Back in 2012 when I built my 6.0. A Holley rep said they would never build a harness to plug the Terminator TBI into their LS harness. So we made it to work. I was likely one of the first in the world to install a Terminator TBI / HP ECU/ Edelbrock dual plane combo on an LS. Around 2015 Holley started making the harness to do that.
@@bentleyclouse3311 It looks cool but the intake performs no better than a truck intake. If I was to do it again I’d go with a FAST intake. 50 hp more.
@@generalsixty2133 wow 50hp is huge. I actually believe your story and I'm impressed. Wished you was my neighbor!!! Lol in middle Tennessee no one does LS stuff. Not in my area.
@@bentleyclouse3311 You can always buy a GM that came with an LS from the factory. Then do bolt on upgrades. Easier than a swap into an old car. It’s all just time, money and space to do it. Have fun!
An Aussie living in Spain. Love watching your vids, guys 🙌🏼 I love watching your work, Tommy, Joe, Mike, Pat, Ryan, Kevin, LT, Austin... I know I'm missing a few 😅 keep it up
Put another shrimp on the barbie eh Kangooroo sport eh you wanna beer mate FOSTERS is the one u want eh champ watch out for drop bears and crocodiles eh mate
I know what you mean brother. Also own a 5.0 and since I love LS power also own a single cab Silverado with a 448 stroker. And for last project I jst bought a 6.0 with tranny for complete swap on a mustang 2005 v6..... Why hate when you can own both!!
The LS with the Holly TBI and MSD box is a really nice set up. Pretty trick having a mounting point on the intake for the MSD box. It would be a clean looking install. I can see this being a nice swap for the GMT400 trucks.. allowing an easy stock computer delete. Tying it into the dash harness wouldn't be that difficult either. It would be on the expensive side.. but dropping this into a cherry or restored car/truck would be worth it. LS power and reliability with a simple self learning TBI.
when I was racing under sponsorship I had my pit crew swap my qualifying engine to race engine. In 36min in a competition we had. Just to be clear I wasn’t involved with it. I just had to watch and hope we won. It was a competition to give our crews lime light for once. It’s actually a lot difficult than people think. They had to work around the ridiculous amount of pipe that’s all one giant piece connected into the roll bar to withstand 180mph impacts.
Every time I come back to this video, I realize more and more that this is VERY far from a budget build. Those valve covers alone are over $400, and those coil pack brackets are 179. That harness is 1k+. No idea how they come up with budget when there's nearly $5,000 in new parts alone here.
@@raymondguzman5083 Life sort of got in the way, I moved to Manhattan from Connecticut for my job, sold my '71 Z28 and here I am 40 years later watching this channel and dreaming about a nice '69 Camaro with a big block. I will say I missed the rush of my race car every day of my life.
They said 10.5:1 compression but, the 243 heads that were installed have an extra 3.3cc combustion chamber volume. They are closer to 9:1. I have a 4.8 with a slightly milder cam, but milled 706 heads and .040” head gasket. It makes 10.2:1 compression and I was over 380hp. Can’t remember the torque. At the tires it made over 280hp/280tq at 4700rpm. Had to shut down early due to high wheel speed on street tires.
Richard Holdener is THE man when you are interested in the before and after installation of performance parts. I think he has covered everything I have wanted to know.
They set this dyno test up to sell Holley EFI systems. They crutched this motor using 570 and 600 cfm carburetors. I don't care what the carburetor cfm formula says, an engine with heads that breathe as well as the LS6 heads is going to choke on a 600 cfm or smaller carburetor. That's one reason why the 1000 cfm throttle body made 17 more horsepower!
@@ragimundvonwallat8961 the bottom ends in these things crazy strong and the 4.8 is the best out of all of the truck motors for high rpm use bc of its short stroke
@@eternalthread7846 if id be a gm guy i would swap one of those puppies into a 80's camaro instead of figthing with those useless 305.... dont tell me those dont suck, they always have and always will lol =P those 4.8 look like gold in comparison
@@scottgas1299 Might as well keep the stock small block if you're not willing to learn something new. The LS efi fuel system is as simple as SPFI systems get, plus the reliability aspect is amazing.
This setup is great for wowing with the open hood at a cruise night. But it'll be only old dudes who aren't familiar with LS engines and high school kids who haven't seen the other hundred RU-vid videos where people are making way more power with a $500 junkyard pulled motor set.
I've built a 16.51 to 1 compression British Ford Essex V6, 3L swept volume. I think it will make more HP on E100 than any comparable I-6s and many V8's and still have better Emissions
I have a blown engine 944 that was supposed to get an LS swap. But, I turn 70 this year and have to many other projects to do. The 944 weighs 2600 lb, but the 928 weighs in at about 3800lb. But, I will admit that the 928 is a really nice Hiway cruiser.
Ooooor you could just use the factory fuel injection and intake manifold. Sending your harness and ecu out to get cut down and reprogrammed for stand alone only costs around $500.
