Gen III good and bad years

[Aussie Mike]

Originally Posted by NASSTY

Wally,
Btw, I wouldn't pay too much attention to these Chev/Darksiders. Classic Revivals should be renamed Darksiders I think. They're too quick to compare a 302 to a 350 LS1. They should compare apples with apples. If you can get a 302 stroke it to 347. When Tickford did this (was actually a 342 ci) they gave those LS1 thingies a run for their money, especially when a T3 TE50 weighed about 100kg more than a HSV. As for the weight a 302/347 it's about 230 pounds compared to about 185 for the chev. Thats about 20kg with Iron heads (chev uses alloy). Replace the Iron Heads with Alloy units and there's most of your 20kg recouped. Now you're really comparing apples with apples but I know what the Darksiders will say next; that all costs $$$$. True, but you'll get it back if you ever need to sell. Chev Cobras usually don't hold their value as well as Ford examples (however, this may change with the amount of LS1's now being used - who knows?). Some people can easily overlook that alloy is not as strong as Iron. If you took a close look at a LS1 block and compared it to a 302, a 302 is much smaller, especially around the caps. To get the same strength you need close to twice the amount of metal.

Can't wait to finish my car and line her up against some of these Darksiders!

Better check your maths there Al, it's 185KG versus 230KG. Even if changing to alloy heads will probably saves you 15 or 20KG you're still carrying 30KG extra.

Yep the 347 does give the LS1 a run for it's money. I should know I've got the Tickford 347 equipped Pursuit 250. However that motor as it sits in the ute is at the limits of it's tuning without major mechanical changes. After talking to a few tuners they reckon you cant get much more out of them by changing the factory tune. It's idles rough and only runs on premium as it is (economy is a bit ordinary too).

With a reflash of the ecu on a stock LS1 you can make 300KW at the crank no trouble. Guys are getting 250KW at the rear wheels without turning a spanner on the engine. Spend the same money you would have to on the 347 to get to that level and your LS1 would be reliably making over 300 at the rear wheels.

As far as resale, that's yet to be seen. I don't think there has been an LS1 equipped Cobra on the used car market yet in Australia to see what will happen. I believe the engines performance will make a lot more people overlook that it doesn't have a blue oval badge on it. When comparing an Iron Chev motor to an Iron Ford motor there wasn't much differential in performance so you'd go for the Ford to be traditional.

Cheers