NEW LT1 Project

[GOTHALOSISM]

Backround

 

Car- 1976 280z with l28et swap, megasquirt, fmic, mbc, ect...

 

Just sold the whole setup and picked up a 94 LT1 longblock with 60k on it. It comes with the harness and ECU as well. I have the JTR swap manual and have read it multiple times. Of course it covers mostly Carb'd swaps. Would you guys advise me to get the Chevy TPI-TBI book as well?

 

As far as the transmission it did not come with one so not sure what to get. My car currently is a 4speed manual so at least I won't have to worry about the pedal assemblies.

 

Thanks in Advance

Edited May 1, 2010 by GOTHALOSISM

[rx8ss]

What are going to use the car for?

 

Drag racing

 

Street/drag

 

Street

 

Show

 

Road racing

 

That is the best place to start.

 

Yes you will need a book for your lt1. There are e-bay stand alone harness's at a good price it the best. Auto's are easier on the rear end.

[GOTHALOSISM]

Sorry about that its for street and just to keep up with my friends rb25det neo in his 240z.

[rx8ss]

This is a personal recomendation and nothing more.

 

Leave it stock, headers, not less than a 3" exhaust, custom tune, auto. The reason for the auto is that the 6 speed will require a lot more work, but the double over drive is nice and shifting a lot is a pain. Remember that LT1 cooling is a little bit different so hook it up correctly for good cooling.

[Geking]

I am finishing up my LT1 swap.

 

I used a T5 5 speed manual. (you probably want to get the tremmic 5 peed or the WC t5) - If you do this, look for the thread that has the pull type slave cyl writeup. Saved me a lot of time

 

I used megasquirt 2 with Ford EDIS so I did not have to mess with the evil that is optispark (the front mounted distributor)

 

when you fill the LT1 with coolant, make sure that you fill it to the top in the thermostat housing in the top of the water pump.(or drill some small holes in the tstat) otherwise the air bubble will prevent the tstat from opining. Oh, and you can also get away with the stock radiator as long as it is in good shape and you get something like the ford tauris (sp) fan. While we are on cooling, the tstat goes to the lower right opining in the radiator and the other hose goes to the top left. A ferio LT1 site has a good drawing as of how to hook it all up. (shobox or something like that has alot of good LT1 info)

 

be careful what ac delete pulley you get, as some on ebay are not as advertised and they hit the frame rail.

 

The throw to open your Throttle body and the throw on the stock gas pedal (at the little ball) are 1:1, just hook them up with a bicycle brake cable and adjust the pedal stop to match

 

pulling your bellhousing when the motor is in the car is a real bear and should be avoided at all costs. it involves jacking up the passenger side of the car over the motor

 

Look in the Megasquirt maps for LT1 thread that I started a week or two ago for some good maps. Thanks again Z32 guy!

[GOTHALOSISM]

Thanks for the info, I'll be using the optispark to start with (had to sell my MS to fund the swap) i'll upgrade down the line before i do anything drastic. Yes the AC and PS will be removed as well.

[GOTHALOSISM]

On that note does any one know where I can download a FSM for a 1994 camaro z28? That way I can start figuring out how to wire up my datsun harness to the stock lt1 harness.

[piston]

you will have fun toying him on the roads but he will leave you on the freeway or on a roll. my old lt1 was nice and fast from point a to point b. real nice and quick throttle response. reacts on a dime. but it wasn't enough for me on the high end. just my opinion. its not that hard of a swap. from my experience, i think everything was pretty easy until i came across the alternator wiring. that was a bit challenging for some reason. go with a 6spd or at least a manual trans if you like to pick your own gears on corners or different speeds. if your going in a straight line, auto is probably for you.

[Geking]

On that note does any one know where I can download a FSM for a 1994 camaro z28? That way I can start figuring out how to wire up my datsun harness to the stock lt1 harness.

 

May not be exactly what you are looking for, but I found the shoebox site http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech1.html

[GOTHALOSISM]

Kool thanks Geking you have pics of your install?

