peteZ

As much as I like my Z, it's just too nice of a car to turn into a street/strip terror, so I'm considering doing a V6 to LS1 swap to a 98 Camaro I can get for $1500 instead. Since I would have to put almost as much work into my Z to accomplish my goals, I figure selling it and building this V6 car would leave me with a much faster car for less $$ that I wouldn't be afaid to beat the hell out of

The goal is to go from a stock V6 to 11sec. N/A car all at once, so I'd be buying mostly aftermarket stuff as far as the suspension/k-member/exhaust, etc. goes. I was just checking out Magnus's site and it looks like if I can find a 98 LS1 donor car all I should need is the engine/PCM/harness/fuel tank/instrument cluster/steering rack/radiator and maybe a few other odds and ends. Is this about right?

The mechanical stuff doesn't scare me, but I want to make sure the wiring is mostly a plug-and-play deal. A few splices here and there isn't a problem, but I don't want to have to rewire/pull harnesses through the whole damn car.

Also, it will be an auto to auto swap-can I use the V6 trans as a core for a performance rebuild, or would it be better to use the V8 trans from the donor car?(Does the V6 still use the old BOP bolt pattern and/or have inferior internal parts?)

I need to move fast on picking up the V6 car, so any advice is much appreciated!

peteZ

Oh yeah, I probably want to rob the brakes off the donor also. Is the MC/ABS/etc. different, or can I just throw the rotors/calipers/spindles on the V6 car? I'm not as concerned about the rears, not even sure if they're different?

76LS1BIRD

iTrader: (35)

V6 V8 cars all have the same brakes
LT1 cars have less brakes.

elesquan

iTrader: (1)

I think that you could drop the whole cross member assembly out of the donor car with the engine,trans, etc. all intact and install it complete into the V6 car. Once you have the dash out, the wire harness swap would not be that bad. I hope that someone that has done this swap will give some advice, because I was wondering about doing the same thing for a future project. The insurance would be so much less because of the vin number. I would also swap in all the Z 28 springs, sway bars, rear axle etc. to get the most of the money spent on the donor car, and probalbly sell left over parts to help offset the cost.

peteZ

I thought only the Y87(sport) package V6 cars got the big brakes, but I'm not sure.

Ideally, I'd like to have a complete donor car so I don't get nickeled & dimed to death on the small stuff. So I don't have to do anything twice, I will probably throw a tubular k-member and QA1 coilovers in there while I'm at it. Probably will do a H/C and build up the trans so I shouldn't have to drop the k-member again(unless I grenade the motor).

I'm hoping the electrical system is the same up to the PCM and I can just plug in the V8 PCM and harness. If I have to run wires through the firewall and replace all the wiring under the dash I'm probably not interested in tackling the swap.

I'm guessing the only reason to swap the instrument cluster is for the V8 tach? Maybe the tachs are the same and the PCM figures out the RPM's instead? These are the things I don't know that may burn me, so I'm looking for some advice. Thanks to those that replied so far.

slow

iTrader: (7)

with a 98 you will want a 98 donor car to make everything work right.

Ryan

John_D.

iTrader: (2)

I did this exact swap. (well, I only hit 12.1 na, but that's on a blower cam and unmilled heads intended for boost...)

Sounds like you got most of the list down. With a donor car there, you can pull over the piddly stuff as needed. Tranny crossmember, sway bars, lid, bellows, heater hose hard lines, exhaust, etc.

Tip - do the heater hose hard lines while the engine is out...

Brakes are the same. Rear springs are the same. No need to change either of those. I had 3.42 lsd on my v6, so I kept that too.

The engine-to-tranny bolt pattern is different. Even though the bellhousings are removeable (interchangeable at the tranny) the v6 tranny has less discs in the clutch pack.

The only wiring mod I had to make was providing switched 12V power to the INJ2 circuit, on the pcm side of the 3 fenderwell connectors. The v6 car has a wire for INJ1 (which drives half the injectors and coils on the v8), but no wire for INJ2 (which is unused on the v6 because INJ1 powers all 6 cylinders) even though it has a slot for INJ2 in the fuseblock. (check it and you'll see there's no wire coming from it...) I just jumpered from the rear o2 heater wire to the INJ2 wire, on the pcm side. I'm not using the rear o2's anyway.

peteZ

Thanks John_D. I already found the INJ2 thing on Magnus' site, but it's good to hear from someone who's done the swap on a 98 without problems. Also, thanks for the info on the tranny. I'm going to try to get an entire donor car for the swap - I think that's the best way to go.