My best friend Kevin has his mind set on a supercharger but my other buddies and I are all trying to tell him that an lt1 swap would be cheaper and wind up being much faster. Selling the car is out of the question because the car has sentimental value (it was his late uncle's car).

What Adam and I plan for him is to buy a low or decently low mileage lt1 engine out of a wreck. We'll make sure the engine is in good condiction and we'll do a heads/cam swap on it. The tranny in the v6's is the same except I believe the 98+'s have a different bellhousing which wouldn't be hard to pick up used and swap right? What else would we be looking at with the swap? The total cost should be under 3000, and he will also be able to sell his motor to offset some of the cost. With a supercharger and say 9lbs of boost, he might see 250 at the wheels. With the lt1 heads/cam on an A4 he should see a solid 350+rwhp. Any thoughts guys...

 

a few guys have done it

to make it a Z28 clone you need a 1 piece driveshaft, wiring harness, posi rear, disc brakes, new motormounds, trans and a slew of other things i'm sure i'm forgetting. those are the basics

 

Thanks for the quick reply man...

I know he needs the 1 piece driveshaft. That's cake. Wiring harness we're hoping to get along with motor. Motormounts aren't bad either. I believe his trans is the same with the exception of the bellhousing. He has the y87 performance option on his 98 v6 so it comes with the disc brakes and "posi" which we all know is really a limited-slip since a true posi/spools would hop when going around turns.

Doesn't seem like it'll be too difficult of a job to do. I'm just wondering about simple stuff like headlight junk and that stuff. Are the plugs and all the same just w/ different lights, or what's the deal?

 

Tell him to just sell the 3.8 and pick up a LT1 car....much easier and chepaer in the end

 

I am currently in the process of V6 to LT1 swap in my 98, I already bought a low mileage 33k miles LT1. The V6 trans will not work. As far as I know they do not have removable bellhousings. Much easier to just pick up a v8 trans like I did. From my research I have found you will need the following to complete the swap:

LT1 engine/ trans
Lt1 computer and wiring harness
Lt1 cross member and motor mounts
Lt1 trans cross member
fuel tank
fuel lines
1 piece driveshaft
v8 gauge cluster

This is what I have bought so far. Im sure there are a few odds and ends I will need to pick up along the way. My engine gets here thursday. I currently have the V6 out and ready to put the V8 in.

250RWHP is easy to come by with a v6. Specially with a supercharger. I was making probly that much with ported heads, compcam 218/218 .528/.528 113lsa, headers, whisper lid and slp cai, high flow cat, 3 inch exhaust, ported intakes, I tuned the beast with a MiniAFC from ZZP and the help from AUTOTAP, I also had Compcams 915 valve springs, some crower 1 piece chromoly pushrods, and some 3.73 gears. All powerd by my manual 5 speed I would spank Lt1's all day long and hang right next to a stock LS1. It was a very impressive setup for a v6 and it hauled ***. I also had a NX 100 shot, but I was beating LT1's and hanging with LS1's when I was racing all motor. with Juice it was a different story.

Stock v6 with the new ATi kit should be good for 300 or so HP.

A v6 beating fast cars is alot funner to have then a V8. Its unique. Had I not seized my engine I would still be working on the v6. I had a fuel pressure regulator go out and it kept flooding cyl #6. Eventually fuel mixed with oil, caused a bad knock, and before I had time to diagnose it it had seized on me. V6's are fun. They dont have as much potential as a v8 but are alot funner to race.

Now my Lt1 modding starts.

I think the LT1 swap isnt really that bad. Hardest part is wiring it. I am out about $3,300 so far and I have purchased LT1, trans, computer, harness, all acc. I need, Lightweight K member and some Hooker LT's. I could drop it in now but that would be ignorant of me. I am doing heads/cam swap before It drops.

Good luck, email me if you have any specific questions about the v6 or the LT1 swap. wheelpower@sisna.com

 

Why not just stick a Grand National motor (3.8 V6 turbo) in the car?

 

Haha that'd be sweet cuz he could still say it's "just a 3.8L v6..." It looks like he's going to go w/ a blower, although I told him he should sell the car and get either an lt1 and mod it or a nice 98 ls1. We'll keep harassing him :-).

 

I would almost agree with swapping a GN motor in it, but its a completely custom job. Someone did this once to a 93, and he had to change the same stuff as an LT1 swap, plus he had to buy a very expensive custom turbo and piping (The stock GN turbo won't fit in the engine bay properly). The story was in GM High Tech Performance a while back.

Oh and you need Turbo Trans Am heads to fit in in there (came on the '89 TTA)

 

I had an original 3.4 and swapped in an lt1...You will have to get a new transmission because the bellhousing wont work and it isnt removable as far as I know. You dont need a fuel pump! Contrary to popular belief the fuel pumps pump the same amount of fuel.... Dont sell the car and buy a z, thats no fun, everyone told me to do that and I pulled my swap off for under 3k. I have an lt4 hotcam kit mac headers ported heads cai and fun stuff like that now. besides you'll really bond with your car during the work because it isnt really as hard as you would think.

 

I bet I could get him to get you a few tickets up here to Michigan if ya wanna help out . Looks like his mind is set on supercharger. I tried to convince him to go pggriffth's route and go heads/cam and stuff but he isn't listening .

 

GN motor would be harder to swap then an LT1.

The Camaro V6 is just going to run out of potential. A lightly modded LT1 can beat a heavily modded V6. It just all depends on how fast he wants to go.

 

His mind is set on the new ati kit for v6's. He wants to run 12lbs intercooled. Should be a real fast running six. With traction and a little luck that should dip him just into the 12's.

 

You bought the motor and transmission and accessories for $3300?

 

Will a 1995 Z28 motor and trans fit in my 2000 convertible Camaro .. my 2000 is a v6

 

Most likely you would need a new K-member to support the engine, and new motor mounts. You would need the complete 95 PCM and 95 engine wiring harness. Then you would have to make significant wiring changes to match the 95 engine harness to the 2000 body harness. Add to that the fact the the instrument cluster may need to be replaced, and the fact that many 95 functions with separate modules were integrated into the body control module added in 1996. New exhaust system.

You would have to change out the accelerator pedal. The 95 engine has a conventional cable from the pedal to the throttle body. The 2000 V6 has no throttle cable. It has a totally electronic throttle that has a pedal position TAC module, which sends signals to the PCM and integrates the operation of the idle control, cruise control, and ABS/traction control into one system. Just a wire harness from the TAC to the servo controlled throttle body.

If you have an emissions check that plugs into the ALDL connector, you're screwed, because the 95 PCM is OBD-1 and the 2000 requires OBD-2 to meet emissions.

You would need exceptional mechanical and electronic skills to do this. And there’s probably a few things I missed.