I’ve been wondering for a while if it would be possible to swap a crate C7 ZR1 engine into a C4 Corvette and make noticeable gains in performance? It sounds like a cool project and the C4 could be a cool sleeper.
Our esteemed member and performance expert Mod_Man will fill in the details, but realize putting the 755 hp LT5 crate engine into a C4 will result in a ripple effect to the rest of the vehicle (chassis, suspension, driveline, transmission, tires, exhaust, etc.) to make the whole vehicle’s systems work in harmony. I prefer to re-engineer the rest of the vehicle to work with that engine, as opposed to “slapping an engine in” and going from there. Anything is possible, in there, but in practice it can get very expensive and cost prohibitive for most of us.
Is it possible to shoehorn it in? Yes.
Will it take a bunch of custom fabrication to make it work? Yes.
@DayWalker nailed it. While you could just throw the engine in there and make it work, you'll almost instantly blow the transmission and you won't be getting any power down without the right suspension setup. The engine won't just slide into place, and it would take some custom fab to make the room for it. You'll also need to custom fab the transmission tunnel to fit a beefier transmission to handle the extra power, as well as redo the entire rear end.
Without getting too far into it, you're definitely talking about a $100k+ build to do it right. With the price of C4 Corvettes at all time lows and not looking to rebound in the foreseeable future, I wouldn't recommend doing this project just to have a sleeper. It is definitely cost prohibitive.
Anything is possible. Now cost wise would it be worth it . I doubt it as with any custom fabrication it would not be cheap.
