[stobin]

I thought I would start posting some information on my LS swap into my Grand Am. Following a long decision time, I decided I wanted to go forward with an LS swap. I have always been a "Pontiac" guy and knew going into this that I would not be satisfied with a traditional 5.7/6.0/6.2 motor after being used to the massive bottom end torque our Pontiacs make. That meant a stroker motor would be the only way to go. After doing a ton of research, joining the LS1 Tech web board, I decided to go with ERL Performance in Indiana. They specialize in dry sleeved LS motors to as big as 500 cubic inches. I spoke to them and we decided the best, and most reliable build was a 4" stroke motor. The bore is 4.130 which nicely equates to a Pontiac freindly 428 cubic inches. This was accomplished by sending them a Gen 4/5.3 aluminum block which will receive all of the tricks they build into all their motors. This will be a NA build. I am going to be looking for approximately 620 hp, but mild enough to drive daily if I want to...(which will never happen). As you all know the LS7 engine in the ZO6 Corvette makes crazy power with very mild cam timing. I decided to build an LS7, and have purchased a factory LS7 manifold, and am in the process of purchasing Brodix CNC ported LS7 heads from West Coast Cylinder Heads here in Ca. These heads will flow around 390 cfm at .700 lift. The great thing about the LS7 castings is you can run fairly mild cam timing in order to make great streetable power. I am working with Geoff at Engine Power Systems on the cam. He has designed a custom cam using his proprietary lobes specifically for my car and set up. The GA is heavy at 4000 pounds, but the LS will drop 200 pounds off that number. I did not want a real choppy idle, and I plan to run dual hi flow cats on this car for the pleasure of not having to smell it anymore. His cam specs are .631/.642, 226/242@.050, on a 115 LSA. This will give me a moderate idle with a little lope to it. Botton end power will be very good, and power will peak around 6500 or so. The entire build is going to run all stock GM electronics and EFI in order to keep reliabilty high. I will have the shortblock in a few weeks as well as the heads and will post some pictures then.