LS327 Engine Swap In A 1973 Chevy C10 - The Parts Racer Runs Again!

1. This mess of dry-rotted rubber hoses is the fuel delivery system for the twin saddle tanks under the Parts Racer. At some point, I'll ditch the twin tanks and install a fuel cell. For now though, I'll adapt the rubber hoses to braided ones.

2. I went with Holley's HP150 electric fuel pump for two reasons; first, LS engines do not have a provision for a mechanical fuel pump so an electric one is mandatory. Second, this pump flows 140 gallons per hour at 7 psi, which means that it'll power a 900hp engine, so no matter what I throw at the Parts Racer engine down the road I'll be covered in the fuel delivery department.

3. I mounted the pump right to the framerail, turning it on and off via a relay and plumbing it to the tank with Earl's AnoTuff black anodized fittings and braided fuel line. I also added a pre-filter between the tank and pump to stop any large debris from entering the pump.

4. I connected the filter to the tank pickup with this slick -8AN to 3/8-inch barb fitting that I bought from Sweet Performance Parts. This saved me from having to drop the fuel tank and swap out the rubber line to a braided one.

5. I ran more Earl's -8 braided line from the pump outlet to a Holley mechanical fuel pressure regulator and fuel log. This regulator is simple and dead nuts reliable. Although inexpensive, you'll find these regulators on everything from stock small-blocks to nitrous-huffing big-blocks. There is another fuel filter plumbed just before the carburetor with a fine mesh screen to keep smaller debris from plugging up the needle-and-seat assemblies in the carb.

1. The LS engine cooling system routes the inlet and outlet on the passenger side of the engine, which means that a radiator with the same hose orientation makes plumbing simpler. That's reason number one why I had Flex-A-Lite build a radiator for this truck. Reason number two was that the first long trip I take in the Parts Racer will be to Tennessee in August. Suffice to say that it's going to be hot as hell and I'll need all the cooling capacity I can get. One look at the stock radiator and you can see that not only is the new radiator substantially larger in capacity, but it's also a dual-pass arrangement because of where the inlet and outlet are placed.

2. Flex-A-Lite is known for building efficient electric fans, and the company's latest offering utilizes the flexible t-slot mounting configuration built into the radiator tanks to easily attach these twin electric fans to the radiator without denting or puncturing the radiator fins.

3a. I also used the t-slots to bolt the radiator directly to the core support. Because this radiator is four-inches longer than the old one, the factory mounts were not going to work for me. Rather than fabricate new ones, I simply drilled four strategically placed holes in the core support and attached the radiator with Nylok nuts and washers and the t-slot hardware, which has small pieces of 1/4-inch-thick rubber between the core support and the radiator.

4a. The high-tech fan controller takes its cues from this water temperature sending unit that I spliced into the upper radiator hose. The controller will also turn the fans on anytime the A/C compressor is activated via a wire run to the fan clutch. Fine-tuning of the on-and-off cycle of the fans is made by adjusting a small potentiometer on the controller, resulting in the coolant temperature always staying between 180 and 195 degrees.