LT1-LT4 Modifications 1993-97 Gen II Small Block V8
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Common problems with LT1 Camaros?

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Old May 26, 2008 | 09:18 PM
  #21  
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Originally Posted by LM97Z
Mid 12s on a LT1 with no bolt-ons i don't think can be done without the bottle & stickies, i know a mid 12 @ 110+ is very doeable on these cars with 100 shot in almost stock form, because i saw it done, all he had was a CAI & a gutted cat, ran 12.5s @ 112+ with a 6sp., on the emissions, just do like most, get a sticker first, then start moding, when it comes time for a sticker again, you'll find someone who will put one on, just ask the F body guys in your area, they know where you can go.

I will say this, if you really want the GN, spend the extra & go that route, i really like my Camaro, but i would give my left nut for a GN , they hold there value & are increaseing in price, they freakin hall azzzz period in almost stock trim, but you need the ones with the inner coolers, i went for a ride in a 87 GN, it was totally stock & we were at 4500 ft. alt., that car got my attention BIG TIME. I never ever realized that a V6 could be so freagin fast. I hate to say this, but you'll run circles around the stock LT1 Camaro with a GN.
Sorry I should have been clearer (was in a rush). I ment mid 12's without using slicks, or any forced induction. So a 350 LT1 with ported heads, cam (something streetable), 4.10/3.73's, drag radials, CAI, exhaust, A4...not sure about LT's though.

Yeah I love GN's, know more about em and theres some shops that are somewhat close by that know how to work on them. I'm considering the Camaro, because its newer, V8, reliability (kinda), cheaper and they are plentiful. I have the money for either one, but I need to move before the end of the summer (hopefully)....no more room for another car
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Old May 26, 2008 | 09:39 PM
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ls1 car will be better in the long run, superior ignition system and location,
cooling system and pump, still havent a ls1 car overheat on me yet and leave stranded on the side of the road,
interchangabilty options
get a 6.0 block and ls6 heads and intake even with a stock z06 cam and stock exhaust manifolds and you will be over 400hp with stock injectors
very easy to locate 6.0's and 243 heads, 243 heads cost around 500$ new assembled and flow 250-255+cfm
not only that, the ls1 cars are going cheep now,
i own 3, and im selling a black m6 ttops 99 z28 for 6,500$
im not hating on lt1's, they have there place
but if u ask me a 5.3 lsx is much more of a match for a lt1
i have owned a 383 lt4 a3, a turbo 355 lt1 a4, and a bolt ons m6 lt1.
so i will recommend ls1 car, instead

ps i got to the point where i can r&r a opti and wires and plugs in less than 2 hours
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Old May 27, 2008 | 02:08 AM
  #23  
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lc2's have their quirks too. justified if you ask me,though. whatever you get,treat it good.my formula is a medium low mileage car and i had to refresh some stuff but i dont regret it now that i have. pick what you really want to have and build it into what you know it can be.
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Old May 27, 2008 | 02:40 AM
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another thing, not sure if its been stated or not yet, but it seems like that the more mods a car has, the more vulnerable the stock 10 bolt gets to detonation
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Old May 27, 2008 | 04:27 AM
  #25  
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Originally Posted by Sof86
Sorry I should have been clearer (was in a rush). I ment mid 12's without using slicks, or any forced induction. So a 350 LT1 with ported heads, cam (something streetable), 4.10/3.73's, drag radials, CAI, exhaust, A4...not sure about LT's though.

Yeah I love GN's, know more about em and theres some shops that are somewhat close by that know how to work on them. I'm considering the Camaro, because its newer, V8, reliability (kinda), cheaper and they are plentiful. I have the money for either one, but I need to move before the end of the summer (hopefully)....no more room for another car

You could do very basic suspension mods, bolt-ons, and a very mild cam like a Lingenfelter 211/219, 3.73s, and a stall and go deeeeeeeeeeep into the 12s if you can hook it is more than possible to break into the 11s with a heads/cam LT1 if you have a decent suspension setup and still be streetable.
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Old May 27, 2008 | 11:58 AM
  #26  
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seems alot of people have window motors go out or get tired. my drivers side one is getting to that point...i think this may be for 98-02 f bodys also.

