I wanted to post some pictures of what I think is a really clean, well done LT1 swap.

tpi_roc, board member and moderator on the TPI board, did this conversion on his 1985 Iroc. He's using factory ported LT1 heads and intake manifold on a traditional SBC.

You will see how he ran the coolant lines (which is one of the major turnoffs to an lt1 swap) to make it a little more neat, plus the intake to head mating was factory (no drilling, etc).

 

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That waterneck bugs the crap out of me. Where are the lines routed below it? Wouldn't it have worked better just getting a 90 there into the radiator?

By clean do you mean just washed?

Looks nice. He'll have to change his name to lt1_roc now.

 

There are 2 90° AN fittings below the T-stat housing that point to each head. The one to the passengerside goes along the fan. To get a 90° radiator hose I would have had to cut the section out of the middle of a hose, and with the hose thats on there now there's no I.D. loss and the flow area is still greater than the thermostat valve itself.

 

 

I wasn't doubting the functionality of it at all. I was just saying it looks like your running it around in a circle. Was there anyway to get a neck pointed towards the driver fender and run a 90?

 

I plan on locating a better water neck as the L98 leaves much to be desired in this configuration. I just cut off 3" or so from it and used it for mock up purposes. I'm sure an older shorter SBC neck would work better or even one of the really expensive swivel type. I'll eventually find something a little nicer and anybody else could easily do the same. Another option would be to cut it, turn it, and weld it. For now it works and I'm not too worried about it.

 

 

By clean I mean. Done right. Looks good. Well thought.
tpi_roc has gone through TPI on a stock motor, tpi on a 355 with sportsman heads, then a converted LT1 manifold for sportsman heads, and now finally the LT1 manifold + head swap. I can't think of a better more complete way to perform the swap. I can't want to see time slips.

-- Joe

 

Looks awesome either way. Numbers?

 

Wow.. that looks 100X better than my setup.

 

that does look very good. little bit easier since you have the coolant ports right on the front of the heads. theres another member on here that made a bracket so the thermostat housing sits right by the throttle body (braket bolts to acc. bolts on the brackets). thats what i was going to do with mine. last year i made a bracket that used the cruise control holes and i ran the lines back behind the master cylinder, looked ok, but kind of cluttered

 

i think my install looks good and neat

 

86IROCTHD- looks verry nice the only thing I don't like is how the spark plug wires go halfway over the intake...it's like they are dominating the engine bay. Other than that, awesome!

 

Yeah, get some of that DEI Insulated stuff they sell in Summit and run them under the headers. That's what I do and it works great. No more number eight burnt crispy.

I only hope when I FINALLY get finished with my LT1 Intake swap it looks as good as that.



P.S. I like the MAP sensor eliminator plug. I already did that on mine with a standard pipe plug. It looks much cleaner that way.

 

yea that plug was last min thing....... need to take the intake back off my heater hose fittings in the back are leaking... i would suggest having them welded or something mine are seeping a bit..then i will have that plug welded in and start porting... and the wires are the moroso ultra 40's over the valve cover style...just need to clean them up and what not a bit....

 

Those are LT1 heads?

 

??

 

This thread was about LT1 heads converted for an early small block, and fitted with an UNmodified LT1 intake. Yours are LT1 heads too?

 

In his profile it says just "lt1 intake" so I guess he didn't actually bother to read the purpose of the thread. I'm glad I spent time doing it.

Although his setup does look "nice", its not a LT1 "Intake & head swap", so it don't belong on this thread.

In the future folks, if your going to add to this, please ensure its a Intake & head swap. As far as I know, unless proven otherwise, tpi_roc is the only member who has actually done this conversion. (even though I see a lot of posts talking about doing it)

-- Joe

 

I'm curious, are there any performance numbers/improvement numbers on this setup yet?

 

Very clean LT1 Intake & head swap
that is the title,so it would have to have Lt1 heads along with the intake the only mod can be for the distributer and water fittings

 

Nope, no numbers. I dont think the 10 bolt would live through a pass.

 

well then any gut/SOP feeling of what if anythign it was worth?

I think in one of the threads you mentioned that you're running out of fuel much sooner, which could be an indication of either making more power or a worse BSFC, but assuming that the BSFC stayed similar you could probably predict the power increase by how and where you ran out of fuel and how that compared to duty cycle before the swap...

 

SOP? Fast. My tires dont have any tread any more, but they're a good compound (Firehawk SZ50 EP 245s) and I've had them let go in fourth gear while I'm trying to make a pass or go uphill (Posi). Running an ET/weight calc put the car at about 400hp previously. DD2k marked this engine around 550hp and was partially used in the design of it. SOP is useless, and so is all the aforementioned 'data' however its rediculously faster than it used to be and a complete shot in the dark guess with 100% traction and a rear that could take it, I could probably hit upper 11s aproaching 120mph. This is a setup that I can drive back and forth from work, as long as I can keep it between the ditches.

Take that whole paragraph with a grain of salt.

 

Oh yea, and faster than all z06s encountered

 

Is there any advantage to doing this swap? Not saying it isnt well done because it is. Im just wondering if the effort really is worth the time involved just to convert the heads over. Or just running a straight LT1 or just the intake conversion with aftermarket heads would get you their with less effort. I guess a break down of all the parts and price involved would really be nice to see. To me time is money and if he did all the work himself was it worth the time you put into it.

 

No there's no advantage.

 

The advantages have been listed in another huge thread about the topic. I believe there is a link to it in the top of this forum.

 

I tried to reply to this once already, but one moderator jumped on me because I must be taking his fire away from being the only one doing this and another one edited my post. I should have numbers in a few weeks on a moderate 355.

 

I have no problem with you posting your results, I just wanted to remove the bickering out of the post. (from both of you)

Let's keep it clean, technical, and elite on this board, and maybe the morons will stay in the TPI board where they belong.

If your doing an lt1 head/intake combo swap, we'd like to hear about it.

-- Joe

 

i am going this route with my motor, and i am wondering has anyone tried to mill top of the mounting flange to be parallel with the head sealing surface? i am thinking about it because it would give me more clearance for the center four bolts on pre'86 heads.

 

You missed the point of this thread, reread it.. It is not just an LT1 intake.

 

I've got a setup like this for sale on this board. The heads need to be finished.
https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=342740

Kevin