First Drive of my Mom's Secretly LS3 Swapped Solstice!

Spicy .

I thought I could have done off what's up guys and welcome to what I believe will be the last video of the series where we are swapping my mom's solstice if you are just joining us for this video , basically , the premise is she thinks her car is getting an oil change , but uh she was just kind of nervous to bring it anywhere because it was modified with the turbo .

And last year , we surprised her with the turbo this year .

We've spent the past two days or so swapping an L S3 into it .

So this solstice should be making 450 to the wheels by the end of the day .

So today is just kind of buttoning things up , mounting the manifolds , plugging stuff in and then hopefully we'll get our first start and our first drive later today , like many other cool things with the swap .

It utilizes a lot of G M stuff that just kind of works factory solstice fuel line goes stocky C U coming out and then performance auto work sends one that's ready to be flashed with H P tuners unlocked and is basically ready to run the solstice chassis along with an L S T Tenon .

If you take a look at the radiator to Mike's right , you'll see that it is very thin , not optimal for 500 horse puppies .

Whereas the one next to me behind me in front of Mike you can see is much thicker .

So we need a trim fan to allow fitment thicker radiator .

See this quick release , my mom's carpet out of the trunk and now we got this .

It's funny .

It looks a lot like a Corvette .

It's like they took a Corvette and then they shrunk it kind of how the Corvette has this .

I think Corvette's fiberglass .

So this seems more like plastic .

Um And then I'm assuming the fuel pumps in here .

Nice , easy access .

That's a thing .

Or is this just a cover ?

I don't know .

That's a good question .

I would assume the fuels under that .

Yeah .

Yeah .

Yeah .

Mhm .

Ain't going nowhere .

It's so nice and clean back here .

I pulled off the uh cover for the fuel tank expecting to see a nice clean area .

It looks like , would that be some mouses living in there here , buddy , buddy , buddy .

Just a mouse nest .

Maybe probably from up in Connecticut .

This is gonna be a lot of fun to put it back in there .

I just wanna get it out of the way , dude .

It's hope with him .

Yeah , dude , I'm not trying to evict him .

Moses need somewhere to live too .

What a random assortment of goods in here .

Mom , my mom's gonna get shot back .

Yeah , that's probably , I was gonna blow it out .

That would probably make a mess .

That wouldn't be smart .

Well , Freddie and Johan are butting up some stuff in the bay .

I'm trying to figure out the pump situation .

I know we're probably gonna need a little bit more juice for this thing .

So I'm gonna pull out the factory pump and see what I have in a pump that will fit in this assembly and give us enough fuel to make , you know , mid for , uh , high fours on pump .

Of course , the D W 300 fits perfectly and will be more than enough fuel for what we're doing .

So I'm gonna be using this .

The plug is the same .

Um , I'm just going to be switching to a rubber hose because I don't have any more of the slinky hose .

Um , the sock should work and then the only thing that I'll have to really modify is kind of , uh , how it sits in there .

It slides up nice , but I want to just lock it in a little bit better .

Um , but it should be pretty good .

Now , we got the full header and exhaust set up from performance auto work .

So hopefully it will just bolt right up and we'll have no issues .

Everything's tight .

But , uh , I don't know , I'm looking forward to seeing what this exhaust looks like .

And what it sounds like .

Part of my plan is basically , I think all we do is change the wheels and change the exhaust .

But part of getting to exhaust on this thing is going to be changing the diffuser .

So we're popping this thing out and hopefully we can just put the G X P diffuser on .

It's dual tip , just give it a good old yank full disclaimer .

I've been doing a terrible job at kind of documenting everything that's going on .

Mike went home for Christmas .

So now I'm just back to the vlog and uh , yeah , I've just been getting involved with the fuel pump stuff and doing other little things and not filming like I should .

So this is their exhaust for the solstice , which I think I showed you guys , but it doesn't match up to their tubular header .

It seems like it's made more so for like a short Ram style hunter .

So one of the next things that we're gonna need to do is have Johan chop it up , do some welds .

He's talking about doing pie cuts for this whole thing .

Um But I don't know if we have time for that , so he'll likely probably just uh you know , just do something quick .

Get it on there .

Sorry mom , I know you , you're really stoked on Johan's pie cuts .

But unfortunately , none of those today we bled the clutch .

It feels good .

Uh The engagement points a little low and it is kind of stiff , but I think my mom can handle it .

It's really nice since we , uh , made some adjustments to mounting points .

