THANK YOU!

I can't wait for July's issue. I want to make my LT1 crank out some ponies and use the 4L60E - hey John, you mention that you'll be using the '94 9C1 drivetrain, that include the tranny? Gonna beef it up a little? I haven't gotten a straight answer out of people how many ponies the 4L60E can take before spitting the gears through the pan or burning the clutches.

I wish my '96 Caprice's frame wasn't bent in the rear...    I'd just huck all that American iron down the road with 500HP to see the looks on all the import junkie's faces.    

I checked out your website Karl. One word: sweet. You mention that the heads need a good valve job with pocket porting and good valve springs. Any suggestions on who does a good job and knows the LT1's? I'm on the west coast near Seattle, and nobody here I have talked to knows jack about hopping up LT1s. I wouldn't mind shipping out my factory cast iron heads (don't think I can trust anyone local), or I could even pick up some aftermarket ones... any suggestions for my 400-450HP goal? Just heads and a cam? Perhaps a bigger throttle body? Sounds pretty easy, which is something I need.    

I found it. I just became a subscriber thanks to the LT1 article.

x 2 CC.

Great job. Keep 'em coming!  

69LT1Nova:
I checked out your website Karl. One word: sweet. You mention that the heads need a good valve job with pocket porting and good valve springs. Any suggestions on who does a good job and knows the LT1's? I'm on the west coast near Seattle, and nobody here I have talked to knows jack about hopping up LT1s. I wouldn't mind shipping out my factory cast iron heads (don't think I can trust anyone local), or I could even pick up some aftermarket ones... any suggestions for my 400-450HP goal? Just heads and a cam? Perhaps a bigger throttle body? Sounds pretty easy, which is something I need.  

Hello 69LT1Nova,

I think any of the well known head porters in Washington (or anywhere) can do a good job on the LT1 heads.  They might not need to know any details about the LT1 engine, just that it's a small block Chevy and your intended use.   So if you can get word-of-mouth references from racers and hot-rodder friends out where you live I would suggest take the heads to the machine shop that is good with SBC heads.
My favorite head porter is Advanced Induction http://www.advancedinduction.com/ in NASCAR land, Concord North Carolina.  They use the Newen "Fixed-Turning" valve seat machine that is state of the art.  And they have a CNC machine that cost as much as my house X 3.  But if you want to keep it local then find the word-of-mouth recommended cylinder head shops in Washington.
You might check out Chapman Racing Heads in Utah. http://www.chapmanracingheads.com/p_home.asp

Years ago I went to a local Pro Stock engine builder near my house in Maryland and asked for a pocket port and valve job on a set of GM LT4 heads and he obliged.  He also wanted to install the valve springs and that was the beginning of my cars going fast and engines making power...Terry Samakow of Samakow Racing engine took me under his wing so-to-speek.   His pocket ported heads worked very well on my 383LT1 and I was just amazed at how much good performance could be had from a $1200 "competition" valve job/pocket port, new valves, springs, locks, keepers.

400-450hp goal (at the crank) can be had with your stock bottom LT1 and ported heads and the Crane 104227 cam.  That's a mild cam, (the 104227) so if you want some street lope the Crane 109831 cam is my favorite for lope and power.  check out those part numbers and the cam specs at Crane's web site.   Maybe give Advanced Induction Cylinder Head Development consideration too.  Their work is impecable.
You will need a set of headers and free flowing exhaust but not much more than that. And the heads/cam, (oh and a good PCM tune).
 The stock oil pump relief spring may be a bit tired so if you do get into the motor make sure to add a new high pressure spring.  Keep the stock windage tray installed and never throw that thing away.  Many LT1 builders delete that windage tray and you see the owners talking about oil pressure problems.

Gotta cut this short and head on out to E-town New Jersey bright and early tomorrow, (last bracket race of the year).

Have a nice weekend all,

Karl Ellwein  

Wow, invaluable information Karl, thanks for your time and the links. Let me summarize just so I'm sure I got it. New or improved: heads with a good head job, headers + exhaust, cam, PCM tune, high pressure spring for oil.

