Needed a new project... LS3 soon!
 

Always like a side project and came across a good deal on an LS3 so I guess this will be the next phase of my BRZ. Car is still running great with a turbo setup so I'm not in a rush to finish this but will be using this thread for documentation. Looking forward to designing and fabricating a bunch of parts!!

Heres the LS3 coming home and the current state of my car

Spent some time researching serpentine setups and couldn't find anything I really liked. Using CTS-V/ZL1/LSA alternator bracket and tensioner but needed to make an idler mount to get sufficient wrap around all pulleys. Happy with the result.

Hey man! your in the san Diego Area? i do canbus converters and been wanting to see if i can find a person with a LS3 here to help develop it!

I will be going the Motec route so I won't be needing to communicate between two ECU's. But good to know theres someone local if I do run into something!

Track or street car? Are you going to tune the Motec m130 yourself?

Also, nice truck!!

oh cool!! im glad someone around here is doing a LS swap anyways haha. cant wait to see the progress!

Both... for now. I still use it for my 9 mile commute but it will eventually be a dedicated track car. Going to attempt to tune myself but I really have no idea what I'm doing on the calibration front. But thankfully I do engine testing/development for a living so I work with a few calibrators that can help me out a bit. If really get stuck then I guess I will take it to a Motec tuner. I'm going to give it a shot first. Who did you use on yours?

Thanks! Got the truck for the wife about a year ago and it's been awesome so far.

Made some good progress over the last few weeks. Wiring harness modified to use circular connectors on firewall, second lambda, and oil temp sensor. Oil pan, starter, Clutch, finished clutch reservoir mount, and coolant expansion/recovery tank mounts done.

Very nice progress so far. This looks like a high quality build for sure! Following :)

Sorry for the late reply. I had my local motec tuner in SLO county tune my car. Are you going to fab your own engine/trans mounts and headers? If you want to track the car I'd plan for a dry sump from the start if you want your engine to last. I wish someone would've stressed this to me more.

Love it! Just upgraded to the Vorshlag headers. I didn't have the accusump installed hopefully it serves you well. @spitsnaugle is about to add one to his setup.

Nice! How was header clearance to the chassis? Any really tight areas?

Mine is at this shop right now.http://www.tcdesignfab.com/
Pretty much having to completely rebuild the car to address all the issues I was having on track plus make it much safer. Will have more brakes, more cooling, dry sump, half cage, fire suppression etc. They are gonna fab up the headers to my current exhaust as well.

Do you have a Katech 416CI LS3? That's the motor I just put in my car. It made 495WHP and 510TQ on E70 with CX racing headers. With the dry sump, ported intake manifold and Vorshlag longtubes I'm expecting about 550 to the tires.

Headers should be going in this week, I'll try to get you some pics. Should fit like a glove. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWL1qGIH-RI

Your build sounds pretty awesome. Looking forward to seeing it done!

Engine I have is actually a freshly rebuilt used engine from a race team I used to work for that works closely with Katech. It’s a pretty mild build. Stock bore with Mahle forged pistons, arp rod bolts, comp cams “hot-cam” 219/228 @ .050 with .525/.525 lift 112 LSA, Katech cnc ported heads, GM blue valve springs, 3/8” pushrods, and a high volume oil pump. It dynoed at 511 hp and 495 ft-lbs (at the crank).

Got the wiring bulkheads installed today. Happy with how it turned out.

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From what i hear the Sikky kit is the best thing to buy, and their header design is amazing by keeping the headers away from you plug wires and also fitting perfectly around the steering rack but I cant speak for it personally. Just from what I have heard. Build looks high quality I love it I will be starting mine soon.

Both Vorshlag and Sikky swap components seem to be very high quality. There are pros and cons to both of them but I don’t think you can go wrong either way. I spent a lot of time going back and forth between the two but ultimately decided on Vorshlag for my build.