We were able to get the shifter and the stock location .

Right now , we are going to prime it with oil .

I just by turning it over a couple of times with , what are we gonna unplug the ?

Ok .

Just to make sure that it doesn't actually fire .

But , uh , we had to do like a learning procedure because of the fact that it is like a stock C C U with a different vin it just kind of like remarries it to the car .

So it's happy since it's all can based .

Let me know when you're ready for me to , uh , crank it .

Sorry .

No signal .

Oh , clutch pedal the whole .

Yeah , it is .

That's a lot .

Um , you don't like .

No , I , I , I did miss it but for reference , someone just spilled everything everywhere .

Classy chairman .

All right .

Official .

First start .

Nothing .

The capacitor , everything's plugged in .

Let me get the laptop .

It seems like we've got a fuel related issue .

So before we go take a part of the fuel pump stuff again to check over that , we're just gonna start it real quick and break cleaner and see if she fires up .

You all ready .

Oh , boy , here it is .

It's out .

It's really loud .

Do we go , do it again ?

Go , come on , go here one more time .

Your mom's car .

Oh my God .

Those , those , that is too small .

Yeah .

No .

Make it quiet .

What do you mean ?

Don't restrict the power ?

But it is .

Oh , my God , it's good .

Right .

So , the mistake I made is actually pretty easy to do if you are by chance putting the same pump that we put in this car .

It's important to note that even though the plug just swaps out , like it's a direct plug and play , it actually switches polarity .

So the positive is where the ground would be .

So obviously had the pump plugged in backwards and it , although it dribbled out , it really didn't have any fuel pressure .

That's why I didn't start .

So now we're gonna see if it starts .

Ok .

Now I hear , feel pressure .

You remember to put oil in it .

There's not a lot , but there's enough that we keep joking because it's L S nothing really matters .

So , like we've been starting out with no oil and like just there's boot leaks everywhere with any engine swap , especially something like this where we put a big engine in a small chassis heat management is key .

Uh We've been using a lot of D E I stuff .

This is a really cool uh product .

I have the gold foil and stuff , but they actually make a line protectant that we use quite often .

Um Other than the ones that actually slide on that you have to use when you're making fittings this is actually a Velcro .

So I'm gonna be using this on some of the lines .

There's like fuel lines and brake lines that are kind of close to the headers .

So I can just take this cut a section off for a scenario like this .

I could just fish it around these lines velcro it on .

Not really worried about it being the prettiest thing in the world , but you can see now we have two fuel lines and some brake lines that have a little bit more protection from the header .

That's right here .

Successful night .

Got it running .

Joan's gonna come in in the morning and knock out the exhaust and get that dialed in and then we're gonna hopefully take it to the dino and go tune .

Um , overall though , there's not that much left on the car , the button up .

What do you think ?

You're digging the , the va solstice ?

Pretty cool .

I'm like , very excited to drive it at first .

I like , didn't really think much of this car , but the more I look at it with the V eight , like I'm , I'm genuinely excited to take her first spin .

It .

Be fun .

I got the new diffuser on .

If you're looking back , it's gonna look all cool and meaty with this dual exhaust and now the big drag stances , it's gonna be so funny to listen to my mom chop at the stoplights .

It's not here .

That R or A , it's J D M Space J D MS .

What ?

Oh , that's where my elf went .

He's been hopping around , huh ?

Why you want to be here ?

What is that ?

No way .

That's awesome .

Look at that .

Are those all shirts sewed on ?

That is so cool .

Oh my God .

Where did you get all these ?

This is the cool , I mean , I've talked about doing this forever .

Can you move one corner ?

This is amazing .

Don't look too close .

This is such a cool idea .

You have talked about this , you know , because I have them all in my closet and I can never see them .

Are these mine James .

That's it .

That is so awesome .

What do you mean ?

This is my first time ever , period .

So you did a great job .

Thank you .

I got , we got do for anyone else that everyone else's present .

You guys too .

So it's technically the last day we've been kind of using it to button up a lot of the loose ends on the car .

Johan got the exhaust fitted up and I think has just maybe one more well to go and then we'll be able to hear what the thing sounds like .

In the meantime , I had a little bit of an issue fitting the intake because of the fact that we moved the engine a little bit more forward .

But we got it in there .

Good enough .

Been going through the lines , check out all the red D E I sle Uh Viber makes these cool little insulated or rubberized pea clamps that you can kind of use to hold this down as well .

Um , I'm just kinda going over everything .

