LS1 to LS6 Crate Engine Questions
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From: Lehigh Acres , Fl.
Very easy swap. I put the LS6 in my car 3 years ago and drove it with no problems for a year before I had it tuned by Jeremy F. on the aftermath dyno. Put down only 339rwhp and 328rwtq with a lid and mangaflow cat back all motor. On wet 100 shot put down 419rwhp and 424rwtq. Have driven 2 years since tune and love it. If I had the time and money when I did the swap I would have liked to go bigger cubes, but as a quick/easy swap this was it for me. I have pictures of engine out in albums. As stated above I had to swap crank pulley,oil pan, and cut/fit pcv hose. Found info for pcv set up on ls1howto. Put her in and she fired right up. Hope this helps in some small way and good luck. P.S. install new motor mounts while doing swap. I wish I had done that when I put motor in now if I can save up enough for headers and a cam we'll see how they go in.
Last edited by vertss; Oct 10, 2010 at 07:54 AM. Reason: Added install new mounts and spelling correction.
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Very easy swap. I put the LS6 in my car 3 years ago and drove it with no problems for a year before I had it tuned by Jeremy F. on the aftermath dyno. Put down only 329rwhp and 324rwtq with a lid and mangaflow cat back all motor. On wet 100 shot put down 419rwhp and 424rwtq. Have driven 2 years since tune and love it. If I had the time and money when I did the swap I would have liked to go bigger cubes, but as a quick/easy swap this was it for me. I have pictures of engine out in albums. As stated above I had to swap crank pulley,oil pan, and cut/fit pcv hose. Found info for pcv set up on ls1howto. Put her in and she fired right up. Hope this helps in some small way and good luck. P.S. install new motor mounts while doing swap. I wish I had done that when I put motor in now if I can save up enough for headers and a cam we'll see how they go in.
As for the PCV hoses, is there a vendor that just sells them brand new out of the box so I don't have to mess around with making my own? Also, did you have to replace the windage tray (I've never heard of having to replace this before)?
As far as the motor mounts... is it a bear to get the rubber out of the old clamshells? Should I just buy new clam shells and save myself the time and effort?
Last edited by Adam2001WS6; Oct 9, 2010 at 01:05 PM.
The motor is rated at 405hp and you were pulling 329 rwhp? That seems like a lot of power left on the table. Any idea why?
As for the PCV hoses, is there a vendor that just sells them brand new out of the box so I don't have to mess around with making my own? Also, did you have to replace the windage tray (I've never heard of having to replace this before)?
As far as the motor mounts... is it a bear to get the rubber out of the old clamshells? Should I just buy new clam shells and save myself the time and effort?
As for the PCV hoses, is there a vendor that just sells them brand new out of the box so I don't have to mess around with making my own? Also, did you have to replace the windage tray (I've never heard of having to replace this before)?
As far as the motor mounts... is it a bear to get the rubber out of the old clamshells? Should I just buy new clam shells and save myself the time and effort?
The 2 PCV hoses are for sale from GM dealer it doesnt cost that much for new ones, most dealers stock them.
If you get the LS6 longblock it will come with the Corvette/CTS-V caddie oil pan, I choose the Corvette oil pan (easier to sale a Y-body oil pan since there is more vettes out there), the windage tray is longer and the pick-up tube is "routed" differently so the windage tray will not bolt up to the F-body pick up tube (I believe the the windage tray can be cut to fit if you care to grid it) I had to get a new windage tray since my # 6 cylinder punched a huge hole thought it!!! so my stock one is toast, the Y-body doesn't fit so I got a new f-body windage tray.
-->If your windage tray is ok, then you can reuse it. I thought you should at least know the diffenences between the LS1-LS6 swap, as you requested from your OP
Dont forget the ARP rodbolts
For the motor mounts just reuse the clam shells, its more work to cut the rivets out <--(easy) than it takes to remove the shells from the factory rubber.
Last edited by camcamaro1991; Oct 10, 2010 at 01:36 AM.
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From: Lehigh Acres , Fl.