Was able to get enough header clearance using a xrp ultra low profile orb fitting (pn: 989110). Have almost 1/2” clearance now.
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Also got these super trick stage 8 locking header bolts
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Ill be honest and say i have not heard one complaint from the sikky kit besides maybe when running the tr6060 and how you have to massage the tunnel and if you use their relocation shifter the amount of material that needs to cut off. If you dont mind sharing your cons im open ears

Finished the dash assembly today. I’m using the Aim pdm32 with 6” dash.

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Also made a new mount for the remote battery terminals and upgraded to Motorsport grade 1/0 cable from cheaper grade 2 ga. Battery located in the trunk with msel master relay.
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Previously had battery grounded in the trunk but now the grounds runs up to the terminal post. My car has always cranked a bit slow since the battery relocation and the ls3 would be even worse.

Sub'd

Really amazing work. Excited to see more.

Needed a new project... LS3 soon!
 

Got some arp bolts and a bunch of parts back from cerakote today. Really liking how everything came out. Wanted to go with a color a bit out of the ordinary. Kinda looks brownish in a couple of the pics but the color looks really good in person and especially so in direct sunlight.

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eBay subframe modified for Vorshlag mounts. Dropping it off for powder coat tomorrow.
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PDM and ECU mounting.
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Very slick setup. What is the box in front? It looks like an airbag by the circular shape and connectors.

You’re correct. Motec mounts under/behind the passenger airbag. Not a ton of options under the dash there it’s pretty tight.


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So did you get rid of the engine bay harness that goes through the firewall on both sides to make your own harness?

Not yet.. still driving it with the fa20 in it. My car basically has two sets of wiring in it right now.

Finished up the PDM wiring this weekend. PDM is controlling the radiator fans, motec ECU, coils, lambda controllers, and reverse lockout solenoid. Some sensors, gps module, and dash control buttons wired into it as well. It’s also taking data from two can buses. On the CAN1 bus I have the Motec and the factory Subaru bus. On CAN2 I have the two AEM lambda controllers and MSEL battery relay. Will be adding the Aim RIO02 module to that bus too when it’s finally released.
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Really happy with how the dash looks assembled.
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Still need to wire the fuel level sensor, mount the gps antenna, and figure out the can messages for some of the dash indicators. Half tempted to just take those in as analog signals though. Was trying to learn how to sniff can messages but I didn’t get very far.

If you look closely you can see the M130 peaking through. Ethernet connection is for the ECU.
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Finally started doing the actual swap!
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Going in/out from the bottom.
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Master cylinder mount courtesy of @spitsnaugle
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Decided to use a fuel manifold fed by the two factory 5/16” hoses. Also has the fuel pressure sensor and 6an feed to the factory ls3 fuel rail
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Needed a new project... LS3 soon!
 

I’ve made a lot of progress the past couple of weekends.
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I’ve been doing my best to document as I go but sometimes I get on a roll and forget to take pics of the process.

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A lot of fab work this past weekend. Getting pretty close now!

Shift hole block off plate for using the Joe’s racing shifter boot. Factory console and shifter boot will go over this but this will keep the road debris out of the cabin.
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Reversed the inlet/outlet on my verus radiator for cleaner plumbing with the LS
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I had a lot of scrap cuts trying to make the y pipe work out just right. Pipe fitting definitely takes a lot of patience and practice. It’s something I will need to do a lot more of to be good at. Took me forever but the end result is decent.
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Going to reuse the back half of my old exhaust. The cat will come out but behind that will stay the same. Only a few more pieces to go.
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wow is all I can say!

Thanks!

I made some more progress on the exhaust last night. I just need to add the O2 bungs and finish welding a couple seems. I’m using a Burns Stainless 3”IDx4.5”ODx27” race muffler in the tunnel and a vibrant muffler out back. Can’t wait to hear it!
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When your done come do mine will you :thumbup:

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What does the cross beam look like that holds up the bumper?