Bad AZz Z28

I've been a member on here since '03, and by then I was already chasing an IROC dream for years. It took me over a decade from then, but since 2011 I've have a blue '89 IROC with ttops. I bought it with a single bid on ebay, on a dare, $50 above the high bidder. He was supposed to outbid me. Here we are.

The plan was to leave it stock.
Then it was to upgrade it a bit.
Then it was going to be a stock LS swap
Then it was going to be a lightly modified LS swap
Then it was an LS/T56 swap
Now its an engine/trans/rear/suspension money pit that should run 10s this year on its way to stick shift 9s

It was only supposed to be a daily driver while my other LS swap ('94 Z28 1LE with turbo LQ9) got built. But it ended up getting a project of its own, that lead me to touch every square inch of the car (engine, trans, rear, front and rear suspension and brakes, steering, pedals, fuel system, exhaust, cooling system, hell even the center console lid and door jambs).

I do all of my own work on all of my projects. The car isnt done, but its pretty far along, so I'll make some posts while sorting photos. If anyone has any interest in this build or the '94 turbo swap, I can add photos and details of either here.

Thanks

This is the only long distance blurry photo from the ebay ad, with very little info and a slightly crooked IROC logo. This bid was a bad idea. I got lucky haha


Picking up the car back in '11





Vague swap ideas starting

Bad AZz Z28

I made the buddy who dared me to bid on the car go on the 10+ hour roadtrip out of state to get it. When we got there, the guy selling it offered me $500 to just go back home. Then we also saw that he had home painted it blue (originally a red car). But it was a very clean car (minus the smacked front bumper) originally from Georgia, so we loaded it up.



Outside of loading it on the trailer, I never drove the car until we arrived at the track back home, so that was pretty much my test drive.

It ran a 15.4@ 88, followed by a 16.5 @ 82. Clearly my TPI 350 / 700r4 / 9bolt car wasn't living up to its modest billing.

Bad AZz Z28

When I got the car home, it was just some bad injectors. I threw in a set of stock LS injectors and went back to run 14.6@93.6. Other than adding a borla exhaust, LS front brakes, and an astro steering rod, I left the car stock for 5 years. I had sold all my SBC/LT1 go fast parts to prevent me from being tempted to dip into this car before I was ready. Being an original 350 and 9 bolt (2.77) car, I'll keep the engine/trans/rear set aside together.

I started to run into issues with daily driving it though. I had a headgasket fail in a big way on the thruway in rush hour, the fans didnt like to turn on, the gauges worked when they felt like it, the exhaust manifold leaked, an MSD cap and rotor fried, I chipped a few teeth on the ring gear from low fluid after a slow leak, and a rattling noise at idle sounded like it came from the converter area. Finally, when I brought it out one spring, both the distributor and fuel pump had failed, and that pushed me over the edge to start the swap. Had this been a few years later, with cars like GrubbWorm running 7s and LS coil on plug computer setups being available to SBCs, I may have run what it had. But I had picked this car up to eventually swap, I only wanted a roller, so it was happening now.

I was going to just drop an untouched junkyard 6.0L onto the 700r4 to get it up and running. A buddy of mine had a 6.0 half taken apart with a mismatch of LS1 heads and missing cam and covers, and I could see the bores were clean, so I saved a few bucks and grabbed it instead - now we're talking cam, intake, and ring gap project at least.

Bad AZz Z28

I took it to my trusted machine shop and asked for a cleanup, light hone, and new bearings. I had them put some ARP rod bolts into one of the sets of stock rods the engine came with, and gave them some Speedmaster main studs it had come with. The studs started breaking on them, so we were adding ARP main studs to the project now.

I thought I was all set to pick up the block, but when I got there, they had found a big gouge in one of the cylinder walls. I was pretty sure I'd notice that, but I hadnt marked the block. They arent the kind of place to pull a stunt to drag a few hundred bucks out of my joe dirt project, but I wonder if it got mixed up with another block. Anyway, decision time led to a .030 over bore, budget Scat forged rods, and Mahle forged pistons. Might as well toss in some ARP head bolts too.

Bad AZz Z28

I was selling my house and the garage was a mess, plus my buddy needed a rebuild on his 383 LT1 at the same time, so I took over my family room for a double engine build.

Bad AZz Z28

Checking main rod and cam bearing clearances, cam and crank end play, ring gap, and cam timing.

I went 26 top and 28 second ring for gap.

Bad AZz Z28

Since this was still going to be a budget-ish stock-ish build, I went with an LS9 cam, which is dirt cheap from Summit. It was a very tight fit, and my homemade tool to work on the cam bearing didnt do the trick, so it had to go back to the machine shop. They messed with it for quite awhile but got it the clearance to spin freely.

Then I timed the cam and found out it was ground wrong from the factory. I sent it back and got a new one that was dead one. You wouldnt expect a stock GM cam to show up wrong, but, check everything.​​​​​​​

Bad AZz Z28

I sold the 241 heads my mismatch LQ9 came with and ordered some used but freshened up LS3/L92 heads off ebay from some machine shop in Chicago, Windy City something. DONT EVER GO THERE. They took a used aluminum head, didnt clean it, then spray painted it gray. And I mean every surface, including where the springs and rockers mount. That was one of the shadiest, laziest things I've seen. A buddy of mine with a new shop spent the better part of a day in various parts washers trying to un-**** what they did. Hopefully my PAC springs are what ended up on the heads as intended, we'll find out haha.

I grabbed a Dorman LS3 intake, Holley sniper throttle body, IWIS timing chain, 8 junkyard rocker arms and 8 new stock offset rockers, Comp Cam trunion upgrade and 3/8 pushrods, GM MLS head gaskets, and Trickflow timing chain damper bracket. A pair of junkyard valve covers top it off. The mismatch block came with a set of new LS7 lifters, so thats what its getting.

Bad AZz Z28

What to do:
Thread chase your bolt holes. This video was just to show how clean and clear they were.

What NOT to do - trust torx bolts, or hack them out. I saw that the new cam retainer plates were all flush mount with torx bolts, which I wasnt thrilled about, but I grabbed it. Sure enough I had one strip, and it was a real bastard to get out. None of my extractors would grab it, and a notch for a screwdriver didnt do it either. I finally just hulk smashed it and moved on, but it slowed me down having to tape/prep/bag the engine around this, then super clean it after to avoid metal shavings.

I found someone selling the older, usable style with normal m8 bolt heads and it was an easy install of course.

Bad AZz Z28

I wanted -8ORB fuel rails with a return, vs the stock lines or any expensive ones. I grabbed these anodized ones from ebay. They line up the injectors fine, but the mounts are for an LS1 or LS2, so they were just off enough to make me waste time making mount adapters.
I'm using some 36lb flex fuel injectors I got as left overs from a buddy's truck build.
The regulator is a magnafuel.
I made my own fuel lines with PTFE braided line.
The coils are some junkyard picked square truck coils.
My steam vent lines are a very mediocre kit I bought. I ended up modifying it with some extra elbows to fit better around my PCV and senders and rails.
I'm using the stock fuel pressure and return lines with some AN adapters up front to feed a Y into the back of the rails.
Its hard to see in the photo, but the rails have a port in the center on the bottom. I wanted to use them to run a fuel pressure gauge, but I had to get creative with some adapters and 90 elbows to make it so the pressure sender just screws in vertically next to the injectors because they hit the coils coming straight out.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Not sure how you got those valve covers to fit, but you'd be better off with later LS6 or LS3 type covers. Better baffling for better oil control.

Bad AZz Z28

Hmm, didnt have any problem with fitment, I assume because its a GM cam and rockers instead of something more fun like I'm used to running. I grabbed a few covers off some trucks and went with what cleaned up well and worked with my PCV / catch can setup. But I'll keep an eye out for any issues at temp. Valve covers dont see that much oil, but I wouldnt want clearance to be an issue, especially if I fix my cam choice later. I'll waste money like its going out of style, but I hate the idea of spending good money on valve covers without a need though.

Bad AZz Z28

My house (and more importantly, garage) sold before I could get to the swap, so that meant the engine was on the move. I used an engine stand I had welded up for a previous project.

I went with a stock water pump, power steering pump, and tensioner. Dirty dingo brackets. Its was a junkyard 145a alternator until my tow vehicle avalanche had its alternator die the night before I was trading it in, so I had to steal this one off the IROC engine. I ordered a new ac delco 145amp to replace it.

The splurge up front was the billet power steering pulley, but I absolutely loathe the stock one that you have to use a puller for any time you want acces to the bolts. UGH.

The oil catch can is a Saikou Michi that I had left over because I never installed it on the avalanche as planned.

Trickflow SFI damper, not sure if I have a photo of it at this stage.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

The plastic baffle type that came on my LQ4 wouldn't fit with the offset factory rocker arms on my 823s. The LS6 type fit great. I have a set of Holley LS3 covers on my 317s, they have the same type of baffle as the LS6. Work great with the LS6 valley cover.

I have a set of L92 covers I think. They use the same 823 heads.

Bad AZz Z28

I bought a set of ebay covers for my turbo LS project, but I havent run them yet. I've heard they like to leak, which wouldnt surprise me. The turbo project 6.0 in my '94 has an LS6 valley cover too.

For this iroc 6.0 I made a mess of valley cover purchases. I bought an LS6 valley cover but I returned it, dont remember why now. Then I ordered an LS3 valley cover for it, which wasnt right, so I had to sell it and reorder an LS6. Awesome parts management by me there haha.
I dont have a photo of the valley cover installed on the thirdgen's 6.0L, so this second photo is from the 4th gens 6.0L (note the coated pistons and head studs instead of bolts).

JAYDUBB

Nice build. Im doing something similar (LQ4 with Gen 4 rods/pistons, LS3 heads and a turbo). Why did you go with the Dirty Dingo accessory brackets? I'm using all LS1 Camaro stuff. Is there a difference in fitment?

Bad AZz Z28

Thanks. Im about to run out of normal build photos, and then all the budget busters will come flying haha.
The accessory bracket fitment should be the same as stock, I dont think it pulls the alternator in farther or anything, and I know the PS pump is in the same spot. But a stock alt bracket with idler was more expensive than the dingo bracket, and they were running a PS/alt bracket combo. Since I wasnt starting with any stock accessories, I grabbed it. On my turbo block I ran the dingo PS bracket but with a nicer Alper idler. Same difference really.

I'm not sure what power adder this car will ultimately have yet. I have some unfinished business with a nitrous stick car setup, so I'd like to maybe run that number first. But I'd love for this car to have a procharger like my old '98. Then I look at blower prices and think I might whip up another turbo setup. Its cheaper and I can do it all myself, but I'll already have a built car with full exhaust and I dont know how much down time I'll tolerate after all of this.

Here is my '94 6.0L turbo swap for comparison:

IROCThe5.7L

Awesome! Looks great Mark! Can't wait to see the finished product.

scooter

iTrader: (11)

Why two pressure sensors in the fuel rails?

Bad AZz Z28

Good catch. I was going to run an '02 ECU and the stock gauges, where I wouldnt need any. Now I'm running a TerminatorX and set of Autometer gauges, so each has its own sensor. I'll get to the pictures for those projects in a sec.

Bad AZz Z28

Thanks! After our spring of disasters, I threw myself into the car a bit over summer and hoped to have it out in fall, but now we should be a go for spring, finally.

Bad AZz Z28

The stock fuel pump died in storage. I could have just thrown a replacement in, but I didnt like how little the 3rd gen tank held, so I switched to the plastic tank. Single Walbro 450 pump. I was going to run all the bits and pieces of it with a stock '02 computer, but that plan changed. I also had planned to run stock gauges, so I converted the fuel level sender to 0-90ohm using a v6 bucket and grand prix sender. None of that really mattered once I rewired power to the tank and went to aftermarket gauges.


This car is SO CLEAN























I dont love how this filter sits, but I had bigger projects to finish for a startup.

Bad AZz Z28

Now that its out, I'll probably get the itch to rebuild it, because I like being busy and getting mad instead of driving haha. That stupid automatic is garage art forever though.








As you can see, the previous owner didnt bother doing the engine bay or door jams blue.




Its funny, just being wet makes the red look pretty good haha. I'd love to have a red iroc to pair with this car, but do I get a red one, or get a blue one and paint this one back to red, or ? Maybe I just finish one project instead.

Bad AZz Z28

From this post on, my budget will never recover haha.

I've wanted to make this a stick car since I bought it. I have a broken LT1 T56 in the garage that would need a new output shaft. Once you try to get a viper shaft upgrade and rebuild the trans, maybe toss in an upgraded 2nd gear, shift forks etc, parts alone were like $2500 and a magnum t56 starts just over 3. I waited like a decade for Tremec to make the magnum-F and it never happened, so I ordered a modified magnum from Tick. Since they have to open it up for the -F modification, it makes their upper stages cheaper, so I went with a stage 4 good for 900rwtq. A few months after I got my trans, Tremec released the magnum-F. Of course. You're all welcome.

I had to get the old pilot bearing out and broke 2 store rental tools before I found the tool I made for this job years ago. Problem quickly solved with that.

I've had a Spec stage 4 that worked well before, and my favorite was a McLeod street twin. Tick had a combo on the hydraulics I needed and a Monster clutch though, so I figured I'd try something new. I talked to them and they said the single discs can hold the power but not have as much life, so I went with the LT1-S dual clutch. The Monster clutch is an awesome piece. Rather than 2 separate discs aligned only by the alignment tool, these discs have a hub that fits over and makes alignment much easier. It also had the float plate and 2nd disc set up where you dont have to check for disc gap like I'm used to doing on twins.

It looks like Quicktime is the only place making an SFI bellhousing, and that sucks, I was not impressed. Its expensive, it requires a separate index plate to check offset, then the offset dowel pins are $117 for ****ING DOWEL PINS. Then you add in headers and they dont clear this bellhousing at all. It also pinched my slave cylinder hydraulic, so we'll see if I have problems with that later on. But, if all hell breaks loose, I get to keep my feet, so I paid this ransom.

Bad AZz Z28

I needed to run the middle shim of Tick's shim pack for the slave cylinder.

I drilled for and installed the Tick adj master cylinder. Also pulled the stock brake pedal and installed the clutch/brake combo pedals. I pulled the helper spring as Tick recommended, and modified the pedals just slightly to fit the clutch release sensor better.

I drilled out the spot welds of automatic shifter plate before cutting for the new trans. I'll use the old shifter cable hole and a new grommet to route wiring to the T56.

Bad AZz Z28

For now, this car is getting my good luck shifter - a factory 4th gen Hurst shifter with chrome handle and white ball. I never got the hype of other short throws, but this thing was perfect every time. Eventually I'll get my other car back to manual as well, and then I'll have to find another Hurst, or buy one of the nice new Tick ones to compare.

I'll properly fix some of the spot well holes when I yank the carpet to add subframe connectors and maybe a rollbar. I want to bend up something nice for it, but I'm not sure how much usability I want to lose in this car yet, so I'm not getting into it until I get a feel for what I want from this car.

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

Yeah, that about sums up my reaction too. Here's a lead for next time...

https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...n-dollars.html

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

By the way, thanks for sharing your build story. Nice to see new build threads on the site where people are talking through the details.

scooter

iTrader: (11)

You're actually going to use the clutch anticipate switch? I hooked mine up to the factory ECM, but I get an error, so I shut off the codes. I am not sure what it actually does though

Bad AZz Z28

Wow, great, wish I had seen that before, but you just saved me $100 for next time!

Thanks! I've been watching your thread for awhile, it was one of the reasons I wanted to start mine. I should have started it earlier, but we had kiddos in the NICU and I didnt want long pauses if I had to ghost the project for awhile. But now I'm just lobbing a thousand pictures into the wind and hoping someone cares and wants to talk about a few of them haha.


I assume you mean from the pedal picture. I had to shave down the mount for the neutral safety switch because the pad was a bit too thick for the sensor, but that should work fine now. The other switch would be a release for the cruise control, but I dont have cruise solved or hooked up right now, so that sensor is just along for the ride at the moment. Pedals were a bit of a pain to mount on this project, moreso than when I've done these swaps before, probably because the car is mine and I want to drive it haha. I have a bit of cleanup left to do under the dash with the master cylinder adjustment, a few wires, and the lokar throttle cable.


Since I'm talking pedals, they of course connect to the brake master cylinder studs. I was in the junkyard and spotted a 98+ car with a loose brake booster, so I ended up grabbing that and swapping booster & brake master. Shouldnt be a performance difference, but now my pedals, rods, booster, master, hydraulics etc are all 4th gen so they can play nice together. It also gives me a bit more shock tower room, since I went aftermarket for taller camber plates. I was able to slightly re-bend the stock brake lines from master cyl to proportioning valve. I also did the spring mod in the prop valve because my rear brakes were clearly not getting any pressure before - those rear rims were clean all the time. And if there is one thing I learned about modding cars, its that you should change everything at once and have no idea what change was your problem later haha.

QwkTrip

iTrader: (22)

Oh, without a doubt! It's the only way to have fun.

Bad AZz Z28

With engine/trans/clutch/bell together, it was crossmember time. I fully planned to use the stock one. I had started cleaning it up and painting it while it was still in the car. I was going to cut out the notch for air conditioning even though I dont have it on the LS right now. But then I saw how terrible the stock third gen mounts connect and I got mad. The hidden, hard to reach nuts were stupid, and I was going to cut open the crossmember and weld in the nuts, but I was rushing to bring the car out, so I just called Spohn and spent more money instead. The k-member is nice though.

Headers are Speed Engineering. I was going to just run cleaned up manifolds, then turn them around into turbo manifolds later, but the price was too good to pass up for these headers. I welded on v-bands to them and can connect my own catalytic-converter ypipe to that easily, because slip fit sucks to work on later.

Bad AZz Z28

I havent built the Y-pipe for the IROC yet because its going to require some weird fab work, as I'm sure most of you are aware. I either need to modify the Spohn bracket, or swoop around and under it, because the driveshaft safety loop bracing (and the cars 'frame') is right in the way. I'll decide how to finish in the spring, but here are pictures of Ypipes I did for an Avalanche and a 4th gen trans am. What I end up with will be roughly equivalent when I'm done.

scooter

iTrader: (11)

The clutch anticipate switch is the one on the clutch pedal in the picture of the pedals, it's cylindrical, white with two white wires coming out of it.

Bad AZz Z28

Speaking of Spohn transmission mount, I went that way vs others with more exhaust clearance because it allows me to run one my favorite parts of the whole car, the Spohn Adj Drag Torque Arm with delrin bushing. Just look at her, I can feel the clean launch already haha.

I do wish that 3rd gens mounted aftermarket Tq Arms like 4th gens though. Those have the wavy plate location, and it naturally shorten/lightens the torque arms, and gives a great spot to triangulate subframe connectors like my old Kenny Brown double diamonds on my '94.

Bad AZz Z28

Yeah thats the one I was going to use for cruise but wont be using for anything now.

Bad AZz Z28

My 9bolt had some chipped ring gear teeth, and the cost to get 9bolt parts was prohibitive when I look at how small and weak they are anyway, so I started looking for alternatives.

I had kept the old Moser 12bolt from my '94 laying around for awhile in hopes of reusing it, but sold it a few years before I found this IROC project.

Then a buddy of mine took on a rally truck project i was helping him with and letting him use my garage for. He had some extra junkyard 8.5" corporate 10 bolts with that, so he gave me one to modify for the IROC.

I also had a leftover detroit trutrac differential from a rear end I built and later removed from my Avalanche. I ordered up a TA cover, so I would just need to cut down the housing, order some custom axles, and brackets for the suspension and torque arm. Same idea as the guys doing 8.8s really. But it would take time, so I snapped and decided I was going to punish this car on launches anyway, so it needed the big dog. Strange DanaS60 35spline S-trac differential with chromoly yoke.

Bad AZz Z28

A lot of fidgety little problems with the brakes. I wanted to switch to LS rears since thats what I have up front, but LS backing plates are wildly unavailable. I tried cutting a set out of a junkyard but the car wasnt in a good enough position for me to do all of that. You can only order 1 side new for some reason. I finally found a solid set on ebay. Then I wanted to clean it up, but the parking brake adjuster boots didnt seem to be available anywhere. I bought something similar and made it work, but they were clearly too thick to fit correctly.

