I would like to thank both Vince and Andy for the great customer service. You guys were always easy to get ahold of and worked out every detail with me to make sure I'd end up with exactly what I needed.
Today the 4L70E trans and Yank SS3600 9.5" converter arrived from FLT. They were packaged together inside a nice plastic shipping container made especially for 2-way shipping of newly-built transmissions and trans core returns.
My old Chevy pickup always likes to be of service to my Pontiacs.
Looks just like I pictured it.
The always handy load leveler. It makes this kind of job so much easier, I'll never use anything else for engine and trans installation.
I made this one out of heavy-wall materials and had a friend at work TIG weld it all up for me. I won't use questionable Chinese stuff to hold up my new engine and trans, I've read about more than one of these things failing and injuring the user.
Nice attention to detail by FLT, a piece of cardboard taped to the bottom of the trans pan to keep it from getting scuffed-up during handling. I never knew they offered factory pans as deep as this one.
The old short-tail BOP Turbo 400 that I'm sending back to FLT for partial core credit.
The Tempest approves.
Thanks again to the folks at Finish Line Transmissions and Yank Performance Converters for delivering quality products exactly when they said they would.
i believe thats a truck pan installed on your trans. just make sure whenever you go to change your fluid& filter you get a truck filter. the regular ls filter will fall out if you dont!
__________________ 79c10, 383 ls1, forged bottom end, 85mm t6 hybrid, performabuilt level3 4l60,strange built 9inch, tuned by TUNEDBYFROST.COM
Thanks to you and everyone who replied here for the kind words.
I got the 3" X-pipe system from Pypes directly, Chris who is the owner of Pypes was kind enough to sponsor the exhaust system portion of my build.
I plan to take quite a few pictures and show exactly what it takes to do the exhaust installation here in my home garage, along with all the other details of the LS3/4L70E drivetrain swap of course.
Right now I'm still collecting some of the components needed for the swap and for an entire brake (C6 Z06) and suspension upgrade for the Tempest.
.....as it's easy to get sidetracked on a build like this.
But that's a good thing. I have been hunting down the parts for a complete suspension and brake system upgrade, something I really hadn't planned on when I first began to tear into the Tempest.
It makes a lot of sense to bring the handling and braking up to par with the anticipated power output of the LS3/4L70E engine and trans combo.
I decided to take Andrew's advice and upgrade to the ATS front spindles along with some SPC adjustable upper control arms. The fully adjustable uppers add the ability to make whatever alignment changes that are needed, and also afford quite a bit more clearance for my deeply backspaced front wheels on tight lock-to-lock turning.
I decided to use the SPC lower control arms as well. They are designed move the lower ball joint mounting point forward by about one inch. This will keep the front wheel from living at the rearmost part of the wheelwell opening in the body when a lot of caster is dialed-in for high-speed stability.
A new set of C6 Z06 Corvette brakes (14" front, 13.4" rear) all around will also be here in a few days, I returned the Z51 rears I had purchased previously. The new wheels I bought swallow up these big binders with ease, plenty of caliper clearance. My car will outweigh the Corvette Z06 by a good 500 pounds (lotsa carbon fiber components in a Z06). I know I won't ever have the power or the handling of a Z06 but having those excellent OEM brakes on my car is money well-spent.
Not a lot happening lately except gathering up more parts, and saving money for more. The new 8.5 10-bolt rear should be here soon, after that arrives the last major item I need to buy will be the air conditioning system, which I'd like to install first along with the Speartech controller and wiring harness.
Pic of the SPC front suspension arms, the ATS spindles should be here any day.
Currie Currectrac rear control arms, waiting for the new 3.42-geared 8.5" posi rear.
The made-to-order Speartech controller and harness arrived a couple of weeks ago.
Soon I hope to dive in and start getting things put together.
We need an update on this! Any idea when you might start the install process?
Patience my friend. Still gathering parts and spending $$$ on this project faster than I can make it.
Next up to do will be to replace all of the body mounts with new urethane pieces and run a new 3/8" steel fuel line while the body is still jacked up a bit during that job.
Still need to purchase the Classic Auto Air setup (about $1300) and get that and the Speartech harness situated together at the same time, they'll both need to take up space under the dash and on the firewall.
Also need to buy the GM part # 12606620 flexplate to replace the Corvette-only flexplate that comes on the LS3 so I can mate the engine and trans together. The flexplate I'm replacing only works with the torque tube late Corvette drivetrain (transmission at the rear).
Bart, when you take that Corvette flexplate off, the easiest way that I found to do it is with a 15mm impact socket and 1/2" impact wrench. This way you don't have to hold the flexplate. That is how I took mine off.
Rich
.....so I unpacked them to check for any missing parts or shipping damage.
Not so much as a scratch on any of these beauties. Clearly Tobin at KORE3 knows how to package his parts just as well as he knows his braking systems.
I decided to upgrade my brake package with some DBA (Disc Brakes Australia) 4000 slotted rotors and Hawk ceramic brake pads. Front rotors measure 355mm X 32mm (14.0" X 1.25") and the rears are 340mm X 26mm (13.4" X 1.00"). I'll have plenty of braking power to stop this train once it gets a-rollin'.
[SIGPIC] 
