Hopelessly Confused Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Hi, im new to the forums, and I have been searching around on the threads for alot of cheap HP and still get reasonable gas mileage since my 280z will be my daily driver. So I was thinking of buying a 1994 police crusier with 77k miles for around $1500 to swap out the engine,tramission, and differntial on my 280z. What I was wondering is if there is a cheaper/better way to get alot of HP/TQ or possible warnings that you have about this configuration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbk240z Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 this would be a fairly simple conversion using the JTR engine mounting kit. Buy the JTR swap manual, tons of info in the book, as on this site. The almighty search button is most useful. It would be good idea to utilize the stock 280Z rear diff, as the Caprice rear would be a b**ch to install, not to mention not being much stronger that 200R rear diff. Anyway, good luck on the swap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumo Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Buying an ex-police car with low miles sounds "cool" because you think those have stupid power but you have to be careful about those. Reason is because they may show low miles but you have to consider how many hours they've been idling. You ever see a cop car idling under a bridge or in a parking lot with the a/c on while he's writing his or her report? Plus you're not even counting the fact that they dog these cars jumping curbs and all that. So unless your going to freshen up the engine in the cop car, find a gently used Caprice or wagon, Buick Roadmaster, Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham as a donor car. Unless of course if your car was a detectives car or a marshalls car where most of it's duty was to serve warrants or go from point a to b. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savageskaterkid Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Police cars go throught lots of maintainance just to make sure that they'll stay on the road. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bartman Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 I don't know how much you already know, but the engine you are talking about is an LT1. Here's a thread I created a while back that talks about this engine and the differences based on the donor car. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=109370 As jbk240z posted, using the rearend is probably not a good idea. You won't make alot of HP/TQ with this configuration, but you can get there with pretty simple modifications and add-ons...of course that depends on what you think is alot. A lightweight Z with this swap goes pretty decent. Get the JTR book if you don't already have it. It will give you plenty of useful information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z48LT-1 Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Hopelessly Confused, You need to make sure the lump you're thinking of buying is, indeed, an LT1, because like jnewby noted in Bartman's thread, there was a 265ci version of the V8 in Caprices, including cop cars, afaik, back in the day. It was known as the L99 and obviously would be far less attractive for a performance buildup. AFAIK the only way to tell the difference is to look at the casting numbers, because externally, the L99 and the LT1 were identical. Don't have those number handy, but one of the pieces of evidence may be on the driver's side of the block near the bell housing. Mine has "57L" prominently displayed, and I pray that's enough to confirm what I bought as an LT1 is, in fact, one. Cheers -- Gary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators RTz Posted December 2, 2006 Administrators Share Posted December 2, 2006 FAIK the only way to tell the difference is to look at the casting numbers, because externally, the L99 and the LT1 were identical. Another way to tell is by the underhood sticker. I believe you'll find it on the upper core support (above the radiator) in that car. As far as the swap goes, I think its a good choice if you're on a strict budget. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumo Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Police cars go throught lots of maintainance just to make sure that they'll stay on the road. Yeah they do keep a maintenance schedule but they are still hard miles. Unless of course he plans on rebuilding or freshening up the engine and tranny then go for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kuntry Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Yeah they do keep a maintenance schedule but they are still hard miles. Unless of course he plans on rebuilding or freshening up the engine and tranny then go for it. How can going to the donut shop and back to the station be hard miles??? lmao Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumo Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 How can going to the donut shop and back to the station be hard miles??? lmao When they leave it idling outside while eating inside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopelessly Confused Posted December 3, 2006 Author Share Posted December 3, 2006 I didnt know that the differential would be really hard to swap, but that is good to know before I went and ripped apart my car. Also the car im looking at, I believe to be, is a LT-1 because its a 5.7 and it was made in '94 which I have read some where is when they