What are you thinking ?

Look good ?

It fits in there really good .

You think ?

Be loud or quiet ?

I don't know .

It's gonna sound some quiet .

It's gonna be like that .

I think that'd be sick just coming together since we're not gonna be able to have time to get to the dino today .

Freddie actually keeps a wide band with him everywhere he goes in his backpack .

So thankfully , we have a wide band that we can use to street tune the car .

The all you have to do , make sure A F R is good .

Pretty much easy enough .

Nothing too crazy .

It , uh it's an exhaust and it's on there .

Uh We're gonna dial in the tip fitment a little bit .

I guess this would be a good point in the video to explain to you guys that we're definitely gonna have it done in time to be able to go and get my mom's reaction and give it to her on Christmas .

But I think we're instantly going to take it back just to be able to have some time to properly go through the car , make sure it's 100% safe before she has it to enjoy .

Um , but we're about to start it up with a new exhaust in here for the first time John's gonna do the honors and we're gonna hear this thing .

I have no idea what to expect .

Ok .

That's pretty good .

It sounds a lot better and deeper than that .

V I know that X pipes are really important for V eight s to make them sound good .

And this one has one .

So maybe that's partially why puddings cooking off some soft motor mounts like this thing chopping along .

Give her a little rev .

That's a bit of flame .

Freddie .

Why ?

Yo , bro , you spit a flame ?

I think it sounds 10 times better than the F D does .

It's so sick about to go for the first drive tractor .

Look at this thing's meat .

What do you think ?

That's ridiculous ?

Are you gonna go drive it ?

Yeah .

Let's go 3.5 days in .

We're taking this puppy for its first drive .

I know I got crap all over my hair from grinding .

Oh boy , it's bad .

I'm Tom .

So the plan , like I said , we're going to get this thing dialed as we can and then it's going to come back so we can go over it , make sure everything is super dialed on it and then throw it on the dino and see what power it kind of makes .

I got to fix the gas gauge .

I think I messed something up in the fuel tank because it's not working .

You ready ?

How's the clutch ?

Not too bad .

Like right off the floor .

Oh , that's perfect .

Very easy .

Well , he could be at life throttle .

We're just gonna go on the black ones and then we'll bring it back .

I love how it feels like a stock car .

It's like super boat .

Looks like something might be vibrating up front .

The front wheels .

T , and they get to , it is a little bitty , huh ?

A little bit .

One floor is so bad .

Rattling back there .

I exhaust hit .

Yeah , the exhaust only has one like hanger in the back right now .

So it's very possible that it could be bouncing up or down .

We're just kind of shaking it down before we do any power poles just to make sure nothing's going to fly off since we're driving without the hood .

I think here's a little bit rattling , here's something rattling .

Is that you or me ?

Uh , what do you mean by that ?

Did you do that or did I do that ?

It sounds a little rough coming out low R PM .

Maybe we can make an idle higher , higher to fix that for now .

I told my mum to drive and feel like she forgot how to drive a stick .

What's up ?

Yeah , that's hard .

That's super lean .

Is it ?

Yeah , that's why it feels like it's like in the boat .

Do you want me to pull the , so we can flash it there ?

We can just go back to the shop .

Ok .

So what we ended up having to do was uh switch the scaling for the math because we had a tune that was for like what , like the circular style math .

Like we have like the individual like , plug in .

It was more like a three style and it's a L S seven intake .

So it has a much bigger volume .

You ready ?

I was rich .

It feel , it feels really good .

Like the way that the power delivery is , I know it's not anywhere near close to finally being tuned , but it doesn't feel too spicy like some , some malis are a little too spicy down low and then up top there are not enough spice .

It's just like a good balanced spice level like a well seasoned dinner in case you guys are wondering what's kind of going on in here .

Freddie has a gauge and we're just doing pulls to make sure feelings good .

I think we're on the right track now .

I'm going to do a couple more passes , check everything out .

You ready ?

Me a second ?

Just tell me if you need me to start .

I ain't good .

Feeling better .

Yeah .

6 12 5 .

So I like how it's not explosive right off the rep .

It's going to make it a lot safer to drive .

I have permission to go in first .

Huh ?

You can , I want to see if she I should be out , you know , like a 123 if you want .

I just don't want to break the .

So I'm gonna be done ready to .

The gearing doesn't seem the best suited to L S .

Do you notice that ?

Yeah .

It's like , pretty sure .

