Matt330LS

New guy to the forums and have been out of the fun-car game for over a decade. Recently decided to dive back in and do an LS swap into a BMW 330Ci for a street and road course car. I picked up an LQ4 out of a junkyard 2007 Silverado 2500 Classic for $350. It is complete from pan to intake including ECU. It will fire up but the downside is a spun main bearing.

The crank also is trashed so I'm in for a new one and while I'm at it I'm going with forged rods and pistons. I tore down everything and will be taking the block and heads to a shop this week to get machined and cleaned up. Block getting line-bored to fix the spun bearing, then the usual clean up, decked, honed cylinders (bores are stock and good shape), new bearings, etc. They will also be cleaning and rebuilding the 317 heads, then assembling the short block.

Does anyone have any ideas for a cam, lifters, and springs that could net me about 450hp at the crank? Don't want to push it too hard (mechanically or budget) and, frankly, with the car getting stripped to about 3,000lbs with driver I don't think I need much more.

slogo

Matt, punch in 450 hp lq4, or something similar, in the search bar at top right corner of page, theres some reading to do there, then you will come up with some questions, that may help you get some feedback.

Matt330LS

Will do. I figured that would be the case but thought I'd throw it out if anyone had something off the top. The car is going to see double duty as a weekend street fun and occasional road course so longevity and handling mean more than raw dyno numbers.

pozesd99'

iTrader: (3)

Ported heads, headers, intake, exhaust and a cam...

Aaron at SDPC

It really depends on budget. Obviously things like headers, exhaust, and cold air intake are pretty normal. To get you to the 450+ power level at the flywheel a camshaft swap will no doubt get you where you want to be. If you still have money for more mods a set of CNC ported heads would help even more.

Matt330LS

I won't go as far as to say there's no budget ceiling, but I want to stay sensible (ish) balancing my needs/wants. I still have plenty of other parts to buy for this swap aside from engine components. Having said that, I think I'm going with a NA 408 setup. Dropped the block and heads with my machine shop today and since I'm buying a new crank either way, why not? I'll figure out the parts list after some research here then post them up.

Aaron at SDPC

A 408 will definitely make a nice addition to the project. Let us know if there is anything we can help with.

Matt330LS

Thanks. If you guys want to let a LS3 crate motor go for about $4k I'm in...

In the meantime I'm bouncing around my not-so-fancy Excel spreadsheet of where build money needs to go. It's like a shell game on there, and I keep coming back around to the same point in my head. So I'm going to throw money mainly at the bottom end and cam, with a couple add-ons to the stock heads. I figure as long as I build that right I can upgrade heads and intake later on.

For the bottom I've decided on:

Wiseco flat tops
TSP or K1 4.00" crank
TSP or K1 rods
Stock replacement main bolts
Cam Motion custom grind (based on a very informative call to them)

Keeping the heads as stock for now with the exception of dual springs and a Straub Technologies trunion upgrade to maintain stability at RPM and handle a larger than stock cam.

The car is only going to be 3000-3200lbs with driver and gas so this 408 ought to move it down the road pretty handily.

Matt330LS

And just because pics say a lot, I'll throw a couple in




As purchased for $350



Came out of a truck that saw a lot of dirt and no cleaning. And it sat out in the open for awhile as well.



This was the intake lifter on the number 3 cylinder. After looking at the internals I think the main problem was an oil pump failure.



Number 2 main. Machine shop says they can salvage it with a line bore.



Crank was iffy at best, and is probably bent anyway. Screw it...408 it is.