LS-Swapped Boat Makes One Heck of a Fun Summertime Toy
This 50-year-old LS-swapped boat is now rocking a proper modern V8, which sounds as good as it goes.
LS swaps have been the rage for years to this point, as the cheap and plentiful powerplant makes giving just about anything one can think of a major dose of power for pennies on the dollar. That includes everything from vintage vehicles to modern exotics and even forklifts and mail carriers, as well as pretty much everything in between. We’ve also seen more than one of LS-swapped boat over the years, but this recent project from the YouTube channel Uncle Joe Racing is a pretty interesting budget build involving a fairly vintage water-going vessel.
Of course, building an LS-swapped boat out of something that’s roughly 50 years old requires a fair bit of fabrication, and that’s certainly the case here. The job starts with making a custom motor mount out of some scrap metal, after which the first test fit can take place. Turns out, figuring out which angle to approach the rear portion of the boat with the engine hoist is more difficult than one might imagine too, and requires a lot of positioning before our host decides to simply take the wheel and tire off the boat trailer, then ease it slightly off the rear of the trailer to lower it down far enough.
Regardless, the V8 proves to be an incredibly tight fit in the engine bay of the old boat, with just enough space for everything to work. With the engine finally in place, it’s time to fit things like the radiator, computer, fans, and battery, along with all of the wiring and other tedious work that’s required to get the LS-swapped boat up and running.
Soon, that’s precisely what happens, but the new motor just won’t stay running for long. After a little finagling, our host does in fact manage to make that happen, however, putting a bow on this cool project – not to mention make us want to go out and build our own LS-swapped boat before the summer’s over.
Join the LS1Tech forums now!
