hello fellow F-body enthusiasts, i am 17 i am rebuilding a 350 5.7L LT-1 and putting it into a 1990 RS originally it was suppose to go into my 92 Rs but the floor pan costed too much so i bought a 90 for 150 no tranny no engine. i started in October of 09 and still am working on it today. The reason why it has been taken so long is because all this snow and having to get the parts when i have the money. right now i have the whole engine rebuilt with new fel pro gaskets and a makeover and also carberteted it origanally it was fuel injected. now im swapping the interior out of my 92 into the 90 RS. the only thing stopping me from finishing my car is schooling and swapping the dashes out. what damn bolts do i take out so i can take out the dash in one piece? i have a lot to learn on the camaros and i hope to learn how to take everything in it. anyways i am pushing for 350-400 rearwheel horsepower. and hopefully later in june ill be ready to look for a turbo set up for less than 600 dollars. My Buddy brandon is helping me on my project, He also is doing a project of his own, he is turboing his nissan 240SX for drifting and autocross events. he is currently being sponsored. i will be posting pictures of the engine and car. but right now i have to head to school. any comments and suggestions will be much appreciated.

 

Why are you carbing a LT1?

 

well im carbing it so i dont have to deal with all the wiring and the faulty optispark(why would GM put a distributor under the waterpump?) besides it doesnt hurt anything even though it might cost a pretty penny for the intake it wont cost as much down the road when your Electronically controlled components go bad.. my girlfriends dad has an lt1 and he carbed it and it has more hp than his fuel injected LT1. also it had more throttle response. and they were both out of a newer style camaro (4th Gen)i think there both 96s. any reasons not to carb it?

 

I think you need better excuses to use the carb, reasons not too, cold starts fuel economy and drive-ability, unless you can really tune a carb which most people can't (just because it's running doesn't mean it's right).

 

what year make and model is your LT1 out of?

 

i know people who can tune a carb pretty well. i bought the block and everything for 450 the guy originally wanted 650 for it and i said take the intake and wiring and drop it down to 450 so i didnt get any of the wiring for it and the fuel injected intake. i figured it would cost more to swap everything in my 3rd gen camaro with the 4th gen dash. overall it was less costly. what do you mean drive-ability?

 

its a 96 and came out of a buick roadmaster only thing different is the a/c bracket and the iron heads. i pretty much rebuilt it from head to toe. these engines have lots of compression from what ive researched.

 

Street manners and reliability

B-body cam is more aggressive to make up for the drop in compression

Have fun with the fossil

 

Fossil??? the oldest Lt1's are only 18 years old, thats pretty far from fossil. fossil would be a gen 1 motor like your twin M90 car has. BTW any progress on that?

 

ya im going to have fun with this one. fossil?. so did i make a bad choice or what?. either way ill still be happy about it cause this is my first build. and you gotta learn somehow.

 

hard to go wrong with a 350 in a third gen, I just don't care for carbs all that much, I have grown to love fuel injection (my first 3 cars/trucks were carb) starts every time, gets better milage, easier to fix, ect ect ect.

 

I think Pocket is referring to putting a carb on it. I would also keep the motor as GM intended from the start and put the FI on it for the reasons that Eric stated.

If you were going to put a carb engine in it, I would have went with a standard SBC instead of an LT1.

 

Thats exactly what I meant. Nothing wrong with a LT1

 

oh ya everything is still GM the carb intake i bought straight from GM. i have another 3rd gen to work on (the 92 RS) this one will be my next toy project. a little rusted out but it still deserves to be on the road. i love the 3rd gen style along with the first gens. i dont mind putting a carb on it im doing this for a learning experience. the only way to learn things is to pick up a wrench and some sockets and start working on it. that picture is of my floor pan in the 92. and the other is of the LT1, it was all grimy so i decided to clean everything up and paint it with high temp engine paint.

