Ls1 upgrade questions
 

Scarab 29 1998 twin smells with work

Has anyone done a ls1 upgrade. One of my companies is small salvage. I don't have a junk yard but we part put mostly small power sports. Anyways was gonna buy two wrecks and get the ls1 motors and electronic and to sell the rest to get the motors for free. Stroke those motors and add blowers. Good idea?? Or bad? Do car motors hold up as well if built right in boats? Any bads and goods to these engines?? I light the fuel injection and weight savings. Just looking for opinions. Big blocks won't fit in mine.

most people will tell you automotive engines have no buisness being in the water...

My thoughts: Your gonna spend a FORTUNE to bring these automotive engines to a standard thats acceptable/reliable in a marine application. I would think it would be more widely accepted to sell your wrecks till you have the coin to do a marine build from the ground up or at least start with a marine rebuild.

Have no issue building marine engines. Just didn't know the differences

they are already being marinized, so exhaust and some other parts are available, these are great powerfull engines for the size, a 6.0/6.2 truck may be the ticket, you will see more of them in the near future...

theres a guy on here that put a pair of those in a 24 skater works great go to skater forums and check it out. ive seen it and heard it and trust me you wont be disappointed.

almost all i o marine engines are car engines adapted for marine use,mostly small&big block chevrolet.

start with 6.0l truck blocks build them with a forged bottom end 4 in stroke (I like callies cranks and rods with diamond pistons) and you have a 408cid, top with ls3 heads and mild cam and you have and easy 500hp,(600hp with a big cam) engine with torque to match. a 6.0l with a small cam is 400hp engine a little more cam and 450hp is easy.The bottom end of ls stuff is miles ahead of older designs 6 bolt bottom ends with cross bolts. the valvetrain is so simple light and reliable. a set of double valve springs, bearing upgrade in the stock rockers and hardened push rods and you are set. I would run holley hp stand alone computer system or mefi4. Hardin marine makes headers and manifolds. Marine power, crusader marine both have manifolds. Look at most "marine motors" and they are slightly modified GM truck engines. GM killed the 496 cause the 6.0l was so damn close in power from way less cubes. (they actually run power management in the computers to keep the drive train alive, and to keep them from making more power, lol) water pump,starter,alternator, and engine management the only things different. any engine builder familiar with marine engines should be able to set up the bottom end. If you are paying someone from start to finish expect it to be expensive, but it sounds more like a diy project and ls stuf just make power way easier than sbc stuff. hell if you know what to buy its cheaper than a bbc up to about 600hp. at that point you have to get a blower or buy a block that can support more cubes,or reliability will suffer cause you will need to turn alot of rpm. so a bbc becomes a better choice. good luck

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/s...-bravo-1s.html

This thing is bad ass 103 out of the box! there is and easy extra 100hp in those things with just a and few bolt ons

Those little LS1's will run no problem exactly as they are. If you can get them cheap and they're good runners it would be a great project. Once you have all the marine gear, engine control, and install sorted you can swap them out to bigger LS's down the road if you choose. If you're looking to start from scratch then I agree with the others to choose a 6.0 and build a 408. The Holley HP EFI is a direct plug and play for LS engines so you can keep the sequential efi and factory coil packs.

29 scarab. I don't think you can go any bigger. Is a 6.0 still small block sized? I know big block will not fit in there. I was a fan of the ls1 due to being aluminum truck 6.0 are steel. I just love they way they look too. But your thinking if I get the ls1 and cometely redo it stroke it etc and a blower it's not a good way to go?