Any Camaro owners in the house?

[ajharman]

I just bought a 1994 z28 camaro. Its an lt1/t56 manual and has some nice parts on it. It has no oil pressure in the motor and is making some pretty noticeable noises in the valvetrain. The price was right though. I was planning on pulling my spare motor out of my parts wagon to swap into the camaro so it will be drivable while I see how much damage the original engine has and possibly rebuild it if it isn't completely trashed.

I know the obvious difference in heads/cam/MAF, and that that won't be an issue if I reuse the MAF and PCM. But I was wondering more about the accessories, sensors, plugs, and things like that. Both motors are 94's.

How much stuff will I have to switch over to make that work? And will that be worth it, or should I focus on the camaro motor first? I think F-bodies didn't switch to vented opti's till 95, will that matter either?

I know this is not a camaro forum, but I've gotten so much good input on all kinds of LT1 stuff from you guys on here and know people have done this before. Just wanted to see what input my fellow B-Body faithfuls might have.

[KW Baraka]

Originally Posted by ajharman

I just bought a 1994 z28 camaro...........I was planning on pulling my spare motor out of my parts wagon to swap into the camaro......Both motors are 94's.......How much stuff will I have to switch over to make that work.......

Swap engine for an engine......and use ALL of your Camaro accessories except the oil pump which is probably bad.

I don't know if the F-body and the B-body use the same oil pump.....so you may have to buy a new oil pump vs using the one from the wagon.

Also, be prepared to buy/install new motor mounts.

KW

[Gene Beaird]

It's been a while since I've seen this done, but you'll probably want to swap the long blocks (block and heads) and use the manifolds and accessories for the Z in the Z. IIRC, there are a couple of sensors that have different connectors that take some work to make them work if you use the B-body sensor in the F-body.

I had a couple of friends who are quite knowledgeable in GM vehicles who swapped in a b-body engine into a 94-95 f-body. They mentioned the connectors, but I don't remember what they were. They also mentioned that their Z would run rough for approximately 30 seconds after a cold start. They swapped a bunch of stuff around, and borrowed my 95 Camaro FSM for a while to try to chase circuits and troubleshoot, but never discovered what the issue was. After that, the car ran fine, it was just a PITA to start and run in front of someone looking to buy the car after they put it together. They eventually sold the car like that, and AFAIK, it's still running like that.

That issue may have been specific to that engine/car combination and have been fixed if/when they put the original engine back in the engine bay, but that was an issue they had. Since you're planning on doing so temporarily, you should have no issue with the swap, especially when you swap things back in.

I don't think you'll need a different oil pump. Just use the one that's already in the temp engine you're using.

[DougDePew]

Main one is the temp sensor in the head - it's on passenger side for B, driver's for F

Either extend it or struggle with the plug in the head. It's an uncommon size, 5/16" square male tool needed.

[4DoorSS]

As you know the engines are essentially the same. One big difference is in the crankshaft hub on both. If you intend to use the same accessories from the camaro (which I would recommend in that tight engine bay) then be sure to swap over the crankshaft hub for the balancer. Also the water pump is different on both but you would probably pull this anyway to swap.

The alignment of the pulleys is differnt on the fbody, bbody and Vette due to each having its own crankshaft hub. Most other parts should be the same but fuel delivery (fuel rail) may be differnt but have not worked on many camaros of that generation. More familiar with first and second gen camaros.

[ajharman]

Originally Posted by Gene Beaird

It's been a while since I've seen this done, but you'll probably want to swap the long blocks (block and heads) and use the manifolds and accessories for the Z in the Z. IIRC, there are a couple of sensors that have different connectors that take some work to make them work if you use the B-body sensor in the F-body...

I don't think you'll need a different oil pump. Just use the one that's already in the temp engine you're using.

Thanks for the info Gene. I'm hoping to start pulling the motor soon, so that should be good info. I'll try to swap over as many of the f-body parts as seems practical for the temporary nature of the situation.

[94SSman]

Come get the spare F-body LT1 I have.

[ajharman]

Originally Posted by 94SSman

Come get the spare F-body LT1 I have.

Yeah that might make the most sense afterall. Do you remember what year it is offhand? If its a 94 or 95 that would probably be the easiest route. IIRC 93 and 96+ have some differences compared to a 94.