New as a member but long time visitor to the site. I know there are a million threads on ls swaps here. I'm looking to swap my tired l98 for something and seems like ls is the way to go. Looking for 450hp. Can anyone send me the links to threads that have the best recipes? Currently have a 91, 5.7 with a moosh 700r4 and a diff that once was posi but now is a one wheel wonder. A point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

 

Your best, and cheapest friend right now is to read, read and read. Visit LS1tech and start to read as many build threads as you can. Target the Gen 3 and Gen 4 engine forums as well as the dyno forum. You will quickly see what guys are doing to make their advertised power levels. 450 is a reasonable goal but there are 395395739428478653 ways to do it. You will be lost in recipes until you know what makes these motors tick.

 

Thank you. Is ls1tech on this site or a different one?

 

www.ls1tech.com

It is its own site.

 

A lot depends on your budget and your skill level. And secondarily where you live and what regulation you have to deal with.

A truck donor, a little home head porting, and a Chinese turbo and some tuning with HP tuners can make 450hp. For less than 2k

A full MSD LS stand along management, good cam, good heads, aftermarket intake and forged internals can make 500hp NA and can cost $20k+


On the other side there are a lot of nice stand along fuel injections systems out these days, you can take a good 350, nice cam and heads and set it up with LS style injection etc and make that power but not have the hassles of fitting things in. And usually come out much cheaper than the LS swap.

Since you say your entire drive train is warn out your cheapest route will be to buy a totaled 99-02 Fbody, put a cam in it, have the heads ported and swap everything over including the rear end if you don't mind your tires sticking out or if you are running wheels with spacers as its about 3 inches wider.

 

Thank you! My budget is about 10k for the whole drive train. I have a buddy who will be doing most the work, I just have to decide what route I want to go. That's the help I was looking for.

 

A basic 6.0L truck motor with a cam will get you an honest 450 Hp at the crank.