Hello i am new to the forums. I have a 1995 Z28 black/black/black convertible, it has fully built auto trans, rear end, axles, only thing stock is the engine (I upgraded as i broke stuff ) ... That said I have now broken my engine warped heads and whatnot... i drive the living hell out of my camaro as it should be, she has been with me since my 2nd year of high school and i need to get her back on the road she hates being parked. I can say the engine has held up very well i had 0 problems with it till now and have put all but 18,000 of the 84,000 miles on it as i am the 2nd owner. The car is otherwise flawless and so my question...

What is the best fix for my problem? I am starting more collage in oct. so funds are limited.
Should i get a reman. lt1 and swap it? If so from where?
Should i get a used lt1? If so dose anyone have one for sale?
Is it hard to put an ls1 in my car? Is it even worth it ?

Have no fear, if I do get a reman. lt1 I will not be sending back my core I might not have the time or money to build a crazy engine now but once I do I will this car is my baby i owe her that.

 

go with the ls wont have to deal with the opti but if you want to keep the LT like i did i rebuilt mine for 5 grand or so thats with buying new heads and havin those reworked

 

i also craked my block and had to get a new crank and piston cuz the block i bought needed to be punched 30 over so there not hard to rebuild at all just time consuming

 

Yeah I can rebuild it easy I just don't have the time right now. I can get a remanufactured lt1 for $2,000 - $3,000 then i just have to swap it and that only takes what ? 5 hr maybe a little more if I run into trouble. I just don't know the best place to get a remanufactured engine from.

Also what is the power diff from lt1 to ls1? is it enough to make switching worth it ?
this car is a daily driver in nice weather so even when i do build it i wont be going to overboard I don't think... I will most likely buy a 98 - 02 t-top or coupe to make stupid fast. once i am out of school. This car just has a lot of memories.

 

ls too expensive few people have done it, its all over the forums, i dont know why people make such a big deal about the optispark hour and ahalf and its done,you should look in craigslist.org i found an engine with 40,000 miles $400 true story my car runs perfect you might wanna check around your area!

 

If you are not worried about doing a little work, have the heads shaved, the minimum amount necessary to ensure that the surface is flat and go with a smaller head gasket, this should raise the compression slightly and you shouldn't have to work about piston to valve clearance on the stock setup. If you have to shave the heads significantly or use a head gasket smaller than .021 I would recommend checking to ensure that you have more than .080 clearance between the intake valve and piston.

 

welcome to the forum mike! i second the buying used engine. cause you are low on cash anyway, and time. i have seen a few go for 350-500 bucks. that should get you back on the road. plus the engine is already out if you would like to put any new parts on it.

 

the difference between the lt1 and ls1 power isnt anything a few bucks couldn't fix in my opinion. a very well kept lt1 will still smoke nearly every mustang you see anyway. my friends ls1 only just gets me, only a few mods and you could have him. but its much to expensive to do the swap. it would be much cheaper to throw some mods on and enjoy your lt1.

 

yeah if your low on money, an LS swap is out of the question. sure, the motor is cheap enough, but after you get all the parts needed to actually do the swap, the price and aggravation is intolerable.

i'd find a used LT1 somewhere and throw it in. they are cheap enough and its really not that hard of a swap. you could also rip your heads off and see what a machine shop says on if they can be planed or not. you could also buy used heads for cheap enough and throw those on

 

I thought I seen a LT1 in the classified on this forum not long ago for sale.