RallySol

Needed cheap reliable power that's cheap to maintain and parts are widely available. Requirements that the four cyl 2.6 turbo swap couldn't meet.

Found a deal on an almost nearly complete LR4 swap and brought it home right before Christmas.





Got to work right away, stripped it down to the rotating assembly and started stuffing it in.













Took a couple weeks for the GTO oil pan to show up. Props for the sticky oil pan thread! Hangs maybe two inches lower than the old setup, not bad, still tons of ground clearance. Probably build a skid plate just in case.





Old mounting point vs new. Picked up a pair of mounts for a Camaro since they're shorter than the truck mounts.



Cleaned up and ready to be marked for the new locations.



Fab'd up some new brackets.



Which brings us to today. Hopefully the weather will cooperate enough to let me build a solution for the trans mount so that I can center the engine and weld the new brackets into place.



New and old for comparison



Cylinder heads have made their trip to the shop to be cleaned 'n have a valve job done. Still need to pick up exhaust manifolds, Camaro belt routing bits and alternator bracket, missing fasteners, etc. Shooting to have it done asap. Used to be the end of January, but that's closing in fast.

i r teh noobz

iTrader: (4)

Awesome. That is all.

xb9rumble

What manifolds are you going to run? I've got some truck ones you could have if you want to venture to the east bay.

1dirtyZ

iTrader: (1)

these are the kind of projects that make me giggle ,,,,, the evil type of giggle

i want to see this thing run!

1badeagle

iTrader: (9)

Are you making a hotrod van or like a dd/work vehicle out of it?

82cetuner

iTrader: (9)

man I would love to have me a little van like this with some MAJOR power in it you know how fun this thing would be in the streets LOL

turbinesurgeon

That thing is really gonna HAUL when it's done. I think you should add 5-point safety harnesses to all the seats in it. You know, just in case......

davidws6

iTrader: (36)

Damn, that is gonna be scary, LOL.... Nice work !

Johnny-LT1-runner

iTrader: (15)

That is scary cool. I really hope you get a fantasy paint job like was common in the 80's, you know, wizards, dragons, and vikings.
I love how you have to drop the engine in through the interior too.

V8Rumble

iTrader: (9)

LOL - You & me both!! Going to enjoy this build!

That was actually the 70s, but yeah I hear ya. I think it'd be cool to just make it look like any other anonymous delivery vehicle out there, just for the shock factor!

RallySol

xb9rumble: Pm'd

Its my dd/work/race support vehicle. Throw an inverter and an on-board air system at it, wash it and buff up the paint when the swap is done and call it good. I may hot rod it out sometime down the road after my other projects are finished, we'll see. I'm not terribly keen on doing wheel stands though...

Skip Intro

Two Words: Roll Cage

I'm still amazed at where these LS engines will fit, however. I'd never have thought this one up.

91sonomast

lol all it takes a tired engine in a vehicle and a desire to put something reliable in it's place. Or a desire to turn heads and enough determination to do it, or just want something completely different and badass, any of them work lol.

spacemanspif

iTrader: (5)

Thats kinda neat the way the old transmission hangs from the cross member...although it makes me uneasy about it at the same time. I wonder if you could replace the tail shaft bots with studs and make a bolt on tans mount that would hang it like factory? Or use bolts that are a little longer and sandwitch the tail shaft flange between the trans body and hanger/mount. Or just a weld a mount/hanger to the tail shaft...if you are good with welding aluminum.

RallySol

Hoop maybe, but no cage. The only reason I pulled the trigger on this swap was because I've run across links of aussies dropping SBCs in these things. Figured it couldn't be too difficult.

Spent most of the early evening laying under the thing looking at the tail housing and scratchin' my head. Came up with a bunch of different ways to do it, but settled on this. Already tweaked it by adding more material to the flange between the upper and middle bolt points.



Have a bit of a hang up though. The GTO oil pan I'm using has an oil relief valve for a displacement on demand system, but as far as I know my engine doesn't have DOD. Do I need to remove the valve and plug the hole or am I good to go?

zuffen

I have a 1982 model of this van with an LS3 sitting in the rear.

The harmonic balancer is above the rear axle with the 6L80E between the engine and driver then the power is fed back to the rear via a transfer case.

Should weigh a little over a ton and have 425hp.

I expect it to do wheelstands.

I've also chopped the rear intoa pick-up.

I'll get motivated and post up some photos and words.

RallySol

Little update.

Still needs gussets, but it'll hold for now.


Nearly finished the engine mounting plates.


Finished enough to get the engine off the hoist and finally see where it sits.


An idea of how tall this thing really is. Might end up with a car manifold after all...

2000badbird

iTrader: (5)

I'm not into vans but +1 for creativity

veltboy618

X2 Cant wait to see more

slocaddy

dude want to trade for an escalade when its done? this is good as a smart car with hyaboosa motor! this vans the shizz! vote for the van!