LT5 383?

[Paul Workman]

Originally Posted by vermatrix

OK so first, you are obviosly light years above me with knowlege of this. I feel a little foolish.

I am not trying to build a fire breathing beast. In the past I had a few corvettes, now I want to get my ZR1 forever car. Would be a daily driver, for pleasure only, during the summers only. I live in Northern Wisconsin so probably about 6 months out of the year max.

All that being said, I want it to be crazy fast, drooling to look at and fun. Not sure what HP and TRQ numbers equal that. I remember back in the 90's stroking your SBC to 383 seemed to be the thing. I know the LT5 is not just another SBC, but trying to scope out my options.

I was anticipating spending around $6000 or so on her per winter, right now its going to be a 1991.

I was fussing with SBCs since the 60s, and built a clone L88. But, none of that impressed me as much as the potential hidden in the DOHC/LT5!

For example, this is my "508" hp LT5 (since tweaked a little more). Stock idle, ALL of the accessories work in heavy traffic. You would never know there was a monster hiding under the hood. But, with reground cams and sleeves it becomes a real beast. You've never experienced the torque curve of a DOHC motor, have you? Once you do, you'll likely notice how "peaky" any SBC really is!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1YFa8ruh8A

[vermatrix]

Originally Posted by Paul Workman

I was fussing with SBCs since the 60s, and built a clone L88. But, none of that impressed me as much as the potential hidden in the DOHC/LT5!

For example, this is my "508" hp LT5 (since tweaked a little more). Stock idle, ALL of the accessories work in heavy traffic. You would never know there was a monster hiding under the hood. But, with reground cams and sleeves it becomes a real beast. You've never experienced the torque curve of a DOHC motor, have you? Once you do, you'll likely notice how "peaky" any SBC really is!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1YFa8ruh8A

Paul,

Thank you for your insights. As I will be having my local speed shop do the work, How would I order this up? Ask them to regrind the cams and sleeves and they know where to go from there? Is that going to run me more then 6K?

Yes this will be my first ZR1. I am really looking forward to it.

[WARP TEN]

Originally Posted by vermatrix

Paul,

Thank you for your insights. As I will be having my local speed shop do the work, How would I order this up? Ask them to regrind the cams and sleeves and they know where to go from there? Is that going to run me more then 6K?

Yes this will be my first ZR1. I am really looking forward to it.

I would like to discourage you from having your"local speed shop" do this kind of work on an LT5. The LT5 is a special engine that many, many "local speed shops" ruin. They simply lack the specialized knowledge that these require. There are several true experts on the engine, some within shouting distance of Wisconsin, who regularly build LT5s to be highly reliable high horsepower engines. Pete was mentioned above as producing a good value 391, and of course Marc Haibeck (www.zr1specialist.com) has done hundreds of LT5s, his only business. Marc is in Addison Illinois and is always willing to talk with people interested in doing something with the 90-95 ZR-1s. His website includes a variety of options for LT5 upgrades and also provides prices for all the work. Pete is located nearby Marc in Illinois and has done very fine work on LT5s for many years. Both are good guys worth talking with before making any decisions.--Bob

[Ccmano]

Originally Posted by WARP TEN

I would like to discourage you from having your"local speed shop" do this kind of work on an LT5. The LT5 is a special engine that many, many "local speed shops" ruin. They simply lack the specialized knowledge that these require. There are several true experts on the engine, some within shouting distance of Wisconsin, who regularly build LT5s to be highly reliable high horsepower engines. Pete was mentioned above as producing a good value 391, and of course Marc Haibeck (www.zr1specialist.com) has done hundreds of LT5s, his only business. Marc is in Addison Illinois and is always willing to talk with people interested in doing something with the 90-95 ZR-1s. His website includes a variety of options for LT5 upgrades and also provides prices for all the work. Pete is located nearby Marc in Illinois and has done very fine work on LT5s for many years. Both are good guys worth talking with before making any decisions.--Bob

