When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
So I'm not the first to do this, but I'm starting a drivetrain swap on my '07 V8 Vantage.
Car details as it sits:
2007 V8 Vantage
Manual Trans
"Sport Pack"
VAP intake filters
Headers
200 cell cats
X pipe
VAP valvetronic exhaust
VAP tune
H&R Springs
BC Forged wheels
ECPS satin carbon waterfall/center console/stereo surround/door pulls
Aston Installations CarPlay (HD screen)
After driving this car for a few thousand miles, I love the look, I love the sound, I love the handling. I'm not quite as big a fan of the powerband. I have a lot of history with GM Gen III/IV motors and find them a difficult platform to argue against. So, a supercharged V8 with 600+ lbs/ft of torque at low RPM and infinite modding capability sounds like fun. Essentially the next step in building "my" personal car.
Plans:
2015 C7 Corvette LT4 (dry sump)
C6 Corvette torque tube/TR6060 manual transaxle (3.42 gears) - Shortened torque tube
C7 headers
Upgraded clutch
Custom half shafts (Corvette inners, Aston outers)
Probably do a cam upgrade and some other modifications eventually.
Upgraded cooling system (radiator, oil cooler, brushless fans, custom ducting up front, including brakes)
I'll be sorting out CAN to get the gauges working, either using an outfit in the UK that's done it before, or just building my own CAN controller (I've built several CAN translators/CAN controllers before). I plan to make the car look unmodified. This will be a long(ish) term project, with the heavy work starting this winter. I need to finish putting my Mustang (1965 Coupe, twin turbo Coyote) back together in the next few weeks, and find winter storage for it. Then I'll pull the drivetrain out of the Vantage. I already have the LT4 engine itself, which is the main part.
I've done >25 engine swaps, mostly in Mazda RX7s (I run the RX7 engine swap forum), so it's not my first rodeo. I welcome feedback, insults, etc.
For those interested, here's a few other cars I've built. I like turbos, but I'm excited for the blower setup in the Aston as I feel the torque will better suit the personality of the chassis.
For reference, I did nearly all of the fabrication on these cars, including welding, wiring, etc. I did fiberglass, carbon, body work and paint on the '88 RX7 and the '65 Mustang as well. The '65 Mustang runs a fully chassis CANbus system with modules front/rear and electric parking brakes, running a CAN controller I designed to integrate the various systems.
So, funny story. When I started looking for a Vantage, years ago, I wanted a flood car to rebuild, and put an LS/LT engine in. It wasn't until after I found a really nice, clean car (the one that I'm swapping now) that I found Craig's build. He beat me to the punch! I appreciate all of the detail he has in that video, and I've reached out to him directly with a few questions. He's been very helpful.
I'll put together some videos as I go. I don't have the time to do much fancy editing, and I'm probably pretty boring, but maybe it'll help someone in the future.
Engine came in today. Looks like it has an aftermarket pulley on it already, and had a few minor upgrades. I should be able to get it on a stand in a couple weeks once I'm done with my engine crane on my Mustang build. Probably about 2 months from tearing into the Aston to pull the drivetrain. I will start hacking the CANbus ahead of that, and share what I find, ID/data wise.
Is that engine superchaged with a watercooled charge air heat exchanger?
Correct. High helix roots blower with integrated cooling “bricks”.
I will likely upgrade the “lid” on the supercharger for better flow, along with a few other small tweaks while it’s out. It should be pretty easy to get around 600 RWHP out of it, which is about perfect for the car, in my opinion. I’ve owned and driven lots of 700-900 wheel HP cars and in 99% of scenarios, the extra power just makes more tire smoke.
Trans/diff acquired. 2011 Corvette Grand Sport/Z06 setup. One of the stronger factory setups, and I know it can be made to fit (likely with some mods to the cooling lines.
Curious; anyone here interested in the CANbus hacking process? I'm going to start on it over the next week or two and am wondering if it's worth the effort of putting together a video or two on the approach. I'll share the results regardless. I've tried to reach out to Emerald, who did Craig Taylor's CAN stuff, a couple times and haven't heard anything, so it looks like it's on me to sort it out.
I did do a little poking around already and it looks like I need to tag into the ECU <-> CEM link as I don't seem to be able to inject anything useful on the "far" side (CEM -> OBDII). I'll drop a connector into the other circuit and plug my sniffers in there. Would have been easier via the OBDII plug, hah.
I know, no one likes updates without pictures, but nothing photogenic going on yet.
I've sorted most of the CAN messaging needed, and validated injection into the CEM via the engine CAN input works. I need to validate how many wheel speed channels are needed, identify coolant temp CAN IDs, and then disable the OEM ECU and check transmission speeds vs. gauge functionality. Once I sort that, I'll have a document to share with all of the data, just in case someone else wants to do this, or use a gauge cluster in a sim rig, or whatever.
Once the CAN work is done, I can start pulling the chassis apart to prep for installing the new drivetrain. I have everything I need for this except the torque tube, which I'm hoping to pick up in a couple weeks semi-locally (shipping 4' long aluminum tubes sucks). I do have the engine/trans/diff/axles now, and headers should be here this week. I went fairly cheap on the headers as I expect to need to modify them, and I feel slightly better hacking up 900 dollar headers vs. 2200 dollar headers...
I expect progress to speed up in a few weeks, once I have my Mustang put in storage and the Aston on the lift to drop out the drivetrain.
LT4 Vantage Project
