.... and so the project truly begins. Currently building an '86 Z28 that came with a carbed 406 SBC. The symmetry of the parts selected by the former owner isn't the greatest, as I had the car out the other night at the track, and it's performance level was pretty sad (Click Here).

As fate would have it, we took a ride to one of the local boneyards to pick up a serpentine setup for the car, when we came across a just about complete LT1 engine. Long story short, we left there with the intake manifold, throttle body, fuel rail, 24.5-lb injectors, internal distributor plug, sensors, connectors and some harness....

What we're planning on doing is, running the LT1 intake w/out the distributor, albeit with an EDIS-8 ignition sytem (crank trigger, coil packs, etc) from a mid to late 80's Ford V8, all powered through a MegaSquirt ECM. Future plans immediately call for 60-lb injectors & Front Mount Turbo setup, but for now, I'll be documenting the LT1 intake swap. I'll be adding pics and details of the progress as we go....

-Rob

 

ill add a lil bit here.

for those curious on how to run the lt1 intake without a dizzy on a gen 1 engi9ne ill expplain.

on an lt1 there is a plug that biolts down into the lifter vally.basically it looks like the bottom of the dizzy,so the oilpump is still driven off the cam.
now in a gen 1 block u cannot bolt this piece in. so heres how were gonna make it work


the plan is to locate the dizzy hole in the lt1 intake and drill a half inch hole.
threw this hole a pirece of 1/2 inch roundstock will be placed down and threw the intake.so it extends into the lifter vallet and drops into the hole on the oilpump drive to keep it locatted.

now once it located a stop will be machined onto the aluminim so a small spring can be set onto the bottom.

besdies the aluminum keeping the plug located,the spring will keep the plg/oil pump drive down in were its supposed to be.


once its all setup the roundstock will be welded flush on th eback of the intake manifold.


not only will this setup work with a megasquirt ems,but alot of u guys that want to do this swap can also do this with stock ecms that can control gm dis setups

im sure rob will post many pics as we do this

speaking of rob do u have apisture of the dizzy/oil pump drive thing u can post might make it easier for ppl to understand

 

Here are some pics of the distributor plug for the oil pump....;

Please excuse the dirty LT1 intake, haven't had a chance to sand blast it yet....

 

dont worry about cleaning it rob u can glassbead it over at the shop after i do the welding on it though

 

^ Speaking of which, here is Millican's reference pics for the bolt holes. The center eight need to be relocated, and I believe all 12 of them need to be elongated because they go straight down instead of on an angle....;

 

easy as hell to do, just get the right gaskets and well drop it in the milling machine and pop the holes right out

 

^ He also emphasized not to weld the old holes up, just to use some JB weld on them....

 

yeah if u weld them u risk warping the flanges

 

One other thing some people tend to not notice.............look at your first pic with the gasket on the intake. Look at the EGR port in the gasket and notice that there is NO material on the intake supporting the lower portion of the gasket. You need to weld angle alum. there or EGR gas will entire the lifter valley. So, you do need to weld at the flange area. It isn't a big deal.

 

thanks for the heads up junk.prolly would not have noticed that.

it does look liek we will be going to the shop today and setting up the intake

 

If you are running aftermarket heads without the EGR port then the intake probably doesn't need to be modified at the EGR port. I know that stock GM heads with the EGR port do need the alum. welded in at the EGR port. While I was welding in the EGR pieces I also built up the coolant ports were they meet the cyl. heads.

It amazes me how many people run the LT1 intake with stock GM EGR port heads and pump exhaust into their engine.

 

the motors got a set of heavy casting 882's on it that were masivly ported for an old boosted 350 build i had planed,i never filled up the egr passages so we will have to do some weldong on the intake in the egr area then

 

Thanks junkcltr for pointing that out....!

Similar to Paul's intake manifold, right? You'll be welding the EGR port on the top of the manifold, and not the flanges? Or do you mean weld some aluminum on the flange port itself? Anyways, should be finished up here soon, then we'll take a ride to the shop....

Heh, my 3000th post....

 

have to weld on the flange on the manifold ill show u when we get to the shop.remeber to bring ur old heads with you so i can bolt them onto that shortblock i have at the shop

 

Junk, my cousin just got finished relocating the center 8 bolt holes (stock diameter is 5/16"), but rather than elongate them free-hand, he simply enlargened each bolt hole to 1/4" so there's no need to elongate them anymore. All bolts clear perfectly, but the only issue now of course is the bolts don't lie flush against the intake manifold. My cousin said there were a few ways to resolve this issue, we can simply grind down the seat until the bolt lies flush, or we can simply buy rocker pivots. Either way, the intake is almost done....

Wanted to ask you about the EGR ports though. Should we weld extra aluminum on both the bottom and the top of the EGR ports on the intake, or just the bottom (from the looks of the gasket we're using, the top might need material as well). Also, all four coolant port areas. The gasket just barely clears between the head and the intake, so should we consider welding aluminum on these ports as well....?

Thanks Junk, by the way, what's your real name....?

-Rob

 

I'm thinking of intalling an LT1 Manifold with Vortec heads - all from the same car. But the issue I see right now is where and how are you putting a thermostat in this install you are doing?

