1999 v6 camaro wanting to upgrade to v8, ideas?
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Eastern PA,
Posts: 10,353
IMO you have 3 options.
1.)Convert the car to old school small block. You will invest twice what the what the finished car is worth. On your 99 just about everything is controlled by the body control module. Once you get rid of the PCM nothing will work and it will all need rewired, all gages will need replaces, power windows, lock, AC everything will need rewired.
https://camaroforums.com/forum/93-02...0-406-a-77465/
You can piece together a conversion kit. Keep in mind he spent 4K not including the price or the engine and transmission.
https://camaroforums.com/forum/93-02...v8-swap-78734/
The cheapest way would be to find a wrecked LS1 car and just switch the parts over. The only problem with that is a complete wrecked LS1 only sells for slightly less then a non wrecked one. There are people buying running and driving LS1 cars taking the engines/trans and parting out the rest because there are not enough wrecked ones around.
Socom got lucky and found a donor. Make sure you read the details.
https://camaroforums.com/forum/93-02...-thread-79265/
I have been a regular on this site for almost 10 years. 95% of the options one project that are started are never finish. Sure they may get the motor in and get it started maybe even get the car to move, but when faced with rewiring the entire car they just give up and the whole mess is sold off for parts. Keep in mind the option one project I linked was an older model without a body control model so he had about a 1/3 of the wiring you would have.
The budget friendly way to get into a V8 Camaro is to wait till a LS1 comes up with a blown motor. These are not what people are chasing. Then get a junk yard 6.0 or a newer 5.3 and drop that. You could be down the road for less then 3k and 1/10 the work of the conversion. You upgrade the cam on a decent 6.0 you could be close to 450 hp in a car that you can daily drive all day long if it tuned right.
1.)Convert the car to old school small block. You will invest twice what the what the finished car is worth. On your 99 just about everything is controlled by the body control module. Once you get rid of the PCM nothing will work and it will all need rewired, all gages will need replaces, power windows, lock, AC everything will need rewired.
https://camaroforums.com/forum/93-02...0-406-a-77465/
You can piece together a conversion kit. Keep in mind he spent 4K not including the price or the engine and transmission.
https://camaroforums.com/forum/93-02...v8-swap-78734/
The cheapest way would be to find a wrecked LS1 car and just switch the parts over. The only problem with that is a complete wrecked LS1 only sells for slightly less then a non wrecked one. There are people buying running and driving LS1 cars taking the engines/trans and parting out the rest because there are not enough wrecked ones around.
Socom got lucky and found a donor. Make sure you read the details.
https://camaroforums.com/forum/93-02...-thread-79265/
I have been a regular on this site for almost 10 years. 95% of the options one project that are started are never finish. Sure they may get the motor in and get it started maybe even get the car to move, but when faced with rewiring the entire car they just give up and the whole mess is sold off for parts. Keep in mind the option one project I linked was an older model without a body control model so he had about a 1/3 of the wiring you would have.
The budget friendly way to get into a V8 Camaro is to wait till a LS1 comes up with a blown motor. These are not what people are chasing. Then get a junk yard 6.0 or a newer 5.3 and drop that. You could be down the road for less then 3k and 1/10 the work of the conversion. You upgrade the cam on a decent 6.0 you could be close to 450 hp in a car that you can daily drive all day long if it tuned right.
Last edited by Gorn; 06-19-2018 at 10:35 PM.
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