Exactly what the title says. What all is involved with putting a 400sbc in a 96z (nothing wrong w/ the LT1). I would be doing away with the fuel injection and going carb'd. Is it just a matter of swapping the motor mounts and cutting the window cowl or is there more involved?

Rusty

 

What trans? T56 requires an "adapter" to mate with a Gen 1 engine. They are avaialable.

Street driven? What are you going to do for the functions normally contained in the LT1 PCM.... e.g. VSS, VATS, fuel pump? Stock PCM requires the Opti signals to function in certain cases. There are ways around this... direct interface of VSS to stock speedo with an adapter, manual control of fuel pump, bypass VATS, etc.

When you "cut the cowl" you may lose windshield wipers.

 

my friends dad put a 502 in a 95 auto camaro!!!

 

I probably should have mentioned that this is not going to be a "street driven" car. Drag strip only! Have intentions on sticking with an all MSD ignition sysytem. There's currently a Th-350 behind the LT1. I'm going to keep that since it's "built". Just really need to know what to do about motor mounts, and will it bolt up to the stock crossmember w/out fabrication. Windshield wipers aren't a concern obviously so they'll probably be seen in the for sale section in the not to distant future.

thanks...Rusty

 

 

I put a 454 big block in my '97 Camaro.

You can check out the pics at:
home.bellsouth.net/p/pwp-DaveHome

Go to the photo albums.

Putting the big block in required extensive work and many custom made parts. If I had it to do over again I would have just stroked the Small Block to a 383 or built a supercharged small block or something because of the work involved. But the torque and power of the 454 is insane, so I'm glad I did it....I just wouldn't do it again.

BTW: My car is a street driven car, not a track only car.

-Dave C. '97 Z28

 

that's a really nice job you did shoe horning that thing in there. I'll go BB one day. I just don't want that headache right now. You still have the skin on your knuckles. Do you happen to know if the motor mounts i have now will work or not? If it wasn't for cops around my area i'd probably drive it some on the street.

 

I'm not sure if the SBC 400 has the same mount pattern as the late 350's. All I can tell you is the BBC doesn't have the same ones.

-Dave C. '97 Z28

PS: The skin has grown back on my knuckles. The whole project took about 9 months including building the motor.

 

Hay..sorry to jump in here but my brother wants to swap the SBC400 that is in his Jaguar XJ, TH350 behind it. He wants to put an LT1 instead mated to the TH350, it is a built one with B&M stuff.

Will the TH350 bolt directly to the LT1 without any adapters.

 

It should bolt up fine. I didn't have any fitment issues when i did my swap. You will probably have to do some cable modifications depending on your specific application.

 

The LT-1 has the standard SBC bell-housing bolt pattern so you won't have any issues there. I would try to run a computer for a 6-speed car so you don't have any PCM issues because it doesn't have a transmission connection. (unless you're going to run a carbuerator, then there's no PCM anyway)

-Dave C. '97 Z28

 

That's great. Will the PCM make any difference if it was for Auto or Manual Transmission. We will swap the SBC400 with LT1 and keep the TH350. We will wire the PCM to the LT1 engine. Will the PCM from an auto car work on a manual car.

 

I believe you'll have to tune the automatic stuff out of the computer. I'd just find another M6 computer and save yourself the hassle.

 

looking for more input!

 

the sbc 400 motor mounts are different than the LT1 motor mounts. They would be easy to fabricate yourself if you have a welder, or you can contact Brian @ www.madmanandcoracing.com or madman69@swbell.net . He has them.

good luck!

what's with the attitude Fred?