alright... well ive tried to read up as much as possible about what all im going to need in order to rebuild my lt1 this summer... and im trying to gain as much knowledge about basically motors in general, as well as the numbers involved in everything and how they play into effect with power numbers and all that good stuff... so basically what i am looking at for a goal is to have daily driver capabilities, but i dont want it to just be an all stock motor... im not lookin for outrageous numbers or anything because im not the racing type, but i just like to cruise and have fun from time to time... so, getting on here... i have a 94 lt1 formula... and the motor has just hit 150k miles... so far the only major failure i have had has been the fuel pump, but smaller things seem to go wrong from time to time with it, such as needing new plugs and wires, new oil sending unit, AC pulley, idler pulley, new belt, brake pads, alternator, battery, and thats just to name the things that come off the top of my head; which i know is general maintenance,but i have had to do A LOT of general maintenance to get this thing actually running decent... but now anyway, back to my topic
so what i am looking for is freshen up my lt1 (automatic btw), but i am kind of in need of info as to what i need to look into to make sure this process goes as easy as possible without those long stalling periods because i forgot to order a part and various stuff like that
i would like to keep the stock heads and intake, but i would like to put a very mild cam in it, along with putting a new torque converter in it, 3.73 gears, and hopefully i will have longtubes before too long anyway...
the info i am more looking toward finding is that i am trying to find something that is along the smaller budget lines, but i still want a reliable car basically
i already have a place to work on this myself, and i have friends and relatives that know what they are doing in terms of tearing down a motor that i know would be more than glad to help, and i know enough to at least get started
but i would just like to hear some ideas of a lower budget rebuild that will still please me power-wise that some of you guys have built and have had good luck with

sorry for this being so long, and i know i will add more later lol, and thanks in advance

yep just came to me... also, the tranny is a jasper rebuild, and it has just a little under 10k on it

also, one thing i know i will have to do sooner or later is to replace the optispark, so even ideas on that, or supporting mods that would be mandatory would be a help to know about also (like if i will need an electric water pump or anything like that)

or, if anyone has any other ideas, like dropping a crate motor in it or something like that, as long as it is not crazy outrageous to do money wise, just throw ideas at me

 

anyone have any help ideas on this?

 

Well depends on what it looks like on the inside..If you tear it down and the cylinder walls look good id just put a re-ring kit in it from says northern auto parts or somthing i have the link pm me if you want it. That way you can reuse your stock pistons and not have a huge machine shop bill. Just take it there have it cleaned and checked out to make sure it can just be honed and reringed then have then service your cylinder heads.

put in a melling standard oil pump with a white spring, and then i would either go with the lt4 hot cam kit or the comp 503 or 305 cam, OR even the crane 227 all decent cams. The lt4 hot cam kit is the best buy for the money comes with the springs, retainers, 1.6 roller rockers and cam for around 500 bucks. other then that you should be set to go. If it HAS to be bored its another story.

hope this helps.

 

alright, also, are the RR's, springs, retainers, and cam, along with probably a new stall converter, long tubes, and rear gears the only basically required mods that will need to be done... will i need new injectors or anything else as supporting mods to get back on the road... well also besides a tune, which i have a feeling i will go with a mail in tune if i do this

 

I think the hotcam can be tuned to run OK with the stock 24# injectors, but if you go anything bigger you should look into 30#ers.

I am in sort of the same boat as your right now. My engine was burning a lot of oil towards the end of last summer and it looks like it needs to be bored over .030. If your engine was better maintained than mine was then you might be able to get by with just new rings and having the bores honed, but the only way to know is to take the block in and have a shop look it over.

If you have to bore it over then it opens up a whole can of worms. You'll need new pistons, and then everything needs to be balanced. It all adds up quick!! Ask me how I know

 

hah well i dont really have the burning oil problem right now, but i do have a problem with leaks from gaskets... its crazy cuz the bottom of my car looks like someone just took a quart of oil and threw it on there, but i never have to add between oil changes... i know one thing for sure, and that is that i will be needing a new oil pump as well, but i just want to keep this build as cheap as possible and pray that nothing is wrong with the block