Hey guys I got a question. So I'm looking to buy a camaro Iroc soon and and was thinking and doing a LS1 swap from a 2000-2002 ss/ws6. I wanted opinions on what you guys think about it?

 

LS swaps are very common because the LS1 is a great motor. Might want to shop around a little bit. Good LS1's are pricey. There is no reason to get a LS1 out of a SS or a Ws6 because they are the same LS1 that came in every Z28/TransAm. All HP gains claimed by the SS/WS6 are from exhaust and cold air intakes which will most likely not fit your car anyway. In fact even the corvette LS1 is not much of an upgrade except on paper. On paper the Vet LS1 is 345 HP with the only hardware difference being the cam. Those with F body that upgraded to the Vet Cam found very little difference. I have seen it refereed to as a waste of money. You can find a nice LQ9 6.0 for around the same price but it depends on what you want out of the car.

The LS1 is lighter the 6.0 has a higher stock HP and will respond to simple bolt on power better. Both have very well documented build paths. No matter what you want out of either engine you can probably find a tried and true combination that will get you there.


EDIT: There are some LS1 SS and WS6 that SLP did upgrade the motor on, these where special order that made up 1-2% of the SS\WS6, These cars a valuable and the engine would cost more then it would cost you more then it would cost to have a new better motor built.

 

Unless you have a donor car and can do all of the labour yourself, you'll need to have very deep pockets.

As in, go buy a Corvette instead if you have that kind of money.

 

Since he is not going into a completely computer controlled car he just needs the engine/trans/harness/PCM. LS1 swaps are very common and you can buy all the parts needed to install it into a 3rd gen. Good LS1 are getting hard to find but you can buy everything you need to swap in a 6.0 for about $2500 on the low end, course if you want fancy/rebuilt stuff you could spend 10k pretty easy.

 

if you hold out you can buy the whole car for the price of an engine an trans out of say 02 ss ,my bucket list for A 3rd gen is a BBC ,no matter how you look at it it will cost alot to do it when at the right time you can find an 02 ss for like 6k with 75k miles a few months back i seen a 2000 z28 54k was $5500.00 ,an the Engine trans combos with 139k are going to 5k an more , so the point is get the whole car for less ,there are also many builders are selling crate ls1 engines brand new ,honestly i dont know why the guys take the ls1 out of a perfectly good car ,but i understand to each there own ,like i am sure some wonder why i did a 406 carbed engine in my 95 ,that would work great for your car to for less money too ,more HP an much more tlbs then the stock ls1 too,with th350 you can get the 406 an trans for about 5k new remaned ,couse you have so much more space under the hood ,www. karlperformance.com an the simplicity of working on oldschool engine but built with new tech standards i am thinking about a572 bb or 540 427 with like 700hp in a 92 on back,but no matter your choise good luck

 

Keep in mind he wants a 3rd gen not a forth gen and he did not mention a budget. If you want to built a 3rd gen as a driver it is tuff to beat an LS drive line.

If I wanted to build a real nice 3rd gen automatic I would get the 2wd drive line from a 2500 Truck 2000 up. That would get you the 6.0 & 4l80e trans, My budget would dictate what I did to the motor but I would like to do pistons, Cam , headers and a LS3 intake. With a decent exhaust that should put out 500+ ponies, Shift kit the trans and mount up a 12 bolt rear with some 355s. IMO this would be a awesome car when done and could be done under 6k assuming you already had a body that didn't need anything. This would be a super dependable setup and it would get 20 ish MPG as long as you keep your foot out of it.

 

i think your right about the engine choise if he wants used ,i am slowly seeing the lq4 rise alot on ebay from like 500,to 1500 for high miles engine but i am sure a deal can be found there ,but i would imagine the right used truck with a good motor an trans may work out, i imagine there are different salvage yards that will have some deals on the 6.0l,its like this grill on the caddy i need is 200.00 on ebay ,but i found one out of a texas salvage yard shipped for $65.00 same color too supply is there ,word is traveling fast about the engines an there durability,you tube videos he should check out the videos there 6.0L,one thing is for sure that there are just a ton of them out there from many different cars trucks an suvs ,so the supply is there still keeping the price down in places for the lxs engines for sure for now