As of late we have been doing a great deal of LSA Crate Engines & LSA Engine Upgrades and we got to talking to some of our customers to see what they were taking out of the their current cars & also what these new engines are going in.

The LSA Crate Engine is most definitely the flavour of the month when it comes to retro fitting an LS engine into early model vehicles, but are they really your best value for money?

We decided to do a comparison for a customer who had an LS1 in his really clean Manual VX HSV Clubsport & had a goal of 400+rwkw, tough lumpy idle with the ability to race it at the track without losing the ability to daily drive it. He had a budget of $20k & wasn't looking to turbo the car.

Option 1: was to supply an LSA Crate Engine to the car with a few simple upgrades including one of our LSA Camshaft Packages, LSA Boost Upgrade, Fuel Injectors & Custom Intake.

Option 2: was to retain the factory LS1 he already has & supply him a Harrop HTV2300 Supercharger Kit. The kit Includes Harrop TVS2300 Supercharger Unit, Intercooler, High Flow Injectors, Pulleys, Belts, Lines & Push Lock Fittings. Also supplied would be a Custom Grind Blower Camshaft Package & a Set of Higgins CNC Cylinder Heads, ARP Head Bolts, Mellings Oil Pump, High Performance Lifters & Head Gaskets.

Both options are more than capable of making his target goal however option 1 took up basically his entire budget once it was fitted. Option 2 was significantly cheaper by approx. $4-5k including fitting and tuning.

After some researching and discussions with multiple places regarding installing he has opted to go with Option 2.
Despite the difference in cubic inches & power capability the decision to leave some room to move in his budget also allowed further room to move with mods down the track.

Personally I love to see the mighty LS1 getting a win in this case. The LS1 was where it all started & is still one of the most popular engines in the world.

We want to know, if you had the same budget what would you choose? & what would you put it in?

Let us know in the comments.

We will keep you posted on this cool build in the next few weeks.