91 1LE LS build
 

Hello,

I just came across a 1991 Z28 1LE with 36k miles on it, but the kicker is that this is in Germany:eek:. It was originally a 305 tpi / T-5 car. It was brought over by a Major in the Army a few years back who bought it when he was in college with 1100 miles on it. I have a title with a 2004 issue date and 1100 miles recorded on it. This car is 99.9% rust free.

Anywho, it is not 100% original anymore. It has a modified LT1 intake, Trickflow heads, long tube headers, and a T56 trans. It is currently sitting transmission-less because I needed the transmission for my 89 IROC so I could sell it. I barely got to drive it before doing the transmission, but what I noticed when driving it is that it has some tuning issues. It would stall out ocassionally, and stumble through the RPM range, not all the time, but frequently once warmed up.

I have a LS1/T56 set that I got for helping a buddy of mine upgrade to a Procharged LS2, and another buddy of mine who just happened to have a T56 from a LS car laying around that he sold to me for 200 bucks. I've been piecing everything together for the last year or so, just need a clutch/flywheel and housing, and motor mounts. And probably a bunch of little things that I'm forgetting that will end up stretching my swap out over the course of a few weeks (being in Germany and all).


I'm posting today for 2 reasons:
1) To see what the 3rd gen community thinks of LS swapping a low mileage 1LE car.
and
2) To make yall jealous hehehe

Re: Interested in opinions
 

The original engine and trans are long gone, I say go for it.

Re: Interested in opinions
 

Yeah I'm planning to, I was just bored at work and looking for an excuse to show off the new ride.

The same friend of mine that I got the t56 from also has a complete C4 rearend assembly. It's the less desirable D36 3.08 rear, but I'm still considering putting it in this car. My goal, if you want to call it that, is a well balanced road racer that is still street friendly. Something I can drive the 3 hours to the Nurburgring, run it during the weekend and drive it home. There's no chance of going back to completely original anyways so I think I'll just do whatever I want here.

Re: Interested in opinions
 

Nice one. Keep us updated on the progress.

Re: Interested in opinions
 

Thanks! And will do Citation.
I'm probably going to start selling the topend stuff from the motor in the next few weeks, if anyone is interested in a LT1 intake with everything.

Re: Interested in opinions
 

SO I've been pretty busy with school and buying and fixing a house, but I have been able to squeeze in some time with the car. I've gotten the old drivetrain out, and put the LS1/T56 together. The car is currently sitting on a lift and I'm hoping to have it running in the next week or two. Want to have it drivable and in the garage before winter hits.

Here's some pics of the summer progress.

This was the beginning of all this. The T56 in my IROC lost 5-6th gears, so in order to fix it to sell, the T56 in the 1LE was going to have to be donated.

Attachment 323391

I decided that instead of wasting time and money fixing the old stuff, I would focus my efforts on putting together an old LS1 I got in exchange for work a couple years ago. I got the engine when I helped a buddy of mine put a built procharged LS2 in his 2000 TA. His crate engine was just a long block, so a lot of parts were taken from my engine and I've spent the last year or so finding parts and getting stuff whenever the price was right. The LS T56 I found just by luck when a friend of mine who opened his own trans/rearend shop posted it for sale, got it for 200 Euros.

I've been working on this at my work, so I kind of have to time everything so that I don't end up with parts all over the place. Everything that got pulled that wasn't going to be used got sold. It actually worked pretty good that way, definitely has helped finance a lot of the unforeseen parts of the build.

So once the engine was out it was loaded in the back of my friends truck where a guy who specializes in American vehicles over here bought it and a bunch of other stuff to help clear out my garage.

Attachment 323392

And while I had the truck brought the engine out of hibernation.

Attachment 323393

Attachment 323394

First things first. Get the broken exhaust manifold bolt out of the head. It was broke inside, so I couldn't weld anything to it. I had good luck here and drilled pretty straight and got it out with minimal effort.

Attachment 323395

Attachment 323396

Also changed the oilpan gasket, timing cover gasket, and new rear main seal.

Attachment 323397

Starting to look like an engine again.

Attachment 323398

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And here is how it is sitting right now.

Attachment 323400

If I can get off my dead *** I might get it running this week....

Re: 91 1LE LS build
 

nice! goodluck!

Re: 91 1LE LS build
 

Thanks man! I've been sitting on my hands for the last week debating on going through the top or going through the bottom, mainly just procastinating. But I got going on it the other day, put the LS style hydraulic line on the old master cylinder, and installed the new throttle cable.

Then last night I had a chance to stay late and get some work done. Decided to do what I had been originally planning and drop the K-member out of it so I can make sure everything is going to line up and if not be able to fix it out of the car.

If I can get some time today I want to have it totally prepped to go in next week.

