttle body, so I didn't need to have one with this intake. Here's what it looks like:

Notice the throttle body will not clear the idler pully. Now, if you are building a vehicle with more hood clearance there is a slick adapter that repositions the idler pulley below the alternator. You would also have to trim the cast aluminum bracket between the alternator and the throttle body. That allows the throttle body to be used with the car intake, without changing the serpentine system.

This doesn't help me, though. The stock alternator position is almost as high as the original intake, which means it would hit the hood. More on that later.

So, what intake did I buy? It turns out that it was a less-than-desirable LS4 intake. It is originally found on

• 2006 - 2009 Chevrolet Impala SS
• 2006 - 2007 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS
• 2005 - 2008 Pontiac Grand Prix GXP
• 2009 Buick Lacrosse Super

These are all front wheel drive LS applications where the motor is mounted sideways. Interestingly, since the LS intake port arrangement is symmetrical, the factory simply mounted the intake backwards on the motor, which places the throttle body over the flywheel. Because in this reversed position the intake passage would interfere with the oil pressure sender, the factory narrowed the intake port for clearance. You can see that in the picture below, where the angled support bracket is built in:

The sources I have read say this is not supposed to be a good manifold to use, but they never say why. I assume it is due to the narrowed intake passage and its reduced air capacity, because it fits fine otherwise. The motors for these intakes are rated for 310 hp, which is only a little less than the rear wheel drive LS of the same era. Since I'm not modifying anything in the stock motor, I think I can use this manifold without giving up much at all. 

*Update* The motor runs well with this manifold.

Throttle Body

The LS4 manifold, by virtue of the smaller intake port, ordinarily uses a unique, smaller throttle body with four mounting bosses, and it is a drive-by-wire unit. The early 2000s throttle body (like mine) is larger, cable operated, and has three mounting bosses. 

I wanted to keep my throttle body, especially since I didn't want to mess with the fly-by-wire. This neat little LS4 adapter is cheap at $22.99 and free shipping, and solves the problem:

As mentioned, the LS4 manifold has a different throttle body with narrower bolt spacing. These guys sell a variety of adapters for various combinations.

Throttle Cable

This is a really nice unit for around $25 and worked well.

The OEM throttle lever (at the firewall) required a little grinding on the square corner in order to make the clevis pivot cleanly. The other thing is that the hole on the lever is pretty big, so I cut a 1/8" thick piece of rubber tubing to make the hole smaller in order to tighten up the space around the tiny clevis pin that comes on the cable. And, the C clip for the clevis pin is even tinier, which I promptly lost on the first try at installing it. So I substituted a small bolt and a nyloc nut, which was much easier to install.

 Here's the installation:

I made a couple of brackets to hold the cable. Here's the front one:

My design puts the throttle cable a little close close to the gas line connection. It barely fit, but it works. I will probably need to modify the bracket at some point.

Serpentine System

Having solved the issue with a tall and ugly truck intake, we now have to deal with the truck alternator:

It has to be repositioned, which means a new serpentine arrangement. Now, you can easily drop 2 grand+ on a billet system, but since I'm doing a budget build I can't spend that kind of scratch. Here's the best (i.e. cheapest but solid) serpentine belt system I was able to find, on eBay for $165 and free shipping. This kit is actually quite nice. It's simple and gets everything out of the way. Here is the right belt for $12.99.

The power steering pump needs to be removed from the OEM cast aluminum bracket. The mounting bolts for the pump are hidden behind the pulley, so that needs to be pulled. It takes a special puller, one of which my son owns, fortunately.

Here's the finished installation. Note: The belt rides on a slightly different part of the water pump pulley, so it will squeal until it runs itself in.

Computer Flash

These guys did a good job for $60.

Engine Harness

My son, a certified auto tech, was confident he could reconfigure the OEM wiring harness. I thought about it for a while but decided that I needed to eliminate as many variables as possible regarding the initial start up of the motor. A lot of things could go wrong, and eliminating the possibility of a faulty wiring harness was a big part of ensuring a trouble free first start. Or so I thought.

Yet again I turned to Ebay, and bought this for around $280.00. 

Here is a major source of my frustration for this swap. Look at the picture above, which is oriented as you would see it from behind the steering wheel. This harness is designed to mount the PCM inside the passenger compartment, which is typical. But there's a problem. As you can see, the wiring harness is designed to go through the firewall on the passenger side. That big branch on the right is the PCM bundle. It is designed to pass through the firewall on the passenger side of the motor, then take a driver's side turn. The connections for passenger side are on the second, littler branch, which means those connections are closest to the PCM bundle, while the branch to the driver's side goes behind the engine along the firewall. 

