My son owns the 1975 Chevelle in my signature line and it's sitting in my barn. He is in the Navy and out in San Diego. I have been considering swapping a modern chebby ls engine and od auto trans in his car as a surprise and shipping it out to California for him. I have done some research and think this swap is doable. I am comfortable doing the mechanical things like fabbing motor mounts and trans x member. However I have never messed around with fuel injected anything and am kind of nervous about getting it to run correctly. Any of you guys have any experience with the new chevy lt1 or ls engines?

i wouldn't use the LT motor, junk in my opinion. go with anything 98 and newer, LS. do some google research, there are many companys that provide complete harness/computer/tuner set-ups for this swap. you could get a complete harness from a junkyard, but you'd just end up cutting and hacking away all the things you don't need...not a very clean install.

good luck! and post the progress if you end up doing it!

I suggest taking a look at the Team Chevelle website. Their sister site, Team Camaro, has an entire section of their forums dedicated to installing modern EFI motors into 1st Gen Camaros.

Yep:

Team Chevelle LSx Forum

I like the idea of the ls motor a lot better. Seems like a lot more aftermarket support. Looking at donor drivelines now.

Sure you can swap to an LS but all the parts add up in the end. It's not a cheap venture by any means to have a fully functional driveline that does not look like larry the cable guy threw it together in the back of a swamp buggy.

How did you know I was a cable guy??

...you just have that "look" to you...

That's some funny stuff.

Not to throw a wet blanket, but would your son rather have it original? I watch those shows where they rip apart a cool old car and modernize it and think I'd really be pissed if my wife did that to my bird. Maybe just spruce up what's there and make it a nice reliable, cool car.

Another option would be to put EFI on the car. I would like to do this myself when I can afford it. To me it's the best of both worlds. Most of the EFI and wiring can be hidden under the air cleaner. So it still looks original. But, you gain better mpg, better idling, better start up in cold and warm weather. And you could also put in auto start on it.

As much as some people sell a LS set up, you might be able to find a complete car that was wrecked. That way you would have all the parts/wiring there. Don't forget the Corvette LS motors have a flat "sting ray" looking oil pan. I'm sure the pan would have to be swapped to a F body oil pan. The truck cast iron LS blocks are becoming very popular due to the ability to bore more than the F body/Corvette aluminum.
Decisions,decisions, decisions....
Good luck!

Wow. I dont log on for the weekend and look what I missed.
I have considered just putting efi on the car but its already not origiginal. He and I discussed this when he was home for Christmas and he is all good with dad spending a few grand on his car. LOL We pulled and built up the tired 350, vortec heads, cam, intake and 4 bbl and of course headers and dual exhaust, when he was in high school. He ran the snot out of it and it's burning some oil now so it needs attention. I have been leaning towards the truck ls engines not only for the iron block, gotta be more durable, but also he oil pan and the accessory drive seems to be a better fit. The LQ9 engine make some pretty impressive numbers stock.

Or you could just buy him this and save some time and money....

http://dayton.craigslist.org/cto/3575697561.html

Great idea. I will contact the seller today.