LS in a Lamborghini Diablo Roaster
11-30-2012, 06:57 PM
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LS in a Lamborghini Diablo Roaster First off this is a replica that I built a year ago on a streched 1988 Pontiac Fiero, so Lamborghini puriest dont get your panties all wadded up. When I built it I installed a transverse sbc/350 crate engine to the Fiero 5 speed via V8Archie kit. I knew from the beginning of the build I wasnt going to keep the sbc, it was just to get it finished and until I could figure out what I wanted to put back there.
I looked at alot of different powertrains, my goal is to have more power and better fuel mileage than a real stock Lamborghini Diablo. I knew wanted to have atleast 600hp/tq with room to grow should I feel the need. After looking at alot of options I settled on the LS engine. Although the engine Im using for mockup up is a iron block 5.3 truck motor, in the end I will be using either a LS1 or L33. I have a LS1 shortblock and a complete L33 dropout but the L33 is in unknown condition as it came from a flooded truck. Right now Im using a iron block 5.3 for the mockup.
This drivetrain will be really different- the motor is attached to a TH425 out of a GMC motorhome with the factory differential removed. The drivetrain will be mounted in a reverse rotation, meaning the waterpump, pulleys, ect facing the rear of the car. This is to get a real mid-engine layout with all the weight completely in front of the rear tire.
In the end drivetrain will be a small twin turbo L33 (maye the LS1) on E85, but I might hold off on the turbos just to make sure the reverse rotation setup is going to work. Yesterday I pulled the sbc out and droped in the 5.3 and started building a new cradle for the engine/trans and today I cut up some tubing and tacked the basic cradle design and dropped it back out. In the coming days I will be finishing welding the tacks and adding more bracing around the cradle.
I have 4 different designs for the differential, not sure on which one Im going to go with. But now that I have the engine/trans pretty much laid out in the car I can figure out how and which differential Im going to use.
Some more images of the engine/trans/ and the car itself can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31604886@N08/
Feel free to offer any advice or tips, Im going to need it...
I looked at alot of different powertrains, my goal is to have more power and better fuel mileage than a real stock Lamborghini Diablo. I knew wanted to have atleast 600hp/tq with room to grow should I feel the need. After looking at alot of options I settled on the LS engine. Although the engine Im using for mockup up is a iron block 5.3 truck motor, in the end I will be using either a LS1 or L33. I have a LS1 shortblock and a complete L33 dropout but the L33 is in unknown condition as it came from a flooded truck. Right now Im using a iron block 5.3 for the mockup.
This drivetrain will be really different- the motor is attached to a TH425 out of a GMC motorhome with the factory differential removed. The drivetrain will be mounted in a reverse rotation, meaning the waterpump, pulleys, ect facing the rear of the car. This is to get a real mid-engine layout with all the weight completely in front of the rear tire.
In the end drivetrain will be a small twin turbo L33 (maye the LS1) on E85, but I might hold off on the turbos just to make sure the reverse rotation setup is going to work. Yesterday I pulled the sbc out and droped in the 5.3 and started building a new cradle for the engine/trans and today I cut up some tubing and tacked the basic cradle design and dropped it back out. In the coming days I will be finishing welding the tacks and adding more bracing around the cradle.
I have 4 different designs for the differential, not sure on which one Im going to go with. But now that I have the engine/trans pretty much laid out in the car I can figure out how and which differential Im going to use.
Some more images of the engine/trans/ and the car itself can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31604886@N08/
Feel free to offer any advice or tips, Im going to need it...
11-30-2012, 07:27 PM
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Very cool. And who cares about the Lamborghini purists. Fabricating your own dream car is much cooler.
FYI, you can post your images from PhotoBucket right into your posts and they will show up in your posts. Just be sure to copy and paste the link with the [img] in front of it.
FYI, you can post your images from PhotoBucket right into your posts and they will show up in your posts. Just be sure to copy and paste the link with the [img] in front of it.
12-01-2012, 02:52 PM
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A coupe of years ago I looked at using the LSx and Th425 and from what I could learn (we never had the TH425 in my Country) the LS block will foul the transmission case due to the deep skirt design of the engine.
It may be do-able by shaving a chunk off the right hand side of the block but not sure it would be easy to do.
I guess you could roll the engine over to the left to clear the trans?
It would also need a funky exhaust on the trans side.
