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From: "James Hogan" 
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Date: Sat, 9 Mar 2002 20:28:12 -0500
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Subject: [ma] Damage report and some questions (and some GV notes)
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1) when I have the torque converter on the trans and am bolting the trans to
the car, should the torque converter be pushed back into the trans as far as
it goes OR is fine if I pull the converter about 1/8" towards the flexplate?
I don't recall how it was stock, but for some reason I'm thinking that it
was flush against the flexplate AND all of the way into the trans too.
Obviously my issue here is that with the th400 housing bolted up to the
engine, I seem to be about 1/8" off on the flexplate to converter :(

2) Back to the flexplate and converter. the bolt holes don't seem to line up
anymore. Same converter case (or maybe not, see next question), same
flexplate. Now my thoughts are that the housing must cause everything
behind/under/in it to shift slightly (down and to the left _just a tiny bit_
if it matters to anyone) Is there a right way to correct this problem or
should I be getting out my sharpie and marking a hole to drill?

3) These converter to flexplate bolts, I'm very confused about. Nothing is
threaded on the converter. Nothing is threaded on the flexplate. I carefully
labels which bolts came from the converter when I was taking the 4l60e out,
short (not even 1/2", fat little bolts) and so I try to test fit and sure
enough besides problem #2 - no way to connect the flexplate to the
converter. PI _DID_ include longer bolts with nuts so maybe they did indeed
change the housing and the housing used to be threaded? Is it possible they
me a housing that is setup to bolt to a LT1 motor instead of an LS1 motor
and that is what I have problem #2 or same shit?

SO, for now I think those are all of the questions I have. I'm sure when I
get back to things tomorrow morning I'll think of more stuff I _SHOULD_ have
asked. Anywho, if you care about the install so far read on, otherwise if
you happen to know any answers to my stupid questions that'd be very
helpful.

Installing a TH400 w/GV in a LS1 car
First, cut your exhaust off. Sure you paid 550 for that borla pipe once but
you're beyond that now anyhow, may as well watch some more money go to
waste. The GV unit sticks out about a foot longer than the th400 tailshaft
would have. No way to not need some special exhaust. I'm going to have to
get Mufflex to make me something super spiffy but geez, there is no room
left in that tunnel, should be interesting I guess :/

Second, I had to take the BMR torque arm down to get the TH400/GV into
place. I _THINK_ I'll be able to put the mount and torque arm back in, but
the more I look at it, the more I think I'll need to find a chassis shop
that will be able to make some kind of special torque arm, that sucks too.

nothing else too interesting to report - didn't have to do any
hammering/banging on the tunnel to make something fit (which I guess makes
me wonder if there a problem with the body of my car since I was told I'd
have to hammer things, but not told my torque arm and exhaust would be a
problem, go figure, there is a cheap/free solution to what they said would
be a problem and the cost of new exhaust and a new torque arm with what
really happened, sucks.

the deep pan seems to hang pretty low. I'm going to feel a little nervous
driving over bumpy roads. the subframe connectors do indeed hang lower but
not much lower. Hopefully I don't literally run into problems :/

The BMR cross brace also MIGHT be a problem. It seems like the ES trans
mount I have attached to the GV (the gv adapter replaces the tailshaft where
the mount would normally go) lands just short of the slot on the
crossmember. I don't know if this is brett's mess up or if GV's mount
location is just that little bit different than any other th400
mount.location. SO I'll need to either drill a hole through the bar/cross
member and get a long bolt to go through the bar into the mount of fabricate
my own mount with something.

BUT if you're wondering where I'm at now. The 400/GV is indeed bolted to the
engine (4 out of the  bolts at least - I'm told 5 of the 6 get used for an
LS1 and it started POURING on me before I tighten down the 4th and get the
5th in) and so the 400/GV is in the car, supported by the car - ie sitting
on the crossbrace (but no bolt from the crossbrace into the mount right now)
and the motor.

I guess overall I can say I'm happy with my progress for today. I'm really
bummed that it looks like I'll need new exhaust. Fortunately with the nice
cat-bypass setup Denny made, I was able to just remove the back half of the
y-pipe into intermediate pipe so I guess I don't need too too much made up.
Like I said, I'm hoping/wishing that the torque arm bolts back up now that
the gv is in its final location but I'm not convinced that it will yet. If
it doesn't I guess I'm screwed because I don't know where I would go to get
a custom torque arm made and/or how much this would cost me.

Also, I guess I should ask, should I have put any transfluid in the
converter and/or transmission before installing it? I put it all on the car
dry as it came from trans-king and assumed that since this saved some weight
lifting the trans into position, it was better, besides, wouldn't I need to
fill from the dipstick to make sure I don't overfill?

Anyone still with me?

- Jim "Why do I get myself into this shit?" Hogan
http://jim.fbody.com/ - 98 Navy Blue VeryBATA