So might as well make my own build thread. Car started out as a buddies TT project. I guess he got tired of it and wanted a vette so I bought it all up. It's an 87 IROC 5.7 T-Top AC car. I've been through the whole car rewiring it all, fixing minor spots in the floor, collecting parts for the swap etc. It's getting there, still need to install the engine/trans. Waited on a new clutch before putting it all together. The motor is a .030 over LQ4 block to 370ci. Here's a list. Compression is around 10.4:1.

2000 LQ4 (.030)
Stock crank (machined .010/.010)
Chevlite H series Cam, Rod and Main Bearings
Compstar 6.125 H-Beams
Wiesco -11CC Pistons (rings gapped for boost)
Comp 236/236 .587/.587 112.5lsa (Turbo grind)
LS6 intake
Ported TB
42# injectors
Nasty fuel rails
GM LS7 Lifters
Trickflow Hardened pushrods
Melling High Pressure Pump
JP Performance Double Roller Timing Chain
GM Performance Head bolts
ARP MAIN STUDS
LS9 Head gaskets
Patriot Stage 2 215cc/58cc chambers (Ported)
Patriot .650 Lift Springs
Stock Rockers
Aluminum Valve covers
Stock Front and rear Covers
98+ F-body Oil pan (with -10an drain) (with windage and pickup tube)
TR6 plugs
2000 Truck Coils





Transmission is a 2000 T56. It's stock internally but eventually that will be rebuilt. I have an LS7 clutch kit I got from Eastcoast Performance. I have the stock master installed currently but will be swapping that out for a Tick soon. I'd post pics of the trans but everyone knows what a T56 looks like lol so here are pics of the clutch. I also picked up a Hawks dual hump x-member.




My fuel system starts with a 4thgen tank with a Racetronix hot-wire kit. Has a Walbro 255 in-tank pump, their hotwire wiring which makes things stupid simple.



Exhaust is going to be loud. I've had a few exhaust systems on past cars and I'm a fan of loud so I went with the Borla. Although, this time around I'm going to ditch the borla "muffler" and just put a piece of pipe in there, then put a Powerstick chambered muffler in the I-pipe section. This all starts off with Hawks 1 3/4 stainless headers. Beauties aren't they?

 

The car itself is in pretty good shape minus the paint. It's a few shades of red lol! Like I said, it's got alot of options. AC, 350, ttop, power everything. I ditched the AC system though. Who needs that with a ttop? I don't like crazy appearance mods so that's why I'm keeping the stock hood. I was going to run IROC rims but 16's are too small for me so my buddy sold me his 01 SS rims. I don't have pics of those yet as I'm in the process of sanding/painting them. I will be running 255/45/17 Firehawk's on the front and 315/35/17 Nitto DR's on the rear. It's dropped on Sportline springs, GR2's in the front and Monroe's in the rear for now, I'll swap to the GR2's once the motor is done. It has a custom rad support to house an intercooler and Griffin rad that my buddy had setup for his TT 383 LT1 motor that sat in here before the LQ4.





Those are twin Durale 2000cfm fans. Puppies push alot of air! The engine bay is stripped down with the least amount of wiring possible. Nice and clean look...after I clean it that is lol! I installed an LS1 booster and Master the other night but no pics of that so I'll post these up for now.

 

The car's interior is simple which I love. Black interior panels mixed with the grey tweed from the seats and door panels. 6pt Competition roll bar, Autometer gauges, steering wheel will be changed for a Grant piece eventually.

 

The car has a BMR extreme torque arm, Hotchkis SFC's, LCA's & an Adj Panhard bar. Moser 9" rear w/3.90's does the axle duty with 31 spline axles and a spool. I will be getting relocation brackets soon and might swap the LCA's for tubular UMI units now that I'm using wider tires. LS1 brakes up front with LT1 brakes in the rear. 34mm front sway bar, 19mm rear sway bar. When I order the relo brackets I'm going to snag a wonderbar at the same time. Everything looks rusty because it's humid as **** in our shop and coats it all in condensation. It has all new front end parts too. Idler arm, pitman arm, center-link, tie rods, balljoints etc.

 

are you going to carry on his legacy and use the TT system?

