Photo Blog: LS9 Engine Swap (6.2 liter OHV Chevy V8, supercharged, 638+ BHP)

quote:

Originally posted by webbers:
Why put a chevy engine in a Pantera?? Just because you can Is unexceptable. The 351c is more cost effective since you already have one. Easier to upgrade the motor with fuel injection, different heads etc. The cheapest bang for the buck is a stroked 302 or 351w. Lite weight too. But, of course If you can afford it, you could put any motor in. Just saying.

The 351C was not more cost effective. If you had followed all of our projects beforehand you would know that about 3 years ago, our 351C block was unusable, and it was going to cost over $3,000 to get it fixed. Instead of waste our money on fixing up a motor that is over 4 decades old, we ended up selling all of our usable parts from it, made a good chunk of change, and put it towards an LS3. Then, once that didn't have enough power for us, we decided to swap it with an LS9. Why? Because the LS9 is just about the best small block V8 ever made and it is freakin' cool.

Why put money into an engine that is over 40 years old? Our car will be just as reliable as a brand new vehicle with more power than a 351C can reliably push. Tell me the next time you can drive from California to New York and back pushing over 700HP out of a 351C.

It's not so much as finding the cheapest solution, but more about finding a solution that makes sense for us and the LS9 fits every single need we had. Was it expensive? Yeah a little bit. But compare that to a comparable Ford engine (Ford GT motor: over $30k) and it is relatively cheap.

quote:

Originally posted by webbers:
My Apologies too. I find a lot of Panteras have different engines in them. Even a 426 Hemi. LS is a good motor.

Agreed. To each their own.

Over the past few weekends we have made quite a bit more progress.

Last weekend we were able to cut the firewall opening a bit wider so the front drive would fit a little bit easier and we got the engine and bellhousing test fit and it fit great!

This weekend we got the LS9 and ZF in the car. Over the next week we will need to fabricate new ZF mounts to push it back about an inch so we can assemble the front drive on the motor.

Progress has been a little slow as a lot of our time has been working on our new product that we will be announcing in the coming weeks. It is surely going to improve the way the Pantera drives for ALL Pantera owners. (Sorry, I had to plug the new product in here. We are really excited about it! )

More progress is coming soon, that's for sure! Check out our newest blog post on the site with more pictures! 3-16-14 Updates

Chris are the exhaust manifolds that came with the engine something other than cast iron? Too shiny in the picture to be rough cast iron?

Looks like they would want to exit right on the Pantera chassis member and engine mount?

Nice compact package (except for the blower drive).

can you put the manifolds on upside down so that you could run the exhaust through the engine bay?

quote:

Chris are the exhaust manifolds that came with the engine something other than cast iron? Too shiny in the picture to be rough cast iron?

Looks like they would want to exit right on the Pantera chassis member and engine mount?

They are Stainless Steel. If I used them they would need a quick 90 degree turn. I haven't even test fit them with the engine in so I don't really even know if they would fit at this point.

They are beautiful units but I am really leaning towards 180's...

Scott

Hey! Is that a cable shifter I see bolted to your ZF?

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Hey! Is that a cable shifter I see bolted to your ZF?

shhhh...... you were not supposed to see that. You might have just given away a clue to our next product...

Nice Project.

shhhh...... you were not supposed to see that. You might have just given away a clue to our next product...

LMAO

quote:

Originally posted by ZR1 Pantera:

quote:

Chris are the exhaust manifolds that came with the engine something other than cast iron? Too shiny in the picture to be rough cast iron?

Looks like they would want to exit right on the Pantera chassis member and engine mount?

They are Stainless Steel. If I used them they would need a quick 90 degree turn. I haven't even test fit them with the engine in so I don't really even know if they would fit at this point.

They are beautiful units but I am really leaning towards 180's...

Scott

They are nice but shorties really don't do much for you anyway.

They do reduce restriction some but don't offer any scavenging effect.

Maybe a blower engine doesn't care that much?

If you went this far, stepped tube 180's would probably be worth the effort, at least for show.
Won't the other LS headers you had before fit this engine?

I've noticed a lot of the SC engines (of all makes) with short exhausts still blow out some flames when you step off of the throttle.

I got lectured by a local cop that my entire car was illegal. He wanted to know where all of the emission equipment was?

When he found out all I was required to have was a PCV and evaporative controls AND they were there, he was speechless and walked away in a grumph!

I love doing that but I know he is out there lurking with the DB meter somewhere waiting to pull me over and do a curbside test on the exhausts. You just never know when trouble will appear out of nowhere?

quote:

Originally posted by PanteraDoug:

I got lectured by a local cop that my entire car was illegal. He wanted to know where all of the emission equipment was?

