This is a very good question, i know someone did do an LS1 swap with the intention of making it daily reliable but quickly sold it after he was done with the swap.

here is his thread..
https://my350z.com/forum/engine-and-...s-of-pics.html

Hopefully someone can chime in on the "daily drivability".

i would like to take on a project like this sometime soon.

 

Nick's 940WHP LS2 twin rear mount T60-1 is a daily. Although Nick is active duty special forces and a unique individual. The gas money alone fo rthat car is insane.

I'm still in process of my swap on the Z, but it is going to be a track only car

and my MKIII Supra with the LS1 swap is a track only car.

IMO as long as you don't go Stupid power and require the kind of clutch and supporting mods that go with High HP, it couldn't be much different than a Vette or GTO DD

 

Very good question... I have seen a few people say that it makes it for a doable DD, but not many really go in depth about making this their DD and how good they really are as one.

My sole reason to be going with the LS swap is to keep it a DD.

I was even going to go with drive by wire to keep Cruise Control and Traction Control, but Syvecs was shady and never answered my emails about their engine managment system so I gave up, and I'm going cable driven, and I have upped the rear tires to 305/30/19s V12s to help with traction specially during rainy days.

The early builds didn't have ac, so that's a lot of the reason that the car's weren't DDs I believe, but nowaways having AC isn't an issue.

Keeping the car cool is also something some have had issues with, and I've just purchased a massive 53mm koyo r-core radiator to hopefully take care of that.
Some have straight thru exhaust that might make it too loud, and you can avoid that by doing a 3" ss piping to xpipe to 3" to mufflers such as a pair of Magnaflow #11219s

Some also went with a crazy cam for max HP, which might have made it impractical for daily driving.... you can do a mild cam/springs/rods and just get the 35 hp from it w.o losing driveability.

Just a few of the reasons that I can see, that could make people dislike to DD these beasts, but that can be avoided.

To the ones who own LS completed swaps, are there more aspects that you can share? How good of a DD is a properly done LS swap project?

 

See, this is what I'm talking about. Some of the companies that supply wiring services, are they even worth a damn? Chasebay? Is their harness any good? The problem I see is that there are so many combinations for dropping in an LS that there isn't any consistency and this is what worries me about doing this swap. My Z is my only car although that could change by me keeping my wife's old Civic when I buy her a new car, but that's beside the point. I know that I can't automatically expect a perfect DD experience like I've had with the factory engine. I would be foolish to expect that but it would be nice to know if the average guy could do this and not expect debilitating failures every other week.

And we have that one guy that Nextcore linked to (thanks for that). I mean, document a really great build then sell it a week later and come back and say it was more reliable than his DD Ford F-150? Sorry, I call BS on that simply because he had no idea what he was talking about. The build was nice, but to know if it's reliable or not you have to drive it for more than a week.

It seems to me that a very high percentage of these cars are weekend toys, garage queens while the builder is overseas (thank you for your service), or purpose built for racing/drifting. I know for sure that IF this is done to my car I will give back with updates on a regular basis and reports of any and all problems and reports of the car continuing to drive like a factory car if that is the case. That is what these threads need, long term usage reports.

Thanks for your input guys.

 

My swap is going to be somewhat of a daily driver. But of course it is not finished yet so I don't have any real experience to speak from. However the guy that got me into this swap has a 500rwhp lq9 fd Rx7 and he daily drives that car with no problems... other than getting about 12mpg. And better yet if something goes wrong, pretty much any parts store has what you need in Stock.

 

Well after 2000+ miles of driving both cars are home. I hope to Never drive the PA Turnpike in the sleet pulling a 10K pound trailer. Looks like the 06 Z hit a deer with minor front end damage which most of I was planning to replace anyway. Have not even pulled the GTO out of the trailer yet.....

Daily Driver - I plan to use mine as such but I also have a truck if needed. I think trying to do a build like this and it is your only car will be hard. If you don't go to extremes with power adders it should be just as reliable as the GTO or Z. It seems to me of all the hot rods I have had they only gave me problems when I started pushing them to the limits and you find the next weak link.

 

Mine is going to be a fairweather daily driver but will be garaged in winters. I daily drove my LS swapped RX7 so I am expecting the same kind of experience, with the exception of a better interior.

Mine is DBW however and I have yet to be able to get the TCS system to work on the car. I do plan to run a racelogic TC unit to get that aspect back. I will wire up my A/C system up when I get back to my car in late april but overall the car should have all the luxuries it came with, just 150 more horsepower.

 

Has anyone actually used the fueled racing swap kit? It seems hard to find any builds that have used their kit. Just curious about the quality and mounting location compared to the sikky. A lot of hear say no real pictures or first hand experience with the kit.

 

my car is far from running but i have the motor and tranny bolted in for measurements, and i love the engine placement, as far back as we could have it and tons of room up front. There is enough room for a pretty big borg warner unit. I bought everything they offer besides the headers since im going forced induction.

 

Bad quality cell phone pic taken late at night in the garage, but you can get an idea.

 

I'm still back and forth on a harness solution. i think i've decided to go with a full ls2/t56 dropout from a GTO, and they include PCM and harness from the engine. still trying to figure out if i still need a custom harness, and if so, from where to get it.

otherwise, i'll probably be hitting up the HP Tuners and fueled mount kit w/headers.


not buying anything for several months yet, but the more i get squared away and on paper now, the less work to do then.

 

Ive joined here to read some of what you guys have done in your setups. As i read back through the pages i notice alot of guys have questions regarding the fueled kit. Maybe a unbiased opinion will help some.
I bought my kit over a year ago, dont even remember who i dealt with. Everything seems of excellent quality, the motor sits as far back as it can go, i had to do ZERO cutting. Matter of fact there are only two spots i will have to address, one is in the bellhousing, it does not touch the firewall but there is one spot that sits about 1/8 to 1/4 inch and i will slightly hammer it in when the motor comes out, just for safety. The other is on the top passenger side, there is a little bulge on the firewall, where the battery is located more or less, that hits the screw on top of my valve covers. Its one super long screw that holds the coils on top of the cover. I will just trim it, also not a biggie.
Over all im very satisfied with it. Ill be happy to address things for guys that are on the fence.

 

may i ask where you acquired your wiring harness, and whether you use DBW/DBC? If DBW, did you retain traction control at all?

 

My car is not running yet, i came to a halt last year due to a new addition to the family. So i resumed again and im in the midst of fabbing my turbo piping. For wiring im going with holleys HP full standalone with the ls1 harness, i figure that will be the best way to go and in the long run well worth the money due to its many features and ease of install. My car is a shell that was in a fire so my harness is nothing but goo. Even if it were good i would go full standalone. As for traction control the plan is some good old 15 inch drag radials lol

 

Will be DBC btw

 

Ah. Yet another track only car. Shame cass doesn't respond to emails or messages on the site or id have had an answer months ago.

 

No, not a track car. Full interior, power everything, A/C, with the exception of ABS and traction control the car will maintain its normal functions.

 

The EFI can control all engine functions such as fuel pump , fans, gauges etc.. , while the nissan computer will control normal things such as headlights, power windows..
Srry i should have been a little more clear on my previous post,i dont plan on getting rid of the nissan ecu completely, im just not splicing it or merging it to a gm harness. Make any sense?

 

I was under the impression the LS harness had to be spliced into the 350Z's harness. I must be missing something major....

Everyone who's done this has lost ABS?

 

Im no expert on this swap, everything i said is based on what i have seen in my car. If anyone that has tackled this wants to chime in then by all means. The way i see it it shouldnt be too big of a deal, last case scenario i would wire my must-have functions like power windows and such on relays. In my case the egine and its components take priority, if anything MUST be lost along the way... Then too bad. I will be able to elaborate more as i progress.