 

And finally, here are the pics of the car itself. You can see the changes in Red through different pics lol! The pic of the engine bay has the TH400 that was previously in the car. Welded moroso solid engine mounts. Upgrades include clear side markers and turn signals. Bowtie grill and window tint. I will be removing the Moser decal from the windshield and might replace it with a Hawks banner or leave it.








Thread will be updated with all the progress made and parts added to the hoard. I have lots of stuff I didn't take pictures of still so they might be added soon. Let me know what you guys think. Tips would be appreciated as well!

 

cprmn14, sorry man you caught me still uploading pics and info lol! As for it being turbo'd....Maybe...

 

THAT car is going to be fuuuuuunnnnnn!!!!!!!! Those 3.90s and that spool are going to be a good time. Doesnt look too shabby on the outside!

Sounds like you have a really good list of parts, and a good map of what you want to do. Should make for a really good project and a great ride after youre done.

Good luck and keep the pics comin!

J.

 

Thanks! Yeah I think it's going to be awesome! Update!

Buddy and I got the 4thgen tank installed. Taking the 3rdgen tank out was a bitch! It didn't want to leave the car! That and it had nearly 3/4 of fuel still in it I also started my new gauge panel. Still debating adding more small gauges to it. Also fixed my LS6 intake. Used a piece of ac dash and epoxy'd that sucker in there!





4thgen tank installed! Everthing was coated in moisture from the rain we've been having so parts look rusty but they're really not lol!

 

Here's the first draft of the gauge setup. I'll probably add another 2 1/16 gauge in there so my FUEL and OIL PRESS will be in the cluster with the tach/speedo. My a-pillar will house the volts, water temp and wideband. I also have 3 gauge pods that will mount under my center vents for the Nitrous, Boost and Oil temp.



My intake all fixed up and painted! You can see the piece I made in the first pic.

 

definitely a great setup to start with, congrats on a nice car. look forward to seeing the updates!

 

Looks good! Subscribing!

 

Just realized I didn't get bolts with my water pump. Best place to find those? Maybe even the pitch so I could hit up brafasco? Also, intake and TB bolts. Where to find these? I only have 5 intake bolts and no TB bolts. What did you guys use for a fuel crossover tube from the rails? I was going to keep with the stainless braided line theme so wanted to use fittings and such. PN's?

 

Who's car was this ?

 

Pocket has a chart, that gives the length, dia, and pitch of all the minor bolts. Might even have part numbers, I don't remember.

 

Buddies car, name was Jay. I think his name on here is JayRich or something.

Yeah I found the bolts I needed within a few hours of searching actually lol! Thanks for the heads up though!

 

Update!

Sanded/Primed my SS 10 spokes last night with the girlfriends help. Sanding is such a bitch. I need my own sandblasting booth. This is by no means a professional job, just wanted them black so I can throw them on the car. Maybe I'll do something fancy with them down the road. Two of the rims were already black but had chips, flaking, fading etc. Here are pics of the process and how they now sit in primer.




Here it's sanded. Looks like primer kinda.




Primer shot.





The SS caps I think I will be leaving silver. Depending on how they look, I'll shoot them black as well.

 

subscribed

 

Update!

More work done tonight. Made my own rad support for the foxbody Griffin rad. I could have used an Fbody one but this has my fans already on it lol! I'll swap it out later. All that's left is a bottom hose but I think I have that covered. This is pre-paint. There is a piece of metal covering the bottom of the rad to protect it from rocks, debris etc from the road. I'll have a better pic of that next time.





I finished up painting my LS6 intake. I removed the rear calipers (make pushing the car ALOT easier). I think one of my calipers is stuck? Dunno. It's an LT1 rear disc system. Anyway, I need the e-brake bracket you can see broken in the pic. It's the piece the cable connects too which moves and engages the e-brake. You can see it broken on the right caliper. Also got my gauges layout done finally. I like the look of the 2 smaller gauges between the tach/speedo.

 

Nothing major to update yet. Been really busy with life. Gauge cluster is all wired up, a-pillar wiring will be done too once I drill the holes to mount the gauge cups under the vents. Finished the rad support too, holy strong! Only have 1 pic though. Lots of updates/pics coming next weekend!

 

Update.

