Well, I dont have that many pictures of specifics, and I dont know what is on photobucket but im going to try and do a write up of this build.
First off, for anyone who has doubts about the LS, or is sick and tired of hearing about them, I understand. They are coming up everywhere.
They are the new generation of small block chevy swaps, but the power and strength they posses, I couldn't resist for the money.
Fuel injection is great. I have lost next to no reliability from the fuel injected six, but have almost tripled my horsepower at the factory specs.
The car is a whole different animal, and different. I have never seen a LS third gen in person.
This last weekend, I attended the Ontario Camaro Club's Camaro Nationals in Oakville. I didnt see another one there.
I got the car judged, and was a runner up in the modified class. I dont know exactly what place, but I am very proud to say that. I was the youngest in attendance again as well.
I got a chance to talk to a lot of people I had met last year, and a lot of new people as well. The attention that the motor swap attracted was so much
more than before, and it got people looking at the rest of the build, which, with the V6, oftentimes went unnoticed.
Regardless, I dont regret it at all. It wasnt the easiest thing, but it certainly isnt the hardest thing either. The amount of knowledge I gained from
the swap alone was worth the money. While on the topic of money, I could have done better, but money was tight.
Regardless, onto the actual process of getting this thing in there.
The motor is a 4.8L iron block, aluminum head motor out of a 2000 Chevy Truck. 500$ for the truck. Good deal IMO
I found out after I got the truck in the shop that it had blown a headgasket. I regasketed the motor using better MLS head gaskets and the rest of the kit.
Getting air into the motor is through the stock "ram air" style intake setup. Air is directed up through a front splitter to the airbox, with K&N filters to the motor
through two rubber connectors. No internal mods are done to the motor as of now. Letting all the exhaust gasses out are a set of 1 3/4" primary Hedman Husler
Ls swap headers, connected up the the Stainless exhaust I had bent up for the V6. That goes through a magnaflow muffler. The car isnt any louder than the V6 (Sleeper!!!)
On the topic of sleeper, its a quiet, no ground effects car. Blends right in. To anyone that didnt know what was under the hood, for all they know it is a v6, or doggy 305 from the 80's.
Custom motor mounts hold the ls in place, while the clamshells on the block are from a fourth gen camaro LS1. Transmission is a 4l60E from the truck, with a
B&M shift kit. Holding it in place is a Swap Transmiossion crossmember, with upgraded tubular torque arm with delsphere end mounted directly to the frame. Adjustable pinion angle to
preload the car for launching. the factory drive shaft works and goes to the open differential in the back.
The engine uses the stock cooling system, minus the tap in at the top of the radiator for the steam line. Seems to be good so far now that all the troubleshooting is done.
I put in an Intellitronix digital gauge cluster in the car for simplicity when it came to speedometer. Surprisingly, it was the most cost effective solution. The speedometer is fully programable
and has accomidation for 0-60, 1/;4 mile time and top speed for a given run.
Driving this thing isnt much different than the V6. You can feel the extra weight, and see it with the small rake the car has now. Untill you step on the gas. Obviously its not the quickest thing in the world,
but when you go from driving a 130 HP v6 to a 280+ HP V8, it feels ridiculous.
Traction is a problem right now, but Ive talked with Glenn and he has given me some ideas on how to fix that untill I can upgrade. Spool and Lincoln Locker are in the air right now. Im probably just gonna drive it an have fun for now.
I dont really have much else to say really... found a guy to do the ls standalone wiring and tune the computer, I stripped and spliced in the third gen wiring myself, which was intimidating at first, but easier as I went.
I only have limited pictures right now, but would love to answer any questions or help out in anyway I can. Lemme know if you want more info, theres a couple things I can add in forsure.
this should keep me happy till I get the next one done...
WOW real nice job guys. Real clean,it looks like it was original. How long did the change over take?
TMJ
On this engine swap there wasn't as much "guys" involved as it was Ben. He took this car to the next level and was the brains and the worker behind the whole deal. I listened as be bounced ideas and talked his way through problems. I lent a hand if needed but usually his buddy Greg helped him out. I did machine a few custom parts for the car out of 17-4 material(heat treated Stainless steel. The upper pulley mounting bolt/bearing surface and the alternator adjuster/belt tensioner. I'm quite proud of what he has managed to do.
WOW real nice job guys. Real clean,it looks like it was original. How long did the change over take?
TMJ
On this engine swap there wasn't as much "guys" involved as it was Ben. He took this car to the next level and was the brains and the worker behind the whole deal. I listened as be bounced ideas and talked his way through problems. I lent a hand if needed but usually his buddy Greg helped him out. I did machine a few custom parts for the car out of 17-4 material(heat treated Stainless steel. The upper pulley mounting bolt/bearing surface and the alternator adjuster/belt tensioner. I'm quite proud of what he has managed to do.
I'm quite proud of what he has managed to do.
You have more to be proud of then what he has done .
I guess I was too excited about getting it done, I forgot to take more pictures!
Thanks a lot for the feedback.
TMJ - In terms of how long it took, I was lazy with getting the motor prepped, probably did that and re gasketed (and the shift kit too)
over the course of a couple months, then brought the car here and motored on it and got the thing in and runnning in another two months.
