I know that this is probally been asked but is it worth the money to put one in a third gen camaro? I have read on a thirg gen site and got mixed reviews.Had the ideal of a LT1 but the prices are comming down on the LS1 some and I really want one. If only I just "cam it up a little" for now.Problem with the LT1 I'm finding them $ 1500-3500 and over 100,000 on them so I figure why pay that much and have to rebuild it when you could have a LS1 with 40,000-75,000 on it. I know thea the LT1 will be a easyer and cost a little less. A guy told me who has had both that the LS1 was the bset he had ever had and he has bought built alot of hot rods. Thanks in advance

 

heres my thoughts. i had a 91 L98 trans am that i sold when i bought the 94 z28 in my sig. the 94 doesnt have a drivetrain so i was going to put an ls1/t56 in it. parts got more expensive than i thought they would be to do it how i wanted. now i wish i would have kept the 91 and built the L98 that was in it. IMO you still cant beat the prices of a SBC. in your case, an lt1 will physically bolt right in. wiring wont be very hard at all and your ready to go. any 1 3/4" primary header will work as well.

in the case of the ls1, you have to buy new motor mounts, if you want a/c you have to cut the k member to fit it. then youll need the hawks long tubes that run around a grand with y pipe. then wiring will be a little more difficult as well.

if it were up to me to make the choice all over again, i would swap to a t56 6 speed out of an lt1 car, and then build a 383 stroker with a big cam, lt1 intake (or converted carb intake) and top it with brodix heads. that with a large shot will put away quite a lot of LS1s.

 

I'll agree, you can get the same power in a L98 (and probably more Tq) for less money than an LS1.

The beauty of the LS1 however is, you make that same power, and still keep a good fuel economy, when you get a L98 up to 400HP, you drop into the single digit MPG area most of the time, unless your really smart about it.

As for the LT1 vs LS1 question, personally, I went LS1, sure it costs more, but you get a lot more for that money.

If you search around here and thirdgen.org you will find a ton of information regarding the LS1 swap and what is required or optional for the install. I personally went with a tubular k-member and hawks long tubes, but you can notch your stock k-member (or run no A/C), and use the stock manifolds.

 

I would say do the ls1 swap!!! I had a built 355 that ran high 11's low 12's and it was horrible to drive on the street i mean it ran hot and got about 8 to 10 mpg at best. I just finished the ls1 swap and it is a dream. And i get close to 20mpg and about 28 mpg highway. It drive amazing and in our lighter thirdgens it really moves. i have the ms3 cam along with all bolt ons and am looking for some low 11's possible high 10's just on the motor. I picked up the complete motor with harness, computer and all accesories for 2800 and basically the only other thing you need is headers which i got mine from hawks and they were expensive about 700 but they are stainless steel an i think are worth every penny. $80 for the swap motor mounts add the little odds and ends and i have less than $4000 in the swap and it is great. here are a couple of pics. I will get more recent finished ones when i go home from school this weekend.

 

I agree with the above posts! If you have to wait alittle longer and save up and get the LS1...Do it. I have an 87 Trans AM...and the TPI motor was a good motor. But I felt like to get anything out of it, I would have had to redo the entire engine. The TPI is a bottle neck for air flow sometimes. And by the time you build that TPI motor up or whatever motor it is, you will have spent about as much as an LS1/T56 combo....if you built it right.

My take is...spend a little more. Get the more advanced engine. Have decent MPG while getting that kick in the pants from the extra power. Wiring is cake. Dont let it scare you. It literally is hooking up a few wires and it will run. Even easier if you use the fuse blocks from the donar car. Power to the fuse blocks, plug in the connectors, a few wires later and it will run. Dont let wiring scare you...

Yes you would have to spend a good amount on headers. They were cheaper when I bought mine...but still. As mentioned above, they are stainless, and they are really nice headers for the money.

With LS1s becoming more and more available, the prices have been going down. I wanted to do the swap about 6 years ago...but you couldnt touch an LS1/T56 combo alone for $5000. I got an entire donar car for around that amount! Since I mentioned it...if you have the space...try to get a running donar car. I was able to drive mine around alittle (not on street) so I knew it ran decent. And I was able to use a lot of the parts from it. Not to mention the money I made from parting it out. Donar is the way to go.

Justin

 

Yea thirdgen.org is where I got most my info from. IMO it seems like buying a LT1 then a rebuild put you around $3000 and If I can get a low mile LS1 for the same price and I know I'm going to spedd around $ 600 for mounts cross member.................... Just wanted some input if it is/was worth it? Thanks again

 

look at LQ4s and other truck motors. its a cheap alternative to the IMO overpriced LS1s. just keep in mind you will have to get a diffrent waterpump, oil pan and intake (you will be switching that anyways if you have a 97-00 motor)

 

buy the 3gen tubular k-member and save yourself a world of hurt. install of the ls1 will go smoother and have more room for headers , ac and whatever you want.
i have noticed lately there have been quite a few modified to stock rebuilt ls1 on ls1tech and ebay for a very reasonable price. round 1500-2000k . then do a painless or speartech harness, and figure out if you want a 6sp or a a4 .. parts i think you will have close to 6k + whatever deal you can make on labor.

