sadist.

And you are right... mine is a slow, tired old Vette right now. But it's next!

My plans for mine are like this:

1) Get a used motor, so I can then remove my existing engine and rebuild it.

2) Build mine with full internal balancing.

3) Complete forged bottom end.

4) CARB legal heads.

5) Did I mention 383? Oh, yea, that too.

6) flow matched injectors.

I am hoping for about 375~400 reliable, drivable crank hp. This is a project that should start by September. I need to get my existing engine out so I have a shot at passing CARB!

 

Hey nincompoop, why not just get a used motor to build up, and leave your current one in there. Or better yet, after you pull Bastet's out, use that to start your stroker buildup on.




Do you have your ducks in a row on how you're going to make your 96 LT1 work in that 87? Use the 87 harness and sensors and use a maf? does the opti have any special needs over a standard distributor, can it be used with the 87 ecm? Are you going to use the LT1 engine harness, frankenstein it into the 87 dash harness, and seperate the LT1 ecm from the other computers? Will you need to tear the whole dash out and run new wires to the incab existing ecm harness? Custom OBD2 program to eliminate the bcm, ccm tie-ins? What about the dash displays? Will a 2:1 speedo signal converter work from the 4ppr sensor? Will the L98 engine accessories fit the front of the LT1 block? Water pump rotation or electric pump? Belt routing? Have electrical diagrams for both years?

 

I can't see all of this playing nicely together. Why stay with OBDII? Why not use a 94 ECM or similar? Have you looked at the costs of programing cables and program for OBDII, it ain't cheap. An OBDI ECM would make more sense to me.

I thought the whole point of your swap was to create a reliable car? If so why not just work with what's already there as it's a no brain-er. Now you're talking about making a Frankenstein and having it reliable???

You got gut's, I wouldn't do it to my wifey's car.

Give it hell.

 

you're making this much more complex than it needs to be.

I am converting over to LT1 accessories. I have the LT1 PCM and will control the engine with that.

Custom programming will get rid of the CCM, which solves lots of problems.

Dash displays are mostly PCM or direct fed from the sensor in question. I should be able to make all that work with a small custom harness.

I will have both diagrams, once my 96 FSM shows up.

 

again, more complex than needed.

I have people who have offered to do the programming, so I am going to forward the computer to them for deprogamming.

I can't run the engine with a OBDI controller... namely, it's an 96 engine, and I need to stay OBDII to satisfy CARB.

 

Ahh, carb. I wonder how that custom chip will work in front of the smog ref, if they'll know the difference.

I guess you can program out, or weld in a 2nd o2 sensor. And you'll have to put an electric smog pump on it.

You know, GM Performance Parts will always be there if you need a crate 350 in a pinch. I'm not tryin to get you down, but would just hate to see it turn into a clusterfudge again.

 

I don't understand this CARB stuff, what a load of crap. If an engine, no matter the year, computer, car whatever produces acceptable emissions WTF is the problem?

 

Good luck with the project

 

Andy, you are the man. Thanks for your help on many projects, Good luck and keep us posted.

 

Best of luck with the project, Andy. Looking forward to hearing about it as it progresses. Wish I lived close enough to offer help with the wrenching. Hope you can find time to document this project well as you're going through it. Should be most interesting.

Be well,

SJW

 

That's the charm of this change... they don't care about the CCM. It's just a piggy back of information. It won't effect the fuel tables, just turn off the Serial Data Link... that's a non-testable emissions item.

The SDL only sends data to/from the CCM, so it can be displayed on the IP and shuffled off to the EBCM (ASR/ABS). None of this effects emissions. It also disables VATS. The CCM also sends commands back to the PCM if the ASR becomes active... but without the ASR, those commands are no longer required.

I have the air pump coming with the engine.

I am going to be using a Corsa cat back, so I will have the right O2 bungs for proper operation.

Trust me, this will be 100% OBDII complaint.

It will have the correct OBDII connector, with the right wires to connect to the PCM, so they can plug into it as they are supposed to.

It will not deviate from stock in any way that effects emissions.

The last cluster**** was not caused by anything I did - directly.... from all I can figure, the waterpump was bad... that's karmic...

It's not like I assembed the bottom end poorly... or didn't use prelube, or something of equal stupidity.

