LTX and LSXPutting LT1's, LS1's, and their variants into Third Gens is becoming more popular. This board is for those who are doing and have done the swaps so they can discuss all of their technical aspects, including repairs, swap info, and performance upgrades.
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Ok, I know you guys on here are pretty much the experts. Far better information on here than anything you will ever get from calling your local Chevrolet Parts/Service department . So I'll tell you about my project and hope to get some good information.
I have a 1986 2.8L V6 Firebird and the motor was first missfiring and then when I had finally found the problem and fixed it, the motor had developed a nice and very loud knock; so I decided to just replace it with a V8.
I found a 1996 SS Impala LT1 and bought it with only 80k miles on it for $250 (Also came with the PCM) . I have called around and found out that I will have to get a 1996-1997 4L60E transmission as the older transmissions are a little different as far as the internals go and this will apparently effect the shifting in a very negative way.
So now I'm about to try and find either a 1996 or 1997 wiring harness out of a Z28 or a Trans Am and I'm wondering if I can just get the wiring harness and hook it up, throw the motor and tranny in there and fire it right up and drive off, or if there's going to be some other issues? I called a local performance shop and asked them how much it would cost for a custom wiring harness to make it easier on myself and they were talking in the $850 range and if I had them install the wiring harness it would be about 4 hours labor at $90 an hour . So its obvious to see why I'm going to just go for the used wiring harness and just see what happens when I start to try and pulg everything in.(I just found a 1997 Trans Am at a junk yard about 2 hours away from me and they want $150 for the complete wiring harness and they will pull it for me.)
So I guess my question would be: "Am I going to have to buy some adaptors or something of that sort or will everything just plug in and work correctly?" I'm guessing its not going to be that simple though.
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Last edited by james32219; 11-01-2009 at 12:28 AM.
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None of the body connectors will plug in or even have a similar pinout. The stock harness routing will not fit your engine bay very well but it will work
Sweet! I like your price wayyy better. Much more reasonable. So, If I were wanting you to build me a custom harness how would we go about getting this started?
I read all the threads and I think I'm in over my head so that's why I'd rather get you to make it for me. I noticed you had some good feed back and everyone seems to be happy with what all you've posted so you obviously know what you are doing.
Would I need to send you the harness out of my car as well as the LT1 wiring harness that I want to use from the 97 T/A or do you have your own supplies for this whole deal? Would it cost $350 as well?
good man... i will be the first to argue that the impala motors are the best lt1's besides the corvette having four bolt mains. i got a 95 impala ss motor goin in my 83 z. do some exhaust work, pick the right cam and exhaust, some other minor bolt ons/tuning/tinkering, and poof, a solid 425 hp.
hey pocket, are your prices the same for all lt1 harnesses? got a l99 harness from a 94 caprice that needs to be done up for my car. it needs opti, mas air, a/c, and 4l60e. i'm using a 16188051 computer and i don't need any emissions.
Yeah, I was just happy to find an LT1 for that cheap but it would have been a really nice deal to get the corvette LT1 but then again its not like I'm going to be trying to get 1000hp out of this motor. 400-500hp would be nice though, just enough to really embarrass the hell out of those 4bangers out there thinking they have the fastest car ever lol. But then again just the stock LT1 will just about take care of that anyways . And I plan on running true duels with flowmaster mufflers and no cats of course. I'm also about to pick up the whole K&N cold air intake set up for $50. Those two things alone will help the motor come alive and breathe a little .
I'll try and get some pics up of everything and I'm doing some other minor resto stuff so I'll keep this thread going with what all I'm doing.
nice. can't wait to see it. the impala ss lt1's had the best heads (besides the lt4), thery're identicle to iron vortec heads and accompanying mods. the corvette and camaro aluminum heads actually flowed less. if chevy had put a decent cam and exhaust on the impala ss, it would've easily had 340hp.
Sweet, I didn't know all that. So I guess I really did run up on a good deal lol. Yeah that would have been nice haha, a 4 door car with a good amount of hp. Maybe that'll be my next project. A 95-96 SS Impala; I'll try to find one in good condition and just build the motor. It'd be nice to have a 4door car with the ability to hot rod around in and bring my friends along for the ride without having to deal with getting out and letting everyone in as I have to do with the Firebird I have. Hehe I can't wait to get this Firebird done though. I have a friend with a 98 SS Camaro with the LS1 and he's just got an intake, exhaust, built tranny, and a good tune and he thinks that he can stomp any LT1 out there. Now, not to knock the LS1s' or anything, I would have really liked to have gotten one of those bad boys in this car but I just think when I'm done with this I'll be able to give him a run for his money.
hey pocket, are your prices the same for all lt1 harnesses? got a l99 harness from a 94 caprice that needs to be done up for my car. it needs opti, mas air, a/c, and 4l60e. i'm using a 16188051 computer and i don't need any emissions.
You might want to just send him a private message. That's what I did. He really knows his stuff though. I'm hopefully going to be sending him my harnesses next Monday if everything goes as planned this week.
. So I'll tell you about my project and hope to get some good information.
. I have called around and found out that I will have to get a 1996-1997 4L60E transmission as the older transmissions are a little different as far as the internals go and this will apparently effect the shifting in a very negative way.
. So its obvious to see why I'm going to just go for the used wiring harness and just see what happens when I start to try and pulg everything in.(I just found a 1997 Trans Am at a junk yard about 2 hours away from me and they want $150 for the complete wiring harness and they will pull it for me.) 
lol. But then again just the stock LT1 will just about take care of that anyways 
.
