I'm in the middle of the process of Installing some LT1 heads on my project 385 stroker, here's some pics of step 1.

 

 

 

 

For the unaware.....

LT1 heads have the same bolt pattern (block to heads) as GEN1 blocks have always had, they however were designed to go on a reverse cooled engine, and part of the cooling system entailed two new coolant passages per head. These passages are what are now blocked off in the pictures with some 3/8" inch (.375) 6061 T6 Aluminum bar. If these are left unblocked, coolant will dump right into your lifter valley.

The plugs were cut to 1" x 1.5" rectangles out of some aluminum bar about 4" wide cut into strips with a hydraulic iron worker (faster than a hacksaw), then cut in half down to size. Then I took a piece of tape and put it over the coolant passages, and then cut it out, using the cut out piece of tape as a template taped over the plug, then diegrinded the shape out. I then cleaned the 'rough cast' out of the coolant port, and made sure they were a close match and then tapped them into place about an 8th of an inch below the deck surface.

#4 was the first one I did, as you can see its a little rough, i made the plug so that it would start in the hole, and then figured i could pound it in, i was wrong, it got about flush, but went no further, so i beveled thee port and plug hoping it would loosen up wherever it was snagging, didn't work, eventually drilled it out and started over.


These are in the back of the 'roc and heading off to be welded, each plug has a beveled edge to help the weld get enough penetration into the plug to hold, after that obviously the head will need to be decked.

A side note, the intake valve seat is DAMN close to the deck surface of the head, it wont be able to be decked much more than fly ****.

 

As for an intake, what I'm going to be doing is mounting a gasket matched stock LT1 intake with a distributor hole and spacer and walla, I'm good to go.


Coolant will exit the front of the heads where there are already threaded coolant holes (coolant return to radiator on stock LT1's - Z28ra(i)cer) that I'm going to enlarge and use the same coolant nipples that John uses on his converted LT1 intakes, the fuel and coolant will otherwise be routed the same way that John does.

 

Interesting but it begs the question 'Why?' Do thsoe heads over something you could not get from a diff head that required no modification and had about the same cost?

Always looking to learn, thanks in advance.

 

Cost.... what cost?

Heads: $200
Intake: $40
Distrib spacer: $25
Welding: $50
Decking: $50
Porting: Free

KNOWING that endless LT1's are running 12's, and 11's, with stock heads, intakes, and a cc305/cc306 cam...priceless



But seriously, A few bucks, a little porting, and I'll have one of the trickest setups running some smoke'n times (on my stroker) for virtually a drop in the bucket compared to a HSR/super/mini(ram) and some aftermarket heads (roughly $1,700 total on the conservative side).


Thats why

 

you sneaky little bastard!


looks great man! I can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

roc i got a question for you..

u mentioned that fly **** couldnt be cut away from the deck because the valve seat is right on the deck..

i think i have that problem on my LT4 heads. the chambers were 54.4 cc but the guy i bought them off of cleaned them up to 54cc and installed 2.02 /1.60 valves

if i stand the head up and look down the deck i see a very small pice of each intake valve sticking out past the deck...

i know its not a good thing but is it actually bad?


the pics u posted didnt work for me..id like to see your progress

 

Definitely cheap and good heads when you can do the work yourself.

If you can't, you would have to be completely stupid to pay a machine shop to do the work when you could buy better heads for the same price though, as already intimated above.

 

f-crazy, the problem he is talking about refers to the intake valve seat being so close that if the deck was cut more, the seat would get cut.

If just some valve is sticking up past the deck, that's OK, thats called 'valve margin'. Now if you open the valve and you can see a flat spot in the seat where the deck is cut into it flat, that would be bad and probably not seal.

 

ohh ok i see what your sayin...

well its just the lip of the valve stiicking out..they heads came assembled so i i havent seen the seat itself, but from what i can see the seat hasnt been touched.

thanks ed!

 

I apologize guys, the pictures will be up tomorrow, a router died.

 

So you are running the LT1 intake also? makes more sense now.