The problem is, there is really no place in a Camaro to run the wiring harness through the passenger side firewall. The defrost ducts are there, as is the entire heating mechanism. The only real place to run through the firewall is below the brake booster on the driver's side. That would essentially flop the wiring harness over, which reverses the passenger and driver's side branches. 

That means unwrapping the harness and moving circuits, which makes some wires too long and others too short. Plus, because I used a serpentine kit that moved the alternator to the passenger side, that connector will no longer reach it. And, the MAP sensor is located on the front of the intake on the LS-4. 

It mystifies me why the harness would be constructed this way. Now, it seems to me that the vendor should have asked questions: Where are you going to come through the firewall? Where is the alternator going to be located? Where is the PCM going to be located? Which MAF do you have? What kind of connector is on the O2 sensors? None of this was asked, and all were crucial.

So I unbundled and moved the various circuits, shortened some wires, lengthened others, and robbed some from the OEM harness:

That's a bunch of time wasted on soldering and tracing wires. Plus I had to rebundle and rewrap the wires. Hours and hours. That is the very problem I sought to avoid by not using the modified OEM harness.

Not real happy.

As an aside, it's a lot easier to do all this stuff, plus mount the harness, before the engine is installed.

Mounting The PCM

As I mentioned, there's not a whole lot of room under the dash in a first gen Camaro. And mounting things in the glove compartment never appealed to me. So where to put the PCM? This issue slowed me down for a couple of weeks. In an epiphany I figured it out: I never use the windshield washer, so the real estate occupied by the reservoir could be used for the PCM. 

This actually was a big part of why I had to reconfigure the wiring harness, since my choice was to locate the PCM on the driver's side front. But whether it's located on the driver's side in the engine compartment, or on the driver's side under the dash, it's still on the driver's side, necessitating the rework of the harness.

So I removed the reservoir and bent up a scrap piece of sheetmetal into an "L" bracket, bracket #1: 

This allows me to mount the PCM to the radiator core support right behind the driver's side headlight. I used two existing bolts: The lower headlight bracket bolt, and the bolt that holds the horn. The "L" goes on the bottom and holds the bottom of the PCM.

Bracket #2, to secure the top of the PCM:

This bracket is actually "U" shaped. You can't see the part that folds in front of the PCM, between it and the core support. I welded a small bolt to this flap, which passes forward through an existing hole in the core support. A nut on the other side of the core support holds the bracket.

 

You'll notice that the washer reservoir bracket is in the picture. That's because I realized I could have my cake and eat it too. There was still plenty of room aft of the PCM for the reservoir, so I welded a couple of short bolts on bracket #2 for the reservoir bracket to bolt to.

Here's what the installation looks like:

And here's the installation with the reservoir:

The wiring bundle to the PCM will go up and over the driver's side wheel well inside the fender.

I do know the PCM needs to be protected from water, and positioning it here doesn't do that. However, I don't wash the car with a hose, and I don't drive it in the rain. I'm hoping that's good enough, but I may go back and build an enclosure later.

Gas Tank

The stock gas tank sending unit has a single tube to supply the engine, but the high pressure system needed for the LS requires a return line. The unused fuel needs to be returned to the tank or the fuel pump will eventually burn up.

Faced with the unhappy possibility of buying a new tank with an internal pump for $300+, I found a simple alternative, a new sending unit that has a 3/8" feed and a 5/16" vent tube. The seller said the vent tube would work fine as a return line. $34.99 and free shipping.

I bought this pressure regulator, this external fuel pump, and this gas line kit. 

I also needed a couple of adapter fittings.

Installing the kind of 6AN fittings I bought onto the nylon-braded tubing is pretty difficult. The tubing is supposed to be forced into the fitting, but the braid tends to unravel as you twist it in. This means the braiding is fighting against you, fraying out wider as you push the fitting on. Worse, the inside of the fitting has concentric ridges. Once the tubing is pushed into the fitting, each concentric ridge is another point of resistance to push the tubing past.

The fix seems simple to me. Why didn't they design these ridges as threads rather than rings? Then the fitting could just be threaded onto the tubing. Yeah, no one asked me.

