some questions about LS1/T56
 

hello guys. some of you may know that im actively looking for a FD right now nation wide. the money is burning in my pocket :lol: anyways..

i have also thought about buying a LS1 FD and i ran across this one

http://www.norotors.com/index.php?topic=24079.0

last time i heard about V8 swapping the available kit were only Hinsons..
and now i think there are better kits for this swap? samberg/grannyspeed etc..

so my question is , can i buy this one and swap out for better kits later down the road? and i see that the sells FD is looped rack. meaning its harder to turn the wheel with out the ps pump am i correct? how hard would it be to swap to a Manuel rack or putting the PS back in full working order..

also the seller says that the AC isnt holding charge anymore. possible leak at the gaskets behind the AC compressor . how hard would it be to fix that ? from up top or the engine needs to be pulled for that ? im new to the swap platform just trying to gain some knowledge . thanks guy ~~:icon_tup:

also i want to know if this is a good buy or not

Currently, Samberg is the best available swap kit. The Sikky kit is pretty awesome in it's components. But, the Sikky kit has some fitment issues. You must cut a portion of the lip on the firewall and some of the supports in the hood. But it does put the engine further back than any other kit. And, most importantly, doesn't change stock suspension geometry. So, no bump steer correction required.

Yes, I'm actually doing that right now. I bought a LS swapped FD with a blown engine. While I have the engine out, I'm upgrading from the Hinson kit to the full Samberg treatment. It's not strictly necessary. Hinson's kit works just fine. I had that kit in the LS FD I previously owned. But, I already decided to go with Ronin Speedworks 8.8 IRS rear end kit. This eliminates the Torque Brace from Hinson's kit, which led me to decide to ditch the whole set up.

How hard to turn the manual conversion is depends on if the looped lines fully drained the hydraulic fluid or not. Atomic Rex (I don't know if they're still around) used to produce a good manual rack that avoided this issue all together. I like power steering. So, if I were you, I'd just buy a PS pump from Turn One Steering and have some lines fabbed up. You end up with PS with great feel that's not floaty.

You won't need to remove the engine to fix a leak in the AC, most likely. There's plenty of room to get to the AC components in the Engine Bay. You might have to remove the passenger side header, depending on how the AC is routed if they're not using a lot of the stock lines.

Price was lowered recently to $20K. That is a good price for what looks like a sorted swapped FD in good overall condition and relatively low miles. I'd buy it at that price if I didn't already have one.

Good luck!

Chips Motorsports is another option if you're committed to manual steering and want one that is converted in the right way...

FWIW, in my swap I am about 50/50 Hinson to Samburg parts, so you can mix and match or just upgrade specific components.

thanks guys ! i think you all just gave me the final push i needed to commit to this FD

im pretty excited. i thought if anything i needed i can always just drive to Sambergs shop in nor cal which is 6~7 hours away from me. a little far. but if i can get the man him self to help me out its worth it . thanks guys

well it depends on how much you want to do..

switching to samb stuff will cost maybe another 2-3k... getting ac working removing compressor replacing gasket another 300-400
turn1 pump with build in fitting and lines will run you about 600-700
you will need to buy a better set of coilover 1k.... wheel 1k... retune for CA 500.... i would ask him to take some pictures of the trans mount on the hinson kit to see if its damaged (this looks like the OLDER swaps that was done when these were first being doned) also check for the bump steer kit..hinson bump steer kit is known to break at the weld.

a swapped v8 car handles horrible if they are not sorted and setup correctly.

his car however seems to be setup very neutral...from his mods , very mild car (good thing)

thanks for responding
I am prepared to spend the necessary, $for ac. in fact that's the first thing I do on my way drive back , then the PS wheels coilovers all will come within the first month. then paint job :lol:

I asked him about the bump steer. he said it didn't have any and drives very well ...it used the Gotham racing PS delete kit

I'm driving out there tomorrow in a rental and checking it out in person. with a few test drive of course. extensively. on the test drive is there anything I should focus on? if it all checks out
I'm gonna drive it 1k miles back home

the bump steer has nothing to do with the ps delete at all, its a tie rod part that goes to the out lca , its use to offset the swap with the lower engine. lift up the wheel to check for play.. hinson is known to fail by the weld joint (safety risk)

wear and tear depends on the wheel setup coilover car weight and how its driven and the road condition.

mine snapped during a track event... imagine the look on my face.


have you driven a stock rotary rx7? that would be a good base point to compare to a swapped one.

most of the v8 guys swap their cars to go straight and only straight, they tend to forget about suspension setup which is very important in a IRS light weight car.

the car that you are looking at needs about 10k -12k in mods to be the ideal v8 RX7 imo... at the 30k+ range you will be spending you might as well looking for a ls3 swapped car. just food for thought.