I like trick stuff even if doesn't always make sense.

 

Yup and the only thing that needs to be done is the distrib spacer


1 hole beats fiddy of 'em

 

here is a picture of how the plugs started their life




:lala:

 

were are u gonna mount the thermo?

 

probably the fender next to where the hard fuel lines turn rubber, or there about, i have no evap can or anything to worry about it wont be hard to find a spot

 

When i read about converting lt1 heads I thought damn this looks good on paper! I didn't want to have to be a guinea pig, but damn its good to see someone up to the task. Just a few Q's Are the coolant ports the highest part of the heads? (air bubbles, bleading the coolant?) What cc are the heads stock? Also are the exhaust ports same as standard SB chevy? I might need to talk to a friend with an engine fire lt1 tommorrow...

Its good to see someone take on a project and think outside the box.

 

Yea the stock coolant ports are at the highest corner of the water jacket, doesn't look like there's going to be much oppertunity for air pockets in the head. As far as CC I'm not exactly sure but i doubt its much more than an L98, they're not increadibly large, they just flow well stock, port nicely and there's always the big brother "LT4" if this turns out well enough. The exhaust ports are "D-port" like aluminum L98 heads.

 

The combustion chambers are 58cc stock - FYI.

 

Damn that is a good cheap way to a good heads/intake combo. Do you think there will be any cooling issues though?

 

The only other issue that i can think of is how your accessories will hook up. where are you going to mount the alternater, ac, and anything else? it doesn't seem like you'd have a lot of room to run even just a barebone setup with the coolant hoses coming off the front of the heads. Would it be possible to beat the **** out of the firewall, and switch the heads (right head on the left side of the block) and run the coolant out of the backside of the engine?

 

Dont need to switch the heads, there are exits both front and rear, you could just drill both, and then plug the ends you dont use. I dont expect any cooling issues at all, so far everything looks like it will go great. My accessories are "bare bone" the only thing thats going to be in the way is the alternator which i'll remount if need be, no worries.



and FYI back most LT1 heads CC less than 58cc

 

This is from mortec to the guy who threw in the 58cc thing...


10128374...92-up...350..........Gen.II LT1, 53cc, angle plug,
aluminum, reverse flow cooling,
175/68cc ports

 

Wow,
I am planning the same thing in the near future. I got the set from my buddy for helping him part out his smashed 94. I was hoping I would be the first one on the board to do so but it doesn't look that way. What size coolant hoses are you running from the heads? Also, what are you using for fuel lines? Thanks for any help.

 

Fuel lines, coolant lines, and remote thermostat housing are all from millican, as far as being the first, I'm not even the first, this project although not very popular (yet?) has been done before us by thirdgen members.


I didn't necessarily seek out the hardest way to build an engine, I'm just poor and this is the cheapest way to my goals

 

Amen !

 

This is the first time I've heard if such a thing. I've been wishing and waiting for holley to make a HSR for vortec heads but this looks like a good alternative. Please let us know how it turns out.

 

Given the stock 175(ish)CC size intake runners of LT1, and the fact that I'm using a stroker, I will probably eventually end up using the LT4 Heads and intake, theres your vortec alternative


Although that one isn't cheap

 

Any news yet?

 

Blown up transmission shortly after the install of a converted LT1 intake on my engine kinda prolonged this project a little bit. As soon as i get a new transmission in the car I'll be back on the head project, I'll post pictures of the welds before decking, and after decking sorry for the delay.

 

How about a little write up?
I was thinking of saving for AFR 195's but I too see your point in many Lt1's with stock heads and CC305/305 or XE 230/236 cams pulling low 12's high 11's.
So it wouldnt be too hard to mount the cooling hoses on the back of the heads?

 

I am a man of few accessories, power steering and an alternator and thats it, my alt is already mounted high, my coolant hoses are exiting the front of the heads, the rears would be alot trickier and would deffinatly requie 90° exits if it would even clear those. I think without bending the firewall you're going to have to exit the front.

