Creatine
10-14-11, 04:00 PM
I have been searching around, but a lot of it is just based on opinions. I plan to do a v8 swap in my truck, and was wondering what the best setup for me would be.
This truck will become my Sunday driver hopefully for another 20 years in its life. I am not looking to make an 8 second car, with turbo power, NOS, or anything to crazy. But I wouldn't throw a turbo or bottle setup out of the question. I am not looking to dump 20g's into a motor or anything to crazy, just want something well built, good power, and something I can drive and have fun with.
I was thinking an LS(1) swap, with a t56. I would like to be in the range of 350, but would love to break 400HP. I really want manual in the truck, I enjoy driving stick, don't care about any benefits of auto or anything like that. I want a stick, and if I'm going to take the time and put in all the effort into the truck, I want to be happy with it.
I see a lot of posts and threads talking about LT1 swaps, or just getting a LS vortec and swapping that in instead. I would be more interested in grabbing a motor that has really low km (100k or 60K m) rather then tearing one apart and replacing everything (unless swapping in performance stuff). I want it to last a long time, at the end of the day. Ofcourse it all depends on how you drive it sometimes, but aside from maybe a year'y track run or two, it'll be going down back roads and highways.
I plan on maybe having a custom chassis built by a friend of mines dad (well experienced) and having the rear-end narrowed. Nothing to crazy, but was thinking of having a nice set of 325s or something in that ballpark to link up well with the front end power. I'm sure I could get away with much less, but I have a vision with the truck and that is what I want to see built as close to at the end of the day. BTW, custom chassis will not cost me a whole lot, mostly the steel at company pricing, and tons of of beer.
As far as rear end goes, I'm still up in the air as to what I want to put in it. TBH having a ford rear-end does not sit well with me, I like to keep things all GM.
My project budget will be around 8k but I could see funds going as high as 12k. It is my dream truck after all, only way to do things is make sure their done right the first time. I plan on starting this project as early as this winter, if not spring, so I'm looking to get my drive train lined up and start looking/buying parts.
What are your thoughts, thanks for the read.
This truck will become my Sunday driver hopefully for another 20 years in its life. I am not looking to make an 8 second car, with turbo power, NOS, or anything to crazy. But I wouldn't throw a turbo or bottle setup out of the question. I am not looking to dump 20g's into a motor or anything to crazy, just want something well built, good power, and something I can drive and have fun with.
I was thinking an LS(1) swap, with a t56. I would like to be in the range of 350, but would love to break 400HP. I really want manual in the truck, I enjoy driving stick, don't care about any benefits of auto or anything like that. I want a stick, and if I'm going to take the time and put in all the effort into the truck, I want to be happy with it.
I see a lot of posts and threads talking about LT1 swaps, or just getting a LS vortec and swapping that in instead. I would be more interested in grabbing a motor that has really low km (100k or 60K m) rather then tearing one apart and replacing everything (unless swapping in performance stuff). I want it to last a long time, at the end of the day. Ofcourse it all depends on how you drive it sometimes, but aside from maybe a year'y track run or two, it'll be going down back roads and highways.
I plan on maybe having a custom chassis built by a friend of mines dad (well experienced) and having the rear-end narrowed. Nothing to crazy, but was thinking of having a nice set of 325s or something in that ballpark to link up well with the front end power. I'm sure I could get away with much less, but I have a vision with the truck and that is what I want to see built as close to at the end of the day. BTW, custom chassis will not cost me a whole lot, mostly the steel at company pricing, and tons of of beer.
As far as rear end goes, I'm still up in the air as to what I want to put in it. TBH having a ford rear-end does not sit well with me, I like to keep things all GM.
My project budget will be around 8k but I could see funds going as high as 12k. It is my dream truck after all, only way to do things is make sure their done right the first time. I plan on starting this project as early as this winter, if not spring, so I'm looking to get my drive train lined up and start looking/buying parts.
What are your thoughts, thanks for the read.