AndrewPearce11

Hey guys,
I'm starting a LS swap for my 96 z28. The lt1 threw a rod so I'm going to try to go with a LS base this time around. My goal is to hit 400-450 hp after all is said and done. I just would like to get some input from you guys on what the best head and cam combo would work best. I'm going NA for now and I don't plan on boosting it for a while. I already have a 5.3l that I pulled out of a 02 Silverado and I have a lead on a LS1 intake but I might spend the money and get the LS6.
I have the stock heads for the truck but from what I have read they will need to be upgraded to get the numbers that I want. I also want to run the LT1 4l60e since it has a fresh rebuild on it so I was wondering if I could use that and just get a new torque converter to work with the 5.3l. Any input would be great from you guys! Thanks!

JakeRobb

You'll need an LS1-style bellhousing as well.

400-450 at the flywheel or at the wheels? If wheels, that's pretty optimistic for a 5.3. Doable, but it'll take a pretty wild cam, assuming you're sticking with the stock bottom end.

KW Baraka

You can use your current 4L60E tranny.....just need a few parts from your local GM dealer to make it work. Go on the Impala SS Forum and read through the 'LS Conversion' thread for that info.

400+ HP at the wheels. A cammed LS3 would easily do that; a LS1? Doable but not so easy.

I would contact Tony Mamo for the heads and a recommendation for the intake.....and Brian Tooley Racing for the cam.

Contact for them can be found with a couple of minutes invested on 'Google'.

Best of luck.

KW

AndrewPearce11

Thanks for the info! I've been doing a little reading on the lt1 4l60e transmission after visiting some of the forums that you suggested. I found a couple articles that say I only need this part.
PACE Performance - PAC-1399 - Old Style A/T Transmissions Flexplate Package

I also found that some people had success using this part with a dished flex plate.
https://m.summitracing.com/parts/HUP-HP3795/

Can someone shed some light on this? I have a stock flex plate that came with my 5.3l.
Thanks for all the help!

AndrewPearce11

Hey guys just giving an update on the project.

I got all I needed for the swap and have been putting it all together.
I ended up getting a good deal on a running LS1 out of a wrecked car so I ended up going with the LS1. It was out of a 2000 car.
I went with BTR on the cam. I went with the stage 3 because I was planning on using the 5.3L and a friend told me that I should go with the stage three due to clearance issues. After I picked up the LS1 for a good deal, I ended up putting the stage 3 in the LS1.
While the engine was out I replaced the all seals, timing chain and such. I installed long tube Headers and did an EGR delete to clean up the engine by a bit. I am not expecting the power gains to be even close to where My original goals were but I am just ready to get back in the car and drive it. Anyone know what kind of numbers I will be making?

The engine is now in the car and bolted up to the LT1 4L60E. All it took for that was a torque converter that had the holes to bolt to the LS1 and a little adapter ring that was provided by the maker of the converter. All that info was taken from FTI performance. They were very knowledgeable and got me exactly what I wanted.

I of course had to swap the K Member from an LS1 car to make all of this work. I had some fitment issues with the ABS system. I took it out and I am still trying to figure out what to do about it. As of now I just have the break lines ran directly to the booster. I know this is unsafe so I am looking for options for fixing this issue. I have read that a lot of people run it that way but If my wife is going to be in the car with me I want it to be Semi-Safe.

Currently I am waiting on my wiring harness from Current Performance. It should be here on Wednesday and I can start wiring it all up. I had them make a Direct fit harness for the swap that way all of my stock gauges will be working. They have been very great to work with so far.
I plan on getting HP tuners to tune the car. I want to flash the computer and put a tune on it that will get me pretty close then getting a dyno tune in the future. I see people having a lot of success with that. Any info on HP tuners would be awesome.


So far in the build I would say it has been a relatively easy swap. There as been no cutting or welding needed.
If I was going to do it over I would definitely have a donor car to work with, to make life lot easier. Otherwise you will be nickled and dimed for parts which is what I dealt with on the K-Member and other things.

