Quote Originally Posted by bentrod View Post
What did the LT1 come out of and what year? They have significant changes for different models/years.

If the motor is in good shape, $400 sounds like a pretty good deal. As a personal opinion they are a good motor, and the optispark issues people typically complain of can be remedied and made very reliable. Also because the motor is compact, going into a 70 chevelle working on it will be much easier than a 4th gen Fbody.
Agreed... significant differences in LT1 pcms.

'92 - '93 Would be from a Y-body or F-body ('93 only). You would be burning chips vs. flashing the pcm. Note however that these pcms are worth around $300 alone and the Prom another $100 or so. Engine would have aluminum heads, but would have older non-vented opti-spark.

'94-'95 Would be flash based pcm and engine could have either aluminum heads or cast iron heads (only if from B-body). Could have vented or non-vented Opti-spark depending on what it came out of and/or build date. Vented opti-sparks tend to be more reliable.

'96 Would be flash based OBD2 pcm and engine could have either aluminum or cast iron heads (if from B-body). I believe all '96 and later LT1's have vented Opti-spark. Programming hardware typically more expensive in this case and some packages do not support this pcm (at least when I was buying...).

'97 Would be same as above except all would have aluminum heads since the B-body was no longer being built.


Beware: There are "baby LT1s" out there which I believe was "L99". It was a smaller displacement (4.3L) and I believe 200HP version. It looks identical to the LT1 so it can be easily confused. These came in '94 - '96 Caprice sedans.

I would personally be much more inclined to put an LT1 in vs. the TBI, especially for the deal you are getting. Of course another great choice might be a 5.3L out of a Silverado or similar. They can be had very cheap, make good power and they last forever.

Just my $0.02

Todd