LT1-LT4 Modifications 1993-97 Gen II Small Block V8

which LTs for a 96 impala ss

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Old May 6, 2009 | 02:32 PM
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Default which LTs for a 96 impala ss

well a buddy of mine wants to put some long tubes in his 96 impala ss except he doesnt know what are the best headers to go with. anybody know where he can get a good set at. also do the sell a ory for these cars or does he have to get one welded from a shop?

last thing, how hard is it to swap lt's into one of these cars? thanks fellas
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Old May 6, 2009 | 04:13 PM
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Originally Posted by dry_kill
well a buddy of mine wants to put some long tubes in his 96 impala ss except he doesnt know what are the best headers to go with. anybody know where he can get a good set at. also do the sell a ory for these cars or does he have to get one welded from a shop?

last thing, how hard is it to swap lt's into one of these cars? thanks fellas
You should be able to find a few manufacturers of LT headers for Bbody cars (Impala, Caprice, Roadmaster). I believe Pacesetter makes a pair. If you are not on a budget, go with stainless steel headers.

The Impala's come with True duals, you can just get your stock exhaust welded to some 3" to 2.xx" coupliers that can be clamped to the end of the headers.

As far as difficulty goes, it takes several hours, but be patient and it's not too bad.
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Old May 6, 2009 | 04:16 PM
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get some tri-Y's!
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Old May 6, 2009 | 07:10 PM
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Originally Posted by z_speedfreak
get some tri-Y's!
never heard of those

i checked a few sites but they all seem to be shortys. i checked pacesetter as well but didnt find anything for an impala. can anybody post a link for me for some longtubes. i know the longtubes get good hp on ls1 engines, do they do the same for lt1s?
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Old May 6, 2009 | 07:19 PM
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Originally Posted by dry_kill
never heard of those

i checked a few sites but they all seem to be shortys. i checked pacesetter as well but didnt find anything for an impala. can anybody post a link for me for some longtubes. i know the longtubes get good hp on ls1 engines, do they do the same for lt1s?
Yes, LT's are just about the best bang for you buck mod for any SBC engine.
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Old May 6, 2009 | 07:22 PM
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I can't post a link because they are not a sponsor here but focuztech has nice b-body headers. Not cheap but remember this market is a lot smaller than the f-body meaning this is hand fabricated stuff and is very well built.

He has "hookup pipes" available with or without cats so connection to the exhaust system is easy.
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Old May 6, 2009 | 10:36 PM
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www.clearimageautomotive.com They are expensive but you get what you pay for... I have a set of the long tube, ceramic coated, tri-y's with off road ext. pipes. Dan, the owner and original fabricator of thse has been aroound for years. Their customer service is great and they are built to order, or were when I got mine. With the room you have in a b-body definetly go with long tube, tri-y's. Lt-1's love them and make much better power and torque, you won't be disappointed. Installation wasn't to bad, pass. side was a little time consuming as expected, just because of alt., and a/c lines, etc. Do spark plugs while your there too! Check out the forum section of www.impalasuperstore.com there is so much info on those cars there. Hope this helps, let us know.

-SS
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Old May 6, 2009 | 11:07 PM
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Go on the impalassforum.com there's good deals on there sometimes.
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Old May 7, 2009 | 02:30 PM
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what is the difference between regular lts and these tri-y's? do the tri-y's gain more hp?
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Old May 7, 2009 | 02:41 PM
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my buddy called me today, said he wants the car to basically run 14s. i told him with headers, intake, maybe gears, and a tune he should be able to get to 14s. im speaking from my experience with ls based engines, is the same true for this lt1 he has?
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Old May 7, 2009 | 03:50 PM
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Originally Posted by dry_kill
my buddy called me today, said he wants the car to basically run 14s. i told him with headers, intake, maybe gears, and a tune he should be able to get to 14s. im speaking from my experience with ls based engines, is the same true for this lt1 he has?
If I ever had a Bbody, I would install:

Crane 227 cam
springs
1.6 rr's
LT headers
CAI
3:73 gears
3000+ stall
tires
tune

I'd also try to cut some weight wherever possible.
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Old May 7, 2009 | 04:22 PM
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well he doesnt want a cam, he still wants to keep his cats as well, his main goal is just to hit 14s
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Old May 7, 2009 | 04:54 PM
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Originally Posted by dry_kill
well he doesnt want a cam, he still wants to keep his cats as well, his main goal is just to hit 14s
The Crane 227 is a popular choice for the heavy Bbody cars, known to be a torque monster cam.
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Old May 7, 2009 | 05:27 PM
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Originally Posted by hotrodscrap
www.clearimageautomotive.com They are expensive but you get what you pay for... I have a set of the long tube, ceramic coated, tri-y's with off road ext. pipes. Dan, the owner and original fabricator of thse has been aroound for years. Their customer service is great and they are built to order, or were when I got mine.
-SS

You are grossly missinformed, Dan was originally a salesman and later decided to get into fabrication after Dan became a fabricator his old fabrication shop decided to retail b-body headers through other channels. Dan's response was to act like a child.


