thinking about an LT1 motor swap out of an f-body. Would appreciate any opinions on the best year to look for and why. I dont post much so i appoligize if this is a topic that has been already disscussed

 

Your hunch is correct about this being a common topic . A few searches as well as reading the stickies should help set you straight. The '95 y-body and f-body LT1 motors are the ones that are prefered the most. That year was the first for the vented opti. The '95 cams were also the largest of any year. '95 was also the last year the f-body was OBDI. Although this isn't a huge deal many LT1 swappers/modders prefer OBDI over OBDII for tuning purposes. You can always convert a '96 and '97 LT1 to OBDI if you so desire.

Cliff notes:

Look for a '95 first but there is nothing wrong with a '96 or '97 motor either.

 

I put a 95 LT1 in my 91 Camaro RS that had a 305 TBI. It was a cool swap and i'm happy with it. (Get the Corvette fuel rail covers for the LT1, fill in the letters "CORVETTE" with red testors hobby paint to make them stand out, and throw those on. HUGE attention getter and makes the whole thing even more worth it).

I got my LT1 complete from Hawks a few years ago. It was out of a wrecked Firebird Formula. It came complete with the entire engine, harness, front accessories, transmission, computer, and so on.

You could use the factory harness to hack into your existing wiring, but to simplify things, I got a stand alone style harness from TPIS (same price as the painless, but came covered in a really nice black mesh loom, and the tech support I got from TPIS was priceless). I also had a custom computer program done at TPIS too.

The whole swap went really good. To simplify the plumbing (the LT1 is reverse cooled) i just bought a new radiator for a 95 F car and it bolted right in with minimal modification to the upper plastic radiator mount. The OEM cooling fan bolted right back up and cools it with no prob.

Headers and exhaust for a 91 bolt right up, but the exhaust ports on the LT1 are D shaped. I use regular oval headers with no problem, but I think Hooker makes D shaped shorties that will work perfect.

I recommend doing the swap. Hopefully this is useful in answering some "what about the..." questions. Good Luck!

 

I'm running the '95 from a Trans Am, since my car was originally a V6 the engine harness was seperate from the harness that goes into the car, so I had a minimal of splicing to do, plus I used some connectors that I got from a trashed Z28 to plug the harness into, this way I didn't have to cut any connectors off of the LT1 harness at all to splice it in.

You can buy a harness already made, but if you want the experience doing it, do it yourself. I got a major headache dreading doing it until I jumped in, and found out how easy it really is so don't let the wiring discourage you, I really didn't have the 500-1200 bucks to throw away for a wiring harness since I had everything right there to do it with, plus I even went a step further and used the underhood fusebox from a '95 model car, this way I have all connectors and relays needed for the fans, a/c and the cruise (which I will be installing from a '95 model as well) all ran from the PCM.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask, there are a few of us who have done the swap that would be more than willing to answer anything.....within reason

 

thank you for the responses. I just started looking into this as an option so i appreciate all the help.