3 weeks and needing advice!

[Triathlete]

The Ax engine is not a V8.
Osu...do a search of CoachReed. He actually had a V8 in....just couldn't get the wiring re-done (he butchered the harness). The VX is now owned by AlaskaVX...you might PM/email him for pics.
Ascinder is in the process of stuffing a 6.0 into his. Search the site for his build thread and maybe drop him a PM.
It is not an easy task but can be done. You will have to not be affraid to do some cutting and relocating under the hood though and fab up motor/tranny mounts etc.

[stokes_osu]

I am not too scared of cutting and chopping I just look at all of the talk and no one has any pic to show it can be done in a timely manner. I think I al leaning toward the oem swap if I could just find something that was worth the $$$ low miles and close to me…

[vt_maverick]

I am not too scared of cutting and chopping I just look at all of the talk and no one has any pic to show it can be done in a timely manner.

+1 - Lots of talk, little action... so far. We have several guys more than capable of doing it, but I doubt any one of them would tell you that a 3 week timeline to figure everything out AND get it all done is realistic. But hopefully Ascinder, Zeus, or BigMeat will weigh in as they are the subject matter experts.

[tom4bren]

The Ax engine is not a V8.

True. I just read his intentions as mutually exclusive requirements. V8 or 3 weeks. I assumed that the 3 week requirement took priority.

[AlaskaVX]

I am not too scared of cutting and chopping I just look at all of the talk and no one has any pic to show it can be done in a timely manner.

Pic to show timely matter I have been sitting on this project for years (AND IT WAS HALF DONE WHEN I GOT IT!) but now I finally have a house with a garage to work on it so maybe this winter/or next.

Well if you read Triathlete's post and searched their gallery you would have seen pics. Here let me do this work for you, LS-1 in VX:





The LS-1 is as far back as it can go (less than an inch clearance to firewall)

I agree with the no way in hell you will get it done in 3 weeks, there is a LOT of work to be done. Hell, trying to do all the wiring takes a lot of time and to have someone build a wiring harness, machining/fab up adapter plates, etc. its just not really possible.

[D-19]

WHAAAAaaaaa..... my vx needs a rebuild, at first a ls1 looked cheaper and more fun, but with all of this it looks like a swap would cost WAYYY too much money and time

P.S. did coachreed just up and disappear?

[circmand]

I would think you would want to swap out the engine and tranny if you were putting a V-8 in. It would suck going to all the time and expense of doing this project only to have the torque challanged tranny go the first time you punched it.

[Ascinder]

An LS1 is probably cheaper and more fun. You could probably get a used motor/transmission/transfercase combination for under $2,000 shipped. Putting it in would just be cutting out engine/transmission mounts and swapping in new ones. Now that a few people have started messing around with these options and found where the snags are, it's very doable. Just not in three weeks. On top of that, you are going to have compromises to make in terms of driving features(like hooking up cruise control) and creature comforts(like replumbing your A/C). Then there's radiator capacity for a V8 vs. a V6-like overheating? It's all the little stuff people tend to overlook when considering stuff like this. In retrospect on my build, I think it would have been best to buy a complete donor vehicle so you don't have to continuously have to try and figure out how to frankenstein stuff together between the old and the new. Coachreed seemed like he ran into a lot of his trouble when he started having to have custom adapters made so his driveline would all work properly. Why he didn't just have new driveshafts made(cheaper option and stronger) I don't know. He did look like he hacked up the wiring harness pretty good which could be salvaged, but what a PITA to have to do. Stuff like that is very discouraging to a build and that's where all the time and money come in. Compared to replacing a blown motor with a new stock V6 I could see this being viable, but you better have another mode of transportation and a lot of free time until you work all the bugs out.

[Triathlete]

P.S. did coachreed just up and disappear?

He sold his VX to AlaskaVX who is still sitting on it.

[RamAirZ]

I agree with the no way in hell you will get it done in 3 weeks, there is a LOT of work to be done. Hell, trying to do all the wiring takes a lot of time and to have someone build a wiring harness, machining/fab up adapter plates, etc. its just not really possible.

I will disagree ONLY IF you have done a similar swap before, have the money to order all parts at once and have plenty of time to tackle it. Like you work nights and can spend ALL day working on it. Personally, if I had the money for everything all at once, and it was JUST the engine/trans swap, I could have it done in under 3 weeks. I had my LS1/T56 conversion done in my old car (swapping from auto to manual at the time too) done in 1.5 weeks, the car wasn't finished as I was doing lots of other stuff but the swap was complete and I even built my own long tube headers. But I had LOTS of time and had all the parts before I started and I had done a similar swap before so most of the "engine specific" headaches I was already aware of before hand.

[Ascinder]

I will disagree ONLY IF you have done a similar swap before, have the money to order all parts at once and have plenty of time to tackle it. Like you work nights and can spend ALL day working on it. Personally, if I had the money for everything all at once, and it was JUST the engine/trans swap, I could have it done in under 3 weeks. I had my LS1/T56 conversion done in my old car (swapping from auto to manual at the time too) done in 1.5 weeks, the car wasn't finished as I was doing lots of other stuff but the swap was complete and I even built my own long tube headers. But I had LOTS of time and had all the parts before I started and I had done a similar swap before so most of the "engine specific" headaches I was already aware of before hand.

Yes, I'll agree with you 100%, if all the stars are in alignment and you've already done all your homework, then yes it can be done. But on average, if you don't have the experience/knowledge, and when you have to resort to asking about even the possibility of such an undertaking, then that pretty much spells out that you aren't on the same level as what you are aspiring to, and you are setting yourself up for failure/disappointment. Not trying to be mean, just honest. It really takes a lot more than people ever think-at least to do it right. Anything worth doing isn't easy. In this case, it's nothing but true.