TrybalRage

I found a 1993 LT1 on FB marketplace for a good price, so snagged it for my car so I can get it back on the road. Trying to figure out the best path moving forward. It seems like I have two options:

Option 1: Swap over the intake and associated goodies, some other bits, and have my PCM reprogrammed to ignore the missing crank position sensor.

Option 2: Swap over the intake, cam, all timing related/opti related stuff and leave my PCM alone.

Option 1 means I get to leave this motor mostly intact and dont have to change out as much. Option 2 means no tune required, and I get to freshen up all the gaskets, but is obviously more labor intensive (especially the cam swap). Given the situation, what's the opinion out here on what to do?

SS RRR

iTrader: (2)

Option 2. Especially if parts swapping over are still good and your tune is sound. Not that big a deal if the engines are out of the car.

homerandabe69

I also agree with option 2. Replace gaskets that you can access and swap everything over. Less chance of running into issues and fewer leaks.

TrybalRage

Hm. Well to be honest I was leaning towards the first option. Here's my reasoning:

• Minimum of teardown, only need to swap the intake
• Cam off 97 motor has ~230k miles on it, would be swapping into a (supposedly) ~94k motor, along with other associated parts (except the 97 opti probably has less than 5k on it)... this doesn't seem to make sense logically. I'm afraid I'd creep into "well, while I'm in here" mentality and spend more than I want. This is because:
• In my head this is meant to be a temp solution. Get the car running at a minimum cost/time investment, so I can take my time and rebuild the original motor to whatever specs I decide.

I currently have no tune, it's the stock PCM and programming.

Obligatory pics of transplant and car:

TheUrbz

Why would you not want to freshen up a motor thats already out of your car?

TrybalRage

I guess because the 93 motor is such an unknown variable. It was sitting on a pallet when I bought it for $250. I haven't seen it run. I can't verify the miles. If I'm going to spend the money, I'd rather it go towards the "real" rebuild - the original motor from the car. This is just a plan to get the car moving again for the smallest amount of time/money.

Longer story is that I've owned this car since '07 or so, and I've barely driven it. It's sat with no engine on it for the last 4-5 years. Heck, I'm not even sure I want to keep it for the long haul, I've debated just selling the whole mess a thousand times. I'm thinking that if I can get it running again at the bare minimum, that will give me clarity on whether I even want to keep it. Hopefully driving it again will spark that joy I used to have from driving F-bodies (I had a 83 when I was 16, and a 1996 Z back in 98-01 or so) and motivate me to really put the time and money into cleaning this car up into a nice daily driver. Right now throwing a lot of money at this car makes me uncomfortable since I have other projects that it could also go to. It seems like if I can get this engine to fire for 20 bucks in gaskets and ~$100 tune... Not sure if that makes any sense.

TrybalRage

On another note, on the back of the one head there is a stamp of "RS" with something in the middle that I can't quite make out. Don't have this on my old motor, wondering if this is some kind of factory QC stamp or is this possibly an indication that these have had some work done to them?

TheUrbz

regardless, if it twere me, id spend the money on new gaskets, some hoses, consumable items at least. sounds like you may/may not want to deal with this thing and either way you want it to last until you do. at least you know youll have peace of mind while you gather your parts or end up selling it that it will still be usable in term.

SS RRR

iTrader: (2)

Option 3: Tear down to short block, take to machine shop, have them ring/bearing/hone (if there's enough material) block, assemble.

TrybalRage

Ha, yeah, that was originally the plan (and still is, really) for the original motor out of the car. It's currently sitting on a small furniture dolly.

If I decide to keep the car, want to refresh the short block like you described, and put a mild cam (ive seen old posts of yours about the 211 cam from lingenfelter), maybe head porting. I'm not interested in building a racecar, just a fun daily. Then this '93 motor can go in my 1985 C10.

TrybalRage

I thought about it some more and I've ordered the gaskets so I can do option #2.

Besides the points that you guys raised about freshening up the motor, I realized that this will also give me the opportunity to check this motor over a little more and learn more about it's condition and what other work *may* have been done to it. Then I'll have some peace of mind about some of the internals. Going to try and get that work done this weekend.

TheUrbz

good, you cant put a price on peace of mind.