hi everyone, i have the option of buying a 1997 LT1 30th aniv convertable camaro. this is one of my fav cars. most of my friends dont like the LT1 motor and say it is a waste to buy this car that the LS1 is much better, they are telling me that after 80k miles these engines are ****. i do not know much about this engine and i was hoping for your opinions on the motor. the car im looking at has 82k miles on it.

looking foward to your replys and any help is appreciated.

thank you.

 

well i have a 93 with a LT1 and it has 134,000 miles on it and it runs very well.it all depends how well the car was taken care of, any car will be bad if it isnt taken care of even if it has a LS1

 

The only thing that can really go wrong by itself with the LT1 is the Optispark distributer, and that is usually only after you get it wet. If it's one of your favorite cars, and it was taken care of, buy it. If you like the car enough, you should be willing to spend at least some money on it if it isn't running well, or begins to not run well. Life lesson: If you find a car you want enough, and you have the opertunity to purchase it, do it, because if you pass it by, more than likely later in life you will regret it. I've heard countless stories from my father about how he passed up purchasing cars(he had the opertunity to buy a GT500 Mustang and some other car that was 1 of 7) and now he really regrets that he doesn't have them. Plus, the LT1 Camaro looks better than the LS1 anyway, it's so much sleeker...

 

I had a 94 LT1 and it went 170K miles before I sold it without any major problems. It all depends on how they were treated.

 

I have a 95 LT1 and it has about 116,000 on it and the car still runs like new. If i was you i would look it over really good and if the car looks good and sounds good when running. well then the engine is just about in as good of shape. I heard the same thing when i was going to get my car 2 1/2 weeks ago and it runs great even with the miles.

 

Everybody here has given You good advise. These are people with experience with the LT1 which the people who are telling You not to buy obviously don't have. I've got a '96 with low miles so I can't tell You about high mileage LT1's but if it's like any other Small block, it'll go many more miles without problems with good maintainence.