Project C4, 85 Corvette

[Steve85]

It's not the weather that's crazy...

A little update...

I noticed while test fitting for my swap that the valve cover, specifically the breather outlet, interfered with the wiper motor. I've seen a modified wiper motor from a blazer used and I've seen several have no issue and I've seen a couple race cars that don't have wipers. Turns out, LS6 and beyond (LS3 etc..) have a different breather system so they do not interfere with our huge wiper motors.

So the solution to retain the C4 wiper motor (using the VetteWorks motor mounts) with LS1 is actually quite easy. Swap in the LS6 breather and steam pipes and modify the valve cover. I did this in the car but if you're doing the swap and do this on the engine stand...even easier. I did it in such a way that no special tools or fab skills are required to continue showing how the swap can be done with little to no special fabrication. (as is often claimed by the naysayers)

If you've ever removed a complete TPI intake, you'll LOVE how easy this is...a few very easy to get to bolts and less than 1/2 of a cup of coolant spills.

For a better how-to guide on the LS1 to LS6 breather job go here. It has bolt sizes and torque specs. I didn't try to reinvent the wheel below because this is so good:

http://www.ls1howto.com/index.php?article=18

Here is the interference between the valve cover breather outlet and the wiper motor.



Removed intake. SOO easy on this engine being a dry intake.



Removed water pipes and pulling knock sensors



This little nub is not on LS6 blocks and interferes with the LS6 breather. It serves no apparent purpose and is easily cut off with a Dremel.



Here it is cut off. (I had about 10 more towels in there protecting against dust etc. during the cutting)



New breather on and torqued to 18 ft-lbs



LS1 steam pipes do not work. Need to get the LS6 version which is the front pipe and two block offs for the rear outlets. Parts are like $50 for the LS6 steam pipes.



Valve cover breather outlet cutoff and test fit to wiper



Flat piece of aluminum rough cut to size and shaped with a round end hammer and JB welded into place. Nothing fancy here, I do have a welder with an aluminum spool attachment but wanted to do this in a way ANYONE could do it, no special fab skills or tools - Dremel and JB weld.



Trimmed and ready to install.



Installed and plenty of clearance!



So nice to have wipers again. I always avoided driving the car in the rain just because it wasn't much fun so I didn't think it would bother me. I didn't consider all the other times wipers are used...like cool mornings with heavy dew.

Sold the "Monster Tach" and bought a Dakota Digital box to correct the tach signal and use the dash tach. I needed to double the pulses from the LS PCM to get the tach correct. Pretty simple device, basically tell it it's a 4 cylinder engine and an 8 cylinder tach.

I think I'm well over the 5K mile mark on the swap and loving it. Really need to get the AC back in though. These things are a damn greenhouse in the summer with the steep windshield, plexi top and glass hatch.

Also installed a new Bluetooth head unit, so nice especially on the long drive to work. I have a few pics I'll try to get on here. I removed the Bose system (each speaker had its own amp and tuned box) many years ago so it was a pretty simple install.