I have a bone stock L98 350 Z28 that I'm going to do a head can intake swap on till I can do an LS swap. I'm looking at either Dart 180 or 200cc heads with Tips ZZ409 Can. It has a .520 lift. Will this have sufficient piston valve clearance to run with 2.02 valves. Thanks for the info..

 

Yes it should, thats not alot of duration and lift to be worried about. Try running around .028" gasket or so if possible to keep quench height up. What intake manifold? Either heads will work ok but which model? Pro 1? Shp? Irons?

 

Honestly, If you want to do an LSX swap, save up and do it. I would not waste time upgrading to just upgrade in the future.

 

Took the words right outta my mouth.

Or.........get the LSX idea out of your head, build a stout Gen 1 motor, and save yourself hundreds of headaches and thousands of dollars.

 

I will challenge you on that one. Doing the swap is not that hard, but it does take a lot of research, patiences and time. My brother did the swap in his car. Bought the motor mounts, long tubes and a/c lines because he wanted a/c. Notched the k member for the a/c compressor and went from there. It was very easy to get the motor in the car. The hardest part was the harness. I did his harness(which was very involved. I have about 80 hours in it as there was a lot of careful planning) and it fits as if it were stock. Uses all the stock fuses and relays, and did not add any additional fuse boxes. PCM fits under the dash and wires routed factory route. Fuel was also easy, used all the stock hard lines then got an external AFPR hooked it up and ran a single braided line to the rail. It took from just after Christmas to April to be a completed project. Runs great for being stock with a tune and exhaust.

I do not want this to get into a pissing match over SBC or LSX for the OP. I like both and have both. SBC can make good power and LSX can make good power, its all about how you do it and what parts you throw at it. At this level of the game, you cannot compare stock for stock.

Dynodave - its your car and your preference. But the best advice I can give you, is save up and do what you want the first time. As I stated above, plan the swap out as there is a ton of little things that you can run into if you don't. You can make good power, reliability and drivability either way.
I will tell you, if you do the swap, its all about how much you can get the LSX/T56/4L60E, harness/pcm combo for. I bet the swap without that is roughly $1500 in parts, with the ticket items being exhaust, tune, mounts.

 

Not a pissing match at all over what is the best motor by itself. The LSx clearly wins that one.
Your laundry list just reinforces my belief that it's best for 90% of people to stick with the platform that came with the car.
HP per dollar, the Gen1 will win. For the "wow" factor, LSx.

 

Didn't mean to direct that comment to you, meant it in general and I agree with what you said above.

 

Every dime you spend on that TPI, delays by one dime, the acquisition of what you say your REAL goal is.

If you really want to do a LSx swap, do a LSx swap. Don't waste money, time, effort, and motivation on a left turn down a dead-end road.

 

To be honest, I haven't made my mind up which way to go. I may go 383 SBC and not look back, but part of me wants to do an LS swap... I'll have to think about it more.