An alternative would be a toughened up Porsche G59 trans then you get 5 speed manual instead of only 3 speed auto.
I assume if you're planning to flip the diff to get the axles rotating the right way.
It may be do-able by shaving a chunk off the right hand side of the block but not sure it would be easy to do.
I guess you could roll the engine over to the left to clear the trans?
It would also need a funky exhaust on the trans side.
An alternative would be a toughened up Porsche G59 trans then you get 5 speed manual instead of only 3 speed auto.
I assume if you're planning to flip the diff to get the axles rotating the right way.
12-01-2012, 08:30 PM
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A coupe of years ago I looked at using the LSx and Th425 and from what I could learn (we never had the TH425 in my Country) the LS block will foul the transmission case due to the deep skirt design of the engine.
It may be do-able by shaving a chunk off the right hand side of the block but not sure it would be easy to do.
I guess you could roll the engine over to the left to clear the trans?
It would also need a funky exhaust on the trans side.
An alternative would be a toughened up Porsche G59 trans then you get 5 speed manual instead of only 3 speed auto.
I assume if you're planning to flip the diff to get the axles rotating the right way.
It may be do-able by shaving a chunk off the right hand side of the block but not sure it would be easy to do.
I guess you could roll the engine over to the left to clear the trans?
It would also need a funky exhaust on the trans side.
An alternative would be a toughened up Porsche G59 trans then you get 5 speed manual instead of only 3 speed auto.
I assume if you're planning to flip the diff to get the axles rotating the right way.
I went different route to adapt the TH425 / LS, I made a adapter that mounts to the outside of the trans that attaches the two. I will put up some pics of that soon. The TH425 will fit right up to the LS engine with a Corvette C6 oil pan and a little clearencing here and there on the inside of the bell housing due to the flex plate. But no removal of of any part of the block, the little oil cooler feed/oil return thingy on the side of the oil pan above the filter needs some modifcation.
Im running twin turbos on flipped up 2011 Camaro exhaust manifolds so the exhaust will go up instead of straight down and then back then down under the car. I did another reverse rotation TH425 but with a SBC in a Fiero about 7 years ago (pics of the motor and car can be seen on my flickr pages) and I used V8 S10 headers and it fit perfect. So exhaust is real easy!
As mentioned in my fist post I removed the factory differential, if you tried to filp it the jack shaft would go through the top of the oil pan to the other side.
I made an aluminum adapter plate blocking off the rear of the TH425 where the diff was and welded a aluminum Ford 9" pinion support to the plate. So now I have something like a flange/yolk coming out to attach the diff.
I have 4 different differentials that I can try to use, figuring out which one is best to use is where Im at now. They range form BMW, Porsche, Ford front IFS and a custom diff thats I kinda put together from different parts. This coming week I hope to have a solid plan on how and which diff Im going to use.
Forgot- I really want an automatic, Im tired of shifting gears so the Porsche trans is a no go...
As progress is made I will post up some more pics.....
Last edited by tonypaul; 12-01-2012 at 08:38 PM.
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12-02-2012, 07:12 PM
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Just joking!
Starting from scratch with a couple old nonrunning $200 Fiero's to completly finished I got about $22k in it. But I did everything myself except the front end alignment, so no professional labor cost saved me tons of money. Also I got alot of great deals on alot of the higher doller items like the sbc crate engine, tires/rims/glass,ect.
In most cases- a kit like this start to finish- runs $30k-$50k (sometimes higher) start to finish. Sometimes its cheaper to find a damaged real Lamborghini and fix it, but parts are stupidly expensive.
I like having what I got instead of the real thing, I can drive it like a $22k car and not a $122k car....
Thanks guys for all the kind words! It dont look like much now in the LS engine area, but if it looks half as good in the end as it does in my mind~ its gonna be killer!
12-02-2012, 09:55 PM
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I've been thinking of doing the same thing on my build, but I have no idea how well the exhaust ports on the head will line up with the manifolds upside down. Any chance you have already done a mock-up? I would like to see how well this works.
10-23-2017, 02:11 PM
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Resurrecting an old thread with hopes the OP see it.
How did the project go? Any more pictures of the engine/trans mating go? I just picked up a iron 6.0 and was going to start this swap also for the back of my Toyota Pickup.
How did the project go? Any more pictures of the engine/trans mating go? I just picked up a iron 6.0 and was going to start this swap also for the back of my Toyota Pickup.
