FlashLCD33

iTrader: (8)

Well a local guy bought an Black 99 cammed LS1 donor car today and he wants to replace the whole drivetrain in his 97 TA. I've never personally done an LS1->LT1 swap before, but I have plenty of experience with fbodies so I don't think it will be a huge deal.

The plan is to swap the whole k-member in, engine/trans and all. I'll be changing the exhaust as well. I originally told him i would do the swap if I got to keep the rest of the parts car, but the more I look at it the less I can find that is worth anything. He said he could pay me cash if that's what I wanted so I may just go that route, then help him part the rest of the car.

I've had 4 fbodies (3 lt1, 1 ls1) and have done plenty of k-member pulling. That should not be a problem. And having a complete k-member, steering rack and all will be a big help. I did 2 years of automotive in high school, and i'm on my 2nd year of post secondary. I'm used to turning a wrench

Now the question is - should I go for the car remains, or just cash? What kind of cash amount is a fair amount for this job? He's a decent friend and I don't want to stiff him, but I don't want to work nights on his car for free. I'll probably send off the pcm for the tach calibration, send the harness of to speartech just for ease of installation. He agreed to pay for the harness and pcm because he wants the swap to be done fairly quickly. Money is basically no object to him, but I don't want it to be a ripoff.

The car was slid in to a pole right at the DS door, pushing the door jamb in about a foot. Gray leather, the DS seat is broken. Console is broken. Steering column is broken. DS fender and door are broken. Quarters are wrinkled from the impact. The pass side fender has a tiny crack on it, and door is spidered from the impact. Both tail lights are cracked. Hatch is in good shape. Clean grey interior, the headrests are embroidered very nicely with the Trans Am and bird. Very nice front bumper cover, and I believe a Suncoast ram air hood. It has the ram air box also, which is painted in true fire.

There are several parts in "good shape", but I parted out a car before and I'm still hanging on to a lot of big parts due to shipping.

95 Black Mamba

I would probably do it for cash and maybe see if you can keep a few small things off the car that way your not stuck with a whole car as far as price for the job just tell him what you think your time would be worth and negotiate from I'm sure if he wants it done right he wont mind paying for it i know i wouldn't

FlashLCD33

iTrader: (8)

Well while I have a ton of experience with fbods, I've never done this before. So, I'm not really sure what all is involved. I've been reading through here today trying to gather some info, but I have no idea what all this is exactly going to take.

I'm obviously not going to go hourly on this deal, because he doesn't need to pay for my learning. And there's no way I can figure up a book time, because of the "custom swap" going on.

I agree that I'll go for the cash and just pick some parts I want as well.

3800RS

iTrader: (15)

if you can do it within 3 days i'd say $400-500

FlashLCD33

iTrader: (8)

I imagine it will probably take a week or so to get the majority of the labor done. I'm going to be working by myself in a smallish shop. I have plenty of tools, but they're all at school. Im just going to be bringing my small cart home every night from class and working on it for a few hours a night.

There's no lift there, so that will slow things down a lot. I do have air tools and etc, and access to a compressor, so that is some help.

I imagine there will be some time waiting on parts and tuning. I'm assuming about any sponsor here can make the appropriate changes for the tach?

BlazerManZQ8

Any pics of the wrecked one??

FlashLCD33

iTrader: (8)

I will try to get some tonight, tomorrow for sure.

NemeSS

iTrader: (127)

i swaped in a ls1/th350 in my friends 3.8 firebird, and didnt charge anything,
but i would not hesitate to charge 1000-1500$ for a basic swap

danhr

iTrader: (18)

ummm if he bought a donor car, I'd say maybe 400. You pretty much just bypassed all of the hard parts by getting a donor car.

I don't see any reason why you are sending off the pcm to get a "tach recalibration" or sending the harness to speartech. I didn't do any of that in my swap.

You could get it all done in a weekend if you knew what you were doing.

RE AND CHERYL

iTrader: (31)

If you plan ahead and use the modifyied harness it should only take a weekend or so. I'd also use a 97 Vette fuel rail so there are no mods necessary to the LT1 fuel system (LT1 fuel pump will fuel a mild LS1 not problem). I'd also have the harness modded with a 98 style temp sensor to run the 97 gauge cluster.