 

Well I went to a buddy of mines machine shop today, and before I even got around to asking him about it I saw 3 sets of LT1 heads 1 pair iron 2 pair aluminum that have already had the same thing done. So I guess this is a common procedure.

 

Ok I know its been a long time, you all know how these things go.........


Anyways I just dropped the heads off for the welding, I will take pictures when I get them back, also I'll take pictures after they get decked, and then pictures after redrilling the coolant passage. Escentially this is going to become a tech article.

 

look foward to the pics

 

same here...

 

You just need to get your heads angle milled like I did with my AFR 195's. They too have very little clearance for straight milling. They cut my down from 68cc to 58cc and then angle milled the intake side of the heads so my intake would bolt up still. Not only do I have higher compression, but I have about a 17 degree valve angle now too.

 

Here are the heads after welding, tomorrow I hope to be able to drop them off for decking (straight deck, no angle) and they should return from that in short time hopefully. As soon as they do you better believe I'll have the pics













And just for fun here is a picture of some of my port work

 

Here are the heads after being decked.

At this point the heads are ready to be installed on the car, now I need to modify the distrib hole and screw down the angled spacer and I'm finished.









:lala:

 

Looks very nice! You still have to drill the water cross over holes, correct?

What are the chamber sizes?

 

Its rumored that they're 54cc's stock or so, after decking them I may have lost 1cc, there was no intent for compression agains, an absolute bare minimum was removed.

The water crossover is in place, I'll be enlarging the size for a 1/2" NPT to -12 AN 90° fitting.

 

tpi_roc,

First off, I want you to know this thread is the only reason that I registered with the board. I found a link over on cz28.com and wondered over here. Nothing agaist this board, just wanted you to know i was so excited when i viewed this I registered!

I'm trying to get some information about converting some f-body heads to use on a Gen I block.

I see that these passages have to be plugged up, but I'm not sure what else would need to be done if you WERE NOT using the lt1 intake and you wanted to use a standard Gen I intake manifold. Could you comment on this please.

I am very impressed with how they came out! Very nice. Hope your stroker turns out to be all you want it to.

Thanks so much tpi_roc!

Ben T.

P.S. Here is my thread over on cz28.com,

http://web.camaross.com/forums/showt...hreadid=202434

 

Wow thanks for your support and welcome to thirdgen, its not a bad place . You could put the LT1 heads on a gen1 block, and then convernt a gen1 manifold again to fit the heads, but that would negate a few of the "Pro's" about why I personally went through this. Anyways you'd need to redrill the bolt pattern into the intake to mount to the heads, that would position the distrib hole for you, however your thermostat wouldnt' work in the normal location unless you put metal tubes into the heads and went through a LOT more effort than what I did.

Hope that gives you some idea..

 

To elaborate on the 'how to' part of the coolant cross over an article that john millican has archived can be found here:

http://www.lt1intake.com/LT1_retrofit.htm


Hope you dont mind john

 

I don't mind at all. I have that link on my site. It's very important we don't loose this information since it gets asked over and over again.

 

Sorry to bring this back from the dead but I bought a set of LT1 heads and I've got a few questions:

1. How do the heads stay cool? Someone told me you drill a new cooling port with a traditional gasket as a template? Verify this please.

2. So remote T-stat housing, fuel lines, dist hole, spacer and I'm done with the intake?

3. Will all the accessories hook up? I will most likely be running everything, including an AC Delete pulley.

4. Can you explain what the "water crossover" is all about? Where does it go, what is it, etc?

5. Any problems you see on a daily driver?

6. Are they on the car yet? How's everything going? Let's get an update!

Thanks

 

I believe all of your questions have already been answered if you read back through the thread or the other LT1 head information on this board.

Im not running a serp setup, I only need to worry about the ALT. and water pump so I can't comment on that, it would deffinatly make it harder because of the coolant exiting the front of the head.

Not running yet. But I am running an LT1 intake on a daily driver with 0 problems, and I'll be running the heads on a daily driver and expect 0 problems (Or i wouldn't be doing it).