LS Swapping A Snowcat Part 2

You feeling strong .

Craig clothes make you a little stronger .

I appreciate .

So , what we're doing now is obviously we don't have any of the stuff in here bolted up , which would be a flex plate and a torque converter would sit in here .

Um We're not putting any of that in right now because we are gonna send this transmission off to get built .

We're gonna do a stage two on the transmission .

So right now we're just going to put it all together , get it inside and then get our mounting points and everything mocked up so that we can actually get this thing bolted in .

That one should work .

Actually , that might be Dave and I are supervising so very important jobs .

I don't get it on there .

Thank you .

And that's how you install a transmission .

I don't know why everybody complains about doing that .

The old motor was five ft long .

So right about there and this is 54 inches .

So about 4.5 ft long .

So you're saving space , you're saving quite a bit .

Not that you needed to , there was already a ton of space in there .

That's not actually a fair representation because we don't have any of the front accessories on this .

So we might come in maybe two inches shorter .

But just for our viewers at home , I thought it'd be a fun fact .

You know , that's what this channel is all about .

Facts .

Fun facts .

Oh , ok .

You can go a little higher .

Craig if you want .

I left the hot right outside .

Rick looks like they butchered a sheep over here , just rock it right in , rocking and rolling right into this thing can go back further .

Push him down .

Here you go .

Yes .

Oh , don't do that forward .

Don't lower anymore .

Just forward .

A lot of those lines cut on the , wait up , hold up , hold up .

There you go .

And Lord , I'm just aiming to put the oil can right in that hole .

Yeah .

So this is what I was worried about because we have like five or six different options we can use for oils .

So basically what we're going to have to do is hope that when we clear this motor forward , it gives us the extra two inches down there to clear the oil pin on that cross member piece .

And if not , then you'll have to go with the lower profile one or Yeah , we've got a bunch of different options from some mid sup and all that other stuff .

And it also kind of depends on where we build our mounts .

So a few moments later off camera .

We got it in .

Yeah .

Using all these fancy , very scientific devices called wood shards .

So we're using wood blocks to space it off of the cross member there .

That's keeping it center our oil pins clearing .

You know , we wanted to make sure the drain plug was in the right spot .

So it wasn't dumb to change the oil in , you know , because who am I kidding ?

We're never going to change the oil in this .

Anyway , this is our standard truck header , which you can see is very different from this , which is our C T S V header .

So what it's gonna do is it's gonna bring our exhaust port obviously all the way up to in between runner two or sorry , runner three and runner four .

So what we're hoping is is that this is going to give us a lot more options for how we want to run the exhaust because we're running into problems with hydraulic lines being in the way , especially on this side .

This one will also keep it a little bit closer to the block , won't it ?

Yeah .

So if you look at it like flushing on it , it's actually sitting basically directly in line right here .

Uh as opposed to this one which flew way out .

Yeah , off shoots it out quite a ways .

So that would be kind of where it would fit and that's putting our exhaust coming out if you want to flip on the other side of me that's going to be giving us a lot more options to make this connection right here so we can use the factory exhaust during these processes and stuff .

Sometimes people think that it's like difficult and really hard and the stuff we use is very scientific and that's only kind of half true because as you can see , Derek here has brought out our favorite utensil , which is cardboard and we've got the racer blade and a sharpie .

And so what we're gonna be doing that um is Derek's gonna bring that cardboard in and basically make mock pieces of what we're gonna need to fabricate later on just like that .

Yeah , all those fancy TV shows when they start , they're like , you're gonna need a screwdriver and you're gonna need a socket wrench and no , you're gonna need like pieces of a two by four and car and some ye ye get her done attitude .

Yo , you put an L S and anything with that L S brother .

Now , I know we just said that you don't need any special equipment and then we proceeded to use a water jet , a brake press and an iron worker to make these .

But we only use those because they were available to us .

They weren't actually needed to make this .

You could do this exact same fabrication essentially with an angle grinder and a welder .

So don't give us crap in the comments .

