the "leave it alone!" option is slowly creaping ahead...but the $1500 i have is burning a hole in my pocket guess ill have to find a DD then start tinkering afterwards.

 

Ummmm I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure the LS1 has been used since 1997

 

In the corvette, but I'm talking about F-bodies Mr. Gdamntechnical.

 

I would hold off on building the motor straight off the bat. You still have a lot of work to do on that car before you are ready to drop a cam in. I would start by getting every bolt on part on the car. Get the throttle body, headers, and anything else you dont have. You can change the rocker arms and get a nice gain without changing anything else in the motor. You also dont have any suspension work done and if you build the motor and try and get that power to the ground without any suspension work your gonna be really dissapointed. Get springs, shocks, subframes, rear control arms, a torque arm is a must. Youll need bigger tires on the back so if you have the 16" rims youll need to get rid of those. I didnt wanna spend a grand on rims and tires but I knew I had too. Since you have a 6spd I would put 4:10s in it, anything less and you probably wont be happy. Point is, there is a lot work you can do and should do before you start building the motor. All those parts above are mostly under $500 a pop and can be done over time when you have some extra money saved. Once you got all that then I would save for any motor you want since now your car will get all the power to the ground. Also dont forget your gonna have to be replacing parts too, just routine maintanence. Thats the path I have taken while I was in school, then I got out and had a lot more money and started stockpiling motor parts until I had what i needed to do it all at once. Good luck, hope that helped.

 

So Corvette's don't race F-bodies?

 

Not if they know what's good for them.

 

First thing first ,if you want a bullet proof reliable car like you wrote in big letters in your post, go buy a accent or a civic and leave the world of car modification.Even a perfect built car will have some issues

On the other hand,if you like to mod your car but will be in a thight position for 2 years, why not just wait.The worst reflex ever that i ve seen from LT owners are to compare themselve to the lsx.After that they choose the easy way sell there LT and buy an LSX.

I found the LSX base to much civilize but thats my taste.I like the old fashion iron "real" 350

If i was in your place, i would wait 2 years.Then buy a base model car has a DD and start the big mods on your LT

And by the way i know that we are all car enthusiasm but another hint,modify your car only for youself and the way you want it...Not only because youve been beat by another f-body or another car .A lot of people tend to forget this

 

Here's what you should really do kid. Buy parts that you can play around with now, and then slap on the new motor you plan to build. you can get yourself some nice heads now for what you got and bump your HP up... maybe a port matched intake... ETC ETC. just play around with that... and you can enjoy your car and still keep it safe from the tow truck.