I have a 71 Camaro that i did a 4.8 ls swap in im using the self tunning efi im Makin a tad over 440 hp i did a full rebuild 30 over bore long tube headers i used aftermarket heads
Where do you guys get your parts and prices from? I have not been able to find that first Holly...the 570 for anything less than close to 500 bucks!!! You guys are quoting 370, please enlighten me on this!
One of the best car shows EVER ! When you will do a video on a 5.7 LT1 from 1993 ? That whould be AWESOME ! And tell us if that torque head 24x conversion is the Best way to get rid of the optispark , and how much power could we get out of it ! GOD BLESS FROM ROMANIA 🇦🇩✝️🇺🇸
The coil pack conversion gives about another 15 to 20 horsepower and costs about $2500. The optispark is fine if you just keep it dry and use the vented cap. You can do a lot for $2500. I built a mild ( sorta' ) 383 LT1 for my '95 Firebird formula that makes about 450 at the flywheel.
@@thomasdaddio741 113 LSA. Plus that cam is for the 1800 to 6800 RPM range. If they would have gone to 7000 I think 410 to 420 HP would have been the result.
Luv the show guys! I have an '06 aluminum block, aluminum head, 8th digit "B", 5.3. Supposedly 340 h.p. 170,000 miles. Runs excellent! Would really appreciate some h.p. upgrade suggestions. Thanks...
how easy is it to get these engines from junkyard complete with stock ECu and harness? and how hard is it to get those complete engines running in an old pre fuel injection chevy car/truck?
It's decently easy. You have to figure out if the junkyard you go to will nickel and dime you for each accessory. Normally it'd cost 500 ish full dress if you pull it yourself and 800 full dress if it's already pulled. The engine is a decent bit shorter than gen 1 and 2 small block chevy's. The mount location is also different. If you use adapter plates than you can keep the stock transmission location and even use the old small block chevy engine mounts. The only thing I advise to watch out for is to make sure you have enough room at the back of the engine. Like I said the ls engine family is shorter and the engine will sit closer to the firewall. So make sure you have at least an inch or two of clearance behind your stock gen 1 or 2 sbc. Also have to pay attention to flexplates. The dished one will need a little adapter piece. It's like 30$ not a big deal. Then there is the computer. You can opt for MSD 6014 box and intake which will set you back 750$ ish depending on sales. This will allow you to use a carburetor. However it gives full ignition tuning capability. If you want EFI and full ignition and fuel tuning capability there is holley terminator x for 1,000$. This is good for forced induction and larger injectors. If you are doing a mild cam with the same injectors and keeping the MAF sensor then you can just tune the stock ECU. If you are doing no cam, no injectors, naturally aspirated, with stock MAF, you can just use the stock computer with the "Vehicle Anti Theft" system disabled (cost like 60~70$). If you do a carbureted set up you would need a low pressure electric fuel system, if you are doing efi you would need a higher pressure electric fuel pump/system. This can be as simple as a bosch 044 ziptied near your fuel tank with rubber efi line to the rails, or as complex as a sumped fuel cell with -10 hard lines and a magnafuel 4303. Depends on how much you want to spend and how neat you want it done. If you are serious about it check out Sloppy Mechanics, A21 Bravo, Driveway Engineer, Squirrel Tuned, Night Wrencher, Richard Holdener (for combos), and LS1Tech.
@@lucysmith4242 Thats a comprehensive response especially from a "girl" ? Ive since already bought 2 -5.3LS engines. One came w/o ecu, alternator, starter or manifolds but it was a mere 200 cdn with another 80 if he comes up with ecu and manifolds[and maybe starter but he sold alternator. ] My second LS is a complete cutout inc all accesories, starter, manilfold and even maf sensor intake all for 445 cdn BUT it had 2 broken manifold bolts, one he showed me and one i twisted off rather easily. the one he showed me came out easy as it had 1/2 inch sticking out but one i broke i spent a few hours yesterday with mig and easy outs and failed with both methods to get it out. So i will try again today with fast freeze 6013 stick welding to remoe it but failing that i may have to swap the other LS head on there :-( which im guessing will be new head gaskets, maybe intake gaskets....might even Balloon into a new CAM[elgin 1840p or summit 8712] which require no new rods or rockers anything.] but will still be almost the same price as i paid for entire cutout.
@@kravmaga7070 yeah it always kind of snow balls out of control. If you still through the bolt/stud, all the way through with a drill bit about half the diameter it will relieve most of the pressure. That's how I used to do them in the Machine Shop. Sounds like you got good deals on those engines!
@@kravmaga7070 Oof, that is tough tough. Beyond my level of expertise. Most machine shops should be able to extract it through creative means for maybe 30$
I am old school, I guess I am "too old school" because I have never had a problem with chokes or cold start problems!! Of course a lot of folks don't understand how to tune an old school carb like those on the 1960s and 1970s cars, and honestly tuning the carb was only part of the "tune"!! OR to put it another way, back years ago tuning a carb was actually fairly straight forward and easy ONCE YOU UNDERSTOOD, that you have to TUNE EVERYTHING!! This is where I saw a lot of guys fail, because they would slap on the biggest carbs, then wonder why the motor stumbled because they did nothing to Dwell, or ignition timing or even cam timing (if needed)!! They ignored that all these system interact with each other in other words!! And face it you can install the largest camshaft you engine can hold, but like tuning, if you ignore air flow through the motor you basically get the same result as a poor tune will give you!! Either super rich or super lean conditions and nothing that is a benefit to your motor or performance!!! And I live in New York State most of my life.....so I would run a lot of manual chokes, and tune my timing and carbs to work together!! Believe it or not, even point type ignition systems can run extremely well when you actually understand the basics on how they interact with everything as well!!
