hey guys,
I broke the motor in my IROC a few weeks ago. I have a freshly rebuilt LT1/T56 combo and want to swap it into my IROC. I live in SoCal so I need to keep it smog-legal.

I'm thinking about running my LT1 with the TPI setup. I don't see why it wouldn't work as long as all the vacuum hoses and everything are setup correctly.

I am not an electrical guru so it would be easier, imho, to just run the LT1 with the TPI harness than it would to run the LT1 with the LT1 harness and splice the two together. The motor is a '93 LT1. I would use my stock MAF and the LT1 injectors with a L98 PROM.

Does that make sense? I'm not sure about accessories. I guess I'd use the LT1 accessories on the front of the motor. Any ideas are welcomed.
Thanks,
Colin

 

I'll add that I will drill the intake for use with my small-cap distributor. Easy enough.

 

I asked myself that question a few months ago. Instead of doing that, look up an accel intake base for an LT1. I have one on mine. I bet if you did that and blocked the distributor and water outlet, it would confuse the hell out of people...did in my case.

Or if you really wanted to, do that, then run a 'dummy' distributor. This would do three things. It would get the spark out of the opti, making it more reliable, and it would also allow for a little bit of adjustability. Also help to keep you from needing 'custom' wires and keep them away from your exhaust. Of course, adapting a timing pointer and installing the balancer on a keyed crank hub would be something you would need to do too.

I'd do it that way, unless you really have the stuff to do the distributor right. It doesnt come out of the back of the intake flush, I think it's off 10 degrees. So a spacer would be needed, and location is very important. I'd say get the intake base for the LT1 and ride on like that. You would also need to ditch the EGR if you went with a distributor as well on an LT1 intake. Its better by far for RPM than a TPI which explains the gains, but not a great intake from the factory IMO.

I decided to run LT1 components because it would give me a bigger MAF and I wanted to run sequential instead of batch. Runs better than any other TPI motor I ever saw!

 

Thanks for the reply.. I was really torn about which way to go. I have two vehicles, one that will need a fair amount of fabrication yet to work right (1972 Vega GT) and my IROC. I have a backup right now that I'm driving ('01 Sunfire) so I don't need to immediately get my Camaro running.

I live in California so the smog ***** will give me a pretty rough time if my engine deviates at all from stock. My powertrain is already in the Vega. I think I should probably pull it back out and finish the modifications to the floor and then get that car running. Right now there's a 1 foot wide by 2 feet long hole in the floor for transmission clearance

I picked apart my LT1 harness last night and it seems as though I'm not missing as much as I thought. I think I can salvage it instead of having to buy an aftermarket harness.

thanks for your help. I have pics of my LT1/T56 conversion over on the forums at H-Body.org

Later,
Colin