Well boys, lots has changed over there years and many members came and went and moved forward to LS platform. I on the other hand stayed the course (lt1), and much has changed since this project last ran. Family, kids, house technology, the whole world in general. Engine been built for 7 years, tore the top end back off and upgraded it further to include LE tfs 21 degree heads and custom cam.

This is a looooong story and many custom modifications so I'll post some pics of where I'm @ now and then try to start from the beginning. It was a 93 TA which I bought after my 94 got totaled. Any who remember me will b know those build threads. S- trim on 5.7. Added some spray, eventually dropped a valve due to float, engine came out, then came a family.

Fast forward...... now the drivetrain is ready and going into a 99 TA body with upgraded 4l60e, for now. H/C only for break in, then the T- trim will go on. Custom pulleys will max the blower by 6300 rpm on 10 rib belt and the tensioner has been re- clocked to provide max wrap. Torquehead 24x conversion (no more OPTI) 🥳, and much more.
Few teaser pics for now.

 

 

Everything you'll see has been done with these 2 hands, with the exception of the short block itself. I didn't want to mistakenly grind through a water jacket on a block that was already prepped before I bought it to go stroker. Much patience was required when I found the intake didn't seat properly after machining the heads to meet my CR requirements (remember the engine was assembled and pistons have large dish due to small chambers of factory CNC heads it had previously).
Next, the damper that I had started dry rotting so I got a replacement, but that required having the locator groove machined into it for the blower pulley to maintain perfect centering and tolerance for belt alignment. Luckily I caught all this as I was mocking things up.
Next up was what harness to use. I didn't want to re pin the lt1 harness, and had an auto LS harness laying around (which already has coil wiring). I thought it smarter to re pin part of that harness vs the whole lt1 harness. 4 coil/ injector need to b swapped due to firing order differences (don't forget to change injector banks in tune for those). Swapped upstream O² sensors to downstream location @pcm to avoid using extenders. Had to elongate the cam/ crank pigtails to ther front of the engine. Then elongate the knock sensor harness to reach the 1 in the block (other will b eliminated in tune)

 

It's always great seeing a longtime member still hanging with the LT1 builds! Thanks for sharing and keep us posted

 

yeah brother, I couldn't bring myself to walk away from it after spending so many years collecting parts for it, just to jump on the LS bandwagon . I will admit though, I've already got a 2nd hand LS turbo hotside and 5.3 as plan B, in case thing go south. 700whp on an lt1 without block half filled kind of worries me. It's only factory 4 bolt, and main caps ( never planned originally on making this kind of power). But now I've got a point to prove to some big mouth LS owners that think it's not possible for an lt1 to crush them.
Originally it was just gonna b an S trim 383 and MAYBE a little spray, with the top end I had. Then I met some guys down here in s Florida. And re engineered the whole thing. At the time, 1 dude was making 750 with F1A, now 1150 with an f1a94 now. I WAS trying to run with him, but that's out of the question now.
The project basically sat idle when I had my son , and re- ignited after getting into this ls/lt f body group. Most of the progress has come in the last 1-2 years, after I bought the house. Should b running hopefully in 2-3 months. I work on cars all day and it kills my motivation, and I rarely have free time from making $$ to work on mine, but refuse to let anyone else work on it

 

I've personally seen a non-filled, stock (straight) 4-bolt LT1 block 383 survive 1,125 flywheel HP on 25+ # of Vortech boost. When he decided that wasn't enough HP, he sold the 383 LT1 to a mutual friend, and he was making in excess of 1,000 HP on spray alone, no block fill. The LT1 block is very similar to the Bowtie block in that regard.

Then there's Jonathan Atkins, probably making close to 2,000 flywheel HP on a 329ci (destroked!!) LT1, but it appears he has the block totally filled and runs coolant to the heads only.

 

Thanks for that info! I feel a little better now about the situation. As always, a good tune is key, with no knock. And I have confidence in the guy that assembled the bottom end as he's a relic and been doing this probably longer than I've been alive. Im sure the T trim maxed out plus an occasional 150 shot will be all I'll need out of this build, and surely hurt some feelings and egos.

 

This sounds really close to what I have going on. I am still getting all of my pulleys together because I did not want to use the stock balancer, and since Vortech no longer makes this kit it has been challenging to say the least. I was able to find a ProCharger pulley for a Mustang that was the correct height for an ATI damper, but larger diameter, so changes were needed for the blower too. I have a Vortech 7" pulley, stock balancer and keyed up if there is any interest.

 

I just had ASP custom whittle both my 10 rib pulleys. The crank is 8" and blower 3.25. Should come in hard and fast and be maxed by 6300rpm. They can make whatever u need for whatever setup. Cost was only like $300 and while I could have used a factory blower pulley sized closely, it wouldn't have saved me but $40 or something. Key with these units as I've learned from my 10 years of watching and taking notes, minimize belt slip, maximize belt wrap, don't go smaller than 3.00 on blower. Procharger has better step up ratio internally and hence why they don't experience belt slip when being pushed as compared to vortech. Figured if I was doing custom crank pulley might as well go all in from square 1

 

If only I knew about ASP...

The ProCharger pulley I have is 7.65” and I just bought a Vortech 3.33” blower pulley and had it machined down. At least by the Vortech calculator, this will be pushing the T-1 T-trim to within a few hundred rpm of max by 6800 engine RPM. I might actually buy one more size up on the blower pulley depending on how much boost I see.

Do you have any other tips or advice for a complete newbie on boost?

 

Your math looks correct to me. No point in changing blower pulleys. You can safely over clock it and max impeller speed is like 55k so you're good. Think how short a period of time you're @ 6800 rpm. The thing you're going to need to worry about is belt slip. How many ribs you running, 8? See my notes above about belt tensioner re- clocking to obtain more belt wrap.

 

Yes, 8 rib pulleys. I believe this kit has already had the tensioner clocked.


Rear of the tensioner

New tensioner and a little shine

 

I'm still running the old LT1...you aren't the only one! Still hurt peoples feelings in it too. They love to crap on the platform and that has me double down on full potato retard. 820whp on F1 here and no half fill. Call911 ran his to 1000whp before it decide to crack at 1100 I believe. He went 2jz after that. Sick build too. Glad to see another old timer still with it. Looks great!

 

Nice brother. I don't think I'll reach over 750 but we damn sure gonna try! Went through some ish over the last year, but I'm back at it.. Engine took its first breath last Sat. Got lots of little stuff to to get done so I can upload a proper start up clip. Got to delete the oil cooler, mount the radiator and condenser, and run coolant hoses.. I was just glad it fired up with a self modified tune from 1 I borrowed off hp tune repository before they wiped out everything pre 98😞. Was a little concerned with my self modified LS harness. I also still need to segment swap the auto trans. Now that I know it runs, I'm a little more motivated again.

 

Well, it's alive! Now let me see if I can load the first start up. My phone saved the file as mp4. I'm not sure what to do with that.
Couldn't add the url so I pasted it. Try to copy/ paste this

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WJnR36QyTlETvRTPVlHHqHOLLMnO7LQH/view?usp=drivesdk