New User From OK / V8 Swap Build Thread
03-14-2016, 06:36 PM
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New User From OK / V8 Swap Build Thread
Hey!
I apologize if I'm posting in the wrong category. Moderators please feel free to move this topic wherever it needs to go.
I'll start with a personal introduction. My name is Doug, and I'm from Stillwater, OK. I'm currently a student in mechanical engineering here at Oklahoma State University. I bought my beloved S in April of 2014. She was a gorgeous MY01 Spa with 160k miles. I fell in love with the car after seeing it and taking it for a drive. It made an impression on me that no other car has made on me to this day. I purchased the car for $8600.00 USD.
Here's a shot of her shortly after the purchase:
I drove it like it was for a while, doing little things here and there. I painted the skirts black and had a lip on it for awhile, and stuck some Prodrive GC-06d wheels on it. Voodoo shift knob, top-down mod, clutch interlock bypass, K&N drop-in filter, Legalis R replica exhaust (MUCH quieter and MUCH less obnoxious than the Invidia N1 on there when I bought it)...
One late October (2014) night while driving home from work, the car was making funny noises. The engine kept randomly cutting out for a split second while accelerating. I continued driving and listening in an attempt to diagnose the problem. On the third or fourth attempt, around 1-2 blocks from my house, the little F20c decided it had had enough. With a cringe-inducing clanking and clunking the car completely died. The entire dash lit up like Times Square; my S2000 was done for. I coasted as far as I could and stopped just short of my home. I flipped the hazards on, jumped out, and started pushing. Uphill. I didn't get very far. Embarrassed and disappointed, I reluctantly gave my dad who lived up the street a call at one in the morning to tell him I'd blown my engine. Dad got up, drove over, and helped me push it the rest of the way. Thanks dad!
I left the car in the driveway for almost a month before I tore into it to see what was wrong; I knew it had to be catastrophic. Here's what I found:
I'm almost certain that the issue was a cracked valve retainer. Moral of the story: AP1 guys, SWAP YOUR RETAINERS.
So, after realizing the extent of the damage, I had to make a decision: spend money on fixing it and having the same car as before, or spend a little more money and do something crazy with it. Of course, I had to choose the latter.
Having been a previous owner of an NA Miata, I had become fascinated with the concept of putting a large-displacement, grumbly V8 into little, light cars. I found out about Import Muscle, a company who makes an LS swap kit for the S, and decided that it was the perfect platform for the swap. Light, stiff, low COG...
So I went out and bought an engine. Not an LS1, but a Vortec 5300. Same motor, iron block. I know some of you will probably bitch at me for using an iron block and how that's gonna throw the 50/50 balance off, yadayada. But I ended up paying less than half the cost of an LS1 from an F-Body, even after adding the accessories, intake, fuel rails, etc. The weight difference is only around 65lbs. And with no A/C or P/S, and the engine still sitting almost entirely behind the front suspension, balance won't be too terribly upset by this. Then I bought a T-56 6-speed transmission to go along with it.
For awhile, my plan was to keep the car mostly the same as it had been before. Of course, enough is never enough. Once I saw the Opera S2000, which I'm sure many of you have seen, I knew I had to take it further. The car isn't ever going to be a daily again, so I figure it might as well be a badass track car. It's going through some major weight reduction right now. Everything is getting swiss-cheesed and cut up ala Opera S2K. I'll be posting progress updates as it comes along. Trying to get the finished car beneath 2500lb. Also planning on running a Ford 8.8 IRS rear-end.
Here are some pics of the car in its current state. Don't look at the garage. It's a pit and I need to clean it.
I'll post more later but I'm sick of typing now...
Any comments? Questions? Concerns? Suggestions? Hit me with 'em.
As you can probably guess, I have a lot of parts for sale. Feel free to PM me about what you're looking for.
Thanks!
Doug
I apologize if I'm posting in the wrong category. Moderators please feel free to move this topic wherever it needs to go.
I'll start with a personal introduction. My name is Doug, and I'm from Stillwater, OK. I'm currently a student in mechanical engineering here at Oklahoma State University. I bought my beloved S in April of 2014. She was a gorgeous MY01 Spa with 160k miles. I fell in love with the car after seeing it and taking it for a drive. It made an impression on me that no other car has made on me to this day. I purchased the car for $8600.00 USD.
