LS1 conversion
Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 6,366
Likes: 34
Is it worth putting an LS1 in place of an LT1..
No its not, if your goal is to make big power
The LTx/ZF6 is a fine platform (Arguably superior) if you want to make big power with forced induction (supercharger, turbo, etc.). The LT1 has the steel (yes, i know its heavier) block, reverse cooling (better for boost), and an extra head bolt around the cylinders for extra strength.
Throw on some AFR eliminator competition ported heads, and youve got some pretty good flow #'s.
Now....heres where the LSx motor becomes more favorable.
If you are looking to go N/A, or road race, then yes, the LSx and its lightweight is where its at.
IMHO LSx swap makes a lot of sense on L98 motors. I see/hear about people dumping their life savings into the intakes alone on those things to get them to rev over 4000 rpm. Or if you had an early fuel injection car, that never did really run right, then yes ... go LSx
Hope this was the best response to this thread.
No its not, if your goal is to make big power
The LTx/ZF6 is a fine platform (Arguably superior) if you want to make big power with forced induction (supercharger, turbo, etc.). The LT1 has the steel (yes, i know its heavier) block, reverse cooling (better for boost), and an extra head bolt around the cylinders for extra strength.
Throw on some AFR eliminator competition ported heads, and youve got some pretty good flow #'s.
Now....heres where the LSx motor becomes more favorable.
If you are looking to go N/A, or road race, then yes, the LSx and its lightweight is where its at.
IMHO LSx swap makes a lot of sense on L98 motors. I see/hear about people dumping their life savings into the intakes alone on those things to get them to rev over 4000 rpm. Or if you had an early fuel injection car, that never did really run right, then yes ... go LSx
Hope this was the best response to this thread.
There are far more options for both the l98(sbc) and lsx for aftermarket everything including blocks and stroker kits going far bigger then an LTx can ever go.
without listing all of the ltx short commings, I think of it as a handi cap when all out build is concerned. Sure it is a good head start over an l98, and even up to 409 cubes. after that the l98 and money will kill it. Not to mention the optispark.
Sure you can boost up an ltX and make the playing field even. once you throw a big turbo on it, it maybe better to stay that way with the ltx as lcvette has shown with his 906 RWHP. But to compare it to a big turbo SBC or LSx, I will take the LSx and SBC as it will kill the locked in a box ltx series engines.
I can go out an buy a SBC short block 454, Pay out some big bucks to go even bigger, something about 482ci I believe it was. I can get an aluminum block with larger bores then an ltx can ever get, I can buy world products SBC block which allows me to bolt on LSx heads and intake. I could bolt in a nascar motor without needing any adapter kits.
If I was going LSx, I could go just as big on cubes or bigger, go iron truck block, get 6 bolts per cylinder on the block and heads. It's all there. LS7 with it's 7k redline. sounds cool!
The Lt1 has no support. I am not saying it is a bad motor, because it is not. It just has very little support which is sad. And I am sure there is an aftermarket optispark out there that will not fall apart from heat and time. I kind of think of it as the same as the l98 intake. Just buy a better one.
The reason I dont go LSx is the whole cali emissions bs, plus I am already in too deep with my 4K redline l98.
But I do have a ls6 Z06 and I am just waiting for the engine to fail. 
Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 9,758
Likes: 49
From: Houston Texas
I think this will be my next project. It will either be a early C4 or 3rd gen Camaro. It depends what I find. I love the idea of the Motown LS block I might take that route to minimise the pain. It seems a couple grand more expensive but may be worth the hassle. I haven't done the math yet.
Racer
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 414
Likes: 0
From: Phoenix Arizona
I realize you may not want to go this direction, but if you want to see what is involed in converting from a LT1 to a GM Performance LS3 crate engine with the GM "hot cam", go to my thread entitled "LT1 conversion to LS3 hot cam", or google C4orce2 and look for my photobucket. In the photobucket there is an album entitled "build of C4orce2" which contains a lot of pics. Right now, without any tuning, the car has approximatly 512 net SAE hp. I'm told when it is tuned it will be somewhere between 530 to 550. Runs great but was expensive; about $15,000 in parts alone. However, it is unique and fast and still has the original 1992 dashboard fully functional. Just thought I'd share this with you so you can see what is possible.