Things to keep: the stock windage tray, stock throttle body (suprised there   ), stock bottom end (thank goodness   )

Add: gas and a lead right foot!        

Best of luck in Jersey racing Karl.

Keep it fast, keep it cheap!

69LT1Nova  

Wow, alot of info here.  Ive been thinking about some head work for my heads(stock), a PCM upgrade and a new cam(dont know specs on it).  Hope to see more LT1 articles, and maybe a B body too.  

I'm really enjoying all the tech info that this thread has generated. Keep it up guys! It would be fun to have a LT1 related article in CC every month, but I know that they need to cover other material. Maybe just LT1 articles each month for a year?  

That would be nice, not many mags take on the steptchild of the LT1.  I would love to see a LTx motor build some good power on the cheap.  Ive been thinking of a junkyard turbo setup(maybe an old diesel turbo) and making some real cheap power.  If anyone else has thought of this what ideas have you come up with??  

Great article on the LT1! I'm not a subscriber but I enjoy CC from time to time. A friend called and told me I HAD to get this issue. I'm glad I did. I have a 95 Caprice wagon (yes, a great big woody wagon) with an LT1. I picked this car up used with 166k on it. It runs great and is really clean. It's my second wagon. My first was a 93 with a 350. That one has over 200k on it and is still running great! My 95 has a K&N cold air kit along with an air foil in the throttle body. Soon it will get high flow cats with flowmasters and a program upgrade compliments of my hypertech programmer. I'll be keeping a close watch at the news stand for more articles on the LT1.  

69LT1Nova:
Wow, invaluable information Karl, thanks for your time and the links. Let me summarize just so I'm sure I got it. New or improved: heads with a good head job, headers + exhaust, cam, PCM tune, high pressure spring for oil.

Things to keep: the stock windage tray, stock throttle body (suprised there   ), stock bottom end (thank goodness   )

Add: gas and a lead right foot!        

Best of luck in Jersey racing Karl.

Keep it fast, keep it cheap!

69LT1Nova

Finally!  I have the issue in hand.  I'm impressed.  John McGann spent a ton of time and effort on that article.  Now he's convinced me of the bennefit of the reverse cooling.  I learned a lot from just reading those 7 pages.  Good stuff from Chad Golen in there and also my neighbor engine building buddy Mark McKeown of McKeown Motorsports Engineering, (#4 Engine Master 2006 and #6 Engine Master in 2007).

I'm pretty sure CC won't mind if I post this link about a budget rebuild I performed early this year.  I took a junk yard LT1 and made a 355LT1 short block out of it for a true cost of $2320 and the Wash. DC are machine shop cost is higher than national average so you may get away with cheaper.  That's with premium Mahle pistons and the "ok" SCAT I-beam rods with 7/16" rod bolts.

The web link is to a page I made to sell the 355 re-build kit but I don't sell parts anymore. Major reason being too much time and effort.
But ignore the sales pitch and see the step-by-step rebuild photos with captions.
You can almost make out the bob-weight in the large photo as 1690g.  Later in the page I put some heads and a cam and a big block Chevy oil punp in it.  Have not run the motor yet because it's at Mark McKeown's shop right now acting as a phantom (mock-up) for him to make a crank support.

The link,
http://www.ellweinengines.com/EllweinEngineComponents/355Kit/355Kit.htm

Karl Ellwein
PS: 69LT1Nova, I won that race Saturday in Etown,
http://www.ecirs.org/2007/2007raceFinale.htm
2nd gear launch for all runs due to Etown street car day with dusty starting line.  

I love the ear-to-ear smile in your winner's circle pic Karl!   Amazing what an LT1 can do. Great job on hauling butt!

Question for everyone - what type of changes did you have to do to get rid of your smog equipment for 'offroad'    applications? Seems like a lot of unused wires would be left over and leave the computer really ticked off. Just unplug stuff, put block-off plates on and reprogram the PCM? What specifically did you do about the evap canister system, EGR, air pump, fifty some odd O2 sensors (only need 2 with dual exhaust to run, right?), etc.

