alright...this spring/summer my motor and tranny are coming out again,and im debating what to do with the engine bay.Should i just give it a through cleaning..and replace/repair the little crap thats broken or missing? or make the engine compartment all buisness...meaning everything not needed,gets pitched,and use sheet aluminum to cover everything up like the shock towers for a clean race car type apearance?

also since ill be painting the car this spring/summer and the motor is coming out,and possibly being turned into a 383,or at the very least a 355 with some good pistons.{btw my 350 now has less than 1k miles on it since rebuilt} what color do you guys think i should paint the car? also what would be a good color for the motor..that would look good with the paint scheme of the car? gimme some opinions and ideas...

here are my ideas for the car.

Dark mettalic blue paint,or a mettalic black
heavily built 355 or 383,possibly a 391 {leaning more towards a 391}
T56 trans
4.56 gears in the rear {working on fabbing up a 9 inch for the car once i get the blown up rearend out}
mildly modded interior,nothing extreme...just clean looking...with most likely autometer ultra light gauges in the dash with a custom gauge cluster.
cant decide on ram air II hood, or 3 inch cowl
also cant decide on 91-92 z wing,or 4th gen ws6 rear wing.
and im thinking some ZR1's 17x9.5 front and 17x11 rear...with some 275/40/17s front and 315/35/17s rear.

anyways..those are my thoughts so far..

the motor,tranny,paint are getting done this summer for sure,,tranny probably around fall. the rest is up i nthe air until i decide what the hell i wanna do..


so lets hear it...ideas,opinions,comments,additives, good bad...lemme hear it

btw attached is a pic of the engine compartment,basically looks exactly like that right now..except the new headers are on.
also attached is a decent pic of the car..would someone be willing to photoshop the car? with some good paint,wheel tire combo...and the hoods mentioned..id really apreciate it!

 

and a decent shot of the car...if you need a better pic let me know...ill take some of any shot you need.

 

this pic might be a bit better for a photoshop

 

I prefer a stock looking engine bay, with chrome used very sparingly. I'm not a big fan of braided hoses, billet, and sheet aluminum. As for the body, I think a dark metalic blue would look absolutely killer. For the hood and spoiler, I think 4th gen style ram air hoods and high rise spoilers look tacked on and out of place. 17's would look great, depending on the style. I think Torque Thrust II's would set off the blue paint nicely. For the interior, a set of Autometers in the stock dash would be nice.

 

i would clean the engine bay good! then replace parts needed to have everything working, then get rid of what you dont need..

not too sure about covering the towers with sheet aluminum..

 

In my opinion I would remove what doesn't belong in the engine bay and give it a cleaning. I would leave it at that. More crap = more weight. I prefer an open engine bay with room to work on the engine if needed.

Dark Blue Metallic is awesome. That is the color of my TA and I like it. When I go to get it repainted I am going to leave it that color.

As for the hoods I like the Ram Air I hood that looks like the early 4th gen hood as it matches the lines of a third gen body alot more than the Ram Air II hood does. I agree that the Ram Air II doesn't look right. It looks ok on the 1991-1992 TA's but that's it.
I think the cowl hood is ugly as hell. It obstructs your view and looks *******. On some Camaros it looks good but it doesn't match the gracefull and sleek lines of a Trans-AM/Firebird.

As far as the spoiler I detest the high rise Camaro spoiler. It looks good on the 91-92 Camaros but that's it. I would go with a fiberglass aerowing or the 4th gen style wing. I know the 4th gen style wing doesn't match our cars exactly but it looks pretty good on some of our cars. A good photoshop job on your car should tell you if that's right or not. I am not for mixing and matching of Camaro and Firebird parts. As for the engines and wheels I think your set on the right path. Hope this helps.

 

If you want the racecar look - clean that engine bay out - get rid of anything and everything you don't need - Once we get into our house with 4-stall garage (yay) Im gunna start taking mine apart.. my hubby cleaned up his S10 bay, welded in steel in any holes that weren't needed, and it looks slick. If thats not important to you, just clean it up good - but I obviously prefer empty
as far as color, im partial to black.. on anything. For some reason I like *any* car better in black.. but again thats just me..

also regarding the TTIIs, doesnt everybody have those now? I seem to see them everywhere. IMO there are so many great wheels, get creative!

