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Herd WebMaster
Forum Admin
USA
165 Posts |
 Posted - 05/04/2007 : 07:11:39 AM
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LT4 Crate Engine
By Scott Mueller.
There are now two LT4 crate engines, but one will soon be gone forever. They can be summarized as follows:
LT4 '96 Corvette Production Engine - p/n 12551183, $5,950 list, $4,462.50 dealer cost. This is a complete '96 Corvette engine which includes everything from the oil pan to intake manifold with throttle body, fuel rail, fuel injectors, opti-spark distributor, ignition module and coil, spark plugs, and even wires. It also includes 'vette exhaust manifolds, water pump, harmonic balancer, accessory bracket, all engine sensors such as knock sensors, temperature sensors, oil psi and temperature sensors, and the throttle position sensor. It even includes $1,800 worth of (unnecessary) 'vette flywheel, magnesium bellhousing and clutch.
When installing this engine in an Impala, you will be removing the following parts and replacing them with the equivalent parts from the LT1 in the Impala or discarding them completely.
- Flywheel, Bellhousing and Clutch
- Oil pan and pump pickup
- Fuel rail and injectors
- Throttle body
- Exhaust manifolds
- Accessory bracket
- Water pump
These are all NEW parts that come on the production LT4, and will be left over after the swap is complete. The magnesium bellhousing and clutch alone sell for $1,800 new, the injectors are over $600, throttle body is $450, exhaust manifolds are $275, and the water pump is $70. I am trying to find a buyer for these items as well as the original LT1 from my Impala.
You also get many other notable items with the production engine including a new $450 distributor, $200 worth of red LT4 sparkplug wires, a $25 '96 higher energy ignition coil, new updated double platinum '96 sparkplugs, various new engine sensors, and even 6 qts of Mobil-1 oil and a PF-52 filter already installed.
Unfortunately the complete production engine will not be available much longer. There were only 300 extra LT4 engines left over after the '96 production run, and SLP took over 100 of them for the 100 '97 Camaro SSes they will be building with LT4 engines. The rest are the only ones left over for warranty and service exchange as well as over the counter sales.
To fill the gap once this engine is gone, GM Performance Parts has introduced a new LT4 Engine Kit, p/n 12371172. This is a 3/4 LT4 engine which is commonly referred to as a long block. This engine includes everything up to the heads, but is not a fully dressed production engine. It does not come with an intake manifold, fuel rail, injectors, throttle body, engine sensors, wiring, spark plugs, distributor, or exhaust manifolds. It does include a separate kit of parts with a 4bbl carbureted intake manifold, HEI distributor, Corvette water pump and harmonic balancer. Unfortunately all of these extra parts except the balancer are not needed in an LT1 swap situation and they will be left over. These parts are also not installed on the engine and do not include attaching hardware or gaskets.
The following parts will be left over from the LT4 Engine (3/4 engine) Kit:
- 4bbl intake manifold
- HEI distributor
- Corvette water pump
The following items would need to be purchased separately to complete the swap:
Most everything else that is needed would be swapped over from the LT1 engine including the following items:
- Oil pan and pump pickup
- Fuel rail and injectors
- Throttle body
- Exhaust manifolds
- Accessory bracket
- Water pump
- Distributor
- Ignition coil and module
- Spark plugs and wires
- Engine sensors
Note that the LT4 Engine Kit is ideal for an LT1 swap since most of the missing parts you would need come off of the existing LT1 anyway. The only difference between using the Production LT4 vs. the LT4 Engine Kit is that you will have many more parts left over to sell if you start with the production engine compared to the engine kit version.
Theoretically the LT4 Engine Kit should be much more economical than the production engine due to less leftover parts, however if you can sell those leftover parts, it may shift the economy over to the production engine. I calculate roughly $3,200 worth of NEW parts will be leftover after the swap using the production engine, assuming you can get half price for them, that would mean a $1,600 rebate on the deal. Not to mention if you sell your original engine for $2,000 then the total cost of the LT4 swap is now only about $1,000 using the production engine!
The LT4 production engine is the one I have, as the LT4 Engine Kit is not available yet, although I was told it should be available in January. Pricing has not been set to my knowledge. For somebody doing an engine swap in an Impala, the LT5 Engine Kit would be perfect. All of the missing parts would be simply swapped from the existing LT1 engine. With the production engine such as I have, many of the parts will have to be removed and sold as they are not usable in the Impala application. This includes the 'vette exhaust manifolds, water pump, oil pan, accessory bracket, clutch and bellhousing, etc.
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LT4 Crate Engine
