#how to build a 500hp ls

[largemouthbassnation]

MAPerformance Customer Loyalty Manager's 500hp LS Swapped Malibu | MAPerformance Fast Features

He’s probably helped you troubleshoot an install or two and he knows your builds inside and out! Now he’s sharing his build with … source

[s3mag]

The LS engine. It’s kind of the final destination isn’t it. I see it a lot in my sick & twisted line of work: If you keep any one car long enough… and you keep kicking that can down the road far enough… eventually it bumps up against an LS swap & comes to rest. And you go, “Saaaay now, what’s this thing??”

The LS is the auto-aftermarket’s Roman Empire, and all roads lead to Rome if you stay on ‘em long enough.

Long story short, THAT’s why we’re sitting here looking at a turbocharged LS in Eric Englert’s 3000GT. It’s the result of being deeeeeeep in a labyrinth of 3000GT riddles & obstacles. You come up for air, and then all the sudden, the air’s full of tiny microscopic LS particles.

Backstory

So here’s the backstory – a 3000GT has been in Eric’s life for 20 years now. He met his wife in those earlier years with a ’91 model… and that car played a huge supporting role in their early relationship. He sold that first car so they could buy a house & build a family.

…Sold it for love how sweet.

But the 3000GT always had that sentimental value to Eric and his wife. So as the Englert family got planted & settled, Eric was able to pick this one up in 2010. A clean example of a pop-up headlight 3000GT. It was a 100% garaged & unmolested Arizona car, with original paint & a stock 6g72 engine.

Eric made the purchase, and then with open arms, Mitsubishi welcomed him back to the Mitsu-family & the car spun a bearing within the first month.

Eric built the 6g72 with bigger turbos & AEM management. He spun a bearing again.

He stuck a 3.5 6g74 in its place, made 500hp!! …And then shot a rod.

DSM Swap

After taking a bunch more hits with a bunch more 6g motors… Eric decided to pioneer a 4g63 (DSM) swap. A lot of people questioned why you’d go through the headache & torment of putting a 4g63 engine in a car that’s heavier than the Eclipse/Talon. But the 4G63 is a decimate-all engine with a lot of aftermarket support. And the 3000 is heavier, because it has heavier components – like a larger diff & CV axles. You can get a lot of the ‘dumb’ weight out of a 3000GT by removing all the complicated & overly-sophisticated technology of the time period. For example, swapping to a 4g63 with manual transmission takes 100-pounds off the nose… right off the bat. Then if you go through the car, and remove/replace heavy, burdensome suspension components, steering components, exhaust components, sound deadening, etc… you can get the weight about down to around DSM specs.

The 3000GT is actually very close to the 1G DSM chassis in design. It’s slightly wider, but it has the exact same wheelbase. You can literally use the 3000GT shifter & cables with the 4g swap. And a lot of your plugs & sensors (as well as your alternator) all plug right up.

So in short – Eric was running the DSM engine & transmission, with 3000GT axles & rear diff, and a modified 3000GT driveshaft. Eric engineered his own motor mounts for the 3000-to-4g63 swap… and he still makes them, in case anyone needs them for their own project.

With the 4g63-swapped version of this car, Eric was running 9.65 quarter-miles at 37-pounds of boost… WITH a full dash, carpet, and rear seats. BUT – on the street, Eric was running 50-pounds of boost and nitrous! So it was a low 9-second car… he just doesn’t have the time-slip to prove it.

Despite the impressive numbers on the 4g, he was breaking transfer cases at the track. And all the downtime in-between fixes waiting for custom parts, was causing Eric some impatience.

…So he decided to try the LS thing.

The LS Thing

The LS is not an easy swap in this car. It took waaaay more hours than expected, in terms of planning, cutting, and welding. Eric had to cut a new trans tunnel & firewall. So since he was eyeball-deep in it anyway, he said ‘screw it’ & made the hole bigger to move the engine further back towards the center of the car. He built a tube/chromoly subframe rather than hacking-up the original one… with the goal of functionally tucking 275 tires under the front.

The front brakes are off an SN95 Mustang. Eric’s also using Racecraft drop spindles for an SN95. Coilovers are Fortune Auto from an Evo 9. The power steering rack is courtesy of a schweet ’88 Thunderbird. And Eric’s using an electric hydraulic power steering pump off a Toyota MR Spyder.

The car just ‘debuted�� this past summer before LS Fest, where I bumped into him at a random gas station. It recently ran a 9.70 at 20psi… and that was limited to just rolling off the starting line, because he can’t launch it on stock axles.

