Signs your winter project just snowballed... - Lateral-g Forums

**camcojb** · #1 11-10-2008, 07:39 PM

well, bummer. But you were planning on the turbo side of things anyway, so the timing is good. Let me know if I can help.

Jody

Blown353 · #2 11-10-2008, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by camcojb

well, bummer. But you were planning on the turbo side of things anyway, so the timing is good. Let me know if I can help.

Jody

Can I borrow your engine?

I'm trying to decide now if I want to stick with Gen 1 or go LSX.

As much as I'd like to go LSX I have a bunch of Gen-1 specific parts that I would have to sell and I'd probably lose a lot of money on, including my custom Canton oil pan, custom stealthram/sheetmetal hybrid intake, new in box Vintage Air FrontRunner setup that I just purchased for the turbo setup, the new turbo cam that I just ordered last week, etc. Selling the Cola 4340 crank, rods, ported Dart Pro-1's, and all the "standard" stuff would all be easy but moving the more "custom" stuff such as the oil pan and intake would either take a while or require me to take a big loss.

Going LSX would be nice but not only would I have to take a loss on my Gen-1 stuff I'd have to acquire a lot of new LSX specific stuff besides the engine including a new ECU, new engine wiring harness, A-body oil pan, flywheel, bellhousing, accessory drive, etc.

I'm not going to make any rash decisions until I tear the engine apart and determine the extent of the damage. I'm keeping my fingers crossed the cylinder head is OK, but I expect cylinder #6 will have little bits of ring and piston smashed into the quench pad of the head and probably some dinged up valves and valve seats.

And of course the kicker is I just ordered my Stack ST-700SR tach/multifunction display this morning for my rebuild of the dash... the money I just spent on that plus the add-on harness and sensors would have paid for 2/3 of a Little M.

I may just concede the car will be off the road for a year and work on it little by little. Things are still very slow at work so I'm extremely reluctant to either raid my rainy-day fund or become a credit-card-racer and get things fixed ASAP.

Tom.A · #3 11-10-2008, 09:27 PM

That sucks to hear Troy. Sounds like it might be best to stick with the small block. Good luck and hopefully it will all work out

Blown353 · #4 11-11-2008, 11:23 AM

We'll see how things go once I have it torn down.

Right now I'm working on a spreadsheet to figure out what an LSx swap would really cost, minus the money I would make by selling my current crank, rods, heads, lifters, rockers, intake, FAST ECU, oil pan, new-in-box vintage air Frontrunner etc.

I'd probably go with a stock stroke LS2 with stout internals, and either AFR or ETP heads. Don't know what I would do for an intake, and I'd probably use a factory ECU and use EFI Live, and buy an LS vintage air Front Runner setup. Keeping the LS2 to 364ci means the turbos I just purchased will still be in their ideal efficiency range.

Right now the cost difference between freshening my engine with a Dart block and new pistons and going LS2 looks like about $2500-3000 more for the LS, about 1/2 of the cost difference I expected; but the "big if" in that equation is getting what I figure is reasonable for my Gen 1 parts I'd need to sell.

Jr · #5 11-11-2008, 12:18 PM

Did you remember the little things to add an LS motor?
Such as:
adapter plates for the motor
extra parts to hook the trans to the ls motor
drive shaft mods
maybe a new radiator for the ls motor
and more

I can't wait to see what you end up with...should be cool

Blown353 · #6 11-11-2008, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJW32

Did you remember the little things to add an LS motor?
Such as:
adapter plates for the motor
extra parts to hook the trans to the ls motor
drive shaft mods
maybe a new radiator for the ls motor
and more

I can't wait to see what you end up with...should be cool

Yep, I'm counting on oil pan, adapter plates, new bellhousing, etc. I'm going to be keeping my current transmission so I'll scoot the engine forward/back as necessary to keep the driveshaft.

The radiator is iffy, but I'm sure I can make my current one work with a few mods for the steam bleeds and the like.

I will probably have to change to a hydraulic clutch while I'm at it.

Lots more research to do before making a decision. Right now effort & money still favors a rebuild of what I have now. It would be a no-brainer if I could find a smokin' deal on a lightly used Little-M.

Nvrenuf · #7 11-11-2008, 12:28 PM

Ouch. Bummer. But at least good timing... winter and all.

1 option: go to ebay, search for the '69 Chevelle twin turbo ls2 for sale in Vegas. Granted, the motor is probably "home built", so who knows how much more work it would take to have the motor where you want it. (Not to hijack thread, just thought it was an interesting find. My buddy found it on ebay. And no, I have NO affiliation with the seller)

Blown353 · #8 11-11-2008, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swchopper

Ouch. Bummer. But at least good timing... winter and all.

1 option: go to ebay, search for the '69 Chevelle twin turbo ls2 for sale in Vegas. Granted, the motor is probably "home built", so who knows how much more work it would take to have the motor where you want it. (Not to hijack thread, just thought it was an interesting find. My buddy found it on ebay. And no, I have NO affiliation with the seller)

Heheheh... I saw that last night and given yesterday's events I thought about it.

Blown353 · #9 11-11-2008, 07:18 PM

Pour some salt on the wound... geez.

My new turbo grind from Comp Cams arrived today and it was supposed to be billet core with a press on iron gear... and it shows up on a billet core with a billet gear. That's 2 times in the last year they've made the same mistake when I ordered a custom billet/press on gear cam from them.