how reliable is an LT1

[Chet Mo and the Camaro]

as the post says, i am possibly interested in getting one if i can come acroos one, i found one on ebay that is in driving distance for me to check out BUT it has 126000 miles on it, need suggestions on lt1 motors, from vanbibber it seems they could be quite troublesome and i know they have OPTI problems! please help

[1998silverbird]

Its a pain in the a$$ doing tune ups on them, the optispark goes out every 70,000 miles or so.. other then that they are pretty reliable motors..

[Chet Mo and the Camaro]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...RK%3AMEWA%3AIT

there is the link also how many mpg do they get in city/highway

[KBeezy]

rofl =P anyways, uhh, LT1s are reliable. Only problem with them is that damned optispark. 126k on the clock? Ask if the Opti has been done ---- if not, then it needs to be. Fuel economy varies as to how much you dont hammer it. Being its a 1997 you're lucky being it has a vented optispark compared to 93-95 cars.

[ October 12, 2005, 10:19 PM: Message edited by: Infernal ]

[that90spunk]

I think Lt1s are actually pretty good. A local guy up here is selling one for like 1500 bucks. Its got 170K on it and it still drives really nice. I know it had some A/C problems but heck its got 170K miles on haha.

[vanbibber]

kbeezy- 93 and 94 had non vented optis. 95-97 had vented.

fuel economy isnt much worse than that of a v6.

optis are a PITA but they get a bad rap. go over to ls1 tech and look at the lt1 forum. everytime someones car messes up everyone blames the opti first. and most of the time its a simple fix instead.

when kept up, lt1s WILL go upward of 250K with no problem.

if you go look at that car, the first thing i would look at is how clean the engine bay is. if its super clean ask them why its so clean. mine looked superclean and i didnt think anything of it. turned out the stealership detailers sprayed down the fecking motor to clean it up and fried the opti. they had no idea tat ABSOLUTELY NO WATER CAN TOUCH THE OPTISPARK. or you can kiss it goodbye.

changing plugs is a PITA but its not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. buy some longtubes and that problem is taken care of.

the most common things to look for as far as up keep are oil leaks at the rear of the intake manifold(due to the reverse flowing heads gm used) but its not that big of a deal. opti spark failure is easy to figure out if you know what to look for, any kind of backfiring or sputtering through the mid-upper rpm range will let you know its toast. the fuel gauges tend to be off(mine is) a little bit also,but thats just about every fbody from what i read.

other than that just basic up keep of the car,tuneups and whatnot.

also keep in mind that lt1s can be modded for CHEEEEAAAPP, you can get a nice heads & cam package for around 3k.

will i buy another lt1 after this? he11 yes!

[KBeezy]

I thought it was 93-95 had non-vented.... my bad =P Slight clerical error there in my part. 95s are the desirable ones. OBD1 w/ vented optis.. NOOOOWWW I remember!

[Infernal]

TTT for Chet

[95fbirdkid]

I'm headed to go check out a '96 T/A this weekend, 80K miles, anything i should keep an eye open for when i'm looking at it?

[vanbibber]

read my above post

[vanbibber]

Originally posted by KBeezy:
I thought it was 93-95 had non-vented.... my bad =P Slight clerical error there in my part. 95s are the desirable ones. OBD1 w/ vented optis.. NOOOOWWW I remember!

damn straight!!!! thats why i bought a 95!

[CamaroRob97]

Yep 95 is a good year [img]smile.gif[/img]

[3.4 slow to go]

Originally posted by CamaroRob97:
Yep 95 is a good year [img]smile.gif[/img]

no, bad wrong wrong wrong

that's teh year of the bastard obd2 connector for the obd1 computers. f*kcing GM [img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/rant.gif[/img]

[vanbibber]

[img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img] someone had some problems with it while doing a motorswap obviously.

[CamaroRob97]

lol