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Tomorrow starts the next project on the list of my car. We do a lot of circle track racing and up until 2009 small blocks were what we raced around here but things changed and we were forced to switched over to big blocks so all of our sb stuff was basically useless. We sold 1 motor and the other we sold the heads and intake and the leftover shortblock was sprayed with lots and lots of oil and stuffed in a engine bag and placed under the shelf in the garage where it has been sitting since April of 09 until today when I loaded it into my truck to bring it to work and start the fun. The motor only had about 50 total laps on it so it was basically new when it was taken out of the car. It is a gm bowtie block with billet steel main caps. It is bored out to 4.050 and has a set of crower 5.7 inch billet maxi light rods, and a matching crower maxi light 3.48 stroke forged 4340 crank so it is 359 cubic inches. it was set up as a solid lifter cam but will be switched over to a roller only because i have access to many roller cams that I can choose from for free. I work for a very large dirt modified team here in ny and we have a full in house engine shop with about 50 engines in rotation right now so I have access to lots of parts that are sitting on the shelf because they are no longer "whats new" in circle track racing. So this motor will get a set of old ported racing heads and intake and a bunch of other stuff to make a fun weekend warrior. We have everything from 420" all aluminum sb2.2's, 460" sb 9 degree motors, 468" bb 18 degree, 358" 23 degree sb and also 360 & 410" methanol injected sprint car motors. Its definitely a sight to see. I think this will be a very fun project and will try to keep this thread updated with pictures and tips on what I have to do to get the conventional SB into my LT1 car.
It should bolt in, the LT1's use the standard SBC mount points and bellhousing. You may have to cut your cowl for clearance depending on what intake setup you plan on using.
Accrdwgnguy: I have been wanting to do this for a long time and have done a lot of research and have read all the threads on here that are very helpful so hopefully it will go smooth.
Got some progress done today, Got everything ripped apart today just to check everything over. The cylinder walls had some very minor surface rust so we sonic washed the block and did a finish hone on it and it looks brand new and is now a whopping 4.052 from the 4.050 it was haha. While I have it apart it is going to get a full set of coated main, rod and cam bearings. Its also going to get some fresh black paint on the block and hopefully will be back to a shortblock next week sometime.
Slowly making progress on the swap. The old lt1 is out and sold and the new powerplant is about half way done. Hopefully I can start messing around with the engine in the next few weeks now that the race team I work for is done for the season the engine shop is slow and its time to mess with my motor again. The shortblock is done, Heads are ready to be assembled and the rest of the parts bolted on... My goal is to have the motor on the dyno by the end of november!! Ive done a bunch of wiring, I removed the HVAC panel and replaced it with a switch panel, MSD box is in and wired, fuel pump is wired, fans are wired, and even wired the blower motor up just in case i need to move some air in the cockpit lol. Ive slowly been gathering parts and messing with the car so when the motor is done I can drop it in and make some noise!!! Looking at the pics I think I might go with a ABS delete to free up some room under the hood, Plus its uglier than hell and needs to go HAHA. Ill try to update as I make progress.
Under construction, Need to finish wiring, hide wires and clean. Going to make a panel from aluminum to cover the windshield reservoir behind the nose of the car.
E-bay stainless Longtubes
(still waiting for my fuel level gauge... Been almost a month)
Thanks Man, Its slowly coming together. Started working on the motor today, I took it out of the engine bag that its been sitting in for about 7 months and did some work. We assembled the heads today and did some other small things, Hopefully I can do a bunch to it tomorrow and get it closer to being done.
Here are some new pics
Installed the crower solid lifters today
The assembled heads, They are a brodix "spec" head that we run on our circle track engines around here. These were free so I couldnt say no to the price HAHA.
Thanks guys, Its been a really fun project so far. I have had this car for 12 years and have been on this website for the same time and have seen lots of build threads and feel lucky to finally have my own. I Made some more progress today, Heads are on and test fit the intake. I have 3 intake options, A short rpm air gap, A edelbrock victor jr and the Ported dart 220 race series intake. I want the dart but not sure hood clearance wise what I will have with it... I might have to roll the dice, but then again thats what they make 4" cowl hoods for right??? Hopefully I can button it up tomorrow
Thanks guys, Its been a really fun project so far. I have had this car for 12 years and have been on this website for the same time and have seen lots of build threads and feel lucky to finally have my own. I Made some more progress today, Heads are on and test fit the intake. I have 3 intake options, A short rpm air gap, A edelbrock victor jr and the Ported dart 220 race series intake. I want the dart but not sure hood clearance wise what I will have with it... I might have to roll the dice, but then again thats what they make 4" cowl hoods for right??? Hopefully I can button it up tomorrow
Todays progress...
