General 96 Roadmaster thread

[bill25]

Shouldn't you use that money to buy an LS motor and LS tuner? I am still confused. If this is going to be a hotrod, why pay twice to upgrade if you know the final plan already.

[bill25]

I know the Buick has slightly high miles but you could probably sell the trans and engine together for maybe $1,200.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/93-Z28-Camaro-l ... Im&vxp=mtr

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1996-Corvette-L ... Mh&vxp=mtr

Ok maybe 1200 is high, but maybe $1,000
http://www.ebay.com/itm/chevy-lt1-350-e ... jl&vxp=mtr

[kevm14]

for sale is an LT1 350 engine and a 4 l60e transmission out of a 93 Buick Roadmaster
They are mated together and are being sold as a package I included the pic from the vehicle odometer that I pulled it out of which has 217 thousand miles but the engine and transmission still ran well and worked fine I took the engine out to build drag car, and had it left over
Comes complete with everyrhing im the pics
Please email any questions

Didn't have LT1 in 93 but I can vouch that it is from the picture. Must be a 94.

[kevm14]

Shouldn't you use that money to buy an LS motor and LS tuner? I am still confused. If this is going to be a hotrod, why pay twice to upgrade if you know the final plan already.

I thought about this and right now I'm still sticking with enjoying the LT1 that I have. I know I could disable the car and have plenty of cars to drive, and get my up to $1000 for the complete powertrain and put that towards LS stuff. Realistically I wouldn't even start any of that process until the Caprice is gone. And since that will be in 2019, I would like to do some things on the Roadmaster that would help me enjoy it more. Partly because I have always wanted to. The LT1 may not be an LS turbo but there is still plenty of fun to be had and most of it is fairly inexpensive. The tuning tools are annoyingly more expensive than I had hoped - if this was a 95 there would be zero issue.

[kevm14]

This is interesting.

Confirmed via Tunercat that the 14005 P/N for the JET Dynamic Spectrum Tuner is in fact rebranded Tunercat OBDII Tuner.

And look at this:

JET Performance #561-14005
Dynamic Spectrum Tuner
GM
1996-00 Truck/SUV Vortec 4.3/5.0/5.7/7.4L
1999-06 LS1 Truck/SUV 4.3/4.8/5.3/6.0/8.1L
1996-97 Camaro/Firebird/Corvette/Impala SS LT1
1997-04 Camaro/Firebird/Corvette LS1
2004 GTO LS1
2004-05 Cadillac CTS-V

That seems cool except I have a feeling that HP Tuners is the product I really want for the LS stuff. Still, for like another $100 I could tune my CTS-V with it. And Ed's RMW.

It does not have any scanning software which is dumb so I also have to figure out how that works. The TC software is also old and apparently has compatibility issues. I've heard you have to run it in XP SP2 compatibility mode and you also need a serial port to USB adapter. One guy complained of bricking PCMs while flashing. That doesn't impress me too much...

I could also dig out my old Dell on XP, maybe get a new battery for it, and just use that....

EDIT: TC is now telling me that it comes with FOUR vehicle licenses (and the cable) for $400. I would need a USB to serial adapter and I am still sketched out about hardware and software compatibility. But this is looking pretty good. For $400 I could tune my RMS, my 05 CTS-V and Ed's 96 RMW. And still have an extra VIN to tune. I can deallocate by putting a PCM back to stock apparently.

[Adam]

Can HP Tuners do LT1 PCMs?

[kevm14]

No.

[kevm14]

So yeah, $100 per car to tune 4 cars...that is actually a good deal. It is limited of course to a few earlier models. Though the TC product itself seems to cover almost all of the modern stuff. I will look into it more. I still think TC would be more of an LT1 affair. LS stuff I'd be better off with HP Tuners. They have cool stuff like the custom 3 bar speed density OSs and stuff.

Actually let's look at the list again.

JET Performance #561-14005
Dynamic Spectrum Tuner
GM
1996-00 Truck/SUV Vortec 4.3/5.0/5.7/7.4L
1999-06 LS1 Truck/SUV 4.3/4.8/5.3/6.0/8.1L
1996-97 Camaro/Firebird/Corvette/Impala SS LT1
1997-04 Camaro/Firebird/Corvette LS1
2004 GTO LS1
2004-05 Cadillac CTS-V

That actually covers a huge amount of GM performance iron. The OBD-II LT1 stuff is on there as we know. GMT-400 trucks. LS1 up to 04. My CTS-V as I mentioned. But also 99-06 truck stuff, i.e. every single donor LS that I'd likely pick. Now the issue is most likely that I'm SOL for turbo stuff which makes it a bit less exciting. But for an N/A LS swap, it should work. This is an interesting option.

[kevm14]

I thought of another way to articulate why I am not ripping the LT1 and 4L60E out like right now.

My general choices are:
1) Keep car completely stock, or at least spend zero dollars on it for things that don't transfer to a future hotrod project. Drive occasionally until I get closer to a swap.
2) Rip out the LT1 and 4L60E and get $1000, disabling car until I do something else.
3) Invest a little into LT1 stuff and do the LT1 bolt-on stuff that I always wanted, blending Caprice parts as soon as I feel like I want to.

And it turns out the way to get the most enjoyment from this car right now is #3. I am not going to put the car up on blocks with no engine/trans until I have a solution for that (i.e. mice, some kind of shelter I think, whatever else). So #2 is not happening right now. And I like #3 better than #1.

In other news, I ran into an improbable combo on the road this morning in the Roadmaster. A Golf R and a Mercedes C43 AMG coupe. The Golf R was doing nothing at all of interest. The C43 guy was a least hammering a little. I kept up with what little hammering he did and would have loved to see what he thought of that.

This car doesn't give me the same comfort feeling at speed as my Caprice yet but it does feel pretty good. It gets more stable with speed like the Caprice and feels like a very competent tourer (except the steering is kind of crappy).

[kevm14]

Also that $400 tuning software becomes $200 tuning software if I can get Ed to split it with me. And that might just happen.