Table of Contents
Page 1 Introduction
Page 2 One fine summer day
Page 3 Specs/Mods
Page 4 Under the hood

---UNDER THE HOOD---
The first thing I did to this car was to remove the air conditioning because it didn't work. I ripped everything out and made a custom box and used a 1LE A/C delete pulley. I've since removed the smog/air pump and relocated the alternator using some a bracket from Alan Grove Components. It looks much cleaner with no A/C, AIR, or alternator to be seen. The heater diverter valve will be eliminated when the intake and head swap get done. The battery got booted to the back at the same time as the alternator relocation.

I was reading about the LT1 intake swap and the necessary modifications and parts, so I bought everything and was ready to install it all when I read about someone attempting to convert LT1 heads over to a standard Gen1 SBC. When I realized how close I was to this cheap way of getting much improved heads, I decided to go for it.

I promptly traded off my modified LT1 intake and found a deal on a pair of assembled LT1 heads, LT1 intake (stock), and 24# injectors for $250 shipped.

Basically for this mod, you use most of the parts listed on www.lt1intake.com. However, you don't need to re-drill the intake holes, though you still need the hole drilled for the distributor, since the LT1 uses the Optispark. The LT1 is reverse-cooled, so there are 2 coolant ports on each head that need to get welded up in order to avoid dumping coolant into the lifter valley (coolant in oil = very bad). Then you need to get the coolant out of the heads. This is accomplished by drilling the front coolant ports on the heads a bit larger and tapping them to attach a hose to a remote t-stat housing.

In order to get the coolant lines coming out of the front of the heads, you need to get all of the accessories out of in front of the heads. I already have no A/C, and since I've passed emissions and have 2 years before next time I go in, the AIR/SMOG equipment came out too. Then I bought a bracket to mount my alternator down low on the passenger side of the engine to open up room in front of the driver's side head. The relocation bracket completely replaced the passenger side bracket, so there is nothing in front of the passenger head now. I used a 6-rib, 53.0" belt from Autozone that I got for $10.99. There is no automatic tensioner now, so tension must be checked and adjusted via the slide on the alternator bracket.

The benefits of this entire setup are..
-cost (duh!)
-light weight Al parts (entire savings about 60lbs)
-much freer-flowing intake
-much better heads
-unique

Well, I spun a rod bearing first time to the track with the new setup turning 6300RPM. Car had a ton of upper-end power and torque curve felt perfectly flat from 2000 to at least 4500 according to the butt dyno. Needed a LOT of tuning, but would have made excellent power.

The setup is now going on a rebuilt 350 motor with an even larger cam and better bottom end built to handle 7200RPM. Wit the LT1 heads, the compression will be around 11:1. Goal is to have a 350rwhp car and be able to hit high 12s NA.