When he found out all I was required to have was a PCV and evaporative controls AND they were there, he was speechless and walked away in a grumph!

I'm surprised he believed you.

Usually they are determined to "reinvent" history and say your 40 year old car should have every emission device on it ever thought of, even if they weren't invented when your car was built. Doh !

quote:

Won't the other LS headers you had before fit this engine?

Our prior engine used the stock exhaust manifolds. I made a header pipe that connected the exhaust manifold to the stock ansa exhaust. My plan was always to make headers for the old motor but I just never got around to it.

Looks like 180's are the way to go...

quote:

Originally posted by Aus Ford:

quote:

Originally posted by PanteraDoug:

I got lectured by a local cop that my entire car was illegal. He wanted to know where all of the emission equipment was?

When he found out all I was required to have was a PCV and evaporative controls AND they were there, he was speechless and walked away in a grumph!

I'm surprised he believed you.

Usually they are determined to "reinvent" history and say your 40 year old car should have every emission device on it ever thought of, even if they weren't invented when your car was built. Doh !

Worse! This cop wasn't born then yet!

I always think the issue is the headers. They are loud, but you know what? I just test drove a Porsche Cayman which is a little loud to begin with at idle and when you hit the "exhaust" button on the console the thing turns into a Harley Davidson.

The stacks of the Webers sticking up with no air cleaners on them doesn't help my case either.

I don't know how the California guys get by with this the way the CHiPs are and curbside inspections out there. NY generally doesn't care. You could always say you just blew out the muffler a minute ago here. Problem is he is still going to pull you over and the car has no ground clearance to go over the curb alongside of the road.

I had that discussion with a NYS Trooper and he wanted to know why it took so long for me to pull over. I mentioned the ground clearance and he said so what. I said that's all well and good but there was no safety/immediacy issue and I was looking for a safe place to pull over AND is NYS going to pay for the damage to the car particularly considering forcing me off of the road was not necessary? I don't think so?

He didn't like that. Gave me a speeding ticket. He does have to justify his job some how you know so that he is entitled to a pension?



The way the PDK transmission works, you just keep hammering the floor with the accelerator and I'm telling you that car is loud AND you can get an optional $3500 "sport exhaust" factory installed! I don't think that makes it quieter?

Maybe Porsche comes and fights with the cop for you considering (JUST) the STANDARD Cayman is $88,000? Try about $100k for the S. The Cayman is the ENTRY level Porsche! The 911 I liked was $168,000.

quote:

Originally posted by ZR1 Pantera:

quote:

Won't the other LS headers you had before fit this engine?

Looks like 180's are the way to go...

Ahh? Too bad?

So we've put quite a bit of work in the past few weeks.

We have fabricated our new billet aluminum transmission mounts that move the engine and tranny back an inch.



We got the mounts bolted onto the tranny, the tranny bolted in, and the engine mounted in.

The blower and front drive now fits perfectly in the car and the engine is perfectly centered in the car.

Our next step will be taking the motor back out, prepping the oil, fuel, and water systems, and mate the engine and transmission with the clutch and flywheel installed.

It's getting exciting! We can't wait to drive the car!



Look at more pics over at http://zr1pantera.com

Beautiful mounts. Can't wait to see the future updates.

This car is fantastic man... Great work ! Did you save those tranny mounts in cnc ? What about the clutch throw arm ? Did you guys make that also ?... wait, is that paint or anodized ?

will the half shafts / cv joints still fit through the factory spots or did you have to massage them a little?

Big-block conversions move the ZF back FOUR full inches with no known halfshaft problems. Biggest problem for most engines is the oil pan notch vs the under-engine crossmember. But some LS engines are dry-sump with shallow pans and can mount high enough that clearance is not an issue.

As far as the 'Chevy-in-a-Ford' thing, its well known that GM "borrowed" designs from a number of sources in building the LS series engines, including the hot-rodders. Some hard parts adapt almost directly from LS to thirty-years-older 351-Cs! Just look at them as modernized Clevelands, or what Ford might have done had they not thrown the Cleveland design in the trash in '74 & kept the Windsor truck engines.

quote:

As far as the 'Chevy-in-a-Ford' thing, its well known that GM "borrowed" designs from a number of sources in building the LS series engines, including the hot-rodders. Some hard parts adapt almost directly from LS to thirty-years-older 351-Cs! Just look at them as modernized Clevelands, or what Ford might have done had they not thrown the Cleveland design in the trash in '74 & kept the Windsor truck engines.

See I guess we have a Ford after all...