1/1985 swap to 1986 Turbo LS1 Porvette

I plan on being a daily driver not a full time track car, I know it wont meet much racing specs.

I swapped interiors and on the 86 the stock seat belts are attached to the seat not the like the early 85 n/a where they are on the tunnel.

I need to drill holes for seat belts anyway so figured I would install 4 or 5 points to go with the seats and needed a bar to make them work.

But that roll bar setup is nice too. I will probrably incorporate something like that later on, I have a place that might be able to make one when I get the money.

I won an ebay auction for the rear tail light center piece. I think it will complete the rear when the paint is all done.

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Looks great, that'll add a nice personal touch! I was wondering what you were going to use for a harness, there is only one DOT approved 4 pt that I know of. Not sure about 5 pt, but if you're driving it on the road..... I'm in a similar situation as you, but I think I'll keep the stock belt for now.

Not sure, figuring I will buy a sparco set. not worried about regulations

I would keep stock belts for now, but I dont want to have to cut two set of holes for the buckle clip since the clips on the turbo mounts to the seats and I dont have stock seats anymore.

good works , you have MP

Here is the exhuast I had in my 1985. I pulled it tonight in order to drop the trans. It is 2.5" Y pipe into a 3" all the way back to the 3" Magnaflow. Nothing Fancy but it works.

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Finally had time to do a thorough search of the transaxle failure and the reason for the last 7 months of my car sitting in a shop. Turns out the ring and pinion are fine, it was teh driver side cv axle that was teh problem. I guess when the last person did transaxle work on the box they did not use lock tight on the bolts and they evidently backed themselves out.

I dropped the box and the axle plates on the box when spun in one direction the input shafts spin and vice versa. I am so frustrated at not getting a full moment to figure that out sooner.

Still doing the body swap though. I already have it half way there so I can't stop now.

That is a bummer, you could have been driving it around all this time? How is it coming? Thanks for the help on my build.

I got the turbo stripped of unecessary parts this last week, I got the ls1 stripped for a lower end rebuild, pulled the trans and swapped 5th gears. Now I am waiting on school to start next week so I can get paid again so I can continue my build.

No problem man, I just do what I can and hope to see more awesome cars on the road.

wait.... you get paid to go to school??? hahaha That must be nice! Good luck with the wide body.

Hey Collin, can you post up a diagram (lengths, curve angles) of your pipe system?
I've never seen anybody do it and yours would help with a materials list if someone wanted to piece theirs together and weld.....

As for "free" school, the G.I. bill was not free but a good deal....I put in $2400 and got back over $25k....
DOD Fuzzy Math

haha, I guess I should have figured that one out.

I had my 85 early running but the engine smoked bad. So I pulled and found a 86 turbo body. Now I have found out that a couple of the ring lands on the pistons are broken. Yea. So I am stuck. A master kit with .20 over pistons cost 890.00 not including machine cost to fix the scarred chambers.

This is also the first time I have had to buy pistons, I am not sure what 20 over means? I am not sure what the stock piston size is and if 20 over is the pistons or rings?

I need help, locating or information on the type of blocks to look for that will fit the same engine dimesions as a 2001 LS1.

I am looking for better options and if I can find a short block I can throw my rebuilt LS6 heads on that would be nice.

Anyone have ideas?

buy a 5.3 block, bore it out to your 5.7 . 20 over, use same pistons, new rings, better performance, and wont crack the block, cost less in the long run

20/1000 inch...so the side walls effectively have 10/1000 inch removed (rids scarring)
I'm going to see my engine builder today and show him my install ans talk over some HP "goodies". I can ask about piston/boring choices and take some notes if you'd like. he builds race engines for boats and he told me that he'd rather have a 5.3 or 6.0 Iron block any day. Also he said that people are always asking him if he had 5.3 truck heads for their LS1's and they flow better right from factory.

Well either way I go I have to buy new pistons since the old ones are busted.

I have ls6 heads with aftermarket double springs. I would like to keep the aliminum block for weight reasons.

Last time I bought pistons was from Wiseco big bore kit for a 1200 cc XS. Surely someone has a deal on GM overbore pistons. I wonder if the Truck pistons are less expensive than the Vette, F-body stuff?
Performancetrucks.net would know, they are doing everything imagineable to the motors. Some guys making a short stroke 5.3 using the 4.8 crank IIRC. I gotta go surf over there and see what's crackin'

i understand weight, but your gonna put more money into any ls1 than they are worth, you will spend so much, you could have bought complete 5.3 3 times with it maxxed out

sorry to hear that man, wish I could offer some advice

To me the whole point of the swap is that the LS1 doesn't weigh more than the stock turbo motor. You should be able to buy 20 over factory pistons/rings and have your current block machined to fit...

you can but ls1 arent that simple, they have sleeves. they arent like your old sbc where you can bore it out to what you want.

ironically needing to have the turbo motor re-sleeved is why I swapped. It can be expensive on any aluminum bloc, if not impossible.

I'll ask my engine builder if he still has those pics of the LS1 sleeves that dropped out, mind you it was on a supercharged engine....quick heat cycling with alloy and steel sleeves= bad juju

I also went the LSx route because of the weight. If i wanted a nose-heavy car i would have stuck with muscle cars!

The LSx motors have steel sleeves in the cylinders, they are not like a 944 motor where the cylinders are coated aluminum. Engine sleeving is a known science, it's not difficult at all, and it gets done all the time (now, sleeving a 944 engine, which didn't come with sleeves from the factory, is another matter).

I'm certain the LS1 be safely bored out, though how much i don't know (that would be a good question for a knowledgeable engine builder). The price you were quoted for oversize pistons and rings sounds too high. This was just a quick search, but here are some nice Probe forged pistons for $429/set: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Rings shouldn't cost you more than $200 for some really good ones (the gapless rings are pretty sweet!). Most ring sets are under $100. You can probably find hypereutectic pistons for less money, too! Hypereutectic would be great for an n/a car, you just don't want to put nitrous to them.

The 5.3 cylinder heads are better stock than the LS1 heads, but not as good as the LS6 heads, stock. Ported LS6 heads will be better than anything the 5.3 heads could ever be. Engine builders prefer iron blocks because they're less work, and because engine builders don't care about weight. Since we can only put a finite amount of power into our cars (~450rwhp), i don't really care at all whether the iron block could hypothetically take more abuse...i just wanted to save some weight. There are aluminum block LSx cars WELL into the 800+hp range that have never had a problem!

Anyways, back on subject:
Having your engine rebuilt would probably be the lowest cost alternative, plus you end up with a 0-mile engine! I would search around on pistons and rings, but do be careful about "deals" out there (i.e. ebay). I've ended up with some worthless junk off ebay that i couldn't (morally) re-sell. Hopefully your crank can just be polished, and you should be able to re-use your rods. Sorry to hear! It's one of those bumps in the road that you hope you never have to deal with, but i'm sure you'll end up better off for it....i mean, there are worse things in the world than a 0-mile engine!

Well LS'rs enjoy the 100lb weight reduction. I either removed or moved 100lbs of crap to the back or gone, so in reality it's a push unless you lighten the car to the lightest possible then you'll have 100# on us LT'rs.