Are "Mod-Motor Swaps" The new TREND

Reply #60 – January 24, 2007, 12:23:28 PM

There was a guy on this forum that had a 500CI caddy engine in a Turbo Coupe. Cad-T-Bird was his user name IIRC

Are "Mod-Motor Swaps" The new TREND

Reply #61 – January 24, 2007, 12:30:20 PM

ls2,magnuson charger,slp headers,exaust,hot-cam in a gto has to be worth 10's in the quarter. I seen a stock 06 GTO go 11.20's on nitto555's,and a 150shot,and some linglifelter(typo) bolton's. I also am a GM mechanic,worked on many gto's. They are very easy to work on.But the ls7 is a beast of its own. It has special everything in it to make 505hp,lightweight crank,rods,pistons,more stroke shorter piston skirts,drysump oiling system,ect. You almost have to be trained to change the oil. But anyway this subject got way off course. Remember foxtbirdcougarforums.com, not ls1tech.com!!!

Are "Mod-Motor Swaps" The new TREND

Reply #62 – January 24, 2007, 03:28:02 PM

A bunch of members of ls2gto.com got together and stuffed a LS7 crate motor into a 05 GTO. It went 11.45 first pass. Now they're busy welding rollcage

They already have the GM Hot Cam to bump it up to 632HP. I'm still amazed at how fast they went for how stock the car is (100% bone stock except the LS7 and the DR's on stock wheels, even has a paper air filter).

Are "Mod-Motor Swaps" The new TREND

Reply #63 – January 24, 2007, 04:05:31 PM

K...if the g match is over...

Before I even owned the convertible I had big plans for it. At the time (1993-94) it was to drop in the Mark VIII DOHC 4.6 engine. And you know, it was so easy to say that when a) I didn't even own the car yet and b) I was totally ignorant as to the wiring situation for the proposed engine. So I get the car and...well...I just happened to have a 5.0 built up, sitting on the stand doing nothing. That was a no-brainer swap.

In my case, with such a heavy car, I need about every lb-ft of torque I can get. Since OHC engines generally make less torque than OHV engines, that was one bullet I dodged with the 5.0. Plus this car is a show/cruising car, never meant for the strip or anything. Why do I need to scream at 7 grand? It was a nice swap to dream about...but the reality is that it would never be a practical thing for a convertible like mine. Now other peoples' coupes, with a solid roof and good structural reinforcement, those make better candidates.

The biggest hurdles that I see for any OHC motor swap into a Fox car are the electronics and the physical size. And that's just the swap part. If you get it to fit, and then figure out all the wiring, you STILL have to contend with the expense of things going wrong somewhere down the line because the tolerances are so much tighter. There is no room for mistakes. Plus you have things like the earlier 4.6's with the oil blow-by issue, which is funny because you think they'd have learned from the SO 5.0's about that. And the best part: reading about the engine on the Internet. As shown here, be prepared for LOTS of opinions (ex: this year is better than that year). Who's right and who's wrong? Flip a coin.

And then there's the cost. As Mike has pointed out, there's little aftermarket support. But Ford's modular motors are freakin' expensive to begin with. And then there's the transmission which also has to be upgraded, which will also more than likely result in a new driveshaft. It's not just a motor swap...it's a driveline swap. So, figure engine, harness, computer, related sensors, transmission, possibly another harness for that, new driveshaft. If you upgrade cams, dig deep. If you tweak the computer, dig deeper. With the modular motors there is no such thing as a "good deal". You either get screwed, or royally screwed. It all depends on how much money you're willing to throw at it.

I love the novelty of it. That's what this car hobby thing is all about. And I will be the last person to say, "This can't be done." It can, and it's been done before (the DOHC Cobra motor in a dark green '88 T-Bird Pro Street comes to mind...I've seen it). But in every single case it cost WAY more than a comparable 5.0 swap, it took months to wire, and even more time to work out the bugs. In other words it's not a weekend deal. It's a wintertime deal, if you're lucky.

But if you have the time, the wads of cash laying around, the resources and the willingness to do it, that's just way cool. That's the kind of ingenuity I like to see with these cars. Or any cars in general.

Are "Mod-Motor Swaps" The new TREND

Reply #64 – January 24, 2007, 04:24:18 PM

Nice post Eric :thumbs: