VN V6 Buick 3800 to LS1 conversion

[vnexec90]

Hey guys, I got my first car a year ago and Ive given it a fair thrashing.. the Buick is nowhere near dying cause i got it at 150K on the clock and Ive just driven it to 180K but its no where near customized either. Ive decided to keep the car (1990 VN Executive) and just do it up for the memory and keep it as one of those thing you take out on occasion. I'm thinking to convert it to LS1 or maybe even LS2 to make it faster.. keep it clean and build a sleeper and wipe off the smile on a rice boys face at the lights on occasion as well. What are the costs involved and what other parts would I have to change? Would the cost change if its a newer engine you are putting in? Does Enhanced Automotive deal with sort of mechanical operations or is there another place in Adelaide that does that.

Thanks you very much for your support.

[jokerflingo]

Hey guys, I got my first car a year ago and Ive given it a fair thrashing.. the Buick is nowhere near dying cause i got it at 150K on the clock and Ive just driven it to 180K but its no where near customized either. Ive decided to keep the car (1990 VN Executive) and just do it up for the memory and keep it as one of those thing you take out on occasion. I'm thinking to convert it to LS1 or maybe even LS2 to make it faster.. keep it clean and build a sleeper and wipe off the smile on a rice boys face at the lights on occasion as well. What are the costs involved and what other parts would I have to change? Would the cost change if its a newer engine you are putting in? Does Enhanced Automotive deal with sort of mechanical operations or is there another place in Adelaide that does that.

Thanks you very much for your support.

I don't know much about conversions but i can tell you hear and now its alot of $$$ and far cheaper to buy a VX onwards that had the yanks motor in it from factory.

[D-Man]

or cheaper to just buy an already fitted ls2 / ls1 engine..... the price of cars makes it possible these days.

firstly for that kind of conversion,

as it's a V6 atm.

- suspension - needs to be bolstered.
- breaks - more power = need for more stopping power. this includes breaklines (i imagine correct me if im wrong on ANY of this please)
- engine bay needs to be modified, K-fram re-designed/strengthened.
- new fuel pump and lines
- bigger oil catch and oil pump
- new diff
- newer gearbox / transmission
- computer chip etc needs to be upgraded to accommodate for v8 ls2/ls1
- not sure but i think the steering rack etc is upgraded????
- different battery - i think they're larger for v8's
- you'd probably want to upgrade the fuel tank aswell, since your running a v8 you may want it bigger.
- you will need engineers certs coming out of your arse for all of this too (if it's possible)
- you will clearly need to buy a new engine.
- exhaust system will need to be changed (or if you have a dual 2.5" maybe just the extractors and catalytic converter)


not to mention you will be shitting money left right and center so may be good thing to start growing that money tree? or just be rich :P

off the top of my head (for someone who doesnt know a great deal about a v8 conversion) i think that's pretty close to the mark?

[savage1987]

You can get away with the conversion for $10k easy if you do some of the work yourself, I was looking into this a long while back (funny how search didn't pull that up) but ironing out bugs along the way can blow out costs a lot, and getting the perfect setup takes more money still. It's not a simple drop in process, that's for sure. Get ready for either some serious cash outlay, or a whole lot of customising in your shed.

[HICOMPVN]

and for 10K you could just buy a newer car!!!! that will be harder, stronger and last longer

[millaz88]

or u could always drop a rb30et into it and be bangin down the road for a few grand

[combatantsomeone]

$10k should get you there if you do it urself