As the title said, I'm the proud owner of a 1992 RS that I paid $100 for. The body is in decent shape, need a new front cover, some minor body work, and some paint, the interior is almost all there, and also need new seat covers. The motor, I was told, was the 305 converted over to carburation. The guy I bought it from did not know much about it, as he was going to go the 383 route. I noticed that the heads are perimeter bolt, and the number puts them as heads for early 80's 305s. The tranny is the 700r4. I know how everybody loves pics, so here are a few:













I know that the badges say Z28, but I don't understand why somebody would go to such lenghts to change the ones on the rocker panels, rear bumper cover, and dash on such a heap. It still has the 25th annyversary badge on the rear decklid.
Also the hood is from an older model, not sure what year.
The car came with several new parts, such as a new radio trim plate, new center arm rest, and some other odds and ends. It also comes with a complete TPI intake, that I will have no use for.

So here is my question. For those that have done, or are in the process of doing an LS1 conversion, what would be the easiest way for me to accomplish this? Due to space and money constraints (I don't think I can have that much dough all at once) I don't think I can get a complete donor car. So what would be my next best course of action? I do want to keep it automatic, I already have a GTO with a 6 speed, and A/C would be nice.
I'm very mechanically skilled, but I don't have any experience welding. I can follow a wiring diagram, and I have pretty much replaced everything on a car at one point or another.
Also, is there any particular order that the parts need to be gathered in? I would not think so, but it never hurts to ask.
As far as time frame goes, I would really like to get this done in a year's time. I think it would be a really great gift for my dad (I wrecked his 1992 twelve years ago) for his birthday.

 

Welcome aboard thirdgen.org.

That's one of the best motivations I've heard in awhile.

Check for engine/trans/harness/PCM take-outs on the usual places - craigslist, eBay, racingjunk, etc. Hawks and Spohn have the swap parts you need. You can go ahead and get things like the engine mounts and tranny crossmember, don't need to know the engine/tranny particulars to do that. Decide if you're going to stick with 4th gen exhaust manifolds or do headers.

 

How much of a pain is it to go from 4th gen manifolds to headers? That will determine if i get the headers now or later. I have already looked at the prices for them, and they are in line with what I paid for the headers on the GTO.

 

Biggest problem with headers is routing the driver's side pipe, especially with an auto trans. Unless you plan on other modifications, the later exhaust manifolds, from what I hear, are pretty good. Just get a y-pipe fabricated to route to the stock exhaust location.

 

I am planning on building a cam only motor for now, so i'll probably go with the headers.

I guess that dissassembly is the first step in this project, see if I can't get some greenbacks for the old motor and transmission.

 

If you have the complete tpi setup with harness and pcm you can probably get around 300-400 on ebay for it.

 

I'm not sure if it's that complete, the car is not here right now, I have to pick it up and drag it to the house still. I know that it hase the lower and upper plenums, fuel rails and injectors. How can I tell if it's from an early or late head motor?

 

The angle of the center two base to head mount bolts on each side. If they're the same as the rest, it's '86-earlier. If they're at a shallower angle, they're '87-up.