With the Xona Rota XR400 84mm turbo + PTC Powerglide transmission, the car shifts so hard that it breaks axles literally every time at WOT… even on street tires. Eric carries extras in the trunk, and can often be seen replacing them on the side of the road. He’s running out of spares, so next up, Eric bought a Ford 8.8 rear-end & is buying super expensive built axles.

Family Affair

In hindsight, Eric would probably NOT do the LS swap again, simply because it was such a ton of work to get this engine into this chassis… referencing that he spent a year & a lot of dollars basically building a Japanese C5 lol. But having said that – Eric is 100% DEFINITELY glad he did it. He doesn’t regret the turnout… it was just a lot of work to get there. But for the Englert family, 3000GTs are kind of a family affair. They’re worth the hassle. And this car is equal parts crazy, clean, and unique. I mean shoot – you don’t see nice 3000GTs much anymore period… so to see one with an LS like this is pretty cool.

Eric has 4 kids – 18, 14, 13, and 6. Back when the 6-year-old was 4, he saw dad’s 3000GT with the front bumper off and said, “Don’t put the bumper back on, you’ll save weight.” Keep in mind… this kid is only 4 years old! Eric tried to explain aerodynamics the best he could. The next day, the kid (obviously having thought about it a good bit), came back and said, “Dad you should take the mirrors off… you’ll save weight annnd be more aerodynamic.”

Can’t argue with that!

Back when Eric’s 18-year old was just a baby, she left a froggy toy in his first 3000GT. That frog still sits in this car today, and has become Eric’s good-luck safety charm.

Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 (5300GT VR2)

  Engine

5.3l aluminum gen3 LS

Stock gen4 rods and pistons (ring gap opened up for boost)

Stock 5.3 heads with TSP dual springs and pushrods

LJMS Stage2 turbo cam

LS6 intake

MSD plug wires

Drivetrain

PTC powerglide, reid case, and pro trans-brake

PTC torque converter

TCI Outlaw shifter

3 buttons (line lock, trans-brake, and bump)

Power Adder

Xona Rota XR400 84mm turbo from Robert at Forced Performance

Tial BOV

Tial 40mm wastegates (2)

NOS dry nitrous kit (fueling added by MS3Pro ecu)

Engine Management

MS3Pro-Evo ECU w/LS Swap harness

  Fuel

210lb Bosch injectors

Bosch 044 fuel pumps (2)

10-gallon fuel cell (modified to use the stock gas cap & fill tube)

ProMeth Volute Injection meth kit with 3-gal tank (triggered by MS3Pro ecu above 10psi)

FlexFuel using GM sensor and tuned in MS3Pro ecu

  Wheels

18×9.5 +35 ESR front with Nitto NT05 275/35/18

19×9.5 +40 ESM rear with Nitto NT05 275/35/19

17×9+35 XXR rear with M/T ET Street R (DOT slick) 28×11.50-17LT

Steering/Brakes/Suspension

Racecraft SN95 Mustang 2″ drop spindles

SN95 brake calipers & rotors

Hawk pads

Aerospace brake master on stock booster

-Vacuum pump and reservoir to maintain adequate vacuum

Hydraulic handbrake for rear brakes

Thunderbird PS rack

MR-S electric PS pump

Modified stock steering rack

Exterior

RetroSpec front lip and side splitters

Carbon Fiber hood & fiberglass hatch painted body color “snake eyes”

QuikLatch for hood, hatch, and front bumper

Carbon fiber covers for removed side mirrors

OEM foglights!!

Interior

10pt chromoly cage

Kirkey Pro Street drag seats

Perfect Tuning CANBus gauge

AEM Trim Pot (boost dial)

XS Power 14v battery in hatch

-GM truck alternator tricked with diodes to output 16volts

3000GT speedo & tach functional  😉

Fabrication – Owner Built

Recessed firewall (steel wheel barrow tub!)

Fabricated trans tunnel

Chromoly front subframe

Chromoly adjustable control arms

-QA1 heim joints, double adjusters and adjustable ball joints

Turbo kit with 4″ electric cutout to side-exit, or 3″ full aluminum exhaust

–(switch on center console)

Chromoly strut tower brace

Self built & self tuned. (except for the roll cage)

  Results….

4Gswap: 2.0l, 9.65 @ 143, 37psi and ran up to 50psi on the street and a 100shot up to 45psi

LSswap: 5.3l, 9.70 @ 146 20psi and just rolling out, no launch on stock axles.

