Replacing Engine with US V8

Replacing Engine with US V8

Author
Discussion

timarrowsmith

Original Poster:

57 posts

283 months

Tuesday 28th June 2005
quotequote all
Sorry to barge in from the Tuscan forum, but I was wondering if anyone knew if thi shad been done, and if so, by whom. with the tendency of Blackpool sourced kit to turn to cheese after a while, I'm giving serious consideration to a Chevy motor and a corvette 6 speed. alternatively the viper motor and box can be had for about £5k.

Ok, it would take some serious cutting, welding, and tuning the running gear (if indeed there's even enough room for the engine and box) but it should be good for 0-60 in under 4 secs, 200mph AND be reliable....

And that makes me go a bit wobbly....

Tim

toadusmodus

690 posts

288 months

Tuesday 28th June 2005
quotequote all
But Cerb V8's are reliable?? Very few go pop, and they make the Cerb the car it is. Saying that, I am all for a bit of experimentation, and would be interested to see the results.

Joe

olly

2,174 posts

291 months

Tuesday 28th June 2005
quotequote all
Steve Heath is part way through a Chevy LS1 conversion on his Cerb.....

It can be done, but it's not a straight swap (although the chevy does at least fit ok !

Boosted LS1

21,198 posts

267 months

Tuesday 28th June 2005
quotequote all
You can't use the vette 6 speed tranny, it's on the transaxle. You need a vette engine and camaro box

Engine will fit but there are issues to be overcome.

Boosted.

timarrowsmith

Original Poster:

57 posts

283 months

Tuesday 28th June 2005
quotequote all
hmmm, so the LS1 will drop in and the camaro box bolts in too..... very interesting.

Obv there'll be some wiring issues to overcome. I'd be v interested to see how Steve Heath gets on.

Tim

Boosted LS1

21,198 posts

267 months

Tuesday 28th June 2005
quotequote all
timarrowsmith said:
hmmm, so the LS1 will drop in and the camaro box bolts in too..... very interesting.

Obv there'll be some wiring issues to overcome. I'd be v interested to see how Steve Heath gets on.

Tim


It's more then just the wiring but certainly a viable conversion.

Boosted.

2 sheds

2,529 posts

291 months

Tuesday 28th June 2005
quotequote all
Impressive website Boosted, anybody thinking of this could do worse than check out this website

www.chevroletls1.com/



timarrowsmith

Original Poster:

57 posts

283 months

Tuesday 28th June 2005
quotequote all
lol, i've been crawling over Boosteds site all day! the very idea of stuffing a noat anchor into my tuscan is SO appealing.

Ffirg 005

2,013 posts

258 months

Wednesday 29th June 2005
quotequote all
jellison has an LS6 in his Chimaera - loads of posts about that in his profile. Steve Heath's is being done at Tower View, nztrev is putting an LS1 into a Chimarea for the track in New Zealand, and I'll be fitting an LSx (not yet sourced - lots of body and chassis work to be done first) into a Cerbera 'soon'.

jellison has a TKO-500 transmission and seems very happy with it. I'm sure he'll be along shortly to comment....

Don

justinp1

13,330 posts

237 months

Wednesday 29th June 2005
quotequote all
If the Corvette engine would fit into a Tuscan, I would buy one again... Any chance?

zaktoo

1,401 posts

247 months

Wednesday 29th June 2005
quotequote all
IMHO it's a crying shame. Now that that's out of the way, a serious question: why not just buy a 'vette instead? Just curious.

Ciao

Zak

tvrfreak

243 posts

291 months

Wednesday 29th June 2005
quotequote all
Because vettes are hideous.

shpub

8,507 posts

279 months

Wednesday 29th June 2005
quotequote all
timarrowsmith said:
hmmm, so the LS1 will drop in and the camaro box bolts in too..... very interesting.

Obv there'll be some wiring issues to overcome. I'd be v interested to see how Steve Heath gets on.

Tim

Nope. The Camaro six speed box doesn't fit. Forget it. The LS1 does fit but wise man from Orange he say... "it is one thing getting it into the big wide space, another thing getting it hooked up to everything else...". Trust me the amount of development work and time invested so far has been immense.