The other charm? This change has been done a number of times, and I have been in contact with the others that have done this. It's really very close to plug and play.

 

She'll be loving it.


Larry
code5coupe

 

I have said it before... corporate America can't police itself, neither can most citizens.

Hense, stupid smog laws.

However, LA has special problems... 17 million people, each with a car. In an area that is best described as geologically challenged. We have a cold ocean on the west that traps air, we have mountains on three sides to the north, west and south, that trap air... and the aformentioned 17 million people.

It's a very unique problem... unfortunetly, draconian measures were required to keep the air clean.

When my mother-in-law was a teen, growing up in LA (near the USC Campus), she remembers walking to the bus and her lungs would simply burn from the smog. That cannot be healthy.

Jimmy Buffett wrote of the "brown LA haze" in Come Monday, 30+ years ago.

These days, it's just a haze, but at least the brown is gone, and my lungs don't burn.

If I have to sacrifice 50hp for the sake of not killing myself with every breath, then it's worth it. It just requires some thinking to solve the problem, that's all.

You're from PA, you may not know this, but in Pittsburgh, back in the 50s and such, they had to drive with their lights on, because the smog from the steel plants was so thick. You think breathing that **** is worth it?

And even growing up in Central Delaware as a kid, I remember the snow piles turning black after a few days... now, they simply turn brown from road salt mixes. The particulates have been dropped significantly.

Oh, and if you think this is a modern problem, that's not true either. London, during the industrial revolution, 150 odd years ago, had a huge smog problem... smoke just lingered over the city all the time. Caused by wood and coal burning houses and factories.

 

AWESOME decision. My friend Dave Ramsey (daveramsey.com) would also back you up all the way in terms of not taking on debt. You can listen to him daily.

Good luck - I know you're gonna pull it off.

 

I'm not disagreeing with smog laws. I just would think they could be geared more towards actual emissions than visual inspections.

Who cares what's under the hood as long you're compliant at the tail pipe.

I live in central PA and we've never had a smog problem at all, it's population is sparse. Yet now they've adopted the emissions laws and inspections have jumped considerably even though there isn't a problem. Money making if you ask me, all they look at here is your gas cap and quick visual. At first they forced all inspection stations to buy the sniffer equipment, then when all the stations were going belly up because of the cost they repealed it and kept the visuals along with the money generated by it. It's a crock!

They even went so far as to build "Official State Emissions Centers" but that plan didn't work out either and they sold them all off never being used at all.

In my opinion the worst offenders are the commercial haulers around here. They drive around with the black soot spewing everywhere like it's some kind of status to see who can blow the crud around.

Changes need to be made for some kind of consistency.

 

ALLT4 - I think you will find what I have been expecting for some time... just because your specific area does not have a problem, it directly effects the global environment.

There was an article in the local paper last week, wish I had kept it, but, California, Texas and Florida (I think that was the rank) were the top three in greenhouse gas emissions.

Currently, FL does not have emissions testing, anywhere in the state, cause they don't have a problem, but if they continue to add to the big picture problem, well... guess what.

I agree, tho, that the tailpipe should be the final (and only true) result.

 

UPDATE:

Thanks to fellow Forum member, jrzyvet, the motor arrived yesterday morning.

It's a low mileage (60k) 96 LT1/4L60E.

Today, I took the harness off the motor, so I could clean the engine, and get ready to tidy up the harness (you know, the dried up tape and such).

The motor looks about as leak free as any SBC I have ever seen. The intake is DRY. I mean DRY. No leaks. And the engine was not cleaned before it arrived. It still has the stock GM grey RTV on the seals, front and rear. I ain't touching it.

I have hosed it down and life is good.

I will need to replace the cap/rotor on the opti. I am guessing the wires and plugs were original, which leads to serious arcing... with this being a gen II opti, a cap/rotor seems resonable.

that's all I gots so far.

 

Best of luck to ya'

 

Good Luck Andy

 

Sounds to me like a FUN project. My wife and I lived in San Jose for several years, first time I saw it while stationed at Fort Ord it was beautiful didn't take very long for the beauty to be destroyed, we decided to leave because the smog was horrible, no fluffy white clouds, just yellow sick looking and yes, at times we actually felt like our lungs were burning. Time we all take a little responsibility.