83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

You know, I've been looking at my stack of parts and am quickly coming to the conclusion that for now it's going to be _a lot_ less work just drilling the LT1 intake that I have for a distributor than it will be to finish the work I need to make the Vic Jr work... _especially_ if I decide to give up on the idea of re-routing the coolant through the stock crossover location and just drill the front of the heads to do it the vizard coolant bypass way.

I have mine all mocked up on a bench in the basement

and have run into another weird problem, it looks like a set of stock gaskets cover the bottoms of the stock ports by a little bit... I was hoping to port match them to something but I can't seem to find gaskets that don't cover some of the intake port opening.

junkcltr

iTrader: (1)

Flip the LT1 intake up-side-down and place a non-LT1 stock type (L98, etc) head on the intake. The EGR port will have a big air gap into the oil valley. In other words, it will pump exhaust into the engine.
Or just put a stock L98 gasket on the LT1 intake and you will see the same thing, but most don't understand what they are looking at. I think you will understand.
It requires welding to extend those ports on the bottom of the intake.

robertfrank

iTrader: (27)

Hey Fueled, any updates? I'm working on a set of these heads to swap onto my 91 L98 car here shortly.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

No updates rob, these are still on the back burner. Nice!

KiLLJ0Y

iTrader: (1)

wouldnt it be waaaaay easier to just get an LT1 (since they are dirt cheap now), ditch the opti, cut the hole for the distributer and call it a day?

RaverRacerX

well you certainly live up to your name...

iroc a 86 berli

lmao!!

KiLLJ0Y

iTrader: (1)

well.. theres not much difference between the 2 engines.. the opti and gear driven water pump are pretty much the only thing. Besides the reverse cooling. I have my LT1 stripped down to the short block right now.. and man.. so easy to to just cut the hole in the intake, run a distributer.. by by opti.. use the TPI harness.. done..

just a thought.. i bought my complete, from pan to harness.. for $600.

robertfrank

iTrader: (27)

Hey Fueled, just wanting to see if you had gotten this done. Any updates?

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Still on the back burner to many other projects going on at the moment that take precedence over this one... i would really like to get these done so i cant stop feeling the "unfinished project" syndrome

icecreamman1

Below is the link to my conversion using LT1 heads on a Gen 1. There are a few pictures from along the way. It runs great and no problems with cooling or leaking.
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/297357...-mg-mgb/page-2
Bill

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Iv ran across your page a few times... thanks for sharing your link now other members can see it.
What you end up spending for your head conversion?

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

Did you deck the heads with an endmill? How did you fixture the heads on the mill?

blackjack12982

Did you ever get these done? I've been eyeballing a set that my neighbor has...

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

To many other projects going on these are at the bottom of my list as of right now i will wrap them up but i have no idea when man...

blackjack12982

Boy do I know that feeling! My Grandpa's '47 *****'s sat for years in my garage waiting for a string a "free" moments...

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

yeah, that's just the way things go...

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

Another member sent me a few pics that they had saved from that thread...
If anyone has anymore from that thread post them up.

92camarorv6

bump for this sick setup

DIGGLER

iTrader: (1)

thats what i would do. lol $500 for the engine, freshen it up with new bearings/rings, put a 24x setup on it to do away with the opti, and run it with an LS1 computer. would be a fresh engine and run great for around $1500 or so total.

Z28ricer

iTrader: (2)

Now this makes sense, doing the LT1 with the tpi computer, no thanks, i'd rather have the better computer and electronics, and deal with the mostly hearsay opti "issues"

Although doing the 24x setup you dont have to bother with the intake modification, just buy the LT1 version.

DIGGLER

iTrader: (1)

yup, i would venture to say the biggest mpg difference between an LT1 and an LS1 is the electronics that run it. 24x is pricey, but its a pretty neat setup.

Z28ricer

iTrader: (2)

The important parts from them are $500, not bad at all for what you get, the rest is nice for some, but not necessary.

WASyL

dig up

i do have 305 SBC with LT1 manifold with distributor mod and water exit made thru back of intake, see picture:


now if i want to swap LT1 heads all i need is to:
1. weld water ports and redrill just to mach head gasket?
2. drill water passage on intake manifold side of heads and use Gen1 manifold gasket?

any thing else?

best regards

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

this part is easy, lay a SBC gasket on it and you'll see you only need to drill a couple of holes

Not so easy, the LT1 heads have large oil returns where the SBC coolant passages go. I considered making sleeves, machining passages, pressing the sleeves in... In the end I decided that I'd have something that was likely to leak eventually in a location that is just going to dump coolant into the lifter valley (some of it there is no good way to weld, and I don't know how much I trust epoxy for this kind of thing long term).

In your case at that point you'd have something that just goes to the somewhat sketchy locations that you drilled in the LT1 intake... no sure that's the best option.

I did mine with a combination of using something similar to the old school smokey yunnick SBC cooling system modifications, some of the circle track coolant re-routing and the stock LT1 head "burp" lines.

That depends on what you've done with the rest.

The LT1 head intake bolt pattern doesn't match a stock SBC intake, so if you've filled and redrilled your LT1 intake for and SBC pattern you'll have to weld the face of the LT1 head bolt pattern shut, machine it flat and drill/tap the SBC pattern (this is what I did). That will run 4 of the holes into the LT1 "burp" holes so you need to figure out how you're sealing those, and if you're running something to the or plugging them off.

Intake port locations are slightly different, which depending on how much you care might be an issue. You can't go off of gaskets, since I found that stock LT1 gaskets covered the bottoms of the stock LT1 ports. I ported mine dead on to a felpro 1205, but found that by the time I put everything together I needed to use a 1206 so I wasn't covering something up.

The exhaust flange uses the alternate, outside bolt hole locations which could be a problem depending on what manifolds/headers you're running

The valve spacing is .050" wider than SBC, so that can lead to interesting problems (different or adjustable guideplates, I'm running mine on a 305, and decided to notch the tops of the bores for better airflow).

rocker arms could be an issue depending on what you have now...

I think that's everything...

WASyL

ok, if i do exits like FueledSoul showed in post #68 then i can use stock LT1 intake gaskets and forget about water passage thru oil passage to intake manifild problem, right?

intake bolt pattern is no problem to redo.
headers can be easily redrlled to match bolts.
i don't plan using guide plates
and will run with scorpion full roller rocker arms

best regards

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

do you already have some LT1 heads? If you try to look inside the heads in that area you'll see it's not a great place to put the holes. It's sort of the traditional place for the yunnik cooling system mod holes, but the water jacket in the LT1 heads is somewhat blocked off in that area.

the pushrod holes are not broached in LT1 heads, so you either have to run guide plates or self aligning (guided) rockers. FWIW, a few of the pushrod holes are tight enough on one side that you may have issues with 3/8" pushrods. I used adjustable guideplates and was just barely able to get things to line up in a way that nothing touched. If I was going to do it again, I'd either run 5/16" pushrods (though I'm running enough lift on an aggressive enough lobe that that wouldn't be a great idea) or clearance those holes some before putting them on the engine.

WASyL

as my heads ae still waiting for welding the coolant passages i came to an idea for water exits to remote thermostat, can i just use sensor wholes with proper screw in joints ?
will that cause any cooling problem?
also will use stock lt1 water crossover pipe that goes in back of heads.
i already have CLT sensor for ECM in thermostat housilng and moving gauge sensor is not that problem.

best regards