Howdy,
On Mon, 22 Dec 2008, Paul Mele wrote:
> Thanks for the thoughts. I'm not married to the SBC, but the cost of
> the LS1 may be too much. again, my plan is to buy a (crashed/ugly) donor
> car...if it only comes in a 'vette, I don't think it will be
> cost-effective.
>
> what cars would have the suitable engine(s).
I'm no particular expert, so take all this with a good dose of "reserch
will be required if you actually want to do it"..
You can get LS1's (3rd gen small block) out of lots of stuff I think, but
the common candidates would be camaros/firebirds & corvettes.
The corvette would need to be a '97+ car, and would have a rear transaxle
& torque tube setup rather than a conventional transmission. The
camaro/firebird would need to be a '98+ and would have a T56 six speed
conventional trans.
I would think wrecked/junker '98+ camaro/firebirds wouldn't be all that
horribly expensive.
Another option would be the LT1, or 2nd gen small block. Again,
camaros/firebirds would probably be a good donor choice, from '94 to '97
IIRC. LT1s are iron head motors, and weigh a little more than the ls1.
They also use a t56 six speed trans, but there are mounting differences I
believe.
The same basic engine architecture was used in trucks of the times as
well. I'm pretty darned fuzzy on this, but I know some of the common
upgrades folks make for drag motors for camaro/firebirds are to use the
iron block versions of the ls1 from the trucks. If you weren't super
concerned about weight, my bet is that a truck motor route might save you
a little money if you knew what you were doing.
Aftermarket support for all this is pretty good I believe... Seems like
everyone and their brother puts ls1's into anything they'll fit in. My
guess is that some searching on the web would find you some examples for
various cars, though perhaps not that Jag.
If you want to keep it "in the family" (sorta) I've got a complete '89 (??
I think) Ford 302 HO out of a Mustang GT that I've been tripping on that
I'd sell you for $250... Ran fine when we pulled it in 2002. You'd need
a trans & bellhousing (t5) but otherwise I think you'd be ready to go. If
you're not near me (Youngstown, OH), then its probably more hassle than
its worth though.
Mark
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