An L03 for an LB9. I know 305 to 305 but I'm not going to be able to make enough money for a 350 this summer. Plus the LB9 belongs to my brother, he has an IROC and he's swapping his for a 350, so I should be able to get it cheap. I've always thought his car was quick and this might tide me over for awhile till I can get my 383. I do want to know this, all thirdgens have the same engine mounts right? His is an 87 and mine is a 91 but it should just be a direct swap, right, also if anyone can tell me what headers, cam, and other things worked well with the LB9 I sure would appreciate it.

 

No one has anything to say about it? I was hoping someone might have some advice for me.

 

New twist to the story. My bro is thinking about switching to a carb which means I could get the complete motor(computer, tpi, everything). I know it would make more sense just to get this 383 I want (balanced and blueprinted, shop here builds their own) but that's $1100 I don't have (incredible price).

 

I think you'd be wasting alot of time, effort, and money (it will not be a completely free swap). Not to mention picking up 40hp max (and I'm being extremely generous) is a total wasted effort considering all the work you'd have to do to get it.

Just keep whats in there until you can afford to buy what you want.

 

Yeah, I've thought about that too looking at the numbers between an LB9 and pretty much any 350. I've decided I am gonna wait on the engine swap until I have the money to get a 350 and punch it out to a 383. For right now I may just do a swap to a carb, auto to man. swap, and some new rear gears. Got some questions though for when I do swap engines, I'd like to use an L98 block, since I won't be using the computer anymore, what do I do about all of the sensors and the fan(could use help about the fan soon). Do I just leave them all in there? Do I rig up a belt driven fan or is there a way to keep the electric. I'd like to try and avoid using a manual fan switch again, but I'll do it if I have to.

 

Aftermarket fan control switch. Hayden makes a nice adjustable one. I have that same setup on 4 different cars, makes it independant of ECM control. Gauges should all work fine, only thing that may not work is the speedo, depending on how it works. The electric ones I dont know the way around, but there is one. The temp, oil, amps, and fuel level are totally independant of the ecm system. The fuel pump you'll have to setup something to turn it on, leaving the ecm in the car might just work, I never tried it. Also if its still auto when you change to carb, you'll wanna set it up so the converter locks up so you dont fry the tranny.

 

So waht you're saying is that, in theory, I could leave the ECM in it to control other things(fan, fuel pump, etc). Or I could pull it out, run an independent fan switch, and from what I've read in the tech articles, buy an inline electric fuel pump and mount somewhere. So I should be able to doit either way. But I still need to know about all of the sensors(knock, etc). The tranny and rear swap will probably happen before the engine so I should be fine with that, do you have any ides for the speedometer?

 

Knock sensor? Who cares. Youre using a carb, and you'll be using a non-computer distributor, you wont need it.

I do think that if you leave the ecm hooked up under the dash and maybe a couple wires like coolant temp sensor and a lead to ignition pulses it might just run the pump and fan just fine. I never got a chance to test my theory though, thanks to an aftermarket part manufacturer that has no QC department.

Personally, I'd get rid of the ecm if possible. Run the fan control switch (it works great), get a lockup switch for the converter (the latest is one that installs in the tranny somewhere and hooks up to the wires), the fuel pump I'm not sure, you could just hook up the relay to an ignition source, but then it would run with the key on but engine not running.

The speedo I'm really not sure. There are some posts if you try a search. Maybe a new post asking just that question might be a good idea. It might just work as is, but it seems to me that on my car it wouldnt. I think its a slightly different setup than yours though.