if you are buying it to drive it as is... its a great bargain and deal.

anyways good luck and welcome to the dark side


btw if you do decide to part out the rollbar let me know, they were $1250 brand new from the groupbuy if i remember correctly , used ones are usually go for about 650-850

thanks for the advice. I'm not going to be modding it for power
just driving it as is and enjoy a rx7. wheels and paint is a must lol. as well as some reinforcement stuff you have mentioned above. I love in a very hot climate area so I might invest in Samberg kit for intake / radiator. and trans mounts . thanks sir. if I have any questions. I'll pm you. or post it here

so today I drove 9 hours from California to Salt Lake city to check that fd out . everything was decent and solid. for the price maybe I was having to high expectations?
I knew 20k was on the low side of a complete car ? however to me it didn't felt complete at all. rattles around doors , rear hatch . steering was ok. it dose feel like it wants to steer on its own if I don't grip it tight
interior pecies were missing almost half the clips holding them together . and when I test drove it I took it to redline in third and fourth gear about 6300 and I heard very loud ticking noise ..I believe it's the lifters ? I'm don't know anything about ls1 but I suppose that's not a good sign . anyways. the car needed more TLC then I have imagined and I just didn't think I want to put in the time and effort on top of paying 20k for a car that could of been way better if it would have been kept in good condition. seller is very friendly. carfax is legit who ever needs a reference I can pm you the details

I'm kind of sad now ;( been up for 34 hours and 16 of them were all driving and no FD .maybe it's not my time yet . on the bright side..I'm resting at a casino near the Nevada border and enjoying 6$ prime ribs along with 27$ a night at their hotel lol. I need a nap

From my experience the "completed cars" that I have seen sell for $20K are not cars that I would view as completed or want myself. Anything that is actually complete and in good condition, from what I have seen, will go for at least $30K.

yup. guess it's time to wait a little and save more

you are correct in ever sense, the Rx7 even in its rotary form is already a PROJECT it self... now rip everything out and throw in a big loud noisy V8 on this light already chassi ... this is what you get a rough loud raw raw car.

swaps can be finished in couple weeks, but addressing all the small details and drivability could take years sorting.

Trust me I know. I have changed out absolutely every mechanical part of my car and scoured for new interior pieces, it has literally been years and tons of cash on small things. Now I have clean body/good paint, perfect interior with everything working, great swap with every mechanical part being replaced and I couldn't even think of selling it. The idea of doing it all over again is just too much, I couldn't.

Don't be disheartened, be more learned. I've done exactly what you did, multiple times. Though it is true that there are NO PERFECT FD's out there, some are much more complete than others. I have found that sound deadening material makes a lot lot lot of difference in a LS swapped FD's road noise. At 20k you can expect work. At $30k it had better be real nice (and probably will have an 8.8 rear and AC and/or turbo)

I actually ended up buying this car without seeing it... I know I know. We did do phone calls and facetime to go over the car.

He came down from the $20k a bit and all in all its a pretty clean car.

The steering issue of it pulling was only 22 psi of air in the tires. Car needed new tires though.

The original paint did not shine the greatest but was in good shape. I spent a little time buffing the car and the paint looks amazing now for a 24 year old car. Has a few minor dents which I plan on getting pulled.

The high RPM noise was there when I initially got it. I did plugs, wires, and PCV and changed all the fluids which looked good and the noise is no longer there?? I think the car has a slight exhaust leak which could have contributed to the noise also. It does have piston slap on a cold start which is typical from my understanding.

There are some interior pieces missing but a majority of them were sent along with the car. The original owners manual and car dealership book were still in the car which I thought was neat.

The car was very squeaky after driving it for a little which ended up just being some mounts and bushings that needed a little lubrication to quiet them.

The A/C I plan on pulling from the car since I don't feel like fixing it. Car is just a weekend toy so I don't know how much I would need it anyways.

I think a lot of the items were really just due to the car sitting so much. The swap was performed around 10 years ago and it only was used around 5000 miles. Seller was good to work with and I don't think he was trying to hide anything. He seemed to have a lot of toys and this one just sat around a lot the last couple years.

The car is a R1 black with black interior which was the exact combo I wanted. I wanted just a basic swapped car and this fit the bill. All factory factory gauges work which was a big plus to me also. Yeah I wish it had samberg/ronin swap components but this will be fine for me. The bumpsteer kit needs upgraded since it has the old welded ones and eventually I would like to get the samberg rear diff mount. I really like the car and hope its a reliable toy.

Anyways just thought I would chime in! Also here is a pic of how it arrived off the car carrier... I had to just assume there was no damage since it was covered in so much salt. There is an after of it cleaned up.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...cb646deab0.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...9d2ba5cc02.jpg

lol that's awesome