If you have been following this thread, I'm still toying with the idea of re-using my '96 Caprice wiring harness in the '69 Nova. Guess I'm still trying to adhere to my mantra of keep it fast, keep it cheap!  

It's about time, I have been running my 94 LT1 in my 63 chevy 2 wagon for about four years now and have wondered why the aftermarket and magazines have forsaken these power plants, I have converted my LT1 to carb with alot of home brewed modified parts with a modified super victor vortec, special grind Lunati cam and home brewed cylinder heads. I just love those puzzled looks when they look at the blocked off thermostat housing and cam driven water pump. It runs 11.80s with a 3.55 gear and best of 113.69 mph and I can drive it on the street all day long, thanks alot and I hope you have the courage to take this project on.  

July issue is going to be great.  I want to see the entire swap including the ecm swap.  That is the one thing that scares me, all of the wiring.  I hope they use the harness out of the 94 instead of buying aftermarket.  Also i hope to see more of the Caprice in future issues, it is a really affordable car that looks great too.  

chilliewillie82:
July issue is going to be great.  I want to see the entire swap including the ecm swap.  That is the one thing that scares me, all of the wiring.  I hope they use the harness out of the 94 instead of buying aftermarket.  Also i hope to see more of the Caprice in future issues, it is a really affordable car that looks great too.

I would like to get your hopes up for the wiring of the motor swap.   The stock engine harness will work and you can cut off most any of the harness that you won't need.   In other words, if you don't need the air pump for your 60's car you can just cut and tape that part of the harness.  Cut the anti-lock brake bundle if you don't need that, etc.   The stock PCM is very forgiving and all of the emissions items can be switched off in the PCM flash, (if legal for your car and state).

I have a junkyard engine harness (pulled from a cop 9C1 B-body with LT1) and I use it to attempt to run my LT1 motors on the engine dyno at McKeown Motorsports, (until I spend some coin for an XFI).  It has everything either cut off or taped off accept connections for: (from memory).
8 fuel injector,
2 O2 sensors,
PCM (of course)
MAP
MAF (although you can delete that and tune for speed density)
ECT (water pump temp)
TPS
Ignition module (have an Accell wired into the harness which is plug and play anyway)
Grounds (at front of motor)
Opti pigtail
IAT (intake air temp)
+12v to the stock fuse/relay box
+12v to a yellow or orange wire at the head of the engine harness, (where it meets the body harness).
NOTHING ELSE.

Items not used (or cut) on the dyno harness:
tranny wiring
oil pressure switch
egr/evap/air pump/abs/ac/ps
fans, (this is one thing to keep though)
knock sensors.

I can actually read and write to the stock PCM with this harness if it has +12v (through a cheap radioshack regulated 12v power supply).

I have to admit I cannot get the dyno motor to run at WOT with the harness because I get a map sensor code and I do beleive I have an intermitent in the harness for the map circuit.

Right click "save-as" this short video of my customers engine on Mark McKeown's dyno (you'll see the engine master himself on that video).  It's only a start up and idle video and my surprised voice in the background saying something like "it works!".  It's running on that above mentioned hacked up junk yard harness.

http://www.ellweinengines.com/ERE8/ERE8stockEFIonDynoFeb1st2007.wmv

I normally run customer LT1 motors on the dyno with a GM LT1 carb intake manifold due to the simplicity and time savings.

Karl Ellwein  

Once again Karl, invaluable stuff. Now I'm REALLY tempted to tear into the '96 wiring harness. Hey, the worst that can happen is that I really screw things up and spend some time chasing gremlins with my Fluke meter (Fluke makes the best handheld multimeters, period). Or if things get really bad, just going to an aftermarket solution.

I agree with chilliewillie, I hope CC is brave enough to tackle the install with the Caprice harness!

Build it fast, build it cheap!

69LT1Nova