Slayn

After years of abuse, I finally killed the th350 in my 78 camaro. I am going to start driving my uncles corsica ( fun... ) for now. I always wanted to try the LS1 swap, but it will take a lot of money. I am not sure if I should just save up for the Ls1/t56 swap now, or throw in a 700r4 or something. Whats the cheapest I could throw an ls1 and t56 into a 78 camaro originally equipped with a 350/th350? I know this isnt exactly a "budget" setup, but I am certainly not a rich man.

1fine69

i think it's reasonable to do it all for 5k. find a donor car for about 3500, and put 1500 in fuel lines, wiring, mounts, and random ****.

right now, i've got 3500 in mine, with the motor bolted down, wiring is in(re-wiring it myself). add 60 bucks for accelerator cable, 250 for a trans. x-member, 250 in fuel lines and a fuel pump, and i already had an electric fan. add a vette FPR/filter for 40 bucks(?). 30 bucks for VATS-bypass, figure in 50 bucks for cooling lines, and 200 for intake. you gotta get a custom driveshaft made, but before that it adds up to 4350. i don't see where the other 650 is gunna go, so i should be set. maybe i'll get HPTuners or 4.11's.

Slayn

Custom driveshaft eh? Details on that please, if you would. Also, what about the manual transmission set up? I have an auto in the car now, all the clutch and whatnot, what will I do about that, do I grab it from the donor car or will I need new stuff. Hmm I guess I should find a write up of some sort for this swap. Is there a good one on here that goes into detail? I have seem some posts thrown around, but I will need a good detailed write up.

72ChevelleConv.LS1

iTrader: (5)

Haven't seen a write up as of yet. Do some serches and tey Street and preformance web site, they have a projects page.

55chevy

iTrader: (6)

Here are a couple of good websites to visit.

John's Monte Carlo http://www.montecarloss.com/ls1montecarloss/index.html

S&P's website http://www.hotrodlane.cc/


Good Luck, Steve

5.3 racer

iTrader: (8)

i'd fix the th350($500?) and save up for the 6-speed, seperate the swap into 2 projects, ls1 first and then the six speed later on down the road.

1FASTS10

What mounts and things are associated with this swap? I also have a 78 Camaro I'd like to swap to a LS1 and keep the TH350.

G-Body

iTrader: (4)

It would be cheap to throw in a th350 for now, I see used ones going from $50 in the junkyard to a couple hundred through the classifieds. I did not have time to add up all my receipts yet but I think I spent about 2000 on mine so far $1000 for motor/trans and 1000 to put it in. It all depends on how much of it you can do yourself and how fancy you want to get. I did all of the work except the computer programming myself, used GM fuel lines, reused the truck radiator hoses because they fit, modified the wiring harness myself, built the trans crossmember, used a stock camaro fuel pump instead of aftermarket. The car is driveable but I still have the little crap to finnish, put A/C and cruise control on it, have a new speedometer face made so I can take the autometer gauge that I zip tied to the column off and put it in the dash. The more you spend the easier it will make your conversion, but if you can substitute time and have good mechanical skills you can do the conversion for about the same cost as building a GEN I SBC and trans.

Slayn

Yeah I was considering putting in a 700r4 and calling it a day, but this camaro is junked up, and I can get a 92 corsica from my uncle, all i need to do is fix it for around $400. I think I will drive the corsica ( which saves me insurance and gas money ) and work on the camaro. I was just deciding whetherr I wanted to save up enough money to do everything I want on the car, or just do a quick transmission fix. I mean the th350 went now, the engine will probably follow sometime soon. I just dont know if I can get $5000 together anytime quickly. Maybe Ill be lucky and the price of ls1's will go down in the next year or two. Whats the cheapest way to obtain an ls1/t56? Do you go to ebay, try and pull one out of the junkyard yourself ( if i can even find one ) or do I go to a shop or something that pulls these things out? I figure all the fabrication is pretty constant, but the engine/trans combo price is what decides whether you spend $4k or $8k.

5.3 racer

iTrader: (8)

i'd get a 5.3, they're practically giving them away around here, and i'd fix the th350. if you know anything about wiring you can modify your own harness. get an inline fuel pump and regulator. you'll be up and running for $1500 + tranny fix. pick up a small used cam and a tune with the extra

cam80

Hey slayn....haven't heard too much from you over at SGCOG lately. Hope this isn't the reason. I've been fighting the urge to do a swap myself just to have something unique. Best way to go is to get an LS1/T-56 with little or no mods and around 56,000 miles. Look no further than to this site for a decent set-up. If you can get the whole (wrecked) car, that's even better. I haven't seen what the 5.3's are going for, but hey...if they are substantially lower, you can always swap in something larger after you go through the gruntwork of installation. Work the bugs out of the system with the 5.3 and then move up to a 6.0L later on! Bolt-ons work wonders on these motors and a bit of the juice could make things very interesting. Hope you get things rolling soon. Good luck man!

cam75w/ls1

iTrader: (2)

I started out w/ a 5.3 in my 75 camaro before the LS-1 and it did really good as stock compared to the carbed 350(2bbl)that originally came in the car. It's kinda weird because I actually miss the 5.3 motor I was using the truck intake and the motor had really good torque out of the hole compared to the Ls1 but top end is different. I did outrun my buddies 'Bullit' mustang one night playing around with the 5.3.....