I was looking at a firebird that someone took out the 6 and put an lt1 into it. I havent seen the car yet but i might go look at it tom or this weekend. I was wondering what would i have to look for on the car. Like with the LT1 in it should i be concerened with anything else that needs to be replaced with something better?

 

Hope it was done professionally...

 

yea thats what i was thinkin, I need to find that out

 

See if they put a lt1 rear end in in, or kept the 6-cyl one. Drum brakes are a dead give-away. We have disk brakes.

 

Personally, I wouldn't pay one dime more than I could buy an original LT1 car for. I've seen a rash of crappy swaps locally where people are asking $8-12k!?!?!?!? Keep that in mind. An original V8 car will retain much better resale value and not have you chasing issues where the "swapper" cut corners.

 

the sweetest thing about it is i have a buddy that had this done to his 95 camaro and he told his insurance company that he put a different engine in the car.. but still only has to pay insurance for a v6

 

well I'll make sure to check it out, thats pretty funny with the insurnace company tho. Ik hes asking 4k for it, but i havent even seen pics yet. Thanks alot for eveyones help

 

Don't buy the car at an LT1 car price. No matter what swap he did, the car sells as a V6. Sure, if it's clean and the swap is nice and car runs great, you can throw some more money. But, in no way should the V6 carry the same value as an LT1. You should be able to get a steal on that car...

 

alright well ill see what i can do, hopefully i can get it for alot less then

 

Make sure the car runs first. Seriously, I know of a guy locally that tried to do a swap and the car never ran. I never saw the car, nor ever worked on it but I just kinda wonder if it was something dumb like wiring. I'd make sure all the gauges were working too.

 

dont pay more than 3k for the car

 

What's the verdict on this purchase?

 

Actually the Y87 V6 cars have rear disc brakes.

All in all, I wouldn't do it. There are enough problems dealing with a STOCK LT1 to worry about than also dealing with a swapped LT1/V6. Guys in this forum are finding stock LT1's for around 4-5k, yes, with a lot of miles, but I'd take that over a engine swapped car.

 

Well I hate to thread jack and bump and old topic but I haven't been able to come across a good guide for the entire process of the specific swap for a V6 to LT1 swap. However if I did over look something in my searches please let me know.

I know that first things first unless you have much love for the car its about pointless to go through with the swap, this much I more than know by now. Anyways I will be brief with my story but I have a 1995 Z28 that I got for $1400 with a messed up body (almost every panel dented, and some rust underneath) and a 1994 V6 that I got for $500 (body in great condition, no rust, etc.). These cars were purchased almost a year apart, so it wasn't my original intent to do this swap, but thats how things have ended up.

Anyways I'm coming down to the final this&that of the swap and I wanted to sort of state some things that I have found with the swap (besides the obvious of dont waste your time) and see if theres something that I am missing.

For me since I had two complete cars I was able to put into the V6 car the z28 cross member, transmission, drive shaft and torque arm, rear end, a couple of brake lines, engine wiring harness, and instrument cluster, also a z28 gas tank and pump. Now, we did have an issue at first of it not sending a signal to the opti spark, we thought the opti was bad (even though it was brand new), but it was some sort of V6 to V8 wiring thing in the body harness side. We also had a similar issue with the VATS (which was turned off in the computer), but the wire coming out of the PCM (the z28 one) needed to be grounded (dont know which specific one) to basically tell everything that it was OK to start the car. Lastly we might be dealing with an issue with the alternator and the car not telling it to charge properly, however the alternator did test bad so I'm getting a new one today.

I'm sorry for some lack of information with a few things, the car is at a local school where my father is an automotive instructor, and his classwork as of lately has been working on my car. It's free labor and storage for me and I know the work will be done right. I guess after all that I'm wondering what I'm missing. I feel like even though the swap is sort of a waste of time and money it is being done right. Basically every Z28 piece I could get has been put in, and every time we hit a wiring roadblock we pull diagrams and compare them, then splice/swap as needed. I suppose that if there is a guide out there I missed I'd love to have a link for it, or else I might take on the task of writing one with some more detail (specifics about the wiring and such).

Thanks, sorry for the lengthy post.

*EDIT*
I did just run across this site: http://www.tacreationsusa.com/3_4_3_8_v6_to_lt1.htm -- The legend at the bottom seems to be pretty handy for what needs to be changed and such. It doesn't get into the specifics of the engine harness to body harness differences between the 94 v6 and 95 z28 though, but that should help some people dedicate to the swap.

 

I would have to say that all have good points, I would ask to see it and if it runs and drives well before you buyI would check if at all possable; if the rear end , suspension / tires / brakes, tranny, cooling system, I can see that these points could cause problems. but if you plan to have insurnace on it than you will save $$$$, they rarely ask to see the car, they only run the V.I.N. and go by what you say as long as you do not go for full covrage.

 

Yeah I actually just called today to add it to my insurance and its only an extra $112 every 6 months (liability only with higher values on everything here in NC) to insure it. I guess for giggles I could have given them the vin from my 95 z28 to see what the difference would be. I know for certain though that the "savings" you get insurance wise are not worth the headaches caused by this swap in general.

I don't know if I agree that the value of the car goes down per-sae just because its a V6. If the vehicle has everything Z28 in it I don't particularly see what the difference is. I would put the value on it somewhere between a V6 and Z28 depending on condition, mods, etc. Certainly doesn't significantly increase the value though.

Mine is finally moving under its own power though, I'm likely going to get the tag for it today and hopefully have it out on the open road in the next couple of days. To re-state the bottom line with this swap though, its NOT worth it unless you have spare time, and get a good deal on two cars (both a Z28 and V6) because trying to source parts individually is gonna suck. To some extent it is "fun" but.. come on... it's just a camaro... an LT1 even... Everyone is right, just save up some extra $ and get an LT1 to start with, or save a bit more an get an LS1. But, if you do get stuck in a situation like I did, or you REALLY want to do it, all is not lost and it is quite possible.

 

whatever you do, DON'T pay more than you would for an actual lt1 car.