I was wondering whether it would be cheaper to buy a GM car with an LS already in it & then do the conversion?

In doing that, all the GM parts would already be there; no need to piece-meal all the parts.

Additionally, you could drive it beforehand and see that everything works as it should.


We know that Jim Stainer has done this with good results. Anyone else?

 

I had to read that twice to be sure I understood it... You want to get a running donor and drive it to see if everything works. That is a good plan. You will also be able to make mods to the engine ad tune the ECU to make the most of the mods. The danger is getting used to the F-body and wanting to keep it or continue to make mods. Get one with a rusty/wrinkled body so you don't feel as bad tearing it down ;-)

 

Yeah my first thought was you were asking if it was cheaper to buy an already converted Miata.

 

I read it as a running donor. Issue is you'll likely spend a lot more depending on the motor you are looking for if you want a decent driver.

 

It could cost more, or less. A running 5.3 truck or van, especially damaged, would be great for the budget minded swap, a good condition 01-02 f-body, or a gto, cts-v, etc, would be tough to part out and make money back.

I can tell you starring from scratch is very Spendy, easily $1000 in new parts you have to source. However, all my stuff is basically factory new. In my case, a crate motor is only a few thousand more than what I built.

So yes, I'd honestly go the trick/van route, 58x trigger, and buy your t5/t56 seperate

 

I'm still a little foggy on what the compare is here and this would be much easier with some specifics in the question. What's your budget, goals and ability and what condition is the Miata you want to convert would be really helpful. This is a great question though and one of the million variables that makes this process a challenge!

So yeah cheaper is a super relative question for sure. In terms of straight dollars any 99-02 F body that runs good is worth more in parts than it is whole. And by parts I mean piece by piece in parts because you can't give away a rolling chassis. But you have to be careful because parts are getting harder to sell on them as more cars are being parted out and guys move to newer cars to build or fix. When Strano sold his 02 Camaro and replaced it with a 2010 Mustang a lot of racers followed suit. So 5 years ago LS front brake calipers were 50 each and now the going rate is 20.

I know that seems to contradict my experience but keep in mind my situation was very unusual. I started with a perfectly healthy fully loaded 35th anniversary SLP SS car with tons of performance parts like a full Strano/ Koni set up in it and only 49000 miles on the clock. Mine was really easy to part out but normal people usually don't start with a fairly rare car that has a book value of 12 grand and tons of desirable parts on it.

Now the good news is you are in a great part of the country to find crashed cars. You are a days drive from several large cities and plenty of F bodies running around those parts at good prices. Hopefully this ramble is meaningful in someway but I doubt there is anything here you did not already know!

 

Thank you, all. Sorry if I didn't make my intent clear.

My goal & the primary advantage to this scenario is to make the conversion process more simplistic. If I have a complete, running GM, than I don't have to go through the process of having to piece everything together a-la-carte. I'm hoping that it would be less expensive too.

This is of interest to me because I am in no way a mechanic. While I can follow instructions well, I may be lost if I have to trouble shoot a problem.

About My Miata, it is a '99 with 60k miles.

 

Dude, sell the '99 and start with my 2002.... it has 210k miles but I hate to see a low mile car chopped! ;-)
Great looking car, will make a pretty Monster! Have at it and post pics for us!

 

very nice car...chop that beeotch! My 92 only has 37k on the odo. Low milers ftw!

 

Oh my +1 for sure!! What a beautiful car! IMO that is an excellent choice to convert. The drive train will bring really good money to sell and you will have a much better car starting with a clean chassis like that.

There is an in-between gathering parts and a whole car and that is buying a complete drop out. So you get the engine, trans and wiring all from the same car that show up on your door step on a couple of pallets. So you still get a matched set with out parting out a car. Check out ToySnakes build thread that's what he did.

That being said if you have the room, the time and the patience to part out a car and sell it piece by piece there is nothing wrong with going that direction too. It's just as good of a way to do it, just different.

You won't believe how good of a mechanic you will be when you are done with this and there is no problem you can stumble across in the process that hasn't had someone here face the same thing. Worst case I'm only 10 hours away and yes I would make the trip!

 

Thank you, all. Jim, thank you for the information about a complete drop out. That sounds like a great way to mitigate complications.

And you are unbelievably generous to even suggest a 10 hr drive. Seriously, I'm humbled by the offer. If you could bring your drums, my son is an awesome bass player & I'd get out the Les Paul & crank up the Marshall!