Hi,

I'm new to the LS world and have been doing months of research. I have been looking to put a LS3 into my 69 Camaro until I came across an L77. What am I looking at in terms of money and components to get an L77 up to 500-600 streetable N/A HP? It will eventually be mated to a T56 Mag. Does it make more sense to buy an LS crate or build this one? They are asking $2500 for the L77. Has 90k miles and 4k hours on motor. I would still have to consider headers, mounts, pedal and wire harness to the budget too.

 

First, what is your budget?

The L77 motor usually came in the PPV vehicles, hence the long hours. These vehicles usually obtained good maintenance and had several upgrades to maintain the engines temperature at reasonable levels. These engines came with active fuel management ("AFM") to assist with gas mileage which is something to consider as part of your build.

 

I'm trying to create a budget. I see complete crate LS3 430hp with trans going for around 14.5k complete. 7500 for the engine. So anything I can do to significantly reduce that cost is what I'm looking for. But if I pay 2k for a donor and put 5k into it, I might as well buy it new. I figured the cost of the engine package was so much that I would do my brakes and suspension first. I just finished saving up for my brakes and suspension when I came across this engine yesterday.

 

You could be at that power level with a cam and supporting mods with that engine if you're talking flywheel HP.

 

It's an aluminum gen iv 6.0, so basically a LS3 that's only .2 ci smaller. I can't see why someone would pay 3 times or more the price for only .2 ci difference.

Anything you would do to the LS3 will work on the L77. It's just not as "cool" an engine, until you realize it's the police engine and then it becomes pretty cool.

 

That sounds like the engine I should have. What mods specifically would get that engine to the numbers I want? About how much would I need invest to do so?

 

It's not 0.2 ci smaller, it's 0.2 liters smaller. 0.2 liters is equivalent to about 12 cubic inches.

 

As I said earlier, a cam will easily get you to 500 flywheel horsepower. I never put my car on a dyno, but it's race weight is about 4160 lbs. It has a "cam only" L77 with factory unported heads and an unmodified factory intake and went a best of 11.48@118. That is easily over 500 fwhp.

 

Good catch. I keep forgetting to convert metric to American.

 

Wow, impressive. That's where I want to be. What cam do you have? Is is a streetable cam or better for racing? I've read that over 230, you should fly cut the pistons.

 

This will probably answer most of the questions you have for the L77, I’m going for the same combo in a Fox but with the 6l80e, the only thing That I can’t find is a paddle shifter and controller for that cool paddle shifting.
The valves are heavier on the L77 heads, you can use LS3 valves, they are direct replacement, or just upgrade with aftermarket titanium valves.

Gapping the rings is key if you’re thinking of boosting, As I will be doing.

this link has everything you would need to know about the L77:
https://www.onallcylinders.com/2018/...e-performance/