Best trap of 148mph. (sprayed nitrous on the street but not at track yet)

Does wicked burnouts!

Engine Progression….

6g72. 135k mi 100% stock. Engine died by spun rod bearing within a month of ownership.

6g72. Bought a built used engine and went nuts doing the build I always dreamed of. (twin billet td05 turbos, AEM, custom FMIC to keep foglights, etc). After getting it driving, had low compression in one cyl.

6g72. Tore down used built engine for a full refresh, and also bought new aftermarket billet oil pump gears (mistake!). This engine died by spun rod bearing at only 400whp. Later discovered that the oil pump gears were not machined correctly causing oil pressure issues at higher rpm.

6g74. Parted out built 3.0l engine and ran a stock 3.5l 6g74 on the billet turbos. Lasted for a short while at 500whp & ended in carnage with a busted rod.

6g72. Stock replacement… sold billet turbos for used 14Bs. Had a lot of fun with this engine around 500whp for quite awhile, and eventually bent a rod.

6g72. decided on built engine again with big mofo cams to rev. Also bought a TIG welder to try fabbing. Modified my td05 kit for open wastegate dumps, and downpipe to expand to 4-inches, for a 4″ aluminum exhaust. Also swapped in an AWD auto (trans available in EU and Japan for the non-turbo awd 3000/GTO). LOVED the auto! Totally hooked on the instant & aggressive shifts, combined with zero boost lag between shifts. Engine died an early death due to crank balance issue that wiped out the mains. Demoralized yet motivated.

4g64. 4GSwap was born! Stock 2.4l with dohc head and a single 14B turbo paired with AWD auto for proof of concept. Engine didn’t die!!

4g64. built 2.4LR and HX40 turbo. Ran 10.7 on street tires. Died due to oil filter backing off & losing oil

4g63. 2.0 built, Forced Performance Super 99 turbo! Ran 9’s. Lots of fun. Engine didn’t die!! Parted out to go even crazier.

4g63. 2.0 long rod. Billet crank, aluminum rods, gas-ported pistons. Also ran 9’s, but ended up running a lot more boost on the street. Engine didn’t die!!! Sold & parted to fund LS Swap

5.3l iron block. Proof of concept engine. Issues with imported turbo so only ran 10.9. Engine didn’t die!! Swapped to aluminum block for 100lb weight savings. Sold iron block.

5.3l Aluminum block. Still kickin! 9’s at 20psi and no nitrous. A lot more of both to come. It may die. 😀

Already have a K1 forged stroker crank and K1 rods on the shelf. Plan to get Wiseco pistons to build a 5.95l stroker in a spare aluminum 5.3l junkyard longblock I picked up 😉

Text by Wooley   Photos by Ty Cobb

LS-swapped, turbocharged 3000GT… w/ fogs!! The LS engine. It’s kind of the final destination isn’t it. I see it a lot in my sick & twisted line of work: If you keep any one car long enough… and you keep kicking that can down the road far enough… eventually it bumps up against an LS swap & comes to rest.

[itsworn]

Hot Rodders Pete Aardema and Kevin Braun Create Their Own Scratch-Built 12-Cylinder Behemoth

Mutant Monster: The Aardema Developments V-12

Making a 20 litre-1200ci V-12 completely from scratch seems beyond most all of our reach, so here’s a couple of hot rodders in San Diego that have done just that. Land speed racer, Pete Aardema, and offshore boat racer, Kevin Braun, have created a number of scratch-built engines, overhead cam conversions, and crazy combos of homemade and aftermarket components. But our dynamic duo didn’t just jump into making engines, but rather eased into it when Aardema’s interest was piqued after seeing some rather exotic Pontiac Iron Duke 4-banger “Super Duty” Cosworth heads. These were aftermarket 16-valve, double overhead cam (DOHC) aluminum heads. He and Braun reconfigured them for small-block Chevy applications, and Aardema Developments (AD) was born.

Their next step was creating cam boxes to mount on stock Chevy heads, creating a SOHC Chevy small-block. Belt-driven, there have been over 50 sets produced so far. The original cam is still kept to spin the oil pump and distributor. These also have been adapted to Mopar and Ford engines.

Soon AD was adapting Porsche 928 V8 single overhead cam (SOHC) heads onto Chevy big-block engines. This morphed into AD producing their own SOHC 4-valves-per-cylinder billet heads for various mutant small-block American engines, using bucket-type lifters from Volvo engines, and adapted Nissan belt-drive. The conversion was so adaptable that V2 versions were even made for Harleys.

