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).