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I would rebuild the car to stock.specs as well. Stick with the lt5 and just procharge it if you want a little.more from the car and it can always be taken off or put to stock very easy. The parts are hard to find but there out there if you look in the right places, I see parts at Vette shows from time to time. And if you don't procharge it get the triple air filter for it. They work great. Also if you can find them headers. But good luck. They make the car sound amazing.
Mothball the original engine and put a hot "old school" 406 in it and just enjoy it.
Al
i would not do this. the thing that makes that car so cool is the engine, imho. not to mention, he plans on driving it, ditching an efi car for a carb is going backwards.
There would be nothing more dissapointing to see under the hood of a zr1 than a carb'd sbc, that would be a sin. Might as well throw an old 5.0 in there, lol...
There would be nothing more dissapointing to see under the hood of a zr1 than a carb'd sbc, that would be a sin. Might as well throw an old 5.0 in there, lol...
I agree...the LT5 is what makes the car unique. without that its just another c4 vette with zr1 badges.
FWIW has anyone googled LT5 and supercharger....I have yet to find a supercharger kit for the engine, let alone one that has a CARB EO# attached to it. Personally I'd just build it N/A and keep it below 11.5:1. Do some head work and maybe some cams (they are available). The engine was rated at 405hp from the factory and that was long before current testing standards raised the rated hp of every engine on the market. The LS3 jumped from 400 to 430 hp when they standardized the test...so that gives you an idea of where it "may" stand. Do some forged internals and spray it if you really want to hve a power adder. Otherwise good luck. The last LT5 I dealt with was 500 RWHP N/A but it cost the owner $10K to get there starting with a 30K mile engine....
Just so everyones clear, and ive already said it a few times, i plan on keeping this car an LT5 no point in owning a ZR1 with anything else, id just buy a C4. I cant swap anything from earlier models as per Ca smog, even a direct ZR1/LT5 engine. Must be 91 or newer. And i have though about it, and i think im just going to return it to stock form, and simply drive it and see how fast a can rack up 1 million miles.
FWIW has anyone googled LT5 and supercharger....I have yet to find a supercharger kit for the engine, let alone one that has a CARB EO# attached to it. Personally I'd just build it N/A and keep it below 11.5:1. Do some head work and maybe some cams (they are available). The engine was rated at 405hp from the factory and that was long before current testing standards raised the rated hp of every engine on the market. The LS3 jumped from 400 to 430 hp when they standardized the test...so that gives you an idea of where it "may" stand. Do some forged internals and spray it if you really want to hve a power adder. Otherwise good luck. The last LT5 I dealt with was 500 RWHP N/A but it cost the owner $10K to get there starting with a 30K mile engine....
Specialized racing just completed one and last i heard they are releasing a kit. You can smog a supercharged car most of the time because you dont ouch the exhaust, from what ive learned from smog techs. But who knows. I have plenty of toys, i need a reliable LT5 ZR1 i dont need another 600hp beast, this one will be treasured and valuable in its own form.
black with red interior? If so I was also looking at the same vette.
Come to find out it doesnt have read leather, he has seat covers. But i couldnt imagine there being many ZR1s with seized engines for sale in our town, chances are theyre one and the same. Did you look at it?
Originally Posted by transbird95
Do you know what is seized in the engine?
He just said it was at highrpms, white smoke, engine seizure. It may not be as bad, but i dont want to go into it expecting anything less than what im getting if that makes sense, rather safe than sorry. Id have to pay someone to tear it down and inspect it anyway.
Originally Posted by SS RRR
Not sure what your budget, but budget and building up a LT5/ZR1 should never be in the same sentence.
i dont have a traditional budget. I just need to make sure i dont go crazy and spend everything i have, i tend to be right brain dominant, you know, the emotional side of things usually takes over the logical side of things. Lol.
Originally Posted by joelster
Seized? Any more information? It's not like the entire motor is scrap. If it spun a bearing there is a chance that a lot of the internals are fine and that the cranks needs to be turned and new bearings throughout. So long as metal didn't go everywhere. Any competent machine shop should be able to tackle the machining. As far as what shops are fluent in working on one, good luck with that. Thse motors were few and far between and the owners didn't exactly go ripping into them searching for more power, so shops that have rebuilt them are scarce, I know that Lingenfelter has build up a few and offered several performance packages for them.
i was thinking the same thing. Theres a machine shop in town that does good work for great prices, im thinking about calling them up. Id rather have a certified LT5 guy but hey, its not rocket science. Its not like they're going to crack open the heads and find Superman's vagina in there, at the end of the day its still a GM v8
Originally Posted by Wicked94Z
It's an overhead cam v8, its not made of solid titanium. You don't need some "famous" engine builder or machinist to rebuild it or modify it for performance.
I was on that track and see your point!!!! Thank you!!!
With the LT5 being the animal that it is, being designed by Lotus, and manufactured by Mercury, it is not a typical GM V8. Infact the only thing it shares is displacing 5.7 liters. Kinda like an LS1. Now any competent engine shop should be able to do work on it, but it may come at the expense of time since they more than likely haven't dealt with one before. I would be worried about an engine that locked at High RPM personally. 7000 RPM to 0 is heck of a jolt for anything. And BTW, you can make 600 reliable HP with an LT5....it behaves in no way the same as a GEN I or II SBC.
Are you kidding? In the last few years SAE has standardized the way engines are rated for HP. If you noticed the ZR1 went from an originally rated 600 hp to 631. The LSA went from 500 to 556. So I can safely assume an engine that was rated at 405 hp in 94/95 would probably be pushing a little more by today's standards. That's all I was saying.
FWIW has anyone googled LT5 and supercharger....I have yet to find a supercharger kit for the engine, let alone one that has a CARB EO# attached to it. Personally I'd just build it N/A and keep it below 11.5:1. Do some head work and maybe some cams (they are available). The engine was rated at 405hp from the factory and that was long before current testing standards raised the rated hp of every engine on the market. The LS3 jumped from 400 to 430 hp when they standardized the test...so that gives you an idea of where it "may" stand. Do some forged internals and spray it if you really want to hve a power adder. Otherwise good luck. The last LT5 I dealt with was 500 RWHP N/A but it cost the owner $10K to get there starting with a 30K mile engine....
10k aint bad at all for 500rwhp NA, starting from scratch. I would expect an LT5 to be more expensive.
They are badass engines, I would love one...it wouldn't be NA though!!
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