dereklicon

2016...

So a lot has happened this year for me and it has been a ROUGH year for third gens in San Antonio in general. I haven't posted on here in a little while, but anyway, the story starts this June with this hydro locked 1993 Trans Am that I acquired for 1000$. Heavy rain one day earlier this year, and the engine sucked up some serious water, hydro locking the engine, and they tried to start it and it literally shattered the starter casing... and they posted it on Facebook saying 1000$ for this Trans Am or it goes to the wrecker. Needless to say, I jumped on it!

It was a nice car! I spent a few hours on it and got it running. I pulled the plugs, replaced the broken starter, cranked the engine over... This evacuated the stinky water out of the engine... then changed the oil and off I drove!

I drove it for about a month until on July 4th the steering wheel came off in my hands while driving. Some previous owner installed a MOMO steering wheel which was a bit loose. They were driving it like that for years. I didnt think much of it and was planning on changing it one day anyway. Well that was a mistake. The car went into a ditch and hit a tree.

--------

I had bought a red 92 RS around the same time and when I drove it home the TBI 305 engine started knocking. The car was sitting for 15 years or so.

Man what bad luck! And on top of that, my daily driver blue 92 RS was showing some bad signs of everyday wear- the clutch was gone and the engine burned a ton of oil.

October I yanked the engine out of the red car and the trans am and got a storage unit. November comes around and after amassing all the parts and things necessary for a LT1 swap in a third gen over a course of like 2 months I finally get to working on the swap. It took me a month, working night shift (11pm-8am) maybe about 8-10 hours total to get it done over the course of November. I decided to go carb due to time reasons and money reasons. I hooked up a switch to the fuel fump and lucky for me the fuel pump is weak due to age and only putting out 3 psi. I need to replace the pump and run the regulator eventually though. I am running the TBI ecm to run gauges and VATS. The fan stays on with the AC switch on MAX. I had to put cyl. #1 on the compression stroke at TDC and mark the opti and the crank pulley with white out to establish some kind of timing marks!

Now the car is running and it still needs a few things but I am able to drive it to work. Here are the parts I had to fab/buy:

-4160 Holley carb that I had to rebuild
-Carb bracket for holley
-Extension fabbed for aforementioned bracket
-Geometry corrector for 700r4
-GMPP LT1 carb intake
-Summit HEI distributor
-93 camaro lower radiator hose DID NOT WORK with the factory radiator and lt1 water pump. I had to use one off a ford truck of some sort. I can get the part number if needed. the upper DID work.
-lt1 water pump gasket
-oil pan gasket
-95 impala SS/caprice high pressure power steering hose
-assorted hoses for heater core, water pump, power steering return, vacuum
-mid 90's f body power steering reservoir
-oil cooler deleted , the water pump port was blocked off using a rubber cap
-oil filter housing/adapter from summit for conventional non-cooler applications.
-used the optispark as a plug for the hole on the timing cover
-hedman long tube headers (barely fit)
-UMI motor mount clamshells (threw away old 305 ones by accident)
-AC compressor deleted
-Dorman delete pulley (stock belt works fine)
-kept the LT1 flywheel/torque converter but used the third gen 700r4
-used a coolant temp sender from orilleys, plugged into tbi harness just fine and screws into LT1 head
-LT1 oil pressure sending unit works and plugs into 92 tbi harness
-had to buy a plug/pigtail for the HEI distributor for the tach/power side (tbi harness doenst have this plug)
-fabbed new exhaust (or had it fabbed at exhaust shop) used a thrush Mad Hot muffler I had lying around
-LT1 DOES NOT HAVE PCV BREATHER PROVISIONS ON THE DRIVERS SIDE VALVE COVER. I had to drill a hole and mount a breather on one side and put a PCV going from the other side to the base of the carb. This engine builds excessive crankcase pressure and I learned the hard way that a breather and PCV are very very necessary!!!
-aeromotive 13301
-had to remove about a centimeter from the base of the carb hat so the hood would close. Using a 2 inch air filter. The LT1 intake is very tall for this style.

I am sure there is more. But for a rushed deal it came out OK. THIS IS NOT A HARD SWAP. IT JUST TAKES SOME ELBOW GREASE AND A LOT OF BAD WORDS AND BEER.







fixing hydrolocked lt1



fixed then, sadly wrecked



needs engine



old engine out



50$ carburetor



got unit



prepping engine



engine and trans in



first start



done!

Biledriver

Cool swap. Lt1s are so strong they put the 305s to shame. Love to see some pics of what they did for exhaust with those long tubes.

dereklicon

I can try to post some next week when I get it on a lift for an oil change. The Thrush Mad Hot muffler is a big disappointment. It is really quiet. Also, the Hedmans hit the A-Arm brackets ON BOTH SIDES, making the engine feel like its on solid mounts and the interior has excessive interior noise. Also, yeah the LT1 was alot faster than the 305 TBI lol. I raced my buddy once - me in the trans am and him in his LO3 RS 5 speed. I also beat him in my other car which is also a 5 speed LO3 and I also beat a 82 crossfire Injection also in that car. But after driving his car I would say both our LO3 cars are equal.

I can honestly say though the LT1 feels a lot stronger in the third gen even with the 2.73 gears (the TA had 3.23). I dont know why, maybe its the combination of the long tubes + the carb setup + lighter weight like lighter wheels and such.