Bad Corvette Camaro Trans Am Gen2 LT1 350 Teardown. Not The Problem I Was Told!

and i love the way you tried to remove that dipstick by attempting to take it by surprise, several times 🤣

30 years later and most LT1's just needed oil changes and an ignition system upgrade !

One of the major takeaways I get from these videos is that removing the dipstick is the toughest part of any teardown.

Hey I do cars I don't know if you'll see this but I still wanted to say it haha. A couple of years ago I got a dirt bike and ended up really liking working on motorcycles and cars and your channel has really helped me learn a lot about failures and really got me interested in motors in general. I'm only 16 and I now work at a Honda shop and get to build motors. Thanks for all the great videos.

The optispark ignition is not near as bad as people make it out to be. It’s actually really precise as the high resolution sensor knows where the cam is to the degree. The biggest thing is to have the newer vented cap and rotor, make sure the vacuum hoses to it are good, and to keep water out of it by tapping a fitting into the weep hole of the water pump and putting a hose on it to route it away from the distributor. If you maintenance the cap and rotor like you should it should be sealed anyways. I think it got it’s bad rap due to people using cheap aftermarket opti’s that had cheap optical sensors instead of the reliable Mitsubishi sensor. The vent help a lot. It removed the ozone that built up from high voltage inside the cap and made them more durable.

I had a 1996 Buick Roadmaster with the LT1. Great car, true 3 row seating (took the whole office to lunch). Comfortable and plenty of power if you didn't mind 14 MPG city and 20-22 highway. Before I sold it to an older couple reminiscing about the Regan presidency, my wife and I took turns sitting in the rear-facing 3rd row while the other person floored it. Good times.

Love the way he tries to sneak up on the dipstick, as if that'll help get it out sooner.

My 94 Firebird Formula is long gone, but I still have her oil soaked all over my garage floor to remember her by.

I had a ‘93 Trans Am and in ‘94 I ordered a T/A convertible with a 6 speed (young and stupid :) LOVED those LT-1s, especially with the manual behind it. A total blast!!

Yessirrr I love one of these in my z28 with only 60k miles. Runs like a champ.

I was a fuel systems engineer for Rochester Products div of GM (now Delphi) back in the day when we were making the transition from carburetors into fuel injection. The reason trucks didn't get multiport systems is because they were slated to get the dreaded CPI/SCPI (aka Spider) systems. They had the injectors in a central location in the intake manifold, with tubes running to poppet nozzles near the intake valves. GM loved the idea because it eliminated the need for a unique (and expensive) fuel rails. All they had to do was change tubing lengths for each application. Unfortunately, the system performed poorly and GM had enormous warranty costs on them. So trucks went to conventional multiport systems in 2000 with the Multec II injector.

Imo , best sounding engine ever. I had one hopped to lt4 with hot cam n bolt ons. Only car I ever lost control of and I was going strait...lol

I have a 94 Trans Am I bought brand new.Fully loaded, leather, every thing except T tops, my 79 TA had those, loved having them off, but after a few years, they started leaking.....It was my daily till 2005. Ive now had 5 new cars since, but the TA IS A KEEPER. It has 338.000 plus miles now. The engine has never been touched. Even the timing chain is original. It runs and sounds like new. Uses no oil between changes, and those have been every 3000 miles since new. Castrol GTX. Never had synthetic in it. Lifelong Southern California car. Its had 2 new water pumps, 2 new radiators, and 3 new optisparks. It still looks great in and out, and has NEVER FAILED California emissions test which is unbelievable, as its a difficult test to pass...treadmill, test rod up the tail pipe...yeah, I love my old Trans Am. They weren't cheap, mine cost about 42.000 in today's money.

My favorite thing about Saturday night. Watching you rip engines apart. Always in suspense to see those beautiful chains.

These were the cool engine when I was a kid in the 90s. I remember looking to see if a Caprice or Roadmaster had dual exhaust. Then you'd know it had the LT1. It's funny, these LT1s came out in 1992; 22 years after the first generation debuted in 1970. And the 3rd generation came out in 2014; 22 years after this one.

Even out of the car, on an engine stand, the thing is a pain in the ass to work on. Classic 90s American Automotive engineering.

I'm old enough to really wish that GM would've picked a different designation for the Gen Vs than LT

I am betting that the reason they thought it was locked up is because it was hydro locked. After sitting for awhile, it just bled down the cylinder walls into the crankcase.

Hey the Optispark vent was added in the 95 and up camaro's. The high voltage optispark produced ozone which rapidly built up and massivly sped up any corrosion inside of the optisark. Venting it allowed for a steady stream of fresh air to cycle through preventing the buildup and was actually quite effective :)

Thanks for doing one of these LT1 engines. I was in high school and my first muscle car was a 95 convertible formula firebird. Worked part time in school to pay for it. I wrenched on that thing for all sorts of things like the opti-spark, water pump (funny how I had to do those at the same time), and intake manifold gaskets. Loved that car, and put 172,000 miles on that engine / car before selling it. The 4L60e had to be rebuilt a few times, but that engine survived a lot of long miles and still had great oil pressure and no knock. Still pulled strong when I sold.