rajahFD

I just bought an LS1, mounting kit set to be bought tomorrow from Granny's Speed Shop!!!!! oh my god, I am soooo happy!! $4,200 for a COMPLETE pullout out of a 2000 trans am. shipping is going to be about $400, but then again he's in the other side of the country (south carolina). i got a quote from granny's for about $1,500-$1,600 shipped. so all in all, it will be $6,300 (added a couple of hundred just incase) for my complete transformation, but the price will go down as soon as I sell alllllll my 13B stuff. so knock down about $1,500-$2,000 and i end up with about $4,300 still needed to be paid off. not bad, i must say (i think). so... anyway...

LS1 FD HERE I COME!!!!

Marshall

Why granny's and not hinson?

rajahFD

the wait, man. the wait. granny's gave me a 1-2 week wait, and that's shipped. i heard hinson is backed for a couple of months and im recieving my engine this coming week, besides, with granny's i don't have to send in my subframe and get charged a "core fee" for my subframe.

Marshall

Ahh I see, have they improved their 3rd gen stuff since the Jimlab fiasco?

rajahFD

well, i have heard some good stuff from them lately. i just really kind of don't want to mess with the whole shipping deal, i hate shipping with a passion

audiobot7

Congrats! Welcome to the darkside.

rajahFD

..but you're still not going to help me out with the swap..you bitch

Black se7en

Got the hood situation all squared away yet?
My only hangup with grant's kit. Need to cut the hood or get an aftermarket one that'll clear the tb.
I like the way the stock hood looks already

rajahFD

i have a carbonlite carbonfiber dual scoop hoop, hope it clears!

academytim

That one definitely won't clear as it sits lower than the stock hood at the point of the throttle body. You could use that one and cut the indented part out and mock up some sort of scoop to cover it. Or...(shameless self promotion) you could get one of my fiberglass cowl hoods when they are completed. But it definitely won't fit underneath that one. An LS1 with Hinson's kit wouldn't even fit underneath that one.

Tim

2MCHPWR

iTrader: (2)

good luck bro. take many pics and have fun. will you be using t56 tranny? which headers? you're gonna be one fast mexican

audiobot7

Correction, one fast hyna.

rajahFD

the guy at granny's told me that their subframe sits lower than the hinson's, i forgot how much, but..we'll see.

thanks man, and yes, i will be taking lots and lots of film/pictures. yeah, it comes with the T56 and the headers..i was thinking keeping the stock one. what would i have to modify to keep the stock ones? hehe and yes the fastest diabolical mexican..i hope!

haha you better help me man, im counting on you!!!

js3324

Way to go living MY dream!
Good luck with it, have fun

rajahFD

thanks man! i always thought of owning an fd as a dream..then i got one..then i dreamed of getting an LS1 swap, and now well..omgomg!! haha thanks. remember everyone, you dont have to be rich for this swap! take it from me, the middle class mexican that works at mervyn's!!! haha

rajahFD

I just ordered my Mounting Kit from Granny's Speed Shop!!! Wow, this is developing faster than i though!!

academytim

keep us updated as to how the granny kit works out. I have yet to see anyone use one of their kits for an LS1/FD. I'm interested to see how it works. I've just heard that you need an extra 3/4" of clearance over the stock hood at the throttle body. I'm very interested to see if that is truly the case or not.

gnx7

iTrader: (10)

congrats on the LS1 purchase and the kit.

I'm curious how the Granny's kit works out. I hope it clears your hood... but if the steering rack isn't lowered I don't think there is any way it could.

It is a fun conversion. Good luck!

rajahFD

thanks guys!
well, the guys at granny's told me that they actually make the engine sit higher. in a way that's kind of good, in a way that's kind of bad. i'll need to buy another hood (maybe), that's the bad part. the "good" this is that, by having it sit higher, i'll better clearance under the car. but im not really all that sure if it'll affect or help the performance, what do you guys think?

jimlab

What do I think?

https://www.rx7club.com/v-8-powered-rx-7s-299/anyone-considering-v8-conversion-kit-grannys-140838/

Moving the steering rack is not a bad thing; bump steer can easily be corrected. Moving the weight higher in the chassis not a good thing and can't be compensated for. This is a guy who advised someone to add ballast to the rear of the car to balance weight 50/50, after all. His solution to "stock steering rack placement" on my cradle was bending the hydraulic lines on the rack and beating on the oil pan with a big ******* hammer for more clearance. Great.

