Skip navigation

Category Archives: Blogs

All technical write-ups, reviews, event coverage, and anything else.

Welcome to Part 2 of the LS-Z saga.  Time to source parts!

(Just a note, my camera phone lens was cracked for the pictures at the start of this project, so bare with me on the glare in a lot of the first pictures. It gets better I promise)

41FPxe8kutL

Obviously the most important piece of this puzzle is the motor and transmission.  If you’re not a Chevy LS motor connoisseur, the LS world can be a bit confusing.  LS1, LS2, LS6, L76, LQ9, and on and on it goes.  Lots of choices to choose from.  Thanks, to all these people these days LS-Swapping everything (yeah, I know), even your base LS1, stock motors aren’t the cheapest.  The best part of these motors though, is if you start with any of them, you get to swap parts from all the motors and just keep adding power! (Not always that easy, but you get the idea)  Outgrow your horsepower goals with an LS1, throw in a LS3 and start making more power with the motor bolting right in.

I knew I wanted an aluminum block motor due to weight.  Difference in weight from steel block to aluminum block is somewhere around 80-100 lbs depending on where you look.  That’s a pretty big deal in a time trial/road race car, so that decision was easy to make for me.  Most people that go iron block motors are probably going to be adding some of those funny twirly things at some point, and the iron blocks are known to hold in excessive of 1000+ hp in those applications.  Much more than I want or can afford at this point.

After some searching and looking, an LS1 motor was the only motor that was really in my price range at this time.  I wanted a stock running motor that I knew would be as trouble free as possible, as I didn’t want to be chasing motor problems when the swap itself is an undertaking in itself.  My plan is that once the car is up and running properly to start adding the fun motor parts.  “Stock” the car will be in the 300 rwhp range.  Upper limits of a bolt on LS1 are about 425 rwhp.  These figures more than satisfy my needs at this point.

The motor and T56 6-speed transmission for this project comes from a 1999 Pontiac Trans Am (for the non-LS connoisseurs, an LS1 is from 98-02 Camaros/Firebirds, and 97-04 C5 Corvettes) I was able to find the motor fairly close to home.  An early morning drive down to Milwaukee, WI with Megan on July 4th was all the further I needed to travel.  So one week after purchasing the car I already had the motor and trans at home.  This is exciting!

20150704_125802

The next important step was to figure out which complete swap kit I wanted to use for the project.  There are two major players in the LS swap 350Z world.  Sikky Manufacturing (www.sikky.com) and Fueled Racing.  Both kits offer all the same components.  The Sikky kit will run you a few hundred dollars less.  There are a few slight differences in the kits, but the main difference is engine placement within the 350Z engine bay.  The Sikky kit requres zero modifications to anything in the engine bay to put the motor in.  The FR kit places the motor back an inch or so further (an advantage of that kit for sure).  Because of this it is almost a requirement to remove the false firewall that the 350Z has.  In the picture below, the false firewall is what houses the Battery and Brake areas that are under those covers on the top left and top right.  I like the look of the hidden compartments, as it helps keep the engine bay “clean” looking and wanted to keep this feature.  I also wasn’t a fan of the idea of having to chop off and remove the false firewall.

0405_06z+nissan_nismo_350z+full_engine_bay_view

 

After making this decision, I contacted Sikky to just talk about the kit, the process, and just get a feel for the company.  Justin is the main sales guy when you call them up and he was extremely helpful and knowledgeable.  We talked about the swap and the intentions of the car.  We got to talking about GridLife, Optima, and other Time Attack type events.  They immediately expressed interest in a possible sponsorship of 365Racing.  Sikky currently has some drag and drift guys they sponsor (LS swapped drift cars below) and are looking to get more exposure into the Time Attack world.  What better way than to get on board with 365Racing!

 

110-900x600

We are proud to have Sikky Manufacturing part of the 365Racing family!  Be sure to check out their website and give their Facebook page a Like!

39aec4f

As we worked out details of all the parts I needed for the kit, I pulled the stock motor and trans from the 350Z  (Motor is for sale! Who needs a 350Z motor? :) )

received_bWVzc2FnZV9ibG9iX2F0dGFjaG1lbnQ6MTAxMDA3MTkyODg1NTM2MjI

20150708_225142

Cleaned the 100k miles worth of dirt and dust off the LS1 and T56 and waited for the Sikky swap kit to arrive.

20150706_184954

 

The wait was worth it.  Check out these beautiful parts!

received_10152897063511881

Custom oil pan
20150724_160054

LS billet aluminum motor mounts20150724_213743

Ceramic coated headers!  (test fit)received_bWVzc2FnZV9ibG9iX2F0dGFjaG1lbnQ6MTAxMDA3MzMwNDExNzMyNjI

 

To be continued…

Coming in a few days:  Part 3 – Motor and Trans Prep

 

Update 1 – Background Story

Z

Meet my new ride. A 2003 Nissan 350Z-Touring. Some of you might be thinking “That’s not new, I’ve seen that car before.” Close. I indeed had a 2003 Nissan 350Z up until last summer, which was silver as well. (For you Nissan purists, the old car was Silverstone Metallic, the new car is actually Chrome Silver Metallic) That car was sold early in the summer of 2014. This new one purchased July 2015.

