FYI in case anyone is interested -

 

Man, there is something seriously wrong with that motor.
Very poor dyno numbers.....

 

Yeah, a 355 with Trick Flow Heads, a mild cam and aftermarket exhaust should be able to put down 300 hp. The numbers they produced can be made with factory heads, a mild cam and TPI. They also reverted back to a carb from fuel injection, no reason a car magazine should be doing that anymore with nearly every aftermarket EFI having their own "self-learning" feature. Judging from this site, people are buying these cars mostly to preserve or restore to stock, a smaller number seem modifying them by way of LS or aftermarket EFI options nowadays. So why would they go this route? This smells like it's going to be another low buck Thirdgen build with no vision that gets a bunch of second-hand parts thrown at it. Like when you and I have a bunch of extra parts in the garage we sell them. When car magazines have extra parts sitting around they do this "low buck build" that only hepls to revitalize the stigma of Thirdgens and them being sub-par performance cars. A much better article would be to purchase a decent condition IROC or GTA and have an initial appraisal done. Then show the best bang-for-your-buck repairs the average Joe can do to bring up the value. End the series with another appraisal that shows how much the car would be worth afterwards. Its the basic HGTV recipe that has turned them into a cash cow and revitalized the home renovation industry for the average couple. I think BadNblk did a thread where he revitalized a black IROC and made a few thousand cash.

 

I always keep an eye out for third gens in car shows and they are usually pretty disappointing. It's always just a few basic mods, hardly ever the things that third gens really benefit from.

 

How often do you see stock ones? They seem hard to find. The only diffs in mine vs stock is I have a fan controller, which I guess can be easily unplugged... Bosch injectors, a tune to program out the EGR, 4thgen driveshaft, AIR pump delete pulley, and a CD player... waiting for the previous owner to send me the original unit. Stuff that cant be put back to stock easily.
It's why I'm having a hard time deciding whether or not to drill a fuel pump access door... because that's a permanent mod there.

 

Don't do it. I did it only because I had to since the previous owner cut one. To do it correctly you will still have to drop the gas tank so that you can weld in a trim ring that the removable door can bolt to. It is super nice to know I now have access to the top of my tank in 5 mins but in reality the pumps shouldn't be going out that often to warrant it.

 

Thanks for sharing. I also was surprised by the 225 hp, my 305 with stock heads, mild cam, headers, SLP runners and EGR delete makes 237 on a Mustang dyno.

 

Part 2 just posted

 

I'm pretty sure that video is almost 10 years old, back when SPIKE was a channel. What dyno are they using as dyno numbers are not all the same depending on the equipment.

 

They're test driving the all new 2016 Camaro in the next segment, so more like 5 years old. Still, what a waste.

 

I saw someone on youtube do it. He basically used sheet metal, a couple of hinges, and some sort of foam or rubber in order to make a seal. Like a little door. I dont see why a piece of sheet metal (possibly painted to match the body), thin rubber lining, and about 10 rivets to hold it all together. But then again that's also more like repairing a hole in the body of a car instead of an access door.

 

Watch while our team of experts adds 25 Hp of muscle using a 100 Hp nitrous shot! LOL!