Conversions & Swaps LSX Engines in Non-LSX Vehicles
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1997 240sx with LS1

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Old Oct 10, 2007 | 03:52 PM
  #1  
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Default 1997 240sx with LS1

My car is almost completed. It only has wiring, exhaust and tuning to make it run.

I am hoping for 400hp but would like to see 450hp. I believe I'm going to take a hit from the headers but we'll see how they hold up on the dyno. My main concern is not with peak numbers but with the power curve itself. Just looking at all these LSX dyno sheets I know I'll be happy no matter how it turns out.

The headers, mounts, and pan will be completely redone this winter, I just need the car running now for a event.

The engine consists of:
  • SI5 231 237 .589 .595 112 +4 Cam
  • Patriot Performance 59cc Stage 2 Heads
  • LS6 ported Oil Pump
  • LS7 Lifters
  • Hooker Headers
  • Exedy Hyper Single
  • 42.5# Injectors
  • ARP Rod Bolts
  • FAST 90mm Intake
  • NW 90mm TB
View http://www.d-rated.com/new/?view=ls1 for a full list of parts

This is a picture of the original engine with 88,000 miles. I hope not building the bottom end doesn't come back to haunt me.



And here are the latest pictures.
View http://www.d-rated.com/new/?view=ls1pics for more and full size pictures.





Need to make the shift handle come back about 1 inch.


The Hood clears!


All leftover parts will soone be for sale

Last edited by okis14; Oct 10, 2007 at 04:02 PM.
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Old Oct 10, 2007 | 03:55 PM
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I love this car, were u in a US Drift event in Balitmore MD I think i saw u there?
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Old Oct 10, 2007 | 04:06 PM
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I ran at all the USdrift events except the All-Star and GT-Live since I didn't have the car.

If you mean the Hyperfest demo in Baltimore then yup, that was me, but with the KA and not LS1. I'm going to have a new beast now and can't wait!
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Old Oct 10, 2007 | 06:17 PM
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very nice looking car.
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Old Oct 10, 2007 | 06:28 PM
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looks good man.

as for the shifter, i had to move mine about an inch or 2 back also. i just put it in a vice, hit it with a torch, then used a breaker bar to bend it. worked awesome.
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Old Oct 10, 2007 | 08:42 PM
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I did that to the shifter slightly and bent it about 1/2". It looks like it's going to have to have an S shape to get it exactly where I want it.
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Old Oct 11, 2007 | 11:17 AM
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wicked cool, that will be so much fun on track, get ready!

nice pics, looks like a great install.
any snags along the way or was it pretty much what you expected?
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Old Oct 11, 2007 | 01:54 PM
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Nothing really surprising came from it although I sold my wiring harness with my KA not thinking I'm going to need it. Actually, I won't need it this winter but for now I do.

All the information on what to get to build the engine and most of the information on how to put it in (mainly just looking at pics to see how people made their crossmember) came from this site.

It's a pretty straight forward job though. I didn't do the fab work cause I suck at welding and the shop that is doing it is using my car as a prototype to make kits. Maybe by the end of this year they might have some nice kits ready. Their kits will have polyurethane mounts and no cutting of the crossmember should be needed. I can't go into details yet.

At this point the only thing I'm worried is the head\cam combo. I am hoping the cheaper route doesn't cost more in the end but for my goals it should be fine. I'm no LS1 expert though.
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Old Oct 11, 2007 | 04:27 PM
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Nice build dude
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Old Oct 11, 2007 | 06:57 PM
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how are they going to do it without xmember notching? the engine would sit like 6 inches forward if you dont notch it.
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Old Oct 11, 2007 | 07:44 PM
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Originally Posted by Kamin
how are they going to do it without xmember notching? the engine would sit like 6 inches forward if you dont notch it.
That's if you are using the GTO oil pan

If the oil pan wasn't the restriction, the only thing someone would have to do is beat out the tunnel a little making this swap just as easy as an SR swap.

It's still in a design concept now but looking at my car we don't see any reason why it shouldn't work.


---Edited in

Taken from Rangers2339 post

Check out his pic
If you could have any type of pan you wanted then the cross member doesn't need to be notched.

Last edited by okis14; Oct 11, 2007 at 07:53 PM.
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Old Oct 11, 2007 | 08:33 PM
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well of course, but theres no factory rear sump pan that fits lol. the rack is in the way. so dry sump, custom pan or notch crossmember? even for someone in their own garage, having their crossmember cut and welded is gonna be way cheaper than a custom pan/pickup/tray.

Last edited by Kamin; Oct 11, 2007 at 08:47 PM.
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Old Oct 11, 2007 | 09:36 PM
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Originally Posted by Kamin
well of course, but theres no factory rear sump pan that fits lol. the rack is in the way. so dry sump, custom pan or notch crossmember? even for someone in their own garage, having their crossmember cut and welded is gonna be way cheaper than a custom pan/pickup/tray.
Doing anything yourself is always going to be cheaper. There just isn't any way around that for any type of automotive work.

There are more people that will buy kits and do it themselves or take the kit to a shop and have them do it. How many people take their cars to get SR swapped? And that is probably the easiest swap to do since there is no fabrication involved and shops charge anywhere from $600 and up.

If someone does have a shop do it, it shouldn't cost more to buy a "bolt-on" kit then to pay the shop in labor charges to custom make everything. For the pan, they are going to have to spend at least $250 on a GTO pan (unless they get it used) and $60+ per hour in labor. That alone can can take a huge chunk out of the price for a custom pan.

