hey guys i just bought me a 94' transam lt1 and wanted to know if a 150k motor is worth adding some performance to it. or should i rebuilt first..??

 

if you leave it stock it should last lt1 can last long if you take care of the motor. i would rebuild it to be safe if you going to mod it up

 

It depends on how much you mod it. Bolt ons would be okay, I think, but heads/cam, etc would be too much strain on it. I had a bolt on car with 208,000 on it. It also depends on how you keep it serviced/maintained too. If it has been taken care of, you should be fine. A rebuild never hurts, though.

 

my car made it all the way to 145k miles on stock everything, only thing ever replaced that i know of was the waterpump and the alternator which i did myself, my cap and rotor(not the opti itself) went out at 145k and i had about 4k lieing around so i rebuilt the motor and got a few mods, i think i could have gone another 40-50k miles no problem if i had just replaced the cap and rotor (i just wanted a little more power)

im at about 156k miles right now running 13.7's at 104 (i am the suck at launching the 6 speed at the track, i blew up a rear end about 4 months ago so everytime i go to the track since then i cant get myself to go full out on the launch, still on a 10bolt) and can outrun a few local friends in thier stock ls1's with the few mods i have

 

LT1s are proven stout engines. Had mine up to 145k until I had my little "accident".

 

Just picked up a block that had about that many on it and it has NO CYLINDER TAPPER AT ALL. Thing is in great shape, going to machine shop today to clean/mag it.

 

Same here, mine lasted to 149k till i cammed it. there was a guy on here or on CZ28.com that had pics of his 250k mile LT1. I beleive that if its left w/ stock internals , and regular maintanence(sp?) is should last a long time.

wouldnt hurt to do a budget rebuild w/ forged pistons and just reuse the internals to be on the safe side. should be more than enough for any mods you might get in the future.

 

How much would a rebuild cost? The camaros im finding in my price range are all deep into the 100k miles. Im not planning to do anything major though.

 

I think most all LT1 engines have no problems making it to 150,000+mi. The problem is with avoiding crashes, etc that can happen in the many years it takes to get to 150,000. If no one got in to any craches, most all cars would make it untill 200,000.

 

Why not? I wouldnt tear in to the motor doing and h/c swap but if the engine is still in good shape, may as well throw some bolt ons at it. If any thing, get the car the right mods now so later you'll be ready if you decide to build a motor for it, wont be starting from a dead stock car. I would just do full bolt ons and a wet kit, bet that thing if its in good shpe will still run its *** off. Nitro Daves had a customer with a bolt on + nitrous 93 Z, had over 190K miles, car ran in the 11s even with that kinda miles. If its running good now, your not gonna hurt it doing bolt ons and gas.


edit:

WhitetopZ, what part of Houston are you from?

 

i have 190K on mine, never rebuilt, still runs like a charm. i am putting a new motor in now anyway just because.

 

im approaching 150k towards the end of they year, and im gonna stick a little cam in it soon. its had alot of maintenence done to it in the past 2 years. most everything was replaced by the previous owner.

plus i think there was a headjob done to it.

 

some guy on cz28 had one for 250,000+ miles. the only reason it failed was because it got hydrolocked when a gasket failed. still had the original opti rusted on

 

now that engine was a trooper. water tighted its own spark source so the owner wouldnt have to replace it or it wouldnt get messed up.

 

Just took the heads off mine due to a blown head gasket (boosting it) with 145k on it and it still has cross hatch with no ridge at the top of the cylinders. An old school block would have been worn out completely by then. Still on the original opti I might add.

 

Yea man I cant believe how well these block do compared to my buddys old school two peice stuff.

 

142k here, started to float the valves.

So I ended up with a 396ci, now im back to nothing.

Tony.

 

My '94 Firebird has just reached 160,000 miles and is still a daily driver. My '87 Camaro, motor wise, is still as strong as ever with over 200,000 miles.

Sara Lou

 

I just broke over 150k miles over the holiday. Car has full bolt ons and runs really strong.
Still slowly working on aquiring my nitrous parts.

Just get full exhaust and other bolt ons, nitrous if you want a big kick.
If your going to go turbo/supercharger I would rebuild it, same with heads/cam maybe.

Bolt ons though, go for it.

Only major maintenace I have had, I replaced the head gaskets. I blew the gasket at the rear of #7 cylinder, my thermostat failed one night while out at the races. That was probably around 130-135k miles.

 

I am at 130,XXX here on my 1994 Trans Am, it still runs very strong, it has many bolt ons and a lot of things have been done to the car.