Watch This Second-Gen Camaro Get an LS Swap in Three Hours at LS Fest Texas
Second-gen Camaro ditches its small block for a big LS in record time, and it all happened right next to the track.
As readers of the site are more than well aware, LS swaps have been the rage for years now, with the mass-produced powerplant winding up in just about any kind of vehicle – or other vessel – imaginable. There are many reasons why such a job is appealing, ranging from availability to cost and performance potential, of course. However, while many LS swaps are done on a budget in a short amount of time, the folks at Texas Speed and Performance recently pulled off a pretty incredible feat at LS Fest Texas 2023 – they LS swapped a second-gen Camaro in just three hours, at the track itself.
Originally equipped with a meager small block, this second-gen Camaro is getting a big boost in the form of a 427 cubic-inch Executioner powerplant with PRC heads, a Texas Speed cam, and a Titan intake, which results in an output of around 680 horsepower. Even better, the plan is to finish this job and then immediately run the 1977 Camaro down the drag strip – this isn’t just some swap being done purely for show, after all. The team starts out by organizing the tools they need to complete the job, which includes a portable hoist from the folks at, well, Portable Car Hoist in California.
As one might imagine, the team at Texas Speed planned this job out well in advance, spending a total of two weeks mapping the whole thing out in detail before making the actual attempt. That much is evident when we watch the swap take place, as everything goes relatively smoothly throughout, and the new engine is a nice fit in the second-gen Camaro, along with the built TH350 gearbox behind it.
It only takes around an hour and a half to remove the old small block and install the new LS, which just leaves wiring and all of the finer details required to get it up and running. In just three hours and fifteen minutes, the job is finished, which is truly impressive – especially given the fact that the team also decided to give the new engine copious amounts of nitrous. But in this day and age of plug-and-play performance, it’s also a job that pretty much anyone can replicate, though it’ll probably take a bit longer, of course.
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