Alright. A friend of mine has me obsessed with turboing an LS engine. For fun, I figured I'd start a thread to get some wacky ideas, and to have some fun!


3000lb vehicle
Plenty of traction
Limited to a 4.8 or 5.3 LS engine
Single turbo


Since it's a junkyard dog, you are limited to a stock bottom end (rod bolts can be upgraded), and factory LS heads (specify which you'd use). It's also gotta be somewhat cheap (best bang for the buck is the winner to me)! Let us know what engine and year engine you would use, and how you would set this thing up. Give as many details as possible, and let us know the prices on the parts for the build. If it's a proven combo, give us the power output #s as a bonus. Who will be the one to bow down to?!

 

Bone stock 4.8 or 5.3, stock cam, heads, intake and exhaust manifolds. 80 lb injectors and eBay GT45 turbo. HPTuners or microsquirt. 500 to the wheels. Has been done probably 50 times.

 

Fox chassis Mark 7, gutted everything behind the interior panels so its stock looking but down to your weight goal. Take out all of the air ride garbage and replace with fox Mustang stuff. Stock wheels with drag radials in back and steelie spare wheels on front with factory hub caps on all 4 wheels. They come with 8.8's so weld the rear diff and do some axles and c clip eliminators. Cut everything out in front of the shock towers and do it all tubular for weight. Run an in tank 340lph pump so you can't hear it.

For a powerplant do the cheapest 4.8 or 5.3 you can find, Megasquirt, 80 lb injectors, meth kit or E85, cheap a/w intercooler behind the dash, and a GT45 or on3 76 in single or twin. Ebay head studs and an LS9 cam or something that will make it sound stock. PAC 1218 valve springs. Do the downpipe/s with mufflers and cut outs so its a total sleeper. Find a cheapy performance TH400 and see how much use you can get out of it.

Would be a somewhat reasonably priced awesome sleeper. I only mention it because I'd love to find a cheap clean one and throw my setup out of my Mustang into it for a summer.

 

Are you looking for someone to line out a combo for you?

 

I know someone that had one of those Lincolns years ago, and he street raced the hell out of it. Always had a soft spot for them. That would definitely be a neat LS build!

 

Not right now. I just thought I'd have some fun with this idea to see what people can build on the cheap.


In the future, I might try a father/son project with my 13 year old. He is showing an interest in automobiles, so I'm hoping it will happen. Possibly starting the end of this summer through the winter.

 

My buddy just finished his 79 foxbody. Only $6000 total into the car (including buying the car). JY LM7 5.3, ls9 cam, pac springs, 76mm on3 turbo, 80lb injectors, a1000 pump, microsquirt pnp, th400, jy 8.8. 17psi on 110octane and w/m. I've tuned it fairly conservative for now (11*/17psi) and she screams. Havent put her on rollers or a real track yet. Runs ~130-132mph leaving on no boost on a local 1/4mile airstrip.

 

Nice. At that price, if it's a clean body car, is great for a car that fast! Anyone want to brag about a ride they built that went fast for cheap?

 

There are LOTS of cars on here running 9s on stock junkyard-pulled engines and chinese turbos. It doesn't require much effort to find speed for cheap here.

 

Cheap
Fast
Reliable

Pick two of the three.

 

$3000 1979 rx7 roller. Came back halved, 9” rear, caged with 29x12 slicks. (2850 race weight)
$700 glide
$850 PTC converter
$250 JY 5.3 (2003) w/ 317 heads. 100% factory bottom end, including hardware.
$99 LS9 cam
LS9 headgaskets
AEM ECU, 120lb injectors, 4303 pump.
ARP Head Studs
Pac1218’s
S475

Well under 10k invested total. Very cheap/easy to drop in another JY motor and go... Done it 3 times now...

Tons 9 sec passes and street duty. Best of 8.93 @ 153 on 25lbs before I blew it.

 

This is the same set up that I am thinking of doing for a truck I want to build. Probably a different fuel pump though..

 

The a1000 is a little loud... until you start the car. Then you don't notice it. 2ft open downpipe ftw lol. I'm building a similar setup to my friends, but it's going in an 04 audi s4

 

Maybe if you're still living in the 70-90s.
Technology and innovation will always find a way to overcome problems of the past. There are cheap, fast, and reliable OEM cars that are faster than all-out race cars of the 60s.

 

I read through your complete buildup, one helluva ride you have there! After reading your thread, I was going to reply, but had both my hands in my pants from reading about your car!

 

Very true. I brought this to life to get people to brag of a build experience they had, or have planned. I'm still in my learning stages for building a setup, so I'm hoping this will help me gain some knowledge too.


My ultra favorite kind of build is a total junkyard dog. Almost everything used is a junk part from another car. Making that go fast is a challenge, and wins my respect right away. Denmah has some rides that are not that junkyard extreme, but are close to it, and definitely awesome.

 

I am at $5200 total invested and 740whp with 1400hp worth of China turbos waiting to be turned up. It just got warm so no track times yet. Goal is 9's@150 in 100% street trim.

90 Rx7 Ls+6 speed

 

In before "SBE", but with opened up ring gaps.

 

Nice! Any details on your combo?