The fuel pump came packaged in a nice box with molded foam rubber. The last time I got something packaged like this was when I got some expensive cigars, so this was impressive. The unit feels heavy and solid, and comes with two mounting clamps, 6AN fittings, terminals, and a nice cup cozy... Actually, it's a rubber isolator sleeve.

The pressure regulator also came with some 6AN adapters and also looks like a nice unit.

The only real downside as compared to the internal pump is the external pump is noisy.

Total price for all this: $178.45, everything was free shipping.

Radiator

This one met all my needs (trans cooler, port for a fan thermostat, electric fan, fan shroud) at $329.00 and free shipping. 

It did not come with a radiator cap. And, the shroud is held on to the radiator frame with six sheetmetal screws (not included). The fan cage is held on to the shroud with four machine screws (not included). In addition, the fan shroud holes are pre-drilled in the shroud, but not in the radiator frame. But with a little careful drilling on the upper and lower radiator frame, the shroud fits right onto the radiator.

Last thing: The fan on this kit is mounted in a plastic chrome cage, it is not metal. But it seems to work fine.

Fan Thermostat

This is a neat little adjustable unit, and seems to be pretty stout. Price: $27.13 and free shipping.

The thermostat probe went into the steam port with a brass adapter I found at Ace Hardware. I mounted the relay on the passenger inner fender:

You can also see my progress cleaning up the wiring harness.

Radiator hoses

I went over to Autozone and they let me go behind the counter to compare radiator hoses with the pieces of bent wires I had mocked up. I found a 1 1/2"  hose that will fit the bottom connection with a little trimming:

After I cut off a couple of inches, it fits pretty good:

For the upper hose, the radiator outlet is 1 1/2" and the motor side is 1 1/4". It took a combination of two hoses and a coupler to make the upper hose work:

 I then completed the connection with a fairly small piece of the 1 1/4" hose:

Here's how it looks:

The coupler is also available as a "T," which allows a tube to be attached. Why is this important? Well, the throttle body has a connection on each side of it to allow coolant to pass through it, which keeps the throttle body from freezing up in the winter. The driver's side has a connection from the coolant crossover pipe, and the "T" on the coupler would be the connection place for the passenger side coolant exit.

Since mine is a summer-only car, I deleted these tubes. I may hook them up later.

Or, the "T" could be used for a mechanical coolant temp sensor.

Note: The coolant needs to be vacuum-bled. You cannot just poor in coolant and drive it.

Exhaust

The OEM driver's side manifold hits the power steering box. These are the stainless steel headers I purchased on ebay, and they are nice enough quality for $169, but have no muffler flanges. A local welder made some up some muffler flanges for $50. 

The power steering box clears, but there is contact with the motor mount clamshell. A quick trim with the angle grinder took care of this.

Because of the routing of the #3 cylinder exhaust pipe, the OEM spark plus wires will not fit. Dang. One thing after another. 

These are the wires I bought, which have an angle that will allow me to run the wire away from the header pipe. Plus I bought a set of eight insulator socks.

And, these particular headers hang pretty low. I may have to do some work to shorten them. (Ugh.)

Drive Shaft

A local shop shortened the stock shaft for $110. 

Air Filter 

There are a lot of cold air kits available on ebay and Amazon. I wanted one that seemed to have the right features and could fit in the limited underhood space of a first gen Camaro. I went with this one on Amazon for $60, mostly because it was black and the tube was metal. 

It turns out that only the elbow, some of the clamps, the filter, and a couple of short pieces of the metal duct were needed. I used the pieces of the duct to make some adapters. Because the MAF is a smaller diameter than the duct, and the ends are different from each other, it was necessary to build up the two ends:

I glued on some bicycle inner tube as shown. The left (engine) side of the MAF required a layer of inner tube and a piece of the metal duct. I slit the duct crossways and ground out the gap a bit. The gap allows the metal duct to contract as the clamp is tightened on the rubber elbow, which also closes the gap. 

On the right (air filter) side of the MAF I found that the metal tubing was a perfect friction fit. But the air filter was still too large for the outside diameter of the tubing, so I built it up with a piece of inner tube and glued it in place. The air filter now clamps right on.

Here's the whole thing mocked up:

There is some flex in the rubber elbow, which might allow the filter element to come in contact with the power steering pulley. So I made a little bracket to support the assembly:

This is a random piece of rod I found in my junk pile, bent into the radius of the duct, with a little tab welded on and a hole drilled in it. It will bolt onto the fan shroud, like this:

It holds the assembly perfectly. 