Well when it comes to the option of whether to use the dart intake or not and have to get a hood.... I say it the hood will look good.
Very nice shop, looks like you have some good stuff to work with. You may want to look into our traditional sbc/bbc crossmember for 4th gen f-bodies (part# KM005). It is designed to give you better placement in the engine bay as well as free up a ton of room and shed some weight off the front.
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FultonPerformance: The dart intake is the winner, I put the small on on it just to see and knew that it wasn't the way I wanted to go. Guess I have a oem ram air hood for sale now haha. BMR Tech2: I have been looking at those k members, I have a bunch of your parts on my car and that would look good with the rest of them! I Made a little more progress on the motor, Had to get different guide plates so im waiting on those, I plan on finishing it on tuesday and dynoing in 2 weeks when I get back from north carolina. I got my dash in the car and all wired up, Just have to wire the senders for fuel level, oil pres, and water temp, turn signal indicator led's and they are 100% done. Day by day I keep getting closer
Had to put some stuff on it to see what the finished product will look like, I will probably powdercoat the valve covers black.
Gauges in and lit up, I love the way they look!!
Jegs switch panel, I think I might take it back out and wrap it black or in the matching carbon fiber vinyl as the dash has. This was the only one I found that would fit in the stock HVAC panel spot.
Finally finished the motor up today, Gonna set it up on the dyno next week and see how it runs! Had to make a few changes tho, When we sat the dart intake on it we noticed the bolt holes were off a little but and the ports did not line up perfectly so we had to call a audible and put the victor jr on it. They are going to mill the dart intake for me so it will fit in case I decide to run it in the future. Also had to take off the fabbed valve covers because they wouldn't clear the stud girdles so the tall ones went on. Not sure if I want to polish them or powdercoat them black just yet. Cant wait to hear it on the dyno when I get back from north carolina next week!!!
Thing looks good, I say if you can get by and the heat not mess it up try and make them look carbon fiber I meen no one else has as far as I know. I cant wait to see the numbers and see this thing launch
What kind of numbers are you expecting and what is your compression? The combustion chambers looked pretty small. My kind of build!! Out with the new and in with the old!
Now that im back from North Carolina hopefully I can get it on the dyno and post some numbers this week. Fultonperformance, That would look pretty good, Ill have to look into it and see if it will work. uxojerry: Thanks, I like the old school stuff too. This same "spec" motor when we build them for the racecars normally make between 550-570 hp and thery limit it so you can only run 10.5:1 compression in the race motors, We took the compression in mine down a little bit, it ended up 10.25:1 when we cc'd it to check it and see where it was at. I plan on running it on 93 octane pump gas and will probably mix in a little VP112 to bring the octane up a little just to be safe. Im hoping that this one will make around 500hp any more than that will be a bonus haha.
Here are the specs... 360 c.i. GM 4 bolt main block with billet caps, 3.48 stroke, 6" rods, JE forged flat top pistons, 10.25:1 comp, Brodix aluminum "spec" heads, Comp cams custom grind roller cam 253 int 270 exh @.050, lobe sep 109.0, Crower severe duty cutaway roller lifters, crower 8.050 3/8 dia pushrods, Edelbrock victor jr intake, B&B 8 qt drag race oil pan, Meilling HV oil pump, MSD sb2 twin pickup billet distributor & msd crank trigger setup. And to top it off, with help ive done some of the machine work on it and assembled this motor 100% myself. Its been a really fun project!
12-26-2012, 10:49 PM
SBC into 95 lt1 Firebird ** updated 1/18 broken pic links fixed** 
Looking at the pics I think I might go with a ABS delete to free up some room under the hood, Plus its uglier than hell and needs to go HAHA. Ill try to update as I make progress.
Hopefully I can button it up tomorrow 
it the hood will look good. 
