Hello, my name is Lucas, and this is my 408 swap.

A little about myself first, before we get knee deep into this story. I am currently 20, I have finished school and work full-time. I have owned this car for about 2-3 years, first year fixing all the previous owner's hacked up job of the wiring harness/ making the car work reliably every turn of the key. The second year, mostly new 3 in single hooker exhaust, suspension upgrades, new tires and rims. The third year, currently now, is what this thread is going to be about.

What you will see in this thread, will be a let's say a "walk through" of my swap.

Well let's begin shall we...,


Sadly, the pictures beforehand when i had purchased the car, I cannot show until I figure out how to convert the files to the appropriate ones. For now, we will continue with where the car sits now. Sorry.

These images below, are our test fitting the LQ4 block with my Father's homemade jig. The car has been stripped completely with a few parts remaining. The underside was cleaned by me, using oven cleaner, a lot of green pads, and lots, lots of labor. What it looked like before was horrifying, imagine grease, dust, dirt, grime, undercoating everyone. Now it looks a hell a lot better =).

 

Some more pictures.

 

looking good so far, ill be watching this one closely. im thinking about a very similiar swap. good work bro!

 

Thank god you are doing this, such a rare swap and lack of info here! Lol

 

Looks great. Hope to see more pic soon. When do you think you'll finish it? Makes me wish I put in a LS engine in mine.

 

I know those Astro T5's well.They are only rated for 170lbs of torque.I remember a guy that converted onto W/C parts,had a boat load of money in it and still had issues.It was behind a 383.They don't hold up well just with normal driving.I do not recommend their use in any swap,because by the time you think you have cured all the problems,you have the same amount of money in them as you would getting a T56 and you don't have the advantage of the 6th gear.True enough the first gear in a T56 is more like a creeper gear and 6th gear might take you out of the power band,but overall they are more reliable.

 

Yikes I feel sorry for the t5 aswell lol.Hope you have a backup plan for that later on.The lq4 will have a good amount of torque that the trans will not want to see so your driving habits better be rather calm off the line.Anyways..good luck with the build and looks like you will take your time and do a fine swap.

 

I don't know if your sarcastic, please don't if you are, no need.

 

My Astro A-5 is able to handle 550 ft of torque, is it more then capable to handle the LQ4. I don't plan on dumping my clutch, or drag racing my car, if I were, I would have bought an automatic transmission.

 

Well, you did seem to register, this month, fresh as it gets. You post as if you will be creating info this site lacks, as if it is new to TGO. Sorry if it seems nearly insulting to TGO.

 

Just because I seem new, doesn't mean I may know nothing. I have browsed this site for 1-2 years, and didn't need to post any threads because I have found the info I needed. The reason I signed up now was my previous email was hacked (?), and if I requested a new password, I wouldn't be able to access it anyway.

Again, insulting to TGO, ?? really? Grow up.

 

In these following pictures, we changed our mounting position of the cords, so that the heads, headers and oil pan can be installed. To our amazement, everything fits perfectly, and Stainless Works headers fit like a dream. Good job Stainless Works.

 

I got 10 yrs in these Astros.There is no way a Astro T5 is going to hold that kind of torque.Modified or not.

In the same hand just because we just met,doesn't mean I don't know what I am doing either. You can either listen and LEARN or find out the hard way.

The advise is also based off numerous yrs advise from a tranny shop in the game for 40 yrs.

 

Now, you may wondering, modified true dual exhaust? Your going to run the duals underneath the car and dump before the axle, like other people. Nope, not exactly. The first picture, despite having my bell housing installed, imagine the frame rails pointing inward, will be cut and placed going straight to the back. The driver side floor pan will be cut, to accommodate a second 3in pipe. The rear hump in the back, will be cut and flattened, so that the mufflers will take it's place. After the mufflers, is still quite unsure, will be thought later.


To have all this work done, I asked my father to build me a rotisserie for the car, so all work needed will be much easier, especially for welding, cutting, cleaning and painting. See images below.

