Check Out The Insane LS Swaps

Craig’s Porsche & Malibu staging. Images from videos.

When most people want to do an LS swap (or any other engine swap) using a junkyard engine, many will rebuild the engine before installing it in their project car. Not Craig Poust. He pulls them and installs them with very little work done to the engine before installation. His two most recent builds are prime examples of this. The first one is a 1983 Porsche 944 that he bought from someone that had already started the install but was unable to finish it due to financial difficulties. The second one was a ’78 Malibu that he did basically from scratch.

Why He Doesn’t Rebuild His Junkyard Find Engines

Poust usually doesn’t rebuild the engines he finds in junkyards. According to him, GM’s LS engines are stout and well-built with quality internals-for the most part. As long as the usual maintenance was performed, he feels they can keep running strong, even with his turbo installations and tuning upgrades. The only exception to this is the connecting rods on earlier LS engines, because he says they tend to bend when the engines are pushed to over 700 horsepower.

The Porsche Came to Him Almost Running

The final external iteration of the engine with the 78 mm JS Racing turbo installed.

When Poust found this Porsche 944, the then-owner told him that he could see and hear it run when he came to look at it. So, he hopped in his “picking up a new project car” vehicle and drove six hours one way to take a look. He was more than a little disappointed to find that he wouldn’t actually be able to see and hear it run, although he did have it running at one time. The owner had run into financial difficulties during the LS swap process and had to stop. Not wanting to waste his six hour trip, he went ahead and bought the car anyway.

Making the 944 Drivable

Time slips showing 9-second passes with a 6.0 LS cam. Craig’s Porsche is P108.

Poust told the author that it would have been easier for him to start from scratch on a completely different car; there was that much that had to be redone to get the car to his liking and where he thought it was safe. He completely rebuilt the steering system, installing a manual rack and pinion and building a new steering shaft.

He also completely redid the rear suspension system, installing a set of BMR lower control arms, and homemade Heim-link uppers, with cut-down springs from a 95 Honda Civic. He also installed a set of ebay-find coilovers up front. The rear brakes are a home-designed dual-caliper system, with the rear set of calipers being ported off the front brake circuit, a Walker Remote Power Booster mounted in the trunk, and a Wildwood manual master up front. With this system, the car stands rock still when staging at the lights.

Engine Upgrades

Left: The new 78mm JS Racing turbo. Right: The old 76mm JS Racing turbo.

Other than the final installation of one of his own 78 mm turbos (this is what he does for a living with his company-JS Racing.) Poust really didn’t do much to the engine-at first. The first iteration was a pure stock boneyard find, but the final iteration was an aluminum block 5.3 LS with unported 243 heads, BTR springs, a set of LS7 lifters, and a new Stage 1 cam from Lil John Motorsports. The final result? As of the last week of October, 960 horsepower and the car was running quarter-mile passes of 8.94 seconds at 156 MPH. What’s even better is this car is a driver, it’s still got the heater, stereo, and wipers on it.

The Justin Sane 1978 Chevy Malibu

Craig’s Malibu came to him as a roller with no engine. This shot shows the notch he had to cut and box in the crossmember for the oil pan.

Poust’s ’78 Malibu was bought as a “roller” and was originally intended to have a 5.3 LS, but three days after he got the LS swap completed, a cam bearing failed. So, he went out and bought a used junkyard Gen III 6.0 LS and installed the 5.3 cam and heads on it. Doing this bumped up the compression a bit, making it run really nice without any additional modifications. In order to get the original 5.3 LS engine swapped in, he had to notch and box the front crossmember to clear the oil pan. Other than that, the engine is bone stock.

Making 1,200+ horsepower in the Malibu

Craig’s almost got the turbo plumbed in this shot.

The 6.0 LS engine was making some pretty good power all by itself. However, “really nice power” wasn’t good enough, so Poust installed a set of his own JS Racing Products 72 mm twin scroll T3 turbos, plus an intercooler using alcohol as the heat exchanger fluid. He also has a water-methane injection kit. All in all, the car makes in the neighborhood of 1,200 horsepower. Before selling it, his best pass on the track was 8.94 seconds and 152 MPH.

Checking Out the Rear End

Both cars had Holley Twin Billet fuel pumps installed and used 8AN fittings.

Surprisingly, the original rear brakes were never swapped out for discs, they still have the stock-style steel drums. There’s a beefy anti-sway bar keeping the body from rolling under power on the street or strip. The rear-end itself is a Chevy 12-bolt with Detroit Tru—Trac internals and 33-spline Moser axles. It had 4.11 gears in it, but Poust swapped those out for 3.08s so which were a better match to his project goals. He kept the sumped fuel tank that was in the car when he bought it, but swapped out the fuel pump for a Holley twin billet pump to keep up with the horsepower the engine creates. The fuel system is fitted with -08 AN fuel fittings for the supply supply and -06 AN return lines to ensure the integrity of the fuel system. Tucked in just in front of the rear bumper is a custom-built remote transmission cooler, to keep the 4L80e cool both on the track and on the street during hot summer days.