I currently own headers from both ClearImage and Focuztech. I will never buy another ghing from Clear Image. LONG well documented history of failures to ship and he wont take responsibility for it.

The importance of long tubes is grossly overstated too, the times my car has run have been on midlength headers.

Last edited by 96capricemgr; May 7, 2009 at 05:32 PM.
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Old May 7, 2009 | 09:23 PM
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Originally Posted by ss.slp.ls1
If I ever had a Bbody, I would install:

Crane 227 cam
springs
1.6 rr's
LT headers
CAI
3:73 gears
3000+ stall
tires
tune

I'd also try to cut some weight wherever possible.
Sounds about right just crane cams is no longer among us. And I would shoot some nitrous in it. And you can make these cars loose some weight there's some in the 3100-3300 range. Mine will be about 3500lbs.
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Old May 8, 2009 | 07:31 AM
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Originally Posted by 383lt1impala
Sounds about right just crane cams is no longer among us. And I would shoot some nitrous in it. And you can make these cars loose some weight there's some in the 3100-3300 range. Mine will be about 3500lbs.

Didn't you have a 13 second nitrous 383???


The OP REALLY needs to watch who he listens too. Far more bad advise than good to be found on forums.

dry_kill, you have a better plan of attack than most of the guys answering. Really though I would not call headers necessary, though they are nice. Gears, intake tract(as opposed to manifold), catback and tune should get him comfortably into the 14s, headers should make it low 14s.

A nice stall Edge, Yank, Vigilante would get him 13s.


Since you are coming from the LS side of things I just want to clarify something a little. There are NO bolton LT1 intake manifold upgrades at this time, the Edelbrock is a joke. So when we talk "intakes" we generally mean a good cold air kit.

If your friend wants a showy one the RAISS and SSRI are good, for a mild setup like this though he can get by with a bit of PVC in place of the rectangulat baffle and cutting a hole in the side of the airbox.
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Old May 8, 2009 | 08:59 AM
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Originally Posted by dry_kill
what is the difference between regular lts and these tri-y's? do the tri-y's gain more hp?
the tri-y's are a 4 into 2 into 1 design(4 primaries into 2 secondaries into the collector) compared the the standard 4-into 1 design LT. its helps w/ scavaging and exhaust velocity and helps out w/ the low & mid range mainly.
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Old May 8, 2009 | 09:06 AM
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Originally Posted by 96capricemgr
Didn't you have a 13 second nitrous 383???


The OP REALLY needs to watch who he listens too. Far more bad advise than good to be found on forums.

dry_kill, you have a better plan of attack than most of the guys answering. Really though I would not call headers necessary, though they are nice. Gears, intake tract(as opposed to manifold), catback and tune should get him comfortably into the 14s, headers should make it low 14s.

A nice stall Edge, Yank, Vigilante would get him 13s.


Since you are coming from the LS side of things I just want to clarify something a little. There are NO bolton LT1 intake manifold upgrades at this time, the Edelbrock is a joke. So when we talk "intakes" we generally mean a good cold air kit.

If your friend wants a showy one the RAISS and SSRI are good, for a mild setup like this though he can get by with a bit of PVC in place of the rectangulat baffle and cutting a hole in the side of the airbox.
thanks for the info, what is a good tuner to go with? do they have custom tuners for these cars or is all the tuning done by a handheld?
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Old May 8, 2009 | 09:26 AM
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I like pcmperformance

They have a few options that will work, from shipping the pcm to a cable that allows you to load the tune yourself.

The hypertech is garbage, documented LOSSES on LT1s.
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Old May 8, 2009 | 10:24 AM
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I may be wrong about Dan's role there, the last time I had done business with CIA I had nothing but a good experience. This was several years ago, and I dont' believe that I had read any bad feedback from customers buying products from them on NAISSO. As far as the product quality goes, I only spoke from my experience, I have had the long tube, tri-y's. I installed them and have driven coast to coast several times, traveled from Texas to Tn./Ga., numerous times with no reliability issues, lost hardware, or melting anything. I added these and exhaust before my 6-speed swap and it felt like a different car. So, I was just sharing my experience with a CIA product, which is still just my opinion based on driving with these on my 94' for more than 50,000 miles. I'm not trying to give bad info, or burn any bridges here. Just wanna help when the chance presents itself and I can.
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