What's the best ls model for an engine swap?

cammerfe said:
To go back to the original title question, one of the first gen cars would be best since the 2nd gen cars are set up for 'drive-by-wire'. It's much easier to extend a mechanical throttle cable than to fool with trying to get the electronic version to work with 'foreign' throttle bodies.
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I would agree that would probably be the best bet, plus if you were doing a manual trans as part of your drive-train swap a 1st gen manual would also already have the correct pedal config so that one less that to deal with down the road!

then again, if you were going to use a motor from a donor that was already a TBW with an auto trans car, then it probably would matter so much, as your probably better off just using the pedal module from the donor car.
 
Thank you for your your input everyone. I've started my hunt for the right ls for my project. I'm thinking a gen 1 manual is best as i already have the t56 magnum in mind for the trans, still not sure on the engine until I get my project car and get all measurements needed. I highly doubt i will ever get all the electronics working. But my goal is a bit more simple. To take a luxury daily driver car and transform it into a weekend sports car. Yes doing this will downgrade the luxury of the car. But to me there isn't many other options. I looked at newer mustangs, gtos, camaros, cts v, corvettes, and chargers, no offense but they all scream d bag to me. The problem i have with buying a newer sports car is that its a sports car. From a mile away you can tell its a sports car. Every car has its own statement it makes. I prefer the statement an ls makes.
 
I can sure respect that. each spring i go over and over what I would rather do as I'm growing bored and tried of the LS. I really want to just buy a 13 or newer pony but then again, I really dont want to spend that much money when for less than half of that I could go ahead with a LS2 swap and kiss the luxury stuff good bye!
 
Too bad your in Michigan, there are several cheap 5spd LS's on craigslist here in Houston. Heck I might buy another just for a project car. Good Luck!
 
actually, that was kinda along my train of through... lol

I've got a buddy that goes down to San Antonio for work and he has brought a few trucks up this way because everything we have around here tends to be pretty rust heavy.
 
Excellent reply, Telco.

KS

To OP---

When you get to the point of getting the bell-housing together, if you go with an AJ engine, I have a pattern for the back of the block. You'll need to go to an aftermarket 'scatter-shield' and your best bet is to get one that hasn't been drilled and put fastener holes in to replicate the engine pattern.
 
Quick update, i searched and searched and searched for gen 1 manual ls and..... Noticed they are hard to come by, found 14 currently for sale across the states with interesting price tags and in questionable condition. With that said, I'm currently trying to source the pedal assembly as well as a shifter boot. The hydraulic clutch assembly isnt 100% needed but would lower the build cost. I've been contacting salvage yards all over, if anyone knows anyone who has these parts for sale or any advice on acquiring them please let me know as those items will be my starting point. Thank you
 
Insanityme said:
Quick update, i searched and searched and searched for gen 1 manual ls and..... Noticed they are hard to come by, found 14 currently for sale across the states with interesting price tags and in questionable condition. With that said, I'm currently trying to source the pedal assembly as well as a shifter boot. The hydraulic clutch assembly isnt 100% needed but would lower the build cost. I've been contacting salvage yards all over, if anyone knows anyone who has these parts for sale or any advice on acquiring them please let me know as those items will be my starting point. Thank you
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If you get a car with an auto you can convert to a stick. The mounting points should be on the firewall where the pedals attach. In fact, it would make more sense for Ford to make both the two pedal and three pedal firewall mounts identical on the firewall side. I also wouldn't be surprised to find out that the pedal assembly for the low model run LS manuals would be the same as other stick cars like the Mustang. If not, it shouldn't be too hard for someone contemplating this swap to modify a set of very common Mustang pedals to install.

Any car that comes with a manual as an option usually has the stamps in the sheet metal where the hole for the stick needs to be cut out. That being said, I think that you'd be better off not having a car with the hole pre-cut since you aren't using the trans that came in the LS. This way you can cut the hole exactly where you need it rather than risk having to cut the existing hole wider, then having to weld sheet metal to cover. This, of course, will also mean a custom center console of some sort unless the trans you are using happens to have the stick in the same place as the LS trans.
 