[DavyZ]

Something else to consider, there have been a lot of threads from the past that dealt with the rear gearing vs 6 speed tranny. It seems most 6 speeds have a numerically high first gear, which is not exactly what you want unless you like starting out in second gear all the time. Remember that most R200s (I assume you have one) have the 3.55 gears. The 3.36s are much more difficult to find. In fact, I'd rather look for a transmission (5 or 6 speed) with a first gear in the high 2s and maybe forget about the 6th gear. The other complaint was that the 6th gear was so high that it comes into play with the camshaft specs of where the torque curve starts and trying to keep the engine happy in cruising. In other words, you don't want a car that cruises with RPM so low that it ruins driveability. There is rpm that is "too low" for the engine. To sum up this whole post, make sure you do your homework on the complete package: camshaft, gearing (tranny, rear end), tire size (diameter), etc. To make a streetable package that you will enjoy, the more sorted out your combination is, the more you will like it and the more effective it will be at pounding your competition (not that you'll ever race it on the street, heh). Good luck.

 

Davy

[GOTHALOSISM]

I decided to go with a T-5 to keep my clutch pedal operational.

[Geking]

Kool thanks Geking you have pics of your install?

 

Yes, I do, but they are old early photos of a while ago. They also have alot going on in them, so I don't know what they are worth. (Bottom of http://www.cardomain.../ride/3850338/4 has 2 pics)

 

Let me know what you want pictures of and I will be happy to take them. Oh, some more LT1 notes, the gauge temp sensor(one with the bullet connector) can screw into the passenger head coolant passage between 6 and 8, just seal it up with a bit of silicone. Also, the Oil sender can screw right into where the Chevy one is.

 

You can make a power steering delete pulley quite easily. Just remove the pulley off of the PS pump, remove the 3 bolts holding the plate to pump. Now you can take a pulley from a serpentine belt tensioner and bolt it to the very left power steering pump to plate hole on the plate. You can adjust how far the pulley sticks out with washers, and move the pulley around a little because the bolt will not be as big as the hole in the pulley. You actually want to push the pulley in towards the center of the plate when you tighten it all down to make sure the belt won't rub. I used the same size belt with the power steering and this mod

 

The alt will be a CS130. It will have SFLP labeled on the connector and on the alt. You want to connect the S to the battery, and the L to a 250ish ohm resistor, then to a switched on 12V source.(I used the injector rail for mine. I tried to use the blue wire that is hooked up to the charge light in the volt meter and it blew out the alt as I tried.) Oh, and the big lug goes to the battery as well (obviously)

 

I had a hard time with the ac delete pulley. The first one I bought was not as labeled, 2nd one would not fit as the pulley was sticking down and out. so I had to flip the bracket over so it faced up and out and bolted the pulley to it backwards. This required a 1 inch shorter belt. (tip on belts, the last 3 digits on the belt number are the length eg 630 is 63 inches.)

 

The chevy's require different starters for the different sized flywheels.

 

The aluminum headed LT1s use angled plugs, Iron heads use straight plugs. Some heads will only will fit one spark plug style.

 

Let me know what pics you want, what info I can give you.

 

EDIT: BTW, are you Skittle from Zcar.com?

Edited May 12, 2010 by Geking

[GOTHALOSISM]

That be me over on Zcar, and thanks for the info! I will have about $1300 to spend in june on the rest of the setup I hope thats enough to get it running.

[GOTHALOSISM]

Update

 

While scanning Craigslist I found a guy selling a WC t-5 for $300. I talked to the guy and the motor was a 305 with 52,000 original miles on it before the car was wrecked. I also talked the guy into throwing in the flywheel, starter, and clutch for free! So I'll be picking this stuff up on saterday and plan on having it installed on the motor this weekend.

 

So all I'll have left to do is get a Master cylinder, the mounts made (for free(ish), i supply the metal), exhaust, driveshaft shortened, and thats pretty much it!

Edited June 25, 2010 by GOTHALOSISM

[jay260z]

Just in case the stock LT1 dosnt have enough power for you look up Llyod Elliott at Elliott's port works. His LT1 stuff runs very well and has excellent street manners.

[GOTHALOSISM]

Will do thanks, I'll probably start with a 150 shot if needed.

[emeraldlion]

Goth, i know you're trying to keep your costs down but I would seriously consider a better starting point than the 305. You will put more dollars into it to get it to where you want to or have to swap a 350 or more in later down the road. I think grumpyvette had agreat writeup about starting with the 305. If you have to you have to but I would try to take the extra time to source out a reasonable 5.7 from an impala or what not.

[GOTHALOSISM]

I have a lt1 aka 350 from a 94 Camaro Z28. The transmission I got was attached to a 305.

Edited July 6, 2010 by GOTHALOSISM

[emeraldlion]

Ahhhhhhh I see. Must have read that wrong. I thought I had remember you saying you did but couldn't resist throwing in my sixpence.