Hello everyone, its my first time posting so apologies if maby this has been discussed but I wanted to pick the brains of everyone about wiring up an LS into an ATS, my idea is as follows, both 3rd gen ctsv and 6th gen camaro share the same platform as the ats and they ran LTs, so if one of those 2 LT harnesses have the same connections to the body as an ats then really changing connections for sensors and everything to run a simple ls and using hp tuners to program it to think its a camaro or ctsv to make all the modules communicate properly should work I think and let me keep things like traction controll and abs, I understand that modifying a camaro or ctsv harness is alot of work but I am used to wiring and am willing to put in the RnD effort to give it a try because I really like these cars and like building unique stuff, I just can't find any info on the body connections for the camaro or ctsv harnesses and that's really all thats stopping me at this point, what do you guys think? Thank you in advance!!
ATS V8 swap wiring
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Here's someone that did it - LINK -
"Want to convert your V6 powered ATS, ATS V, CTS V Sport, or other vehicle to LT4 or LT5 power? Contact [email protected] today!"
"Want to convert your V6 powered ATS, ATS V, CTS V Sport, or other vehicle to LT4 or LT5 power? Contact [email protected] today!"
Thank you guys for replying! I have seen the weapon x swap, that was what gave me the idea actually, if I understand correctly though they haven't really given much more info about the swap aside from that video, this other shop though I would like to look into to see if they might be willing to share more info that can help
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Yeah definitely not impossible to use the stock stuff but you really need to know your electrical. Personally, I don't know if I would want to do all that work to swap an LT. A modified 2.0 can be just as quick as an LT car as the weight-power ratio is pretty close. This is personal experience on racing my 2.0 vs a stock 6th gen SS. No doubt that the V8 will be more reliable and have more aftermarket support, but if you wanted to mod it further you will end up doing the same work and run into the same limitations(Direct injection, bottom-end). Not to mention that a used LT1 is like $6k. Personally, I would step it up a bit further and just put a LSA/LT4. The LS harness should really not be that far off.
That being said, more power to you. It would be cool as fuck to see someone pull this off and document it for us. Eventually I want to buy a salvage ATS and make it a dedicated track car.
That being said, more power to you. It would be cool as fuck to see someone pull this off and document it for us. Eventually I want to buy a salvage ATS and make it a dedicated track car.
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He didn’t share a lot, did mention camaro steering shaft and custom programming to get everything working together; he hadn’t got traction control working yet last time I talked to him. I believe he had to make a custom transmission mount
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Thanks for your input! I've actually thought about keeping the ltg over a swap for pretty much those exact reasons, I've been messing with LS all of my car life so I am comfortable with those but not so much the LT mainly because of the DI but actually my plan here is to take a LT1 camaro harness since it seems to have worked for someone before and modify it to run an LS instead of an LT, im hoping using a newer ecm with a related harness set up will make all the modules plac nice and since LS and LT share a firing order and a few other things im hoping i can use a camaro program to run the LS on an LT harness, if im right then long as I get the injectors and coils wired up right then I can use adapters or whatever else I need to run the LT sensors needed to give the ecu the info it wants, for mounts and everything I have friends who are real good fabricators and I can somewhat fabricate my self so we can make whatever mounts needed to make it work, once we get to that stage ill make sure to share dimensions and solutions for making your own mounts if possible but I think its really doable, the only difficulty I see is making the retrofit harness which is why I was asking about the camaro and ctsv harnesses, I figure as long as one of the v8 harnesses plug directly into the ATS then I can repin and rework as needed to make it as simple as possible for running an LS, I have retrofitted ls swap harnesses in a similar way before but just never with anything above 95 so thats where this fun little challenge is
Interesting, I was going to either do a big single turbo set up or make headers to solve that issue about the steering shaft but ill look into the camaro shaft and see whats different, I had figured custom programming would be needed but I dont think its impossible to make the LT computer think the LS its actually running is an LT but thank you for the info!
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Not a whole lot of room either, that's my biggest gripe about it. I think the only real way to do it would be to do a twin turbo setup like the lf4 or run a supercharger. Just from looking at that instagram post, you don't have a whole lot of room on either side. A single turbo will need a merge pipe from the opposite exhaust side, especially if it is a bigger one. It would be really difficult even if you build custom headers, it would be a lot of fabrication.
