He just finished getting the car fully CA legal. It has passed the smog ref’ and is fully legal, smoged as a '01 Camaro Z28. It’s actually a '00 motor, but he put a '01 LS6 intake-mani and PCM in it so he didn’t have to mess w/ EGR. The car has all the Fbody emissions equipment right down to the EVAP unit on the tank (and a stock Fbody pickup/pump/sending unit in the tank). He had to get a weak-ass crush-bent Y-pipe and catback setup since the ref wouldn’t pass his H-pipe and true duals (even though a '01 'vette w/ LS1 would have that, he was smoging as a '01 Fbody so he got screwed there). So the car still had that crap on it (2.5" crush bend extremely inefficient design just to get the car legal) and was probably down about ~20rwhp.
First thing: it’s fast. It’s not as fast as my Zoh but it’s damn quick for a choked-down stock LS1. The balance and feel of the car is great. It looks and drives like a factory install. Honestly the LS1 looks more at home in the engine bay than the rotory did and even more than it does in a Fbody. He went w/ a manual rack for the car since combining the Fbody PS-pump w/ the FD rack creates a really over-boosted light feel so the steering is VERY heavy at low speeds. But once you’re movin’ it’s not too bad and being a nice manual rack it communicates back to you very very very well. The brakes (stock FD stuff) are very good (the sub-2800lbs weight surely help) and really it’s an impressive car for the ~12k he has into it. The ride is a little rough (it’s on 550/450 in/lbs springs on coil-overs) but still better than my Z28 was.
that intake cant be in the greates spot, sucking up that hot air from the engine, but still like u said, it looks as if that motor should be in that car stock!!! very nicely done!
The swap is really cleaned up now as compared to those pics. He took off the 'vette FRCs, cleaned up some wiring etc. and just did some general cleaning.
The 'vette already has a Cartek built 348 doing 428RWHP. I have a Fast 90mm intake and Nick Williams 90mm TB waiting for me to get the time to put 'em on. The car has a lot of other mods to support road racing and autox (upgraded radiator, ps cooler, oil cooler, susp. work, roll bar and harnesses etc.). It obviously has the bling-bling 19s but I have the stock wheels w/ road race tires and the 4 17x11s w/ AutoX tires that I used on the Z/28. I’ll probably end up spraying on it too… I mean it has a forged bottom end, there’s some sort of law that you have to spray it right?
