LS Swapped Alpine GTA
Discussion
This project was started 8 years ago and I won't bore everyone with the details of the delays but suffice to say it's been a tough road to get the car to where it is today. Plenty of people said it couldn't be done or shouldn't be done but it's mechanically sorted (bar some additional suspension mods I want to make), road legal and MOT'd.
It drives really well, even at part throttle using no more than 4500 RPM it's insanely quick. Still plenty of finishing off to do , mainly cosmetics and some safety equipment for track use. Genuinely times I was close to giving up but thanks to John at JL Engineering who has put so much time and effort into the car in the last 6 months to get it to this point I'm now a very happy and it can now be a rolling project over the rest of the summer.
It drives really well, even at part throttle using no more than 4500 RPM it's insanely quick. Still plenty of finishing off to do , mainly cosmetics and some safety equipment for track use. Genuinely times I was close to giving up but thanks to John at JL Engineering who has put so much time and effort into the car in the last 6 months to get it to this point I'm now a very happy and it can now be a rolling project over the rest of the summer.
more pics, more details. What a fantastic thing.
Ok for those wanting more details.
I've had GTAs since 1990 (one of which I've had the whole time and another for about 15 years) and I'd taken my turbo to about 320BHP and it was very expensive to go much further so hatched the idea of a cheap V8 conversion. Standard gearboxes don't like much more than 350 ft/lbs so the idea was about 400BHP, cap the torque a little and stay with standard gearbox. I did a lot of research on engine weights and dimensions and went for the LS as the base engine is only 20kg heavier and very compact. Weight gain is offset by losing the spare wheel from the rear and rear seats. Car was bought for £2k as a rough standard car specifically to do this project. Originally I planned to source a 2nd hand engine but tbh it wasn't much dearer to source a crate engine as people ask big money for 2nd hand LSs. I ended up with a higher spec engine than intended which came with a factory fitted cam but it was old stock and saved me about £2k on shipping the less powerful version from the States after the exchange rate tanked after Brexit.
This meant the gearbox needed strengthening so it was fully rebuilt with a single piece mainshaft, Quaife gearset and an LSD. At this point I got a little carried away and had the car fully restored underneath and bought a big brake kit with 330mm discs and 4 pots all round.
Some Spax coilovers with spring assistors on the rear, a set up I tried on circuit in a friends competition car and really liked.
A 5 stud conversion was also carried out using 21 Turbo parts.
Subframe was strengthened and modified to suit, a adaptor kit is available that mates this engine and gearbox combo together. This was all bolted together and the transaxle installed.
Unfortunately the guy doing the project then decided at this point to go travelling indefinitely with literally a weeks notice leaving an immovable car 150 miles from my home. It sat there for about a year with me having to pay storage until a friend did me a huge favour and spent a whole weekend putting half the car together so we could at least move it. It came home and there it sat untouched for a few years. Other projects took precedence, 18 months of sorting a 3.2 Alfa GT took my spare money.
I found somebody to take on the project , John Law at JL Engineering agreed to finish the car but with no time frame and little pressure from me it ended up sitting for about 2 years untouched which brings us up to the start of the year when a gap in his busy schedule meant the car was finally bought into the workshop.
Exhaust manifolds and system were required and are beautifully made with the all important link pipe.
An electric water pump was required to shorten the engine down.
ECU came with the engine and is plug and play so just had to be fitted and the looms joined.
All cooling pipes were replaced and a triple core 50% bigger rad fitted.
The car was ready to be started at this point and although it started without issue the starter sounded horrible. On further inspection the plate hadn't been machined correctly and all had to be removed and redrilled which was extremely depressing and expensive in equal measure. Once this was done it was fine and the car passed its MOT without issue.
I picked the car up Saturday and as if I wasn't apprehensive enough at driving a 500BHP 1200kg rear engined car with semi slicks with no driver aids the weather gods deemed I should do this on wet greasy country lanes and had intermittent showers all the way home. The car is easy enough to drive gently but just testing the water with a dip of the toe it felt immense.
I took it out in the dry on Sunday and gave it a bit more of a test and 2nd and third gear acceleration feels insane and thats not exploring the top 2000 rpm where the cam comes on song.
