Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

Derek69SS · Founding Member

cost of buying a LS1 and 4L60e

BB502 · Active Member

I hear all kinds of prices on these, I figure some come with pullies some don't, do you need to get wiring ,or does the aftermarket harness cover everything. Whats the avg price on the motor ?tranny ? Is a LS2 any better ?

SteveS · Super Poster

There isn't really a short answer to this. The first thing to decide is if you want an iron block or aluminum. The cheapest route is to get an iron 4.8, 5.3 or 6.0 truck engine. From there you'd move into a Aluminum 5.7 LS1/LS6. Next step would be a Aluminum 6.0 LS2. Then the Aluminum 6.1 liter LS3. There are also less common stuff in the middle like the aluminum 5.3 that dashboard is putting in his Buick.

Get the tranny, wire harness, pulleys and computer if you can. They can all be bought aftermarket, but it's cheaper and easier to get them at once. The next issue is motor mounts and oil pans, there are several places that make them and they all place the motor in different spots, so you have to find the right combination to work for you. There are 3 accessory drives, the truck, F-body and Corvette. If you get a truck motor you may endup buying a F-body setup, or something aftermarket anyway.

It's been a couple years since I bought mine, but I would think you could get a complete pullout LS1 with accessories, computer and tranny for around $2500 +/-. The complete 5.3 should be well under $2000. LS2 & LS3 stuff will be higher priced.

If I were to do it again on a budget I'd find an iron 6.0 truck pullout and use the LS2 stuff on it.

dashboard · 2K+ Club

Steve and Derek are in the ballpark with the core cost, they’ve done it so they speak from experience. But then there’s the ‘other stuff’ and the other stuff can be pricy, you could easily double the cost if you need lots of ‘other stuff’.

‘Other Stuff’ might include pulleys, accessory brackets; mount adapters, wiring (drive by wire or cable), computer (tuning), radiator and hoses, elect fan, cruise control, speedo convertor, drive shaft, oil pan, intake, exhaust, and on and on it goes, just the accessory drive belt can be $30.

You now have an engine/ trany combo that has xxxx miles on it, hopefully you’ve heard it run, but the good news is a 90K motor is not a high miler. Here’s a rule of thumb, sit down and estimate everything you think you may need and it’s total cost than double that number and you should be in the ballpark.

As Steve said something out of an F body or Corvette would greatly reduce some of the ‘other stuff’ cost and get everything in the pull out or do like JD did with his LT 1 just buy the entire car.

Enganeer · Mega Poster

Looks like Chris beat me to it. I bought a complete car running car with 33K miles on it, labeled everything and pulled everything out. It was in good enough shape mechanically that I could run the engine to check it out and drive it onto the trailer. I parted it out (interior, t- tops, suspension, driveshaft, stock exhaust, cats, etc) and made enough to buy a t-56. I have everyhting to transfer into the elky.

The f-body is the best donor imho. Other need different oil pans or intake accessory swaps but since the swap is becoming more common, there are more options avaialble and costs have been coming done.

If you piece it together,

Engine - look for setup that has Power steering pump, Alternator, Accessory Brackets, starter, flex / flywheel, intake and injectors, throttle body, etc. 'Pull outs' are ideal.
Exhaust manifolds stock F-body seem to fit, other stock type (GTO, truck) hit the crossmember. F-body headers did clear the elky frame.
Wiring Harness
Computer + programming
Transmission
Fuel tank with pump

Here is a donor car at an auto auction for reference

http://www.copart.com/c2/homeSearch.html?_eventId=getLot&execution=e1s5&lotId=15326313&returnPage=SEARCH_RESULTS

So what do you want to do with it...stock reliable engine or up the antee with more power? Gen III and later engines are stout even in stock form. I was pondering getting a 5.3 and setting up a turbo and beating the snot of it. Engine blows, drop another engine in. 5.3 could be cheap fun.

-- Edited by Enganeer on Friday 5th of April 2013 10:45:56 PM

Chris R · 2K+ Club

dashboard wrote:

As Steve said something out of an F body or Corvette would greatly reduce some of the ‘other stuff’ cost and get everything in the pull out or do like JD did with his LT 1 just buy the entire car.

Thats what Enganeer did. Well actually, he bought a complete but wrecked Camaro and took the LS1 and Trans and a bunch of other stuff to use for his 70 El Camino.

Brad Wilder, an old club member and former president of ours scored a sweet deal on a complete takeout 6.0 (might have been a 6.1 cant remember) from a wrecked HD that had less the 5K miles on it through Car-Part.com to use in his 57 Chevy. Had all the wiring, 4L80E and all accessories to go with it at a pretty sweet price.

BB502 · Active Member

I have a fresh 502 sitting but the LS motors sound like a great way to go. I thought I would ask about prices because a friend has a 99 LS1 out of a corvette with 12,000 on it but seems like not a good deal because its stripped has no nothing was switched for a race motor. The price is $3000 even tho its low miles would cost way to much to put it together I'm thinking, buying the whole thing seems the best bet. I'm not that good with the mechanical part I'm just a driver, will need to find someone to hook all this stuff up if I go this route. Thanks for all the input. Roger

BB502 · Active Member

Oh ya, The more power the better till its not streetable.