35 replies to this topic

[FLD]

Boost performance do some good LS1 stuff (www.boostperformance.co.uk I think) and not too dear.

That water pump casting they do for the electric water pump looks like it was made for a vx conversion, fantastic

Sam.

Almost. Ultima IIRC.

[Rosssco]

The LS1 is 642mm long from bellhousing face to the end of the pulley.
The stock rover v8 is longer than the stock LS1 with the water pumps left on, so like we did with the rover v8 you would have to lose the water pump and run a electric one.
The LS1 is pretty much the same width 520mm(rocker to rocker cover)give or take a few mill (if you move the alternator down to the bottom somewere like we did on the rover v8) and the height of the LS1 is around 125mm less. Im guessing that most of that height is lost from the top with the super low inlet setup, so no boot mods needed.
The main problem is will the starter motor be in the way of the driveshaft as it looks like the LS1 starter motor is alot lower down than the rover v8.
I,ve seen a few pictures of LS1s with thinner harmonic balancer pulleys on which would give you even more room
The stock manifolds are pointing in the right direction too
You would be doing fecking well to get it even close to 900KGs tho with the extra engine weight and with 2 cats on.

Next time i get a chance i,ll measure the rover v8 bellhousing to pulley length.

Sam.

Good info Sam.

I was thinking the RV8 and the LSx 'looked' to be similar dimensions, going by the valve covers alone. The alternator could easy be mounted on the other side to avoid potential drive-shaft issues, and an electric water pump as you say (the mechanically driven pump (looks big anyway, and might interfere with the front fire wall?), but you'd have to remove all the various bits of water channeling, but even then the crank pulley may be too close to the drivers side chassis rail. Yeah, if you can you tell us what length the modifed RV8 comes in at (bell-housing face to crank pulley), that would be pretty useful.

I suppose you could look at other V8's, like the Lexus 1UZ-FE (and its variants) as these are super cheap, sound amazing, rev to 8k rpm on standard internals, and are pretty light at ~180kg complete.. Bulker top end due to the design, but fibre glass is easy to cut..

[Rosssco]

Acutually, the 1UZ engines look a t bit too long at 650mm long, before and adaptor plate is added, also pretty wide over the cam covers..

http://c4.ac-images....c92cf5595f7.jpg

[JL37]

Can i ask what gearbox could possibly be used that could realistically handle the torque ? without solving that question everything else is just a minor detail!

[Ground Effect]

Can i ask what gearbox could possibly be used that could realistically handle the torque ? without solving that question everything else is just a minor detail!

It would be pushing the limits of available/affordable gearboxs and clutchs but there seems to be people out with VXTs & Lotus Europas that are running quite a bit more torque than a stock LS1 puts out.

Best to have a read of nevs monster turbo build to see what people are currently using and whats working or not
Nevs build thread

Also the picture at the begining of this thread that siztenboots posted of a transverse gearbox & LS1 might be an option.

Sam.

[Ground Effect]

Acutually, the 1UZ engines look a t bit too long at 650mm long, before and adaptor plate is added, also pretty wide over the cam covers..

http://c4.ac-images....c92cf5595f7.jpg

After looking at some more pictures of LS1s the alternator is already at the bottom/right looking from the front cover end, so its allready in the right place. I think i was getting confused with a air con pump motor or something that i saw high up on the right.
The starter motor is what gets in the way of the drive shaft(on the bottom/left) if you was to use a F23 or M32 GM gearbox with adapter plate.
The water pump is driven of the cam at the front of the engine and along with the big crank pulley would probley hit the O/S chassis rail, so water pump would have to be changed for a electric one with alot smaller inlet/outlet setup and you would also need alot smaller crank pulley.
I think the RV8 was 610mm from bellhousing face to crank pulley bolt, the oil pump gets in the way with the RV8 which would,ent happen with a LS1.

The overhead cam V8s like the lexus are just to big, unless you want to start cutting the firewall out. Besides they have to much weight up high in the engine, a pushrod V8 has a nice low centre of gravity with only 1 cam low in the block, etc.

I think if we ever had a major problem with thr RV8 in future then we,d certainly look at putting in a early stock LS1 before rebuilding another RV8.

Sam.

[FLD]

I think if we ever had a major problem with thr RV8 in future then we,d certainly look at putting in a early stock LS1 before rebuilding another RV8.

Sam.

I think that would be wise. I'm not a fan of the RV8 since messing around with pro-rover a while ago.

If anyone needs some pics / dims off an LS1 give me a prod.

[Ground Effect]

Just to try and answer the original thread question, it looks like the gearbox might be a Getrag 282 from a Fiero GT V6 with an adapter plate.
Link to a build thread with this box and LS1 HERE

Google seems to think the box is rated at 250ft-lbs but can take upto 400-500 without to much abuse, whatever that means

Pure guess work without better pics but the 282 and LS1 have been mated together before in a Fiero.

Sam.

[FLD]

How about strecthing the subframe and using an LS1/7 hybrid with a transaxle. That would be a beast!

[Rosssco]

My 2p - Remember that trying ot gauge a gearbox torque capacity (before it fails), is almost meaningless without accounting for vehicle weight, drive configuration and other factors - and F23 gearbox may only take 175lb/ft input torque in a Vectra, but will most likely take a good bit more in a car 50% lighter (e.g. VX220). According to Wiki (not to be taken as gospel of course), the F23 is rated for 230Nm / 170 lb/ft in a ~1.8Te vehicle, so there's no surprise really that it copes with nearly double torque rating in a vehicle nearly half the weight. Anyhoo, taking about in-line / longditudinal installation, I did some rough measurements using an Audi V8 (4.2) and one of the newer Audi FWD gearboxes, and I believe it would fit without stretching the chassis, but just, and the rear of the gearbox would end up roughly just before the exhaust tips currently reside, inline with the rear clam. Width wouldn't be a problem. Regardless, fairly major work involved...

[Duncan VXR]

Talking of audi V8 I can CONFIRM the RS4 (v8 4.2) engine fits in the back of a vx220 and is sitting there looking all happy for its self mated to vaux box currently DG

[G-Bob]

Talking of audi V8 I can CONFIRM the RS4 (v8 4.2) engine fits in the back of a vx220 and is sitting there looking all happy for its self mated to vaux box currently

DG

[Rosssco]

Talking of audi V8 I can CONFIRM the RS4 (v8 4.2) engine fits in the back of a vx220 and is sitting there looking all happy for its self mated to vaux box currently

DG

Sweet...

Two questions - Operational FSI? Firewall "massaging"? Both percieved as the trickey parts (its a very short engine)

[14500rpm]

[Ground Effect]

Project thread please

Sam.

[leevx2.2]

Talking of audi V8 I can CONFIRM the RS4 (v8 4.2) engine fits in the back of a vx220 and is sitting there looking all happy for its self mated to vaux box currently

DG

Sounds good to me picture please :-))