The pedal assemblies are similar but not the same, I'd rather not modify more than what I have to on this build. Would like to use as many bolt on parts as I can.
 
There seems to be allot of negativity on here in regards to an engine swap. So i feel the need to clear the air sort of speak. Many people feel its foolish to dump in roughly 5x the cost of a car to do a swap. And get that. 10-15k is allot. But for some reason it doesn't seem foolish to buy a car new off the lot or a few years after it left the lot and watch the value of the car drop 20k+? I'm not sure. Maybe that's where the negativity comes from. Either way, as of right now I'm just trying to locate the petal assembly and the shifter boot. If anyone interested in selling those parts or know where I could locate em. Let me know
 
The negativity also comes from the stupidly difficult work required to mate all of the electronics up to get all of the systems working.
 
I'm all for swaps. I've done several my self, but never in a LS. I've already started looking into the electronics of an ls to see what it would take and how to over come some of the issues. I have the stuff necessary to read the various can bus signals and program ford modules. After I sell my LSx power wrangler I'm going to start looking for a gen 1 for a swap.
 
sid said:
I'm all for swaps. I've done several my self, but never in a LS. I've already started looking into the electronics of an ls to see what it would take and how to over come some of the issues. I have the stuff necessary to read the various can bus signals and program ford modules. After I sell my LSx power wrangler I'm going to start looking for a gen 1 for a swap.
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might as well just keep your eyes open for the LSX (the name given to a LS1 swapped LS). it tends to get resold quite a lot and moved around from owner to owner, that way, you have the main part done, then you can just focus your efforts into getting other things like the heat to work right (or at least a little more than 100% on or 100% off)
 
Idk. Sometimes it's more of a headache fixing someone else's project than it is to start from scratch. Not saying the LSx LS would be a headache or was done wrong by any means. I just prefer to know exactly what has be done to a project. That why I do my own.


So far I've did the following swaps
400sbc/th350 in a '88 Chrysler Conquest
302ho efi/T5 in a '87 Conquest
350sbc/th350 in a '84 Nissan 200sxse
5.3 flex fuel/4L60e in a '94 Wrangler
4.6 efi/t45 in '90 mustang

They all had their challenges, none were as electrically involved as an LS.
 
Insanityme said:
There seems to be allot of negativity on here in regards to an engine swap. So i feel the need to clear the air sort of speak. Many people feel its foolish to dump in roughly 5x the cost of a car to do a swap. And get that. 10-15k is allot. But for some reason it doesn't seem foolish to buy a car new off the lot or a few years after it left the lot and watch the value of the car drop 20k+? I'm not sure. Maybe that's where the negativity comes from. Either way, as of right now I'm just trying to locate the petal assembly and the shifter boot. If anyone interested in selling those parts or know where I could locate em. Let me know
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LSFrank said:
The negativity also comes from the stupidly difficult work required to mate all of the electronics up to get all of the systems working.
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And the fact that at the end of the day simple replacement parts aren't available and must somehow be fabricated. The price of having an orphan car where only around 290,000 were built. Heck, the '06 run was less than half a model year!!!

You wouldn't believe the trouble the body shop had trying to find a couple of doors for my wife's LS.
 
sid said:
Idk. Sometimes it's more of a headache fixing someone else's project than it is to start from scratch. Not saying the LSx LS would be a headache or was done wrong by any means. I just prefer to know exactly what has be done to a project. That why I do my own.


So far I've did the following swaps
400sbc/th350 in a '88 Chrysler Conquest
302ho efi/T5 in a '87 Conquest
350sbc/th350 in a '84 Nissan 200sxse
5.3 flex fuel/4L60e in a '94 Wrangler
4.6 efi/t45 in '90 mustang

They all had their challenges, none were as electrically involved as an LS.
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EXACTLY!!!! And there's the rub.....
 
LS4me said:
And the fact that at the end of the day simple replacement parts aren't available and must somehow be fabricated. The price of having an orphan car where only around 290,000 were built. Heck, the '06 run was less than half a model year!!!

