RED LS1
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2001
This is kind of a build thread I guess. My goal is to share my experiences in case it could be helpful to anyone else's project or ideas. What I am doing is no where near what some people do in there build threads. I'm amazed at the Money, time and resources people seem to have these days. I am just looking for a cost effective way to go 10.0 and I need it to be very reliable. This seemed like a good way to accomplish my goals.
This car has been in my family for 10 years. It belonged to my brother who didn't do much with it accept run it around the neighborhood. It's had the 11 second combo on it and than the 10 second combo but it's cracked pistons twice and wiped the Flat tappet cam on the last go around. He bought a boat and sold me the car pretty cheap.
I Pulled the motor and transmission and sold off the XFI, Trans & Converter, Champion heas, turbo and injectors and with that money I got back exactly what I put into the car. Now I am in the car for ZERO.
Here is how I got the car which sat neglected for 3 years with the wiped cam.
I got the car home and began pulling the motor and trans. After that I was left with am Aeromotive Fuel system with -8 Feed and -6 return. The car also has a heavy duty Spohn Anti Roll bar and Tubular control arms. In the front is a big Precision Front mount intercooler that I will be recycling to the new combo.
Here it is at home with the motor out. The next picture is the paint after I cleaned it up. IT was painted with straight black Pigment Standox a few years back.
I looked around for a complete 6.0 take out and they range in the $1500 window. I was fine with that but I didn't really trust a motor that was not freshened. I found a 4.8L that was fully freshened and never ran. It came with 799 LS1 style heads, LS1 intake and LS9 cam. It has a CTSV pan which is good for the swap into G-body. It also came with valve covers, coils, ARP hardware and MLS Head gaskets. The truck manifolds came with it and I will use for the turbo kit. Price on this GEM, $1000!
I was able to move the car to my friends shop who moved to Florida for the Winter and left it abandoned. Rent is only the cost of the electric bill. $27/month!
With the car in the shop I got the engine compartment stripped down and painted up the subframe with some Rostoleum. Now there's room to do an engine swap.
I did a few things to the motor to prepare it before going in. I stripped and painted the valve covers and replaced the hardware and grommets. I stripped and painted the Coil brackets and cleaned the cruddy coils up. I clear coated the intake and replaced the hardware. I purchased a Ported/polished and powder coated throttle body for it with all new sensors. I picked up a crank, cam, coolant temp sensor for it. Here's a picture of it after all that.
Than I bought the Oil feed fittings for the top of the motor and welded the Oil return into the CTSV pan. I actually did a -10 for the return. When I put the motor in the location wouldn't allowed me to get a fitting on it so I pulled the motor back out and closed up the -10 and I did a -12 in a better location. Picture shows the first -10 and also the closed up -10 and the new -12
For the motor mounts and Crossmember I decided to go with the Hooker kit. I bought the LS conversion brackets and the 4L80E X-member. Along with the LS brackets you have to buy new V-8 Clamshell mounts. I drilled those out and removed the rubber mounts. I replaced them with Energy suspension Poly mounts.
The motor has a new home.
This car has been in my family for 10 years. It belonged to my brother who didn't do much with it accept run it around the neighborhood. It's had the 11 second combo on it and than the 10 second combo but it's cracked pistons twice and wiped the Flat tappet cam on the last go around. He bought a boat and sold me the car pretty cheap.
I Pulled the motor and transmission and sold off the XFI, Trans & Converter, Champion heas, turbo and injectors and with that money I got back exactly what I put into the car. Now I am in the car for ZERO.
Here is how I got the car which sat neglected for 3 years with the wiped cam.
I got the car home and began pulling the motor and trans. After that I was left with am Aeromotive Fuel system with -8 Feed and -6 return. The car also has a heavy duty Spohn Anti Roll bar and Tubular control arms. In the front is a big Precision Front mount intercooler that I will be recycling to the new combo.
Here it is at home with the motor out. The next picture is the paint after I cleaned it up. IT was painted with straight black Pigment Standox a few years back.
I looked around for a complete 6.0 take out and they range in the $1500 window. I was fine with that but I didn't really trust a motor that was not freshened. I found a 4.8L that was fully freshened and never ran. It came with 799 LS1 style heads, LS1 intake and LS9 cam. It has a CTSV pan which is good for the swap into G-body. It also came with valve covers, coils, ARP hardware and MLS Head gaskets. The truck manifolds came with it and I will use for the turbo kit. Price on this GEM, $1000!
I was able to move the car to my friends shop who moved to Florida for the Winter and left it abandoned. Rent is only the cost of the electric bill. $27/month!
With the car in the shop I got the engine compartment stripped down and painted up the subframe with some Rostoleum. Now there's room to do an engine swap.
I did a few things to the motor to prepare it before going in. I stripped and painted the valve covers and replaced the hardware and grommets. I stripped and painted the Coil brackets and cleaned the cruddy coils up. I clear coated the intake and replaced the hardware. I purchased a Ported/polished and powder coated throttle body for it with all new sensors. I picked up a crank, cam, coolant temp sensor for it. Here's a picture of it after all that.
Than I bought the Oil feed fittings for the top of the motor and welded the Oil return into the CTSV pan. I actually did a -10 for the return. When I put the motor in the location wouldn't allowed me to get a fitting on it so I pulled the motor back out and closed up the -10 and I did a -12 in a better location. Picture shows the first -10 and also the closed up -10 and the new -12
For the motor mounts and Crossmember I decided to go with the Hooker kit. I bought the LS conversion brackets and the 4L80E X-member. Along with the LS brackets you have to buy new V-8 Clamshell mounts. I drilled those out and removed the rubber mounts. I replaced them with Energy suspension Poly mounts.
The motor has a new home.
