IH8FRD - VS SS with L98 engine Conversion

Here’s a little something we’ve been working on this week. The customer came to us all the way from Singleton NSW (nth west of Newcastle) with initial plans for a stroker 5ltr, but after discussion the decision was made to go for an LS based motor and T56 adapted with an off the shelf kit.

We supplied a brand new L98 crate motor that we have put one of our CNC ported cylinder head and cam packages in, which should get us around 320rwkw! Add to this a brand new T56 6-speed gearbox fitted with a custom shifter and heavy duty clutch and this will certainly get the VS moving a little better than 140rwkw 5.0ltr that its replacing!

We have built a custom dual 3 inch exhaust with off the shelf 4-1 headers supplied by Castle Auto Electrical. We have also custom fitted, PCM controlled, late model thermo fans to the standard HD V8 radiator and a custom made air box to house a 9 inch long pod filter. The hydraulic clutch is powered by a highly modified pedal box fitted with a late model hydraulic clutch master cylinder.

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

The fuel system has been upgraded with the fitment of a Walbro fuel pump and custom filter/ 58 psi reg set up, we have retained the use of the standard L98 fuel injectors with adapters also from Castle Auto Electrical. We have adapted the L98 power steering pump and lines, fitted a new LS1 160amp alternator and could have retained the A/C but the customer made the decision to leave it out.

Other things like the fuel purge soleniod and VS charcoal canister operation has been retained so you could realistically perform this conversion with 100% emmisions compliance and legality with the tick of approval from your local engineer.

The conversion components, again from Castle Auto Electrical, have 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 tailshaft has also been upgraded to handle the 100% power increase.

Update: Car now running.

Just waiting on a clutch master cylinder so we can get it on the dyno and start tuning!

Update: One happy customer!!

The customer flew down and pickup up the car for the long drive back to Newcastle, to say he is happy would be a big understatement!