Here's a shot of her shortly after the purchase:
I drove it like it was for a while, doing little things here and there. I painted the skirts black and had a lip on it for awhile, and stuck some Prodrive GC-06d wheels on it. Voodoo shift knob, top-down mod, clutch interlock bypass, K&N drop-in filter, Legalis R replica exhaust (MUCH quieter and MUCH less obnoxious than the Invidia N1 on there when I bought it)...
One late October (2014) night while driving home from work, the car was making funny noises. The engine kept randomly cutting out for a split second while accelerating. I continued driving and listening in an attempt to diagnose the problem. On the third or fourth attempt, around 1-2 blocks from my house, the little F20c decided it had had enough. With a cringe-inducing clanking and clunking the car completely died. The entire dash lit up like Times Square; my S2000 was done for. I coasted as far as I could and stopped just short of my home. I flipped the hazards on, jumped out, and started pushing. Uphill. I didn't get very far. Embarrassed and disappointed, I reluctantly gave my dad who lived up the street a call at one in the morning to tell him I'd blown my engine. Dad got up, drove over, and helped me push it the rest of the way. Thanks dad!
I left the car in the driveway for almost a month before I tore into it to see what was wrong; I knew it had to be catastrophic. Here's what I found:
I'm almost certain that the issue was a cracked valve retainer. Moral of the story: AP1 guys, SWAP YOUR RETAINERS.
So, after realizing the extent of the damage, I had to make a decision: spend money on fixing it and having the same car as before, or spend a little more money and do something crazy with it. Of course, I had to choose the latter.
Having been a previous owner of an NA Miata, I had become fascinated with the concept of putting a large-displacement, grumbly V8 into little, light cars. I found out about Import Muscle, a company who makes an LS swap kit for the S, and decided that it was the perfect platform for the swap. Light, stiff, low COG...
So I went out and bought an engine. Not an LS1, but a Vortec 5300. Same motor, iron block. I know some of you will probably bitch at me for using an iron block and how that's gonna throw the 50/50 balance off, yadayada. But I ended up paying less than half the cost of an LS1 from an F-Body, even after adding the accessories, intake, fuel rails, etc. The weight difference is only around 65lbs. And with no A/C or P/S, and the engine still sitting almost entirely behind the front suspension, balance won't be too terribly upset by this. Then I bought a T-56 6-speed transmission to go along with it.
For awhile, my plan was to keep the car mostly the same as it had been before. Of course, enough is never enough. Once I saw the Opera S2000, which I'm sure many of you have seen, I knew I had to take it further. The car isn't ever going to be a daily again, so I figure it might as well be a badass track car. It's going through some major weight reduction right now. Everything is getting swiss-cheesed and cut up ala Opera S2K. I'll be posting progress updates as it comes along. Trying to get the finished car beneath 2500lb. Also planning on running a Ford 8.8 IRS rear-end.
Here are some pics of the car in its current state. Don't look at the garage. It's a pit and I need to clean it.
I'll post more later but I'm sick of typing now...
Any comments? Questions? Concerns? Suggestions? Hit me with 'em.
As you can probably guess, I have a lot of parts for sale. Feel free to PM me about what you're looking for.
Thanks!
Doug
03-14-2016, 06:59 PM
#2
Administrator
Wow! Welcome, Doug! 
Be sure to drop by the Oklahoma subforum (ok.s2ki.com) from time to time.
P.S. You might consider purchasing a membership as that is what is required to sell stuff here.
Be sure to drop by the Oklahoma subforum (ok.s2ki.com) from time to time.P.S. You might consider purchasing a membership as that is what is required to sell stuff here.
03-14-2016, 07:23 PM
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03-14-2016, 07:51 PM
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Here's some of the stuff I've been doing:
Cut the spare tire tub out
Going to put a cross brace in its place.
Cut the front crossmember out per the Import Muscle manual
The V8 is solid-mounted to the frame rails right at the front suspension, so it acts as a crossmember itself, and in an even better location.
Gutted the doors
Cut the spare tire tub out
Going to put a cross brace in its place.
Cut the front crossmember out per the Import Muscle manual
The V8 is solid-mounted to the frame rails right at the front suspension, so it acts as a crossmember itself, and in an even better location.
Gutted the doors
03-15-2016, 10:23 AM
#7
Community Organizer
Looking forward to seeing this evolve. Although I think you should have spent the extra coin on the LS, this will still be a hilariously fun car when it's all said and done. Invest in good brakes!