The LT and LS style engines use completely different engine management techniques. They are both gm and if you choose to keep the ECM in the stock locations, it's mostly just comparing the electrical diagrams and swapping the pins one at a time. Some components may straight up not work without swapping over from a Camaro.
Not too sure what trans you currently have, but you might as well swap that as well. You most likely won't have traction control, so an LSD will be helpful if you don't already have one. At that point you may as well consider swapping the diff, axles and rear hubs at once. To be quite honest, if you want to really do this just buy a wrecked running Camaro and swap it over.
The LT and LS style engines use completely different engine management techniques. They are both gm and if you choose to keep the ECM in the stock locations, it's mostly just comparing the electrical diagrams and swapping the pins one at a time. Some components may straight up not work without swapping over from a Camaro.
Not too sure what trans you currently have, but you might as well swap that as well. You most likely won't have traction control, so an LSD will be helpful if you don't already have one. At that point you may as well consider swapping the diff, axles and rear hubs at once. To be quite honest, if you want to really do this just buy a wrecked running Camaro and swap it over.
This is very true, I see what you are saying when I look back, well I guess I'll have to see just how little there is to work with once it's installed and ill be sure to take lots of pictures
For wiring I have been able to make old style LT engines from the 90s run with ls coils and ls pcm by splicing in both harnesses together to make what I needed so im not too worried about the management systems being different because as long as i can ensure the ecm is sending and receiving the nessesary signals then it should work, I was hoping to keep the ecm in the stock location but what components do you think won't work? Just curious to see what you have in mind so thank you for the much needed insight!
About the trans I was hoping to run a tr6060 but I do have a spare 6l80 so it just depends on if I can find a tr6060 before I start doing engine mounts, do you happen to know if the camaro rear diff and everything bolt in? I looked through the forum and it seemed like it was a 50/50 since no one has done it, I thought it would because of the same platform deal but it never hurts to get a second opinion because to keep it safe I was going to have high torque axles made for me and I was going to run a manual transmission ats diff with an lsd
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Wow thats really interesting because I have had issues trying to track down an ats diff for a while but camaro diffs are everywhere, ill look into that because I've wanted an lsd for a while now, thank you! I want to have axles made regardless so the different bolt pattern won't be a real problem too
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Got the 3.73 differential in. Installed new flanges from a Camaro 3.27 lsd. GM also thought it was a good idea to make the 3.73 SS diff Companion Flange bolts mount up just a little bigger then the already existing 3.27 Companion Flange that connects to driveshaft. We made it work. Just carefully notched out the holes and cut a little off the guides where the bolts go into the Companion Flange. Made sure it was centered. Overall very please with results. Thank you to my friend Matt Madrid with helping with this install and your attention to detail.
Matt and myself figured out what needed for the ATS to get the 3.73 swap. If you have a Camaro and want to upgrade to a 3.73 it’s a lot easier then the ATS. Camaro 3.27 flanges swap easy into the 3.73. If you want to upgrade the to SS CV axles just buy SS CV axles. The spine on the Camaro’s 2.0 and SS have 33 spline. They fit right in. You could also upgrade the flanges on your 3.27 to SS Flanges and the SS CV axles will work. The 3.27 flanges won’t mount to the SS CV axles. 3.27 flanges are a smaller diameter then the SS flanges. These differentials are hard to come by.
As for the ATS you can install the 3.73 just keep in mind the flanges don’t interchange. You have to get flanges from the 3.27 manual camaro 2.0. Buy the flanges separately to swap to SS 3.73 successfully. You can use the same CV axles as stock or the manual cars CV axles (there thinker then auto’s) but you CANT upgrade ATS to SS CV axles because the ATS has a 30 spline count and they won’t fit. So we spent half the day seeing if SS axles will fit the ATS, took a trip to Tracy Lewis shop and took apart a v6 differential. That’s totally different beast...
. So in order to make it work, I be ordering some flanges for the Camaro 3.27 manual to make this work. I heard many talk about TVs subject but never shared properly with others. It was something that’s been throw out there a few times and now it’s clear what needs to be done for the ATS to get a 3.73 SS differential. These differentials all mount the same way in ATS, camaro’ 2.0, and SS 6.2 manuals. We figured it out. Hope this helps anyone that’s looking into it. If you go from a 2.85 to a 3.27 you need axles from the 3.27 differential, as well as clips. Not sure about bolt size
. Hope this helps anyone that uses the search bar.
