I thought if you ordered a Vette with a 6 spd then you got the LT4 engine




no,misinformed! the 96 grand sport is the Lt4/6speed the regular Lt1 vette was offered with either the 4l60e or the 6speed.
the 92-94 vettes had no problems running low mid 13s the Lt4 1 year grand sport vette had no problems running mid 12s,the same goes for the Lt4 z28 and bird 12s not a problem at sea level(tires baby!)

 

They must be extremely rare then because I have never seen a 1996 Corvette 6 spd LT1 combination.

 

According to MT all the 96 vettes with the manual tranny got the LT4...dunno if its accurate or not but thats what they say.

 

Why would your buddy want to only get mid 12's for this season? If i had a LT4 vette I would have my heart set on 11's. Like said before the best/cheapest mods will be exhaust, cai, headers, or tune. Hope he reaches his goals.

 

He really just wants to have a shot at his buddy who has a Z06. His goal with his 88 was mid 12's he bought all the parts to do it and decided he wanted something newer. I think 112 is the low end for his goals. I think with a CAI, FULL exhaust and a tune he'd be mid 12s at 112 to 114 without having to do a cam. I just wanted to confirm that though to see what you guys thought. I would guess eventually he'll wanna do 11's and if he's going to do a cam he midas well put in something worth wild.

 

quite positive that in 1996 if you got a corvette, ANY corvette, with a 6 speed, you got the LT4. 1996 was the only year for this.

"For 1996, LT1 engines required automatic transmissions. The ZF 6-speed was mandatory with the 330 HP LT4 engine option."

This quote was taken from http://www.rogerscorvette.com/history.htm#c4info

So, if LT1 equipped cars required automatics, then no LT1 cars had manuals.

 

That would be correct. In 1996 all 6-speed Vettes are LT4 optioned.

These cars run high 12's to low 13's (108-109 trap speeds) stock. Mid 12's only takes gears and tires.

 

No you're miss informed.
All 1996 Corvette M6 cars came with LT4s! 1996 A4= LT1

I don't believe that an aftermarket CAI is going to help much with a C4, however, headers will perk that LT4 up and headers/cam will make things interesting.

JMO
Mike

 

In 1996, the Y-body vehicles only came in LT4 with manual or LT1 with A4.
That way, GM only had to certify two combinations for the year.

But, there were only about 1000 Grand Sports. And, they were all LT4 manual.

Tom Piper

 

Another little bit of info about the LT-4 engines is that they were slightly underated with their advertised 330HP.....this has been touched on by GM in several articles Iv'e read over the years...It was underated because at that time,the LS1 was only comming up with 335 to 340HP as it was getting ready to be introduced in 97... many of the GM engineers felt this was too slim of a margin, and that many people might frown on the brand newly designed LS-1's not having at least a slight rated horsepower advantage.....in actuality the LT-4's were right around 355 to 360HP at the crank.....this has been proven to have been true on many stock LT-1 motors, when people just add two of the main power adding differences between the LT-1 and the LT-4......thinner head gasket to get the 10.8 LT-4 comp ratio(VS 10.4)...the LT-4 gets it's higher comp rating from having only two valve reliefs VS 4 reliefs on the LT-1(same end result)...and running stock LT-4 heads.......as many of you know, these cars typicaly end up right around 355 to 360 crank HP............as far as quarter mile times, a good friend of mine's BONE stock 96 grandsport LT-4, ran pretty consistant 12.7's at 109 running goodrich drag radials...........

 

Ill just say it again, All 1996 6 Speed corvettes are LT4.

I also had the privelage of racing one a couple years ago, and I want much impressed. (me with cam only / him stock). They are only a super small cam, slightly better heads, (compression bump?) and less weight that us.

Anyways, my car was always consistant low 12s, and I would guess he was a mid/low 13 sec car

 

I know I'm late, but I've spent a lot of time in and under an LT4. I'll also confirm that all 6 speeds got the lt4. My buddy ran consistent 13.0- 13.1's on street tires. The intake and exhaust is better on these cars so you don't see as much of a gain as you would with an f-body. After doing all bolt ons with my car (then lt1) and gaining about 15 rwhp I was verry disapointed. An lt4 hot cam with nothing else will put a good driver right at 12.6 or so on street tires. There are better cams out now but most will require valve springs also. Good luck