DKSnider

Hi guys!

I'm relatively new to car modding, and a virgin to the LS1 powerplant. I've been doing some looking around, though, and I figured this would be a good place to start in my quest for knowledge. My situation is a little odd, though, so I figure I had better explain it.

I currently own a Fiat Turbo Spider that I've wanted to get a bit more performance out of for a while now. The first option I really looked into was taking the K03 turbo that's in some VWs and replacing the factory turbo; I've read of people running 20 PSI in the K03, a lot better than the 3 or 4 PSI I currently get. My mechanic and I were looking at the engine to see if the replacement would be a viable option, when we got a nasty surprise.

There was epoxy, like a JB Weld or something, on the engine block. A lot of it.

We decided that any more boost would be suicidal, and that the engine would probably have to stay the way it is until it died. I was more than a little angry, considering I hadn't owned the car for very long at that point, but once I calmed down a bit I started considering other options. There was, of course, the option of replacing the engine with another 2.0 and installing the turbo like I had originally planned, but why settle for that with a clean slate in front of me? I looked into the 6 cylinder that Alfa made for their version of the Spider for a while too, as well as a bunch of other options.

One thing finally caught my eye (and the attention of the muscle car loving child inside), though. It seems that a gentleman had taken a 5.7L LT1 engine and dropped it in his Fiat Spider. He had done a lot of work with the steering geometry (and probably replaced the transmission, too... ), but he got the thing to fit.

I started exploring a bit down that path. I talked with a friend of mine who is far more knowledgable about cars and modding than I am, and while he had never done anything of that scale, he recommended the LS1 instead of the LT1, as the aluminum construction would probably let me keep close to the same weight distribution I have in the car now.

That's what brought me to this point here. I have no idea when (or if) my current block will push up daisies, but when it does, dropping a huge powerplant like an LS1 into my tiny car gives me a special feeling in places it probably shouldn't. However, I'm not even sure at this point if such an installation would be viable!

In essence, I have two questions; Try as I may, I haven't been able to find a dimensional comparison of the LT1 and the LS1. If the two are fairly close in size, I can probably work with the aforementioned gentleman for information about how he went about his installation. If the LS1 is significantly bigger, I may not be able to drop it in at all!

As for the second question, I just want to ask, "Am I insane?" I'm approaching this project from the standpoint of a layman; I've worked on my car a bit before, sure, but I haven't done anything even close to this level of work. If any of you have any general suggestions, or even anecdotes about similar projects of your own, I'd love to hear them.

Even if the suggestion is "Give up" or "Whip out your wallet and find a good auto shop".

Thanks,
D.K. Snider

frey51

ls1 and lt1 are both 350 ci engines. The only differance is the ls1 has aluminum heads and block. If you put either in your car, you wont have even distribution, and you will have to replace the tranny.

As for the project, if you have the money and ability to embark on it I would say do it. It would be well worth it in the end because your fiat would rape about anything.

demonspeed

iTrader: (7)

Um... no....

First off, the LT1 and LS1 are pretty different in terms of... everything. The LT1 is a 350, whereas the LS1 is a 346. Pretty much nothing is interchangable. The LT1 has reverse cooling heads for instance. The LT1 has a cast block/aluminum heads, and the LS1 has both an aluminum block and heads. The LS1 uses a coil on plug ignition system, and the LT1 uses the POS optispark ignition (dist/cap/rotor is mounted under the water pump).

They will use different bellhousings, so any sort of tranny stuff will have to be bought for the corresponding engine.

I'm not a pro on the differences by far, but that's just a super quick general difference between the 2.

frey51

Damn dude. I know the lt1 and ls1 are completely different and not interchangable. BUT they are both considered 350's, and he was just asking if they would fit the same. Which I would assume they would be very similar as they are basically the same size.

af_187

it's feasible im sure, with money. there is a guy on here with a rx7 wit a ls1 right? just take lots of work, and it will push that thing like a mother @%*@%

Nine Ball

iTrader: (38)

overall dimension-wise, the LT1 and LS1 are very close. easier to make custom headers for the LS1 due to equally spaced exhaust ports also. If an LT1 can fit, and LS1 will also fit.

Check out our Conversions/Hybrids forum.

VIP1

https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversions-swaps/195646-ls1-78-fiat-spyder-p.html

Looks like he asked there first.

demonspeed

iTrader: (7)

Nope. 346.

Hayze

iTrader: (1)

thats 4ci differance

cyphur

iTrader: (10)

they're only BOTH considered 350's to people who don't pay attention to detail. their outside physical dimensions are VERY similar. people are talking about different specs here.

Clipper

I say go for it. This would be a sick hybrid for sure! Dimensionally, it'll fit, but it's going to call for boat loads of custom fabrication. This is definitely not a job I would leave to a shop to do for you, it's worth way too much in experience. Take a welding class, and dust off the thinking cap, because it's going to take a lot of welds, probably more cuts, more math than a NASA engineer did in college, and a sizeable dose of imagination to get the car, and the components in question to function as one machine.

Good luck!

demonspeed

iTrader: (7)

I just get annoyed by the whole "it's a 350" thing. That's just like people thinking the 5.3 is a 327 and the 8.1 is a 502. It annoys the **** out of me.