 

My Astro A-5 transmission came from Tony from Astro Performance. Unless your referring to another transmission, there might be a slight misunderstanding. Sorry.

 

Where is the ls3?

 

I will be purchasing a complete ls3 top end, ls3 water pump, and ls3 accessory drive kit from superchevyperformance. I didn't know what to call this engine, so I felt ls3 would be better suited, then Lsx?.

 

You call it a 6.0 liter with ls3 heads lol

 

Lol , the Lq4 is also being stroked to a 408, don't know if that makes a difference.

 

Can someone help me by changing my thread title to 408 swap, instead of ls3 swap? . It might mislead some people, please. Thanks.

 

Nope.If Tony is tell ya a T5 can hold 550lbs of torque.That is not correct.

Get some details an his T5 build and post it!!.

 

No need to get personal, its all in good fun. if anything Zone can be a big help to you seeing as he can do this swap with his eyes closed.

Looks like youve got a good jump on it, and I dont see any rust, Lucky. lol

Sub'd

 

I'll get in touch with him and get the build specs.

 

I'm all for people's opinion and help, but that wasn't necessary for zone to say it's insulting to TGO. Thanks, I didn't get any pictures yet, but my driver and passenger floor pan are badly rusted.

 

Yeah floor pans are usually the first to go, pretty common.

Between me and you man, if it were me I would sell the built T5 and get a low mile T56, Just because the big thing with the T5s isnt the internal gears but actually the case itself is the weak point. So basically you can build it as strong as you want but its just a ticking time bomb. But to each has their own, just giving my 0.02.

 

I said nearly. Just the way your first post comes in. Sorry if you are offended. Good luck with your build. You are not breaking any new grounds.

 

How's that title do you?

I don't understand the logic behind taking a 6 liter out to .030"-over. Rarely needed, given the light bore wear these engines experience. The extra cubes going .030"-over vs. .005"-over makes less difference power-wise than a 60 degree vs. 95 degree day. By only going .005"-over, you leave room for a future rebuild. But, there I go again...

I also see zero logic going with a T5. One that is modified/built-up to handle a claimed 550 ft-lb is still inferior to a T56, for probably more money than a T56 will cost you. I just don't see it. Especially with the torque a stroked 6 liter will make. But, it's your car, and your money, so have at it.

 

The double over drive and factory hydraulics alone make the 6 speed the way to go, much less making a t5 work. They are lighter. Only advantage.

 

Good luck with the build, will be a fun car when finished.

You can edit the title by going to post #1 of your thread, edit post , then go advanced, there you can edit the title.

 

Thanks Gbayfisher, helped a lot. I made some changes to clarify some things, that may have been misinterpreted. Hopefully, thus, this should go smoother, since some things may have went in a wrong direction.

 

I've been on a number of forums for yrs Lucas.What I have seen is guys come on these boards seeking advise and when they don't get the answers they want,attack the people giving that advise.
This forum is well known in the world wide web mainly because of the advise given for the most part is most professional you will find anywhere.In terms of me,I am not getting anything for the advise other at a retirement age the thought of paying back to those guys who have helped me along the way.But I am not obligated to post to any forum.

Lucas,you have seen a number of guys tell you it is a bad idea to use the T5 for your project.That generally means that advise is spot dead on the money right.When you see 57 give advise,it is the most reliable reasonable cornerstone of this forum advise you can find.His knowledge extends into the LSx engines,first gen engines and well beyond just the Thirdgen cars.

So as you go through your project,you might get poked about what you say what you want to do,but do listen to these guys.

 

I would have to agree the engine swap is a common upgrade. That aside, I would like to see the 3" true dual exhaust. This I have not seen too many done without sacrificing ground clearance. I hope you can provide detailed pics / info when you're on this part of your project. As there dosen't seem to be many kits we can buy without taking a second motgage. Nice rotisserie, I can only imagine the ease not to mention the cool pics to come.
Don't let people discourage you, we all have learned best from our own mistakes.
Cheers