but as someone said earlier, it takes more effort to find parts, replacement or aftermarket than it is for a 98-02 ls1 f body.
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Old May 27, 2008 | 12:14 PM
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its funny some people think this is a cursed engine and all have these problems..... you always have to understand that about 7 out of 10 people have no idea how to take care of a car..... an fbody with an LT1 V8 engine will not only get outstanding gas mileage but will last a very long time if you take care of it..... and if you beat on them they can actually live for a pretty long time as well..... the only thing is you want to keep water away from the opti if you can and also dont put a ton of power on a stock 4L60 auto tranny..... they can handle a good lil bit of power but dont expect to put heads and cam with sticky tires and think your gonna drive it hard and not mess up in the future..... keep in mind the engineers dont build these cars for the kinda abuse most people put them through with sticky tires and added horse power..... and the 6 speed will hold more power of course than the auto will..... its a good idea to get maybe a spec stage 2 clutch or something similar if you are running a good bit of bolt ons
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Old May 27, 2008 | 12:26 PM
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As mentioned about the window motors and 10bolts, that's just a common thing in all 4th Gen (10bolt in any vehicle lol).

If you're going to go the GN route, maybe try and save some $$$ and get a 'standard' T-Type. Same car from my understanding, little less "racey" but same motors and all. Less on the appearance side, but more on the sleeper

Syclone/Typhoon would be sweet, but are also quite expensive :\ The Typhoon would be better IMO with a tad more weight on the rear and more seating (chicks n all ) but being AWD it doesn't quite matter heh I've been TRYING my damnedest to get my friend to make a Sy/Ty clone by getting a nice 4x4 S-10 and then putting in a Astro AWD T-Case. Not sure what the Sy/Ty's have for T-Case work compared to an Astro but the Astro should hold up fairly well since they were used in bigger vehicles from what I remember (Dodge had an AWD truck in the 80s I think, don't remember what T-Case it used). Then drop in a V8 instead of a Turbo 4.3. He won't though :\ You could get the best of both worlds and run a LT1 with it! Or if there are gear conversion kits for the AWD T-case (they're chain sadly, 90% sure at least, my truck knowledge is depleting) and run a motor like the_merv. That being the 6.0 block with L76 (?) heads. From what I remember he built his pretty damn cheap!

And as far as running 12s, I believe it IS possible with just bolt ons. People have hit mid 13s with stock cars. 13.6 I've seen someone say their fully stock LT1 ran, 95 I think it was. So I don't think 1s off that, with every bolt on and a good tune with DRs, is asking too much. Then again that's just me, and I don't drag at the track But if you need the bottle, if you read the 75 or 100 Shot thread, you can run up to 150 on a stock motor w/o pulling timing, and our motors take 150 all day long. People have sprayed that much with 150K on the clock, and still do! One guy has 200K lol

Anyways if I managed to talk you into an AWD V8 S Series truck, you HAVE to keep me updated lol

Yes, we are a nice bunch of folks, and it's good. Just don't wander into the LS section and say you're thinking about an LTx or LSx and which you should get. They'll be nice, but will thoroughly bash the LTx motors and say to stay clear. They just have a Superiority Complex :\ Hell we don't bash the TPI (a few here do), and we know that the LSx motors are very good motors.

Which ever your decision, some section here will be for you
(Good lord did I ramble. It's my medication, makes me yappy)

