I paid a 1,000 for it and it's intended purpose was a donor car for a v8 conversion for my mint 97 v6 camaro.

It always runs hot up to third mark on gauge on freeway on 85 degree night with high humidity, and 210 around town. Has low oil pressure, but motor makes no unusual sounds, has awesome power, never smells like it's over heating. No odd smoke out tail pipes, motor never stumbles or skips a beat actually runs pretty good aside from a check engine light on.

I'm wondering it it is cluster issues seeing as how the fuel gauge stays at a 1/4 tank, low oil pressure and when you step on brakes a couple idiot lights on dash dimly light.

overall it is in good shape, trans shifts really good

Known issues no front air dam, no upper radiator plastic cover in place and possibly fans not working right.

any help appreciated on getting this LT1 running right.

 

No air dam and upper radiator cover is why it runs hotter on the road. 210 is not hot for city. Fans don't come on until 226°. Dim lights on the dash could be from poor grounds.

 

Mine always crept up temp wise going through drive through and stop lights on hot days.. I just turned the AC on which turns on the electric fans during those times.. I took it out for a quick spin one night after doing a bunch of work and left the air dam off.. What a difference it makes heats right up even w/ a 160 stat, its there for a reason..

 

Checked its fan relays and they were fine even replaced them with ones from my other camaro and fans wont work.

then charged the a/c and it is holding pressure and fans came right on. I idled the car with a/c on for around a hour and all it did was go up to the first mark on the gauge.

does this sound about right with a/c on and idling?

fans will still only work when a/c is on.

any ideas? sorry I know nothing about LT1's I have only had 3.8's

 

I wonder what temp your PCM is programmed to turn on the fans and what temp stat your running? As soon as your turn on the AC the fans start and cooled mine down..

 

I'd bet it is not getting hot enough for the fans to come on (remember...226 degrees). Use a scanner to look at temps and fan status if you still are unsure. Fans won't come on with the a/c if the a/c is broke (as you discovered).

 

running down highway it would hang around the 3rd mark on temp gauge. Around town it would stay at right around the 210 mark.

driving with a/c around town now it stays at the first mark and its about 94 degrees here now.

car has 122k miles

interior just needs a headliner and sun visors other then that it is nice inside. exterior had a good dent on passenger rear 1/4 panel and quite a few scrapes but still not a eyesore by any means.

have some cosmetic bugs to work out
idles a little rough
awesome power though

will buy a airdam and get the plastic upper radiator cover and figure why the fans wont come on unless a/c is on. I figure since they do when a/c is on electrically they are fine just not being grounded by the pcm right?

so what do you guys think, good deal for a 1,000 ???

 

ok so a new question .... It passes smog emissions wise easily (sniff test)

However it is failing on ob2 self tests, smog guy says it needs to be driven a certain amount after codes are erased, is there any truth to this or does the pcm possibly have a problem?

 

If you hook the battery or use a hand held to erase codes it very by vehicle but I believe in our cars its like 20-25 miles it has to be driven to reset. At this point if the previous ses codes have not been addressed the ses light should come back on.

Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm off on the mileage.

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I put the radiator to cover on and a air dam and that really seemed to help. However one thing I notice is when the oil pressure gauge start tripping and heading to the red area the temperature climbs. However when the gauge seems to be around 40psi all is well with the temp gauge.

Is is possible this lt1 looses oil pressure then gets it back? or does this sound like the instrument cluster is faulty and giving wrong readings? I have never had this issue with oil pressure and water temp on any 4th gen I have had, just this one.

any of you ever had cluster issues like this?

I'm thinking maybe get a tri cluster pillar mount for mechanical gauges and see if this car is really getting hot and lossing oil pressure.

It is 90+ outside today and the a/c will freeze me out so thats a good sign.

lets hear your opinions.

 

Cluster issues are not common. O/p sensor issues are.

 

Well, the car just passed california emissions with ease. Smog guy said it is burning real clean and was below all averages except one.

It hasn't got hot once since I put a air dam on and that radiator plastic cover. We drove the car like 100 miles last night to get all it's obd2 self tests done, car ran excellent the whole trip and on highway with a/c on temp stayed at the first mark. Drove it today and was about 90ish in town driving it never went above 210 degrees.

No coolant loss, no oil loss, no odd motor noises or odd motor smells, never any smoke out the tail pipes.

not bad for a grand and cost me 100.00 for air dam and smog tests. So I have 1100 into this car.

 

Not bad at all.

 

Well it still isn't doing anything odd like the seller told me so I am going to start stripping this car down and begin my V8 conversion. I will probably change head gaskets, intake gaskets, maybe bearings, water pump while the engine is out.

A question though, anyone know what the most likely gearing this car might have? has a automatic. My 97 camaro has a 4wdb 3.42 limited slip rear so was curious if that will work well with this LT1.

Also curious if the dash harness is different from a 6 banger to the v8's?

 

Here is the car the v8 is going into. I have owned it since it was new, has 152k miles it is in extremely nice shape inside and out.