LS1 Conversion, A Retrospective Build Thread Options

[andys]

Here's the start of a retrospective build thread of my LS1 conversion. It took a few years to get it done mostly due to not wanting to be a slave to the project, and work on it for the enjoyment; and of course when family obligations allowed......teen daughter and high maintenance wife (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

What I started with was a local orignal owner '75 2.0 with 139K miles. The original owner "drove the heck out of it" until something died in the electrical system and he parked it in the garage for 14 years, as evidenced by the renewal tags. Only body damage was when he submarined the rear of a Mustang and creased the hood and flattened the left signal light pod. Otherwise, it was a good condition rust free (SoCal) car.

Brief specs are: '01 LS1 Z28 motor, Audi 01E 6 speed tranaxle, 911 front suspension, custom made rear trailing arms, Koni shocks, 993 wheels, and AC.

Below, are photos of what I started with, and what I ended-up with. I'll do my best to re-trace the build process, so if you have any questions along the way, please ask.

BTW, how does one place text between photos in the same post?

Andys

[914GT]

Andys

I've been following your build thread for awhile now, and just wanted to say yours is one of the sweetest looking and well thought out conversions I've ever seen. I've done two V8 conversions so far and it's great seeing all the thought and planning you've put into this. The details such as the heat shields is some good engineering work and basically you are designing out a lot of bugs before they ever happen. I'm sure once you get it on the road you'll be chasing a few more, as with any project as complex as this. But I bet they will be minor tweaks if anything. Hope you enjoy driving yours as much as I do mine. For sure yours will show how these conversions ought to be done, instead of the shoddy builds that have given them a bad reputation.
Guy

[andys]

Andys

I've been following your build thread for awhile now, and just wanted to say yours is one of the sweetest looking and well thought out conversions I've ever seen. I've done two V8 conversions so far and it's great seeing all the thought and planning you've put into this. The details such as the heat shields is some good engineering work and basically you are designing out a lot of bugs before they ever happen. I'm sure once you get it on the road you'll be chasing a few more, as with any project as complex as this. But I bet they will be minor tweaks if anything. Hope you enjoy driving yours as much as I do mine. For sure yours will show how these conversions ought to be done, instead of the shoddy builds that have given them a bad reputation.
Guy

Guy,

Thanks for the kind words; I appreciate it.

Racing taught me (old cliché here) "To finish first, you must first finish" so reliability and durability must be balanced with performance goals. I'm also a bit anal when it comes to mechanical stuff, so anticipating problems is something I pain over a great deal (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) I hope soon to take it out to The Streets of Willow for one of those HPDE's and use it as a testing session to dial in the suspension.

Anyway, thanks again,

Andys