I was tossing around the idea of doing an engine swap in my 86 iroc. Right now it has a 5.0 in it i was thinking either a LS1 or a LT4.. First question is it difficult to put either power plant in? Which would give me better results in power with or without a power adder? I was thinking about putting a centrifical supercharger on it would this be more benifical then Nitrous? How much beans am i looking at to do the swap? thanx for your time

 

putting in an ls1 takes a lot of modification to everything... idk about a lt4

 

if it dont fit you need a bigger hammer

 

You certainly know how to make things expensive. LT4 instead of common LT1. Superchargers. I hope you have a thick wallet. I would budget $10K-$15K. You will need a decent rearend and transmission to hold the power. Also subframe connectors and possibly (read: recommended) other upgrades to your suspension to get the power to the ground.

Unless you are completely in love with your car I would pick up an LS1 Camaro with manual tranny and install a single turbo kit. Even if you do love your car it's okay to learn to love another for the sake of saving money.

 

Neither are a cost effective swap. If you want an LS1 or LT4 motor in your car go buy a newer Camaro with it already in it. A Vortec headed 350 or 383 with a hot cam would be a much simpler and cost effective swap and will give you just as good performance.

 

Forget LT4, there are more effective ways to make power out of an LT1. Ported heads and cam packages are available. Search camaroz28.com's boards for Lloyd Elliot Heads or LE1,LE2, LE3 heads. The LE3 package is around $2000 and puts out roughly 450RWHP.

Forget Superchargers, look into custom-fabbing a Turbo setup. Even remote-mounted turbos aren't that bad.

LT1 isn't that hard to put in. I'm biased of course, but I think its very easy and cheap to program too, one big plus.

 

The LS1 is an excellent driveable motor. It has an incredible powerband from idle to 6500. No worries about a cam that only performs about 2k rpms or about getting 15 mpg. You'll get a motor that pulls right from idle and is one of the best performing Chevy motors on the market. You'll get good gas milage if you mate it to the T56. I rode in my buddies 01 Z06. We averaged 30 mpg on a 60 mile round trip. He let me drive it and the thing is smooth as hell. Runs 12.5 in the quarter, but you wouldn't guess it. Motor runs like it's some asian four banger.

Now granted that is a Corvette and your application is a Camaro, but I still think you will see awesome results: I don't think anyone who has done this swap has regreted it. It's a lot of work, but if you've got the money, put in the only "good" motor chevy has made.