[Dave B]

I have one of the last LT1 cars and need to upgrade to an LS1. The '01s and '02 are coming off lease and seem tempting.

I figure there must be somethings to look out for compared to the LT1. What are the common engine failure/warranty fixes? I know the power steering pump is a big problem for race track use. On my LT1 this was solved with pulleys but it has a remote reservoir. Are pulleys available for LS1 cars? Do they work or do I need a power steering cooler?

Any easy fix for the rear wheel brake hop?

This car will be used for street and track use including competition but the engine will be stock except for a lid and possibly headers ( if they are worth it)

Also if I get an intake lid is there any difference in power between SS/WS6 cars and regular coupes? I will be altering the suspension significantly so it doesn't matter about the stock spring rates etc.

Another small point. I bought my LT1 new and defintely did not want T tops as they seem to leak. If you have them do your T tops leak? It may take me a while to find a relatively loaded car without them.

[Dave B]

Evan, What is involved in an LT4 swap? Is that all you did to get 311 HP at the wheels? I live within 10 min of ARE ( Agostino Racing Engines) and likely find they could do the swap quite easily.

BTW thanks for the advice folks. I am not concerned re class in SCCA as I am Canajun Eh and run in the Canadian Solo 1 championship which allows virtually any mod although your class is determined by how many mods you make and what they are. It seems like a complicated classification system at first but has produced some VERY close races between very dissimilar cars. We run on a total of 7 different race tracks which means some tracks favour light wgt and agility and some favour hp and torque. It all works out in the end to some close competition with no guaranteed winner car.

Still seems the LS1 doesn't have an equivalent to the intake manifold leak or optispark issues.