The car will have an LS.
Recognizing that’s not the preferred power plant around here, I offer the story about how I came to that engine.
To start, this car has been built on a budget (to the extent that any project car flirts with the term
budget) which excludes stroking a large check for a chassis, body work, or a crate engine. I can afford to build everything myself, spending slowly on raw materials and individual parts rather than buying assembled stuff. I will buy the Magnum Force front suspension, and probably a torque arm/watts link from Chris Alston’s Chassisworks, as there is a high amount of value and safety built into those suspension designs.
I bought the car as a rolling chassis, with no engine or trans, and you can track how I came to understand the amount of work required to make this into a well handling and balanced machine. While I take a lot of inspiration from high dollar builds, I have no illusions about what I can afford, and I do not go into debt for car projects. Funding this car is how I came to start my small fab shop.
As I hunted for an engine, I had two preferred options - a wrecked hellcat (unicorn) and a gen 3 hemi. Using my network, I looked at a handful of 6.1s, but they either had cut harnesses, sludge in the pan, or were just too expensive. I’m patient, and have tried to follow the advice to, “wait for the deal to come to you.” I kept hunting.
While doing work for a client, he had a bill he couldn’t pay. I break materials out from labor, and he couldn’t pay the last part of his bill, which was about $250. For me, that’s not insignificant, but his circumstances were difficult and he offered to make a trade if I would complete the job. He’s a GM guy, and had a camaro that was languishing, and an 03 LQ4 that wasn’t going anywhere soon. I finished the job, and took the engine as payment. I’m basically into it for $250 plus a few hours of my time.
The engine is in very good shape - no ridge at the top of the cylinders. The pan was clean, plugs were clean, and the bearings look new. It didn’t take me long to get my mind right about an LS in the Charger, and I’ve not looked back. Since then, I’ve acquired a full harness as takeoff from a friend’s LQ9 build, and a nearly new 1.9L Eaton supercharger from an LSA. The latter was headed to the scrap heap for a rattling coupler. That’s a $20 part, so I snagged it for almost nothing, cleaned it up, and now I have boost in the build.
The LQ4 will get a forged rotating assembly stroked to 409 cubes. I will spend a little on the top end, which will be all LS9, as the CNC ported heads from GM come loaded and ready for 15 psi of boost, and I’ll probably keep the 1.9L to 10 and under. Texas Speed has a good cam selection, and I don’t need anything too radical to make power and idle well. There are 8 different oil pan profiles to choose from, I’ll probably fab my own headers, and strip my harness to use the LQ4 ECU. Power target is 650, which should be very attainable without running on the ragged edge, or relying on 93 octane alone. My TR6060 from the 2011 Camaro will bolt right up.
More than anything else, this car is being built to drive. This combination will do just that.
David
