this guy i know just bought a late 4th gen, he says the previous owner swapped in an ls2, the motor looks the same as my ls1, is there anything i could look at and tell easilly? i know the heads should be 243's the tb is cable driven, but is there anything else?

 

Timing cover is different and the knock sensor locations are as well

 

where are the knock sensors on the ls1 and on the ls2?

 

ls1 sensors are under the valley cover thats under the intake. ls2 will most likely be by the motor mounts.

 

is there any other way??? is the intake manifold look the same? the throttle body should be bigger.

 

Just looking at the timing cover should tell you

 

You can't make a decision based on the intake manifold or throttle body as they can be interchanged.

As stated, look at the front timing cover. An LS2 will have a cam sensor in it, whereas an LS1 wont.
LS2 timing cover.


Also the LS2 has 6.0L cast into the block if you know where to look.





The black thing is the LS2 knock sensor (same on both sides of the block)

 

found out the car was a 98 and it had the 98 heads on it with the individual coil pack brackets...98ls1