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Yeah David also posted on here, Installed 3.73 LSD SS camaro differential.
Wow thats crazy that I never found that! Thanks a ton for that info, that will solve my diff issue, well on the side ill start trying to see if I can get an lt1 camaro harness to run an ls on an engine stand and if I can ill see if I can program it to also interface into the modules of the ats, after that ill start working on installing it with hopefully a tr6060 and send pics and measurements, thank you guys for all your help and info!!UPDATE:
Got the 3.73 differential in. Installed new flanges from a Camaro 3.27 lsd. GM also thought it was a good idea to make the 3.73 SS diff Companion Flange bolts mount up just a little bigger then the already existing 3.27 Companion Flange that connects to driveshaft. We made it work. Just carefully notched out the holes and cut a little off the guides where the bolts go into the Companion Flange. Made sure it was centered. Overall very please with results. Thank you to my friend Matt Madrid with helping with this install and your attention to detail.
Matt and myself figured out what needed for the ATS to get the 3.73 swap. If you have a Camaro and want to upgrade to a 3.73 it’s a lot easier then the ATS. Camaro 3.27 flanges swap easy into the 3.73. If you want to upgrade the to SS CV axles just buy SS CV axles. The spine on the Camaro’s 2.0 and SS have 33 spline. They fit right in. You could also upgrade the flanges on your 3.27 to SS Flanges and the SS CV axles will work. The 3.27 flanges won’t mount to the SS CV axles. 3.27 flanges are a smaller diameter then the SS flanges. These differentials are hard to come by.
As for the ATS you can install the 3.73 just keep in mind the flanges don’t interchange. You have to get flanges from the 3.27 manual camaro 2.0. Buy the flanges separately to swap to SS 3.73 successfully. You can use the same CV axles as stock or the manual cars CV axles (there thinker then auto’s) but you CANT upgrade ATS to SS CV axles because the ATS has a 30 spline count and they won’t fit. So we spent half the day seeing if SS axles will fit the ATS, took a trip to Tracy Lewis shop and took apart a v6 differential. That’s totally different beast.... So in order to make it work, I be ordering some flanges for the Camaro 3.27 manual to make this work. I heard many talk about TVs subject but never shared properly with others. It was something that’s been throw out there a few times and now it’s clear what needs to be done for the ATS to get a 3.73 SS differential. These differentials all mount the same way in ATS, camaro’ 2.0, and SS 6.2 manuals. We figured it out. Hope this helps anyone that’s looking into it. If you go from a 2.85 to a 3.27 you need axles from the 3.27 differential, as well as clips. Not sure about bolt size
. Hope this helps anyone that uses the search bar.
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Thanks for sharing my post about the 3.73. Installed three 3.73’s so fare👍UPDATE:
Got the 3.73 differential in. Installed new flanges from a Camaro 3.27 lsd. GM also thought it was a good idea to make the 3.73 SS diff Companion Flange bolts mount up just a little bigger then the already existing 3.27 Companion Flange that connects to driveshaft. We made it work. Just carefully notched out the holes and cut a little off the guides where the bolts go into the Companion Flange. Made sure it was centered. Overall very please with results. Thank you to my friend Matt Madrid with helping with this install and your attention to detail.
Matt and myself figured out what needed for the ATS to get the 3.73 swap. If you have a Camaro and want to upgrade to a 3.73 it’s a lot easier then the ATS. Camaro 3.27 flanges swap easy into the 3.73. If you want to upgrade the to SS CV axles just buy SS CV axles. The spine on the Camaro’s 2.0 and SS have 33 spline. They fit right in. You could also upgrade the flanges on your 3.27 to SS Flanges and the SS CV axles will work. The 3.27 flanges won’t mount to the SS CV axles. 3.27 flanges are a smaller diameter then the SS flanges. These differentials are hard to come by.
As for the ATS you can install the 3.73 just keep in mind the flanges don’t interchange. You have to get flanges from the 3.27 manual camaro 2.0. Buy the flanges separately to swap to SS 3.73 successfully. You can use the same CV axles as stock or the manual cars CV axles (there thinker then auto’s) but you CANT upgrade ATS to SS CV axles because the ATS has a 30 spline count and they won’t fit. So we spent half the day seeing if SS axles will fit the ATS, took a trip to Tracy Lewis shop and took apart a v6 differential. That’s totally different beast...
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