LS3 top end swap

[cgibs60]

So I forgot to post here what I did to my goat last month. Was reading up and swapping out the LS2/6 heads and putting the LS3 heads on the LS2 block is one of the cheapest price to performance mods for the GTO out there. I guess $1600 total in the end just for heads, intake, lifters, pushrods, valves, springs, gasket, literally everything on the top end, is "cheap" to us GTO owners. Lol.

Battery and Vararam intake taken off

Coilpacks, throttle body, and strut tower brace taken off

Driver side rocker cover

Passenger side rocker cover

Intake Manifold off

Intake runners taped off and valley cover and heads cleaned up

Table of stuff removed(also under it)

Cracked the head off and coolant poured EVERYWHERE and some left in chambers

I was surprised at how clean the heads were. This is the passenger head but the driver head looks identical. Not bad for 84,400 miles.

Coolant cleaned off and not too much carbon build up.

Gasket residue and carbon all cleaned off.

Driver side bank. Again, not too bad carbon build up.

Gasket residue and carbon removed, all clean.

Pulled the valley cover off to clean the edges off

These all shocked me. These are the eight passenger side lifters and they all looked damn near BRAND NEW. The driver side were identical. It just amazed me how clean the rollers were.

Just got my heads back from the machine shop. Milled .030" to a total height of 4.702" to keep the stock 10.9:1 LS2 compression. Pretty shiny, too.

Driver side on

Passenger side on

Rocker covers on

"Stock" lolz

Also... in the span on 5 minutes of putting my battery in for the first time in two weeks, somehow BOTH of my FORDing doors locked and both of my keys are sitting in the cup holder because I stashed them in there when my parent's house was getting shown in an attempt to sell it. Pretty pissed off about it... 2 weeks of work and waiting to be shattered by 5 minutes of some stupid bullshit... :rage:

[gandhi_2006]

nice dude looks amazing, you should take video of her and give her some gas let us hear her. i bet she sounds amazing. even if she was just cleaned out i bet it makes a huge difference.

[Ghost]

nice! gains?

[Ringo64]

Very nice! Definitely would have done this if I got a Goat. Good upgrade, can't wait to hear more!

[Killiger2009]

wow thats really bitching dude nice work

[Jean-Seb]

Awesome mod !

And it sucks for the keys.

[JJT*90]

That's why I am anal about leaving a window part way down when I am working on the 6. I always leave the keys in it.

[markpetersonii]

I need to stop putting my keys in the trunk! lol

Nice top swap though!

[cgibs60]

nice dude looks amazing, you should take video of her and give her some gas let us hear her. i bet she sounds amazing. even if she was just cleaned out i bet it makes a huge difference.

Thursday it's supposed to finally stop pissing and mother natures off her rag for at least a day up here in IL. I'll get one soon.

nice! gains?

Was reading up and guys with stock/smaller cams are making 30-50 extra RWHP just with swapping to these heads. The intake valve is larger and the intake manifold flows SOOO much better than the LS2 failure that us GTO guys know it as. Basically a FAST 102mm intake flows the same as a ported LS3. A stage 2 ported LS2 mani is still worse than a stock LS3 mani.

Very nice! Definitely would have done this if I got a Goat. Good upgrade, can't wait to hear more!

wow thats really bitching dude nice work

Awesome mod !

And it sucks for the keys.

That's why I am anal about leaving a window part way down when I am working on the 6. I always leave the keys in it.

Yeah... While I was at work my mom got a hold of the dealership I bought it from and they came by with one of those Kevlar balloons to push the window down and unlocked my doors and got the keys out. $55.

I need to stop putting my keys in the trunk! lol

Nice top swap though!

I also bought HPTuners because I figured I could spend $650 on the program, $200 on a wideband plus the satisfaction of tuning my own car, instead of $500-800 from a speed shop and have to constantly take it back to them if I need stuff done. Plus when I get a cam they'd charge me AGAIN for that tune. I'll gladly pay $850 to do everything myself. So far I've tuned my trans to exactly how I want it. Before, 1st would need WOT to be useless and barely chirp 2nd. Now 1st is useless >50% throttle and 2nd WOT is useless chirping 3rd. It's amazing what only 50% torque management reduction does.

Oh, and this is a sight I've never seen and can thank disabling COT(Cat(alytic) Over Temp[throws more fuel so it cools down the cats{which I don't have}]) and my rear 02 sensors. This first picture is after literally playing cat and mouse with a friend of mine who has an 04 GTO doing between 80-110MPH going south and west on I-355 and I-88 in Chicago suburbs.

This second one is after finally getting into town and just putzing around

I rarely got above 21mpg even when my girlfriend and I went to the Dells last year cruising 70 for a couple hundred miles. People can bitch at me all they want for "ruining the environment" and not running cats but they can GTFO and STFU because I get BETTER gas mileage without them and turning one little parameter off in the PCM.

[Ghost]

so you got some good power out of it. and since you added like half an LS3 to your LS2, does that like make it an LS2.5? jus curious.

[cgibs60]

Lol I guess so.

[Ringo64]

I've always wanted to get into tuning because I feel that's a perfect blend of my programming capabilities and my love for cars. Let us know how it goes!

[cgibs60]

so you got some good power out of it. and since you added like half an LS3 to your LS2, does that like make it an LS2.5? jus curious.

Definitely asleep when I posted that response. Yeah I'm hoping at least 390 since I'm an auto. I really have no desire to get it dyno'd because time slips mean more than a dyno that can be minipulated.

I've always wanted to get into tuning because I feel that's a perfect blend of my programming capabilities and my love for cars. Let us know how it goes!

I'm still learning the engine parameters but I got the transmission side down pretty pat. Just need my wideband to get here so I can see where I'm at AFR wise.

[Ghost]

Definitely asleep when I posted that response...

...Yeah I'm hoping at least 390 since I'm an auto.

cool.

[Mikey340]

Noice!

[cgibs60]

Miiikkkkkeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

Where's your (post)build log for yours? lol.

[[ChaosweaveR]]

Dude...how the hell did I miss this? Sweet build up. Makes me want to do my top swap.

[Rodimus_Prime]

HP tuners is not an easy thing to learn, been working with it now for 4-5 years and im still learning things

im always amazed by the LSx stuff being so interchangeable, also very cool that seems relatively easy to work on as well

[Crimson]

so you wanna just hand over those 243 heads....cuz i want em!