Omg! Take Bobs advice! For this kind of work you have no idea of the horror stories over the years from folks who took a Z to the local speed shop, Corvette shop, a trusted auto shop used for years or even a Chevy Dealer. You may actually find that many shops refuse to work on them. There is a listing with contact info of known national shops at the top of the general (this) section. Your in WI with easy access to Marc and Pete, they are the best.
H


http://www.zr1.net/forum/showthread.php?t=28634

[TX '90 ZR1]

Originally Posted by WARP TEN

I would like to discourage you from having your"local speed shop" do this kind of work on an LT5. The LT5 is a special engine that many, many "local speed shops" ruin. They simply lack the specialized knowledge that these require. There are several true experts on the engine, some within shouting distance of Wisconsin, who regularly build LT5s to be highly reliable high horsepower engines. Pete was mentioned above as producing a good value 391, and of course Marc Haibeck (www.zr1specialist.com) has done hundreds of LT5s, his only business. Marc is in Addison Illinois and is always willing to talk with people interested in doing something with the 90-95 ZR-1s. His website includes a variety of options for LT5 upgrades and also provides prices for all the work. Pete is located nearby Marc in Illinois and has done very fine work on LT5s for many years. Both are good guys worth talking with before making any decisions.--Bob

I'm going to chime in here and advise you take Bob's advise. As has been said, this is not the old SBC we used to work on. In fact, it is not a SBC!!

[Mr Blue]

I agree with Marty. Buy a car that has the mods done. Selling prices for modded car are not much different than stockers, and since you are going to mod it, that's money saved that you can spend on the displacement. I would say take Evan's route. Buy a car that has been ported and has a good exhaust on it. Drive that, then decide what other mods to do.

[EvanZR1]

Originally Posted by Mr Blue

I agree with Marty. Buy a car that has the mods done. Selling prices for modded car are not much different than stockers, and since you are going to mod it, that's money saved that you can spend on the displacement. I would say take Evan's route. Buy a car that has been ported and has a good exhaust on it. Drive that, then decide what other mods to do.

Heh, wish that was the route I took, that's more my advise after having done it the hard way. If I had it all to do over again, I would have bought the Haibeck 402 car that was for sale in TX when I was looking. Had built motor, fully ported, coilovers, big brakes, etc. Only issue was it was black and I didn't want black. Would have been cheaper to buy it and wrap/paint it than the route I took. You don't buy a ZR-1 to make money on it, you buy it because you love it.

[WARP TEN]

Originally Posted by EvanZR1

Heh, wish that was the route I took, that's more my advise after having done it the hard way. If I had it all to do over again, I would have bought the Haibeck 402 car that was for sale in TX when I was looking. Had built motor, fully ported, coilovers, big brakes, etc. Only issue was it was black and I didn't want black. Would have been cheaper to buy it and wrap/paint it than the route I took. You don't buy a ZR-1 to make money on it, you buy it because you love it.

Amen, Brother.....Bob

[WARP TEN]

Originally Posted by Mr Blue

I agree with Marty. Buy a car that has the mods done. Selling prices for modded car are not much different than stockers, and since you are going to mod it, that's money saved that you can spend on the displacement. I would say take Evan's route. Buy a car that has been ported and has a good exhaust on it. Drive that, then decide what other mods to do.

I also think this would be a wise approach. The mods to get to 500+ hp never cost much when you are buying a used car. The marketplace simply does not value them high, if at all. In fact some mods on certain cars reduce prices. On the C4 ZR-1s, we know that if they have been done by some of the reputable folks mentioned in this thread they are great to have but rarely add much if anything to the selling price of a ZR-1. I got a pretty high price in 2016 for my low mileage '95 with the Haibeck 510 package, but that selling price was also about $20k less than I had in it. Such is life. It was worth it for the time I had the car, and the buyer got as tremendous deal on a great car.

As to my earlier comment about how non-experienced shops can ruin LT5s, I base that on my monthly visits to Marc's shop. Rarely does he not have at least one car there that was shipped in from California or some other state because it no longer ran after some work at a local shop. Not saying there aren't shops out there capable of working on them; it's just that they probably don't even have a factory shop manual and would have to do a lot of research on LT5s to really do it right. Regular C4 stuff like A/C etc. anyone can do.--Bob