has anyone done an LS1 swap?? Im curious to know how that went..friends keep telling me swap an LS1 and it sounds very tempting since they seem to work well in the fd's

 

www.v8rx7forum.com or the Other Engine Conversion section on here is what your looking for.

Get ready to **** off a whole bunch of people asking this.

 

People claim you can do this for $3,000 and make 400hp at the wheels.
Good luck.


-Ted

 

^^ lol Yeah if you can find someone dumb enough to sell their ls1 for under 3k and be able to fabricate everything yourself. Really i think the engine is great, would I do it? No. Everyone is trying to put an ls1 into something nowadays and really I think it's over done. Good drivers dont need 400hp, unless you are drag racing, and if you are drag racing you might as well have bought a muscle car in the first place. Treat your 13b right and you will have nothing to worry about.

 

I'm thinking of going ls1 in my DD once I blow this motor.

It will be fun having 325-350HP stock block and make around 25-30mpg.

The swap in reality will probably run around $5-6k

The engine and tranny are probably the hardest to get for a reasonable amount of money. Bought together you can some times get a deal.

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Oh, and for the Good drivers don't need 400hp.
Who wins at a race... A good driver in a stock car or the same driver in a 400hp car?

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Throwing the balance off statement.
The LS1 isn't much heavier than a 13bt with PS and AC. It's also a few inches forward than the 13b. It won't mess up your ratios so bad the car will handle like crap. I bet 99% of people wouldn't feel the difference.

 

There are people on LS1 tech that are netting almost 40mpg highway while still making 400+ hp. I must say, that is very impressive.

 

You have to be in the high revs to get 400+ HP on an LS1. It's geared super tall and has horrible low end power, both to save gas. Off the line (0-60) a 430HP Corvette isn't much faster than a 300HP Mustang, even though the Mustang is 300 lbs. heavier. Its city mileage also sucks royally for this reason (y'know, when you actually accelerate a little), but it's great on the freeway. 31mpg, btw. I could add 8 mpg to an FC combining 2-3 tricks I've seen others do. It wouldn't be hard just not very sane considering what you give up.

And when it's all said and done we're talking about a $30,000 swap here. As in, you drop off your car at mechanic, say "Put in an LS1" and they say "Ok, $10,000 for engine, $20,000 for labor and custom parts." 10,000 gallons of gas. Any money you save from a used engine and/or several months of DIY installation is great. But hey you can get most anything in the world for cheap if you do it all yourself. Just quit your job, etc. and homestead and you can live off practically nothing.

Numbers for paragraph 1 come from Consumer Reports testing and other FC owners. Numbers for paragraph 2 comes from some LS1 lover from the V8 section. Now get over to the V8 section to get more positive answers (and more info on how to actually do it instead of speculating, if that's your goal).

 

^ what?? haha
i get 19mpg in town with my ls1 (totally stock btw). the lowest ive seen in the 14k miles ive had my car was 17mpg. that tank had an autocross and some mt road driving in it. my 4runner gets 14. headers and a cold air intake would only help the situation.
low end power doesnt suck. my car makes 285lb.ft at 2200 rpm (thats where the dyno chart starts). it accelerates from idle in 6th gear (30mph), and i can start in 4th (ive done that accidentally more than once).

if you pay someone to do the swap.. yah its gonna cost a lot more. but the same is true for any swap. but then, i wouldnt have just anyone do the ls1 swap. prolly best to stick to a shop with experiance. there are several people who will do the swap out of their garages for much cheaper as well.
based on what i've seen, a 1st time DIY ls1 FD will cost you maybe 8k to build, assuming you already have the car, you do the swap yourself, and you dont have any hookups on parts or services. it can be done way cheaper if you do your homework, and dont just buy kits for everything (complete fuel setup, complete cooling, etc). if time is on your side, you can save a lot of money too. ie, hold out for good deals on the engine, dont pay a bunch of money up with a broke tranny (im still mad about that one).
hinson's website will give you an idea about the most expensive way to do the swap. it only gets cheaper from there.

the other alternative is to just buy a swapped car. they can be found for relatively cheap, and if you are afraid to take on the swap yourself, is probably a good idea. ive seen a few basic ls1 FD's for sale for under 18k. and that way you arent responsible for destroying a perfectly good rotary FD :-)

 

Stop talking out of your ***. You don't know anything about LS1 engines or the swap.

It is super easy to get 400+hp out of the LS1 engine if we're talking crank hp. Hell, it is easy to get 400whp+ out of LS1 just from a mild cam. Most LS1 engines don't rev high and make the peak power around 6000~6500rpm, with the peak torque coming at 4500rpm or so. Most have powerband starting from very low RPMs... even if you have a somewhat aggressive cam(duration in 230s), the power band usually start below 3000rpm. Of course, it differs between different setups but that is generally how majority are setup. It is NOT geared tall. In fact, with FD's 4.10 rear end, the gearing is short. I'm actually going to swap in auto 3.90 rear end in order to make the gearing longer.

Now... labor cost for having someone to do the build? Here is Hinson's pricing:

Our base building cost is $8,656.72 plus the cost of the engine and transmission. The price includes the following parts.

Premium Mounting Equipment Package
HSC Cooling System
HSC Fuel Fuel System
HSC Hydraulic Upgrade
Wiring Modification with AC
Speedometer Correction Box
Computer Tune for Street Use
Battery Relocation including new battery
Installation Labor
New Exhaust System
HSC Cold Air Intake
And more...



So that price includes everything except the engine and tranny, which is about another $4000 or less. So you can get the complete swap done for under $13k. Of course, if you do the work yourself, you can do it under $8000, which I think is realistic figure. Premium mounting equipment pkg from Hinson is $1200, engine and tranny $4000 or less, but small things here and there will eventually add up.

 

I get around 27 mpg peak from my LSx, highway, 4.10 gears and T56. 40 mpg isn't ever happening.

As far as 3k dollars, it can be done for that if you buy a wrecked F-Body, and part it out to make your money back. Hell, my initial 5.7/4L60e was 1000 dollars to my door, with 58k miles on it. I've swapped 4-5 motors since then, at quite a bit more cost, but it certainly CAN be done cheap, depending on what you value your time/labor at...

edit: And FWIW, a good mechanic with a good tool bitch alongside, can do this swap in ~30-40 hours of labor, pretty easily. Even at 60 bucks an hour, that's only a couple grand to have work done for you, laboriously speaking.

 

I did the swap for under 5k got it running this week and got the exhaust made for it today. But i got a good deal on the motor and trans and got the front subframe used. I purchased the motor on 12-30-07 and the front subframe around the same time. got the tranny mount torgue arm and driveshaft from grannys. very fast shipping might i say. Did all the wiring myself and work myself. will post video on v8 forum when the ice and snow is gone and i can finally drive the thing.