My friend is going to buy a lt-1 T/A tommorow,any advice?

**Murder after Midnight** · 03-03-2006, 05:03 PM

I'm going with him to check out the car, It's a 1996 T/A white with 96k, I hear the opti spark is a bitch on the lt-1's, I'm mostly a ford guy, so I dont really know much about the F-bod's so any advice would be appreciated.

**whoa guy** · 03-03-2006, 05:14 PM

'96 are the best year for lt1. Only differences really from prior years are dual cats. my opti in my '95 never went bad until after i sold it with 155k on it. '95 + 96 had the vented opti. Most of the intakes will leak sooner or later.. a car with 96k has probably been fixed. Find out when the plugs were replaced as they are the biggest pain in the ass to replace. Other than that, they are good cars.

I had a pretty good lt-1 car. Never had a major problem, and found the motor to be quite reliable. My old one had a best 1/4 time of 13.7, and that was with around 125k mi on just an catback and 3.73 gears. If its an auto, I recommend getting shorter gears, and getting a higher stall converter... throw on a catback and gut the cat.. car will sounds brutal! lt-4 heads and cam are a common swap.

**Wayah-bird** · 03-03-2006, 05:29 PM

A T/A with 96K better be a cheap price. I owned a '96 Formula for 9 years and put 40,000 on it. It was perfect all those years but things were starting to go. Not the engine or tranny, but everything else due to age. I can't imagine the repairs needed if I put 96K on it or if the car was run real hard all of those miles. Make sure you know who the owner(s) were and if a bunch of kids owned it, don't even think about it unless your friend wants to build up from scratch. A 10 year old performance car is TROUBLE unless you know who the owners were and how they cared for the car. Good luck!

**LS1 Eddie** · 03-03-2006, 05:50 PM

It should be somewhat low priced depending on the condition and maintence. My car has 96 on it and I sure wouldn't let it fo for something like 6k. But I'm not selling it anyways.

Some may argue that the 95's are the best year because they still came with OBD-1, single cats, and the vented opti. IMO it is the best year but I might be a little biased.

Opti sparks aren't any fun I will agree, but the LT1 is a proven performer and a real under-dog that will shock you if modded up the right way!

**Murder after Midnight** · 03-03-2006, 06:10 PM

Well he only wants 5k for the car and it seems to be in really good shape from the pics, it was owned by a single older man so yeah ill make sure documents and all are presented, if everything checks out.

**Wayah-bird** · 03-03-2006, 06:19 PM

Well that sounds encouraging if it checks out. Again, good luck!

**third_shift|studios** · 03-03-2006, 06:21 PM

advice: buy a mustang instead

**mdh100** · 03-03-2006, 08:22 PM

I used to have a 96 lt1. I had nothing but problems with mine. The engine and tranny were fine. I bought mine when it was 2 years old and it had 35k miles on it (I finally sold it when it had about 70k miles on it). I had to fix something about every 2-3 months. I had to fix the power windows a total of 5 times, water pump, fuel pump, window regulator and motors on both windows, 3 o2 sensors, and countless other things. The motor and tranny seem to be pretty good....everything else on the car will nickle and dime you to death. If the rest of the car was built like the engine and tranny it'd be a very good car....I'd never buy another lt1 again though.

**oneBADDz** · 03-03-2006, 08:42 PM

My 97 was at 178,000 when I sold it not long ago, they aren't as bad as you will hear if it is maintained. Clutch didn't go until 160,000 and opti went at 174,000. The opti won't be as bad as you hear either, it's just non-conventional to have to pull the water pump for a distributor change. The most important thing is WHEN it has to be changed ensure a good clean water pump install to prevent leaking, and the biggest opti killer should not be overlooked -bleeding the cooling system, those bleeders will send all of the water right down on the opti so cover the opti when bleeding the system. Oh yeah, 97 was the first year for dual cats not 96 and it resulted in the power rating going up to 285 from 275, not important though just thought I'd throw it in there. After that car I was in love with the LT1 and had a lot of trouble convincing myself to get an LS1.

**whoa guy** · 03-03-2006, 08:48 PM

'96 CA emissions cars saw the dual cats.

**oneBADDz** · 03-03-2006, 08:49 PM

Originally Posted by whoa guy

'96 CA emissions cars saw the dual cats.

odd, got a link to something about that?

**whoa guy** · 03-03-2006, 08:54 PM

Originally Posted by z_driver1

odd, got a link to something about that?

http://www.camarosource.ca/php/camar....php?year=1996

**oneBADDz** · 03-03-2006, 08:56 PM

Originally Posted by whoa guy

http://www.camarosource.ca/php/camar....php?year=1996

Wow, I shall now call you daddy

**91Z28** · 03-03-2006, 09:23 PM

LT1s are reliable as hell, I didn't have an Fbody but I had a Caprice 9C1 (police car) with an LT1 with 155k miles on it. I drove it up to 240k miles and only replaced a power steering hose.

**5.0THIS** · 03-03-2006, 09:42 PM

Originally Posted by whoa guy

'96 CA emissions cars saw the dual cats.

Actually.. it was 1995 when all automatic equipped LT1 cars sold in California got dual cats.

**Capster78** · 03-03-2006, 09:52 PM

My advice, buy an LS1

**oneBADDz** · 03-03-2006, 10:32 PM

Originally Posted by 5.0THIS

Actually.. it was 1995 when all automatic equipped LT1 cars sold in California got dual cats.

according to wikipedia (so who knows) 93 was when cali started getting them, then 96 for all of em?

**mdh100** · 03-03-2006, 10:49 PM

Originally Posted by z_driver1

My 97 was at 178,000 when I sold it not long ago, they aren't as bad as you will hear if it is maintained. Clutch didn't go until 160,000 and opti went at 174,000. The opti won't be as bad as you hear either, it's just non-conventional to have to pull the water pump for a distributor change. The most important thing is WHEN it has to be changed ensure a good clean water pump install to prevent leaking, and the biggest opti killer should not be overlooked -bleeding the cooling system, those bleeders will send all of the water right down on the opti so cover the opti when bleeding the system. Oh yeah, 97 was the first year for dual cats not 96 and it resulted in the power rating going up to 285 from 275, not important though just thought I'd throw it in there. After that car I was in love with the LT1 and had a lot of trouble convincing myself to get an LS1.

96 cars had 285 hp.

**oneBADDz** · 03-03-2006, 11:42 PM

so what years had what? how long did cali have dual cats? and does that mean that for all those years cali cars had 285 considering dual cats is what upped it from 275? All this time I had no idea. . .

**ws6guy559** · 03-04-2006, 12:19 AM

Dude lt-1s r cool but compared o an ls1 stock for stock and even a stock ls1 and semi modded lt-1 the ls1 is still gonna kick its ass so juss tell your buddy to get an ls1.