 

Yes, I know everyone has TTII"s. But being different doesn't always mean being better.

 

best i do for paint

 

tried but no luck

 

well hmmm i beleive im going to go with dark mettalic blue paint,the motor will probably become a 383 with AFR heads,around 10.5 11 to 1 compression. POSSIBLY! fuel injected,im really liking the looks/performance/style of accels PRO RAM. and its only 2100 bucks complete with every thing.

t56 is going to happen,probably around mid/late fall.

still undecided on hood/rear spoiler. im leaning towards either the ws6 4th gen style...or 91-92 gta wing.

hood eh... probably a cowl...or ram air 2...something large enough,so the motor fits under the hood

as far as the engine bay,i beleive im jsut gonna completely go through it..and clean everything up...what ISNT needed goes in the garbage hehe.

wheels/tires...done deal

i need more suggestions and opinions guys.

btw redcamaro83 thanks for the photoshop attemps hehe

 

So what would your car look like with dark metallic blue paint??? Probably alot like mine which you just saw at the dyno gathering...




That's 2002 GM Midnight Blue Pearl Metallic..
I hear when you're copied its a form of flattery...

Anyway Mark.. copy me if you can! Doubt you can afford the paint much less the labor..




:lala: :lala: :lala:

 

By the way.... Can Tony paint??

 

Sounds like some nice plans. If I was in that situation, I would pull everything not needed from the engine bay, replace things that are broken/missing, clean up the stuff that stays, POR-15 it and paint it black.

 

I agree whatever color your car is now is plain "blah" looking, and I think color change would be justified.

Color, up to you!!!

As for engine bay, I am HUGE fan of keeping engine bay same color as outside, including door jambs, hatch area, etc.

Then, since you will have bay basically gutted for paint, only install whats needed, but I would keep the aluminum coverings, etc out. IMO that just more bs to deal with, more weight, and would cramp space when needing to work on something.


Just my $.02 Cha-Ching

 

Everyone else has adressed the looks...I'll adress the mechanicals. For one, have you ever ridden in a car with a T56 and 4.56 gears? I had a 95Z with just that, in a 9" Moser rear ,and while it was fun around town and nearly unbeatable from a light, it was no quicker through the 1/8th mile than it was with 4.11s. It just turned another 300rpm or so higher. As far as engine speed, thats no big deal...but consider the critical speed of the driveshaft, its going to limit you. Even with a professionally balanced, high quality aluminum driveshaft, I still got some pretty serious vibration at anything much over 100mph. If you're planning to run a featherweight driveshaft (carbon fiber), and your motor is going to turn 7500rpm+, you might be ok, but otherwise I'd stick to 4.10s. I've had two different cars with this combo, and to me its the best allaround gear NA. If you're running NOS, I'd step down to a 3.70.

Why do you want to go to a 391 (4.060 bore, 3.75 stroke I assume?)? If you're using a stock block (not Dart, Bowtie, etc), its going to be substantially weakened...you may lose in ring seal what little you may have gained in cubic inches. If you're going to be doing machine work anyway, and your block wont go .030 over, I'd look for a new block. I'd make it a 383 and be done with it.

 

well the 391 i was debating doing... is basically a 383,but the 2.45 main journals are ground down to the small journal 282/327 size of 2.0 and i beleive 6 inch rods are used...but im NOT totally sure. the idea on this ..is the huge power of the big cube motors,with the rev's of the 283/327 just something i picked up in a magazine...it made huge amounts of power. i dunno...im justdebating what to do and weighing my options right now. but i apreciate your advide on the drivetrain info.

 

If you're gettign the extra cubes through the stroke (say if its more than 3.75), it should be fine...I just wouldn't go .060 over on any late model block, and would prefer not to even on an older one. .060 over and a 3.75 stroke would only be 388, so you'd probably be ok. If its only .030 over, go for it, but with that much stroke you're probably going to make power down low...at least not in the 7500+ range. Thats actually better, but not well matched to the 4.56s. You'd be much happier with 4.11s, or even 3.70s considering you'll likely be traction-limited anyway.

 

ttt

 

I would fix everything back up in the bay, new everything and then paint with high tempature paint. The bay would look much better stock than with all those extra stuff thats not needed. Paint it black

 

I had an 84 Trans Am that looks pretty much like yours except it was dark metallic royal blue.