DieterDV914

Hi guys

you can see my introduction post here:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/introduct...-lt1-swap.html

In short i want to transform my trackday car into a leisure drift car. I was able to buy a Caprice hearse with a 5.7 LT1 - about 74 000 miles on the clock, and no doubt these are good miles

Some photos:




Main focus of this project is i want to learn how to weld and to some basic fabrication skills. Working with no deadline are my kind of projects
But i want to learn more about American engines. I'm only going to do basic bolt-on modifications but i think i also need to change the cams and perhaps also tappets. Really want to know more about that field.

But important to remember is that parts are not easy to come buy here in Belgium. I need to turn more to Holland where the scene is a lot bigger.

BALLSS

pick up a copy of this

https://www.amazon.com/Rebuild-Small.../dp/1557883939

should be very helpful for your project

There are off the shelf cams you can buy. Might want to get some Aluminum heads vs the iron ones on the donor motor. I bet head porting resources may be limited in Belgium for a LT1 motor. Lloyd Elliott would be a good source for a head/cam combo

http://elliottsportworks.com/

DieterDV914

Book is on it's way, always the first thing I buy with a new car

MuhThugga

Well, the engine only has one camshaft to change, and should you need to change lifters, the LS7 lifter is a drop-in replacement.

DieterDV914

Would this camshaft be any good? Located couple of miles from my door

Camshaft, Hotcam, Hydraulic Roller Tappet, Duration at .050 in. 218/228, Lift .492/.492, Chevy, 5.7L, LT1

BP Automotive

iTrader: (3)

I would recommend going with lloyd on a custom cam, much more bang for your buck with a custom cam. The cam you posted is fairly small. If you decide to go with that cam we have a set of springs here for that application we can let go of for a good price.

We can help you out with the standalone harness, lifters, pushrods, and springs.

bufmatmuslepants

iTrader: (3)

I think he's in Belgium, and finding a hotcam a few miles from you is probably rare, it's not a bad cam, makes pretty good power. I'd skip LS7 lifters, more issues than reusing stock, but you do want to find some aluminum heads and have them ported to take about 60lbs off the nose of the car.

If it was me, I'd build that hearse into a drift car, that would be sick!

DieterDV914

Well as stated i want to learn how to weld and some basic fabrication so i'm looking forward to putting this into a very different car
And yes, being based in Belgium doesn't give me much access to different options. Buying from the US i did once but the importtaxes just killed me.

so i just got the book "how to rebuild the small block" and saw the stats on the standard camshaft;
- lift: 447" intake / 459" exhaust
- duration: 203 intake / 210 exhaust / .050"

The hotcam has got slightly higher numbers. How much would this help me in my upgrade plan, purely bolt-on? At this time i don't know enough if the price is worth the upgrade.

MuhThugga

The LT4 Hotcam is a pretty decent upgrade. You can Google the LT4 Hotcam and come up with tons of results.

DieterDV914

So with the camshaft, what else would i have to change then? Doable for a novice without specialty tools?

aroberson77

you need to get new valvesprings and pushrods along with all the necessary gaskets for the intake and timing cover. I would change the rocker arms and lifters as well.

I am doing a cam swap on my LT1 right now as well. I swapped a caprice LT1 into my FB RX7 so if you have any questions on swaps let me know

DieterDV914

Time for an update, couple of weeks ago i decided to put back some effort in this project. Started out by taking of the exhaust and see what it would sound like

DieterDV914

Then went on to removing the engine and wiring harness. Most bizarre thing with this step was that everything went smoothly, this time when it's not the intention of putting it back together not a single thing broke or went wrong.

DieterDV914

So during the holidays had some more time to investigate what i could do for a manual gearbox solution. Multiple options but i had cost in mind in case of broken gearbox.
For one i could have converterd the automatic gearbox with a manual shifter but if it were to break i'd be looking a quite a hefty bill for either repairing it or finding another one.
Next option was a Tremec or Jerico manual gearbox but on this side of the pond that would have cost more then buying the car, and same issue as above if it were to break.
Last option is to use a gearbox which is very easy to find and use an adapterplate to bolt it on. Upon research it seems that the crazy Swedish builds mostly use BMW ZF gearboxes from large dieselengines. As the torque of a large diesel surpassed that of a petrol engine and as the crazy Swedes usually have engines with 400-500 bhp that sort of proves the reliability of such a gearbox. I was able to buy two BMW gearboxes for only 150 bucks

Upon further research it turns out that there is a company in Poland fabricating custom flywheels solutions and adapterplates for popular engineswaps such as 1JZ/2JZ/1UZ and LS engines. As the LT1 is not that much different from an LS motor i was able to buy that flywheel solution. The only thing i have to do is mill the LT1 bolt-pattern into that piece and i can then fit it to my V8. Yesterday i was able to pick up a pressure plate from a scrap yard and i've got a brand new ACT 6 puck clutch on the way.
Even better is that i was able to find a recent video on youtube of an American putting the same BMW gearbox on his LS motor. In combination with the photos on the Polish website i now fully understand what i have to do in order to make my own custom adapterplate to be able to fit the gearbox.

Viper

iTrader: (6)

Nice ingenuity!

DieterDV914

Today i was able to drill the LT1 bolt pattern into the flywheel, and it fits perfectly


Now everything is in place to be able to accurately make the adapterplates.

BALLSS

What will you be doing for a bell housing??

The stock LT1 is a rear external balanced motor via a weighted flexplate or flywheel. Whatever combination of that you come up with needs to match that balance unless you are re-balancing the rotating assembly as a internal balanced "neutral" (zero) balanced motor.

DieterDV914

Bellhousing is the full bmw gearbox you can see in the photo above, just have to add an adapterplate.

DieterDV914

And balancing i did not have in mind, also i'm in though with an American who has used the same gearbox and flywheel on his LS-motor. He also did not balance it and was not aware on this subject.
What could go wrong with an unbalanced assembly? Too much stress on the crankshaft?

MY_2K_Z

iTrader: (1)

Ls engines are internally balanced and so are Lts I'm pretty sure