Just to keep a good debate going I want to throw in my .02.
Everyone keeps talking about the hp to hp comparisons. No one has acknowledged that not all HP is equal! In order to make 400+ hp on any 4 cyl that came in this car you're looking at a sizeable turbo that would come with some lag. The V8 torque curve starts much sooner, giving you more power over the RPM band. Plus most people find a more linear power curve easier to control in a handling situation. When I'm racing my car (stock other than a boost increase custom tune) I have to be very careful that my acceleration out of a corner doesn't give the turbo full spool or I'm spinning out. The V8 engine would be a much smoother power curve making the transition to WOT much smoother and easier to handle since it isn't upsetting the car.
Personally I won't put an LS anything in my car. I'll buy the DIY kit, an L33 engine(all aluminum 5.3) from a Silverado for $700-1000 and then put some heads on it with better flowing intake/exhast manifolds and a mild cam. Now I'm putting down better than LS power for what..6k total by the time you buy the T-56 as well.
Now if you're going to pay 15-20k for someone else to swap it I definitely feel that the value goes out the window. NO ONE can acknowledge that a swap done by a professional is a swap of any monetary value. It's for noise and showing off, nothing else. If the noise and showing off is more important to you than the money in your pocket then yes...pay a professional to do the swap. I've seen nothing but good reviews by the several individuals offering these swap services. The installs are quality and very likely better than anything I could do myself. (face it, we're not pro's)
Another thing to factor in is your end power goal. If you only want to make 380whp, your best bet is to just stick to whatever 4 cyl came in your car and upgrade it to those numbers. If you want to make 500whp reliably you're looking at upgrading the internals of your engine to handle what any V8 from the LS engine family bottom end can do in stock form. At that power point the value starts tipping more towards the V8 if you're a DIY guy.
To the guy who thought his 3rd and 4th gen camaro's were a sports car I
"My camaro handled really well." Sure...for a heavyweight camaro. Drive a similar year model corvette and I
PROMISE you'll think the corvette handles better. The corvette had less weight, better weight distribution and a FAR better suspension design. The camaro is exactly what it was designed as...an american muscle car that was more motor than handling. I don't hate camaro's at all, just acknowledge them for what they are.
I also attend that the V8 kappa would never have happened. The Kappa can do something the F bodies could never do....carve corners. A corner carving V8 Kappa competes DIRECTLY with the corvette. The Kappa would be faster both in a straight line AND on a road course. GM would very intelligently never allow that. The v8 swap was built into the car PURELY for the enthusiasts that wanted to do so.
