LS1 V8 powered R32 GTR Project

[BNR32-63]

Recently I picked up a basket case of an R32 GTR, started going through the car, currently have it stripped to a shell. I have a RB26DETT and all of the drivetrain. I had a replica LS1 V8 block for mock up from my last project and thought it might fit, since the LS1 is approx. 20" wide, 20" long and 21" tall (including intake manifold). The fit is quite easy and the engine is tiny when put up next to the RB26, and I'm sure it is also much lighter with the mass more centralized. Win win.

This swap has been done before but without keeping it awd, which is a must for my project. I have some concerns with the drivetrain being up to the task of handling the large displacement V8's FI torque, mostly the front diff and transmission(easy to upgrade). Since the car will be gutted, and 90% a road course track car, full cage, LHD converted, just enough equipment to keep it street legal (technically). It should be significantly lighter then stock which eases the loading on the drivetrain, it will also be driven properly and not driver abused or hardcore drag raced. The drivetrains seem to be fairly robust, from research they tend to hold up fairly well to abuse, aside from the transmission 3rd gear issue.

The car is in the process of having it's suspension completely gone through, all suspension arms redone with heim joints and polyurethane, with the rear subframe being solidly mounted and tied into the roll cage. It needs to be a roller to get it into the body shop to check for straightness before building the cage. Most of these arms are but custom fabricated and relocated and fully adjustable for length.

Car has a ton of work needed before I get to the drivetrain, but it's always good to plan ahead and try to find the issues.

I'll put up some pictures as I go, not much yet but I hope to have the rear subframe back in the car this weekend to check fit with the aluminum mounts this weekend. Clean up the aluminum hubs and install the polyurethane bushings and reassemble with park brake and bearings.

[Skym]

Cool.

R.I.P.S was building a R32GTR for a UK customer with 4wd Nissan V8. I think it was on Nico forum.

Here's the thread on Nico -

http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread/295062

Maybe use the 4wd sump off a 4wd Nissan V8????

This is another 4wd V8 R32GTR being built in Australia -

http://www.advan.co.nz/page14/page21/page21.html

[Willis]

Awesome!

Take lots of pictures! Nice way to shave weight from the car and simplify everything. LS engines are fairly bulletproof, and performance parts are cheap and plentiful.

Since you are doing a lot of the hard work, you should copy your engine mounts and sell them, as well as the trans adapter and such. I'm sure there are a few of us track guys that would take a serious look at this setup as well.

I think an LS2 or LS6 would be just about right power wise on a gutted GTR. Nice long tube headers as well lol.

I built a Northstar powered Fiero GT. I really miss instant torque being available at any RPM. The GTR platform is so much more superior, it would be an awesome track car.

[BNR32-63]

Thanks for the links, I had seen some information about the VH swap and the larger front diff, nice to know that is an option.

I agree on the LS torque being pretty nice to have, one of my other cars is a LS1 powered BMW E36 sedan that I built around 3 years ago or so. It's nuts fun but is tire limited and not awd. Which is fun to have on the road course, but the C6 Z06's are getting harder to handle with their big tires and lot of them on Hoosiers in the group I run in. Plus it's a great street car and I don't want to gut it and thus the R32 will get that treatment. Much better platform as well.

Engine adaptor is actually already available, but needs a bunch of work as the starter needs to be relocated. I have an HKS triple disc clutch/flywheel for the R32 and will modify it using the centre piece from the LS1 flywheel welded in.

Adapting the front diff into a custom oil pan shouldn't be very hard to build, I still have the oil pan jig from the E36 build.

Still trying to decide between a vortech supercharger or a twin turbo setup, leaning towards the SC as the linear power would be nicer on track, although a quick spooling set of turbos would be nice too...

[Skym]

You're welcome.

This info below might help and includes links to specs, dynochart's to see different configurations and results.

The rwd sump pickup might be an area where a Nissan 4wd sump might cause problems. Similar pickup problem when using RB20DET GTS-4 (4wd) sump on a RB20DET GTS-T (rwd).

Supercharger probably would suck hp out of the engine, turbo's won't.

Twinturbo LS1 dynochart's, specs including supercharger vs turbocharger comparison -

http://www.ls1turbo.com.au/au/dyno.html

Playing with wastegate, cam timing (camgears), ECU tuning should help to spool turbo's earlier.

Gen TT sell a turbo kit for a LS1 engine -

http://www.ls1turbo.com.au/au/home.html

345kw at 8psi + photo's -

http://www.fullboost.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=1384

Here's the GT Autosound 514.1rwkw dynochart -

http://www.gtautosound.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=101

New 920hp (probably less than 920hp) LS2 stroker engine in the R34, which includes going to the store, build video, startup, dyno, etc -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qqyBZVVV-s&feature=related

500rwkw at around 12psi, jaw drops. Might need a Holinger gearbox with that amount of torque.

[BNR32-63]

If I was after max power I would go twin turbocharged for sure, but I want nice consistent linear power, which a decent vortech supercharger setup will provide. Not uncommon on 5.7L displacements to make 600-700rwhp, pump gas ~10-12psi. A built 6.6L stroker can make around 800rwhp on pump, which is where I'd like to end up and without the massive torque in the midrange like a turbo setup.

[Skym]

Oh, I see.

[Sheldon]

Ahh, this is an amazing project!

I swapped an LS1 into my '89 iroc-z, but now im trading my H/C LS1/T56 for a GTS-T Skyline.

IMO, if your going for higher HP, but want to stay N/A, Run a LS2, or a LQ9 setup.

the 4.002" Bore allows for the use of L92 heads/L76 intake. The heads use a valve that will hit on the LS1's 3.898 bore, even if you bore it to a max 3.905 it will still hit the bores.