Power Steering Hoses

When the car had the 350 motor I had a local auto parts store make up a pressure hose. I reused that hose with an adapter for the LS power steering box:

The low pressure side is just a piece of 3/8" brake line which I bent up for the original 350 setup, and a length of rubber hydraulic hose.

Here's how it looks:

You can see also the progress I made on the wiring harness.

The New Transmission

The next big ticket item was the transmission. I shopped around quite a bit, and finally settled on a 4L60e from Mad Dog Lou on eBay. The price was right at $1195, with free shipping and no core charge, plus it came with the torque converter. His entertaining video really sealed the deal for me.

I picked up a generic dipstick on Ebay:

Tail shaft housing conversion for mechanical speedo drive

I did this task myself and covered it here.

Transmission mount

I went with an Energy Suspension polyurethane mount, part number 3.1108G. They're about $35 on ebay, but O'Reilly's had one in stock for $37.99.

Transmission Cross Member

This unit seems pretty stout, it accommodates the exhaust, and is reasonably priced at $235 and free shipping. It fit right in without a problem. It is probably the best-built, best-fitting thing I bought for this project.

Transmission Lines

This was another source of frustration. The transmission came with female jiffy tite connectors. There wasn't room around the frame tunnel to use a male straight jiffy tite connector. And jiffy tite elbows aren't cheap. The first alternative was to purchase adapters for the case (see below), then connect 6AN elbows with a barbed end for rubber tubing to that. However, I didn't like the appearance of that where it connected to the radiator. 

The second option became my choice when a friend just happened to have a couple of adapters with NPR male threads on one end and 6AN male threads on the other. They fit the radiator ports perfectly. So it was a simple matter to pick up a couple of 6AN elbows ($12 on ebay) to turn down from the radiator:

That solved the radiator end. The transmission end required the removal of the jiffy tites, which was difficult in the tight space. It's another one of those things that would be a lot easier to do before the transmission is installed. The jiffy tites were replaced with these for $11:

I had a couple of 6AN elbows left over from the gas line kit, so all I needed was about 20 feet of braided line, also an ebay purchase:

Total out-of-pocket on this setup was less than $50.

Brake Switch

Because of the lockup feature of the torque convertor, the PCM needs a signal when the brake is pressed. This allows the PCM to know when to disengage the locked torque convertor, allowing you to bring the car to a stop.

A different brake switch is needed. The original switch makes a circuit connection when the plunger is no longer depressed by the brake lever, turning on the brake lights. But the PCM needs voltage when the brake is not pressed - just the opposite.

The two pins closest to the plunger are for 12v switched power and for the PCM signal wire. The other two pins are for 12v unswitched power and the brake light connection.

A couple things. First, this particular switch is designed for a couple of plastic wiring connectors, which I did not have. The two terminals for the PCM will accept a standard female crimp-on blade connector, but notice how the pins for the brake wiring are very small. There is a cutout near one of those terminals, as you can see in the picture, which allows room to use the same blade connector. But the other pin doesn't have enough room for the blade connector. That requires a smaller female blade connector.

Second, this particular switch did not have threads for the nut. But the ebay listing showed threads, as well as four full-sized male blade terminals. But on the actual part they sent me there were two narrow longitudinal bars of oddly shaped threads, one on each side of the shaft. You can see the remnant of those threads in the picture. I don't know how the switch would be held in place with that setup. 

But rather than chase down even more parts, I adapted. I filed off the two longitudinal bars and got out my tap and die set. I turned threads onto the shaft and the nut screwed on perfectly. Another custom adaptation, another hour wasted. But it worked.

Sway Bar

This isn't really part of the swap, but since the motor was out I thought I might as well. The original is pretty flimsy. Here's the one I bought for $139.99, again on eBay:

Completion

After a huge amount of work, the motor is done:

She starts and runs like a modern car. It's responsive, sounds good, and has been trouble free. Again I ask myself, would I do it again? The answer is still no. If the car was a 10,000 mile per year driver, I could justify the swap. But for me, driving locally for errands, church, and car shows, it just isn't worth it to tear up a well-running car.

Totals

As I mentioned, I wanted to do it right, but do it cheaply. To date I have spent $4483 (not including the sway bar). I sold the small block and TH350 for $2000, so my net spending was a little under $2500.