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Well heres firebird number 6 for me. Some of you may have seen my other thread for my 88' Formula, I bought this to drive while I build my 88'. It's a 89' with 134,200 miles. The last owner was the 2nd owner and had it since 2002. He quit driving it in 2012, mainly just moved it around and let it run. It's really hasn't been messed with a whole lot and the paint is original other than the front bumper. At 100,000 miles in 2005 it began using oil so he went to our local Chevy dealer and order a brand new GM crate 350 for it. He threw in a comp cam, underdrive pulleys, headers, accel injectors, and a few other little things. It came with port matched siamesed runners and a edelbrock intake manifold. The transmission has a TCI shift kit and it has the 9 bolt rear end. It also came with a tubular torque arm, subframe connectors, and quite a bit of other stuff. It's super solid and has no rot so that's what sold me on it. Put about 1,000 miles on it so far after doing a full brake job and new tires. Anyone know how to fix or install a aftermarket radio in a 88-89 GTA? I noticed the radio pods are different as far as radio mounting so the usual radio install kit for a 3rd gen won't work. And of course the wiring is different.
nice, never seen a GTA with that spoiler looks different i approve!
The previous owner said the neighbor kids broke the back window out so putting that hatch on was the quickest fix. It doesn't look too bad but the original spoiler will be back on soon
Originally Posted by Buddy
Nice purchase. Also good to see these cars going to good homes and not getting into the ground.
Thanks! Not sure why he stopped driving it, I just took it on a 6 hour round trip and it did perfect
Originally Posted by DynoDave43
Very nice. Looks very solid and complete.
Are those show photos taken at the new Motorheads Bar and Grille? I've been following the developments there via a Route 66 news blog.
Shes almost ready for some paint. Coming along pretty good! Its only been mistaken for a Turbo trans am about 5 times I may just leave the primer on the roof and call it the Turdbo TA!
I better do an update so I can keep track of what I get done on this thing. Since the last update she got some paint! The car definitely needs repainted but hey for the moment it cleans up ok and I drive it everyday so who cares. I'm not gonna repaint it till my other black 88' Formula is done. I bought all new proforged steering stuff, proforged balljoints, KYB struts/shocks, TDS wonderbar, founders caster/camber plates, polyurethane front control arm bushings, TDS greasable front polyurethane sway bar bushings/brackets, U joints, and now all I need is tubular rear control arms and panhard bar. Gonna stay stock height for now since its driven daily. Gonna feel like a new car after I get that stuff in I also installed a edelbrock high flo base and accel runners. That was a easy task that got a little aggravating due to the 89 plenum being different. Threw in a southbay adjustable regulator and new diaphragm while I was at it. It had a bbk one on and the previous owner had the adjusting bolt all the way out?? The car runs a little better after that but it didnt quite scratch the itch. Been chasing down a misfire also that's driving me nuts so tearing apart the engine is gonna be fine with me. I'm working on getting a set of Vortec heads and buying a Stealth ram intake soon. Everyone says to go LS but my Formula will be LS powered and i cant justify the swap when the GTA already has a 35k mile 357 in it. It has a 218/224 .495 .503 Cam in it now so hopefully that combo will get me 300 wheel
Last edited by DD9TransAmGTA; 10-06-2018 at 07:31 PM.
Thank you! The previous owner was quite happy to see it get some attention also
Originally Posted by FireBirdblooded
Wow
Your car looks just like the 88 gta I bought. Same color and same paint fade spots. Very nice.
Is yours also white? Seems like white cars are worst when it comes to paint delamination, not just our delamination prone cars either
Originally Posted by 89Warbird
I love your car! It really looks good and sounds like it will move good as well. Thanks for posting updates on it!
Thanks for the kind words. It doesnt run too bad, I've been chasing a misfire issue since I got it. It definitely needs some heads. I've raced several cars and have yet to lose. I would say it could run with a lt1 car no problem.
Originally Posted by DynoDave43
She's looking good!
Is that the Isringhausen Cars and Coffee event?
Nice looking 3rd gen Charger next to you, too.