 

92 is a little rusted???!?!?! those floors are gone man! you could patch them so your not flinstoning it down the road but that is pretty bad..thats what i hate..now its not easy to find a solid Fbody anywhere where there is snow..good build tho! ill keep updated on it!

 

today i pulled the dash somewhat out of my 90 RS. i couldnt figure out how to get what was left of the wiring out. its like trying to find a light switch in the dark. this stuff is waaay out of my skill level. this picture is someone elses photo off google i just used it to show you what im having problems with, is this what i have to remove to remove the dash.

 

Lmao. that is the worst part of it. the passenger side only has a little bit of rust holes. Im suprised i havnt fallen out of it when i have been driving it. i live in michigan so there is a really bad problem with our country roads, and i hit a mound of concrete from the road being pushed together and it ripped out the floor pan and insulation cause it was that rusted. thanks i was beginning to think it was too boring to read lol. i should post more pictures and maybe update what i have worked on so far.

 

anyone know what i should use to put over the floor pan (metal filler, bondo ..ect.. ect..) in my 1990 i dont want it ending up like the other one. i sanded and painted over the rust spots the floor pan is solid no pin holes or anything. i still cant believe i picked up this 90 for only 150 everything was still intact. came with 295s with ARE rims and a posi rear end. the guy was also going to give me the stock rear end and a 700r4 trans that needed to be rebuilt for free. but i didnt need the trans cause im more of a manual person. pulled the car for about 10 miles with a tow strap by a chevy silverado. had very little road noise.

 

Undercoating or rhinoliner works well

The circle in your pic is the C100, use a 1/4" socket to remove it from the bulkhead, once its off split the two halves apart. One is light harness, the other engine

From the inside, use an allen key to remove the C100 bulkhead. Be careful, the allens are mounted in the plastic of the connector and highly prone to rounding out. If this happens youll have to grind them off

 

thank you. okay i have got the two nuts off of it. but i have yet to split it and get out the allens stopped working on it yesterday because the wind got too cold. thanks for the help i appreciate it.

 

yep keep us updated with it! pics are always great!

 

carbs are for dinosaur motors. just kiddin' ... I've seen really fast EFI LT1s and I've seen really fast carb LT1s. It's whatever you want to do.

 

I think for somebody on a tight budget, a carb is probably the way to go. Personally, I wouldn't buy an LT1 and carb it but everybody is different. I am not sure it would be worth my time to conver the ignition and fuel delivery but I am a die hard fuel injection fan so I am probably pretty bias. BTW, didn't the roadmaster come witht he "small" LT1? I didn't know they had the 350.

 

Caprice was the only car to come with the L99 4.3 liter engine with an optional 350, everything else from a caprice, roadmaster, fleetwood were all 350 LT1 engines. It's pretty good cause it makes finding a bottom end to rebuild and/or use easy. I think ~60% of Caprices came with the 5.7L.

 

so i have the c100 out now i have one problem, where the heck does the wires that goes into the drivers side trim unhook?. i think those are the tail lights im not sure. anyone know where?

 

The C100 splits in half by sliding the clips loose. Fiddle with it and youll figure it out

Two halves are engine and front light harness

Tail harness connector is a simple in-line disconnect under the drivers side of teh dash

 

i notice i havnt updated in awhile but im so close to being finished. with being in school i didnt really have time for it but now its summer so i have all the time in the world. i have all the wiring back in the car and the dash is put in. i had to drill holes into the firewall for the clutch and drilled the whole in the center console area for the shifter. its looking so close to being completed. only problem is that the guy i bought the engine from cut the power steering pressure line off and i dont know where to find a replacement line. this line is the one with the plug on it. and ive looked pretty much everywhere online. i know i can go to a fabrication place to do it but i live out in the middle of no where and i have no clue where a place like that would be around here. my girlfriend's dad hates me for some reason and i cant get anymore help or parts from him. he was usually my main source for information and parts because hes the "firebird guy". oh well im on my own now. will post pictures of progress soon once it stops raining here.