i know this subject has been beaten to death and i searched for a topic like this already to no avail.
im about to buy an already converted lt1 intake w/ the thermo housing, fuel lines, etc. basically everything you need. how complicated will it be for me to slap it onto my tpi?

thanks

james

 

Seeing as you have everything converted and available, I dont think it will be too hard.

Read this: http://www.lt1intake.com/files/swapping.htm

 

4 simple steps james

step 1 - bring to my house
step 2 - drink lots of beer
step 3 - hack at it until we get it on
step 4 - drink more beer

no, but really, i bet we can get that thing on in no time. cant be any harder than the stealth ram was

 

well you have to drill holes into the intake to match the tpi intake gasket and tap the existing holes. i gave George at Boost a call and when he gets me a quote on how much it'll cost ill prolly have him do it for me.

here's the setup im buying btw. after seeing your stealth ram, chad, it forced me to follow thru w/ my lt1 intake plans!

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=342740

 

sweet, heads and all? i like the vette fuel rail covers. i bet we could find a way to cover that and make them say 5.7 IROC or something

 

well im getting the heads in two weeks so now i have to read up on an old post here about how to convert lt1 heads. doesnt look too complicated but still quite a bit of work.

 

it may cost more than its worth, but then again aluminum heads would be nice.

 

nmd, his daughter knocked one off the table and chipped off the corner about an inch so no more heads. does anyone know if there is more that needs to be done other than drilling and tapping? (that way chad, this thread won't get booted since we're just b-sing on this thread!)

 

I'm not sure what you mean. Or are missing???

 

I have the intake with the dist. hole already drilled, the dist. spacer, fuel lines, and fuel rails. other than an lt1 AFPR, and drill holes to match the tpi intake gasket, what needs to be done?

 

Drill and tap holes for coolant hoses at rear.
Drill and tap one vac fitting to 3/8 npt to put the MAT sensor into.
Reduced head intake bolt kit. (long header bolts)

 

thanks for the reply z69! that doesn't sound too complicated! so the price for the labor won't be that expensive. thanks

 

your gonna love being able to pull up to 5500rpm but your gonna miss all that torque down low. when i did my stealth ram, my 1/4 times stayed the same, but my 1/8 was a little slower. granted, i need a tune and i need to figure out what fuel pressure im running. ill give you a ride in mine when i figure out what the deal is.

 

well on the popular hot rodding article over the lt1 swap he lost 32 lbs. of torque but gained 8 more hp over the super ram, his quote, "As expected peak torque is down and peak HP is up as well as a shift in the curves up in rpm range. However, the torque curve is as flat as a board for the LT1 intake until it starts dropping off about 5,000 rpm." So that doesn't sound too bad. Plus I'll be one of the few in Amarillo that has an lt1 intake swapped thirdgen. I don't know of any others, do you? But the install doesn't sound to bad so maybe George's quote on it won't be that high!

 

interesting...was that the stealth ram or super ram though? wouldnt have thought the LT1 would gain HP over the super ram...cool...yeah theres no one else in town with the LT1 intake on a third gen. really, the only other guy that has done anything with a third gen and thats Adam Cambel, the guy i bought my intake from. hes got the 91 sunset orange metallic camaro with a cammed LS1. actually, as far as i know, me and adam are the only two in town that have an intake other than stock (he also has a black 91 Z that has a stealth ram but hes selling that car) i always liked the idea of the LT1 intake, i just ran across the stealth ram too cheap to pass up. i cant wait to see how this thing works out!

 

It was the super ram, i was just as shocked when i read it as you are. Here's the link is anyone else wants to check it out (eventhough it's prolly on the site already)

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/tec...ast/index.html

 

thats cool, i thought the super ram was a top end HP kind of intake. i had never really done any reading on it because it was so expensive....learn somethin new everyday

 

I don't want to bust your bubble, but the swap isn't as easy as the article's and tips and tricks make it out to be.

Before you do anything, place the intake and intake gasket with some sort of marking compound on the intake gasket, like the prussian blue from permatex(from autozone) and see where the intake flange makes contact to the gasket and head. I've done 3 of these swaps including my own, and we all had problems with coolant leaking between the front water ports and bolt holes around the water ports.

The 2 cars I helped swap the intake on never got running down the road, we pulled the intake off after the water leak was discovered. Mine ran for about 1-2 months, and I got tired of chasing various problems associated with the swap, including the water leaks, so I sold it and went with the miniram.

If you already have the LT1 intake, be aware that it is a harder swap than people will tell you. If you don't have one, I would suggest the stealth ram because of the cost, or a used miniram or another long-runner type intake.

There is alot of clearancing on the front accessory bracket needed to get the tps sensor in, and if you cut too much, you will weaken the bracket and it will crack.

Your distributor cap won't rotate all the way around because the corner that sticks out on the cap will contact the back of the intake. You will have to trim the cap near the screws that hold down the cap to the distributor.

Like I said, I don't mean to bust your bubble, but if you do a search, you will find lots of posts on trying to swap this intake. Just because some have made it work doesn't mean that the majority has.

All I'm saying is that if this is your daily driver, don't expect to start the swap on Sat morning and drive it to work on Monday, it most likely won't happen.

 

so let George do it, and when you get it down we'll load up and head down to Idalou and see what that things made of! the tax mans coming....hes either gonna finace a couple trips to idalou or one to ennis

 

There are lots of intakes floating around that others have converted. It's difficult to do your first intake correctly.
That said, have you ever tried permatex #1 on the coolant ports? Due to the reduced contact area. You need to add some sealant to help out. RTV is not the correct product to use in this application. You need something that is designed to fill a large gap. RTV is not. And will push out.
As an example. On turbo diesel with some miles on them will build up some pressure in the crankcase. People will use RTV on the gaskets that see this pressure. They push out over time. (Weeks)
Leaks into the bolt holes? Something else is going on there.
Someone did something wrong.
And the dist.....turn it so the screw isn't so close to the intake or grind more clearance. The only limit is the length of the wires attached to the dist..

 

Been there done that, with no desire to try it again. My intake was on afr heads, the other 2 were stock l98 heads. Had problems sealing the front coolant ports on all three, with 3 different converted LT1 intakes. I used up so many tubes of rtv and p#2 I should be on the board or directors. I pulled the intake off of mine around 4 times just to try and fix leaks. Finally got tired of it. I think I had the #4 intake that millican had done, so some of the more recent updates hadn't been done yet, but the other 2 were updated intakes.

The distributer rotation is limited by the length of the 2 connector wire length. We didn't feel like lengthing wires after the intakes were on because of the lack of space and the need to get them back on the road.

I think some who have tried this swap have had extra aluminum welded onto the area between the 2 bolt holes on the end to help seal better. Some swaps work, some don't. That's why it's called hotrodding.

 

I don't have a 3rd gen. Which way do the wires need to point to fit better?
I'll try to make future intakes with more clearance.

 

Mine always point at the brake booster.