EDIT: Read Blue's post. He made a good tip about the Opti: Keep moisture away from it. If you do end up with an LT1 and feel like digging into it right away, get an MSD Cap and rotor kit, find a good spot to drill a hole in and glue or tap a barb fitting in it and run a vacuum line up to the air intake. Or if you get a 95+ you won't need to. Any year though make sure it's sealed good, a bead of silicone on the cap mating surface won't hurt, only help. Also while the water pump is off, tap out the weep hole, barb it as well, and run a hose down under the motor. Silly design putting the weep hole over a piece that HATES water. Or just get an electric pump for it, not worry about the weep hole, and have your first bolt on lol
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Old May 18, 2011 | 03:40 AM
  #29  
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stay away from ebay opti
drivers window motor is a little bit of a pain but very doable
pulled the motor for a rebuild at 198k tranny still works so I would call it a good car
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Old May 18, 2011 | 09:59 AM
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Originally Posted by red93z28lt1
stay away from ebay opti
drivers window motor is a little bit of a pain but very doable
pulled the motor for a rebuild at 198k tranny still works so I would call it a good car
This thread is from 08 bro .
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Old May 18, 2011 | 10:31 AM
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i ran my car basically stock until 187xxx and it only blew up because i was drunk and went out to chase the dog...forgot to turn on the fans. HEADGASKET. Right up until then it ran 14 flats on bald street tires and got mid to 20 mpgs on the highway. awesome car in my book
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Old May 18, 2011 | 10:45 AM
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I really dont have any problem with all my lt1 camaro, beside some water leak around the car and power window motor go bad. What I alway did when I bought a camaro is do ALL the maintain to it. And dont beat the **** out off it every day and dont race it at every red line. time to time you can beat on it. Keep it maintain and replace old part when fail. Lt1 is an good engine.
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Old May 18, 2011 | 09:26 PM
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It was almost three years ago to the day that I posted my comments about my then LT1. All I can say is that I now have a LS1.
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Old May 18, 2011 | 09:38 PM
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'95 is the best year. Vented opti with OBDI diagnostics. I live in NY state. '95 and earlier cars are not subjected to computer scanners for yearly inspection processes. We get the 'ol lick and stick. A '96 and newer vehicle must be plugged into the NYS DMV computer and scanned for codes.

If I was in the market for a used LT1 car I would be checking for one with good oil pressure. Some LT1 cars are notorious for having low oil pressure. At a cold idle i'd want it to hit a minimum of 35lbs. At a hot idle it should be minimum of 20lbs. I've seen worn out LT1 cars that have around 10lbs of pressure at a hot idle. To me that is a ticking time bomb.

All f-bodies have bad power window motors. They fail quite often. If you see one with slow windows don't fret. They are cheap and quite easy to fix.

Try to buy one that already has some mods that you are going to do yourself anyways. Any tasteful aftermarket goodies on the car means the less stuff you have to buy for it in the future.

If you are looking at an auto car you'd prefer the 3.23 rearend over the 2.73 rearend. An easy way to tell what gears it has is to move the shifter down. With the key in the on position when you bring the shifter all the way down, if it stops in "2" it has 2.73's, if it goes down into "1" it has 3.23's. There may be a sticker in the console as well that will have the gear codes. GU2=2.73, GU5=3.23.
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Old May 18, 2011 | 10:07 PM
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Originally Posted by Cheap Guy
It was almost three years ago to the day that I posted my comments about my then LT1. All I can say is that I now have a LS1.
lol u was the first one that welcome me to ls1 section ^^. Remember that deal im talking with u, some one offer her that night and I miss it, but Im find another one few week later, im glad I get the m6 over a4 ^^
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Old May 18, 2011 | 10:19 PM
  #36  
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if you dont like working on them dont buy them they are the biggest pain in the *** to work on. id rather have an old rust bucket with a ls1 and room to work on it!!
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Old May 18, 2011 | 10:33 PM
  #37  
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Originally Posted by red93z28lt1
stay away from ebay opti
drivers window motor is a little bit of a pain but very doable
pulled the motor for a rebuild at 198k tranny still works so I would call it a good car
Thread necrophiliac!

Anyhow, most common problems with LT1 F body are:

1. Ignorant moron owners
2. Ignorant moron owners
3. Ignorant moron owners
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Old May 19, 2011 | 07:18 PM
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Originally Posted by DVS LT1
Your old LT1 Camaro looked 10x better dude. It actually looked like a Camaro. That side to side comparison really speaks volumes.

You might want to consider dropping the old picture, glamorize the new one a bit more (enlarge, etc), and just keep the honourable mention in text
Don't remind me. I agree 100% that my LT1 was a much better looking car, that's why I got one in the first place when I could have afforded a LS1. Although the new car's looks are growing on me, I never get compliments on it like I did with my LT1. I guess it's like choosing between a hot, high-maintenance super model who cheats on you or a plain, country girl who helps you plow the fields and can beat up better looking chicks.
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Old May 20, 2011 | 12:54 AM
  #39  
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I'm having all kinds of problems now, I take back what I said 3 years ago.
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Old Oct 5, 2019 | 04:37 PM
  #40  
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so I took my heads off got them resurfaced port and polished put it all back together and it has a misfire, we plugged these little bulb things into the injector lines coming off the ecm and they light up on some cylinders then the others they will flash then go off, does this mean I’d need a new computer? Is my computer bad?
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