'Merica! Go big or go home = installing LS engine into drift car
'Merica! Go big or go home = installing LS engine into drift car
Not the first to do this, but it doesn't hurt with more info for anyone who is looking to do this in the future. This build thread will document the steps of upgrading an LS2 engine with L92 heads, then dropping the engine into a 350Z.
To the build:
Fueled Racing is a company that manufactures custom LS swap kits for various vehicle applications. These include everything needed to drop a LS into a vehicle, P/S lines, engine and gearbox mounts, headers that will fit, clutch lines that fit right onto the OEM lines. There are gearbox mounts and main shafts to choose from whether using T56 transmission, a Magnum, GeForce, Jerico and most other popular gearboxes, outgoing spline count and necessary main shaft length all accounted for.
We started to remove the old powerplant. The frame needs some small repair after a little love tap with the outer rail of Wall Speedway New Jersey. So it's time to take care of that too while prepping the LS motor. Also a lot of the hoses you see can be removed now from the elaborate installation of a watercooled turbo setup, hopefully making the engine bay a very clean and simple story in the next few days.
First photo is one of the Fueled Racing engine mounts, ready to bolt on and this will set the engine lower and farther back in the vehicle than other kits, to ensure best weight distribution and low COG. Very solid piece, and designed so that IF the polyurethane piece should breaks in an accident, the bolt will still retain the engine where it belongs, instead of dropping somewhere onto the bottom crossmember and steering rack or damaging a lot of other things in the engine compartment. The mounts are marked up nicely so that the customer doesn't have to waste time on figuring out which side and way it goes in.
A custom Moroso oil pan (with a huge amount of baffles) is supplied with the kit, well proven to avoid oil starvation problems during road race like conditions. The oil pan will fit so that zero mods are needed to the existing vehicle's frame / subframe.
As for the headers, they are very nice and long 4-1 pieces and can be had with thermal coating, or polished. I went for the best thermal management which are a nice mean satin black finished. Pretty impressive headers in my humble opinion. They exit far back and spread wide from the gearbox (making sure to no heat the gearbox oil more than necessary) and it's child's play to attach a couple of 3" pipes to exit at the back of the car (sidepipes not allowed in FD). X-pipe will be something we will try later to see if we can engineer a unique sound character from the engine.
For the motor, it is a GTO 6.0 LS2, low mileage at that, so it looks extremely clean inside out, literally super super clean. The 243 heads were the first to come off though and a pair of L92 heads pre-assembled w springs for .600 cam lift will go on as soon as we have put a CompCams XR281HR off-the-shelf cam into the engine (it is easier to install the cam with the heads off and since they are already off, we can do the cam first).
I'm pretty sure we'll be going with some other cam options in the future but right now time is short ahead of the next event and we need something that will fire up easily work right away without headache such as risking the valves to hit the postins etc. However, with a decent torque curve and increasing hp potential through the rpm range this cam should give pretty awesome performance already.
A lot of the engine planning has been done by research on the LS1tech.com forum, so filtering all the info available I am hoping we're making some good calls based on what's been written about there.
Once thing I haven't seen too much of on that forum is E85. We ran E85 before with great results, and the plan is to do the same here. Injectors from FiveoMotorsport will handle the needed flow up to 800 hp (for future turbo boost on this engine). The car is setup with a fuel cell and my biggest concern is capacity/consumption. The pump is good enough to drain Lake Michigan in an afternoon, but the fuel cell is a lot smaller than that. Remains to be seen how thirsty this engine will be when we are done with it...
Next update in a few days.
To the build:
Fueled Racing is a company that manufactures custom LS swap kits for various vehicle applications. These include everything needed to drop a LS into a vehicle, P/S lines, engine and gearbox mounts, headers that will fit, clutch lines that fit right onto the OEM lines. There are gearbox mounts and main shafts to choose from whether using T56 transmission, a Magnum, GeForce, Jerico and most other popular gearboxes, outgoing spline count and necessary main shaft length all accounted for.
We started to remove the old powerplant. The frame needs some small repair after a little love tap with the outer rail of Wall Speedway New Jersey. So it's time to take care of that too while prepping the LS motor. Also a lot of the hoses you see can be removed now from the elaborate installation of a watercooled turbo setup, hopefully making the engine bay a very clean and simple story in the next few days.
First photo is one of the Fueled Racing engine mounts, ready to bolt on and this will set the engine lower and farther back in the vehicle than other kits, to ensure best weight distribution and low COG. Very solid piece, and designed so that IF the polyurethane piece should breaks in an accident, the bolt will still retain the engine where it belongs, instead of dropping somewhere onto the bottom crossmember and steering rack or damaging a lot of other things in the engine compartment. The mounts are marked up nicely so that the customer doesn't have to waste time on figuring out which side and way it goes in.
A custom Moroso oil pan (with a huge amount of baffles) is supplied with the kit, well proven to avoid oil starvation problems during road race like conditions. The oil pan will fit so that zero mods are needed to the existing vehicle's frame / subframe.
