Tell me some of the particulars on the motor and such, is it forged? Hypereutectic? Cast? any small things you dont like about the car such as the ac going off at full throttle in the summer, any little stuff...I am going to be selling my 91 5.0 5 speed so I know borg warner sucks *****. How much nitrous/boost can you put on one dependably without catastrophic engine /bearing/piston failure? factory exhaust manifolds of headers? Gears? Speed limiter? if so where at? All the particulars please.

James Sturgell

 

The opti spark is probably the biggest pain in the butt on an LT1 car (that and work space). And, a Borg Warner T56 is way better than any T5. The insides of the LT1 is pretty much cast. Don't expect to run more than 6-7 psi of boost, I'm not sure how much nitrous you can get away with before something lets go or burns up. Definately install a good set of headers to replace the factory manifolds. Gearing for a 6 speed should be 3.42 and I believe the factory speed limiter is around 125 or so.

 

I know t56's are better but when you do mess up they are a lot more costly. I dont plan on boost but I was wondering if it would handle power adders like a 5.0 which has forged TRW's stock and they will handle whatever you throw at it. To take the speed limiter off what all is involved programmer? Would a 6 speed benefit from 3.73's or does it run best stock? Cams that wont take away from power brakes and let people know that you arent stock. My 5.0 has a B303 cam and it revs twice as hard as a stock 5.0 and it is only .480 lift.Do airfoils really work?

 

Anytime you have to replace a tranny it's going to cost some money. The T56 is pretty beefy and can usually handle heads/cam LT1s with no problem. The only thing it really needs is a better clutch and a short throw shifter. I never noticed anything from my air foil. You can remove the speed limiter with either a programmer or by doing a custom tune with LT1 edit or Tunercat (I'd go with the latter cause once you put in a cam, the programmer will be worthless). The LT1 will stand up to some abuse, but like I said, it uses cast internals instead of the forged stuff in your 5.0. I really like my 3.42 gears. The car goes like hell and it gets 25+ mpg. As far as cams go, the stock LT1 cam is something like .450/.460 but it has a really wide LSA (like 17 degrees). There's alot of different cams that have a lope at idle and don't affect power brakes. I would check out Combination Motorsports, they seem to have a wide selection of LT1 cams.

http://www.cmotorsports.com/93-97-fb...gine-camshafts

 

I was going to leave it pretty much stock as I am going to callege in a year and need something with lower miles and fewer mods lol I was just going to go for headers, flowmasters, cold air, ripper shifter/ pro 5.0/or preferrably Steeda Tri-ax if they make it for a t56, and of course a skip shift. I heard somewhere you could to that with a washer in between the tranny and that sensor but I know next to nothing about chevrolet stuff except it runs better than ford but doesnt seem to last quite as long when put under high stress (power adders)

 

About the T56, it's a great tranny, can definately take a beating. One problem I've seen though is people like to get the tougher shift forks, like the 2-3 or the 3-4. There's a guy on here running a 10.01 on a T56!

Also, the washer thing for the skip shift: never heard of that. All I did was go to radio shack and buy a 2.2K ohm, 1/2 watt resistor in the plug that goes into the solenoid. The computer thinks the skip-shift is working when in reality it's been disabled.

 

Go with a Dynomax instead of the flowmaster. I like mine alot better (yeah, I've had both on the car). I'd pick the 5.0 shifter over the ripper (I have a ripper in mine now) and I don't know if Steeda makes a shifter to fit into an F body. Gotta love how you don't bang your knuckles on the radio when you shift gears in a Camaro. Also, they make a little plug in thingy to remove the skip shift feature, it's about $25 bucks. And as far as lasting, I've got 1 year and 20k miles on my mostly stock LT1 with a vortech. 79K total so far and no sign of it crapping out anytime soon.

I've also got a new engine I'm building for when it does decide to crap out.

 

Hey guys, about the speed limiter thing. I thought the car practically wasn't limited if it came from the factory as a z/28 w/z rated rubber (essentially the 150 mph. speedometer cars?)

The LT1 is a great engine. I've been into both worlds, ford and chevy, and you'll probably be much impressed w/the torque of the lt1 given the greater displacement. They're also pretty tough, but you might wanna think about beefing up the bottom end b4 you blow it like crazy or try to see how much juice it'll take.

Some things that frequently go wrong are the optispark distributor as mentioned above, window motors (if the car has power windows), and these cars are notorious for an oil leak at the rear of the intake, so stick your hand back there b4 you buy, might help you negotiate the price a little.

Also, the six speeds are hella tough compared to the t5s. The only one i've ever seen broken in person was because of a boogered up power shift, and the guy fixed it himself, albeit they are more expensive to fix than the t5, they don't break nearly as often. On the other hand, I've heard of many many stories regarding the 4l60e auto's in these cars not being able to handle the power and abuse.

Well, good luck w/your purchase.
---J.Bird

 

I believe the 2 main probs on an LT-1 are the window motors and the opti. You have got most of the info you need from other responses.

Speed limiter is based on the tires that were put on the car from the factory. Some only go to 125 mine goes to 165. I believe Z rated ones go 165.

Boost- I wouldn't go higher than like 5-6 psi.

As for Nitrous- Lt-1's savor the juice. Most start at 100-125 shot. Our cars can take up to 200 safely but I wouldn't go that high. I would say 150 is a good max to go by with out doing any harm to your internals. Friends of mine have taken bone stock 93-95's put on a K&N Cai, Drag Radials, and a 150-175 shot. With that combo they have dipped into the very low 12's high 11's. Hide it well and you are gonna make alot of money.

 

If your car came stock with Z-rated tires there was no speed limiter... Trust me.. in stock form (except a K&N air filter) my car ran up to 150mph with no issues....

I'd say everything else has been covered for the most part....

 

i thought that all the Lt1's came with z rated tires

 

Nope, a lot of them came with the non-rated tires, I even know a guy that just found out his came with 235 size tires! That's what most of the v6's came with. I think that means that the limiter is set to around 110mph. Might be a mph or two off though.

Z-rated tires meant 150 speedo and NO limiter.

 

I dont PLAN on my car ever seeing boost and more than likely not nitrous. So aobut this oil leak...why does it leak is it hard to fix? The LT1 sounds reasonably strong, I know from the factory the Lt1 6 speed cars would throw a beating on a 5.0, I have heard that the 93 cars are speed density. So is speed density that bad in a Z I love mass air cars to death so I might exlude the 93 year model and also the trannies are weak...the car WILL be a 6 speed no ifs ands or butts, just cant deal with the automatic stuff and it keeps the wierd kids from trying to drive my car. LOL.I might even scrape off the Z28 badges to give the ricer kids hell.

 

I know room underneath the car is limited...I was wondering if you could have the exhaust dumped before the rear axles? My biggest pet peeve is exhaust tips I cant stand them I just dont know if it will all fit up under there like under the mustangs.

 

I hear you on the six speed issue, I went from manual to automatic and it drives me crazy not shifting my own gears.