Engine Swap

A year ago, when we dropped an LS7 into the HOT ROD Solstice, that crate engine was relatively new, and there weren't very many in the hungry hands of the public. But in the time since, GM Performance Parts has sold a bunch of the LS7 crate engines-pretty impressive considering the fairly high street price that hovers around $13,000 (though the list price is $17,000). But the engine (PN 17802397 at your local GMPP dealer) is worth it.

The LS7's parts list reads like a high-end endurance racing engine, with titanium rods and intake valves, CNC-ported heads, offset rockers, and a dry-sump oiling system. With 427 ci and 505 hp out of the box, this is one heck of a package. And as you may have seen in our exclusive dyno test in the Feb. '06 issue, a cam-and-header swap makes it an easy 580hp engine-600 if you want to lean on it. And that's with OE-spec durability. Wow.

As fun as the Solstice project was, we wanted to see what was involved in dropping the engine into a car more representative of the readers of HOT ROD. And what car is more common than a first-gen Camaro? It just so happened that GM Performance Division Engineer Mark Stielow was doing just this swap on his own time: sticking a box-stock LS7 crate motor in his latest Camaro project, a '69 code-named Camaro X. Stielow is known for building first-gen Camaros with wild engines using either oddball cylinder heads or multiple turbochargers, but that was before the LS7 debuted, and now it's a no-brainer for his car. Stielow says, "The goal for Camaro X was to build a fast car, but one that has the driveability and performance of a Z06 Corvette."

Of course, the external architecture of the Gen I (traditional small-block) and Gen III/IV (LS-series) engines is completely different, so it didn't look to be a drop-in engine swap. But thanks to a few parts from American Touring Specialties (ATS), it turned out to be just that. ATS supplied the motor mounts, headers, an oil pan, and a transmission crossmember to allow an F-body T56 six-speed to fit. The company also supplied a hydraulic clutch slave cylinder mount. The engine mounts, oil pan, and transmission mounts made the engine and transmission a bolt-in deal, and the only hole that needed to be cut was for the shifter to come through the floor. The next potential problem area was the dry-sump system, with its plumbing and remote oil tank. Stielow used a Peterson 2-gallon tank and mounted it where the battery used to be.

The other parts of the dry-sump system are the tank (right) and breather (left). The best-fitting oil tank is a Peterson 2-gallon tank (PN 08-0005) with a -12AN pickup, a -12AN return, and a -12AN breather. The oil pump is behind the engine's harmonic damper.