have you searched the internet yet

 

Yes. The internet is a great resource for things.

 

Theres a company in Dallas that has everything you need for an LS swap. It was featured on Gas Monkey Garage last season. I'd imagine they provide a fair amount of tech support that goes along with their parts. For the record the Gas Monkey car ended up butchered in my opinion as they were building a track only car. But it is a beast and heavy on the WOW factor.


Vorschlag

 

So your plan is to buy an E46 and replace the motor, trans, and pretty much every other part under the car? Why not just buy a nice M3 and call it a day? An LS1 has 305-350HP depending on the series, an M3 has 333 HP. Seems like a lot of work and money for not that much payoff. At best, you will have a hacked up E46 with a 15-20 year old Camaro engine in it, on the other hand you could have a sweet M3!

 

So your plan is to buy an E46 and replace the motor, trans, and pretty much every other part under the car? Why not just buy a nice M3 and call it a day? An LS1 has 305-350HP depending on the series, an M3 has 333 HP. Seems like a lot of work and money for not that much payoff.

The engines are night and day in terms of character. The S54 is a high-revving race-derived purebred, and the LS has far more low-end torque. Can't quantify engines in terms of HP numbers alone.

All depends on what you want your car to feel like. Personally I think an LS swap is the most boring upgrade path imaginable, but different strokes for different folks. :dunno:

 

I would guess that your going to need a welder, some kind of efficient way to make many cuts in metal, custom driveshaft, make shift tranny and engine mounts. This is just off the top of my head I never done anything crazy like that before tho. Your also going to need to make a wire harness to plug in all the goodies, and I wouldn't be surprised if you will need a stand alone ecu. I do remeber seeing a kit for that before, but if your going 100 percent save money/diy you have a lot of planning to do. This would probably only work as a track car unless you spent some serious dough to make it daily drive able.

 

If you're looking at the S2000, why not consider the Z3 M Roadster. It can be had with either the S52 or the S54. The S54 variants are starting to climb in price but the S52 versions are a real bargain right now.

 

Do it. Ignore the 350hp comment above, more like 380hp. A mafless tune and a small cam swap (cam and springs) is cheap and will put you well on the other side of 400hp for very little outlay. The car feels amazing with an LS swap, the chassis feels really stable and everyone reckons they should have come with a v8 from the factory. So much torque down low, makes it very easy to drive daily. With the big overdrive 6th gear, you can get some pretty good mileage out of them too. To give you an example of performance, down here LS1 powered commodores (which are a good 700-800lbs heavier) with similar power figures are running 12 second @ mid to high 100mph 1/4 passes . If you get the rest of your car shorted, that sort of performance will leave the M3 in the weeds.

edit: only issue is the lack of LSD's available for non M3 models. BMW left the traction issues up to the DSC / Traction control, so you won't find a factory (non m) LSD anywhere. They also run the shorter kompakt 188mm gear set in the diff too, so you either have two options; 1) fit a complete M3 rear subframe and differential, or 2) go aftermarket for your LSD center and have the factory one rebuilt. High ratio gear sets are hard/expensive to find, 3.38 is the highest E46 one you'll probably find, but E53 X5's have a 3.64 that makes a nice upgrade (use the X5 crown wheel and pinion when rebuilding your E46 diff). Ideally you'd like something a little higher to waken the motor right up, but 3.73's and 3.91's don't really exist, so your next step is a 4.10 which will give you blistering acceleration, and matches up to the T56 gear ratios rather nicely if you don't mind changing gears a little more often. If it's not a daily, id probably look at running 4.10's with a mafless tune and cam upgrade. Either way you go you'll probably spend anywhere from $1500-$2000 to get a good LSD into the rear end of a non M, so factor that into your budget.

If you do the above you'll end up with a 420-450hp, ~3300lb, 12 second 1/4 mile, car that pretty much everybody will underestimate and anybody can get in and drive.

 

Did you pull the trigger? Have a swap going right now. Going to see how cheap i can do it for. LOL

Do it. Ignore the 350hp comment above

I loled at the ignorance of the guy talking about just buying an M3. A stock 4.8 makes 10hp less at the wheels(in a pickup with much more driveline loss) than an e46 M3

Intrinsically any ls will make more power due to the swap, as you'll likeley get a free flowing exhaust and a tune. IMO saving up for a better motor is the best bet. Also, if you score youreself a LY6 or better truck motor, usually runs a grand or two, it'll make 450 at the crank all day on 89 octane.

Just buy an good baffle for the oilpan, or an accusump, LS motors dont like high Gs


Let alone it wont require half the bullshit maintentance.