5.7 L Hemi, ZF 8HP70 Swap

Joe Dokes said
I have no doubts the LS is a good motor, and has better aftermarket support.

That being said. If you are going to build a quality high performance build you're going to spend a lot of money. As the old adage goes, "Speed costs, how fast do you want to go?"

Yet that being said in this months hot-rod they covered a 427 cubic inch LS build. Every single part was aftermarket. It took .800 inches of lift on the cam but the motor put out 741 HP. Impressive to be sure.

In comparison a few years ago at the Engine Masters Challenge a 417 Cubic inch Gen III hemi won the competition with an even 700 HP. It was done with a stock block and ported 5.7 Heads and a .650 inch cam.

That being said, it appears that the Hemi has some inherent advantages. For example, last months Hot-Rod had a 700 HP Hemi build. The Hemi had plenty of aftermarket parts including crank, rods, pistons, valve train.

That being said, I'm sure the Hemi was cheaper to build.

Regards,

Joe Dokes

But in the real world who is gonna do that? I find the Engine Masters challenge to be kind of nonsensical because its out of the realm of 99.9% of people building cars. The vast majority of people who swap to late model engines like to get a solid runner from a recycler/crate engine and build from that. In which case, the LS has proven to have advantages. Both in price and performance.

That said, has anyone looked at that 8spd trans to get an idea of the size? It seems a little excessive gear wise, but it'd be an interesting swap.