i am about to swap a lt1 from a 1996 chevy caprice classic police interceptor with a 5.7 lt1 9c1 in my 97 rs and wanted to make sure that this is the real deal and not the "baby lt1". My question is can i just look on the door sticker and it should say either LT1 OR L99 right since the heads are not off of the car? And for those who have already did the lt1 swap are you happy with it or wish you had just went with the ls1? I see that most are in favor of the ls1 anyway.

 

it will be kinda difficult

the caprice lt1 uses two knock sensors. they have iron heads... the studs for the rockers are press-on, and i think they are rated lower... IMO go w/ an engine from an f-body

 

LS1 all the way if you can afford it. The caprice LT1's iron head do flow like 5cfm more but they make less power the the Fbody motor, weigh more too.

 

but they come w/ 8.5" rear ends

 

All you are going to get on this board is non-f-body hatred and ignorance. Look behind the drivers side head and you will see either 5700 or 4300. 5700 being LT1.

The ignorant kids will get all worked up over the b-body motor being rated at 15hp less but conviniently forget the 5 ft.lbs more and at a lower rpm and that it is accomplished through grandpa quiet intake and exhaust as well as 87 octane. Give them each a few basic boltons and a good tune and they endup pretty equal.

Bet you paid a lot less for a b-body motor than you would have an f-body motor and chances are it was treated better, take your savings and do a few mods and come out ahead.

 

i have a 9c1 in my f body runs excellant when it does "previous owner was a hack" butt i just ordered new heads off of a member in here butt all in all ran with every other alu headed lt1 in my town till up top where the cam was hurtin me but thats gettin changed its a involved swap from what i understand but if u up to it good luck oh yeah keep it lt1 with a little work it walk on a ls

 

don't get me wrong... i love the caprice's. a buddy has one and i really wish I would have gotten a b-body instead of my f-body. I just thought the swap would be easier with an f-body engine, because if he uses the b-body wire harness, he will have to utilize the b-body maf sensor.

I was just going for the easier route.

and 96caprice is right... w/ the right tune and bolt ons they are pretty quick. the caprice i mentioned before runs 8.7's in the 1/8 with just a homemade tune, 3.73's, catback, and a 52mm tb.

 

personally i'd love to have a Impala SS from the 90's, but aluminum heads are better hands down.

 

a guy i know can make custom harrness for ya he is chargin me 450 for a harness to plug and play my 93 so all gauges work and eveything and a basic tune for the new heads and cam and pulling emmissions he has a website it is pcmamerica.com good guy very knowledgable

 

yeah they are way cheaper than the f-body lt1's i looked at and fit right into my budget.

 

Assuming the engine hasn't been changed look at the 8th digit of the VIN. P is a 5.7 W is a 4.3 V8. Typically the 4.3 will have single exhaust and the 5.7 will have dual. 10+ years later it is hard to be sure unless you check the cast-in displacement designation as 96capricemgr suggested. The cam is the only real limiting factor although the heads could benefit from screw in studs. The aluminum heads are not absolutely better "hands down" as stated... the iron heads benefited from a couple extra years of development as well as the thermal properties inherent to iron.

 

Except for the fact that most of the aluminums flowed LESS than the irons because of the previously mentioned couple more years of developement.

Looking to get serious porting done and yes I think the early aluminums are a better choice due to the R&D that has been put into them, but aluminum is not magically better as most believe.
Before someone throws out the they move heat better let's get our science straight, any heat not used to expand combustion gasses and therefore push the piston is WASTED. In a perfect world we would not have a cooling system because of this but reality iswe can not keep enough of the heat in the chamber/cylinder for that to work so we have to cool the engine to keep alive.