Aluminum heads and block. Roller cam and rockers. 6 bolt lower end. No water thru the intake. Fuel injected. Using GM components parts are every where if needed.

20 miles to the gallon is typical.

It a pretty basic swap from a SB to a LS. Plenty of room in the engine compartment.

Save your self some time and by mine it's for sale in the for sale section.

 

Call me old school but I'm more of a purest and like to keep my C2/C3 looking OEM regardless if its numbers matching or not.

Now having said that I would like to have a clean 1972 Chevy Cheyenne with factory AC, Auto to swap in a LS engine/Trans for a daily driver.

 

There is a stark difference between what a very hot small block or big block sounds and feels like compared to a hot LS.

My brother has a 2010 Grand Sport with a supercharged LS3 making 634 horse at the rear wheels. It is fast, it feels fast, but in a very civilized manner. It doesn't sound or feel as fast as it really is though. When you are just driving normal, it doesn't sound much different than my Avalanche 5.3 with a Corsa exhaust. Under power you hear the supercharger of course.

When I had the engine and trans in my signature in my 80 Vette, it felt and sounded much faster than the Grand Sport. It just felt and sounded violent at WOT and sounded mean at idle and cruise. I figure the engine to be in excess of 600 horse at the crank, I haven't dynoed it in this configuration, but it obviously is no where near as fast as my brother's Grand Sport.

An ideal situation would be to have my 75 Vert with the 406 and another C3 with an LS for road trips and daily diving, probably not going to happen for me though. I will have to be happy with my weekend warrior.

Mike

 

People have been putting LS motors in C3's for more than fifteen years now and it seems to be more and more common, so I don't think you can dismiss them as being "trendy for a spell" just because they are not your cup of tea, or cost too many toad pelts for you.

. This article in a 1998 Vette Magazine documents what was probably the first LS1 swap in a C3. That's my car "Larry" in the photo. That is my Ls1. I drive it literally every day during the summer. It starts the first time I touch the key. It gets good milage. Makes good power. Sounds bad *** with the new cam. I have taken it on 1,000 mile road trips three times. I have won a lot of trophies with it. I just drive the crap out of it and love it.
You don't like them. We get that, but I would not write them off as trendy.

 

why Not is more the question.

 

Trendy?? Didn't the LS just hit 20?!!!

 

I have had all of the SB growing up got my first Z06 with an LS6. OMG 405 stock and just did a few change, headers, 105 intake and fuel rails cold air and a tuner and I was over 500 hp. And now look at this LS3 in a c3 it's all motor for half the price to rebuild a SB with what under 500 hp unless you boost it

 

OLD thread here, but only 2 years......and for sure IF I had the old L48 engine in my '72, by now it would be a LS engine, but having done my updating some 20 years ago, I went with that made sense at the time, and it's still running well, so leave it alone......

LT1 induction on an L98 engine, nothing stock, 200 auto, for the o/drive in place of the Muncie....

see pix below....

 

Old thread but I'll jump in being a recent ls convert.

Cool factor (even though it seems everyone is doing them in just about any car), realiable street manners, 525hp ls3, decent gas mileage with the 4l70 swap compared to my old 383 w/th350, ability to build further on top of a 525hp motor and well the cost doesn't really factor in. It was a fun project though and a good learning experience.

I do agree that my old 383 sounded a bit meaner and down low it felt a lot stronger. 50mph on up my brothers sick 00 trans am whooped it up. Some of that's due to getting but still.

Did i mention cool factor?

 

LS, cool, sure, but I like a classic car to be classic, and nothing is cooler than popping the hood to reveal a nice clean compartment holding a nicely put together small or big block.
All the plastic on an LS engine would keep me from popping my hood as they have no appeal.
And the sound of a small or big block is so much better than any LS.
Some like 18” wheels with low profile tires on classics, I don’t.
In my opinion, if you want an LS buy a C5.
If you like a modern C3 with an LS, go for it.
Is it more expensive, who knows until you finish the swap.
I’ve got $20k into my 496 big block and haven’t started the assembly yet.

 

Was there any major modifications that had to be done to get the LS3 in? What did you do for gauges?

