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Gramp's Wagon: 960 LS3 Swap

Will325

New member
Joined
Nov 27, 2016
Location
Norcal
First and foremost, we have no idea what we are doing!

This whole project started out when my friend and I were driving the 960 around to get it smogged so we could sell it. We both liked how it drove and then my friend pointed out that Paul Neuman had a v8 960. Of course had to I look up ls1 960 while waiting for the smog test to be done... That's how this swap came to be.

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The car was my grandfather's. He bought it new in 1995 (wish he bought it a year or two earlier, would make my life so much easier lol) it has about 143k on it and overall in good shape, it was garaged most of its life. I am trying to get rid of the motor, it had its timing belt and fuel rail changed in the last 5k miles, if anyone wants it PM me.

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Seeing as we live in the great state of California, doing emissions legal LS swaps are a pain in the ass. We would have to convert the car to obd2 to MAYBE get it legal. I spent the money on a ls3 e-rod. It hurt! A lot! But the way I justified it to myself was, it a brand new motor that will run forever and I don't have to worry about the smog legalness because out of the box that motor is smog legal in any obd1 car. It will have a t-56 behind it.

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We are still researching the massive amount of option out there for suspension and brakes for this car (I wish.) I think, for now, we are just going to refresh everything, but We are Volvo n00bs. Let me know if I should be doing something else for suspension.

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We started this project last weekend. We got the motor out and started to test fit the LS3.
We are using the STS mounts they look really well made and should work out great. However, being that is the car is kinda the oddball it turns out that the lower motor brackets that the rubber mount sits on are taller than a 740's. The motor is way to high in the engine bay and is hitting on the tunnel and the hood will not close. Right now trying to find 740 brackets. Thanks 77volvo245 for helping me figure that out!

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I am probably forgetting a lot but there will be more posts to come!
Thanks for all your help in advance!
 
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Don't do that its a bad idea.

Agreed. I wish I had softer rubber mounts in my LS swap... although stock 240 rubber mounts aren't exactly the most robust thing on these cars. I don't know if 740 ones are better, but keep in mind that LS will try its best to rip them right out of the car. LOL

That's a sweet project! Looking forward to watching this one come together!! Where in NorCal are you?
 
You recommended bolting it solid to the mounts with nothing in between. That right there is a sure fire way to have things break not to mention vibrations through the driveline and body.
 
Vibrations won't be too bad, especially with the mild cam in that E-rod crate motor. Not likely to break anything. I've got over 30K including 2 Power Tours on one car with a much more radical big block that has not broken anything.

But do whatever you want. I'm speaking from experience.
 
Exactly why you should use solid mounts.

I've built 4 cars with solid mounts, 2 of them with big block Chevy engines. No complaints here.

I have a complaint about my dashboard buzzing, and all sorts of engine noise being transmitted through the car. It's something I will be addressing someday, but I have lots of other things on the project ahead of that.
 
It's blowing my mind that all you guys are running solid mounts. I must be getting old, because there's no way I could deal with that.
 
I guess I am getting old too lol. The point with this car is to make it a long-distance bomber. That's why I'm really trying to keep the rubber mounts.

The plan of attack on the mounts as of now is:

first, try the 740 brackets. If we still don't like the way it is sitting, I can think of two options right now.
1. We make some custom height brackets.
2. The STS mounts are meant to work with e36 m3 bushings. Pulling from the BMW knowledge, a company called Condor makes shorter e36 m3 mounts. If I am remembering correctly they drop the motor 10 or 15mm Which might just be enough but they are poly. (https://www.condorspeedshop.com/collections/e36-suspension/products/solid-short-motor-mount-set-m5x-s5x?variant=32325768257)
 
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My opinion, if you want to keep the feel of the V90, and not feel like you're driving a race car, then you need compliant mounts. I used GTO mounts when I built my car, they came with the engine. I was way ahead of all the pre-made mounts, I ended up modifying the original aluminum motor mount brackets to lower the engine into the car.

Depending on where you mount your engine front to back, you're going to need to open up the tunnel for the bell housing and the reverse lock out on the T56 - just BFH work. I located mine so the shifter came thru the stock opening which allows you to reuse the original console with out modifications.

I just checked my old thread and all the pictures are disabled because Photobucket is now charging to act as a third party hosting service. Send me a PM with your email and i'll look into giving you access to my PB account.
 
Can you flip the engine side mount upside down? That would lower it in the chassis. You will likely have to swap to the Holley oil pan if you get it lower. I think the crate motor comes with a truck pan, doesn't it? Even if it's the F-car pan, the Holley pan is a little more shallow.

Edit; that looks like the F-car oil pan that is on the crate motor. So maybe the Holley pan will gain some room.
 
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The Mast pan and the 302-2 Holley are even thinner over the rack/crossmember than the 302-1 to position the engine lower - if you can deal with the longer sump. Poly mounts on mine - it's much quieter/smoother/refined than the Ford 5.0L with oem rubber mounts. I added a third "mount" (torque strap) between the driver's side head and the crossmember bolts on the frame rail. Helps calm things down when lots of torque is applied.
 
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