my buddy just blew his l03. we found a LB9 engine for $200 w/o the intake setup. so if we take this engine add on edelbrock intake manifold,k&n open element intake,bored out tbi unit,heddman longtube hedders,with a 3"exhaust and flowmasters muffler. 3.73 gears and a t-56 tranny.

any suggestions??. (BESIDES TUNING YES I KNOW it needs to be done)

would the lt1 cam work? 1.6 roller rockers?

 

upgrade the timing chain and change all of the most obvious seals and gaskets before throwing in the engine, and it sounds like you've got a nice setup.

I've heard some people that put in an lt1 cam and it started right up and ran great, and others that couldn't even start the car, so you're taking a risk there if you don't get setup for tuning beforehand, but if you've got the 85 lb9 you've got a pretty decent stock cam, so you don't absolutely need the lt1 cam(though it is better). the rockers, I think it's more important that you get aluminum rockers than 1.6 rockers, and keep in mind that if you switch to an lt1 cam, you're gonna wanna change the springs or you could run into some serious problems, but that's all covered in the stickies.

if you've still got the l03 and it's serpentine, I personally would switch the serpentine setup over to the lb9 if you can(and i believe you can), but that's just personal preference.

but ya, sounds like a pretty mean car to me.
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oh, and i would port match and polish the heads if you've got the time, money, and tools, but from the way you described it, it doesn't appear that you want to dig that deep into the engine.

but if you've already got it on a stand, you don't run into a whole lot of opportunities to do something like that so easily.

 

thats what we hope. the engine is a go. now he doesn't know if he wants the tbi or swap to carb.

 

can't help you there, it's all personal preference, and nothing you've mentioned suggests that you're looking for gas mileage, so you're pretty set either way.

if you ARE looking for gas mileage, I'd take a well tuned tbi over carb or even tpi anyday, but again, personal preference.

oh, i'd also like to suggest looking into amsoil foam filters, i've read a few reviews that noted that amsoils filters flowed just as well as k&n, and filtered a hell of a lot better. they also cost 20 bucks less and and take nothing but compressed air and 5 seconds of your time to clean.