I know everyone is drooling over LS swaps here, but I wanted to see how people felt about grabbing an engine from a junkyard for the swap. I've never done an engine swap myself, so I'm a little cautious about reliability from junk yard engines. I also have to convince my wife its a worthy endeavor, and for us reliability is key.

Are most people planning on swapping the whole thing at once, or pulling the LS and rebuilding portions of it?

 

 

Off the top of my head, here's the list of what we are recommending replacing on junkyard engines:

Light Refresh:
Front crank seal
Rear main/cover seal
Oil pickup tube brace
Oil pan gasket (if not replacing oil pan)
Knock sensors and knock sensor harness
Exhaust manifold gaskets
Exhaust manifold bolts (replace with studs?)

Medium Refresh (light refresh plus):
Water Pump
Thermostat
Front Cover Gasket
Starter
Assorted sensors (MAP, coolant temp, etc.)
Valve Cover Gaskets

Heavier Refresh (medium plus):
Oil pump and gears
Heads (especially if 706 model in the range)
Pushrods / lifters
Injectors
Camshaft?

Feel free to add if I'm missing something.

 

 

 

Do you think it would be worth doing rod bearings, main bearings and piston rings for the heavier refresh?

 

I'd consider those items to be on the "heavier" side

 

If you going that far, in my opinion, you might as well do a full rebuild. Probably should add that as a 4th category.

We're looking at mid-March as a release date, as long as everything goes well with current beta testing. We attempted outsourcing some parts, but the quality was not what we wanted, so it put us behind a little bit.

 

 

I assume that's for the non-smog version..? m