shovelhead90*
Newbie
I made some serious progress this last weekend. I got my donor car, a '96 9C1 Caprice, disassembled and the harness and sensors removed and sorted out. The car had a brand new radiator and several other new peices that I plan to incorporate into the Jeep build. I had planned to add a couple of stand alone remote oil and trans coolers and this unit already has both. The big one for me was the engine oil cooler setup extended from the filter boss! I'll piggyback my new, (purchased before I bought the Caprice) high volume oil coolers and fans out front using this setup, and double up the two coolers that came from the donor for the tranny. Because of the way the Jeep cab is made, I'm relocating the radiator to a spot inside the frame under the bed and plumbing it back to another small radiator behind the grill. The donor car had new fans as well.
I also talked to John at Speartech. He was very helpful!! He built a small diameter HEI distributor with the Optispark internals transplanted into it a few years ago that I spotted over on the LS1 forum. He says he still may have it put up and will try to find it for me. I got to pick his brain for a few minutes and he said it wasn't that hard to do, so if he can't find the ones he built, I'll build one myself. He told me that the '96 ECM was really programable and if I can get this distributor thing done I won't have to crossbreed a 0411 into the mix and use that ******* Vortec distributor.
The Vortec V8 distributor has been the only really unreliable part of my '97 big block truck. I've had to replace that damned crab cap three times and had to replace the whole distributor once. If I could get rid of the one I have and find something that would fit in behind the Vortec manifold with a vertical cap, I'd probably do it in a heartbeat. With as many miles as it has on it I shouldn't complain, but I HATE working on that .............................thing!!
Anyway, I'm gonna try to post some pics in the next couple of days. Anybody with some helpful input, don't hesitate!!
I also talked to John at Speartech. He was very helpful!! He built a small diameter HEI distributor with the Optispark internals transplanted into it a few years ago that I spotted over on the LS1 forum. He says he still may have it put up and will try to find it for me. I got to pick his brain for a few minutes and he said it wasn't that hard to do, so if he can't find the ones he built, I'll build one myself. He told me that the '96 ECM was really programable and if I can get this distributor thing done I won't have to crossbreed a 0411 into the mix and use that ******* Vortec distributor.
The Vortec V8 distributor has been the only really unreliable part of my '97 big block truck. I've had to replace that damned crab cap three times and had to replace the whole distributor once. If I could get rid of the one I have and find something that would fit in behind the Vortec manifold with a vertical cap, I'd probably do it in a heartbeat. With as many miles as it has on it I shouldn't complain, but I HATE working on that .............................thing!!
Anyway, I'm gonna try to post some pics in the next couple of days. Anybody with some helpful input, don't hesitate!!