Converted

 Rob’s Blog

It Saturday night and you’ve just finished your latest project so you head out to show it off to the world. It’s a slammen VR Commodore with a surprise under the hood. There’s no fitty cent pumping though the subs, you’re more than content listening to the sweet dulcet tones of the new V8 under the bonnet and every now and then you just have to give the throttle a dab to re-assure yourself its still there.

As you pull into the Maccas car park, all your mates are hollering and quickly surround the car to see what you have been up for the last month. You pull up and one of them is already pointing at the bonnet and gesturing in an upwards motion, you pull the latch, walk around and slowly unveil the “piece to resistance”. They all stand there staring in amazement at the spank’n new L98 6.0lt sitting in the engine bay as if it was always meant to be… Then the questions start flying, how did you do it? Was it hard? You must be a friggin engineering genius?..You smile, nod and soak it all in. Then THE question gets dropped, why go to all that work wouldn’t it be easier or cheaper to just build a bitchen 355ci ….

The answer to that question is not necessarily! The conversion of an LS series motor into A VB- VS Commodore is pretty straight forward these days with a number of companies coming to the party with all the components you need to do the job with minimal fabrication or cutting required.

In my opinion the beauty of the LS Series engine conversion is that it gives you  the latest technology all alloy engine that in standard form can make an easy 230rwkw, add a performance camshaft an you’ve got 280rwkw, add forced induction and 350rwkw is under your right foot. To make the same power out of a 5.0lt you would need to stroke it into a monster or build an engine with a forced induction setup which can also quickly add up to big $$bucks, not to mention by using an LS Series engine you will end up with something that is reliable, low maintenance and a little unique.

With the Aussie dollar holding up and the economy in the US still struggling, GM parts are still very reasonable with brand new L98’s selling for as little as $4K, This means you could buy all your parts for the conversion for less than a big time stoker build up on your existing 5.0lt and if you are prepared to put in a “little blood sweat and tears” and be resourceful you can keep it to a comparable budget.

Recently at HPF we had the pleasure of carrying out this exact conversion for one of our customers that came to us all the way from Singleton NSW with initial plans for a stoker 5ltr in his VS SS Commodore, after a lengthy discussion the decision was made to go for an LS based motor and T56 adapted with an off the shelf kit.

We supplied and fitted a brand new L98 crate motor that was upgraded with a set of Higgins CNC ported cylinder heads along with a HPF special grind camshaft. To give the drive train reliability we added a brand new T56 6-speed gearbox along with a custom shifter and heavy duty clutch to help get all that new power to the rear treads.

The conversion components sourced of the shelf included engine mounts and gearbox mount which allowed the engine to sit nice and low in the engine bay with ample clearance for header fitment once the firewall had some minor massaging.

 

The idea was to always keep the car looking as factory under the bonnet with the use of OEM parts where possible. We went with the cable 90mm throttle body for ease of conversion but this could be done with the OEM fly-by-wire setup with some more pedal box massaging.

We then set about sorting all the sundry items including fabricating a custom dual 3 inch exhaust to match up to the off the shelf 4-1 headers supplied by Castle Auto Electrical, upgrading the tail shaft to handle the 100% power increase, fitting a set of late model thermo fans to the standard HD V8 radiator and fabricating a custom air box to house a nice free flowing 9 inch long pod filter to allow the engine to breath..

We also upgraded the fuel system to feed the new engine the right amount of fuel to match all that power by fitting a Walbro in tank fuel pump, custom filter and fuel pressure regulator set up and we were able retain the standard L98 fuel injectors with adapters also sourced from Castle Auto Electrical. We then adapted the L98 power steering pump and lines and fitted a new LS1 160amp alternator and while we could have retained the A/C the customer made the decision to leave it out.

Other things like the fuel purge solenoid and VS charcoal canister operation where also retained, so it would be possible to perform this conversion with 100% emissions compliance and legality with the tick of approval from your local engineer if you chose to keep the engine in standard form without the heads and cam upgrade.

Finally It was then onto the Dyno where the engine calibration was remapped to suit the new heads and cam set-up with a tidy 311rwkw now at the rear wheels up from the poultry 140rwkw from the original 5.0lt. On the road the new 6.0lt capacity combined with the light VS body made for an absolute rocket ship with bundles acceleration available at any throttle position.

So if you own a VB – VS commodore and are looking to modify it into something special I would urge you to do your homework and consider the LS conversion as an option. You won’t be disappointed… neither will your mates.

Power to the people

Rob Vickery