So I'm sure I've left out lots of details but that's pretty much the story to date. Still need to do cosmetics and finish the interior but all pretty straight forward and affordable now.
I've had GTAs since 1990 (one of which I've had the whole time and another for about 15 years) and I'd taken my turbo to about 320BHP and it was very expensive to go much further so hatched the idea of a cheap V8 conversion. Standard gearboxes don't like much more than 350 ft/lbs so the idea was about 400BHP, cap the torque a little and stay with standard gearbox. I did a lot of research on engine weights and dimensions and went for the LS as the base engine is only 20kg heavier and very compact. Weight gain is offset by losing the spare wheel from the rear and rear seats. Car was bought for £2k as a rough standard car specifically to do this project. Originally I planned to source a 2nd hand engine but tbh it wasn't much dearer to source a crate engine as people ask big money for 2nd hand LSs. I ended up with a higher spec engine than intended which came with a factory fitted cam but it was old stock and saved me about £2k on shipping the less powerful version from the States after the exchange rate tanked after Brexit.
This meant the gearbox needed strengthening so it was fully rebuilt with a single piece mainshaft, Quaife gearset and an LSD. At this point I got a little carried away and had the car fully restored underneath and bought a big brake kit with 330mm discs and 4 pots all round.
Some Spax coilovers with spring assistors on the rear, a set up I tried on circuit in a friends competition car and really liked.
A 5 stud conversion was also carried out using 21 Turbo parts.
Subframe was strengthened and modified to suit, a adaptor kit is available that mates this engine and gearbox combo together. This was all bolted together and the transaxle installed.
Unfortunately the guy doing the project then decided at this point to go travelling indefinitely with literally a weeks notice leaving an immovable car 150 miles from my home. It sat there for about a year with me having to pay storage until a friend did me a huge favour and spent a whole weekend putting half the car together so we could at least move it. It came home and there it sat untouched for a few years. Other projects took precedence, 18 months of sorting a 3.2 Alfa GT took my spare money.
I found somebody to take on the project , John Law at JL Engineering agreed to finish the car but with no time frame and little pressure from me it ended up sitting for about 2 years untouched which brings us up to the start of the year when a gap in his busy schedule meant the car was finally bought into the workshop.
Exhaust manifolds and system were required and are beautifully made with the all important link pipe.
An electric water pump was required to shorten the engine down.
ECU came with the engine and is plug and play so just had to be fitted and the looms joined.
All cooling pipes were replaced and a triple core 50% bigger rad fitted.
The car was ready to be started at this point and although it started without issue the starter sounded horrible. On further inspection the plate hadn't been machined correctly and all had to be removed and redrilled which was extremely depressing and expensive in equal measure. Once this was done it was fine and the car passed its MOT without issue.
I picked the car up Saturday and as if I wasn't apprehensive enough at driving a 500BHP 1200kg rear engined car with semi slicks with no driver aids the weather gods deemed I should do this on wet greasy country lanes and had intermittent showers all the way home. The car is easy enough to drive gently but just testing the water with a dip of the toe it felt immense.
I took it out in the dry on Sunday and gave it a bit more of a test and 2nd and third gear acceleration feels insane and thats not exploring the top 2000 rpm where the cam comes on song.
So I'm sure I've left out lots of details but that's pretty much the story to date. Still need to do cosmetics and finish the interior but all pretty straight forward and affordable now.
k yeah! jwwbowe said:
Wow 
LSs fo make fantastic swaps, bet it is a riot. Was the exhaust manifold custom to fit the bay, did they have to scan the space?
Any track day plans?
Alfa GT looks lovely to
Yes despite there being dozens of off the shelf manifolds available cheaply the couple we tried just didn't give the space/angles we needed to get everything in. I don't know about scanning the space. As for trackdays, I'd like to attend the Croix En Ternant one I go to every year in September but I don't think the car will be ready. The setbacks I mentioned put us back about 6 weeks and a heap of cash and I need to get a rear anti roll bar made, fit a rear cage, front and rear strut braces and get some paint work and a wrap done too. I'll have to see how it goes. I'm not far from Brands so it would likely be there to start with.LSs fo make fantastic swaps, bet it is a riot. Was the exhaust manifold custom to fit the bay, did they have to scan the space?
Any track day plans?
Alfa GT looks lovely to
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