Curious to see what everyone has planned as we come to having cars roll out for the 2016 season. I have a laundry list(never ends) of things to improve on especially since i hurt my top end on my last past of the summer with a nasty miss shift. In effort to get my car down the track more reliably and assuming I didnt burn any pistons and might have slightly kissed a bent valve or 2 Im doing a topend swap. Ill be pulling the motor/trans out and giving the car as much of a overhaul that I can afford. While apart it is a perfect time to patch my rusting floors so I have bought some replacements. Heres the rest of my to do/buy list

Stock 317 heads swap - Bought
BTR 650 lift dual spring kit - Bought
BTR 7.4 pushrods - Bought
Trunion bushing kit - To buy
LS7 lifters and ls2 trays - Bought
Arp head stud kit - To buy
Rear main seal(blowing mine out) - To buy
Ls1 front brake swap spindles - To buy
Drag radials for gta rims - To buy.


..And the finisher to buy. Monster twin disc Lt1-S clutch rated for 700hp

I got my hand full for the next month or 2.As long as nothing isnt to severely hurt which I doubt since the car runs very strong minus the oil leaking from the rear main.I will be doing the head swap in the drive way for..Ill miss the responsiveness of the 243 heads but hope I can push some more boost to compensate.I have 2 stock hell cats Im aiming to run this yr and see how well I stack up with more power and good traction.

Whats up everyone else's sleeves for the yr?

 

Hopefully headers and subframe connectors. New fuel injectors would be nice, but they be mighty expensive. Also roll out for the 2016 season? Lol I drive my car year round so long as the weather is nice. Cold doesn't stop me. Only snow and salt does. That's when she sits in the driveway.

 

Thats not a overly expensive mod list to have. I feel like every year I do something crazy to the car and its an all new car to me again..then i break something and make a new list for the next season lol

 

Once my new garage is built at my new house, I plan to tear out the 305 and drop this in.

 

That looks very nice...just a lil boost to wake up.care to elaborate more on the setup? I forsee many rubber patches in your cars near future.

 

Thanks. 6.0, D1SC/12 rib, Brute speed cam, BTE springs, stock heads, 2" SW headers, looking for 10-15 lbs. Think I'm gonna leave stock gaskets, but may do head studs. Also replacing front suspension. Still gonna need a 9" and either th400 or 4l80e, can't decide. Plus changing out wheels to Billet specialties black beadlock street lites. Swap is a little intimidating, well wiring atleast. Plus, I don't see too many Procharged LS swaps on here. You mentioned boost, what's your current setup?

 

I plan to do hooker headers and y-pipe this year. Then maybe start building my 350 I just haven't decided if I want to get a ported throttle body and injectors and stay with my TBI or to go carb and have a much more powerful engine.

 

My mods are in my sig Indebt.

Dmccain deciding on going carb or efi will change how you should spec out building your 350.A strong bottomend is easy but the topend package can favor one or the other based on what you want. Building a carb can be slightly cheaper.Tbi just takes more tinker time to get perfect with tuning.There is alot of support here to make just as much power with tbi and maybe get better gas mileage aswell.

 

Yea probably just going carb because of simplicity and familiarity. Im thinking 350 with Vortec heads with better springs etc., flat top hypereutectic pistons,220 ish @50 465-475 lift flat tappet cam. My last engine run very strong with good street manners with a similar setup.

 

Still waiting for my Tax Refund. But I already have a Ton of suspension goodies pending installation.

GW Del-A-Lum front A-arm bushings with extended ball joints
Vogtland springs
Founders Strut Mounts, TQ Arm, LCA Relocation brackets
All new sway bar mounts + end links.
All new steering stuff, already have a Lee 670 box and Astro shaft.
And new 36# injectors because I suspect my injectors are bad and don't want to risk cleaning them.

 

I've got a laundry list of stuff I have left to buy to complete my ls1 swap, and an even longer list of "to do" to get it back on the road.

 

I can always find things to add to my list but finding ways to add money to my wallet to support buying these parts is a never ending battle. Its scary how fast a couple grand on parts disappears and looks like nothing but a few small boxes.

 

Not getting much tax return this year but out in 2015 and hopefully done spring 2016.

Going from 521 BBF with FAST EZ EFI 2.0 all ford rims to....

150k 5.3LS, Fbody oil pan, LS6 valve springs, 72lb bosch injectors, LS1 billet fuel rails, LS1 waterpump, stock truck accessory brackets, 130amp alt, torque storm supercharger (10-12psi) new HOWE 28x19 rad, Mark VII fan, C6 Z06 18x9.5 black rims with machined face and sumitomo HTRZII 275/40/18 tires. Snow performance custom water/meth and other small goodies... innovate PSB-1 WB02/boost gauge. removed dual 3" exhaust for full 1 3/4" SS LT headers into dual 3" into 4" FM merge, 4" catback style with dual mufflers. OEM ECM/harness reworked and using HPT pro.

 

Looks good and a lot further than I am in my swap. Do u plan on any intercooler? I thought about just using the meth to cool instead of hassle of removing front end to mount cooler.

 

Thanks, Yea most of it was done in over a month or so time. Then basically had to stop for months and months of house reno's.

