Speedtech sub frame... installation was easy!!

[phillym5]

I received my Speed Tech sub frame a few days ago... along with the high clearance control arms... Coil overs... ect. Nice piece.

I sent it out to get powder coated.. and spent a few hours putting it together on the jack stands. It came with EASY install instructions for each piece needing to be installed.

Once i had it all together... i went over and pulled the motor out of the Camaro... brought it over to the sub frame and dry fitted it. It was a thing of beauty. The motor is a 408 LS. EVERYTHING is custom. All the oil plumbing for the turbo's fit...power stearing lines fit... pretty much everything.

Only issues we had were the trans on my car(based on the angle we had it set) was a bit lower than the mount provided. But i just made some steal spacers to put in between the trans mount on the frame... and the cross member.. done. Then the motor was set back a bit on the stock frame. So we had to make some custom motor mounts. Only took Brian a couple hours to do.

Here is some photo's from the last two days. Tomorrow im going to put the majority of the car back together.. Brian is going to run the brake lines and change one of the dump tubes... and i am going to be finishing the plumbing and putting the front end back on. Should be done in a matter of days.

It is amazing how easy the frame swap is. If we didn't have a ridiculous motor in that thing.. we could have done the entire swap in 2 days. But instead... it will be 4.

One more thing... im really impressed with the amount of room there is at steering lock. Im running a 8.5 inch front wheel.. and there is room for at least a 10. Tons of room left for future upgrades.:unibrow:

[nvr2fst]

You got this one going off quick, Sweet.
I spoke to a couple of the guys you mentioned from our pms. thanks for the heads up.

[waynieZ]

You made some nice progress. Thats a sweet looking engine.

[scherp69]

Looking good!! I know the feeling about having so much extra room. I have 245's with a 8" rim and tons of room to spare.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd68/scherp69/P1000307.jpg

[GregWeld]

Josh --

Looks good buddy!

Hey! I called Blake... he said they wrote those instructions just for you! :rofl:

Glad to see you're making good progress!

[youthpastor]

looks awesome- lots of space-

[Flash68]

Sweet man. Now get that ride back on the road and make some more bad ass vids! :D

[XcYZ]

Nice!

[tones2SS]

Very cool Josh. Keep us posted on this build please.:thumbsup:

[monza]

You proved me wrong on the time frame for the install!
Nice one, now stop rolling on those skinny pro-street front tires it's like roller blade style..

[Rybar]

Looks good :thumbsup:

[phillym5]

You proved me wrong on the time frame for the install!
Nice one, now stop rolling on those skinny pro-street front tires it's like roller blade style..

I had it... 3 days it would have been done. Ran into a couple things i couldn't do much about. The radiator is lower on my car so the intake tube can fit neatly under the hood. Because of that.. and the position of the sway bar (its up front just above the front crossmember)... my fan hits it.Also the lower rads inlet/outlet needed to be cut off and a 90 put in its place. So i am on a mission to find a new fan... I also needed to notch out the frame a bit for an intercooler pipe. No big deal.. i hole sawed it.. then welded a brace on the back side to compensate for "weakening" the structure. It came out looking like Speedtech sent it that way. I also did a few other things while i had it apart. Exhaust wrapped the down pipes.. change a dump tube...

Couple pics of my frame notching... nothing to exciting.. this was before paint of course....

[phillym5]

Well I've put on about 500 miles since my subframe swap. I have no idea why i didn't do this in the first place.:_paranoid

This 69 handles just about as good as my 911 now. I have no rubbing issues... overheating issues... nada.

I did just order the ATS oil pan from Speedtech though. The oil pan i have now is just too low. Its the LH8 pan... it hangs too far under the cross member. I have not hit it... yet. This weekend i was blasting around with friends.. and some dips in the freeway got me thinkin. The ATS pan looks perfect. So we are going to swap that out next week.

I'll post some pics of the difference of the two pans once the ATS pan is installed.

Here's a couple pics of the car with the Speedtech frame at ride height with no rubbing... and a pic of the new pan.:thumbsup:

[GregWeld]

Josh -- is the FAN too thick?

If so. SPAL makes each size in different thicknesses. The thinner they are the less air they move - but if your system is working well... and you only need to go from say a fan that moves 2700CFM down to a size that will fit - and it moves 2250CFM... that might still cool fine. I have STAGGERED fans on the Mad -- because of clearance -- so just the one fan is a bit thinner and I have the SPAL PWM use the bigger fan as fan #1 and the fan that moves slightly less air as fan #2.

That pan hanging down like that --- nasty accident waiting to happen! Ask me how I know. LOL Had a 66 Vette that I did that too.. on the WAY to get a skid plate made - I scooped up part of the street. It won't buff out. :(

[phillym5]

Josh -- is the FAN too thick?

If so. SPAL makes each size in different thicknesses. The thinner they are the less air they move - but if your system is working well... and you only need to go from say a fan that moves 2700CFM down to a size that will fit - and it moves 2250CFM... that might still cool fine. I have STAGGERED fans on the Mad -- because of clearance -- so just the one fan is a bit thinner and I have the SPAL PWM use the bigger fan as fan #1 and the fan that moves slightly less air as fan #2.

That pan hanging down like that --- nasty accident waiting to happen! Ask me how I know. LOL Had a 66 Vette that I did that too.. on the WAY to get a skid plate made - I scooped up part of the street. It won't buff out. :(

I took care of the fan.. the fan i was running was too low because i have my radiator lower than normal (clearance for the upper intercooler pipes)... so it was just tapping the sway bar. That fan was flowing 3200 CFM... my new fan is twin 12 inch "ultra thin" and flows 2900 CFM i believe. So far so good... 500 miles and she's been stayin nice and cool. Outside temps have been in the 70's....

I am installing the new ATS pan next week. The LH8 pan is WAY to low. I haven't hit anything yet..... but i feel like its only a matter of time... so yeah.. im getting rid of that thing. :woot:

[tones2SS]

Looks awesome Josh!! Good deal.
I bet it handles 100% better. ENJOY!:cheers: