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What might be the value of a 1996 LT4 motor with 117K easy miles still turning the original clutch until a month ago? Going to do a LT1 388 build and all I need is a block and LT1 intake and trying to decide if I should gut the existing motor for the build or get a block on CL. I know, I should probably leave the car alone but when I can do a complete 425-450hp 388 build for around $3500 it is hard not too. I have already done headers, cat delete, magnaflow mufflers, clutch, 4.10 gears.
Thanks,
Patrick
What might be the value of a 1996 LT4 motor with 117K easy miles still turning the original clutch until a month ago? Going to do a LT1 388 build and all I need is a block and LT1 intake and trying to decide if I should gut the existing motor for the build or get a block on CL. I know, I should probably leave the car alone but when I can do a complete 425-450hp 388 build for around $3500 it is hard not too. I have already done headers, cat delete, magnaflow mufflers, clutch, 4.10 gears.
Thanks,
Patrick
I own a 96 LT4. Way back in the day I bought a sixty one C1 fuelie that someone had swapped out the original 283 fuel injected engine for a carbureted 327; I know. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Is there a lesson to be learned here?
IMO, kinda depends on whether you intend to keep your 96 or not.
The marketplace for C4s tends to be dominated by potential buyers wanting a stock C4, in good mechanical condition, and not ragged out in appearance. These folks want the car for cruising and weekend driving and to relive their youth when they wanted a Corvette but could not afford one. The subset of owners and perspective owners that buy and race C4s is much smaller.
A C4 has enough performance for the casual segment in a stock or lightly modified form. You will take that group out of the potential sales pool if you change out the engine. To them, that extensive type of mod says "This C4 was raced."
To the non-racer, rightly or wrongly; "This car was raced" decodes to "This car was abused."
So - if you intend to mod the car but don't intend to sell it in the future - I'd say go for it.
If, on the other hand, you plan to eventually sell it and you want to optimize the pool of possible buyers; I'd say leave the LT4 in it.
Last edited by C4-90-41001; Oct 29, 2018 at 04:26 PM.
IMO, kinda depends on whether you intend to keep your 96 or not.
The marketplace for C4s tends to be dominated by potential buyers wanting a stock C4, in good mechanical condition, and not ragged out in appearance. These folks want the car for cruising and weekend driving and to relive their youth when they wanted a Corvette but could not afford one. The subset of owners and perspective owners that buy and race C4s is much smaller.
A C4 has enough performance for the casual segment in a stock or lightly modified form. You will take that group out of the potential sales pool if you change out the engine. To them, that extensive type of mod says "This C4 was raced."
To the non-racer, rightly or wrongly; "This car was raced" decodes to "This car was abused."
So - if you intend to mod the car but don't intend to sell it in the future - I'd say go for it.
If, on the other hand, you plan to eventually sell it and you want to optimize the pool of possible buyers; I'd say leave the LT4 in it.
I agree with this. The value of an LT4 engine - not much when outside the car it was born with. Why not rebuild the LT4 for the 96 and buy a cheap early C4 for a racing engine installation?
Thanks for the advice guys I will take it into consideration. I just got the car a few months back and have already probably already blew the originality installing headers, removing all emissions and installing 4.10 gears, so now I have $7K worth of parts that I got for so little it is almost unreal and really want to put them to use and my wife would kill me if I get another C4.
As BB62 said, your LT4 is worth very little once it is removed from the 96 C4. Unless you can find an owner of a 96 with an LT4 that has blown itself up, you would likely not be able to help offset your project's out of pocket costs by selling the LT4 on the open market. That being the case, your question has been answered: You get to use the LT4 as a organ donor for your project.
Personally, I think you will regret your decision to "de-stock" your 96 unless you're going to keep it until you scrap it -- but that's just because I'm an old man now and I learned the hard way that when it comes to cars, it doesn't pay to make a capital investment - especially in a used, "niche" automobile - if spending the money limits your potential ROI (Return On Investment) later on when you start lusting after another car and find you can't get rid of your present ride unless you sacrifice it. In other words, it isn't that changing the motor is necessarily a mistake in and of itself: It's the knock on effects later on if you want to get rid of the car and find there are very few potential buyers.
