'88 Mitsubishi L300 "Express"
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'88 Mitsubishi L300 "Express"
Needed cheap reliable power that's cheap to maintain and parts are widely available. Requirements that the four cyl 2.6 turbo swap couldn't meet.
Found a deal on an almost nearly complete LR4 swap and brought it home right before Christmas.
Got to work right away, stripped it down to the rotating assembly and started stuffing it in.
Took a couple weeks for the GTO oil pan to show up. Props for the sticky oil pan thread! Hangs maybe two inches lower than the old setup, not bad, still tons of ground clearance. Probably build a skid plate just in case.
Old mounting point vs new. Picked up a pair of mounts for a Camaro since they're shorter than the truck mounts.
Cleaned up and ready to be marked for the new locations.
Fab'd up some new brackets.
Which brings us to today. Hopefully the weather will cooperate enough to let me build a solution for the trans mount so that I can center the engine and weld the new brackets into place.
New and old for comparison
Cylinder heads have made their trip to the shop to be cleaned 'n have a valve job done. Still need to pick up exhaust manifolds, Camaro belt routing bits and alternator bracket, missing fasteners, etc. Shooting to have it done asap. Used to be the end of January, but that's closing in fast.
Found a deal on an almost nearly complete LR4 swap and brought it home right before Christmas.
Got to work right away, stripped it down to the rotating assembly and started stuffing it in.
Took a couple weeks for the GTO oil pan to show up. Props for the sticky oil pan thread! Hangs maybe two inches lower than the old setup, not bad, still tons of ground clearance. Probably build a skid plate just in case.
Old mounting point vs new. Picked up a pair of mounts for a Camaro since they're shorter than the truck mounts.
Cleaned up and ready to be marked for the new locations.
Fab'd up some new brackets.
Which brings us to today. Hopefully the weather will cooperate enough to let me build a solution for the trans mount so that I can center the engine and weld the new brackets into place.
New and old for comparison
Cylinder heads have made their trip to the shop to be cleaned 'n have a valve job done. Still need to pick up exhaust manifolds, Camaro belt routing bits and alternator bracket, missing fasteners, etc. Shooting to have it done asap. Used to be the end of January, but that's closing in fast.
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That is scary cool. I really hope you get a fantasy paint job like was common in the 80's, you know, wizards, dragons, and vikings.
I love how you have to drop the engine in through the interior too.
I love how you have to drop the engine in through the interior too.
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Originally Posted by 1dirtyZ
these are the kind of projects that make me giggle ,,,,, the evil type of giggle
i want to see this thing run!
i want to see this thing run!
Originally Posted by Johnny-LT1-runner
I really hope you get a fantasy paint job like was common in the 80's, you know, wizards, dragons, and vikings.
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xb9rumble: Pm'd
Its my dd/work/race support vehicle. Throw an inverter and an on-board air system at it, wash it and buff up the paint when the swap is done and call it good. I may hot rod it out sometime down the road after my other projects are finished, we'll see. I'm not terribly keen on doing wheel stands though...
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lol all it takes a tired engine in a vehicle and a desire to put something reliable in it's place. Or a desire to turn heads and enough determination to do it, or just want something completely different and badass, any of them work lol.
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Thats kinda neat the way the old transmission hangs from the cross member...although it makes me uneasy about it at the same time. I wonder if you could replace the tail shaft bots with studs and make a bolt on tans mount that would hang it like factory? Or use bolts that are a little longer and sandwitch the tail shaft flange between the trans body and hanger/mount. Or just a weld a mount/hanger to the tail shaft...if you are good with welding aluminum.
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Hoop maybe, but no cage. The only reason I pulled the trigger on this swap was because I've run across links of aussies dropping SBCs in these things. Figured it couldn't be too difficult.
Spent most of the early evening laying under the thing looking at the tail housing and scratchin' my head. Came up with a bunch of different ways to do it, but settled on this. Already tweaked it by adding more material to the flange between the upper and middle bolt points.
Have a bit of a hang up though. The GTO oil pan I'm using has an oil relief valve for a displacement on demand system, but as far as I know my engine doesn't have DOD. Do I need to remove the valve and plug the hole or am I good to go?
Spent most of the early evening laying under the thing looking at the tail housing and scratchin' my head. Came up with a bunch of different ways to do it, but settled on this. Already tweaked it by adding more material to the flange between the upper and middle bolt points.
Have a bit of a hang up though. The GTO oil pan I'm using has an oil relief valve for a displacement on demand system, but as far as I know my engine doesn't have DOD. Do I need to remove the valve and plug the hole or am I good to go?
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I have a 1982 model of this van with an LS3 sitting in the rear.
The harmonic balancer is above the rear axle with the 6L80E between the engine and driver then the power is fed back to the rear via a transfer case.
Should weigh a little over a ton and have 425hp.
I expect it to do wheelstands.
I've also chopped the rear intoa pick-up.
I'll get motivated and post up some photos and words.
The harmonic balancer is above the rear axle with the 6L80E between the engine and driver then the power is fed back to the rear via a transfer case.
Should weigh a little over a ton and have 425hp.
I expect it to do wheelstands.
I've also chopped the rear intoa pick-up.
I'll get motivated and post up some photos and words.
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Little update.
Still needs gussets, but it'll hold for now.
Nearly finished the engine mounting plates.
Finished enough to get the engine off the hoist and finally see where it sits.
An idea of how tall this thing really is. Might end up with a car manifold after all...
Still needs gussets, but it'll hold for now.
Nearly finished the engine mounting plates.
Finished enough to get the engine off the hoist and finally see where it sits.
An idea of how tall this thing really is. Might end up with a car manifold after all...