i searched for this quick so forgive me if this has come up before.

which is the easier route and which has more power/potential

LT1 swap into a thirdgen, going from the automatic in the car to the manual 6 speed in the donor, retain all the lt1 stuff and use a painless wiring harness to simplify things. with headers and aircleaner should be good for nearly 300 hp.

LT1 swap into a thirdgen, retain the TBI and normal ignition module using an aftermarket intake man. and tbi adaptor plate, no wiring harness necessary just some mods to the optispark setup and other such things. potential power unknown, technically a crappier yet more workable FI system.

completely unfamiliar with lt1 tuning and such, im much more established with the tbi stuff however sequential port injection sounds soooo nice. lt1 doesnt have that resonance crap like tpi did right?

 

holy crap! no opinions? fast? dimented? anyone?

 

Build a Vortec 350. Basically the same engine as a cast head LT1, with less headache.

The LT1 intake is its own bag of worms. Uneven air distribution that results in un-even a/f ratios on certain cylinders without Sequential injection. The short runners also give it a distinct low-end torque loss and low-end surge when under load.

 

heres the dealio though,,,i want the t56 in my car, and the aluminum driveshaft and other such lil things, interior, brakes. 4thgens are becoming increasingly cheap, when you consider the hassle of finding peices parts vs unbolting them from a donor car... thats my whole angle, so the lt1 is allready there for me to use.. it think buying a t56 assembly and a vortec 350 seperately may be cheaper then a donor car f body but the simplicity makes up for that along with the plethora of other parts you get.

 

sounds like you're leaning towards the tbi side of things though,, wouldnt be that much different cept i would get alumiun heads right?

 

With the Opti-spark the achilles heel of the LT1, going with the carb intake/TBI/distributor setup is a good way to go. This also allows you to keep the TBI EFI harness in place which eliminates another headache.

You also get to avoid the OBDII LT1 ECM. IIRC, there are 2 LT1 ECMS. One uses a PROM the other is Flash.

As for TBI being a crapppier EFI system, that is not necessarily true. There are many issues with the LT1 EFI system.

RBob.

 

yea, sounds like that is the way to go,, known commodity, no repinning or anything just a retune with the tools i allready have.
when i said crappier i was reffering to the difficulties of injector sizing and a wet flow system, the throttle response ought to be pretty amazing which ought to help me slide her that much easier .

 

final question on the subject, with a good tune, say an lt4 cam and hooker 2460's and 3 inch all the way back, what kind of hp do you think i would be looking at? stock is 275 but ive heard thats underated,,so maybe 325? that a bit high?

looking forward to the advanced tuning and high compression that comes with reverse cooling 325 ought to get me to a 13.5 in the 1/4 with gears