i have a 1996 z28 automatic. im thinking about rebuilding the engine on it but could use some advice.i bought the car for 2500 the body is in pretty good condition along with the interior. the transmission was replaced with a brand new one thirty thousand miles ago. the motor runs decent but could run stronger. the car has 160xxx miles on it. with this many miles, is it worth puttin the money into it?

 

Honestly most LT1 "rebuilds" end up being a step backwards and even a lot of the performance "builds" end up being not particularly better as well.

With the better materials, machining and fuel injection these things do not wear nearly as bad as older engines did.

We cammed a friend's 160k mile cop car(Caprice) he daily drove it for a few years and a few months ago we took that engine with 198K miles on it and dropped it in his wife's car(another Caprice) because he freshed up a stock motor for his own.

Point being I would not blindly go into the engine just because it has 160K miles on it. I would look at external stuff, cap and rotor, wires, plugs. Valvesprings are the only internal part I would touch for that mileage.

 

If anyone knows, how much does the typical rebuild cost and is is usually better to have an engine rebuilt or just buy a new long block?

To the OP, I agree that you probably should just run it until it breaks, upgrading the various external parts. You can run the various checks (compression, fluid, etc., to see if you have any major problems. If you do a lot of research, you will find that the biggest problem areas are the optispark and maybe blown head gaskets, usually resulting from owner/mechanic mistakes.