started putting LT-1s in the caprices. Also I guess I 260 hp is not the greatest but I was thinking I could add on to it when I got money and time. I'll also look for something other than a police crusiers as per your guy's recomendations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyZ Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 I see enough ex cruisers running around the Bay Area that I would not hesitate to buy one, especially if $1500 buys the whole LT1 package. If it looks, sounds, and runs well, in addition to being an authentic LT1, I'd buy it an install it. Leave the diff on the chassis or sell it, but don't install a solid axle unless you 1) know what you are doing 2) will be upgrading the whole drivetrain to sick power levels in the very near future. The R200 in the rear of the Z is plenty stout to handle the power of the LT1. Davy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wheelman Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 I did this swap into my 240Z except I didn't use the 4L60E transmission as 3rd gear was shot and I wanted a manual. Be sure to check the tranny real good as this is the weak spot in the drive train. I know several guys who are cops and they all say the engine is nearly indestructable but the trannies are garbage. You can get very decent power from that LT1 with a simple cam swap. It will have the iron heads which are supposed to flow about 20% better than the aluminum ones but the compression ratio is down a bit from 10.5:1 to 10:1. Anyway thats a good deal if the car is in decent shape and the swap into the Z is not very hard. The worst part of it for me was rebuilding the wiring harness. It wasn't hard just time consuming. Wheelman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piston Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 yeah, like wheelman mentioned. i did the swap myself. the harness was a PITA. but i got it to the point where everything looks stock. i can say about 50% of the harness has been deleted out and reloomed. looks brand new with only the wires i need to run the engine. ther is 2 engines in this year caprice. the 4.3 and the 5.7. both the engine to me, looks idelticle. only the green hoses and 5.7l on the back of the block told the difference. for fuel ecomomy wise and cheap reliable, you cant go wrong with the lt1. its cheap, fuel injeted and saves gas compare to carburated engine and still able to make some sick horsepower with the right tunning and cams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 As I've been posting (preaching?) recently, the V8 swap really has two parts: (1) the swap itself, and (2) the care and feeding of a high performance engine. It's easy for a swap to evolve into a full-on hot rodding endeavor, so (2) can be more complex and more frustrating than (1). A police LT1 into a 280Z sounds like a conservative-enough swap so as to minimize the troubles with (2), yet the donor is sufficiently sporting so that the end result should have satisfying acceleration. In other words, at least on face value, this sounds like a good idea - provided that you buy the entire Caprice (as opposed to just extracting the engine etc.) are are content with the stock transmission. Good donor cars are getting rare. OHV V8 anythings are hard to find - Chevy or Ford. Most cop cars are either FWD Impallas or 4.6L Crown Victorias - neither is a promising swap candidate. So the point is, if the Caprice is in good condition, consider buying it whether or not you pursue the swap; it's good to have around in reserve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hopelessly Confused Posted December 4, 2006 Author Share Posted December 4, 2006 Thats unfortunate, the car I was going to buy was already sold when I called on it. Now I can only find the 91-93 carprices that have the LO5 engine in them in the oregon area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9t4ss Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 Hoplessly confused, Look for the letter "P" in the eighth position of the vin. number. This denotes a 5.7 LT1 motor. A "W" in this location denotes a 4.3 motor. Hope this helps. As far as miles goes on ex patrol cars goes, my son has a 95' caprice with 330,000 original miles on it. Alan "9T4SS" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LS1 240Z Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 shouldnt do that swap, 1. you can get motors cheaper, 2. thats to much for the car. police cars are fine to buy, we own a 00 B4C camaro with 160,000 on it, a 01 B4C with 130k on it, a 95 caprice with 95k on it and a 00 impala with 117k on it, all run/drive fine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piston Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 1,500 for a complete car i think if a good and fair price depending on where you live. the car itself has everything you need for the swap including stock relay boxes. wiring and anything else you can use. buying a motor itself can be cheap but most times, it wont come with what you need like complete uncut harness or oil cooler lines which the caprice had and stuff usable like i mentioned, relay boxes and etc... after buying all that, prices jump back up to more then 1,500 gathering parts itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LS1 240Z Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 we bought our Caprice for $300 and it runs/drives/looks great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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