After 2 kids, getting married, and getting close to have put my wife almost through getting her BSN in nursing school. My car has sat for 5 years in storage and it's time to start acquiring some parts.

5 years has been alot of time to consider and imaginarily build every combination. And in keeping with being the true gearhead that I am, I have conceptualized everything from procharged setups, to turbos, to every kind of standalone injection. And honestly with my indecisiveness, I needed the 5 years to heavily consider where to go with this build.

I have even considered selling it on several occasions and building a completely different make and model car all together, from imports to domestic. I just never have been able to let go of this car. I've become emotionaly attached to this one. And trust me I have bought and sold and changed my mind with plenty of other builds. Nothing seems to appeal to me like my old third gen. I want the appeal of a car built from the ground up and not just some any joe can build it, bolt on car like a Z06 or 4th gen. I have always loved owning the underdog type cars and catching people off guard. I also enjoy handing people their *** with something that was built with smart choices instead of big wallets. Not to say I don't over indulge on nice shiney things occasionaly.

On to the goal...The car is ultimately going to be built to be well rounded, and used for some track days and HPDE's, I want to be able to swap tires and run down the 1/4 mile, however not be setup just for the 1/4. There for I don't want a max effort cam. I am looking for broad, usable torque where the engine is going to live the most with some sacrifice to straight line ET. I would be completely satisfied to hit around 400rwhp for now. Looking to keep stock crank and rods with maybe some ARP rod bolts for reassurance.

On to the questions..

The cam is still in question and am open for suggestions. I'm looking at maybe 220-230 range in duration, wide LSA, and to keep lift where I can run w/o flycutting with L92 heads. I obviously need to research some more in this area and again am open to any and all feedback.

For the throttle body. I am looking to keep a cable TB and use a Lokar cable but I also want to know what everyone is using for a cable TB on an LS3 intake?? Seems the aftermarket TB's are pretty steep in price and one would think there is a cheaper alternative.

Injectors and pcm, I thought I read somewhere that someone sourced injectors cheaply from another type of vehicle? Can somebody chime in with specs, donor vehicles, and price? I've also heard you can use an s-10 pcm. Are there any pinout issues with this?

Possibly considering relocating the coils off the valvecovers. Has anyone done this with the stock k-member? Any pic's or idea's?

 

You'll want a smallish cam with the rectangular port heads. Check out Jim85iroc's thread and do a search on LS1tech about small-large cams with LS3/L92 heads

Aftermarket TBs are a niche market and they charge what they want. The big names want +$400 for one, but the chinese knockoffs on ebay sell for around half that. Beware the cheap ones require a few mods to work properly, but nothing you cant do with 30 mins on a drill. BTW, LS3 intakes take a 90-92mm TB with a 4 bolt flange. To mount the cable either buy a SDPP bracket, lokar or fab your own

LS3 injectors are about the cheapest you'll find and are pretty big from the start. Check ebay and LS1tech for good deals on them, its usually a better deal to cough up the $300-350 for a complete intake kit though instead of piecing one together

Pretty much any GM vehicle from 01-04 will have a usable PCM. For the S10's you want the 4.3's using service number 0411 PCMs, that service number shares the same pinout as LS1s. They commonly pop up on ebay for <$50, but a few guys offer better deals with a tuned PCM for <$200

For the coils, why do you want to move them? I moved my pass side to cram a blower on top of the valve cover, but if the blower wasnt there, Id leave them on the valve cover. Check out the LSA/LS9 valve covers if you want to make the engine bay prettier. Most universal kits will do the job, but whats the benefit?

 

pocket is right about the l92 heads...definitely jump on ls1tech and do your research. guys are putting down some good numbers with smallish cams.

400hp at the wheels will be easy with the L92 heads and 6.0L/6.2L.

 

mine's still an ongoing project, so no good numbers quite yet. i've got a 6.0L LQ9 block with L92 heads and an LS3 intake (including stock LS3 injectors). heads and fully stocked intake set me back just under a grand, lower end was about the same price.

grabbed a used edelbrock cable tb on tech for $300, they're not cheap or easy to find. as pocket mentioned, there are some good looking knock offs on ebay, but there have been mixed results withe tps & iac mounting points. stock cam for now, but will probably have one of the cam guys over at tech spec one out for me.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the ebay TB's and the SDPP bracket. Guess I will keep my eyes open for a good used brand name TB.

I agree fully with running a smallish cam, I did spend a tiny bit of time over on LS tech and alot of my reason for running this combo vs going cheaper with say a 5.3l is the ability to make the numbers and still run such a conservative, liveable cam. I need to research which of the small cam's work the best for function vs budget.

I was under the false assumption I guess that the intake kits just came with the rail and the intake. I didn't realize the injectors where included. Awesome stuff if they are. That's very reasonable for intake, rails, and injectors.

The coil relocation serves no function other than to appease my own eyeballs with less clutter and awsomeness. But that's all getting too far ahead of things anyway. I'll get the engine in the car and running good first.

Fortunately I will be able to recoup a bit of investment selling some of my TPI stuff. SLP headers, Rebuilt 700r4 ect.

