Hey guys, for the past week or so I've been reading as many threads as I can find about this idea. I have the chance to get the ball rolling on this here shortly and just want someone to common sense check my idea before I commit. I want to work with a non obd2 car so that I remain inspection/emissions compliant in my state, and to be honest, I like the early 4th gens the most anyway. As of now I have a blank slate to work with and don't own anything needed for this idea. I'm not starting with an LS1 car because the market around here is through the roof, and I like projects. I have experience with this level of work, just not with this platform, I'm coming from the foxbody and 4.6 mustang world.

What I want to do is:
car: 94 lt1 auto car, blown motor, can be had for at or under a grand.
engine: 5.3. Do I need to stick with a 3rd gen? or can I do a 4th gen 5.3? I plan to do a cam and turbo at a minimum, but would rather not replace the bottom end.
trans: stay auto. it wont be a daily or anything... just a fun weekend car that'll see the drag strip here and there. I guess I can go 4L60e or 4L80e? a th350/th400 would be fine with me too if that would work, overdrive is not a priority.
rear: not worried about this too much yet, but obviously the stock rear is going to have to go
ecu: since it being a non obd2 car I don't need to run through emissions. On initial look the Holley terminator x looks like it would be a good way to go.

I'm not too worried about the amount of work involved, I just want to common sense check myself here that this is a realistic idea and yes these ideas will work and want to make sure this is a good platform to work with car wise

from what I can gather so far I would need to swap out the k member for an ls based one(either factory ls1 car or aftermarket) and the trans crossmember would need to be made or modified. I assume a custom driveshaft would be in order for what ever trans/rear combo I go with. and the majority of threads I can find are more about the harness and wiring, which would be negated by the holley terminator. Can I or do I have to piggy back the stock ecu to run the stock gauges? Any other major roadblocks I'm not thinking of?

Sorry for the 100 questions, and I know the topic has been covered quite a bit on here but I did search and will continue to. one of the downfalls is theres SO MUCH info on ls1tech that it can be hard to sort through it all.
Thanks guys!

 

You can do either gen 3 or gen 4 since you are doing a standalone harness. In my 92 silverado i used the 92 oil pressure sensor just used an adapter to connect to block. The temp sensor is a 1998 camaro 3 wire so the pcm sees temp and the other wire hooked up to my temp gauge in the truck. I am using a 1999 truck pcm with standalone harness with cable throttle body. If the terminator x was out when i did my swap i would have went with that setup.