You wouldn't believe the trouble the body shop had trying to find a couple of doors for my wife's LS.
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Several years ago I got sideswiped and needed both passenger doors for my '02. I called around for several days before I saw a CL ad for a complete set of doors from an '06. I had to drive about ten miles to pick them up and pay the asking price---$100.00. I wish my luck always ran that good!!!

KS
 
Insanityme said:
There seems to be allot of negativity on here in regards to an engine swap. So i feel the need to clear the air sort of speak. Many people feel its foolish to dump in roughly 5x the cost of a car to do a swap. And get that. 10-15k is allot. But for some reason it doesn't seem foolish to buy a car new off the lot or a few years after it left the lot and watch the value of the car drop 20k+? I'm not sure. Maybe that's where the negativity comes from. Either way, as of right now I'm just trying to locate the petal assembly and the shifter boot. If anyone interested in selling those parts or know where I could locate em. Let me know
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No negativity from me on this. In my opinion, if you can pull it off you'd be making the LS what it should have been all along. If you want to do it, by all means do it. I, at least, will try and present problems you will face and point you at possible solutions but would never tell you to not bother. I assume that anyone contemplating it has the knowledge, expertise and money to pull it off.

One of the problems you will have though, is there really is no aftermarket support for these cars. I don't even think you can buy a set of headers for these cars and that's one of the top three most commonly available aftermarket parts you'll find for a new car, those three being air intake, headers and wheels. When something comes out it's a race between the header manufacturers and the air intake manufacturers as to who is first to market. Beyond Eibach shocks and maybe an air intake I don't think there are any actual aftermarket parts that are bolt-on for the LS and really I'm going to bet that the only reason Eibach makes lowering shocks is because either someone high up at Eibach has one and wanted them or someone here worked with them to get some made. This car WILL require more fabrication work than most to make this swap work because you both have to make a lot of the parts yourself and there's just not a lot of room under the hood.

On the pedal assembly, they really didn't make that many stick shift LSs, and the car has been out of production for 10 years. You may have a stroke of luck and find a manual pedal assembly somewhere, but you'll probably be better off building an adapter to use Mustang pedals. The driver side foot area on the Mustang is either smaller or the same size as the LS (depending on Mustang model year) so the pedal assembly will fit an adapter under there better, and an adapter means that if you have pedal problems in the future that you'll be able to get one of the hundreds of thousands of other Mustang pedal assemblies and just bolt it in instead of having to get another one then remember how you modified it to fit.
 
A Camaro LS3 with 6 speed trans does fit nicely in a Jaguar S-type, Why not a LS? Same basic engine compartment. These days, I'd put in an LSA if I had it to do over again.
(Of course I still have the issue of Jaguar/Ford/GM/Camaro electrical. If I ever get settled in my new house that I am remodeling, I will tackle the rest of the car rewire job I started several years ago.)

IMG_0484.jpg
 
i do like the gm ls series dimensions, power output and cost. also like the 2jz motor for the same reasons. unfortunately im a bit of a purest. the LS being a mix of ford and jaguar narrows my drive train options to just those two. unfortunately sourcing parts for the build is a bit of a challenge in its self. after hours and hours just looking for those petals for sale. i gave up, well kinda, i opted to pay a company to find a few of the harder to find parts needed for a small fee. obviously this is only a very small portion of the build process and i dont mind outsourcing it.
 
I think one of my engine choices for a swap would be a 4.6 dohc out a '03-'05 lincoln aviator. All aluminum and plenty of aftermarket support. Need to look at how deep the SCT proRacer software (SCT pn 4332 for the LS per SCT website) can dig into the factory pcm of the LS. I was waiting to talk to tech support to ask them, but they quit answering calls at 5pm est. I was #10 in line. I'll call tomorrow.
 
sid said:
Op,

I've had pretty good success finding parts using www.car-part.com Might give them a shot in the clutch pedal.
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I found a few on there, but unfortunately every place that claimed to have one mislabeled the trans as manual since the auto has that select shift feature. And the search term is clutch/brake pedal assembly The two places i called didnt even know some did actually have a real manual trans. And I'm currently running into the same situation with vendors associated with the company That is helping me find parts. The whole auto with select shift has really confused people to say the least.
 
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