I was wondering if you had any advice or exercises to help my sit-ups?
The most easily correctable things I see guys do is
1) hips are too close to your heels
2) doing negatives on the way down.
That will give you a few more, but overall I would recommend just varying your training if you can. When you are doing ab exercises look up some ab exercises you have never done before and just do a 10 min session of whatever that exercise is and you will see a difference.
Are there any specific swim workouts for someone who is 5’8” or below?
Something that really helped me get faster in the water was using a kick board and alternating with hand paddles. It helps to really strengthen your stroke/kick.
Do you have any advice for improving your 500m - 1000m swim times?
One thing that helped me was alternating with hand paddles and fins. It really helps you feel what movements will help you propel yourself in the water. Also a big thing people miss is working on reducing your time on the wall during turns.