I have an 85 camaro wit a 350 stock bottom end except it has a lopey cam , wit headers and a performer intake wit 650 holley. it has 80,000 miles and could use refreshing . would a stock lt1 be more powerful. I already have it and the wiring harness. Its a 94 wit aluminum heads.

I assume the 350 currently has a carb.

It's safe to say the LT1 will have better economy for a given power level than the Gen I engine combinations will have.

If you're considering transplanting the LT1 efi motor into your car, take into account that at the least you'll most likely need to install a new fuel supply pump and a return. Factor those costs in as well.

the sbc has a easier ignition to work with, parts are easier and cheeper to come by. lt1 has limited aftermarket, for heads, intake and very limited choices for calibration of pcm. it is not a sbc with just efi, as so many uninformed have called it.
if anything look into swapping in 4.8/5.3 ls based engine.
huge aftermarket, and all the power u will need using oem heads, block, crank, and intakes.

Hmmmm? I wonder why I didnt have any trouble finding TunerCat software and performing a calibration tune after adding those hard to come by aftermarket modifications to my LT1 car? G, guess I'm out of the loop.

He already has an LT1 motor. Why send him out in search of another $$ power source?

Good luck with your choices

TunerCat and LT1 Edit are both perfectly good ECM tuning options.

And the LT1, in many ways, is just a glorified SBC - The whole rotating assembly interchanges, all the valvetrain interchanges except the timing set, SBC headers bolt right up, throttle body is the same as a TPI unit, valve covers and just generic centerbolt valve covers, flywheel is just a 1pc seal SBC part (yes, the T56 one is unique, but a T5 or 4-spd flywheel will bolt up if it has the 1pc seal design), SBC bellhousing will bolt right up.

As for aftermarket heads - the LT1 is getting alot more aftermarket support now... AFR, TrickFlow, GMPP (LT4), Dart, and others are making LT1 specific heads, and most manufacturers will 'modify' their existing heads to work on an LT1 with a little extra cost.

I would say go for it, if you already have an LT1 - especially if its the high compression aluminum head engine. I have an LT1 in my '97 Z28, and I really like it. Great gas mileage (for a big V8), sounds fantastic, very reliable, and makes plenty of power and gobs of torque. It will run circles around pretty well any stock Gen 1 engine. Mines the 285hp dual cat engine, but I'd bet its more likely in the range of 300-310 crank HP stock. Its a very strong 285hp. '94 would be rated 275hp if its an F-body engine, and around 300 if its a Corvette LT1.

If you can find a '95 model, grab it as it is considered the best year for the LT1s. I have a '95 in mine mated to the T56 from the same car and I love it, but I also love the LS1 in my '98 T/A as well, but there are alot of aftermarket parts available like Adam said, also don't forget about Lloyd Elliot packages for the LT1s as well which are probably the best known packages available. Holley finally released their intake for the LT1 as well.

OBDI LT1s as well as OBDII LT1s have a wide variety of tuning software available, and alot of places that dynotune should have the capabilities of tuning the engine as well as several mail order places, madcatz, pcm4less and a couple of other places as well.

Like five7 said, better power, and better economy with the LT1 in EFI form over a standard SBC that is carbed, and I'll even say more than an L98 as well.

With the T56 and 3.70 gears I get on the highway about 27-28mpg stock tune with the egr, airpump, and vats programmed out out of the PCM (which I did myself)

As for it not being a SBC with efi, it pretty much is. When I put my motor back together, it used the same cam bearings, crank bearings, and oil pump that a normal 350 uses, only difference was the rings since the engine has lightweight hyperutectic pistons and powdered metal rods instead of cast pistons and rods. People use the cams made for the LT1s in standard 350's by driving the dowel pin in further than it would be on an LT1 due to the dowel pin driving the opti-spark. The crank is actually different since it is balanced for the lightweight pistons and of course, the reverse flow cooling. The carb intake for the LT1 has the provision for the distributor in the back of the intake like a normal SBC, the motors that keep the EFI just has a piece that bolts inside to keep the oilpump driveshaft gear in place against the cam, just like a standard SBC would have if a distributor was there.

compared to a sbc or lsx, the choices are limited. there are a few good parts, but nothing like for the others. never said they were hard to come by, but limited.

Not really... there aren't many LTx-specific parts, because most of the time they aren't necessary. They just use SBC parts. Only a few parts are actually only LTx specific on an LT1 engine. Most are just small block spec parts.

Limited choices does not equal no good choices.

ok, again limited choices. for bolt on(not modified) but something that bolts on out of the box, heads and intakes. COMPARED to ls and sbc

ther are various excellent lt products, i used to own a t61 turbo m6 lt1
it can be made to run hard. lt1 tone with turbo hiss sounds wicked