I'll post some pics later

Re: 91 1LE LS build
 

All right so it has been a loooong time since I updated this thing. I got some time so thought I would finish my story.

I finally got around to putting the motor and K-member together, left everything loose so it all went together pretty easily. I didn’t have any clearance issues or anything.

Attachment 322505

I also put the wiring harness on and came across my first issue. The wiring harness was for a 3 plug temp sensor, and I had a 2 plug sensor, so ordered a new one.
Now all that was left to do was put the engine in the car.

Attachment 322506

I didn’t pay much attention to the wiring harness here and just left it hanging. This was a mistake I had to drop the engine back out to run the wiring harness to where I needed it to go. I also should have bled my clutch at this time, but of course I didn’t. So once everything was installed I had to drop the motor a few inches again to reach the bleeder valve for the clutch.

Attachment 322507
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This was around the 20th of October or so. I just spent the next few days plugging everything in, making the rest of my fuel line, hooking the suspension and steering back up, and filling all the fluids up.

My O2 sensors were not the right kind for the harness. I had bought stock 98-02 F-body sensors, but I needed the female type connector. So I ordered some for an 03 Truck. These were the right connector type, but the slit was on the wrong side, so I had to order again and pay close attention to the pics on Rockauto. Being in Germany made these types of instances very frustrating.

I also found out at this time why there was no intake air temp wire. It was wired up for a 5 wire MAF, so I had to order a new MAF for it.

I got kind of lazy again and didn’t do much with it for a few days, but on Halloween night I decided to make a big push and get it running. Hooked up the battery and primed the fuel system so I could check for leaks, and set the pressure. Fired right up.

Attachment 322509


It ran really good in open loop. The right O2 sensors finally showed up, but when I plugged them in the car fell on its face like it was in limp-mode, so I unplugged them for the time being until I get a tune for it.

Chopped up my old Y-pipe, but I don’t like it, it works for now, but I think I am going to order Hawk’s Y-pipe before next summer.

Attachment 322510

I drove it around here for a while till I felt confident in its driveablility, and a few weeks ago I hit the Autobahn for the hour drive to my house. It ran great, good power, very smooth drive.

My plans are to park it for the winter and order the Y-pipe, and do mail order tuning with Fasterproms.com. I also need to recover the headliner, already got the fabric just need to find the time. Next summer I want to take it out to the Nurburgring with some of my M3 buddies and see how it does.

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Re: 91 1LE LS build
 

Here is a video of when I first got it running.

http://vid215.photobucket.com/albums...pscjlbvqgo.mp4

Re: 91 1LE LS build
 

Very nice car. I have similar thoughts about "stock". Why would you want to keep a car stock if its your car. (especially keeping in mind the limitations GM purposely put on F-bodies). My dad cringed when I swapped mine to LSx, but I don't look back. I have better driveability, its a reliable car, makes great power, its a blast to drive, and instead of breaking down and having all sorts of issues

Re: 91 1LE LS build
 

Nice build man, made it seem all too easy lol

Re: 91 1LE LS build
 

Thanks man, I had been planning to do this swap in my 89, but the old TPI still ran pretty good so I just never got around to it. The main reason I got moving on this one was because I didn't want to spend money fixing the old transmission and figuring out the tuning stuff when I had 90% of what I needed for the LS swap. I'm really looking forward to see what it can do next spring.

Haha, thanks dude. It was really not too bad, there's so much information on this board and so many people that have already done it that almost all the hard stuff has already been solved.
I was also on a very tight timeline to have it all finished before my boss came back from vacation, so that kept me motivated enough to finish it before November.

Re: 91 1LE LS build
 

So spring is here in Germany and I have started driving the car again. I still have not had it tuned, I got hit with about 6500 Euros of unplanned house repairs all of a sudden so my plans shifted. Still runs really good, aside from the really high idle, so I've been taking it out on nice days.


Didn't do any of my winter plans, but I did start buttoning up the unfinished business from the swap. Tucked the PCM in it's new home and reinstalled the under-dash paneling, and yesterday I ditched the old airbag wheel for a Grant Winston cup series wheel.


I also ran it over a truck scale and it weighed in at 1.52t This was on an army base here so not sure if this is US Ton or a metric tonne? I'm assuming it is a metric tonne which would put the car without driver and a full tank of gas and a bunch of junk in it at 3351lbs. That seems a little more believable than 3040lbs? I may go buy the place and ask the guy running it.

Re: 91 1LE LS build
 

Pulled the headliner out last week also and put some new fabric on it. Not a very good color match, but when I ordered it I went off of guessing. The important thing is that it isn't hanging on my head anymore. This is also the 1st time since I've owned the car that the interior is complete.

Re: 91 1LE LS build
 

Nice work. Makes a big difference.