I have gathered the major components and will start with the actual metal hacking this week so I wanted to find a place where the experts on LS swaps hang out. I am about the strangest car guy you will meet with my two brands being Subaru and Ferrari, yet my daily driver is a ZL1 Camaro so I have allot of different influences and tastes. One perpetual favorite of mine since it came out has been the Subaru XT6 aka the Wonder Wedge. It got this title because in the mid 80's it had features far ahead of its time; electric power steering, all wheel drive, at one time the lowerst drag coefficient of any car, a boxer H4 or H6, digital dash, and all sorts of gadgets that made it seem like something from the future. I have done a few mods of this car, the most favorite being in the early 90's I swapped in a 3.3L SVX motor and turbo'd it. For some time now I have had the itch to shove a V8 into something it will barely fit into and this seemed like the perfect choice. Initial measurements indicated that it would be a very tight fit, kind of a maybe/maybe not thing so I decided to jump.

The XT has gotten to be pretty hard to find but I got a rust free example from the exact other side of the country and shipped it here, then bought a complete G8 6.0 engine/trans/harness/ecu/etc. and that just arrived. Because the original engine is a fairly large H6 the engine bay is wide and long, the downside is that since it is a flat six it isn't very tall and the car has a very low hood line and not allot of space from crossmember to hood. Rough measurements I took today have my LS with a Holley low profile pan and original manfold (cover and padding removed) at about 20 inches from oil pan bottom to top of manifold, and the height from crossmember to fender top is also right at about 20 inches. The hood rises some in the center, there is some bracing I can remove, and I can space the crossmember down an inch if needed but this is going to be damn close. The good news is the exhaust, intake, and other plumbing look like they will have plenty of room. The trans tunnel looks like it will have to be enlarged.

The front suspension/brake upgrades will be super easy as modern Impreza STi stuff fits easily in place. I figure once I get the swap sorted so that it is complete other than the rear suspension and drive components I will be too far in to back out. The rear suspension and drive hardware is not suitable for that kind of power so it all has to go in the trash. I have two competing ideas as of now and would love some feedback if anyone has any clever ideas. idea 1 is to swap in the rear suspension assembly from a current gen Camaro and build the structure to receive it, idea #2 is to use a rear subframe intended to swap LS motors into WRXs and adapt that which would let me use a mix of Subaru and Nissan parts. The Camaro option would be easier but heavier and have a correct track width, the WRX option would be lighter and more complex and the track width would be a bit narrow. Building the structure to integrate the rear suspension/drive components is the part I am still wrapping my head around.

A few other considerations I have are sufficient structure and bracing to tie it together and stiffen the chassis, the interior is going to stay stock (not gutted) but get a good upgrade, and the car will get painted. I want to avoid any hood bumps if possible to hide what is under there, and will probably go with a Corvette style exhaust that keeps it ambiguous at idle and cruise but gets nasty loud when you get on it. The one major deviation from an outward stock appearance is the necessity of some suitable rear tires. I am going to use some BMW E36 style flares to house the rear tires.

Pics or it didn't happen:

 

That rear suspension/differential area:

 

You gonna do anything to strengthen that unibody?

 

thats gonna be fun. those xt's are cool. my first car on the road was a 1991 loyale station wagon we called the loyale with cheese. good luck with it. what transmission and transfer case do you plan to use maybe i missed it.

 

 

The engine came with a 6L80E that I am doing a performance beef up on and converting to paddle shift using the PSI kit.

 

I got the engine positioned and cut the cross member to get the height correct. The oil pan bottom is about an inch higher than the frame rails and the intake clears the hood just fine, clearance is also good for the headers/mounts/etc. I need to link the cross member back together, it sits very high so the 2 inch drop section will still have tons of ground clearance, and do some re-enforcing to link it to the firewall and the front radiator support (it is rigid and has a hard point for the former front motor mount) to rigidize the front and motor cradle as a whole.

 

Update?

 

Wow, that's pretty amazing it fits in there with all that room.

 

 

I'm thinking the center tunnel is going to have to GROW some.....

 

Yup - as a lot of the Subie transaxle sits between the engine and firewall....