I cannot wait to drive this thing. I imagine that I will try to start it up in the next few days after I have received the Harness. I'll post an update on the car after I get it running and tuned.

Thanks to everyone who gave great info!

Injuneer

Thanks for updating us on your progress. Not many people take the time to do that. This will serve as an excellent reference for the next person interested in a similar swap.

DrewHMS97SS

Good stuff and best of luck! Get some eye candy for us!

AndrewPearce11

Hey guys,
This is another update on the LT1-LS1 swap in my 96.

First of all the wiring Harness from Current performance was Awesome! everything was clearly labeled and it came with simple install instructions.

Second, FTI was very knowledgeable and was very good to work with when I decided to restall my torque converter.


I have gotten a lot of things sorted out and I have started the car and ran the first time I tried to turn it over(lucky I guess). At this point the car was running rough and was running on a Mail order tune from Frost tuning. I thought the rough running was just due to running too small of a torque converter to match the cam that I had chosen. So I contacted FTI to see what it would cost to get a better converter. They informed me that with every purchase of their converters you get 1 free "restall" so I sent my converter back and had them restall it to a 3600 stall. After installing a trans cooler I took it to my buddy to tune it.

This is where we found one of my mistakes in putting things together. My buddy informed me, While he was tuning, that the car was acting like the O2 sensors were switched around. I got up under the car and sure enough I did not read the clearly label wiring harness and had gotten the o2s switched. I switched them and That made tuning a lot easier. We have only tuned it a little because I have to get the exhausted welded up(its just slipped together). Due to the leaks in the exhaust we could not get a accurate wideband reading out of the tail pipe so my buddy did not feel comfortable tuning at WOT.

I can pretty much drive the car around safely but I can't get into the throttle more than 50-75% due to not having finished the tune. Just in case its running too lean or rich when i really get into it. I have been out for several spins in the car and it feels great to drive it again! I can already feel the power gains over the LT1. Ill be welding up the exhaust soon and finishing the tune soon. Ill post some pics here soon. So far I am pretty happy with the way things are turning out.

Next project with the car is probably going to be running all new fuel and break lines. As I was under the car I noticed that they will need to be replaced soon. Also a different transmission. I am thinking of going with a 4l80.

AndrewPearce11

This is where I had mounted the LS1 to the stock LS2 K-Member that I had purchased for 200 with as LS1 intake.



My brothers convinced me that I should paint the intake so I spent a rainy afternoon doing it.



This is after we had reinstalled the K-Member, Engine and trans. We had hooked up the fuel lines using a corvette fuel filter. After that we started hooking up the wiring Harness which was simple and took us less than an hour.



This is the first time having it out after having the swap done. I pieced together an intake using 3in Autozone intake tubes.



This is the 5.3 that I was going to run but know have as a back up engine incase the LS1 fails.



This is after cleaning up the engine bay of wires that were not needed.



This is where we realized that the ABS block would hit the alternator. We ended up removing the ABS block. Probably going to get a proportioning valve to replace it. still undecided.



LS1 K member. Not sure why I could not use the LT1 K member but everyone said this one had to be uses. I kept all of the LS1 suspension on the K member.



This is after we had removed the LT1 engine. We used a Engine hoist to lift the car off of the K-member.

AndrewPearce11

How to Swap an LS into an LT1 Fourth-Gen

This was a very helpful article to follow when doing this swap. There are something that I had to deal with that are not listed, like the ABS getting in the way and I have not tried to put AC in the car, but otherwise it is very good.

If I had to do the swap over again I would get a donor car instead of trying to piece together the parts, That was the most expensive and time consuming part. Over all, it was not a hard swap at all. People say that it is too much work but in actuality, if you have a donor car that runs and you can rob parts from, you and a couple buddies could have this whole swap done and running in a weekend.

Injuneer

Should I change the title of the thread to "LS1 into 96 LT1 Chassis" (or something similar), now that it is almost complete? Might draw more attention than "Looking for Options".

AndrewPearce11

Yeah that would be awesome!

Blackandwhite

AndrewPearce11

Blackandwhite