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97 cutty ls4 swap


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Posted (edited)

Here’s my 97 cutlass supreme sl ls4 swap progress over this last year.

This has not been an easy swap whatsoever, we have had far too many hurdles but we’re still goin’. 
 

First off alternator and balancer clearance was a problem, so we had to cut and plate into my strut tower about 2 inches.

factory subframe wasn’t gonna cut it so we had 2 options: newer Impala subrame which around here costed a fortune, or custom subframe, which we ended building and turned out not too shabby.

all custom solid motor and tranny mounts.

we had to get front knee assembly from a newer Impala and axles to mount up to the 4t65 tranny, and to get rid of the horrible 1st gen strut design.

for control arms we are going with stock cutlass arms and cutting and plating them to reach the Impala knuckles and bjs.

still figuring out tie rods to account for track width being wider.

havent dove into wiring yet but we’re almost there.
 

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Edited by Donny_olds
Posted

You are a very brave man for doing this, all the best of luck with this conversion.

  • Like 3
  • Donny_olds changed the title to 97 cutty ls4 swap
Posted
On 12/10/2023 at 6:59 AM, bluecalais79 said:

You are a very brave man for doing this, all the best of luck with this conversion.

It was hard to start tearing her apart but it had to be done.

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

Custom controls arms done which completes the front end, now on to wiring… :’)

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wiring just about done, and a lil sneak peek at the turbo kit. hopefully will get a first start up later this week ✌️✌️

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Edited by Donny_olds
  • Like 4
  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Great work!   Thje first start is always the best! Looking forward to seeing how you finish it all off!! 

  • Like 2
Posted

is it really that much bigger than the NorthStar? ??
strut tower has not been modified 

41 - @catttphotos - RSE NAMI - Sept 2022.jpg

  • Like 3
Posted
21 minutes ago, Megavolt-380 said:

is it really that much bigger than the NorthStar? ??
strut tower has not been modified 

41 - @catttphotos - RSE NAMI - Sept 2022.jpg

It must be.  my alternator bracket couldn’t even clear the strut tower and water pump bracket hit my frame rail What year GP is that??

Posted
6 minutes ago, Donny_olds said:

 What year GP is that??

1991 model year

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Posted

Little update….

She starts right up and can move in and out of the shop. We still need to tune my tranny and engine some more to get everything right. Radiator, fan, and hoses are on the way and we should be able to get that all in. We gotta drop the cradle one more time to detail and paint my engine bay so everything looks nice and she’ll be nice and purdy 

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Got cooling system and all accessories on. Having some trouble getting tranny to shift, we used a 4l80 as reference for pinning the harness to the ecu and we can get it into first manually but no luck shifting, any tips??

 

Posted

what model year and what engine is the transmission from?

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
On 1/18/2024 at 11:44 AM, Megavolt-380 said:

what model year and what engine is the transmission from?

Both engine and tranny are from a 2006 ish impala. The tranny is a 4t65

Posted
7 hours ago, Donny_olds said:

Both engine and tranny are from a 2006 ish impala. The tranny is a 4t65

check the transmission connection diagram, 4l80 is very different from 4t65

4l80e.pdf 4t65e.pdf

Posted
11 hours ago, Megavolt-380 said:

check the transmission connection diagram, 4l80 is very different from 4t65

4l80e.pdf 110.67 kB · 1 download 4t65e.pdf 113.64 kB · 1 download

Our wiring is good, we didn’t use a NSS which is a main difference, other than that they are pretty similar for pinning into the 0411 ecu. We checked through scanner and get all correct high and low pressure through all gears, our problem is we’re not sure if we have it tuned correctly

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Intercooler is installed we had to do some fab work to make it dual pass. Blow off and wastegate installed, just finishing touches and it’s tuning time.

 

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  • Like 2
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Converted my 4t65 to a manual shift now she drives. getting a speedmaster shifter soon.

just got to align it and it time to drive and tune her

 

Posted
On 1/3/2024 at 7:17 PM, Donny_olds said:

Her first start up

 

IMG_1463.MOV

It sounds like you have an exhaust leak /s.

 

 

Anyway, great job and keep the videos and pictures coming. I'm kinda jealous of the turbo aspect, but I don't care to make my Z34 the fastest. I just wanted to do a V8 swap to say I did.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
On 3/17/2024 at 12:49 PM, carkhz316 said:

It sounds like you have an exhaust leak /s.

 

 

Anyway, great job and keep the videos and pictures coming. I'm kinda jealous of the turbo aspect, but I don't care to make my Z34 the fastest. I just wanted to do a V8 swap to say I did.

Haha yeah it’s pretty sweet we are still having trouble making boost, got a couple leaks we need to tame. Aiming for just ab 5 psi until we run out of injector and hoping the 4t65 holds up. 
more videos coming soon once it’s nice out

  • Like 1
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Little update, we got it tuned pretty good just having trouble making boost. Fixed a couple leaky intercooler pipes and it takes forever to build boost. Thinking maybe the 2 1/2 is too big for the turbo piping, probably will go to 2 inch. We have cam to put in which will help aswell. More vids coming soon

  • Like 3
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Cam is in, got engine bay cleaned up and wires wrapped a little better, exhaust painted aswell

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  • Like 3
  • 2 months later...
Posted

Lowered the cutty and got her running on 15 psi of boost. Thinking of taking her up to brainard raceway in September and gettin some runs in

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  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Come to Powercruise next year. It'd be a hoot. Otherwise I think there should be a Minnesota W-body gathering again. I think the only ones around are keeping them for life or doing crazy projects like this.

Posted
On 8/25/2024 at 10:27 AM, carkhz316 said:

Come to Powercruise next year. It'd be a hoot. Otherwise I think there should be a Minnesota W-body gathering again. I think the only ones around are keeping them for life or doing crazy projects like this.

I’ll have to check that out. Where would I find these w body gatherings?

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