0Speed Hound

Just a quick note to let everyone know the swap brackets designed for C4orce are now available. The brackets will hold any Gen3/4 engine in an 84-91 C4. We have not had a chance to test them on an LT1 car, but they should work. Price and more information on the brackets can be found on our website at www.speedhound.com in the LSx swap parts section.






Mods or anyone else. I'm working on sponsoring the site if you could let this slide for now. As soon as I get a banner designed I'll get in touch with the powers that be.

Actually, if anyone out there has graphic design capabilities and would like to trade making me a banner and logo for a deep discount on any parts I sell, please contact me.

Thanks

GIJoe

about time someone started making LSx swap parts


BTW, just a note when I clicked on the LSx swap parts on your site...
Don't take this the wrong way, its purely constructive.

You might want to include some pictures of the brackets by themselves and also installed in the car.

Also, when I clicked on the "LSx Swap Parts" link, I was expecting to find a nice list of everything I would need to convert my car to an LS1 or something..instead I found a line saying "!!!!!C4 LSx swap plates now available!!!!".. totally not what I was expecting to see.

Just my $.02 it might sell better with more info and some pics... and a list of things needed for the swap, then there will be no reason to go to another site when you have all the info right there on your site.


Good luck to you! Thank you for making some good after market items for our cars! I wish I had the money for a swap...maybe one day.

0Speed Hound

I'm still working on that particular page. It should have also said something to the affect that more parts would be available soon. I'll double check to make sure it made it up. The site is not 100% yet but it's usually minor things that need addressing. This is my first attempt at the web stuff which is why I am also looking for help on the logo design and banner. Input on how the site is working/if it's working is appreciated. Thanks.

Demonic85

I considered a LSx swap but the engine and its components are insanely expensive. Your brackets on the other hand are quite cheap so I guess it would help out a lot of people.

BTW I agree that some pics would help.

0Speed Hound

Thanks for the input. The price is an introductory sale price. The people that step up and buy the first ones will be thanked with a discounted price is the way I an looking at it.

You should maybe look again at the prices of LSx parts. If you do your searching and aren't afraid to by used you can build awsome motors for cheap. If you plan to stick to an aluiminum block, the price will be more expensive of course. However, places like ls1tech.com and performancetrucks.net has a great deal of activity in the sale sections. Both these forums also are more likely to have the iron blocks around. It's not un heard of to build a 6.0 truck motor for $1500 or less. You'll be buying piece by piece and it may take time, but if you have time and not a lot of money it could be your ticket to LSx power. Staying with an automatic transmission, if you are now, will help keep costs down as well. If you have a ZF, then at this time you no option for keeping the transmission. Anyway, I'm not trying to talk you into an LSx swap. It is not something for everyone, but it can be done for less than what a lot of people think.

RandyJ75

What's the story of the wiring harness needed to make the swap work? Will you be selling some thing to make this work?

JLeatherman

Are there LSx T56 bellhousings yet for a standard GM T56?

0Speed Hound

The harness that is on the car now is simply the modified truck harness that came with the engine. This is temporary just so the car could get to carlisle and Fun Fest. A company known as Vette Aid will be making a harness that will incorporate everything together as it would be had this engine come from the factory. Because C4orce has so much more being done to it than just the engine swap, you would need a different harness than what is going on C4orce. I am sure Vette Aid will be offering a harness. The exact specs on it I do not know right now though. Keep an eye on the articles if you don't find anything here in a couple months.

leatherman, yes there are factory T56 bell housings. The T56 came from the factory behind LS1 powered camaros and trans ams. This is how you can put a T56 behind an LSx in a C4. However, we do not yet have a C bridge adapter for the T56. I also have no idea at this point where a T56 would sit in relation to the C bridge using our motor plates. C4orce is using a tremec TKO five speed. Wish I could be of better help in this department. We hope to not only build brackets putting a T56 behind an LSx in a C4 but also find a solution to possibly keep the ZF behind an LSx for those of you that have them now.

