LT1 owners

[TS95Z]

Originally Posted by diV6

The problem with the lt1 brakes is it's single piston design and the smallness. It's not reliability, its just that they under perform what i would expect. One of the most common mods on lt1 camaro suspsension is to replace the brakes with the two piston system from junkyard ls1 camaros. My brakes are fine as far as mechanical condition. The 93-97 just have weak brakes compared to most performance cars.

Yup, if I decide to keep mine around, I'll be doing an LS1 brake swap.

[Black5thgen]

Just spun a bearing at 140,000 last week. Car is driven by a 17 year old though.

[CamaroSpike23]

Originally Posted by wavrun2000

Man you can tell this is a 5th gen forum. No one even comes to these sections of the place it looks like.

sorry... you posted this thread the day after I left the country....

Originally Posted by zman302

These motors are as good as they are treated. They are alot like the old small block inside. Main problem I have with them is the opti spark ignition, it is junk especially on 92-94. Second gen opti with the revised bearing and vent system are a better system but still not great. They can be a bit expensive to replace costing around 400 for a new replacement, stay away from the rebuilt ones from the parts stores, trust me i have sold them and they are not very good and dont come with cap and rotor like the new ones do.

the one thing to remember about the opti is that when they work, they work. when they dont, they dont. there are stock GM optis out there pushing stupid powerful numbers. as for replacing the opti, do stay away from the parts stores ones, but you can get OEM opti's on ebay from "thepartsladi" ive got countless friends over on Z28.com that have purchased their optis from MSD and parts stores and had them crap out in no time. Im pushing 190k on my 94Z with the stock opti, tho at around 180k, I converted to the LTCC coil pack conversion which only uses the optical pickup portion of the opti (basically a cam positioning sensor) and fires the spark thru the coils.

Originally Posted by diV6

The problem with the lt1 brakes is it's single piston design and the smallness. It's not reliability, its just that they under perform what i would expect. One of the most common mods on lt1 camaro suspsension is to replace the brakes with the two piston system from junkyard ls1 camaros. My brakes are fine as far as mechanical condition. The 93-97 just have weak brakes compared to most performance cars.

I dont know if you guys are member on boards that are less focused on the fifth gen, but do a search around and you can find many threads on the brake issue.


One thing i forgot to mention is the glass rear diff. It's fine for stock cars seeing moderate use, but if you start modding or beat on your car, it's the first part that's going to break.

ahhhh... the ol 7.5" 10 bolt. what an easy rear to manufacture... shame they didnt think to weld the axle tubes or add a little bit of gussetting to it to prevent axle tube walk which leads to the destruction of the rear.

Originally Posted by Black5thgen

Just spun a bearing at 140,000 last week. Car is driven by a 17 year old though.

thats not good. pull it apart and build you a budget 355.



to the OP, for $1500.00 you might get a barely (or not even) running POS. or you might get lucky and get a mostly stock, probably beaten on in its time but still reliable to an extent.

the LT1 is a mean motor. iron block, reverse flow cooling, gear driven water pump, 10.5:1 cr, light weight rotating assy, plus other little things here and there that add to it being a reliable motor even after a lot of miles.