There's absolutely nothing wrong with running a carb, and most people that have carb issues are more than likely ignition issues. The only problem with carbs is the tunability, they are set/built for the single application that you make it be. Once they are set, well that's it... With EFI the computer can constantly change to give the engine what it needs when it needs it.
Thats basically what they came with stock, give or take and come stock with efi. I dnt understand the point of all the money spent on parts. I love the three carb/efi comparison though
I think the idea is grabbing an LS out of the yard, and still adapt it without the stock harness that's probably going to be more of a headache then its worth.... which is really the best way to do it. The intake having a mounting point for the MSD box is trick and clean, and will allow wire management that wont look like a plate of spaghetti.
well...stock its 255-285 depending on the years...so that would be a big no to ''Thats basically what they came with stock, give or take'' yeah give or take, only a 45% increase
@@ragimundvonwallat8961 stock 4.8/5.3 LS truck engines come with a horrible tune. The factory Dyno numbers are with all the accessories attached and a tune for economy. If you put a stock 4.8 on the Dyno without all the accessories and gave it a good tune those numbers would be well over 300.
@@ragimundvonwallat8961 Those are factory numbers (net) and there are inhibitors built into the PCM to limit output to help the rest of the drivetrain live to 200,000 miles. Open up the intake and exhaust and any 4.8 and it will make 330-340hp, 5.3's average 370-375hp. Add a cam and that number jumps to 430-450hp and up, you can see up to a 70hp increase with a decent cam in a stock motor. Sometimes more. Over the last 10 years I've swapped lots of them.
I realize this show may have aired before Holley had the terminator X system out but there is no way I would trade my factory injection and Terminator X on my LS swap for what they ran on the dyno. Plus, it would have made more average HP and torque with the factory injection system!
This is probably 15 years old so long before what is available today. If you bought something without an intake setup because it was super cheap or wanted simplicity a carb still works. I would take the additional work involved to run EFI.
I seconded what Bill said. In my case I got a 4.8 long block with a 3.9 crank So I was on my own in terms of intake and field management. So for simplicity and cost effectiveness for me TBI is definitely the way to go with a carb intake
@@bigboreracing356 I suppose if you want a 7000 rpm top end race car. But for ripping around town below 7k the factory injection is the way to go in my opinion.
@@bigboreracing356 because I have watched enough Richard Holdner videos to know that the short runner on that carb style intake will not match the torque curve of a factory TBSS or even truck intake from idle to 5k RPM. Above that and the short runner will have slightly more and peak out with more. But that isn’t where most people do their driving on the streets unless you are roll racing or have a car with a really low gear ratio to utilize those RPM. Notice how they didn’t show the entire curve of the dyno pull and only the peak numbers? The bottom end was probably lower then even the stock cam motor would be.
Well how about trying that with an original 283 next. Put some H.O. 305 heads on it, cam, intake, etc. Can you build it for less money than the cost of all these aftermarket parts?
@@frigglebiscuit7484 the parts used in this vid were a waste of money, and they made less power! You can easily use a junkyard LS engine with stock parts for cheap! It's only expensive if you make it expensive...
For budget reasons just use the stock EFI. Get the harness and computer when you pull the motor at the junk yard. Modifying the harness to be a stand alone is not that difficult, but does take some time and care. But it save s you a but load of coin.
Stock rocker arms are great. The weak link is the needle bearings, they're not even full rollers. Just take them apart and I put a bushing kit in them. Solid , Oilite Bronze bushings with micro polished tool steel trunnions. 300% stronger than stock.
Y'all ever notice that whenever they do a carb vs EFI compare, they'll try to compare, for example, a 650cfm carb, then a 900 to 1000cfm throttle body system? For once in my frickin life I'd love to see a direct, apples to apples comparison!😕
@@portnut7610 I feel like the cfm difference between the two, the carb being 750, and the EFI being like 880, would explain that difference. Had the carb been the EXACT same cfm as the EFI, I'd bet the power levels would match exactly. At least this test was reasonably close, in that every other component was unchanged, down to the last detail, making it about as close to "Apple's to apples" as ive seen so far
AGAIN...none of these projects can be done here in California(even though this show is filmed here). you can't put a TRUCK engine in a car ..and the Holly EFI is not CARB complaint.. (not an issue if you are putting this in a car that is older than 1976) ..but you still can not use a truck engine (5.3 or 4.8 or 6.0 iron block into any car...even older ones) unless you have no plans of registering or driving your vehicle on the streets...the DMV is fairly strict on this
Don't bother. Just go to a junk yard and buy the motor, trans, harnesses and etc for about $700 from a 2006 Silverado. Build from that. WAY cheaper by leaps and bounds.