I bought the adjustable parking brake cables from Flynbye, but realized I still needed the bracket that holds both the brake line and parking brake cable. I could not find those new, junkyard, or ebay, but fortunately a member of one of these facebook fbody groups had a set to sell me.

I also needed rear calipers, and the cost to get stock unpainted ones with a basic set of pads and rotors was more than just getting the PowerStop package. I dont really buy into drilled/slotted, especially in the rear, but its the rare bit of show I'll get with my go. New stainless brake line kit from Flynbye fit perfect on the new rear axle.

Bad AZz Z28

With the transmission and rear end on board, my cheap factory parts swap is long gone, but I was still going to re-use some leftovers as I could. My '94 1LE came with boxed LCAs and panhard bar when I got it, not sure if the previous owner did it himself or ordered it somewhere. They both had poly bushings, but the ones on the LCAs were looking tired so I bought a new bushing kit and pressed them in. I also stripped, primed, and painted them while they were apart. I held up the boxed versions to the IROC stock ones in one of these photos, and you can see the IROC ones actually have a flex in them, although I dont know if it was from driving or someone improperly lifting the car. Eventually I'll get Spohn adjustable ones with delrin bushings, but I really dont think I need them.

I had the boxed panhard rod painted and installed, but once I made my shock/spring decision, I ended up ordering a Spohn adjustable panhard anyway.

The swaybar is stock, but it actually measured thicker than my stock 4th gen 1LE bar, so I was pretty surprised. I would love to get a Spohn Drag Sway, but I want to see how I use this car first. The last 2 photos are my first attempt at a swaybar endlink. They are cool pieces I picked up when I was still going to use the 9bolt. But with the DanaS60, they just dont seem to have the length to catch the sway bar at the correct angle. I made it better, but still not right in the 2nd photo, when I dug through my parts bin and saw that the DanaS60 came with their own endlinks, so thats what I switched over to.

Bad AZz Z28

The shocks the car came with were BEAT. When I first got it, I switched to some Sensatracs just so it had a suspension at all. But once I had upgraded the car this much, I wanted better.

My 1LE car has single adjustable Konis, which I love - they got me a 1.47 sixty foot before. But I didnt feel like I got great weight transfer, an that Koni/Eibach combo felt better at handling to me. So here came some Viking double adjustable coilovers.

Install is easy, just put the upper mount on the shock before you lift it into place. The most time consuming part was just drilling the extra hole on the lower mounting bracket through the shock mount on the rear end, but that doesnt take very long.

The coilover itself is awesome, but in jumping ahead on photos, you can see from a recent photo of the car that it car sits way too high in the back. I thought I installed them as low as I could while keeping the spring contained throughout its travel, but clearly not. Its certainly an issue I will have to address. Its a 12" long spring, which was recommended on multiple websites for the application, but unless I'm missing something, it sure seems like a 14"+ is needed to give me any height adjustment even back to stock. Solution TBD there.

fuchs

That's a lot of work you did there so far. Good luck! Most of the details are way beyond me, but it's an interesting read for sure.

Bad AZz Z28

Shocks had been trash when I bought the car. Again like the rear, I went to Sensatracs at first, and then viking double adjustables with the swap.

Since I decided on coilovers for the rear, I was going to try it all the way around. But posts on here swayed me against it. The 3rd gen towers arent as solid as 4th gens, and it looks like they need more bracing to pull it off right. I also didnt want to get into clearance issues. So my solution is a double adjustable viking shock like the rear, but a weight jack setup for the spring. I liked the idea of the adjustability, but to do it right sounds like it would need an alignment at each change, and I dont see myself switching its modes from street to track to autoX enough that one height spring couldnt have provided. Not to mention I now have to pick my front and rear heights instead of just getting what I get, which is sometimes nice when you're trying to get a big project back out.