Thanks again for the info. Hoping to be able to start picking some stuff up as soon as the dust settles from x-mas. And I just got sprung with having to replace ball joints and front hub assemblies on the wifes G6 GTP at $180 per hub for decent quality non-china bearings. Ugh, It never ends.

 

218 224 112 +0

Engine_RPM 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500 6000 6500
Brk_Tq 323 363 359 406 459 494 514 499 476 451
Brake_HP 123 173 205 271 350 423 490 522 543 559"

Word...

 

So I found 3 cam's that I'm especially liking the look of. All very close in grind.

LPE GT11 215/231 .631/.644 118 LSA
TR Cheater V.3 219/230 .607/.604 117 LSA
GM LS7 211/230 .591/.591 121 LSA

LPE cam seems very agressive on lift and honestly I would worry about breaking stuff. LPE suggests installing straight up only. So things are close w/o flycutting. However with the already large intake valve on the L92 heads, this cam seems to favor lift on the exhaust which seems to make sense. Curious why TR is favoring lift on the intake? Seems to be two very different approaches.

TR's cam seems to be a little less than the LPE on split, 11 vs 16 degrees difference and these heads seem to like as little overlap as possible.

The LS7 cam seems to be the least aggressive with a huge split of 19 degree's and an LSA of 121. Seems like this cam would make pretty broad power, and by far be the easiest on the valves and tuning with a little sacrifice to overall peak numbers. Also is the cheapest cam of the bunch and is proven to work well with a blower. (eye on future) I would like to see a little more lift on this one though considering it's spec'd on 1.8 rockers.

Anyone else have any input or other cam suggestions in this ballpark?

 

Ok so for cam choice I think I may be going with Katech's torquer LS3 grind. Seems to make the most sense for my targeted goals.

For wiring I'm at work and cruising on my bbly trying to come up with a more elegant solution for the pcm wiring at the bulkhead. Anyone ever use these?

http://www.diyautotune.com/catalog/w...kit-p-364.html

 

you could also just run the wiring through the passenger side spot like factory. I grabbed a bulkhead from the junkyard and gutted the factory wiring out of it. fit the harness just fine and no additional firewall holes to cut.

while that does look like a nice piece, i think you'd need a couple to fit all the wires necessary. could also make for more headaches if wired wrong.

 

Well I had some time to go look at the car the other day. It's presently in storage 45mins away in my old mans garage.

Here's the current TPI mill, Complete with the PO's hideous ***** blue wire loom from vatozone.



Huge problem however. I saw something peeking out from behind the washer tank and decided to remove it for a closer look. This might justify a replacement shell. I know nothing about autobody or how much this would cost to repair. I was planning to remove the entire front clip and strip the bay for a repaint anyway. I need to get another look at the floors. Last time it was on a lift there was no rust in them but there also was no rust in my strut tower either. The car hasn't been driven in 5 years.



So...Rust free replacement car would cost a few grand, and land me with a third uneeded drivetrain I would end up having to sell. replacement Formula shells are few and far between to find local. Anybody in autobody have any idea what I would be looking at to have this patched? I'm not opposed to stripping it down and spraying the bay myself I just have no welder or experience with panel repairs.

 

IF the rest of the car is clean, and normally they arent but that thing just looks nice from the one shot of it that you've posted, so there is hope... You may be able to fix it. You'll just need to cut a strut tower from another car and graft it on. not an easy job, but doable. It's just usually not a smart thing to do on a hopeless rust bucket, but yours may not be.

Just dont let this happen to you:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...rut-tower.html

 

that doesn't look terrible, but definitely worth taking down to bare metal to see where it stops for sure.

 

Well I'll be polite for that guys sake, I'm not as automotively challenged as that guy seems to be. I wouldn't have even considered repairing the swiss cheese he's dealing with. His car is pretty cut and dry DEAD and that guy obviously got reamed.

Mine really is borderline. I really wish it was a simple cut and dry decision. I have yet to go under the car again, however there was zero rust in the floors last time it was in the air. Add to that the spot seems to be isolated and I don't think structuraly that the entire tower would need to be replaced. I would venture to assume that a panel could be cut from a donor and if a shrinker was used to properly fit the panel and spot it in properly there would be no comprimise to the structural integrity.

The only other noticeable bad spots are the rear hatch panel is rusting around the wing mounts and there is a substantial spot showing in the spare tire well area at the bottom of the quarter panel. The hatch is an easy and very cheap item to replace and am really not concerned about that. However again quarter panels seems to hint dollar signs.

 

Agree'd.

Not a deal breaker though. I'm still going to keep acquiring parts for this build. End result, I will have a 6.0l/T56 Formula... eventually. Either this one or a different one. Not like they cost 30k or anything.

If a solid roller happens to turn up local and dirt cheap then it's a no brainer. My main fear is investing the cash to fix rust only to have rust rear it's ugly head again 5yrs down the road. I'm looking to keep this one permanently.

On a positive note however heres some mild parts ****. My new ChroMo Delsphere PHB and ARP wheel studs came in.

"All in all just another brick in the wall". Might have to call the car Floyd lol!

 

At the end of the day the parts in that thing are gonna be worth a whole lot more than the shell... if you get cold feet you can always find a roller and move parts over. Wouldn't be anything you dont know how to do.