Project 72 facelift begins!!!

[kelbystanley]

Well, I picked up an lt1 and trans from a buddy of mine for a killer deal so its time for a facelift in the powerplant department.
What do you guys think? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

[67c10rustbuket]

Good lookin' truck! Check out LT1SWAP.COM they have some good info on the swap.

[GMCJOE]

I can give you a bit of information on the swap if you need it. Though, I can't help you with the computer system. I didn't have any of it when I got my engine and went with a Carburated GM Performance intake and dropped a distributor in and eliminated the opti-spark. If your engine is an early production LT1, I suggest putting a vented opti-spark unit on the engine while you have it out. Failure rate of the non vented is high. Another good upgrade on these is doing the LT4 Hot Cam Swap, though there are other options of cams to choose from.

Lastly, I have a diagram of the cooling system. I made a mistake when I hooked up my coolant hose's, pretty much I wasn't thinking nor did I research it. You can run your stock radiator with no problem. The blue arrowed hose goes from the lower outlet on your radiator to the thermostat housing, and your other outlet on the water pump goes to the upper outlet on the radiator. Purchase a corvette water pump, it has the 4 outlets on it. 2 to run to your heater core and the 2 for your radiator.

What your LT1 come out of?

[kelbystanley]

The motor and trans came out of a 93 camaro. I have all of the wiring harness and ecm. Can you elaborate on your mess up when you hooked it up to your radiator?

[GMCJOE]

I just hooked up my coolant hose's like a typical 350. The coolant system still works, just not as efficiently. With my truck, I believe it is causing my transmission to run a little hotter than it should when I am a little heavy on the pedal. Causes my transmission to push a little fluid out the dipstick every once in a while. Use the diagram, and a Corvette water pump. You will have no issues with the cooling system as long as you get and electric fan setup that pull the right amount of CFM to keep it cool.

275hp and 325trq will push your truck around pretty good if you keep it stock. I have a 96 LT1 corvette engine, supposed to be 300hp 340trq (thats without my modifications). It moves the truck around quite well, makes a great cruiser.

[kelbystanley]

Thanks, one good thing is that I have everything out of the donor car. fans included. what i'm putting around with right now is i like to do everything myself. I would like to use the factory harness minus what I don't need. Cut it down and use it. The radiator is also from the same camaro.

[kelbystanley]

update for you guys. i got the motor cleaned up and i'm tackling the wiring now. i'll get pics in when i get a chance. it's slow going but i found out a few things about the motor, lt4 hot cam installed and already got chip in the ecm. i'll update again as i progress. if anyone has any info about the 93 ecm please chime in.

[kelbystanley]

Update! Sorry guys, I haven't been able to work on the truck in a while because of work. Kind of hard to work on the truck when i'm in the gulf. I did get to do a lot of freshning up on the motor though. here are some updated pics. I got the wiring done and had to learn how to program a chip on my own since no one near me wanted to tackle it. A big thank you goes out to Craig at moates.net for the help.

[kelbystanley]

Got some updates for you guys. I decided not to go the route of the lt-1 because of all of the wiring issues. It seems i didn't have everything that I needed. I am going the carb route with a 383. What do you guys think. I traded the lt-1 for the turnkey 383. I'm still going with the 700r4. Then it will be time for new wheels and paint.