Another issue I ran into is that the UMI weight jack was designed for a stock or UMI crossmember, but unless its not available through them, I stick primarily to Spohn. My Spohn kmember was already in place, and had a 4" spring perch. The weight jack had a 4.5" opening. To bridge that gap, I cut down some schedule 40 plumbing pipe and sanded the inside down until it was a press fit onto the kmember. We'll see if that is good enough, since there is still a bit of clearance, but not enough for it to rock like it would have been with a half inch gap. The spring has plenty of tension, but if it makes noise I'll end my weight jack experiment and go to a set spring.

The sway bar is actually a factory hollow 36mm, which I had to order a special sway bushings for from Spohn. I didnt see much info about IROCs getting that bar, but my car also has the factory wonderbar on it, so, good for me!

The adjusters on the shock would interfere with the swaybar endlink, so the website I got the shocks from recommended a shortened endlink to clear. That still interfered at first, but I was able to loosen and clock the shock housing, and now its perfect. I'll still disconnect the sway to drag race, but I like being able to leave it there and reconnect it after, even though I've street driven without one just fine.

The price of aftermarket A arms is crazy to me. I was going to reinforce the stock ones but didnt, which I came to regret when time to install new bushings. I was going to paint it black, but I had a can of red and tried it. I hate doing an appearance mod, but I installed new aluminum races with delrin bushings, and it was a bit of a pain in the ***, so the red was staying haha.

Bad AZz Z28

Bad AZz Z28

I just had to clearance the spindle bracket a bit for the bottom of the shock to clear.

Bad AZz Z28

Bad AZz Z28

This is actually a mod I did when I first bought the car, but it applies here with the front suspension pictures. I wanted to keep the IROC wheels but greatly improve the stock 10" front rotors and iron calipers, so I did an 11" rotor and aluminum LS1 brake conversion from bigbrakeupgrade.com. Im actually missing some intermediate photos of this, but they modified my spindle and have a hub and bracket to make all of this fit. Most importantly to me, it disconnects the bearing process from a brake job, because I HATE that grease packing design. I also got some stainless lines and banjo bolts from bigbrakeupgrade, and they did a nice job with everything.

I have EBC brakes and Hawk pads, but again, these photos are proving elusive at the moment. I'll find 'em.

Bad AZz Z28

For the engine bay, I had already done a coolant reservoir swap, but I'll include it here. I took a junkyard 4th gen reservoir, cut the factory battery tray, welded up a stand, dropped in the reservoir, then remounted the battery.

Since the cool TPI air intake is too small for this engine, it opened up room for me to switch the wiper fluid reservoir as well. I had to remove one brace and mess with the hood latch bracket a bit, but I got it in there. Again sourced from a junkyard 4th gen. I cut the pigtail and wiring harness from the 4th gen car long enough to reach back and solder into the stock wires from the wheelwell. I hated how those reservoirs looked up there, and this gives so much more room.

For the engine bay, I wasnt dedicating the time to do it right, but I think it came out pretty good anyway. I stripped it down pretty far, sanded, masked, primed, painted in the 1989 blue from Paintscratch. They match the factory color perfect every time ive needed something simple from them. With this and the doorjams I did, the car at least looks uniform now.

3.1EyeCandy

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for sharing. Love the progress pics!

Bad AZz Z28

I have to jump a round a bit here to show some of the fab work that makes swaps easier. I needed an engine block stand before, so I whipped this one up. It works good for bench repairs, transport, storage, and it also fits on the cart I made next.

The cart is intended to make engine/trans drop outs and installs easy out of the bottom of 3rd/4th gens. Its fairly lightweight and narrow to fit between cherry picker legs or with a lift, but with enough tire to support a ton of weight. All 4 wheels swivel so you can sneak it in/out sideways as needed when all the suspension parts are attached. It also has a gap in the plates in the middle so you can reach converter or bellhousing bolts. And it has little cups in the front to help grab tubular crossmembers (as shown with the black crossmember from my '94 car).

I was able to work out some accessory, fuel, wiring, and header fitment issues, then get the clutch and trans installed right on the cart and wheel it out to the car.

Bad AZz Z28

No issues here, sometimes its easier to get an engine and trans swap to fit than it is to make all the little bits and pieces work together.