Background - Blown motor, second time in as many years, less than 10 hours on this engine. The last engine was a quality build, cannot point to the cause yet pending final disassembly. Long story short, two failures, two fires. The last failure caused me to spin off track at Madness, Mid Ohio. I was off track on the right, pointing uphill. The single flagger at that station did not wave the yellow for quite a while and I was hit by a 993 pretty hard bending both trumpets and damaging all front panels in front of the doors.

After some hard thought for a short time I decided to go the LS route. I know there is some interest here so I wanted to do build thread for the forum.

I started the disassembly as soon as I got home from the track. Engine, front suspension, front body panels were removed. The chassis went off to the fabricator to repair the damage to the trumpets. That repair was successful, returning all mounting points to factory specs.

Yesterday, I started the process of removing all unnecessary brackets, studs, sound deadening that will not be necessary for the LS build. I used a commercial bright white paint that is used for aircraft. It uses a catalyst for a chemical set.

I spent a lot of time reading the LS threads, talking to a number of Rennlist LS guys who have been and will continue to be indispensable for this project. Thanks!

 

Damn Jim... Body in white is right... You are lucky to have Mitch as your metal guru.

Good luck with the build & hopefully the LS will be much less destructible for the Disasterman!

 

sweet start!

 

subscribing

 

damn thats pretty already...will be following this.

 

Sexy start. I see a few brackets have been removed.. Like the Power steering reservoir.

 

Still be interested why the 2nd motor failed.

 

Sorry to hear about your 2nd engine but good luck on the replacement.

Out of curiosity, did you consider seam welding the front before painting?

 

I did consider seam welding but don't have the time right now. We are planning on tying in the strut towers to the cage this winter.

The car is stone gray.

The fabricator, Mitch Marchi removed the hood latch support and center brace between the trumpets to straighten them. I cut off all of the unnecessary brackets and filled them just to make it pretty. As Nick knows I am very detail oriented. My goal has always been to keep what I need and make it as simple as possible to work on. Extra wires and "stuff" is distracting on a race car. This winter I will give the interior the same treatment.

I checked the paint this morning and it's hard as a rock.

When I pull the bottom of the blown motor apart I will post that too.

I have most of the parts (including the LS6) for the swap and will add those photos tonight.

Build will include; LS6, MEFI ECU with custom harness and MEFI BURN software, AIM dash and Smarty cam, Tilton three pedal setup w/dual master cylinders, carbon fiber dash and removal of all unnecessary wiring. We are still working out the details on the brakes but I have some help from some Grand Am guys.

 

Sounds like we are going to have close to identical cars! IQ3 Dash. Tilton 2 pedal overhung, LS motor. All good stuff. There are going to be some Really fast 944's representing. I completely agree on the the "if it's not needed, get rid of it" neccessary in my opinion.

 

Some parts have arrived.

LS6 crate long block
Oil pan
headers
radiator/fan

 

2 times in two years wow man that would suck! Just think you could have just put the cash in a barrel lit it on fire and had the same result!

Glad your not burnt out on the car and good luck with the new setup!

 

Woo Hoo!.. the fun begins. Are you putting it in yourself or having it done? Where are you going to get all the accessories from? like the coils, intake, fuel rails, accessories, etc?

 

Wow Renegade still selling dual pass radiators and headers with three bolt collector flanges instead of V-bands I thought they would have learned by now.

 

What's the problem with the radiator? I am in a time crunch and Texas Perforamnce was several weeks out.