0Speed Hound

Joe, I thought about your suggestions all day. I will be adding more parts to the LSx swap page in the coming days. I thought I needed to make it more clear though that there are only a few parts that are custom in order to do this swap. Most of the parts are readily available parts. For instance, if you use our brackets and you have an automatic trans, you do not need an adapter bracket for the C bridge. If you are going with a tremec like C4orce, you simply modify the supplied bracket in that kit from Classic Chevy. The plates and the headers were the biggest hurdles and they are now done and available for purchase. The other two hurdles I hope to deal with in time as well. Those are getting a ZF behind an LSx and designing an adapter plate for mounting a T56 to the C bridge.

Thanks

Oh and I will get a picture up of the bracket here soon as well. Hopefully by this weekend. Pictures of the engine sitting in the car can be found in Corvette Fever magazine for last month and there is a thread here with picture of the car at Fun Fest. Honestly, aside from the engine sitting in the car, there's not much to show about these brackets for an in car shot.

JLeatherman

ProStreetCustoms.net sells a T56 to C-Beam adapter that could probably be used with a modified C-beam to get a T56 into an LSx vette. See it here:

http://www.prostreetcustoms.net/CorvettePage.html

0Speed Hound

Good call. I do believe that could work. The issues that will arise are that the LSx engine may not be positioned in the same place therefore moving the trans bracket. It may work though with some modifying. I would design our bracket to work with our mount adapters of course. The other problem is Jeffvette got a hold of someone's premade adapter bracket for his LS conversion and was thoroughly disappointed in the construction. I believe it was that companies but I can not remember.

69Myway

I had a chance to see your car at Carlisle. I built the other LS C4 that was at the Corvette Central tent with Corvette Enthusiast magazine. I was really interested to see how you did things, and having just finished ours up and enjoyed driving it from Florida to Carlisle, I had a lot of time to test and think about the swap.

I really wanted a chance to speak with the creator of the car - but didn't find anybody around it at the Mid America tent.

I'm curious about several things.

1. I noticed you cut the wiper motor housing cover to clear the valve cover. Have you had any issues with that or an opportunity to test the wiper motor? It looked like the circuit board was in danger of contact with the motor which would kill that function.

2. I noticed there was no a/c on the car. Do you have something in the works to make that happen? Based on how the engine is mounted there is no room for a stock C5 or C6 a/c system.

3. I noticed the passenger header was against the frame rail - is that an issue that has been resolved?

4. You had the computer sitting where the battery goes. What process are you working on to relocate or use the battery?

5. You have a snout mount air filter on the car - are there plans to get it mounted in front of the radiator for cooler air or some other trick induction system.

6. Cruise control? Will that be adapted to the drive by cable t/b?

I read the December Fever article and saw you had about 335 hp. Are there plans to pump that up any more?

I also saw where you said you had bought motor mount plates but they didn't work. Are you able to share what brand style plates you started with that were not compatible?

TIA!

Corvette Chris

Hopefully in a couple of more years there'll be everything else needed to do the LSx swap. No fabrication needed and I'm there.

excessive81

who needs air ?

69Myway

Everybody!!!!!!!!!!

My wife now drives this car everyday (In Florida) - air is CRUCIAL!

0Speed Hound

Sorry Chris, I didn't make it to Carisle or Fun Fest to help answers questions. Really the only person there that would have been able to answer some of the questions was Dave Emanuel. No one else knows the fine details.

The passenger header is not touching the frame rail, it is very close though. I still have not gotten the car back, so if it is indeed touching the frame rail now, something has moved that wasn't supposed to. The design though is no tighter than normal L98 headers.

I didn't cut the wiper motor cover, I smacked it while getting the engine in the car lol. It's a tight fit and I was hoping no one would notice I broke the corner off. I need to get a new cover on there I guess. Wipers do work perfectly fine and the motor clears the engine no problem.