The L92 heads flow over 300cfm from the GM plant, and you can get bare castings for $200 a peice, even fully assembled ones for $400 a peice. Then grab an L76 intake from a G8, and you have one hell of a setup for less then $1500. But im sure you know all this anyways :-P

As for a power adder, depending on how much space you have, twin turbo's might be pretty damn tight. I know the D-1SC Procharger has put out some impressive numbers. If i were to boost a LS1 in a tight space, that would be how id do it.

This project is really getting me excited. I would LOVE to put an LS1 into a skyline, im surely gonna miss knowing the engines inside out, and the days when a $350 cam gets me 400+ rwhp, and where parts are dirt cheap (in comparison to these nissan motors!)

[BNR32-63]

Few pictures of the engines side by side, the RB26 is considerably larger and heavier.







Took off the RB26 oil pan and placed my replica LS1 on top to size up the fit, with a thicker oil pan flange it should fit up with no issues.

[Dragon Humper]

The L92, L76 topend on an LS2 with a HUGE cam in it will tone down the torque a bit to make the drivetrain live and give you 500 awhp with no lag issues. It's common place now for LSX motors to run 7000 rpm and make 600+ crank hp with less than $5k into them.

It's weird to see that GM took the same oil pump design as the RB but made one small improvement to make them put up with much more abuse. I think it might be the MSD and other SOFT TOUCH rev limiters stateside that help with that. That Bee-R is nasty. I have never seen a motor shake so violently on the limiter in an engine compartment.


Good luck and keep us posted with pics and vids .



Jon.

[BNR32-63]

The LS1 in the pictures is a 383ci stroker engine, forged crank, rods and pistons. Running 11.0:1 SCR and with a FAST 90/90, mild camshaft and stock ported heads is probably in the 470rwhp, tranny let go just before I was going to dyno this year, which was cased by a failed factory roller pilot bearing. I dynoed the car when it had the stock bottom end, 346ci on the same cam with stock compression and only mildly modified heads and it made 420rwhp.

300ft/lbs torque at the wheels at 1800rpms and redline set at 7200rpm where it's still pulling strong.

Big difference in the oil pumps is the harmonics of the engines and the rev limiting from the factory LS1 PCM is mild. LSx engines are solid plateforms proven over and over to make huge reliable power in a inexpensive compact lightweight package.

[Sheldon]

The LS1 in the pictures is a 383ci stroker engine, forged crank, rods and pistons. Running 11.0:1 SCR and with a FAST 90/90, mild camshaft and stock ported heads is probably in the 470rwhp, tranny let go just before I was going to dyno this year, which was cased by a failed factory roller pilot bearing. I dynoed the car when it had the stock bottom end, 346ci on the same cam with stock compression and only mildly modified heads and it made 420rwhp.

300ft/lbs torque at the wheels at 1800rpms and redline set at 7200rpm where it's still pulling strong.

Big difference in the oil pumps is the harmonics of the engines and the rev limiting from the factory LS1 PCM is mild. LSx engines are solid plateforms proven over and over to make huge reliable power in a inexpensive compact lightweight package.

383 LS1 with ported heads/mild cam i wouldnt think would hit 470rwhp, unless your idea of a mild cam is like a MS4 or something. Which car was it in BTW?

300ft/lb at 1800rpm to the wheels?!?!!? Id like to see a dyno sheet on this, LS1's arnt torque monsters, unless cammed for it. (in comparison to similar V8's etc) as the intakes dont promote low end power as much as mid range/ under the curve power.

The LS1's oil pump is definately a weaker point in the motor, regardless of the design copy or any of that. They arnt terrible, but the 97-98's had lots o problems of spun bearings from low oil flow. Easy to fix, i ported the inlet and outlet in mine, and then shimmed the bleedoff spring.

As for everything else, i completely agree with you. LS1's are undeniable power houses. $2k worth of mods on a completely stock motor can result to well over 450rwhp, and the LS1/2/3/6/7/9 Al. V8 block weighs a whopping 92lbs!

[Willis]

300ft/lb at 1800rpm to the wheels?!?!!? Id like to see a dyno sheet on this, LS1's arnt torque monsters, unless cammed for it. (in comparison to similar V8's etc) as the intakes dont promote low end power as much as mid range/ under the curve power.

300lb/ft is pretty easy with a stroker engine. Add displacement with a longer stroke and you will see big torque gains. More mechanical advantage on the crank with a larger throw.

[BNR32-63]

Here's a dyno from my engine, when it was first installed in the car('05), was still tuning it and I had some ignition timing knock issues ~2250 rpms which was killing the power.

This is on a stock block, mild ported heads, with a 231/237 camshaft and stock LS1 intake manifold. I changed to a FAST 90/90 and after some tuning had 420 rwhp.

Typically the stroker kit adds 50hp and since I went up on CR and did extensive port work I have no doubts that it's making 470rwhp or more. Car will run dead even with a C6 Z06 to over 140mph and further if we did run out of race track...

C6 Z06's make ~470-480rwhp depending and we have similar overall gearing. A set of AFR or Trickflow heads and a new camshaft this engine would be in the 520rwhp range fairly easily. But I'm going vortech supercharger this year, so I'll jump to high 600 low 700rwhp instead :drive:

[maxmumboom]

If your going to go FI on an LSx motor, consider the ATI Procharger. most guys that make huge S/C numbers use them. Ive built many lsx motors. Had the first 5.3l lsx gmc scsb pickup in the tens on heads cam blower and a 75 shot. I built a forged 346 for my vette that kicked out 507hp/420tq on the dynojet. Big ass AFR heads, and a huge cam, fast90/ls2 90 mm tb N/A. LSx'x are great motors but they have downfalles too.