a stock 1991 LB9 z28; 2.73 rear. Right now it is very reliable, does not overheat and gets decent gas mileage. The problem is that most any family car out there these days can outrun it; kind of embarrasing when I'm driving a "z28" and the other guy is driving a Honda Accord!
Anyway, what I would like to to keep my 2.73 rear (good gas mileage for those long road trips), but get the car down into the 13's. I would also like to keep the stock TPI set up, EGR, A/C, etc...
Is it possible for me to simply buy a crate motor, port/polish the factory intake, burn a new PROM, make a few bolt on adjustements, and run 13's? Any suggestions?

 

Pace Performance site to give you a idea of what is available. Also, yes to all your last questions. Done it to my 87 IROC-Z.

 

Do you remember roughly what the total price was for that setup?

 

7K+, however that was including a lot of add on.

 

honestly i wouldnt bother with a crate engine. i would get something built for the price you are going to pay, you will be able to get better parts having it built. you can easily change your bottom end over to a 355 and keep your tpi setup, and have them work the heads, install a larger cam, tune out the egr, vats, larger injectors, etc and run very nicely. my monte ss has a similar setup

 

The motor is the easy and least expensive item, it is everthing else that adds up from the front to the rear and side to side. Once you have the engine installed you want a lot of other parts and they are not cheap. So you say I can build one cheaper, ok you can but that is only part of the story.

 

another suggestion would be to maybe swap in a 6 speed tranny and better rear end gears. i am trying that on mine now swapping form a 700 r4 so i cant tell you if it did work. but i got a good used tranny for about 800 bucks and by the time i get a clutch linkage and all that stuff in i will be at about 1500 bucks for the swap materials (no labor though) but here is the logic i was using.
it seems to me that with a few engine bolt ons like headers, prom,and a cold air kit you could get close to 200 hp without really hurting your fuel used per cubic inch. the low rear end gears with the relatively low first gear of the 4th gen 6 speeds would give it some get up and go while the .5 ratio 6th gear would let you cruise at about 1200 rpm at 70 mph. that would make for some pretty good overall milage.