No intercooler, On Firebirds its much harder to fit them and get good airflow through it without cutting the front to hell. I will be running just the water/meth which will be activated at like 5psi via hobbs switch. That way putting around I shouldnt be using much if any until I get on it. I'm not using it for the meth but more for the combo for cooling vs fueling. I will run cheap -20 wiper fluid which is a mix at 30% meth to water which should give me a boost of fuel but more cooling and knock retard and its like $1 a gallon when on sale. Pick up $5 worth and I'll be good for the summer lol.

Not excited about finishing all the wiring and tuning.

 

I see alot of guys saying its hard to fit an intercooler on firebirds and I gotta say its really not bad at all nor is there lack of airflow. I made 0 modifications to the bumper or rebar and it sits just infront the airdam.I went slightly bigger of a cooler than I originally planned.I would suggest it if you your worried about Iat temps etc. Routing for 2.5 pipe isnt hard to do and keep the fog lights.

 

hard to see in your pics but doesn't look like 1.) it will get alot of air flow 2.) block a good bit of air going to the radiator

Looks like you wouldnt have any room for the plastic air funneling stuff that forces the air to the radiator, so the air is going in there kinda and just going everywhere. Also dont see ant support for the hood latch area or front bumper but can't really say as you dont have a fully assembled photo.

I would hate to purchase all that stuff and spend the time making it all fit just to find it didn't do much due to lack of air flow and on top of that hindered the cooling of the motor. The water/meth is a much cleaner install and provides instant cooling, if an intercooler heats up and heat soaks your **** out of luck. If I were to do an IC it was be a water to air.

 

Those were pics as i was test fitting the cooler. As for how efficient it is I never see over 190* and on the highway it will cool down to 165-175* if im beating on it. I ditched the plastic scoops long before the turbo because ive had better airflow with just the airdam when I was heads/cam only. The hood latch assembly etc all went back on and I removed a section of the middle bracket of the hood latch to the rad support. I dont have a/c on this car either so air to the rad has never been an issue. the bumper itself is supported as it should by the rebar. Trust me I was surprised it worked as well as it does and my tuner liked it while on the dyno for how stable the temps were and same when we street tuned it.

 

Ive actually had to put a small section of carboard infront of the rad sometimes just to retain more heat if I do a long highway drive as it starts to hit around 160* or less. I was worried at first about going slightly smaller with the cooler but this one has been flawless. it has ample room around it.

 

thats interesting. I mean good for you but interesting how it performed.

The 190 is the coolant temp? what where you IAT's around? What size is the intercooler and I'm assuming you used 3" tubing? There are some really compact OEM style intercoolers for jettas and golfs that would fit nicely, the clamp style sucks but that aren't massive coolers. I woudnt use it as an only means of cooling but like the idea of a small cooler to help with overall temps and then water/meth higher up.

 

VsRacing 33x12x4 intercooler I used 2.5 piping for the cold side. the odd thing when I got the cooler was the position of the in/outlets vs the pics from the website which show it being on the bottom of the cooler. I expected it to be the same and yet mine arrived being in the middle. When i had to mount the cooler this lowered the overall position of the cooler than I invisioned but I assume it helped for airflow and being angle to angle the cooler on the same slope as the rad/airdam.

I can try to take a better pic to show how the cooler sits with the bumper on..Its lower than the bumper..level to the airdam. Has a gap between the dam and then a gap from the dam to the rad. The cooler is essentially acting as the airducting I had removed. Win win situation overall which is probably why it worked out well.

Intercooler//__Airdam/__radiator}

Intake temps on average are around 26-32* max under boost. the car runs pretty cool to my surprise. Ive never had the secondary fan turn on unless I manually activate it inbetween runs at the track.

 

I got my taxes filed yesterday and with a whooping $2900 return...time to buy my monster twin disc clutch!

 

I dont know about the rest of you but the weather here is becoming consistently warm which means wrench time is picking up.So far i ordered my monster twin disc clutch..excited to try it out, also the new mt et street s/s tires on my spare gta wheels.

I ordered head studs,going to reuse the stock mls gaskets. Put on my btr dual spring kit and had my 317 heads milled .030. I also put on the new Straub rocker arm bushing kit which seems to be a really nice piece.

If all goes well getting my motor back to being happy with a new clutch..semi sticky tires.I think my 9bolt is going to finally kick the bucket this summer.

 

Great looking car. Can't wait to see the LS install.

 

My buys will be the last few things to finish up my swap and get it driveable.

Hawks torque arm relocation/tranny x member
Cold air intake
Rear/front alignment

Then it's 'driveable'

 

I got my Mickey thompson Et street ss tires on and wow...these things feel amazing on the street. Im now VERY scared to launch the car hard in fear of that poor 9 bolt puking at the track. car seems to spool a bit faster too since it doesnt spin the tires lol.

 

So today was another nice day outside so I figured why not see if my new Et streets like to hook with 32psi and soft launches.

The answer is yes...big yes to bogging the car down and having to launch harder.The roads are still cool but I imagine these tires will bite hard at the strip for sure.

Here is the 4000rpm clutch dump.

And the video of gradual launches before burning off the new tire stubs.