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I live in Mid Michigan and have always loved a Trans Am. My first car was an 86’ with an under powered 305 smothered by smog control, but at 15 years old I thought I was on top of the world. Fast forward many, many years and I'm a married father of 5 and it's been many, many years since I had a hot rod to mess around with.
I spend most idle time cruising marketplace and one day a little over a year ago I found an 85’ Trans Am listed for $4k. It looked very solid, had nice looking weld racing wheels, a big cowl hood, and t tops so for the price my attention was grabbed. The car had a Pro Star 406 crate engine that was hurt. I made arrangements and went to see the car the next day. The guy was nice and had already removed the cylinder head hunting the problem. The story is, he had only had the engine in for a short time (evidenced by very little to no carbon build up on the pistons) and while cruising through a 25 mph zone it started to tick. He was close enough to home to be able to shut it off and coast to his driveway. The problem ended up being a blown apart piston ring which took out the piston with it.
Upon inspection, I was concerned with the condition of the cylinder wall, but it looked brand new with no scratches. The head had some dings from the ring material bouncing, but it was usable. The engine is a $10k crate engine from Tri Star Motors out of Wisconsin, so it felt too good to be true. I left to think it over and reached out to the engine builders to see if they’ve had issues with these engines. They replied and even told me when the original owner bought it. He purchased it as a long block so they asked questions about the intake and carb. Turns out they believe the 850 Holley he had installed was much too large and thought maybe it overfueled and detonated in the rings. They gave me a parts list to fix it exactly how they had built it. The parts were only $1,400.
Being that the engine alone was worth more than the whole package I made the deal and brought the car home. I was very excited to get to work on the car, but life had other plans. Shortly after recieving all the parts to fix the car, my Dad was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. This was a huge emotional blow, especially since I had just lost my Mom to cancer less than 2 years prior. All ambition to fix the car was gone and I was solely focused on spending as much time with my Dad as I could.
A couple of friends that race at my Uncle’s race track asked if I had gotten the T/A running and when I explained the situation they stepped up, came and picked up the car, and got it running for me. I really wanted to get it running before my Dad passed to take him for a ride, but that just didn’t work out. My Dad was diagnosed in March, and was gone in May. My Dad was a car guy and loved his Camaro. For my Birthday, my Dad called me into his room, and signed over the title to his 2018 Camaro SS.
It felt great to finally hear the car run when it was dropped off, and aside from running richer than Oprah, it drives great. The shop that built the engine dynos them and says that it’s putting 500 HP to the crank. The previous owner claims that the 3 speed TH400 in the car has been built strong with a manual valve body and it has a 3,500 stall. It has the factory rear end, but he sourced a carrier and had a 3.90 gear and locker put in. He installed subframe connectors and a nice B&M shifter as well. He clearly cared for this car and had dreams, but life got in the way and he had to part with it.
Now, on the rare occasion when I’m not heading to work in my company vehicle, or carting around 5 kids, and I’m faced with the decision to drive the Camaro or Trans Am, I generally pick the Camaro for reliability and the connection I feel to my Dad when I drive it. So I’m considering turning the T/A into a street/strip car. I’ve been putting together a parts list to throw a turbo charger on targeting around 14-15 PSI of boost.
I’ve worked on a lot of cars in my life, but I have very little experience in the performance sector, so I’m trying to take it slow and make sure all the parts I’m picking are compatible since there is no “kit” to do what I’m wanting.
I have $5k saved up to put into the car right now and so far my parts list is up to $7,500 😭
So I'm assuming you have flat top pistons and w 64 cc chambers you're gonna come in around 9.5(ish) comp ratio. Im aware i may be off here. That said if your CR is around that you should be good w the boost you're thinking about w an intercooler. My IATs w low/no boost are 105 deg, once i get on it they are 93 deg. A good IC will make all the difference! Your rear end being a stock 10 bolt totally isn't gonna cut it. If you have enough traction to hook up that power, you're gonna kill the 10 bolt. Id start getting a plan for a rear. I have a 9in and I'm really happy w it. It was a process to dial in and not a cheap. I have a 560 hp setup/dual disk clutch and wide sticky tires. The 9in takes what ever I throw at it.
I’m fully expecting the rear end to break. That would be the next project on the car. I am at 9.8:1 compression, so I will definitely be intercooling and I plan to run E85.
here is a spreadsheet of the parts list I just haven’t put the links on it yet
I hope so, honestly, I drove the car once last year because I work so much during the summer. At our track we are taking off holiday weekends so I’m hoping that’ll be a chance to get to the strip a couple times.
