Well, I found out today that my '97 coupe is officially totaled. Which is a good thing, because I didn't want to drive a car that had been wrecked as bad as mine had anyway. Depending on how much it will cost, I am planning on buying back the car. I have been thinking about the idea of putting my LS1 into the '81. Would it be worth it to do this? Has anyone undertaken a project like this and how hard would it be to put an LS1 in a C3? Thanks guys

BTW, I just noticed the thread about this very topic at the top of the forum. Hopefully that will be helpful. If you would still like to chime in, please do.

 

If you already own a wrecked vette, then you have the majority of what you need so it CAN be done. The question is do you really want to?

Personally I explored this option a few months back, I was looking at buying a wrecked Camaro SS to get the motor & tranny and drop it in my 80 but after weighing out the costs, it was actually cheaper to build a 383 from scratch that will produce about 550 HP. After the machine shop costs, heads, headers, carb, intake, etc. I'll probably have about $5k in it - and I don't have to change out the transmission, driveshaft, etc.

For me it wasn't cost-effective to go the LS route since I could build a better motor (my opinion) for less ... You could probably build a nice 383 stroker out of your 81's 350 for a lot less than I imagine the insurance company is going to want for you to buy back your totaled C5, even less than what I'm building if you used your original block. There is something to be said for reselling the good remaining parts off of your C5 though, it all depends on what kind of condition it's in. I have a feeling your insurance company isn't going to want to sell you back the C5 for enough to monetize whats left over, you'll have to see what their offer is. The other thing to think about is that a fuel injected LS1 is probably going to be slightly better on gas than my 383 ... normally I don't care about gas prices or fuel economy but if the C5 was your DD and you're looking to make your C3 your DD you might want to consider that.

 

For what it is worth,Street and Performance over in Mena,Ark. has done it.At a recent Super Chevy show here in Memphis they were here and in talking with them they we discussed this swap they were giving out free DVDs concering the swap.I know they are expensive but you might want to talk with them and see if they will send you the DVD.

 

Check the sticky at the top. This has been done by many and there is a lot of info on it.

 

Several folks on here in process of doing this very swap.