 

Ever heard an LS with sidepipes? Plastic fuel rail covers are easily removable and they make aluminum intakes if the plastic isn't appealing. All in all, it comes down to preference from looks to sound to performance and how much money or effort you wanna put into it. HP costs money either way!

 

It's not a direct swap, but there are a lot of info. and companies out there that sure make it much easier these days. My biggest problem was when to stop the "while I'm there" mentality. I went from motor/trans swap to rewiring most of the front end of the car along with wilwood brakes, much cleaning/painting, offset control arms, new wheels, aftermarket ac, reworking/rewiring my gauges, and so on.

I went with autometer gauges:

 

Bluegtp, I have the same syndrome I like to change everything while it's apart. I think I spend more time waiting on parts than actually installing them. I was wondering what your vette sounded like when I saw it had side pipes. Thanks for posting a video. Mean idle. Buy far the best sounding one I've heard. Let me know when my car is finished and I will come pick it up. Hahaha. if you're like me it's not going anywhere till I die........ and there's still a chance I might be buried in it! Lol

 

Grey LS3 is gorgeous. Outside that and a wet sump Ls7 no reason not to build an SBC

 

So my question is, is the block making the horsepower or the components? I don't see anyone saying they have a roller cam in their gen 1 motor here. I know lots of people do it and I believe thats where the power is hiding. Everything I read supports roller cams. I'm hoping that the guys over at HotRod magazine will do a story or have their guys at Engine Masters build 2 to compare. IF you take a gen1 327 motor and a 5.3 LS and put the same spec roller cam, the same spec pistons, the same companies spec'd heads and the same style "carbed" intake on it, won't it make the same horsepower? Why wouldnt it? I personally dont like the "row of donuts" fuel injection setup but I am OLD school. I'l rather have an Inglese injection setup my self but thats just me. Cost wise if you threw an aftermarket fuel injection on both, wouldnt they be the same?

So cost wise, keeping the specs and the weight of the block close, wouldnt it be the same? I am excluding the aluminum blocks because either gen aluminum block is just really expensive to find and repair if it needs sleaves. (I've done some reasearch on the LS aluminum and it needs resleeving because getting it can only be bored a few times before it needs it. The walls are very thin. I've found a few with bad cylinders here locally and they werent expensive for a reason).

And other than it being really cool, can that much horse power be used on the street were most of us are playing. I have around 450 HP in my 327 and I think its more than enough now. I can have some stupid fun and I can get myself into some serious trouble pretty quickly now. I can see guys that are at the track either road racing, quarter miling it or drifting needing more, but I dont think thats a majority here.

 

I like the center console.
Is that a build it or a buy it?

If you can buy it, who sells it?

 

I built it.... metal plate over the factory bezel carefully laid out.

 

My understanding on this is that the cylinder head is responsible for the power gains. You cant argue with years of technology in design. Yes the Gen 1 heads of today far outflow the old designs for sure but the LS cylinder head just produces more HP. You can effortlessly make 500+ HP on an stock LS3 with a cam change and headers. 600 HP is not out of the question with a big cam and some cylinder head work. Its going to take some serious hardware and a boat load of cash to do that with the same cubic in Gen 1 SB. Start putting power adders on this and I have seen 800 to 1000 HP LS motors. Yes you could do that with a ton of cash on Gen 1 also but the LS is just easier. The capability of the LS heads way out flows anything the Gen 1 has to offer. Plus the wide torque curve of the LS motors makes them more driveable than the peaky Gen1 SB with a big cam. The bottom end of the LS motors can take a lot more power in stock form than a Gen 1 motor also .Just a better design. Just my .02 and I did not stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

 

I agree with what you have stated about the heads. I've seen those results on Engine Masters time and again. There is no argument on the potential of the LS motor straight out of the wrecking yard. If you could find a complete motor out of a wrecked car you could just throw a cam in it and your off to the races.

Im just curious if compression is the same and the same roller cam is used, and both were carburated, would it be significant? The new aluminum small block heads can be amazing for sure. I think a gen 1 small block 2 bolt will handle 500 HP, but much more may be risking alot. Like I said, 450HP is fun for sure