We finally get to start assembling our LQ9 6.0 motor that we got from AAA Auto Salvage. We started by stripping everything off that we were going to paint. We then masked all of these area's off and with the use of our Felpro gaskets, we marked their locations and trimmed off any extra tape. Using Duplicolors whips we cleaned all of our surfaces and started spraying the engine block, valley plate, timing cover and oil pan with Duplicolors ceramic engine paint grey primer. After this was cured we painted the motor in the same Duplicolor satin black engine paint.

Once the paint cured we started installing our senders that were supplied to us by Parts Highway. They sent us new knock, water temp, oil pressure and O2 Sensors. We also installed the senders for our Autometer gauges as well. We used ARP thread sealers on all of our senders and secured them with Totally Stainless fasteners and ARP Fastener Assembly Lubricant. We then had to install our front timing cover and valley cover. Now most people would just install these and eye ball them up but we have worked enough with LS motors that we have the same assembly tools that GM uses when putting these motors together. The oil pan is actually part of the mounting for both the timing cover, rear cover and the transmission, so if one of these is off by the slightest bit it can be really expensive. Using Royal Purple assembly lube and Break In Oil we started installing our Moroso oil pump along with the new oil pan, windage tray and pick up tube from BRP Hot Rods (part of their LS conversion kit) along with all new Felpro gaskets. Again we used ARP assembly lube along with ARP fasteners.

We took out PRW Industries waterpump and took our die grinders to it to remove some of the casting marks that were on it. We then drilled out the heater in and outlets so that we could tap them and install Aeroquip -10 AN fittings for our heater hoses. We used a Moroso oil filter adapter to mount our oil pressure and oil temperature senders from Autometer. We drilled the pipe threads and taped them deeper so the senders would sit flush (something you will never see but....). Next up was our Professional Products LS instake manifold. We also took our die grinder to this and removed some unwanted casting marks from it and repainted it and our waterpump with Duplicolors "As Cast" aluminum ceramic engine paint. With the intake and everything else in place we started wiring our Painless Performance Gen III engine harness up. All of the wires were wrapped in their Power Braid wrapping. Last thing up was our PRW Industries harmonic balancer. While GM has done an awesome job with Gen III motors, the one fatal flow they have is then didn't key the balancer on them so under high torque then can actually spin the bolt out and "throw" off the balancer. We took our LS jig and "pinned" the crank/balancer. Using the proper drill bit we drilled through part of both the crank and the balancer and slid in two .250 steel pins then torqued our PRW Industries crank bolt overtop keeping the balancer nice and tight.

We then started to assemble our fuel lines with our Aeroquip line, fittings, lube and wrenches. Once we had the motor mounted into the frame using our motor mounts from BRP Hotrods we started bolting on the jewelry. We started with our bracket kits from Kwik Performance. The first one mounts our PSC Motorsports power steering pump and our Tuff Stuff chrome alternator in place. We left the billet spacer natural to match our "As Cast" painted products. We used all ARP bolts to mount our Kwik Performance  brackets and components together. Several of these they made special for us so that everything would match. From there we installed our Holley fuel injectors, Professional Products fuel rails and our Delco DBW throttle body we got from Spalding Autoparts. Spalding also provided us with Coil Packs/brackets, ECM, Throttle Pedal and a Throttle Pedal TAC module. We then installed our Jet Performance MAF sensor and our K&N Filter. All of the lines and cables were mounted with our Made4You clamps. We then installed our PRW fabricated valve covers using Felpro gaskets but we had some fitment issues with some other components so we swapped those our for a set of low profile valve covers from Moroso with their integrated tilt up coil brackets (very SWEET pieces) along with our coils and coil wires. Everything on the motor is mounted with 12 point stainless fasteners from ARP and Totally Stainless