Yeah , it almost seems like a , I don't know , it almost like , needs a longer first but I feel like the other gear is a little too far away , like , 23 .

Yeah , it doesn't spin though .

It's a lot safer feeling than I thought it would be one more flash and then we should be good to go more .

I know that I know that you'll get more of it on the , I know .

I know .

I know it all .

And the small exhaust too .

I thought it was going to be like this , like wildly out of control .

Little hot rod .

And instead I get a safe , it's going to be like , last time when I tried to bring my mom with a turbo and then she ended up loving it .

Like , it was some sweet gift to her because she really enjoyed it .

I think that's what's going to happen again except for the gas cage going all over the place .

You're not gonna be helped on that .

You really go to full and go to , then go to the middle .

I think I bent the rod .

You got a thing with rod very well .

That's like how I can't read .

That's why I , I can't read .

That's why I tune .

It's not an actual thing though , didn't you say you like , were terrible in school .

Definitely helped me pass high school .

It's crazy .

I always tell people you were like the smartest person .

I know .

I'm sorry , what ?

Me .

No , no wrong word .

Thank you .

Say , oh , you got it mixed up .

You're welcome .

I just hope I get texts from my mom about all the cars she's beating in races .

That's all that I could ever want .

Feels fantastic .

Chef .

Beautifully .

The clutch feels great .

Doing good .

Damn beautiful .

What something gets down ?

I'm very impressed with the traction .

I bet it feels a lot faster as a passenger does it .

And the what ?

It probably feels much faster as a passenger .

It feels , it doesn't feel that viscerally fast until I see it .

The front end just dive down like doing wheelies and it feels really , I don't really feel any extra weight over the front end either .

Somehow I swap cars .

You can really feel difference .

I don't feel anything officially .

3.5 days .

You on ?

We did it wait , I need high fives .

Hi now , Freddie .

Hey , Christmas present is Fancy Boy champagne .

This looks like the S 15 colors .

So , wow .

Dead on now .

We celebrate .

Hey , I didn't even shake it .

Oh no , it's getting on the sock .

Congratulations .

Not the sock .

Let's do it .

Yeah .

Yeah , all the customer .

So I'm gonna go ahead an air quote .

Say this build is done tomorrow .

The plan is to go bring it to my mom .

I'm gonna bring it over in the trailer , unload it and then explain to her that I did new wheels and new exhaust and see a reaction when she finds out that I actually swapped the engine .

But um , right now it's pretty much done .

We are going to bring it back after I give it to her to check over everything .

Make sure it's safe .

Do a couple of final little touches here and there , put it on the dino , see what power it makes and let Freddie really dial it in .

Um We just kind of ran out time today , but regardless the car looks fantastic , everything fits great looks O E M and before we go and do our celebratory burnout that you guys can already see in the thumbnail .

I wanted to give a shout out to the people that made this build happen .

See parts helps us out mega with a great deal on this L S3 which as you guys can see rips , I definitely recommend them .

If you guys are looking to get an L S , they're awesome .

Super helpful throughout the process .

In addition to that , uh the fab adapter works great .

Super happy with the clutch set up how the shifter feels and everything .

Performance auto works manufactures pretty much all the swap parts that we use for this and then E S R for helping me out on getting a set of wheels which are not in the rear , right now because I don't wanna break drive train parts with those super sticky tires .

So I put the one on but anyway , with their wheels and uh yeah , make sure you guys check out those companies .

I'm gonna put the links in the description that are people , people like them make crazy stuff like this happen because it started out as kind of like a ridiculous idea and you know , when you put together the right people on a project like this , you can make crazy things happen and put a smile on people's faces like you guys and hopefully my mom , so we're gonna go do the celebratory burnout and you guys better make sure you tune in tomorrow .

The time will be in the description .

So you guys can see the video with my mom's reaction to finally revealing the big surprise and massive .

Thank you to Texas Speed .

Uh I obviously can't show you guys a graph of what that cam that they gave us will do the stage two cam and some of the head parts that they helped us source in addition to a lot of the other L S parts , but they facilitated all our L S needs mega and uh I look forward to getting in the dino so you guys can see what that cam will do and how it kind of changes the power band since we have the L S3 and my F D that we can compare it to but let's go to a burn out and I'll see you guys tomorrow also .

Don't call me a wimp .

I don't want to break any drive train parts , so I went down the ground a little bit just to make sure I could get up to speed very quickly .

Thank you guys for watching you .

I forgot to press record .

Yeah .

What's this ?

Yeah .