Thinking about crossing over to the dark side.. LS1

[Pablo]

I'm looking at my options. I have an LC2 with way too many miles and a blown HG. I could rebuild it and run what I have been running (low 7s in the eighth mile) but in order to run much faster, it looks like its going to cost at least 5 grand.

I have a buddy that is into LS1s, has gone through several... He has one for me, a stock 160k LS1 out of an f body. He wants to hook me up with it for like 600 bucks. The engine runs fine.

Lets say I put an equal amount of money into either the turbo 6 or the LS1 conversion (turbocharged of course), i.e. 4 grand...

Would I be way ahead with the LS1?

I am assuming that I could adapt the LS1 to my transmission and that I could re-use my turbo (or does the 3 bolt flange make that hard to do?)

give me your thoughts

 

[Pablo]

Anybody? :frown:

 

[Hawaiian Turbo]

IMO, I'd go for it. I'm not sure about the trans adapting. The hot side can be made for any turbo flange, I'd change from the 3 bolt flange.

 

["Turbo-T"]

$600 for a running LS1 is well worth it. Not sure if it will be any faster if you spend the same amount on it as the LC2. How do you plan to make the turbo work? Do they make specialty headers for LS1's with turbo capabilities/mounting flanges?

Another thing, you could always just get a n/a Regal for peanuts and stuff that LS1 into, as to not desecrate your LC2 car.

 

[Louie L.]

The vibe im getting from your post is that you are looking for a budget V8 swap. Thats just not gonna happen even with a used cheap motor. There will be some fab work involved which = big $$$ unless you do it yourself. There are no readily available headers that can use a stock GN turbo. Plus It will not provide enough airflow for 346 CI. Now if you used 2 of them thats a different animal. The wiring job will be some what advanced.

The part of sitting the motor in the car will be the easiest!

If you are going to do a V8 conversion, do it right and go all the way. I would upgrade the used motor with some steel rods and forged low comp pistons.

 

[Pablo]

The vibe im getting from your post is that you are looking for a budget V8 swap. Thats just not gonna happen even with a used cheap motor. There will be some fab work involved which = big $$$ unless you do it yourself. There are no readily available headers that can use a stock GN turbo. Plus It will not provide enough airflow for 346 CI. Now if you used 2 of them thats a different animal. The wiring job will be some what advanced.

The part of sitting the motor in the car will be the easiest!

If you are going to do a V8 conversion, do it right and go all the way. I would upgrade the used motor with some steel rods and forged low comp pistons.

I do all of my own work so thats not a concern, wiring etc is no problem. I have a 66 mm turbo which should be adequate for any engine through the mid tens. My concern was whether or not it would be feasible to adapt a three bolt turbo to some kind of turbo header. Or whether or not its possible to swap the hot side housing out for a 4 bolt housing (economically)
If there is some kind of single turbo header setup that could fit a 4th gen, or any other ls based car I wonder how hard it would be to adapt to ours. Just not aware of whats out there for them. I was also wondering if adapting the gen III to a BOP pattern 2004r was possible. Eng. management would most likely not be factory so any issues with factory pcm adaptation are eliminated.

I agree with the shortblock buildup. So I guess to rephrase my question, for 4 grand is it possible to build a low CR shortblock LS1 (probably a bore cleanup, upgraded rods and bolts, low cr pistons, probably a z06 cam), upgrade injectors, adapt it to my transmission, and figure out the header situation.

Admittedly I haven't done any research beyond just asking this hypothetical question so I'm sure the answers are out there somewhere. The main difficulty I see right now is the header fabrication if that needs to be done.

 

[Black Power]

Do it, LS1s run like craaaaaaaaaaazy even without turbos.

If I blow up this 4.1 v6 I am going turbo 6L lsX and not looking back.

 

[gnx7]

This may be some inspiration:
http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/turbo-v8-conversions/255925-ls-gen-1-small-block.html

read the last post

I would ditch the Th200-4R and go with a beefy TH400. You can adapt it to the LSx based motor though.

 

[m6z]

FYI speen inc. has made 850 rwh with the factory ls pcm. So reusing the stock pcm isn't a bad idea and will save you some cash. As others have said the header fabrication part will be the hardest part, since no kits are available.

 

[Chuck Leeper]

Take a look at what these guys are doing w/ LS conversions......
http://www.musclerods.com/
As for the OEM pcm.. A real piece of engineering art!
We use EFILIVE. The tuning options are great!
You can read about it here...
EFILive Forum - Powered by vBulletin
Also, the mfgr website is:
EFILive: Digital Tools for Onboard Vehicle Electronics
GO 4 IT!!
HTH,

 

[Adam Connell]

Hey Chuck, any idea on the differences between the GN and Monte Carlo frames would be? That looks to be a really clean kit! Looks like you could even keep the A/C... I have spent quite a bit of time over at ls1tech and been doing research and this swap is looking better every day... thinking two little turbo's and a modern v8 might be fun

 

[Chuck Leeper]

Adam, AIRC, the GN and M/C frames are the same.The guys at Musclerods will likely know of any minor differences... None that I know of.