Motor/trans is in! Took some fanaglin' and a few swear words but the bitch is in there. Have the hawks trans x-member mounted as well. I thought that was going to be a headache because with my initial mock up, the x-member wasn't even close to lining up. Playing with the bolts a bit 1 by 1, it went in! Don't mind the stock trans mount, being replaced soon. See how nice those SW headers fit? So stoked about those! Intake isn't bolted down, just thrown on for pics. Still need to get my TB. Have bolts showing up in a few days so my accessories can be bolted on once I get those. Now that the motor is in the car, you can see how far my rad is. Even with the water pump bolted on, I think running custom hoses is my only option. I have an upper hose done already but my lower hose will have to be one of those flex jobs. Oh well. Started drilling holes for the gauge cups under the center vent but the motor took most of the night getting finished. I'll have more updates and pics on that next weekend.

 

Here's the headers clearance from underneath. You can see where my oil pan is just barely touching the engine crossmember. My solid engine mounts will help but I still would rather not have that touching. Also, pic of the finished rad support and air deflector so the rad doesn't get any unwanted visitors "passing through" the rad :P

 

Here is some progress pics of last nights events and pics of the car with craaaazy rake

 

coming along

 

She is coming together nicely. Your headers are aligning the same as mine did, with that passenger side having little clearance. I thought something was wrong, but seems to just be the way they fit.

Are you going to add some holes to that radiator plate for extra cooling?
What is the plans for future boost with your ring gap settings? Looks like you will have lots of room in front of the engine for it.

Nice looking car . Keep up the good work.

 

The cooling won't be an issue. I have dual fans kicking out 4000cfm of air and the fog light holes should give me ample enough flow to keep my 6.0L nice and cool. The bottom plate was built to protect the rad from debris. The car might get a turbo later down the road but for now I'm staying N/A or throwing some spray at it. The headers fit amazing. They follow the frame rail perfectly on both sides. I'm changing my brake lines anyway, those were there before I did the LSX swap.

 

yea those headers look like they fit really good, and the quality looks superb. definatly worth the money.

 

how does one subscribe?

 

You just did

Still waiting on bolts to show up so I can bolt the accessories in place. I was going to paint my 10 spokes and had them almost done but they got knocked over and scratched up so now I'm just going to take them to a local place that does refinishing and get them done there. Still undecided about the caps. Leave them silver or paint them to match? Here's a pic of the same rims on my buddies '84 Z28. Not the best picture but you can see the different colored rims...



I cleaned all my interior panels today. Wow is all I can say. 20 years of dirt underneath was thick! There is quite a bit of overspray on them as well. Anybody know what kind of paint I could use to bring these back to life? My panels are black so I would go with black again. What's the best way to roll fenders? My rear's will be 315's so I'm sure I'd have to roll the fenders. My fronts will be 275/40's. Do them as well?

 

Damn looking good! What kind of exhaust route are you going? My chassis mounted torque arm for my th400 doesn't have as much clearance as your crossmember does.
Car is looking sweet though, keep up the good work!

 

One question. Where did you find a T56 in Ontario? :P

I couldn't seem to find one anywhere so I ended up just going with a 4L60E.

 

The fronts should be fine, you may get a little rub at the rear of the fender liners when turning, depends on your wheel offset. I am running the C5 brake/spindle upgrade with 2" spacers and 2001 TA wheels and have no problems with clearance at the top of fenders with no rolling done.

For the rears, I would suggest using the correct tool if you can borrow one. I was lucky enough to have a buddy with one of these http://www.eastwood.com/ew-fender-ro...struction.html
When rollng them you want to get the fenders hot enough so they are almost too hot to touch. I used an industrial grade hot air gun. Go slowly and try to keep the roller moving smoothly.

 

Link doesn't seem to want to work for me? Shift, I bought my trans from the states. I swapped a 5spd into my old 88 IROC and couldn't go back to auto

Exhaust will be SW 1 3/4 headers, custom 3" ypipe into a Borla catback. I'm undecided about keeping the borla muffler though. I have a Powerstick chamber muffler I could always throw in the I-pipe section and put a piece of pipe where the borla muffler is. Nice and loud

EDIT: I just realized I don't have a dipstick. Would a 2000 LS1 dipstick work fine with these headers? What header gaskets should I run?

 

Factory oil dipstick works fine with no problems. I went with new factory header gaskets.