I Confederate I

So its coming up on time to do an overhaul on my ls1. Its reaching about 170k miles, and I was considering doing a full tear down/rebuild. I called the guys up at mayhem to see what the best plan of action to try and make some more horseys and possibly adding some boost. The gentleman I spoke to recommended a 6 liter swap. I'm guessing by that he means an lq4. So I searched around and found that my best option would be going through my work to get either a short ($1200) or a long ($1600) block reman lq4 (01 or newer). It would come with a 3 year unlimited mile warranty. He suggested doing the swap and selling my ls1. My questions are though: which block should I go with, short or long? Also, what is interchangeable between the ls1 and lq4? Can I reuse my manifolds? Cam? Timing gears? Trans? I'm sure I could do more research than I have, but I want a straight answer. Thanks for any help.

-Chris

I Confederate I

I forgot to mention that he also said that the lq4 was set up stock for boost, and could handle a s/c. Which is the route I'm trying to go for in the future. I want to try and do it all in stages. I have a family and expenses to handle at the same time. So I've been stashing money away slowly for these projects. I'm still running the stock trans, but it wad rebuilt a while back and is running great. I plan on doing a t56 swap at some point, but I'm not there yet.

Sinister_Z28

My 408 is a LQ4 block and i was able to swap over a lot of stuff. I reused timing gears, trans with bell housing, front and rear covers, my exhaust manifolds bolted up to my LSA heads just fine. Idk if a ls1 intake will bolt directly onto lq4 heads but id bet it would. Basically a LQ4 is a 6L LS1. The only external difference i can think of off the top of my head is u have to have a hole drilled and threaded on the block if u want to reuse ur LS1 power steering pump. However i have heard of people only using 2 of the 3 bolts to hold the power steering pump on without issues.

I Confederate I

I have ported and polished 241 heads with Manley valves, trunioned rockers, and dual valve springs. I was hoping to reuse those heads if possible. If I can make close to the same power on the stock LQ4 heads, then I'll sell my LS1 as a long block. I really am attached to my valvetrain set up. I'm not sure which way I should go about it. I have a tsp cam, ls7 lifters, and comp rods. If its worth it to swap all that, and my heads, to an LQ block and sell my LS as a short block, I'll do it.

Anthony Phillips

sell the whole engine get a boost friendly cam and a set of stock ls3 heads which will slightly lower the c\r and add a thicker head gasket to further lower c\r manifolds will work as will intake but if you not running an aftermarket intake mani ...dont bother ls1 mani is crap and if you run ls3 heads u need an ls3 intake....

I Confederate I

@ Anthony
I'm running an ls6 intake mani. I'm eyeing this ATK LQ4 short block. It has a boost friendly 9.4:1 c/r using dish pistons. I was planning on a thicker head gasket so I can get that a little closer to 9:1. The heads are built, and will work with what I'm trying to do. I've already lined up a new custom ground cam for the new engine. I'm thinking I'm going to sell the short block and cam.

KCS

iTrader: (20)

Pretty much everything is interchangeable besides the pistons. There's an ear on the driver side of the block that isn't drilled or tapped for the alternator bracket, but its not a big deal to do. Very simple.

It doesnt sound like youre after a ton of power so you don't need to drop all the way down to 9:1 compression. You can use the 241 heads, which should put you at around 9.5-10:1 depending on the chamber volume of the heads.