Bill, I want to Thank you for posting your swap info. I have a couple of cars with BBB power and I have a 67 Skylark that has a 340 4bbl that I dont think runs. Its a clean car that will get an LS swap and your info will be helpful. The car will have seats out of a late model car and retain its 50 year old paint and dents in the fender. Nothing wrong with making an old car better. Crap if they want to be purist pull every after market control arm and sway bar off their car and run stock. Enjoy driving that baby you worked hard!
A Turbo V6 would have been nice and would bolt right in. Then you could be modern, somewhat, and still be a Buick. That is all I hear from my Chevy friends, Ls this Ls that. But with a 300 and a trans you can't get rid of the Ls swap makes sense. I am not a fan of it but that is the way it goes. The real catcher is when they put the Ls in a Ford now that is bull there. At least it was kept GM give credit there. Looks nice all modern can't go wrong. That 300 would take a boatload of work to get it up to the Ls specs.
I had absolutely no experience with LS motors until I bought my ZR1 Corvette powered by the Supercharged LS9. I thought my 1987 Grand National (GrandNasty) was real fast, but this thing is insane. I'm used to Buick motors but this thing revs up so fast you can hardly shift it fast enough. I was at the dragstrip last Sunday and I saw LS motors in everything. Mustangs, all types of "G" bodies, Hot Rods, 1950s Studebaker, Altereds, etc, etc, etc . We got guys I hang out with that by a cheap junk yard LSs, change the cam, turbo or Nitrous the damn things and they run easy mid to low 10s and seem to never break. Looks like the LS motors will soon replace the big block Chevy. I am still a Buick fan as GrandNasty is now apart and a major upgrade is in the works. \\
Yeah I agree but let’s just compare a Buick 350 and a 5.3 for a minute... DO the same bolt ons to each. Headers, less restrictive intake, and a cam swap.. re calibrate the carb on the 350 and a computer tune on the 5.3. do you think the Buick 350 will pick up 90 Hp with those 4 mods?
I love these types of arguments. I mean, there's only 3-ish decades of advancements in R&D/technology. But whatever, let's keep arguing the apples to cumquat comparisons anyway.....
This site sometimes sounds like the flat earth society. A couple weeks ago my 5.3 had a check engine light. I hooked up my scanner, and within 10 minutes knew exactly which sensor had gone bad. No troubleshooting. The ECU saw that it was not responding right and threw a code. I replaced it in less than an hour for $40. No more codes. The truck still ran with a check engine light. The motor has 109,000 miles on it, and this was the first thing to ever go wrong with it. I expect to see 250,000 miles with this motor, which is pretty common. I don't know where you're getting your information about the sensors, but GM sources them from other companies, often imported. A replacement sensor isn't less reliable by default. I've been putting off building my 455 for years because I couldn't afford to do it the right way, but every time I read nonsense like the original poster is getting on here, I get a little closer to putting a junkyard 5.3 in with a chinese turbo setup and blowing the doors off of all the $10K 11.5 second 455 builds. I prefer to keep a Buick all Buick, but the bashing gets old, and I'm not sure I'll ever have the funds to build my car the way I really want to.
really nice info on the LSx swap. I'm in the same boat with my 66 Special and right now I'm debating between an "older" school LTx motor and trans or going ahead with the 5.3 swap. I just happen to have a 76mm Garret turbo from a buddies race program left over(he went to twin 88's) that's begging for a home and the 5.3 SCREAMS for a single hair dryer! I'm even thinking about leaving mine with the patina'd look just to keep in somewhat innocent for those who might want to make a quick run down the interstate..........
You probably have already seen it, but there is a guy on youtube from Allentown PA that goes by the name "sloppy mechanics". His whole deal is cheap LS junkyard turbo or blower builds, and he is really helpful and shares all of his tunes and information on the builds. If you want to know exactly what to use to make 600whp out of a 5.3 with a single turbo, I highly recommend looking at his video series called the "don't BS me build". He took a junkyard 4.8l truck motor, added a cheap 228/230 cam, single turbo, upgraded injectors (shows how to decap stock injectors to increase flow also) upgraded fuel pump, and tuned it with HP tuners. All the details are there, and the tune is available for free on his wiki page. You have to admire how straightforward and generous he is with his information.
I'm willing to bet his title still says Buick on it and the car still looks like a Buick!! it's funny, nobody goes off on a guy for installing a Chevelle 12 bolt in his Buick. how about an aftermarket block that definitely didnt come from Buick or GM for that matter. Good work Bill and I like it.
Looks awesome. Outstanding work. Will be dropping in an LS into my Skylark with a turbo if rolling chassis doesn't sell.
Thanks for the original post Bill. I couldn't agree more. I wish I would've seen it earlier and joined in the discussion. Oddly enough, I really enjoying hearing everyone's opinion on this forum, especially those that are completely different than mine. I believe I'm a lot smarter and make better decisions in my life when I hear conflicting opinions, rather than yes-men nodding their heads at me or someone digging in his heals in the name of being "right" or "traditional". My '71 GS 350 has been in my family since new. I absolutely love this car! But it's a stripped down, basic 350, no AC, bench seat, 3 speed on the column car... it's not a rare collector car. I could've put a good amount of money into it to make it perform and drive like a stock early 70's car. Or, as I decided, I put a little more money into it and made it perform and handle like a brand new high performance car. You can't argue with almost 50 years of design and technology improvements in my 495 HP LS3 and Tremec 6 speed. I consider myself a "Buick Guy". My first car was a '69 GS400 and that's where it started 37 years ago. This is my 2nd GS and I hope to someday own others. Who knows, maybe someday I'll have a super rare, fully restored, all original car and trailer it to car shows... on second thought, scratch that.
So much hate in here. I’d like to see some more/better pics of the car as it seems like an awesome build. I’m never going to hate someone because they took a different route with their car than I would. I think next up should be a single turbo setup! Me personally, I’ll be keeping my Buick, buick powered but I’ve had/have ls powered vehicles and they take to mods well. I also want to throw one in my k5 blazer (keep your Chevy Chevy powered lol).
An LS swap is actually much easier than this blog, really easy......Drop a bunch of money on a Camaro...…….
Great swap, thanks for sharing. I plan to do something similar and I like reading about other guys who have done it. Happy motoring.