From here things got weird. AD adapted Subaru flat-4 heads to ancient 1928-31 Ford Model A L-head blocks, netting 300hp naturally aspirated from an engine originally producing 40hp from 103ci. Aardema says, “If there’s an engine out there, and it’s an oddball, I want to mess with it.” If you’re impressed with the almost 8-times increase in horsepower, Aardema was not. An even more powerful twin-overhead cam head with 3-valves-per-cylinder was developed netting a 201ci displacement. Aardema says that 4-valves-per-cylinder was too much to cram into the smallish heads, and that a large exhaust valve does most of the work two smaller valves would provide. With turbo-supercharger induction and on racing fuel, the bad banger made over 500hp, launching a streamliner at Bonneville to a record 240mph in 2012. Yikes!

While designing and developing engines, Aardema has also built a number of hot rods with his exotic creations—he’s going ten different directions at any one time. When we asked him where the inspiration comes from, he says, “I like to build things and like to go fast, and if someone says I can’t do something, that’s when I will do it, so I’m off on another project.”

Next up was AD’s first completely scratch-built engine, one to replace the 500hp Model A engine in the streamliner. With 3-valves per cylinder, Chevy big-block bore spacing and reciprocating components, 4.375-inch bore and 3.00-inch stroke, they christened it the Sheet Metal Engine for it’s use of heavy sheet metal to encase the billet lower crankcase and steel tubes used for cylinders in the upper. HOT ROD did a story about it in 2014 (read about it HERE). The dry- sump oil pump and twin-overhead camshafts were again belt driven. A crankcase girdle supports the block, while also incorporating one side of the five main-bearing journals. Port fuel injection with a little “100-shot” of nitrous helping the combustion, the banger is capable of 380hp spinning at 8500rpm. Numerous records at Bonneville in 2016 were set in F-Gas and F-Fuel classes.

All of these earlier developments and successes laid the groundwork for the V12. With Braun’s background in H1 Unlimited Hydroplane racing, where speeds exceed 160mph, the V12 was envisioned as a challenge to the Rolls Royce 27-liter V12 and 28-liter Allison V12. Since this is “unlimited” hydroplane racing, there are no limits to displacement or arrangement, thus Aardema and Braun had a really blank, blank sheet. Where do you start?

Interestingly, where to start came down to how long your crankshaft maker can make your crankshaft. Scat Crankshafts just down the street from HOT ROD, in Redondo Beach, was the crank manufacturer of choice, and their maximum length was 42-inches. That penciled out to be a 6.25-inch bore spacing and a 5.625-inch bore. With an estimated 7000rpm ceiling, a 4.00 stroke was deemed optimal. Why? Because the weight of 5-1/2-inch pistons is such that flinging them beyond 70-percent of the bore becomes too much inertia according to Aardema. A longer stroke could conceivably tear apart the engine.

All of this comes out to a displacement of 1192.8ci, or 19.55 liters. Though much less displacement than the popular Rolls Royce and Allison engines, their maximum rpm is around 3000rpm with a few blips hitting 4000rpm. Horsepower is much easier to produce at higher RPMs, so the AD 60-degree V12 with its higher rpm capabilities produces much more power at lower boost, provided by twin centrifugal superchargers. Scat manufactured a nitrided steel crankshaft with seven 3.0-inch diameter journals for Oldsmobile V8 main bearings. Connecting rod journals use bearings from a Chevy big-block.

Cam design was an initial problem. Says Aardema, “A V-type engine with rockers operating the titanium valves and cams rotating in the opposite directions is unfamiliar territory for cam grinders.” Eventually Schneider produced the gun-drilled hollow cam from 8620 alloy steel, actuated with convex faces acting in the same way as roller lifters in terms of valve lift profile, increasing valve-opening velocity over a conventional flat-tappet contact surface. Filing a lash cap to the desired clearance sets valve lash, much like Indy-type Offenhauser engines from the 1950s. Seven journals hold the cams, housed in a billet aluminum head with a top plate containing the valve train. An aluminum cam cover seals off the valve gear. Deck height is an even 12-inches.

The light-alloy pistons contain three rings and are hung on I-section steel rods by R&R Racing Products in Punta Gorda, Florida. Steel pins are 1 5/16-inch diameter and ride in  bronze bushings. Compression is 8.5:1.

