Dan Juday

My wife and I are driving the Z down Friday. We're doin' the whole MSA "thing".

The cost of any motor swap will pay for years and years of the fuel that you might save with a small four cylinder engine. But hey, then you would have the joy of owning the slowest Z on the planet. Sorry for the sarcasm. The logic just doesn't work for me.

My buddy from Lodi, Scott Trotter, a.k.a. "strotter" here, came by today with his laptop and wires and magic boxes and tuned my 305tpi motor today. It has never ran stronger. It's pretty much a stock Tune Port 5.0 out of a 1991 Trans Am. It's using the stock ECM. Headers, exhaust, and a K&N snout type filter are the extent of the mods. It's connected to a WCT5 and I'm still running the 3.36 R180 untill I get the time to swap in the 3.54 R200 that's sitting on the garage floor. Scott bacisly opimized the motor for performance with a code he produced based upon one for the 5.7 tpi. After burning a couple of chips we took it for a drive. Using his laptop and another magic box he was able to monitor all the vitals in realtime. AFR was a perfect 14.7 across the RPM range. It feels like I've got another 500 RPMs of strong pull at the top end. I'm very jazzed! I'm going to have to dyno this thing and see what my bowtie "boat anchor" is putting out. Big thanks Scott. You're a great bud!

Well you guys are beyond helpfull. Big props to Mr. Trotter, a.k.a. "strotter". He has already set me up with an Edelbrock Performer manifold for vortec heads AND a stock LT1 cam. Now all I need is the new long block!

Thanks Mike, that sounds like the best solution. I'll find a good '96-'99 vortec motor, add a mild cam, performer manifold and the TBI adapter. This should give the beast a healthy increase in power with minimal cost and still pass smog without trouble. Thanks guys, I knew you would help.

Please forgive my denseness. Does that mean the '95 TBI intake manifold won't bolt up to the '96 and up vortec heads?

Thank you Magnum, now that's helpfull. Are all the '96 up to the LT & LS motors the same inside, car and truck? I'm really just looking for a long block. Looking at a Jeggs catalog it looks like the 204/214 is about the mildest cam out there on the aftermarket. That's fine as this is my wifes car and priorities are drivability, pass smog, and fuel mileage. I wouldn't do anything to it performance wise if I didn't have to pull the motor anyways. There will be no new exhaust goodies. Stock cast iron manifolds. I did have bigger pipes, free flow cat, and "big muthah" Borla muffler stuck on it about two years ago. The muffler was cheap. It was ordered for something that didn't have enough room for it and it was laying around the muffler shop too long. It is currently as loud as my wife will tolerate. Will that intake manifold really do me any good under the stock TBI? LS? Tim, you're dreamin'.

Ok, that's not helpfull.

Actually it was more like fizzle clank, clank. NO, NOT THE Z!!! My wife's '95 Suburban 5.7 TBI. Radiator tank cracked open vomitting out all the coolant and before she noticed the water temp gauge was pegged. Bad smell of exhaust in the radiator, and even the oil smelled burnt. It got way hot. 170k miles, I figure I'm just going to grab a JY mill and drop it in. So help me out all you motor heads. This thing has to pass smog. All the bolt-on stuff is going right back on. What I want to know is what year (car or truck) motor should I look for for the best stock heads. Then I plan to add a cam to get a little more out of it. So what cam should I use? I know we've got some real sharp Chevy guys here so help out a buddy.

Check your JTR manual Tyler. It lists the part numbers for the motor mounts you'll need.

Front and rears are both 4 1/2" backspacing. I do get some tire rubbing on the frame with full lock. And, I'm sure you already know, shorter springs in the front won't buy you anymore tire room, unlike the rear.

Welcome to HybridZ Shawn. The first time I checked out this thread I just quickly passed on because I felt I couldn't be of any help. I have done an LT1 swap but when you said you are using your own design motor plates that throws a big wild card into the mix. You see, nobody here knows exactly where in the engine bay your motor is located. I afraid your going to be on your own.

Hope you told him about this place. Sad to see you go. Hold out, another Z will come along. I got an e-mail yesterday asking if mine was for sale. Maybe I'll join you!

Fix it yourself you lazy bum!

I'm going to guess high winds blowing water off the lake (look at the white caps) with an ambient well below freezing and then landing on very cold cars and instantly freezing to ice. Eh?

Welcome John! I'm pretty sure those first two cars are one-offs. As far as the 280YZ's I like 'em! I may be biased though.

I'm going to shove mine inside one of my rear fiberglass fenders. No signal shielding from fiberglass. I like the hunk-o-wire method. Sounds cheap and easy. So about how long should the "hunk-o-wire" be? and what about the coax connector? It has an inny and an outty. Which one do I connect to?

Oh ya! Actually the diff mount was awhile ago. I just finished rebuilding my front suspension. Talk about gettin' dirty.

Or addresses.

Jolane is right. In my corral of vehicles I have 3 small block Chevy's, all FI. Two of them are 350's and the other is the 305 in my Z. All are in pretty much stock trim and guess which one is the most powerfull. Having said that, Pop-n-fresh is right too. If you have 1500 clams to spend on a motor grab an LT1 out of an f-body. IMHO this is the best bang for the buck in a Z swap.

You know Alex, if your out there looking for obsenity...

Your right Bill. I don't know what Mike was thinking when he said it gives more room for the harmonic balancer. Maybe too many beers that day? Seems odd to me now that you would be having so much interference even with the spacers. Forgive me if this sounds obvious. Are the JTR motor mount spacers on the correct sides? Do you have the correct motor mounts? Did you slot your towers and push the motor all the way forward (this position gives the most room for the tranny)? Please remind me what tranny you are using.