I've worked out how to solve the issues and in the prototyping bits to fit stage. Currently removing the Cerbera body to get to the chassis to repair the corrosion. It will make life a lot easier when the engine is plumbed in and then I'll pop the body back. Tower View are getting the chassis blasted, etched and coated again so the car will effectively have a new chassis. We were discussing yesterday about rose jointing all the suspension.

If you are around North London, pop into Tower View.

Steve
www.shpub.co.uk

RUSSELLM

6,000 posts

254 months

Wednesday 29th June 2005
quotequote all
Mines using a fair bit of oil & sounding a bit cammy, I think I might be going down the chevvy engine route in the very near future.

shpub

8,507 posts

279 months

Wednesday 29th June 2005
quotequote all
The plan is to get the LS1 Cerbera ready for the CREAM event in September.

nztrev

785 posts

243 months

Wednesday 29th June 2005
quotequote all
Are you using a t56 and 360 degree bellhousing Steve?

whitey

2,508 posts

291 months

Wednesday 29th June 2005
quotequote all
shpub said:
The plan is to get the LS1 Cerbera ready for the CREAM event in September.


Will Tower View then be offering engine transplant services?

shpub

8,507 posts

279 months

Wednesday 29th June 2005
quotequote all
Yes. That is one of the reasons why they have been so helpful. They have a lot of experience which I can pick on to discuss things and see how to do this and that. They have a business to run and don't have the time to to make this happen and be able to offer the transplant at a reasonable cost. I have the time and they are providing me with ) and help. That way I get a transplant, get a lot more information for the Cerbie book and the LS1 transplant becomes a reality.

And it also means that they will know exactly what is involved and the costs instead of it being a bit of well budget this and so on. The brief I am working on is to reuse as much of the Cerbera to keep costs down as much as possible. There are a few special bits to be made that make it all work which is where the costs will be kept down as once I have the pattern/recipe they can be quickly made and this takes a lot of the time and effort out of the equation.

As I said the prototyping has been done and I'm in the process of removing the body to sort out the chassis and make any mods if needed (or I've got it wrong), While the chassis is being sorted out I can go ahead with the machining needed for the other bits.

No we are not using the T56 box... it doesn't fit. To be more accurate... it doesn't without a lot of work and cost. There is not enough space and the costs would be tremendous to do so. No point in doing a transplant that isn't practical or economic. Space is incredibly tight on a Cerbie.

Anyway back to the Cerbie book.... the grudget wangler is connected to the forcet matrix which in turn was an optional extra....

Whoops wrong application.

nztrev

785 posts

243 months

Wednesday 29th June 2005
quotequote all
shpub said:


No we are not using the T56 box... it doesn't fit. To be more accurate... it doesn't without a lot of work and cost. There is not enough space and the costs would be tremendous to do so. No point in doing a transplant that isn't practical or economic.


I didnt realise the Cerb transmission tunnel part of the chassis was so much different from the Chim/Griff.
The T56 although bigger than a T5 and TKO went in no probs,we choose it because besides it being bulletproof it has the narrowist bellhousing and runs a centre realise bearing.It also has the same output spline as the T5.
All the Chev to t5 bellhousings we tried were dinosaurs in comparison and would of required alot of chopping even for the engine to go back into in the same position let alone back further which we achieved with the T56.

19560

12,746 posts

265 months

Wednesday 29th June 2005
quotequote all
nztrev said:
I didnt realise the Cerb transmission tunnel part of the chassis was so much different from the Chim/Griff.
The T56 although bigger than a T5 and TKO went in no probs,we choose it because besides it being bulletproof it has the narrowist bellhousing and runs a centre realise bearing.It also has the same output spline as the T5.
All the Chev to t5 bellhousings we tried were dinosaurs in comparison and would of required alot of chopping even for the engine to go back into in the same position let alone back further which we achieved with the T56.

Yes that is surprising given that the Cerb is a bigger car than a Griff. Nuless there's a weird bracing peice it sounds like the Cerb chassis is relatively weak compared to the Griff/Chim. Very unexpected!