Around the rear of the V12 are two crankshaft-driven Vortech superchargers, with planetary gearing that increases their rpm capabilities from conventional belt-driven configurations. One blower feeds into an intake plenum at the left while the second blower does the same at the right. Edelbrock throttle bodies are attached to each blower, with two 4.0-inch throttle bores opening together, while the cylinder heads flow 724cfm intake and 487cfm exhaust at 0.75-inch lift.

EFI West helped piece together an Adaptronics ECU to handle the engine management system. Detonation is controlled through the ECU’s vibration-type knock sensor located on each bank, retarding ignition if a knock is detected. Two 60-lb injectors per cylinder are fed constant fuel pressure by a Waterman mechanical fuel pump.

Essentially the makeup of the AD V12 is of two straight-six engines running together in both primary and secondary balance at 60-degree even-fire intervals. Total length of this monster is 59.5-inches, 35-inches high, and 30-inches wide.

A sampling of just some of Aardema and Braun’s motor mashups and madness.

1 – 4-valve small-block Chevy with Cosworth DOHC cylinder heads.

2 – Ancient Ford flathead with billet SOHC heads.

3 – The subject of our story, the V12 with it’s turbos attached.

4 – Moser 4-valve cylinder heads on a small-block Chevy from the August 1971 HOT ROD cover. Aardema purchased all of the components from Harvey Crain of Crain Cams, who was involved with the engine along with designer Richard Moser, and built it with this single 4-bbl. Originally as seen on the cover this was injected with stacks.

5 – One of three DOHC Ford Model A conversions. This engine has set many records over the years both blown and naturally aspirated, and has gone 240mph at Bonneville.

6 – Originally cast by Mickey Thompson, this 4-cam, 2-valve Chevy conversion was never developed. Aardema finished the design, and then he and Braun machined it.

7 – This 300ci Chevy LT5 set six SCTA records its first time out last year at El Mirage and Bonneville, with a best of 225mph. Also, it has put three different drivers into the 200 MPH Club so far. Runs Scat crank and CP pistons and rods.

8 – LS3 with belt-driven LT5 4-valve heads for the street.

This is the setup for testing the naturally aspirated 1200ci monster developed by Pete Aardema and Kevin Braun for H1 Unlimited Hydroplane racing, where death-defying speeds of over 200mph push the 30-foot boats to the thin edge of control. At 7500rpm the engine is spun over twice the rpms of currently popular Rolls Royce Merlin and Allison V12s in the Unlimited category. You can see part of the gear drive with the two turbochargers removed.

Overwhelmed by its wild Mickey Thompson twin-overhead cam conversions, hidden beneath the water pump adaptation and belt drive is a Chevy small-block. These raw castings were never developed. Aardema purchased them, determined what it would take to make cams and drive them, and the machining necessary to make them work, and this is the result.

The engine experimentation and testing takes place in this nice-sized shop outside of San Diego.

The impetus for Aardema and Braun’s journey to build and develop mutant engines started with these Cosworth aftermarket double-overhead cam heads for the Pontiac Iron Duke 4-banger. The Pontiac/Cosworth hybrid head was used in IMSA GTP-class racing, running in Fiero GTP racecars in the Camel Lights series. The rare aluminum cast blanks required a lot of machining as well as adaptation of a cam-drive belt system.

Aardema Developments has successfully offered this Chevy LS SOHC head featuring 4-valves per-cylinder. These heads have been used on other American small-block engines, too. The billet aluminum heads use bucket-type lifters from a Volvo, and an adapted Nissan gear drive with Aardema’s own camshafts.

Aardema’s love of land speed racing and interest in the Ford Model A L-head produced from 1928 to 1931 led to this mongrel, featuring Aardema’s own DOHC head originally developed around two Subaru flat-four heads. The Model A has an extended center-bore spacing helping to fit two heads to the deck. The 3-valve per-cylinder head with a 4-inch square bore/stroke produced over 300hp. With a supercharged turbo setup that same engine hit 500hp in 2012. Below the Model A block is a combo aluminum girdle/main bearing support and dry sump setup.

Another vintage land speed overhead setup is this SOHC-configured Ford flathead V8. Starting with billet of aluminum Aardema and Braun utilize the stock flathead block—you can even make out the 24-stud bolt pattern, though some along the top were not deemed necessary.

To verify the computer program for different billet components Aardema sticks wooden dummies into the mill. Much cheaper than billet aluminum, he can detect any variances or mistakes that need program corrections in this fashion.

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