To my knowledge, Grant (Granny's is a one-man operation) has never actually had his hands on a 3rd gen. other than doing some very early trial fitment on mine, and although he may have modified the design (his cradles still looks the same as far as I can tell) based on feedback from the several he built that didn't work (with or without modification), who knows. Someone evidently got one to work with an LS1, so maybe you can too.

Good luck, and I hope it works out for you. If it doesn't, remember that our moderator (in his infinite wisdom) unstickied the thread above because it was "old" information...

rajahFD

thanks guys for all the input on this and keep it coming!

Grant told me that the engine will actually sit a little higher for better ground clearance, but maybe it'll kill me at the top (hood wont clear), so i don't know. i've read around that the mounting kits for the LS1 and LT1 are not that much different, but still are significantly different. the problem you had (jimlab) was with an LT1 mounting kit, but im not sure HOW much of a difference it has. i know that the LS1 kit from granny's comes with riser plates. i'll just give them a call and let them know that i'd want a refund back if the subframe wasn't an exact fit (not really exact, just not a lot of work that i would have to do just to have it sit in the correct spot) because it does state on the site that it is a direct fit on to where my stock one would normally bolt on. if there's any serious fabrication that i would have to do, then i dont want it. but we'll see how this turns out, so far Grant has been real helpful to me and has had A LOT of patience with me as well. all in all, he seems like a cool dude (im talking from my experience, not anyone elses). we'll see how much they've changed throughout the years. again, thanks everyone.

jimlab

Grant only has one engine cradle for the FD, the LT1/SBC cradle he was supposed to be developing for me. His "LS1 cradle" for the FD is just the LT1/SBC cradle with motor mount adapter plates, a common solution for putting an LS1 into a car originally equipped with an SBC. John Pham bought the first "LS1 cradle" from Grant and never could get it to work. A couple others tried it with the same result before Grant was put out of the FD market temporarily by those problems and his actions detailed in my thread.

Apparently he's been working hard to get back in, because someone managed to get an LS1 mounted using his kit, but I'll tell you now that there is an exceptional amount of flex in his engine cradle for the rear lower control arm mounting points. People also had to use washers between the cradle and the front frame rails to lower it to the point that an engine (an LT1, the LS1 is even taller) would clear the hood. He also compromised the Energy Suspension engine mounts (as detailed in my thread) by eliminating the required backing plates. Bill Hagen had several sets of mounts fail before he machined some backing plates and ovaled out the mounting tabs.

Hopefully all of these problems have been resolved, and of course the LS1 oil pan is shaped differently than an SBC/LT1 pan, so rack clearance issues may not be a problem any longer. You certainly can't dent the LS1 cast aluminum oil pan like you can a steel pan on an SBC or LT1 for more clearance, but Maval Gear can convert the steering rack to full-time manual operation and eliminate the hydraulic fittings for a reasonable price.

Good luck with that. Grant's past shipping problems were well-known (read up at Torque Central, if you're interested), but his taking parts back was a bigger problem. Everyone I know that bought one of his early "LS1 cradles" that didn't work got stuck with it.

Of course he has. This is what he does to pay the bills.

rajahFD

haha yeah. but the reason i said that was because some businesses (don't want to mention any names) would "try" to "stoop" to my level on comprehension regarding the swap. i mean, i've done my homework, but there are still things that will jump out there at any given second during the swap. so for me to know those things before i start would save me time and hours and hours of useless effort on my behalf. i would try to get them to elaborate things for me, but all i would get were those sarcastic laughs and "ehhh"s you say when you don't want to spend your time with someone highly interested in the product you're offering. to me patience is a big, big plus. i also was told from some of the businesses that i would get a call BACK regarding things like shipping and the necessary and basic parts, but i never got ANY calls. they might be busy, they might not be, but that's not the point. the point is that if a company is highly interested in the business it's attracting, why not take care of them first? because they are the ones putting THEIR food on THEIR table. i've called other places, no answer. i tell them to call me back and they promise a call back, no returned calls. from a business i would expect the most technical support i could possibly get. with granny's i've actually recieved all that. maybe im judging too soon, i just hope to get my moneys worth as well.
i hope things have changed since the last time you made business with them. thanks for your input, it has really been useful and informative. i hope i don't get burnt.

jimlab

Me too.

rajahFD