I did this same mod and it took suprisingly little time to actually do the swap because I modded the harness ahead of time. Only other thing I spent time doing was fabbing new fuel lines because I used the no-return style rail with a Vette filter/reg.

For money I'd ask between $400 and $600. It really depends on what tools and equipment you have at your disposal.

Re'

eviltwin_1987

iTrader: (18)

danhr

iTrader: (18)

He doesn't need to modify the fuel system at all! HE HAS A FREAKIN DONOR CAR.

Don't bother using the corvette fuel rail. Use the ls1 fuel system. Swap the fuel tanks (the ls1 is lighter anyways, it's plastic), and swap the fuel lines.

Use the wiring harness and body harness from the donor car, don't send anything out.

Use the ls1 pcm from the donor car, don't recalibrate anything.

You have a donor car for a reason, you know

redz88

anyone know someone willing to swap one into a 64 impala here in new york?

slow

iTrader: (7)

Donor car, but rember, you doing the work twice with a donor car, taking everything apart, taking the good car apart, and moving parts over, shops charge more when you bring a donor car.

I'd say the job is worth $2K easy. Good friend $1200 or so, (or parts for 50% of value from donor car)

Ryan



Ryan

danhr

iTrader: (18)

Removing dropout - 3 hours
Removing 2nd dropout - 3 hours
Swapping fuel lines and fuel tank - 2 hours
Removing dash/interior/dash harness - 2-3 hours
Removing 2nd dash/interior/dash harness - 2-3 hours
Installing dash/interior/dash harness - 3 hours
Installing dropout - 3 hours
swapping radiator - lol like 15 mins?

Figure you worked 12 hours in one day, that will leave you 4 hours left for extra misc. crap, like the exhaust.

If you a business and this was a customer, I'd be saying other wise. But if it's for a friend I'd be reasonable, considering it's only a few days worth of work.

And there probably won't be anything good left on the car. So I'd go for straight cash.

FlashLCD33

iTrader: (8)

$400? Really? That's less than what most people charge to install a cam.

And I decided I'll do the harness stuff myself. I called speartech and they said they have a 3 week turnaround on them. 1 week for shipping, 3 weeks at them, 1 week for return shipping. Over a month waiting on the wiring harness, when the whole swap should take less then a week.

And every thread I've read so far says that the factory tach will be WAY off after doing the ls1 swap.

FlashLCD33

iTrader: (8)

This is more along the lines of my thinking. He said he'd give me the rest of the car, which IDK how much will be usable. Donor car means nearly twice the labor, it's not like i have all of the parts individual setting on the ground.

STEEPSS

iTrader: (30)

just do it for free. he should actually be charging you, just for the experience. it's kinda like school




totally kidding.

(flash is a good friend of mine, just fyi)

STEEPSS

iTrader: (30)

that's true. i would say at least a grand. because there WILL be **** that'll go wrong or not be there.

FlashLCD33

iTrader: (8)

These are some pretty optimistic times. If I were doing it at the school shop it would be much easier. And I'd personally like to see ANYONE be able to swap fuel tanks and lines between 2 cars in 2 hours. If it were that easy, why would people cut access holes to change a pump?

Another problem is that I won't have 12 dedicated hours to work on this car a day. I do have 40+ hours of other obligations during the week. When you work on things for a few hours a night instead of a long stretch, it takes a LOT longer.

I guarantee this is a SEVERAL thousand dollar swap at any shop that will do a good job and stand behind their work. Alldata shows 21 hours for R/R one engine, which would be around 31 hours with a donor car. Plus a few tenths here and there for AC and etc. That doesn't include any swapping, harness time, etc. Does it really take 21 hours to drop an engine, swap and reinstall? No lol, but that is what a shop will get for it.

Add in that I will be aligning the car also (like you should with any k-member R/R. And a TON of little things that will add up to a lot of time. It is for a person I know yes, but not someone I hang out with every day.

Another person in town quoted him $2500 + lt1 drivetrain + ls1 parts car. That is a ripoff.