The battery is sitting under the back of the car. Fix a flat is the new spare. The ECM will stay were it is. We have an aftermarket cruise control unit that we should be able to mount above the ECM where the factory cruise was. The car is running and driving now. It just needs a few things to be road worthy. The seats were put in at Mid America, so I got the pleasure of sitting on a milk crate while doing all my test driving. Right hand turns where fun with no door on the car.

I have located an readily available AC bracket that will put the compressor on the top passenger side. I hope it will work, if it does not I will be designing my own. It's a tight fit but it will fit if done correctly. The plan is to use a Sanden at this point.

We hope to be able to connect the TB up to the factory air cleaner. An adapter tube of some sort will have to be made of course. The air filter was simply put on there to be temporary while the car was cranked and driven around the fair grounds as necessary.

The wiring harness that's on the car is temporary was well.

The power ratings I'm not sure about. VMax spec'd the cam. The engine will be what it is for these articles. Maybe after the article series is done more work will be done to it if necessary. The great thing about all this is that if anything happens to this 5.3 a 6.0 will fit right in it's place. I doubt anything will happen to this engine. Tear down inspection showed a very clean engine and these engine are very strong. However, the car has maybe 5 miles on it since being installed in C4orce, anything can happen tomorrow.

I'd rather not say whose brackets we tried first, they really were finished that horribly. Considering the price they asked for them compared to what I am asking for mine, mine are a steal. Even once the intro price sale is done, my brackets will be a bargain. We put a lot of time and effort into the design and finish of our brackets. They don't have a glamorous job, but I don't peddle crap. I need my customers to be pleased with the money they spent when they pull the brackets out of the box.

With our brackets, there is no cutting on anything to make the engine fit. Oil pan clears everything easily. You can pull the trans off the engine with the engine still in place. I test fit a 700R4 when designing the brackets and headers. It fits and the headers can be left on the engine while removing the trans. There is no bracket needed for the transmission if you are running an automatic. The only thing that needed to be done to make everything fit was to dimple the wiper cover where the fuel rail sits. It barely touches and would only leave a rub mark had I not pushed it in a little. Some people I am sure may not even come close to having this issue, so I didn't consider it a major problem.

I'm anxiously awaiting the next issue of CE so I can see some more pictures of your build. I followed it here and think it turned out very nice. Have you seen the new VBP catalog? They've got Killer and your 85 in there.

69Myway

Cool - thanks for answering those questions.

Ready to go brackets will make life so much easier for those that follow. I really wanted to do the same, but couldn't swing it in conjunction with using stock C5/6 accessories.

VB&P has been great. In fact I have one of their custom springs in the front of the car that allows it to still sit a tad lower than stock despite the decrease in axle weight. Without it using the aluminum 6.0 - the car would have been sitting up like a truck!

I chuckled when I saw the wiper motor because I didn't take it into consideration when first test fitting - didn't even THINK about it. When I got down to installing that and almost freaked out because I didn't think it was going to fit. I somehow got lucky because if you put it in up-side-down, then twist it in place, it fits fine. I figured you had the same moment of "Uh-Oh" that I did! LOL! I don't get lucky very often either.

0Speed Hound

I love VBP's stuff which is why I push it as much as I do on the website. I believe in their products and only hope to sele a lot of their stuff so they can turn around and continue to make great products.

The whole idea behind the plates was to be able to simply drop them in and everything worked. When we really started thinking about this project and the intended goal, we knew the average Joe who may want to do this swap isn't necessarily going to want to or know how to cut on the frame. Luckily the frame design allowed us a way to get the engine in without cutting.

Jeffvette

That would be correct. The welding was garbage. No penetration. None of the other holes lined up after getting two bolts started.

Demonic85

You wuss, there were lots of days this summer when it was over 95* with high humidity and my new car doesnt even have air conditioning. I rolled down the windows and it was just fine. No A/C = better gas mileage.