We used them because they were available to us , but you don't need those in order to make motor mounts carry on .

Oh .

Oh , there is some fire .

No , these hoses are a major fire hazard .

They're just like oil soaked drags .

And Craig , the owner of this was saying that whenever they start this , like when it starts warming up , it usually like smokes a bit out from under the hood .

What are we gonna do about that ?

We're gonna make new hoses .

Someone did make a comment that those might be asbestos .

I saw that .

I mean , this was made in 1986 .

So there , there's a good chance .

I doubt that they're really asbestos .

But I don't know .

We'll let you know in 10 years if we , everything we just got done , we've got full motor mounts , all welded in .

We don't have the final hardware in there .

Obviously , that was just to get it lined up .

Both sides are in .

We got the transmission mount mod it up .

We had to kind of modify that and weld it together and then we've got the holes drilled through the tube frame and then we just need to bolt that up .

But it is , it's where it's at .

It's right here .

Yeah , it's right here in our next step .

We've got to pull everything back out .

We've got to send the transmission off to get built .

What does that mean ?

Well , obviously we knew before we put it in there that a four L 60 isn't really like the greatest transmission known to , man .

It's a little bit weak .

So we're sending it up to Boise Idaho to get built .

We decided that we are going to do a built 1st and 2nd gear and a built torque converter .

Um I'm not really 100% sure on the exact parts that we're using on that , but the snow cat only goes about 20 miles an hour at its fastest .

So it's not gonna be any kind of land speed record any faster than that .

And it starts like going sideways any faster than that .

And it's here in for a treat because these tracks are only held together with like rubber .

Yeah , it's like vulcanized rubber thing .

So it's not designed to , this one is not designed to do rooster tails or anything cool like that .

But who knows ?

Maybe we'll pop a clutch or something .

I don't know .

So we're going to get the transmission sent off .

We're going to get that built up so that it can handle , you know , the L S power and yeah , that's , that's kind of the only thing that we're really waiting on .

So , and when we say built , like 1st and 2nd gear built , that means they're just beefing it up making us so we can handle more .

Yeah , we change the gear sets out , we'll change the val being , um , they're gonna go through the whole transmission and reseal everything uh , in the tune when we tune , um we'll actually change the shift point so the transmission won't know that it doesn't have , it's only gonna think that it has 1st and 2nd gear , stuff like that .

So um mess around with like the lockouts and stuff like that .

So it's still a little bit in the experimental phase , but we do have really , really low gears in our front and rear differentials like I can't remember .

It's like six eighteens or something like that .

So um through the divorce transfer case , which thanks for commenting on that , um we should be able to have enough gear reduction that we're not really actually going to be putting a lot of torque load on the transmission itself .

So couple that with being built and I think we've got a pretty good chance of having a great success and a snow cat that doesn't break down on the mountain in the middle of nowhere .

Everyone was very worried about if this thing breaks down .

Don't worry , we've got spare transmissions and a plan for that as well .

So that transmission , we got to send that off to be built .

It's going to be a couple weeks before that's done probably mid January , did you say ?

Yeah .

Yeah , it's Christmas time .

So slow down .

So the next few things that we're gonna be tackling is obviously we got to finish doing our hydraulic pump .

Um We are gonna be using an electronic throttle body , so we need to add an electronic , um , gas pedal for the inside .

Uh We need to reroute all of our hydraulic lines .

They're all old and they keep catching fire so he might as well just get rid of them .

Um We're gonna be doing our exhaust .

We need to mount our radiator , get our front accessories , put on wiring harness and uh fuel .

And then essentially that's , I mean , it sounds easy when you talk about it and it will take a little bit of time .

But yeah , those are pretty much the only problems that we're going to have also measure the drive line and get that made .

That's hopefully what we'll be able to do in the next video .

If not , then you'll see what we do actually do .

Yeah .

No , maybe we go get ice cream or something .

That sounds nice in the middle of December .

So , subscribe and stay tuned and , uh , this project is moving along quite nicely .