I just discovered that my 98 ls1 heads use a different bolt pattern on the valve covers than do my ported lq9 heads. I knew the 98s had the coils mounted directly to the cover instead of first to a bracket then a cover, but this one kinda pissed me off.

The 1998 valve cover uses about 10 bolts all around the perimeter of the void where the valves live. The lq9 uses 4 bolts right down the center of the void (bolts to risers in between the valvesprings). Is this a 98 thing or an lq9 thing? IE what do all the 99-02 ls1s use?

Looks like I'm in the market for valve covers... hence the bastard comment above. I was so excited about getting that buttoned up too.

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LS1 FC: breaking it in, working out the bugs...
Link to my swap (HEY NEWBIE I wrote this for you)

mine has the center bolts. the perimeter bolts is 98 kinda thing. sorry to hear about your bump in the road.



~Steve

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Steve

BEAUTY

Check Ebay and LS1tech. It's also noteworthy that the 99+ truck motors have center bolt covers as well, but you will need the fbody coil bracket to make the coils mount correctly.

The covers usually go for $60-$90, and the brackets can be purchased from a GM dealership for around $20/side.

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Contact http://www.smcperformance.com/ he has all you need in stock and much cheaper prices then the dealer. I buy all my parts from him and I live in Canada, even after shipping he is still cheaper then the prices I can get over here.

Did y'all know that the coils are different on the 98s too?!? 3 are the same but the bolt pattern on the 4th is reversed!

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LS1 FC: breaking it in, working out the bugs...
Link to my swap (HEY NEWBIE I wrote this for you)

Yep. You can just turn the 4th upside down and they will all bolt to the 99+ bracket.

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Rob
95 M3 6.6 LS2/T56 Daily Driver Pics & video link

hahaha...
I love my bastard '98 motor!
but its definitely a weird odd-man-out kinda motor.

so frijolee, what kinda stuff is going on for your motor?
just new/ported heads or some big cammy goodness?

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LS1T56FC widebody '87 sport - SOLD
current car - '04 WRX STi silver debagded wingless
my cardomain

got my valve covers and brackets off eBay for my '98 w/ 243 castings. dont remember the exact price, but wasnt much. my '98 is basically an '01-'02 inside and out now w/ a few aftermarket upgrades here and there. only went w/ the '98 cus of the price and availability.

goodluck getting everthing back together. give us some details of the head swap... i assume there is a cam as well...

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Sam C
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1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX - 50 Trim
1990 Mazda RX7 TII - LS1/T56

Awesome! That's a super hot tip. I was getting so pissed at this damn thing. If I ever meet you in person the first drink's on me.

-Katech rod bolts
-Harland sharp rebuilt rockers
-Stock crank. rods, pistons
-Ported heads as mentioned
-Cam was going to be a 243/252 .594/.594 monster (custom Lunati). However, I didn't like my piston to valve clearance (0.076 intake and 0.070 exhaust instead of the 0.080 and 0.100 recommended) and I didn't want to deal with ajustable timing or piston notching. Sooooo...
-Cam is now a Futral F13 230/232. It'll still idle nasty but not that nasty.

Anyone in the market for a BIG stick?

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LS1 FC: breaking it in, working out the bugs...
Link to my swap (HEY NEWBIE I wrote this for you)

No problem. The hardest part is finding the tiny bolts that you will need to bolt them all to the brackets. I ended up getting 50 or so from www.mcmaster.com because that was the smallest amount they sell. At least they were cheap....

Sounds like a nice motor. I have a smaller cam (224/224 114 lsa) with larger heads and have been very happy with it. I also did the Katech rod bolts.

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Rob
95 M3 6.6 LS2/T56 Daily Driver Pics & video link