1965 Valiant LS Build

It took YEARS for Mopar to do anything to support the GIII hemi after it came out. The LS came in crates, with stand-alone wire harnesses, programmers that would work with the unlocked ECU, etc.

Mopar? Nope. ECU’s locked, no programmers available to run the factory intakes or EFI, no harness, nada. The ECU thing wasn’t just “not support”, it was actively discouraging and working against swaps. By the time Mopar started doing crates and stand alone harnesses guys had already figured out how to do all of it. Had they supported them from the beginning there would be far more GIII’s in classic Mopars.

And really there isn’t much “Mopar” about the GIII. If I do a modern engine in any of my cars it would still probably be a GIII hemi, but realistically it’s just because of the Hemi name and the fact that I don’t have to buy another bell housing for my T56, not because of anything inherent to the actual engine itself. You really can’t argue it’s some inherently better platform than the LS, it’s not. It’s not some piece of crap either, there are pros and cons to both, but the LS is a pretty solid platform and has a TON of support. And if that means you can build a reliable, high horsepower engine and drive the crap out of it then WTF is the problem?

People getting more triggered about the name on box than the capabilities (and cost) of what’s inside are just dumb as hell. Dude takes a less desirable Mopar and puts it back on the road with a low cost take out engine and his own skills and ingenuity and people here dog pile him because of the name plate on the valve covers. It’s all made somewhere else anyway.
Do you remember the GM Ram Jet crate engines? They were before the LS in the Vortec platform. Both small and big block EFI in several different power levels each and included the COMPLETE wiring harness AND ECM. Plug and play for anything you wanted to put them in. If they came with gas and a battery, you could fire them up in the crate. It's no wonder Chevy has such a following. They've always had great factory HP support and still do.