Thanks in advance to any insight anyone can provide on where or how I screwed this up. Likewise, before you assume I'm just some idiot new to the forum that didn't bother searching, trust me I did. A lot. I searched all across TGO and many other forums.

Anyway, the old school original GM starter in my IROC (LB9-T5) is dying, and I wanted to upgrade to an LT1 starter. I know this is supposedly a simple bolt in upgrade and expected this to be a quick job. It was not. I bought a Remy 99719 starter for a 92-96 Corvette off of Rock Auto. When I attempted to mount the starter, the casting interfered with the mounting pad on the block. See the image below. The area highlighted in yellow on the starter interfered with the area highlighted in yellow in the second photo of the mounting pad. It wasn't just close, and as you guys know, there's not really anything you can screw up mounting it. Two bolts in two holes and tighten. There was simply no way possible this would fit.

Being that this is a driver quality car, I looked it over and brought out the grinder. I hated to do this since I have zero chance of any kind of warranty coverage, but it was already greasy and scratched up a little from the initial attempt to install it so I didn't feel right returning it. I figured I bought it at this point so I might as well grind away since I had nothing to lose. That worked fine. I removed enough material to clear and it mounts flush and works perfectly. I just really want to know what I did wrong here when no one else seemed to have this issue with any LT1 starter including the Corvette. I could only find other instance on a Corvette forum of someone trying to install an LT1 Corvette starter on their '85 (Corvette).

I want to do this same upgrade on my L69 Monte Carlo, however this clearly isn't the way to do it. If nothing else, I just need to know why I had this issue and no one else has. It's driving me nuts! Again, thanks to anyone who has input.

 

You aren't the only one, It's just the way the starter is machined. It needs a bit of work to fit on some blocks. Most people just do it and don't post about it.
I run this starter on all of my sbc engines.

 

Thanks! Man, I totally thought I was going nuts. I thought someone somewhere across the internet would have posted something similar. It looks like the F-Body LT-1 starter would not have the clearance issue and truly would bolt on. Is this correct?

 

All i had to do was add a few inches extra wire. Didnt have any fitment issues with mine.

 

Thanks for adding your experience. I am totally lost what the difference is.