Hey everyone, I'm a new member because I am looking to buy a 1998 Firebird convertible, with a V6 and a 5 speed. I am going to drop in an LS1 and a T56, and the correct computer as well. You know, a whole drivetrain swap! I was just looking to get some idea's on to what I"m getting in to, and what I need to do in order to complete this swap?

If anyone has done this before, or know of someone who has, could you please respond? And just general suggestions and comments are welcome too! Thanks a lot, and I'm looking forwards to FINALLY owning an LS1 powered 98 firebird. Thanks again

Adam

 

Dont buy the v6, get an LS1 car and save yourself tim and $$

 

Dude, what he ^^^^^^ said. If it were cheaper or even similar in cost, then all the v6 cars would be LS1 cars. (Think of the insurance savings ) I would figure on no less than $3500 in used parts for the conversion, then the standard replacement stuff (plugs, motor mounts, fluids, u joints, etc) at another 500. You should be able to find a used 98 T/A vert for within ~4-5k of a v6 car... plus you get all the TA toys and all that time to start bolting on mods

 

I say you should just buy an LS1 rather than swaping the motor out of the v6. My friend has a 94 v6 firebird auto and put in a 96 LT1 along with a manual trans. The car is not as fast as F-body cars that came with the v8' already in them. Also, the check engine light has always been on since the swap.

 

It will be a money pit that will never run the way you expect it to. Save time and money and get what you want to begin with.

If the reason that you are wanting to buy this V6 car is because it's a steal, then by all means buy it. Drive it for a while and sell it for what it's worth. Take all that money and apply it to an LS1 equipped car that has everything you want in it.

 

Try asking this also in the conversion section of my board, there are 3-4 folks who have done this.

I have a local 3.8 V6 buddy who plans to do this and his 98 Camaro is paid off and he won't get more than $7K for it in trade so a $5-6K conversion is not a bad idea for him.

Try...

www.ls1tech.com

 

if you want to do this to get around paying high insurance by not telling the insurance company, I would not do it. If you get into an accident, chances are that they would notice that its now mysteriously a V8. They may not cover you because of insurance fraud on your part. Insurance companies will try anything to not have to pay out a settlement. I am not telling you not to do it, just pointing out something that you may not have thought about yet.

 

I tried explaining that to him on LS1.com and he didn't seem to care.

 

It's a difficult swap, but some V6 guys want to do it for various reasons stated above, lower insurance, poor trade-in value of their existing car, so hey if they want go for it that's cool.

I could have had all the swap stuff needed for $4K the other day, including pcm and wiring harness...

 

Yeah....he was told all the same stuff on LS1.com.

This is apparantly his only option.

~Eric