LFX newbie rebuild

[V6Vega]

Hello everyone, new guy here.

I don't own a Camaro, but recently purchased an LFX out of a 2013 Camaro. This forum keeps popping up in my search for parts and knowledge, and I thought I should join. So, without further ado, heres the skinny on my project.

I've got a '72 Vega that is the recipient for this particular transplant.

I picked up the engine off Facebook. It was already pulled and sitting on a pallet. Complete sans wiring harness, ecm, and throttle body. Supposedly had 80k on it, was running when pulled, but complained of ticking noise. Ok.... So I rolled the dice for $500.


I got it mounted on the stand, and began a quick disassembly and inspection. The top end looked pretty good. There wasn't any buildup of sludge or odd wear on the cams. Compression seemed good too, when I turned it over. It looked like oil had been changed recently too. Cool.

Then I drain the oil, and remove the pan. (What a pain in the ass). I notice one of the con rod caps looks a little toasty, and I find some stuff that almost seems like tin foil stuck inside the pan.... Oh boy.



So, what do I find, but a ruined bearing (possibly journal as well). I proceed to get ready to pull the crank. And again, it seems engineers must truly hate mechanics. What a pain the whole front end was. Ggood thing I planned on replacing the timing chain anyways.

So that's about were I am at right now. Depending on how bad the crank is, I may be in need of a new one.

[ramil13]

You're pretty smart. Since you have everything opened up already why not just put forged pistons and rods also bigger cams?

[The camaro show]

I agree

[V6Vega]

Originally Posted by ramil13

You're pretty smart. Since you have everything opened up already why not just put forged pistons and rods also bigger cams?

The goal was to get it in the car and running, quickly, and with as little cost as possible. For now at least. I had been planning on modifying it later on.

[gtpvette]

I like the swap,,, never see any Vega's around anymore, well maybe the occasional Cosworth but that's about it. Should scoot pretty well. What does a Vega weigh?? You doing stick or auto?? How does the oil pan fit the crossmember??

Almost done putting a 2015 LFX and 6-speed into my Scion FRS. Not quite running but almost,, as a sidebar it's taken wayyyy longer than I expected. LOL

www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117334

Keep us posted.....

[V6Vega]

Thank you, I'm really looking forward to getting it done. The curb weight was 2,400lbs when new. With 300+hp, it better scoot.

The plan was to put a manual behind it, which I will have to find later.

It looks like the oil pan will clear the crossmember without anything other than the (obviously) custom motor mounts. It will make it sit a little too high to close the hood. So the solution for now, would be a fiber glass cowl hood for clearance. Long term goal would be making a custom crossmember, and modifying the oil pan to shorten it, and adapt it for dry sump.

And, as it's already shown me, it's going to take longer than I would like. Of course

[V6Vega]

So the engine is completely disassembled. I will have to see if the boss will let me bring in parts to clean in the solvent tank as needed.

[Marklar]

Keep posting these. I'd love to follow your build.

[redcoats1976]

out of curiousity,what about the dreaded intake valve oil buildup?lots of people claim a catch can is needed for these engines to run long term.how many miles,and what do the valves look like?

[V6Vega]

I have not taken the heads apart yet, to see what the stem side of the valves look like. I will post pictures when I get around to that.

[qcman]

Cool build. My cousin had a friend when I was in late grade school or early high school that had I think a 73 green Vega station wagon with fake wood paneling on the sides with a 350 LT-1 motor shoved into it. The car looked like a POS but man did it ever go..... Your project makes me remember those days. Thx for that!

[V6Vega]

No problem! I'm looking forward to making this thing go! Here's what this POS lools like

redcoats1976, here is what the intake valves look like off the passenger side cylinder head. Like I said earlier, the story is the engine had 80,000 miles on it before being pulled. Unless you would run some sort of cleaner (even just squirting some gas down the ports) through the intake with any sort of frequency, I would recommend installing a catch can.

[Crusin]

Great confirmation Pic of the build up on the valves. Unfortunate about the bearing. Did you find out anything about the crank?

[V6Vega]

Crusin, Ive yet to take it to a machinist. I measured the journals earlier though. The good ones are right at 2.206". The bad one, not including the depth of the scratches, is at 2.193" so its looking bad. There may be some light at the end of the tunnel, depending on how much and if the machinist can grind it down.

Center to center rod length on these is 6.000 inches. That just happens to be a popular rod length for 350sbc. 2.125", is the closest big end inner diameter under 2.206". The next issue, is big end thickness, which I was measuring at 0.856" on our rods. The sbc rods tend to be thicker, somewhere around 0.9-1.0", but depending on the rod, may be something that could be skinny-ed up by a machinist. Again, that would all depend on whether the rod journals on the crank, could be ground down close to 2.00".... 200 thou is a LOT of material to grind off, and being a forged crank, I'm not sure how that would affect the structure of the metal.

*Edit* or perhaps have smaller rod ends opened up, and/or both. A set of rods for a 350sbc, can be as low as $200. And theirs obviously a plethora of other options out there. I'm only thinking along this oath, as there are relatively few options readuly available for this engine, and I will likely be changing journal size by quite a bit anyways.