Well I sold my 87 Iroc but after the sale the motor seized right before the car was taken by carrier to the new owner. I knew it had a problem with the motor and I told him that but I am happy it died in my ownership so the new owner didnt have a headache. I am refunding him the money and just building the car up.

I talked to my guy who builds my cars for me and he told me to just go a budget LS1 or LS6 swap. Go with LS6 heads, LS6 intake, Custom Cam, brackets, wiring harness ect ect and he said he can get me around 400+ RWHP.

I am liking the sound of that and he said he could do it probably around 5 g's with the parts he has around the shop. He has TONS of LS6 heads lying around and he is good with custom cams.

So it looks like the 87 IROC will get a LS1 or LS6 block and some goodies.

The transmission right now is a Freddy Brown Th350 with a 2800-3200 stall but I guess with time I will be putting in a 4L80E with a 4000 stall. Seems the LS1's love to be in the 3600-4000 range with the converters. I had one in my 01 SS and it LOOOOVED it.

Well wish me luck!

 

$5k doesnt seem possible to me for a whole swap. im up to $6200 in mine right now and i still have a few things to spend some money on yet.....i got my motor/trans for free too so i dont see how you can do it for $5k. good luck with your build though. let the fun begin!!

 

you can use the th350 behind the ls1. you'll have to get a crossmember mounted torque arm. If you dont want to use an ls1 you can get a lq4 or lq9 for less than half of an ls1.

I have $650 in my lq9 with wiring harness and computer
I went with the spohn tubular k member, a-arms, and motor mounts which set me back a little less than $1000
t-56 i scored for $800
clutch, pressure plate, flywheel, master cylinder, slave/throwout $250
fbody accessories $200
split hptuners with a buddy $325
4th gen gas tank with lines $75
4th gen rear $100
eibach pro kit $175
used bmr battery relocation and cables $45
ls1 front brakes with brackets $275



most of my cost in the car was tearing it completely down. None of those parts are in the car yet. The car is currently on its side getting the undercoating scraped off then rustbullet will be applied inside and out. Mine is a full out restoration, not an engine swap. On my buddies car (my old 87 Iroc) we're swapping an ls1 in. He's got roughly $2500 in his total. He went with the edelbrock victor jr intake and a demon 750 carb though.

 

i have about $1950 in my swap, about to go over the 2k point after i'm done buying all the small parts.

 

I don't like to think about how much I have in mine thus far. I'm pretty sure I'm over 5k.

 

ha, sounds like were in the same boat. i didnt realize what i had in mine till i started crunchin numbers.....stuff adds up fast

 

Wuss... Shoot, I can't even see 5k in the rear-view any more, but it's my own flippin' fault... I AM checking things off though, I've just recently gotten the MAF, the O2s, some electrical stuff I need, & most of the external stuff for the transmission... (I should have the rest of what I need for the transmission within a week or so, & then I can start making real progress again.)

Seriously, I'm right there with ya man...

 

Haha...I was gonna say. $5k?? Haha...if I only spent that much to get my car where it is now, Ide use the other ~$6k that I spent on a blower kit. haha. The money goes away one way or another.

Good luck getting her built man! You'll love it!

J.

 

This is why I am very fortunate to know people in the St Louis area who do these swaps all the time, and are giving me extremely generous pricing to help me out. For instance, my block is being bored, honed, decked, blue printed, and assembled for $1,000



I think you're on the right track with doing the LS1 swap though. You'll be happy with increased MPG plus a LOT more hp and even more potential.

 

We need to add to the sticky that for 99% of the people who want to do this swap - you have to have a sincere desire to do it and a willing pocketbook. Because no amount of justification will allow you to just think "it's cheaper to do an lsx". I'll be happy when I drive the car with the new motor, and I won't look back and think what I could have spent the money on...because I've been spending it for so long that it's slipped my mind at points that I've actually spent any large sum. I think I'll go ahead and name this ailment (as many of us here have it and just refuse to admit it) - "Elessheimers". This disease affects the nervous system, causing binge part buying, random daydreaming about mechanical objects, and selective memory loss when subjects think about swap costs.

 

thank you everyone with the help.

My buddy owns a shop and has the ls6 heads, ls6 intake and cam he is basically just giving me.. thats helping keep the costs down but lets see.. You guys are probably right and will go broke.

Wont be the first car I went broke on. This car completes my owning of every generation camaro and sure as **** built them all ***** to the wall

 

Man, THAT'S for sure!


Oh man, that's AWESOME!! I wish that I'd thought of that one!