 

dude i finished up mine and have been driving it for almost a week now. besides the small bugs of a bad o2 sensor and the fact that i routed my p.s. hose to close to the p.s. pulley and cut the line in half(i got a new one and routed it correctly. lol). i have had any problems. i have yet to run it at the track but its been a half a week and ive only used a 1/4 tank of gas. i would of filled up 2x with my old 305.

DO IT!!!

 

KHS, I'm going to disagree. Stick with the stock K-member and notch it. I got the Hawk's Tubular K-Member and its been nothing but headaches. First I had to flip my drag link over because the tierods were hitting the tubular k-member, and I just recently found out that my rims which cleared before now rub like mad....

However, Hawks does have a new k-member coming out from Spohn, so maybe that one will be better....but it makes me feel ripped off having the old one

 

just get the a/c bracket from fbodymotorsports.com and you can use your stock a/c and not have to worry about it. granted its like 300 bucks but you wont have to notch the frame.

 

never ever purchase from FBodyMotorsports

 

yeah yeah yeah you wait a year.....so? my project is finished and i have the same cold air kit i put together at homedepot for about....30 bucks? haha.

 

StevenK you have any pictures, i have been envolved in a 2 swaps with the tubular k-members with no issues, i am curious to compare what could be different.

Did you speak with hawks? could it be the jig was off when they put the k-member together? just wondering.

 

Yeah I called Bruce and he gave me the same thing "I've done XXX swaps and no problems". I sent him pictures, but you know how he is w/ e-mail....

I'll take some new pics when I get the car back from Exhaust, I have no clue what I did with the ones I sent him cause that was like 6-7 months ago. Basically I just flipped the drag link over so it moves the tie-rods away from the k-member instead of towards it like it was stock. Who knows what thats going to do to my steering geometry though.

 

it really does sound like the k-member you got was welded wrong, like the jig off or something.

 

Unforunatly there probably isn't any way for me to confirm that unless I had another k-member to compair it to, and pulled mine back out....and even if it is messed up, I'm doubt Hawks will do anything about it since I bought it around a year ago, I've been taking my time on the swap, so I just now noticed the wheels rubbing when trying to navigate the car into the exhaust shop.

When I get the car back I'm going to look at it further and post up some pics, maybe even try talking to Rex again.

 

I did the LS1 swap, but it wasnt like a LS1 > LT1 > SBC thing. It was more along the lines of the LS1 was available at the time and I just jumped on it. I have little experience with the LT1 or SBC so I cant say much for them.

I know my car will get 28mpg on the highway (2.73's), but probably around 19mpg in the city (stall and lead foot). Will and has run 8.0@87 at the strip all day long bone stock besides the stall (N2O coming soon )

I have been very pleased with the performance and reliability since day one (2.5 years ago). So this obviously leans me towards a LS1 swap over anything else. I would do another one in a heart beat and it would take less time and money the next go around. I know I could do one for 4K with prices these days.

Good Luck.

 

Go LS1!!! Well, I did and its not done yet, but progress is being made slowly. I have the stock k member, only because the budget didn't allow for it when I was getting my parts together. I'll probably get one later down the road for weight savings and a/c if I haven't added it in by then. I'm not very confident with the wiring yet, but a friend of my is, and my dad is an electrical engineer, so I should be able to get some help from him.

 

Good feedback guys! I too am probably switching from the stock k-member to the spohn. I had a chance to check out one of the new 4th gen k-members in chrome moly while I was at spohn picking up parts. Its a very nice and very strong looknig piece. Even had tabs for the brake lines to attach in the stock locations. Nice touch.

Red89GTA: Hey man...dont let that wiring scare you. Its so simple...and once you get it started you wont believe how easy it is. My advice to anyone doing this though...get the rest of the harness from the donar car. Not the entire body harness...but get everything from the firewall bulkhead connector, to the fuse blocks and the rest of the engine bay harness. Then you dont have to cut any of the wires for the LS1. To power things and have the relays work...all you do is hook the battery to the fuse block terminal, then hook up switched 12V from your car to trigginer the ignition relay, and hook up a ground wire or two. Viola! Now all you have to do is get your fuel pump and gauges sorted out and youre done. No building relay blocks, no adding in fuses...its all packaged nice and neat and labeled for ya! I even saw a guy who condensed all of the fuses and relays into one of the two fuse blocks. Which was slick. I didnt have the patience to do that however..haha.

Good luck to everyone!

Justin