(mind you, this is every saturday, but every other week being here to work on it).
Absolute professional install,...GREAT work and workmanship,..can't tell it from factory. Excellent photo's too,..Thank You for sharing,..one beauty little ride !!
For this car, write ups have been done to prove you can only use the oil pan from an LS1 camaro/firebird. Covette, truck and the aftermarket swap pan dont work, as they hang far below the K member, and thats kind of sketchy.
I found it on summit racing. Just the factory replacement piece for an LS1 camaro from GM performance. Youll need the windage tray, dipstick, and pickup tube as well, all of which are pretty easy to find. I can get the part numbers if youd like.
So hit the drags (videos above), drove it to st thomas, made 8 or nine passes and drove it home.
Had an issue that had presented itself about a week before the drags. MY battery was funny the one day on my way home. Voltage was dropping quite quick and then it was fine, so i never checked it out. Then my battery died at the drag strip and got it boosted. I put that aside as leaving the fan on for too long. Now that I think about it though, Ive had it on for longer with no problems. Then on the way home the radio and tachometer stopped working, my lights were really dim and flickering. Transmission slipped into limp home mode too.
Pulled over, all symptoms point to charging system issues. The feed from the alternator to the power distribution block was really loose, all my heat shrink was crumbled (cant remember if I heated that one too long or not), and it had some bluey white on it, almost like it was arking. So lucky my dad had a 10mm wrench, tightened it up, started it and 13.9 Volts right away.
Regardless, I need more track time now. If my fuel pump wasnt putting enough pressure, or the ignition system wasnt doing what it is supposed to do or blah blah blah, excuses...
It may go faster....
So hit the drags (videos above), drove it to st thomas, made 8 or nine passes and drove it home.
Had an issue that had presented itself about a week before the drags. MY battery was funny the one day on my way home. Voltage was dropping quite quick and then it was fine, so i never checked it out. Then my battery died at the drag strip and got it boosted. I put that aside as leaving the fan on for too long. Now that I think about it though, Ive had it on for longer with no problems. Then on the way home the radio and tachometer stopped working, my lights were really dim and flickering. Transmission slipped into limp home mode too.
Pulled over, all symptoms point to charging system issues. The feed from the alternator to the power distribution block was really loose, all my heat shrink was crumbled (cant remember if I heated that one too long or not), and it had some bluey white on it, almost like it was arking. So lucky my dad had a 10mm wrench, tightened it up, started it and 13.9 Volts right away.
Regardless, I need more track time now. If my fuel pump wasnt putting enough pressure, or the ignition system wasnt doing what it is supposed to do or blah blah blah, excuses... It may go faster....
Rear gear swap my friend and that alone will put you in the 13's; should be lots of 3.42 /3.73 out there for them Camero's.
And remember don't stage too deep and Don't wait for the green.
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Rear gear swap my friend and that alone will put you in the 13's; should be lots of 3.42 /3.73 out there for them Camero's.
And remember don't stage too deep and Don't wait for the green.
The car already has 3:42's in it. He was still trying to get the launch right and was dropping time by loading it up more each time at the lights. A dyno tune would probably really help but I don't know if that is in the cards for this year. He might do a cam change at some point and that would be the time to do the dyno tune. But for now I think he is going to just have some fun with it.
What have you got on there for tires for the track? I'm not much of a drag racer but with my previous truck just swapping to slicks made a HUGE difference for me - but I also had 4.56's. I think I went from 14.7's to 13.9 with slicks. Someone also told me not to heat up street tires too much, they said just give em a quick couple spins to just clean em off. They told me street tire compound will get greasy not sticky if you heat it up too much. I have no idea if that's true or not.??
I am running BFG Radial TA. 245/60/15. It really didn't seem to spin that much really. Slicks would be ideal, yes but I'm worried about breaking my tiny rear end with a hard launch. I cut te time off by .3 or so seconds already just from start to finish o the night. I can get it faster.
Drive around the water box, just scuff the tires on dry pavement. Just enough to clean the dirt off. Regular TA's get greasy is you heat them up too much.
Good running car. I am going to be doing a similar swap soon in my 87' Cutlass.
Ben did some more upgrades late in the summer. He added a 4th generation rear end with 3:73 posi. The new rear is 2 inches wider on each side, making new rims(corvette) necessary. To stay with the plain jane kinda vibe he chose a simple star style rim. 17's front 18's rear. The new rear was a disc brake set up.
In the spring he is looking to up grade his exhaust, bigger rear tires and maybe bigger discs on the front.
Forgot to say Ben's car has been driven lots this year. He put in a new digital aftermarket dash in the spring 2016 to work with the electronic speedo and it now reads 5000miles. He took the car to the Camaro show at Summit racing in Ohio and had a blast. There were only two LS swapped cars there I guess. The resto is now 3 years old and the car still looks great and with the engine swap that he did, gets lots of attention. He won youngest competitor at the Camaro nationals two years ago and runner up in the modified class this year(third and 4th gen class).
Glad he is carrying torch now and I am a pretty proud Dad.
We never did make it back to the track this year John. We just got doing stuff and then he ripped the back of the car apart and also did some front end work (which made the car need an alignment) and we just ran out of time. Car should run in the 13's in the spring though!