If it is convenient for people and at a reasonable cost, people will want it. There is nothing you can do about the DIY people but they are the minority.

Bottom line is that the cross member does not have to be notched. Is it worth paying a little extra to make it easier to install? For most I will say yes, for the DIY guys no.

But it is still in design mode, if the cost becomes too high then the pan idea will be scratched.
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Old Oct 12, 2007 | 11:48 AM
  #14  
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cool idea.

so it will be a modified GTO pan. still gonna cost $$$ though.

and it seems like swapping to a GTO pan was cheap because you can sell off the Fbody pan to the rx7 guys.
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Old Oct 12, 2007 | 06:59 PM
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Originally Posted by okis14
Doing anything yourself is always going to be cheaper. There just isn't any way around that for any type of automotive work.

There are more people that will buy kits and do it themselves or take the kit to a shop and have them do it. How many people take their cars to get SR swapped? And that is probably the easiest swap to do since there is no fabrication involved and shops charge anywhere from $600 and up.

If someone does have a shop do it, it shouldn't cost more to buy a "bolt-on" kit then to pay the shop in labor charges to custom make everything. For the pan, they are going to have to spend at least $250 on a GTO pan (unless they get it used) and $60+ per hour in labor. That alone can can take a huge chunk out of the price for a custom pan.

If it is convenient for people and at a reasonable cost, people will want it. There is nothing you can do about the DIY people but they are the minority.

Bottom line is that the cross member does not have to be notched. Is it worth paying a little extra to make it easier to install? For most I will say yes, for the DIY guys no.

But it is still in design mode, if the cost becomes too high then the pan idea will be scratched.
im not dissing on the idea, i just think theres way better ways to go about it. i think it would still be way easier to do a core exchange on a crossmember than modify a GTO pan to fit the stock crossmember. changing oil pan dimensions is pretty serious **** if they intend on actually using the car on a track. pickup location, pan dimensions, sway bar, etc all are going to be compromised or have to be altered heavily for that method whereas if you send out a kit with a pre-modified crossmember and a 400$ core charge, they send their stock one back to you when its swapped and get a refund.

changing the oil pan is going to cause issues with oil amounts (it already sucks tons of oil on track and you should run an extra quart), and if you extend the front of the pan, theres NO way a stock sway bar will clear. not only that but then the pickup is in an incorrect location and you could run it dry under certain conditions. it sounds like a nightmare trying to rebuild a pan the right way.

just my opinion, best of luck to them i hope they can finally supply a correct kit rather than the garbage thats out there now

will you be at the proam nationals in laughlin? ill be driving, see you there if you are going its always fun poking around other peoples ls1 swapped 240's because EVERYONE does it differently hehe
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Old Oct 12, 2007 | 10:34 PM
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Last post on the kit as I don't want to go into much detail about it.
Capacity, sway bar, and oil surge shouldn't be a problem and won't be compromised. In fact, the pan should fix the capacity problem. If at any time there seems to be a flaw in the design it will be scratch. Nobody wants to sell a bad pan. At least you would hope so.

The only real problem I see is the filter since the pan will need to be larger. Although it is easy to just relocate it, that adds to extra cost. The goal for the pan is to remove the entire core sending process as that just adds more overhead. It's all about convenience for the customer and the distributor.

If it turns out to be too expensive then a notched crossmember will be with the kit. Oh, we aren't talking about modifying the GTO pan either .

There is still a lot of research to be done and once the effort of doing it multiple ways is sized, the one that is most cost effective and convenient will be the one to go with. It may even come down to building any kit won't be worth it.

It's going to be a balance between supply, convenience and cost. People like us are going to drive up the demand.

As for Laughlin, I'm considering myself going but I'm not sure. I really don't think it's worth it. I like the people at FD, driving with the best is awesome, and the tracks are badass but it just isn't privateer oriented. I give a big salute to those privateers that go to every event...Joon Meang.
I've done it for 2 seasons now and I feel I'm just burning money away. I really need to get the car dialed in. I haven't had an FD event where something major went wrong. Laughlin may be the first time I drive with the LS1.
I might bow out next season and just compete at local events to get the car set then go back the following season. I have a feeling I'm going to go through 3 - 4 cams and numerous of dyno tunes.
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Old Oct 13, 2007 | 01:28 AM
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out of curiousity what headers did you use?
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Old Oct 13, 2007 | 01:36 AM
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i totally understand about that one man, i hurried my swap so much because i thought i might get a chance at proam. turns out i got an invite and im glad i have a few events under my belt with the new engine. it took me a while to get used to it but im still not 100% yet. biggest thing to remember is the rotational mass. my first time drifting it i went for a 2-3 upshift and looped it because i was on the gas too fast. no turbo spool haha. biggest thing for me was to lift earlier for transitions and roll into the throttle gently

TORQUE IS AMAZING lol

regardless, i hope you guys get an awesome kit developed. best of luck with the rest of it. cant wait to see the final details.

240guy - those are hooker block huggers for a street rod LS1. i used them on mine too they require some decent modification but are super cheap and look untouched when you are done.
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Old Oct 13, 2007 | 02:52 AM
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not into imports -but this is a nice ride because of the ls1 powerplant-

congrats-
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Old Oct 13, 2007 | 07:24 AM
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not sure how similar the s14 and s13 chasis are but im assuming its the same deal on the s13?
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