alright well tonight i started hearing a ticking sound in my motor, stopped to check my header gaskets to make sure they weren't blown and sure enough they were fine, so i drove it home and by the time i got home it went from that tick to a pretty loud rattle... so apparently i spun a rod bearing...the motor doesn't miss at all and doesnt sound like a bent pushrod or any lifter issue, and i'm basically 100 percent sure its a rod... but here's where my questions come in

so i work at auto zone and one of our normal customers is a total car nut and is basically loaded... but he was building a 68 firebird and basically putting a full 4th gen interior and drivetrain in it, so he bought 2 cars and pulled the perfectly fine motors from them and as of about a month ago he still had them... so my plan is to swing by his place this weekend and if he still has one to pick it up from him to put in the car.....

my issue is this though
if i buy one of these motors, i'm wanting some of the old stuff from my car to go onto this motor, and i plan on doing some mild mods to it before i put it in.... i want to do a cam swap, along with roller rockers and new valve springs, but if neither of these motors have the splined shaft for the opti drive, will i be able to either use the same timing chain cover that is on the motor and just order the cam that is used for the splined shaft style, or will i run into problems doing it this way? the reason i ask this is because i just bought a brand new non vented gm opti and i don't want it to be totally useless, and since these motors arent new i would feel better having the new opti in them

also, what problems will i run into if i do buy another lt1 and swap into it, or what parts should i really look into freshening up as i do this because really the only reason its being done this way is because i'm on a tight budget and basically the only time i'm going to have to do this is christmas break? i really didn't expect this to happen, but i guess 170k was the end of this motor...

 

alright... so lets try this question since i found out a little more today

so i found out the guy has a motor from a 94 t/a... so basically everything i have will swap since its the same motor, but now i have a couple upgrade questions

first of all, i would really like to put a small cam in the car, but still keep it a good daily driver, and with the research i've been doing it seems like the crane 227 or the lpe 211/219 cams would be a good choice and for the price i think i would rather go with the crane cam, but my question is this now

if i do go with the crane cam, first of all are lunati springs good springs for the budget? i found springs, retainers, and locks for like right at $100, but i know most people say you get what you pay for, but they are a .630 max lift spring and from what i've heard lunati makes decent products....
also, would i be safe to use self aligning rockers because that cam makes most of its power before 6k rpms, and if i do use SA rockers, which ones would you guys recommend for the money to buy?