Much progress has been made over the past week but not without a great deal of time spent to modify, bespoke make and dummy fit component parts to ensure that everything is located correctly and functions perfectly. Added to the complexity of the project, the oil to water cooler, usually located within the chassis, has been replaced with two oil cooler units, the same as we use in our race cars which will be located at the front on either side of the radiator. This immediately eliminates the old problem where the oil, as it heated up used to also heat up the water as they passed each other in the pipes thus causing obvious problems with temperatures.

So far we have made all the engine and gearbox mounts and dummy fitted the engine. The engine has been taken out again so that mounts could be painted (satin black) the brackets have been welded and exactly colour matched to the chassis paint. The exhaust system has been made and fitted. The original swell pot has been used but modified in order to link it up with the pipe. The oil tank has been modified too, to allow for a different sized pipe. The air conditioning motor and alternator have been relocated and are fitted to the engine as is the new LS7 starter motor. Throttle bodies are complete.

The oil take off pipe from the engine is also bespoke and has been made to fit within the constraints of the engine bay.

We have also bespoke made the proshaft to bridge the extra length required to join the propshaft between the gearbox and diff.

The lower steering column has been moved to a new location to make way for the new exhaust system.

We still have a way to go. We are aiming to make the final installation of the engine on Monday and fire up the engine for the first time on Tuesday evening. (Paul will be there for the big event).

Then of course there is all the wiring but that’s another subject…..!

Since starting this blog, we currently have another customer awaiting installation of an LS3 engine into his Cerbera and the engine has arrived at our workshop.

We have another customer, a Griffith owner, who has confirmed that he would like to go ahead with the conversion too.

Oh and we are in the process of an LS7 engine rebuild for our Marcos Mantis in time for next weekend’s race…it’s a hive of activity here!

Click for more images