aarrrggghghh, so stuck on this decision to drop an LS1 into my wife's Z or fix the once again troublesome TT that lies within?? who here can give me a definitive answer on the little things like engine & gearbox mounts (using TH350 auto) firewall mods, sump, getting stock tach & speedo to communicate etc. any info to help me with this decision would be greatly appreciated!!
forgot to say I can pretty much fabricate anything that needs to be fabricated for this conversion, just want a little confidence from those that have been there & done it!! is it really worth it or stay with the TT?
Well the bright side is that the ls1 will be more reliable and easier to fix / work on should anything go wrong. downside is it wont be a zed anymore it will be a mix breed
its annoying hearing everyone say how unreliable the VG30 engine is, when in fact if driven correctly (not ragged) maintained well with all the correct servicing, its actually rather bullet proof. People just like to try and get more performance out of them, floor it every where and some people don't know how to maintain the engine. Another thing that adds to the "unreliable" rumours is forums, most people come onto a forum when they have a problem, they don't come on to say how well the car is running. All id say is though, its up to you, LS1 or stick with the VG30.
You need to talk to this man: Lysergic I have a dastardly impression that he can help you out in this.
before getting into too much detail, first of all what do you want out of it? are you doing it to make the car more "reliable" or you prefer v8's etc? the task is not small but with fabrication skills it will be a darn sight easier. i wouldnt expect change from 10k even if you are doing it yourself and you know what 10k on a vg would do
there is a thread "V8 the easy way", find it as it has most of the info you will need, I have tried searching for it several times and most the words are too small for the search engine.
Aslong as everything is kept in check the VG is bulletproof, mine has seen 7k rpm DAILY for 2 years and it loves it.
yeah not baggin' on the VG, just love a challenge I guess. Not looking for an absolute powerhouse, around 250-300rwkw would be fine (wife's car) I also have an N/A Z so why not make the second one a little different? would be using a secondhand ls1 & auto in good condition, just really need to know what the issues are with things like tach & speedo, sump, firewall mods, engine & gearbox mounts, radiator sizing etc....
Fit a 1UZ Toyota V8 like I did. You can purchase a low mileage engine and box for around $1500. Do a little work on the heads, intake and exhaust and fit an after market ECU and you will make 200rwkw easy. The car will be 40Kgs lighter in the front though so plan on using lowered springs. Only Mods required to fit one are:- sump, engine mounts, exhaust, ECU and electrics (every thing in my car works and is calibrated) tailshaft, auto shift, auto controller (can part of the ECU if you want like a V500 or standalone) and all fits under the hood with no bulges.
250 V's 350 cubes for exactly the same effort???? 200Kw atw V's 300Kw for precisely the same effort? Cool. The massaged 1UZ is pretty close to stock TT then no? You could do that wheel power easily with an old single carb Holden 308/Trimatic for about the cost of the programmeable ecu alone. No disrespect m8, but hell of a lot of time money and effort just to get little more than..... wait... let me think...... a different exhaust note, similar performance and some tyre kicking braggers rights! Oh yes, less engineering hassles/legality I spose, yay! Step in here Chris if you will. I see no gain that will make a difference, day to day, with a 40 Kg drop in weight over the front. Sure, sounds good in theory, but day to day.......? I do get the V8 conversion thing tho.... Altho ill rot in hell before I'd fit a clonky old V8 boat anchor to anything except a GT-HO or an old Monaro but if you going to make that much effort, i say make the effort worthwhile. A stonking mid-range grunt 300Kw LS-1 in a zed would make mince meat out of just about anything day to day apart from more or less dedicated AWD race (rice) cars and last more or less forever. IMHO of course! L8r E
Crate LS7 makes 525hp and 440lbs/ft torque (almost 400Kw) out of the box and can be purchased (with loom and ECU) for A$11K ...... cheapest grunt you can buy !!!
tacho: can be run off lsx PCM speedo: can be made to work off trans speed sensor but i went for a GPS speedo cos i got sick of trying to get mine to work properly (it was laggy) sump: there are milodon and moroso reverse sumps available that fit the bill here (around $450) firewall: needs some modification to get the motor to sit in a good position. the can result in you loosing your aircon if you're not careful as it did in my case (i didnt mind) engine mounts: easy to make as the mounts almost perfectly line up with the original ones so no weird shapes gearbox: depends on the box you use, i was able to have the stock auto crossmember/mount modified to suit the 4l65e radiator: stock/aftermarket alloy z32 (the lower radiator hose needs a bit of modification) and you just buy the appropriate shape one for the top (easy) one of the worst things is making the drivers side extractors as its very tight around the steering shaft, but if you dont really care for all out performance you could make some shorty style ones easily. if i was you i would think about a 350 chev as that is 10x easier unless you are set on a ls1. the other thing is do you want it to be legal?
Agree...OR Crate Supercharged LS9 is $21K and gives you 638hp and 820nm. Including dry sump, ecu, loom and ignition, so basically the kit. You could easily spend 20k on parts for an old LS1 and not come near this motor. Best thing to come out of GM ever...
This would be the route I would go if I ever decided to replace the VG.. wouldn't be hard to extract 450kw out of it
Supercharged LS9's are out of the corvette ZR1 right? few of them have done high 10 sec passes out of the box at ~130mph, that's some serious power.
Would be a flywheel figure, but getting a 1520kg corvette to trap 130mph+ would be ~520rwhp ish out of the box