Thanks! And yep! That was their first cars and coffee I believe, pretty cool stuff there! They had a few of their race cars on display also
So getting a set of vortec heads shouldnt be too difficult for me, I may possibly have a set just gotta go check. But of course I didnt know the Holley stealth ram for vortec heads was "discontinued". Yet you can buy one of their Stealth ram fuel injection systems for......a Small block with vortec heads! What sense does that make? You cant buy the intake but if you buy the $2200 system you can get the intake apart of it. I emailed them about it....kinda frustrating the lack of intakes for vortec heads. So with that being said if anyone knows of one for sale please let me know!
Ended up buying a regular stealth ram. After I get my other car done I'll just go with a set of AFR heads. I have a set of LS1 injectors so I'll be throwing those in also. I'm thinking about powder coating the plenum white and doing the fins in gold for a nice little touch. Kinda looks bland as is
So if you follow my other thread on my 88' Formula heres why I've been slacking on it. This car has snowballed on me. I ended up getting the stealth ram conversion done, it wound up getting some new southbay 22lb injectors. Between all that and a new base chip from Tunedperformance the car runs sooooooo much better. To me it pulls harder from a dead stop compared to the TPI. It really woke it up a ton. Although the rough idle issue continues and I'm pretty sure a cracked head is my culprit. My coolant overflow tank always empties after awhile so looks like a set of aluminum heads are in my future. But I'm not gonna mess with that for awhile. It runs fine and I'm not tearing it apart again already. When I bought the car I knew it sat for 6 years so the floor pans had some surface rust. Between my angle grinder and some ospho they look great now! After using ospho I don't think I'll ever use POR 15 again. Now I'm onto the front suspension. The strut towers are some undercoat flaking off, etc so I decided I'll tear it apart and get the minor surface rust treated. Its crazy how much rust was lurking under the undercoat. I'm glad I got to it when i did because sitting any longer this car would have been a mess. I figured this was a good opportunity to just go ahead and get all new stuff for the front suspension. I'm going to brace the front control arms and then I'll have everything powder coated.
. Although the rough idle issue continues and I'm pretty sure a cracked head is my culprit. My coolant overflow tank always empties after awhile so looks like a set of aluminum heads are in my future. But I'm not gonna mess with that for awhile. It runs fine and I'm not tearing it apart again already.
My old 87 had some coolant usage issues for a long time, the original 305 had overheated once when the original owner had it- there was a pot metal fitting that was leaking and the shop I worked at tried to replace it and it crumbled when trying to remove it, so it got towed to dealer and they replaced the whole intake, fast forward a couple years later I bought it with 44k on it it ended up over 100k then I had a rod bearing give up while playing on the highway and started a knockin so when I tore the engine down one side of lifter valley had a lot of gunk on it - other side was clean- it had a cracked block all those years! I could tell when it was low as temp gauge was getting higher up than usual ran OK. Soooo it could be something other than a cracked head
Jeeeeze could you finish one before you start another? lol
You got to have atleast 2 project cars at all times so you dont get bored
Originally Posted by zman1969
My old 87 had some coolant usage issues for a long time, the original 305 had overheated once when the original owner had it- there was a pot metal fitting that was leaking and the shop I worked at tried to replace it and it crumbled when trying to remove it, so it got towed to dealer and they replaced the whole intake, fast forward a couple years later I bought it with 44k on it it ended up over 100k then I had a rod bearing give up while playing on the highway and started a knockin so when I tore the engine down one side of lifter valley had a lot of gunk on it - other side was clean- it had a cracked block all those years! I could tell when it was low as temp gauge was getting higher up than usual ran OK. Soooo it could be something other than a cracked head
It wouldn't surprise me that it would have an exotic issue like that. The previous owner told me he parked it for 6 years but never really mentioned why he parked it for that long after having a new engine put in.
Looks good, I can't believe how much progress you've made on it already! I'm going to have to try out that Ospho solution, your the second person I've seen use it here lately. My floor pans are undercoated and they look like poo.
Looks good, I can't believe how much progress you've made on it already! I'm going to have to try out that Ospho solution, your the second person I've seen use it here lately. My floor pans are undercoated and they look like poo.
If I had a bigger shop I'd work on it! (Working on that) Definitely try out ospho if you have any rust you want to get sealed up. I found that scrubbing it in with a maroon scotchbrite pad was the best way to use it. I sprayed it on several times and it really didn't do much. So on my last attempt I scrubbed the rust with a scotchbrite and ospho then finally got results
07-01-2018, 09:17 PM
