It may be helpful for many people out there doing a LT1 swap if there were a step by step guide of what to do and how to do it. From the first bolt to the last.

I am going to undertake the responsibility of providing as many details involving a swap as I possibly can through my first attempt in doing so.

Therefore, I will now provide the back story up until this point.

In early July, I bought a 1994 Z28. The previous owner had rolled the car more than a few times, and the exterior was thrashed. The mostly-complete LT1 and 4L60E sold me on the car. I got the whole thing for 600 bucks.

I had the scrap yard hoist the car into my dad's dump truck, and had him bring it home. To my misfortune, my father dumped the car onto a stack of pallets.



I used a creative combination of random junk to stack the jack high enough to get the car off of the pallets. I also used an array of s*** to use as "poor man's jack stands."

View of the Truck tire that was supporting the tail end.

The LT1 that is going into my 1985 Z28

Me (the white guy) and my friend who helped me rig up the stands.

Good view of the empty keg that supported the passenger front side.


NOTE: I guess this is not entirely "start to finish" as previously mentioned, because I already have the LT1 and 4L60E out of the 94 Z28. Sorry for any disappointments.

As many of you have already guessed from the pictures, yes, the primitive "jack stands" did give out. While I was under the car. While lowering the transmission with a jack in order to drop the entire assembly out the bottom of the car, the entire thing shifted on me, causing the truck tire to roll a good 2 feet. The car came crashing down on the passenger side, and due to a healthy burst of adrenaline, I hopped out of the hole moments before the car came down. Good times.

The next task is getting the engine and transmission over to the garage.

After that happens I will begin to provide a detailed LT1 swap, with the added bonus of a complete tear down and reassembly! I'm going to re-ring the engine, just to avoid any problems. I will also tear apart the 4L60E.

The "Blood Donor" as it has been named, has 96,000 miles on it. I am going to begin the process tomorrow morning, with updates as often as I work on it. Questions, concerns, and thank you's are appreciated, and I will do my best to look into anything you want me to during the swap. Thanks, update tomorrow as I begin the tear down of the engine.

- Falcon

 

Holy deathwish batman!

I am in the middle of a similar project, but I did it on a concrete pad with SUV jackstands rated for 6 tons each.

 

a whole new meaning for the term kegstand. a little funny, but yeah, nore scary than funny. glad it didn't come down on your head.

 

The deposit on the keg would probably be enough to get you some jackstands.

 

thanks for finally doing a step by step right up.. i cant wait till it done. thank you very much

 

I wish i took more pictures of my swap then i would have done a step by step too but i needed it done no time for pictures.

 

well at least give us a quick run trough on the wiring lol

 

any updates?

 

im right along side on this! im currently working on putting a 95 LT1 from a camaro in my 87 Trans Am previously a 305 TPI but im still confused on the wiring! im doing as much research as possible so please help!