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Hello everyone. Figured I'd post up and introduce myself to the LS community. I have trolled the forum for years and now I have an "LS" project of my own.
I live and grew up in Knoxville, TN. I graduated from The University of Tennesee and I am currently a Mechanical Process Engineer at a local company.
My vehicles;
I have a 1990 Corvette that I bought when I was 18. It is Quasar Blue, with the L98 and a 700r4. Since day one I have wanted to tear into it and convert it to a ZF6 with a 383. I have been gathering parts over the last 13 years and have everything for the build except for the engine. Now with the price decrease and availability of the LS platforms, I struggle with swapping or building a 383. Still leaning towards 383. I am the second owner and bought it with 57k on the clock....she only has 86k now.
My DD/ work horse/going out with the wife vehicle, is a 2006 Duramax - fully loaded and bone stock. It is the newest and nicest vehicle I own and it gets used regularly to pull the race trailer. I love this truck!
Race car; 1986 VW Jetta with a VR6 engine and O2A trans swap
As for the reason I signed up.... I have always had a special place in my heart for the little BMW e30's. I have owned several and I currently have an 88 Super E as my other DD/work car/gas getter/beater/autocross. I have always thought it would be fun to drop an LSx in one but could never bring myself to cut mine up. Well, I scored a 2dr 86 325 for cheap. I sold a bunch of parts and made the car free and still have a complete shell. I even made a little money.
The goal of the project is to complete the swap for free...or at least as cheap as possible. Even in today's market's actual LS' are still pricey for this project so I started looking for a 5.3 truck motor. Only issue is the 5.3l are mostly iron blocks and in a car with a 2400 lb curb weight 200 lbs in the nose will make a difference. I then learned that Envoys and Trailblazers came with an all aluminum 5.3l. Score. I set out to find an LM4.
Again, being budget minded I needed to find one cheap. Free, after all, is difficult budget to stay within. Turns out the LM4 is actually pretty difficult to find. Most Trailblazers and Envoys are 4.2l I6. After a few long months of searching I found a 2003 GMC Envoy XL within my price range. I'm hoping to part the Envoy and have the engine and harness for, what's the magic word? FREE. I'll be parting an Envoy if anyone needs anything...wink wink.
A few downsides is that I most likely will have to purchase an F-body oil pan and cable TB with intake. I don't think the truck pan, accessories, or Vortec intake will clear the hood or cross member. Another bummer, I need a T56 with clutch and flywheel - the cheapest I have seen them sell for is still far above my other budget of "as cheap as possible."
I've been keeping a spread sheet of all the costs with a running total at the end. As thing's progress I'll try posting it up so everyone can follow along.
So, I may have missed this somewhere but why do all my posts have to be approved by a moderator first? How long does it take to have them approved? I posted a few questions in the gen iii internal section and after not seeing my thread I thought my computer glitched and didn't post it. I re wrote it and only then I saw the "your post will be reviewed by a moderator"
Looks like a good start I'm 90% done with my E30 LS swap. I'm looking forward to seeing how you set your exhaust up and all since mine is a "budget" build as well. Sikky parts and all are nice but just so damn expensive
04-13-2015, 09:51 AM
Hello from Knoxville, TN 
