I bought car (1999 camaro) 2 years ago and the history shows it was totalled and salvaged. The car is suprisingly in very good shape and someone also removed the V6 and did a pretty good job of putting in LS1 V8.

The dealer originally told me they could know exactly what year the motor was from some numbers on the engine, but later told me they were not able (or just never did it )to find out

The speedometer shows 120,000 but no way to be sure how many miles are truly on the engine at this point

Any advice on how to determine exactly what year LS1, and should this cause any problems with diagnosing or troubleshooting the engine? The dealer is acting strange about even adjusting the timing because "we dont know what computer chip is in there"

 

hey, firstly i dont want to worry you but are you sure someone has not just changed the papers on this car with a salvaged one. It should not really matter anyway if it fine but just an idea why the condition is good.

As for the tuning there were only a few types of PCM the ls1 has, and im sure they had to install one for an ls1 as there is no way of running it off a v6 pcm without a load of hassle, if at all. Bearing in mind what i said about the paper cahnge it may be a ls1 as standard but a different car to papers so would have original pcm for the year.

I found dome information through EFI live forums on the pcms but dont have it n saved to send you, have a look on there. basically there are a rare 98 pcm in early maros, the 98-00 and the 00-02 pcm. they all have different outercases so you should be able to tell. i know the 98 has lots of cooling fins on them, the 98-00 (like mine ) has 3 big one at either side but cant remember about the 00-02. Anyhow have a look on EFI live forum and see if you can find the link, if not im sure there is some info on google or others on here, Hope this helps