i have a few lt1 parts such as intake and some pulley's. will an lt1 intake bolt up to an older 350 engine and the will an opte work? i was going to go carburated but after looker at some pics and seeing all the stuff i have to cut i do not want to go that route. the engine i might beable to get is a 350 out of a 74 vette.

 

Why on earth would you want to use the opti instead of a distributor? Most of us are wishing to ditch an opti!

I don't think the opti would work though without swapping the ecu and harness in.

 

i know opti sucks but i didnt think i could use a distributor. i know i need an ecu and harness but can i take an older 350 and use an lt1 intake/accessories ecu/harness. lt1's r reverse flow so im not sure how that works. will someone fill me in?

 

ok..in short no and no. the intake will definately not mount up. Gen I motors did not use the reverse cooling that the newer Lt1 heads use. The intake on the old ones complete the coolant circuit, where as the new ones don't even have coolant passages. The opti will also not work, and I would never consider using one anyway. The opti requires the cam to have a pin/rod that the lt1s cams have, a cam retainer, an lt1 timing chain with spline depending on the year lt1 and the timing cover that I believe is much larger than the first gen motors.

 

The optispark also has to mount to the timing cover, the LTx timing cover will only work on a LT block, the SBC vette motor water pump would probably not even clear the optispark if you did manage to get it to work. There is a guy that converts LT1 intakes to fit the SBC for TPI injection, but you still will be using a rear mounted distributor.You need to run a remote mounted T stat also, in the end i have friends that used the converted intake and some really would have rather bought the stealth ram. You would be using the tuned port wiring and ecu.

 

The first issue with the intake is that without modifying it, it won't bolt up. Different bolt angle between the heads and intake. Then you can start worrying about the cooling and all the other fun things and just how it's not worth it over the aftermarket choices out there.

 

well wut options do i have?

 

Ither way, you have one that wont work.