LS3 Engine Swap UPDATE: 6/8/2015
This past weekend at NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green KY was USCA Event #3, which we had full intentions in attending. That was if everything in the LS3 swap in our 2000 TransAm would fall into place...
Our LS1 motor blew chunks at the Midwest Musclecar Challenge the weekend before and gave us the challenge and opportunity to give the car some much needed horse power for the road course portions of these types of events. When competing, the car held its own in the autox, but lagged on the power on road course segments. At one point we were thinking of upgrading the cam and a few other things on the LS1, but when the motor blew - LS3 became the better option for us.
Monday June 1st we placed our order with Pace Performance and setup our pick date for Tuesday morning to get the engine. Shop owner Rhonda got back mid-afternoon to the shop for some quick items to pick up and then heading to the Fehring Ranch to start the install.
From Tuesday 4pm to Saturday 3am.... it was a week of busting butt. As we worked through the swap process, it seemed like we were going good - then 10% of everything we touched wanted to give us growing pains and cause us extra work here and there, eating up precious time we did not have time to loose.
1st, The Holley Throttle Body we bought for the swap had to be adapted to fit the LS3 throttle bracket. Nothing like drilling out a new part and threading it to fit stock part... ;/ We did this task on Wednesday morning.
2nd,the oil pan that was picked up was not the correct one. It did not have the raise in the bottom of the pan to help clear the k member and this caused us to make a trip to Jeg's in Delaware Ohio to pick up the correct one. Why Jeg's? Only one available that was closes enough to drive to and be back in time to install Friday afternoon. We were doing everything to make the trip to NCM.
3rd, Everything coming together. We have the motor in the car, getting all the plugs connected and the bits and pieces back that was removed to get the motor out. At this point, it is around 2:30am and a couple of us was functioning on being up for almost 20 hours. The first fire up is on its way. The tuner is in the car and we get in position to watch for leaks and listen for bad sounds. Key turns over and the car starts up on first try!! But then there is a pop! Fairly loud but not engine sounding... the Fehring daughter yells out there is liquid on the ground. We yell out to shut it down! Turns out our power steering pump exploded... great right - we were glad it was not engine at this point. Now we have to get this cleaned up and remove the broken filter and put an inline barb fitting and gave it a second try.
4th, Tuner does a couple tweaks to the program and we turn the engine over again and she is sound great. That is until we hear a pulley squeaking for dear life. After investigation, we find out our new AC Delco alternator is junk. It was running on load and getting excessively hot. We also was seeing temperatures we did not like from the thermostat. Investigation there showed we needed to order a non-integrated LS1 thermostat housing for the water pump to give the correct fitment for the 160* thermostat install.
After all that we have hit 3:30 am. It is way too late to make registration check in and tech for the NCM event. Our thought was to make the drive and just make it in time - but the car gods had another plan for us.
Maybe it was a good thing... everything happens for a reason and we will take this lose and push forward, as there is more racing events ahead of us.
So right now we have the items needed to get this on the road ordered and looking to have it ready for a local autocross in Auburn Indiana this weekend. Then off the Michigan International Speedway for the USCA Goodguys event June 20th and 21st!! Wish us luck!