Transamthunder

My 95 has mostly been parted out now and the body hauled off. My 85 now has the carpet from the 95, with the seats from the 95 also will be bolted in as son as I get all the carpet trimmed. This past week I have installed my Lt1 into using the Gen one motor mounts. With the sale of the front nose peice i was able to buy a UMI double adjustable panhard bar, and a pro 5.0 shifter for my t-5. When I was taking apart the motor I repalced all the seals in the oil pan, the rear main and will be doing a new intake gasket when I have finished converting my $45 Edelbrock Vic Jr to the Gen 2 motor. I ground the thermostat housing off, and am deciding whether to use epoxy or have the front water holes tigged shut. Still need to smooth it out some though as the grinder was busy bouncing about. A month ago I started also fitting the 95 spoiler to the back of the 85 along with doing the mirriors too from the 4th gen car.

I will post pics on the thread soon as I figure out how to do so, but so far I have posted to my profile an album if anyone cares to have a peek. I will warn ya it has a long way to go before it is pretty. Everything that I have done so far or bought has been with funds of parts sold, or reused from my 4th gen car. I hopefully will be doing a dash swap too, as i am planning on using after market gauges. Yes I decided to forgo injection too. Curioustiy has gotten the best of me how it will run, and starting from basics again to figure out the whole tuning thing, then maybe I will move on to learning injection. So for now it is going to be the trusty hei and my DP holly 600. Maybe this will help soften some of the torque a LT1 makes going through my t-5.
Oh an added not I did get the 95 rear end in too, will be adding new calipers and new disc. The old stuff is thin and or stripped for bleeding. Used my old Lakewood control arms, but seems I lost an insert for the bolt that goes in the bushing on the driver side, I been keeping my eyes on the garage floor hoping to find it. I tried using the 4th gen brake cables, but I am not to impressed and found that using the 92 rear cables can be made to work with the rear end wit hthe 3rd gen parking brake lever. I like how it is adjustable where as the 4th isnt.
http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/al...p?albumid=3792

Nomind

I thought about doing the same thing, heck, same years even, though I would keep the fuel injection. What concerned me the most was the lack of strength in the T5. I managed to do mine in with a TPI 305. Right now, I'm slowly looking for a T56 to replace it with, but that probably won't happen till spring. It should run pretty good, though. You're talking almost a 100 horse upgrade from what was stock in 85, not to mention, any upgrades you do to the motor. If you don't have them, though, invest in some SFCs for the thirdgen. I added those, and a steering brace (wonderbar) and the car was night and day different.

Transamthunder

YEah hopeing for luck being on my side. Most of this build is being supplemented with funds as parts sell. I havent had a job for over a year now, so it has to be kinda sell then buy what i need. THe auto zone clutch is kinda of my fusiable link for the time being, lucky for me it has a lifetime warrenty, along with getting a tranny jack cause I think this is gonna be getting serviced alot.

I was having some probs that I just couldn't figure out. That and i always wanted one with a carb. Some people will tell me to sell it and buy a small block 1. My response to that is this Gen 2 is stronger stock for stock as I havent and probably wont be touching the internals. I will have to see when the time comes i guess. So far this has been and intersting build for me and gets me outta the house.

Nomind

I'm not saying that the T5 behind an LT1 can't be done, there are a couple people on TGO that have had good luck with it, though their cars never see any track time, and don't get hammered on to badly. As for the budget part, I can understand completely. My 85 started out as an auto, and when it blew a front seal at 200k, I talked my wife into letting me swap to a manual. Cost had to be under what a rebuild would cost, and I almost made it. But, by that point, I couldn't turn back. Only overshot by about $150-$200. I can't go to a new motor in it until the 305 gives up the ghost, but I don't think it ever will.

Transamthunder

I wasn't disagreeing with ya, seen a bunch survive like that behind a few 350s that were street cars too.. You always hear about some racer that got lucky with his too for a while, then 3rd gear goes boom.

1961ba427

iTrader: (26)

I was going to put an LT1 into my 89 Formula 350 at one time. I already had the engine and figured it would be an easy swap with the gain of aluminum heads and an intake comparable to the $$$ tpis mini-ram. I ended up never doing it because the body on the Formula got hit a few times, then something about a tornado and an oak tree.

Anyway, being Tuned Port Injected already, I was going to modify the LT1 intake to accept the small cap HEI distributor from the L98 and then just run the whole thing off of the TPI computer and harness. It would have all plugged right up with only some simple sensor swapping I think. I'd have needed a chip burned for it, but that would have been eaiser to tune for than most combos. I have seen lots of LT1's swapped into third gens, but NEVER seen one ran off of the TPI harness/pcm (which eliminates the opti). I have always wondered why noone does this??

Transamthunder

I am guessing because the tpi wa a batch fire and the lt1 is sequential. Though that does sound kinda intruging enough.

Nomind

I think it has more to do with the computer, and potential tuning ability, especially with the MAF computer. That's why the SD swap is so popular, and the ODBII swap is gaining a lot of traction.

Transamthunder

I had my intake done locally for $75, but they only did the 4 holes per end which for the most part shoould be fine. His bridgeport couldn't get the middle holes, but he did shamfer my mounting holes so I will either tig the old parts shut of just jb weld it. I did grind off the thermostate housing and down to the part where it would have gone into the heads. Waitng for warmer weather to paint and put on engine. I do have the fuely intake on but I just am not up for wirng yet, even though I will be wiring in fan and fuel pump relays. Junkyards round here want way to much for a tpi fuel sender let alone a v-6 fuel pick up so just gonna use a inline fuel pump. Waiting for funding for some of my other parts like power steering hoses for a caprice, pieces for my exhaust.