This Tesla Crate Motor Takes the Place of a Small-Block V-8
Forget that LS swap and go for a Tesla drive unit that bolts up to a small-block V-8's mounts from EV West and Revolt Systems.
A end to the LS Swap?
- Thread starter Aircal
- Start date
$11.9 just for the motor. Doesn’t mention what it’s going to cost to do the actual swap. I love the idea but not the cost
Still such a large group of enthusiasts who need the sound and feel of a V8. Will be that way for still many years.
I’d say even if you are a kid right now and have a family member or friends with a new mustang / vette / camaro / etc... you’ll still want that “feeling” whenever you can afford it.Boomers. ... lol.......j/k....kind of.
Well, it also includes the "transmission" too. So you got that in there.
But you still need a controller and a battery setup. Even though the motor bolts in, there is still so much fabrication in terms of battery layout that I can see it costing a ton to get this done.
Honestly, since Vettes are TransAxle, a setup that replaces the entire TransAxle with a twin electric (one per wheel) setup would be awesome.
SBCs are still probably the most common single engine platform built for. Why not? There's decades of parts out there especially for people that want a carbureted engine and with people at the top LSing a lot of good speed parts to buy online I'd think. I would be willing to bet if there was a good EFI intake on gen 1s that was closer to the LS the LS would have been slower to get the traction it did. The TPI intake kinda sucked truthfully, the TBI intake kinda sucked and the Vortec 350 intake was terrible from a performance standpoint. The only one that didn't suck was the LT-1 and it's hard to retrofit on to a standard set of gen 1 heads. If I was wanting a simple, OE footprint engine that was sub 400HP I'd have no trouble with a carbed 350 and say a 7004R box.
That said next time I need to pull the Astro's engine entirely there's not a small chance I'm looking for a 5.3L or a 6.0L. I have HPT and an EFI fuel system already so the cost is really minimal since I can get away with a RWD OE pan and OE exhaust manifolds. They had a black box style ECU and 0411s in them so hooking it in would be basically an OEM look.
The LS aftermarket is certainly pricier overall than a gen 1 but the stock parts take you so much farther that you end up saving money in the end if it's an EFI application. Stuff like not dumping $2K into heads so you have something that flows worth a damn then another 6-800 into an EFI intake manifold And then having to figure out throttle bodies, linkages, accessories, dealing with a valve train that originates from the 50s, a sealing system that was retrofitted in the 80s (mine is leaking like the Valdez right now) and an ignition from the 70s gets you. That says nothing about the quirks and limitations of the MS2 I'm running now in my particular case. A lot of that is user induced but the support of HPT in the aftermarket and when you've got people like Denmah and others making base tunes sure as hell helps things out. You also get the option of 4L80E control which is harder to come by on a gen 1.
Shit like this is the future though. Think back 20 years ago in the early 00s, the people who swapped LSes into stuff were spending big coin, making parts or both. The price and the difficulty of those swaps has come down as the parts have become more common and people figured things out. This will almost certainly be the same thing and this is only the first steps. I think this is the tip of the ice berg too, I expect hybrid AWD conversions to be coming down the road as well. Think about the potential of having a set of spindles that bolt in which have induction motors in them (I don't know how small you could make one) that just come on long enough to get the car moving and then your conventional V8 takes over in RWD mode.
What I can see taking off is people taking the Tesla Plaid drivetrain and swapping it into an alternative chassis - or perhaps a manufacturer making a chassis that accepts a Plaid drivetrain. and you bolt on your own body. Won't be cheap but translating a 0-60 in <2 seconds and 200MPH top speed performance to a conventional ICE setup will be quite expensive as well. Buy a Tesla Plaid, keep the running gear and part out the rest.
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