The LS6 is rated 405hp at the flywheel. You usually lose 20% through an auto drivetrain and 15% through a manual/stick drivetrain. 405 - 20%=324hp at the wheels, so shes about right to the tires. Added 100 wet shot(flywheel hp) and was at 419rwhp. Went nitrous because of how cheap it is to get horsepower vs headers/cams /intake,etc. The bang for the buck is hard to beat. The motor mount clam shells come apart very easily. Drill out the rivets holding it together, pull out the old mount, put in the new poly one, and bolt it together. Also all I had to do was reroute and shorting my pcv hoses. It was very simple. The info for all of this was found in ls1tech or ls1howto. There have been a few people to do this swap and I just researched what they did. There are a lot different motors you could use. This swap was the best for me at the time. It was just a plug and play,ran fine on stock tune,and gave me a good kick in the pants feel. But as always you want more in th end. Just plan out what you want on the budget you can afford and try to do it safely.
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UPDATE:
Well apparently within a week's time, the company decided to up the price of the LS6 crate engine from $3,500 to $5,800. Needless to say I'm shopping around...
I found a LS6 crate engine on Ebay for $3,200 but it DOESN'T come with an intake, fuel system, ignition system or water pump.
Any ideas?
Well apparently within a week's time, the company decided to up the price of the LS6 crate engine from $3,500 to $5,800. Needless to say I'm shopping around...
I found a LS6 crate engine on Ebay for $3,200 but it DOESN'T come with an intake, fuel system, ignition system or water pump.
Any ideas?
you will save alot of money doing it like that , if I was in your possition I would get the pp ls6 heads for $1200 then a lpe cam the gt2-3 with the profile of 207'' 220 ' 573/ 580 118.5 an a ls6 intake its way cheaper an stronger than a ls6 motor.
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^^^^ Please... No hijacking(?)
So are you suggesting I to a rebuild on the the engine and replace a few of the parts? I absolutely need a short block at the least. I don't know what I need internally, however. I feel like it could get real expensive as opposed to just the crate route... no?
So are you suggesting I to a rebuild on the the engine and replace a few of the parts? I absolutely need a short block at the least. I don't know what I need internally, however. I feel like it could get real expensive as opposed to just the crate route... no?
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sorry i tried to hijack - i started my own thread. i got the motor from crateenginedepot for 3400 a few months ago. just the long block. Many will say that you can get more horsepower rebuilding what you have but i wanted a new engine and i put in a cam and headers.
well look at it like this , the money for the crate ls6 is by far more than a regular ls6 parts on a ls1 block , both are 5.7 liters. I spent like 1350.00 for everything .
I'm debating this myself, it seems to me after you bought all the parts, cam, heads gaskets, oil pump, timing chain and everything else involved in freshening up the old LS1 + labor, the total costs would be very close.
I just finished mine https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...wap-top-2.html
, got the LS6 from Scoggin-Dickey for $3245 incl. shipping PM me if you have any questions.
It will be a 2004 CTS-V shortblock.
you will need your oil pan, oil pickup, windage, flexplate or flywheel and harmonic bal.
this block has upgraded rod bolts.
I only changed my pushrods and rockers and put on a SFI cert. flexplate
Runs good but needs a tune once I break it in, a local shop traded me my old block and heads for 2 hours dyno time and tune.
I looked at doing the forged and stroked but saw alot of issues and more cost.
, got the LS6 from Scoggin-Dickey for $3245 incl. shipping PM me if you have any questions.
It will be a 2004 CTS-V shortblock.
you will need your oil pan, oil pickup, windage, flexplate or flywheel and harmonic bal.
this block has upgraded rod bolts.
I only changed my pushrods and rockers and put on a SFI cert. flexplate
Runs good but needs a tune once I break it in, a local shop traded me my old block and heads for 2 hours dyno time and tune.
I looked at doing the forged and stroked but saw alot of issues and more cost.
Last edited by Anthony Williams; Oct 23, 2010 at 03:40 AM.
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Anyways, I do think I'm going to go the rebuild route and replace the short block and whatever internals are damaged at this point. I'm going to us my original budget of about $4,000-$4,500 to do the build. I'm pretty sure I can build a pretty stout motor for that kind of money. Any suggestions? 383?