5 Of The Strangest LS Engine Swaps We Cant Help But Love

Auto enthusiasts love to tinker with and upgrade their vehicles, installing everything from Apple CarPlay stereos and screens to new engines and transmissions. Chevy LS-series engine swaps are popular for several reasons. The V8s are reliable and fuel-efficient, and their high production numbers mean there are huge selections of spare parts and aftermarket upgrades available. There are a few things you should have in mind before LS-swapping your car, but some creative thinkers have gone far beyond your run-of-the-mill engine swap. 

Holley Performance Products once made carburetors for Ford but has since expanded its product line to include complete LS swap kits for many classic vehicles. For more than a decade, Holley has also hosted LS Fest, a convention of sorts for creative LS swappers to show off their projects. These are a few of the most outrageous LS-swapped vehicles that have been proudly displayed by their owners at Holley's big annual party.

The Mazda RX-8 earned a well-deserved spot on our list of the best rotary engine cars ever, but one RX-7 owner and LS fan decided to pull his Wankel and replace it with an impressive LS setup. At the 2019 LS Fest, the Mazda ripped down the 1/4-mile drag strip in 9.396 seconds at 104.67 miles per hour.

The Montego Blue Mazda's owner began with a 388-cubic-inch LS and added custom cylinder heads and a Borg-Warner model 491 turbocharger that can be seen through the center opening in the front air dam. Power is sent to the 8.8-inch solid rear axle through a Chevy TH-400 transmission. The owner told 1320video that his alcohol-fueled setup tested at 1,350 horsepower with the turbo providing 25 PSI of boost, although the car was set up to provide a few more PSI at the event where the interview took place. 

The 1,350-horsepower RX-7 isn't the only cool rotary-for-LS swap out. James Schauer of the LS-focused Build Tune Race YouTube channel took on the unenviable project of stuffing a 5.3-liter fifth-generation L83 series V8 into a 1972 Mazda RX-2. The LS V8 has a displacement of more than four and a half times that of the RX-2's stock 1,146-cubic-centimeter Wankel.

Extensive fabrication was needed to get the V8 wedged in between the shock towers, but the car turned in a 12-second quarter-mile run at LS Fest 2019. Schauer told Holley that his obsession with cars began in childhood. "Growing up with my dad drag racing, I guess it all probably started from a Hot Wheel, from RC cars to real big race cars, and everything in between," he said. Schauer also has a late-model Chevy Camaro with a turbocharged LS engine and said his RX-2 gets about 27 miles per gallon.

Schauer admitted his passion for building and driving race cars was "an addiction at times" and said he started his YouTube channel as a way to document his builds in hopes the information there would help other LS swappers.

At the risk of filling this entire list with Mazda swaps, we have to mention this 2008 Miata with a turbocharger mounted in back. The owner told 1320video he typically covers an eighth of a mile in the "high five second range." The Miata has a 6.2-liter LS V8 and is capable of about 1,000 horsepower. It also has a custom spoiler jutting rearward from the trunk lid and chubby Hoosier racing tires on the rear wheels, although the owner claims it's still a well-mannered street cruiser.

He turned in an astonishing 9.015-second quarter mile at 152 miles-per-hour that year, which is 60 miles-per-hour and almost six seconds faster than the stock model with its 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine. The hyperactive Miata could be mistaken for one of the rare Japanese-market hardtop Miata coupes or one with a factory retractable hardtop, but the Japanese hardtop had no seams at the base of the B-pillars, and the LS Miata lacks the clearly visible joints needed for the retractable top to fold properly. The top is apparently a factory-issue add-on that can be purchased via certain dealerships.

Can you still call a project an engine swap if the original motor stays right where the factory put it? In the case of Tony Angelo and Lucky Costa's "Twinpala" project, we'll allow it. The Twinpala began life as a 2006 Chevy Impala with a 300 horsepower 5.3-liter LS V8 driving the front wheels. Because why not, Angelo decided to drop a second 300-horse LS in back, turning the Impala into an all-wheel-drive monster. The Twinpala name didn't come until later, when the two creators added a pair of turbochargers, boosting total output to 1,000 horsepower. Angelo and Costa host Motor Trend's "Hot Rod Garage" podcast and have teamed up on many builds.

Angelo told 1320video he had the inspiration for the Twinpala after realizing there were lots of 5.3-liter LS engines sitting around unused. They left the transmissions and differentials separate. "You can put the back in reverse and the front in forward and it will just axis spin until you throw up," Angelo told 1320video.

What happens when you put a Chevy Silverado's 4.8-liter V8 into a 1977 Austin Mini? According to Calgary's Dario Gaiga, you go through tires like they're made of chewing gum. While at his first LS Fest in 2018, he joked to a friend that they should LS swap a golf cart for their next visit to get around the spacious grounds at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He eventually decided on the next best (and patently ridiculous) thing, a '77 Mini he bought for $500. 

Gaiga chopped 11 inches off each end of a Ford 8-inch rear axle to convert the Mini to rear-wheel drive and adapted a Chevette's front end to keep its track as narrow as possible. The bottom end was left as-is, and Gaiga completed the rest of the build mostly with distressed parts he scrounged from around his shop. "It's got a pair of truck throttle bodies on top," Gaiga told Holley. "And the mailbox, obviously."