 

why go through all the trouble of drilling the manifold and welding in a rod that holds the distributor stub in place? Build a small right angle bracket and bolt it to the inside of the block. Much simpler, less to go wrong. Plus, it's alot easier to remove the manifold without that rod sticking way down into the valley....

of course, you could use the hole you drilled for a cam drive signal stub, and get a simple way to get that signal to the megasquirt.....

 

You need to get a remote thermostat housing....

That's exactly what we were going to do in the end, bolt a small bracket to the side of the engine block (internally), and bolt it to the oil pump drive....

 

Cool!

 

Where could I find the thermostat housing and how would I get it hooked up? Having hard time figuring out where to hook up upper radiator hose.

 

there are tons of LT1 manifold threads out there. I think lt1intake.com is still up, so there are good pics there, even though you might not be able to get the work done anymore.

a couple of companies make a remote thermostat housing, that connects to the upper hose, and then runs to two 5/8" hoses that are tapped into the cooling jackets on the manifold, initially people placed them up front, but there is more room to take the nipples off the back of the manifold.

 

Thanks for that link. I took a look and see where I could have the hoses go. The other thing I could do is, since I have the heads, and they have a water port out the back, is to see if I can get the nipples to fit in there instead of drilling the intake for them. The other problem I would see is finding a remote egr mount due to the emission laws in my area. If I decide to use it in an older car, I may not have to worry about it, but the plan may be to use it in my 87 bird. My wife is currently driving it to work and back and loves the way it handles. Until we get a new car, this is a daily driver that would need to pass every 2 years. Any ideas for that, other than distributorless ignition?

 

OK, i missed your small piece of information that makes a world of difference in your first post there.

there never was an LT1 intake manifold with vortec heads on any engine. ever.

if you have an lt1 manifold and lt1 heads (which are similar to vortec), then to fit them onto a standard SBC, rather than an LT1 shortblock, you have lots of work to do. to see whats involved, search the boards here for a LT1 heads on small block thread, I can't recall who, but someone did this, it required welding, machining and fabrication. if i get some time, i'll look for the thread and post a link.

if that's the case, i'd recommend just swapping the whole engine. much less fabrication and you can retain all of the emissions and it will run fine.

if you have an LT1 manifold that someone modified to fit on vortec heads (doubtful, becuase you mention water ports on the sides of the heads), then I'd like to see some pics of the mods.
----------
BTW to the original poster, sorry for hijacking this thread somewhat.

birdtojag, it's probably a good idea to wrap this up or move it to it's own thread.

 

Another EGR question.

Would it no be easier to just use non egr gaskets like some Felpro 1205s, then to weld onto the intake using a stock style gasket? Besides, if u run 1205s you can port match the heads and intake to them for a little better flow.

Im currently looking at doing a Lt1 intake with distributerless ignition but my plans are for an old hei with the top chopped off to run the oil pump. Less mods to the actual block, albeit a little more work on the intake. This way you can take the intake off and use it on a distributer car with no more mods.

Just a thought.

 

the problem is even if u use a gasket without egr ports the manifold wont seal the gasket against the head were the egr port is.

it would still blow ex gas into the lifter valley


we came up with a very simple solution

u can se ethe oil pump drive in the first picture

well if u took a piece of 2 inch angle stock 1/4 thick and cut it about 5/8s wide i have anice L bracket

drill 2 1/4 holes in one side of the bracket < 3/4's of an inch in from each end or whatever etc
now lay the oil pump drive into the block seat it all the way
out the half of the l bracket without the holes so it sits ontop of the oilpump drive covering the hole that was used to bolt it down in the lt1 block

while doing that let the bracket hit the back of the block

once u figure out the right position its as simple as marking the hole for the bolt to bolt the bracket to the oil pump drive

u want to drill this hole then bolt the bracket to the pump drive and put it back in the block

position it so the bracket is once again flat against the back of the block and use a transfer punch to mark the 2 1/4 in holes

drill and tap those 2 holes to 1/4 20
then screw in 2 1/4 20 bolts with some thread lock and your done

shouldnt take but 20 mins and alot less work then machining the manifold to accept the dizzy

 

Moving this to a new thread.

Sorry to original post. Just had a few questions.

 

So, did this ever get finished?

 

I converted that LT1 intake to run the SBC HEI distributor awhile ago....

 

Why did you give up on the idea of EDIS and MS?

 

whats up with this??? i am using a lt1 with rear distributor too with alot of trouble i would like to share infos

 

Megasquirt is long gone, but I still have the LT1 intake. I cut the dizzy hole from a donor TPI intake and tig welded it in, filled in the existing bolt holes and drilled new ones, welded filler for the EGR ports (on the lower side), then drilled and tapped for the coolant fittings...

This is the only picture I have during that time, I since let the concept go...

 

I have a converted LT1 intake with a hole in the back for a dizzy.

What info do you want to share?

 

well me i am using a lt1 in a 1989 trans am gta with stock tpi electrical. pcm harness and distributor maf etc... i fix 50% on my problem after i drilled the idle hole like stock lt1's Throttle body...it still does not not run that smooth at idle and midd throttle...do you have this problem?

 

Are you running a custom PROM with updated MAF tables from like a 1993 LT1 bin? The MAF tables are going to be totally different for a TPI to LTI, the runners are different and the flow characteristics are different.

 

I am using stock pcm with a custom prom from performance forless...dont know about the bin used...should i run 1993 lt1 maf? what else should i do? use the fully reprogrammable prom from moates.net?