camarokeith

Hey everyone, I bought my 87 IROC back in 1998 and have always wanted to make it respectable. Please excuse an ignorant ideas i have, as i am just learning about all this. I am not interested in being the fastest (there is always someone faster) but just want to be respectable. I would like to do a build once and leave it alone, not constantly tweak it. 1/4 mi in the twelves is what I want, high elevens would be amazing. I need help though! I have done tons of research an think I have a 3 phase plan set out, I am looking for advice on the unknowns of my plan and advice from the experts regarding how close or far I will be from achieving my goal. I have settled on keeping my l98 over swapping a lt1 just for simplicity sake. The best I can see is that a lt1 t56 swap might save me $2000 best case scenario, and that would require some hopeful sales of my l98 t5 setup. so I have broken this down into 3 phase plan, simply for financial reasons. Phase 1 - A few years back I pulled my factory 700r4 and setup my 350 tpi with a t-5. now that I have plans for more power I first want to swap in a t56. It seems that there are still some places with the retro t56, if that is a possibility I would go that route first, if not i guess the 93-95 t56 route. Phase 2 - pull tpi and install weiand stealth ram, trick flow heads ( I have no idea which set to get for my setup - need EO (expert opinion) here, a cam to compliment the system ( again need EO I am clueless as to which one), and while the front is apart I will convert my v belt pulley system to a pulley setup from an 88 or newer 350 (this is in preparation of phase 3). Phase 3 - supercharge my old high school sweetheart! Which charger to go with is To be decided yet. I am a little ways from that yet. The only other major thing down the road is when the motor needs refresh I would consider turning it into a 383 or 400. other than that I can see a few hundred here or there but nothing major anymore. I suppose I will also need to solve traction issues but again I am here for some expert advice, as so many of my google searches have lead me right back to here. What do you guys think? Any words of wisdom? Encouragement, discouragement? Thanks in advance, this is very exciting to be considering this build for my baby!

camarokeith

Anyone with some words of wisdom? Is this worth doing or should I find a new approach?

fozzi58

I'll respond because I put up a similar question and got nothing.

Why not just go forced induction. If you have TPI on the car and its operational, just put a procharger or vortec on. You'll jump 100 ~ 150 hp and reach the 12 mark. The t5 will let go after a handful of hard starts but it will be fine if you play nice with it. Then work up the money for a legacy t56 and swap.

Since your on a budget and you want to maximize performance, just save up the cash and go for the forced induction.

You can turn that block into a 400 but it will take a shitload of massaging. 383 is easier. If you want the 400, then just pick up a dart 2 rotating assembly. Everything will bolt up nicey nice.

camarokeith

Thanks for the response. If I buy the charger first will it simply bolt up to a stealth ram if if end up getting one of those down the line?

fozzi58

"will it simply bolt up" is a loaded question. I've replaced GM parts with GM parts (same for fords, dodge, and a nissan I have owned) on cars and they haven't "simply bolt up"

Yes it will work, you might need to do some finagling such as changing the inlets or the rubber that connects the inlet pipes to the throttle body. But in general it will work. There are so many varying choices out there that all the manufacturers have to be somewhat compatible with everyone else.

I'm planning on using a FIRST TPI setup on my car with a D-1SC but others have said to peice-meal buying the tubes, brackets, etc because a lot of the parts will need to be changed in order to fit.

So while the SC will "work" no problem no matter what intake you have, you may have to spend some time adjusting the inlets to get it to fit. Google search "supercharger tpi stealth ram" and you can see some that have been done already.

camarokeith

Ok now to solve the problem of the v groove pulley. I've looked into different routes and have only found thAt a simple pulley conversion is rather expensive. Do I head to the junk yard and find an 88 or new and rob the pulleys for a couple hundred bucks or buy the gm package, or go after market? $600 seems to be the going rate for packages. What's best option?

Ryan Wandell

Idiot logic here.. wouldn't you have to do internal work, or would the procharger add 100-150 HP out of the box, on stock internals?

If that answer is yes, I highly need to consider buying a setup. Lmao.

camarokeith

After fozzi58 mentioned a blower on stock internals, I recalled an article I read in camaro performance years back. I pulled out the mag and sure enough there were 2 irocs featured in the article, one a yellow 87 and the other a red 88. The owner of the 88's goal was to build up his iroc without ever going inside the motor. He added a blower and nos, suspension, cat back, and tires. This was all done on the stock tune as well, only thing was he had a dual prom for when the nos was activated. With that setup he was running 11.8 and had done so breakage free (at the time of the article) for 2 years. So I would say that's pretty solid proof that you can add a blower and see some great results.