Nuf said. I hope you cut a couple of seconds off your trap time once you've made your engine changes.
And by the way....welcome to the forum. Happy you are here.
If you only need a block and intake, those can be picked up pretty cheap without cannibalizing the LT4. Be aware that the LT4 intake is a little different than the LT1, so hopefully you can see what your build needs.
If you ever need to reinstall the LT4 it is an available option, or you could sell it. I don't know for how much, but I suspect there are a number of people that would want it (I am one), so I think it might bring a little more money that the posts above indicate.
In short, if you leave the motor complete, you have some options, but if you steal the block and intake, then you lose options and/or lose money on a sale.
The value in the LT4 is the heads and intake manifold. The cam, pistons and crank are slightly different from LT1. The block is the same between LT1 and LT4.
The universal opinion here is that anything you do to make it "your" car makes it less desirable to the next guy. To an extreme, if you find a nice 55,56,57 Chevy the most valuable will still have the original engine, whether its a 6 or an 8. But it will also be the least fun to drive. There is just nothing like torque. That said, are you building "your" car or are you trying to make it right for the next guy?
My vette is a base model with the LT4 option so it will never be a collectors item so I am leaning on using my LT4 block and selling off the LT4 heads and intake. The new setup will be .030 over with a GM ZZ383 3.800 stroke crank, 5.85 scat h-beam rods, CP pistons, New Competition CNC LT1 heads, Comp Cam 280xfi cam, 30 lbs injectors, Racetronix fuel pump, ATI dampner, and Mazier water pump.
Seeing as your engine has over 100K on it, for a performance build you probably will be replacing timing chain, lifters and other components. With that said, the LT4 engine assembly could fund a lot of those parts. If you started with a 2 bolt main block, you could have splayed bolt 4 bolt main caps installed, new cam bearings and the block bored. Other than the 4 bolt -vs- 2 bolt mains, from what I have read, the blocks are the same. It is the crank, cam, heads, timing chain, rocker arms and intake that are different in the LT4 -vs- LT1 engines (Corvette LT1's).
Selling the LT4 as a whole could net back enough to help defray the cost.
ALSO be aware, that since it is an LT4, hence a 1996, if you are going to stick with the stock computer, you will have an issue finding people that can tune it and have the interface to do so. The 1996's are a 1 yr step child as far as Corvettes are concerned. It is the first year of the OBDII interface.
Do a search on Jet box here on the forum and do some reading about what is required to tune the 1996 computer.
As BB62 said, your LT4 is worth very little once it is removed from the 96 C4. Unless you can find an owner of a 96 with an LT4 that has blown itself up, you would likely not be able to help offset your project's out of pocket costs by selling the LT4 on the open market. That being the case, your question has been answered: You get to use the LT4 as a organ donor for your project.
Personally, I think you will regret your decision to "de-stock" your 96 unless you're going to keep it until you scrap it -- but that's just because I'm an old man now and I learned the hard way that when it comes to cars, it doesn't pay to make a capital investment - especially in a used, "niche" automobile - if spending the money limits your potential ROI (Return On Investment) later on when you start lusting after another car and find you can't get rid of your present ride unless you sacrifice it. In other words, it isn't that changing the motor is necessarily a mistake in and of itself: It's the knock on effects later on if you want to get rid of the car and find there are very few potential buyers.
Nuf said. I hope you cut a couple of seconds off your trap time once you've made your engine changes.
And by the way....welcome to the forum. Happy you are here.
I have all my original parts for any car I modify. I don't plan on selling anything, anytime soon but you never know. I bought a LT1 block with 2 bolt mains and had splayed caps put on. Stronger than the 4 bolt block now.
Id you can do a nice stroker for $3500 go for it, not like its a collector car
Not to go against the grain but why build it for someone else, may as well open a shop and get paid for it
Make it yours and enjoy it. Ill take a well put together fresh engine any day over something worn out, different strokes.
LT4 Motor Value?