As for the headers, they are very nice and long 4-1 pieces and can be had with thermal coating, or polished. I went for the best thermal management which are a nice mean satin black finished. Pretty impressive headers in my humble opinion. They exit far back and spread wide from the gearbox (making sure to no heat the gearbox oil more than necessary) and it's child's play to attach a couple of 3" pipes to exit at the back of the car (sidepipes not allowed in FD). X-pipe will be something we will try later to see if we can engineer a unique sound character from the engine.
For the motor, it is a GTO 6.0 LS2, low mileage at that, so it looks extremely clean inside out, literally super super clean. The 243 heads were the first to come off though and a pair of L92 heads pre-assembled w springs for .600 cam lift will go on as soon as we have put a CompCams XR281HR off-the-shelf cam into the engine (it is easier to install the cam with the heads off and since they are already off, we can do the cam first).
I'm pretty sure we'll be going with some other cam options in the future but right now time is short ahead of the next event and we need something that will fire up easily work right away without headache such as risking the valves to hit the postins etc. However, with a decent torque curve and increasing hp potential through the rpm range this cam should give pretty awesome performance already.
A lot of the engine planning has been done by research on the LS1tech.com forum, so filtering all the info available I am hoping we're making some good calls based on what's been written about there.
Once thing I haven't seen too much of on that forum is E85. We ran E85 before with great results, and the plan is to do the same here. Injectors from FiveoMotorsport will handle the needed flow up to 800 hp (for future turbo boost on this engine). The car is setup with a fuel cell and my biggest concern is capacity/consumption. The pump is good enough to drain Lake Michigan in an afternoon, but the fuel cell is a lot smaller than that. Remains to be seen how thirsty this engine will be when we are done with it...
Next update in a few days.
Last edited by Mr_White; Jul 8, 2013 at 01:58 PM.
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The head update is needed for power but also add a new set of parts, rockers are backordered. Bolts for idler pulley dont sell separate, ps pulley comes in twotypes w no good docu except vin which i dont have, fuel rails are different etc. But tmrw we assemble engine w new cam and heads. Clutch is good to go bar flywheel and pp bolts. All that little stuff takes it's share of time. Keep fingers crossed that all stuff gets delivered. One missed delivery if delivery guy takes a part back bc no one to sign for it and we are going to have a tough time making Sunday. Keep fingers crossed. 
Fueled Racing is huge on support. Also engine mounts lower from what I have been able to research
Other than that can kill illusion that it is cheaper than VQ. A VQ gearbox will cost 500, a T56 which is at least as crappy runs 1500 and up. VQ motors cost 1000 for a good one and makes 300 hp. A truck motor costs that and makes less power w more weight. But if you look at BIG BIG power, over 500rwhp, they start to equalize.
Other than that can kill illusion that it is cheaper than VQ. A VQ gearbox will cost 500, a T56 which is at least as crappy runs 1500 and up. VQ motors cost 1000 for a good one and makes 300 hp. A truck motor costs that and makes less power w more weight. But if you look at BIG BIG power, over 500rwhp, they start to equalize.
Fueled Racing is huge on support. Also engine mounts lower from what I have been able to research
Other than that can kill illusion that it is cheaper than VQ. A VQ gearbox will cost 500, a T56 which is at least as crappy runs 1500 and up. VQ motors cost 1000 for a good one and makes 300 hp. A truck motor costs that and makes less power w more weight. But if you look at BIG BIG power, over 500rwhp, they start to equalize.
Other than that can kill illusion that it is cheaper than VQ. A VQ gearbox will cost 500, a T56 which is at least as crappy runs 1500 and up. VQ motors cost 1000 for a good one and makes 300 hp. A truck motor costs that and makes less power w more weight. But if you look at BIG BIG power, over 500rwhp, they start to equalize.
Last edited by djamps; Jul 9, 2013 at 04:18 AM.
Mr. White
You said you've gotten a lot of information from Ls1tech forums. There is a member on that forum that does an excellent job tuning cammed LS engines, he's kinda a mini celeb on that forum lol. He's name is Patrick Guerra or by his forum nick name, Pat G. I'd definitely email him if you have any questions.
You said you've gotten a lot of information from Ls1tech forums. There is a member on that forum that does an excellent job tuning cammed LS engines, he's kinda a mini celeb on that forum lol. He's name is Patrick Guerra or by his forum nick name, Pat G. I'd definitely email him if you have any questions.
And yes the Z gearboxes have proven to be tough little boxes. The syncros don't last long though so vs a GForce or similar they are not up for the same kind of competition use, over time they will require slower shifting to get in gear. Sorry if I stepped on anyone's toe calling a weakness on the Z gearbox. The point is a T56 isn't looking to be a whole lot better bc similar issues w syncros during track duty.
Last edited by Mr_White; Jul 9, 2013 at 05:51 AM.
Mr. White
You said you've gotten a lot of information from Ls1tech forums. There is a member on that forum that does an excellent job tuning cammed LS engines, he's kinda a mini celeb on that forum lol. He's name is Patrick Guerra or by his forum nick name, Pat G. I'd definitely email him if you have any questions.
You said you've gotten a lot of information from Ls1tech forums. There is a member on that forum that does an excellent job tuning cammed LS engines, he's kinda a mini celeb on that forum lol. He's name is Patrick Guerra or by his forum nick name, Pat G. I'd definitely email him if you have any questions.