To help you understand this project, lets take a trip down memory lane of my recent track car adventures. First, the attempt at a Mustang Cobra track car. V8 power and sound! Oh yeah! Not much else going on with a stock 130k mile Cobra. Ended up not being the “project” I wanted it to be.

IMG_7378

Next purchase, the old 2003 350Z-Track edition. This was actually the second 350Z I purchased in my life. First one was a brand new from the dealer 2008, so I already knew I loved the 350Z. Now further into these track adventures, a fun RWD car was wanted, with balance and handling to start, something that the Cobra lacked in its mostly stock form. Didn’t really know where the 350Z project was going to lead, NASA TT? SCCA STU autox car? The car got DD’d, ice raced, autox’d, track driven, and drifted. So why was it sold? The GridLife competition bug bit. If you don’t know what GridLife is yet, check them out here: http://www.grid.life/   GridLife 2014 was HOTTT. Temperatures reaching well over 90ºF on Sunday. Was it the heat? Was something starting to happen with the motor? Was it my imagination? The then nearly stock 110k mile, 287hp motor just seemed to lack some grunt and speed. All I could think was “Give me back a V8!“

So when you want a lot of power, a terrific handling car, competitive right out of the box stock, and doesn’t break the bank where do you turn? Like most people that want to go fast I turned to a Z06. Found this beautiful car shortly (maybe only days) after GridLife 2014 and went and bought it.

IMG_3051 - Copy

If you’ve never driven a Z06 before, the smile on your face is directly proportional to the the distance you push down your right foot. It is terrific fun! This one had mildly modified engine, (aggressive cam, intake, long tube headers, x-pipe, and tune which resulted in 400 rwhp/375 lb-ft tq) but the rest of the car was stock. vette

The car was great fun on track. AutoX you could drive the whole course with your right foot if you wanted. Four hundred horsepower is plenty of power to get your adrenaline pumping on track. (Turned a 1:17 lap at the NASA Blackhawk Farms event)

So why in the world did I sell this Z06 in spring? Some people will understand. My guess is that you are the ones that might still have your first car you got when you were 16; owned a car for years and years; a project car that you’ve put blood, sweat, and tears into. You are someone that loves your car regardless if it isn’t the coolest, the fastest, the lowest, the loudest, etc. You just love what your car is. Lets label you a “Car Romantic.”

I’m a car romantic too. The Z06 wasn’t the car love of my life. I never felt the love for the car as a whole. You’ll hear lots of people say a Z06 interior sucks, the steering wheel sucks, the seats suck, and on and on. I didn’t have any particular gripes about any of that specifically, but I also didn’t think “Dang, this interior is cool.” The blacked out look of the Z06 looked great, but at the same time I didn’t find myself turning around to look at it while I walked away (to steal an idea from an internet meme). I did spend lots of time wrenching on the car with exhaust leaks, oil leaks, bad wheel bearings, and clutch problems. Could this have contributed to my indifference for it, sure. No one likes to spend more time fixing something than driving it. After all that though, I’d still get in and that right pedal sure would bring the smile back to my face.

The Z06 was sold in April 2015. So what next? Lets shoot for the moon. My dream car? Porsche 911 GT3. A dream that is…next. Well how about a “mini 911” Porsche Cayman? A first gen Cayman S can be had with a reasonable amount of miles for about $25k. Okay, that’s reasonable to me. So at this point my heart was set on getting a Porsche Cayman S. Maybe I’ll find one moderately track prepared by someone for a good deal. Well that dream died shortly after. At the first Milwaukee SCCA autox of the year, a gentlemen let me sit in his 2006 Cayman S with manual sport seats. I moved the seat back and hopped in. My knees were cramped between the steering wheel and dash. I tried to move the seat back further without success. My heart sank. My 6’2” body was just not going to fit in a first gen Cayman.

Months passed as I tried to come up with a replacement track car. Many ideas passed but none seemed to really be 100% what I was after. Then it struck me one day. What if I could take my favorite car I’ve owned to date, a 350Z, but add my favorite motor from the Corvette. Not long before we were at the May GridLife 2015 event, sitting in the paddock as the drifters took to the track. We heard this great sounding V8. We turn around and driving by was not a Corvette or a muscle car, but a black 350Z drift car and I thought “Man, that would be cool.” At the time I didn’t put much thought or effort into a V8 350Z, thinking that sounded like a lot of work, and a lot of time to complete such a project. After some research, I came to find out that there were actually companies that were now making complete swap kits to put an LS motor into a 350Z. I read the two or three swap threads I could find on forums. It really did not seem that bad. Pictures of the motor looked like it almost belonged in there. One project was completed in just a few months. That’s when I realized, I’m doing this.

To be continued…

Motor

Visit Us On FacebookVisit Us On YoutubeVisit Us On Twitter