GreggymacZ28

My guess would be around a 12.0. Sounds very similar to what I have going on so I am trying to look at the things done and compare it to where I was at certain times. My cam is just a little bit larger but other than that and the worked vortec heads, they are pretty similar.

Also, nice job on the cage. I am getting ready to put one in my car now, and I got the 8 point roll bar from S&W but I ordered it to save the rear seat and the arm rests. Do you think that the center console needed to be removed for the cage install? I am only going to be doing a 5-point and would rather not remove everything, but if it's necessary obviously I will do it. Also what welder were you using? I am going the exact same route, my cars not going to be running faster than low 10s so I do not need it cert'd as well, but just want to make sure the cage does its job if ever needed.

Anyway, very cool project and some really nice work by the both of you!

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

hmmm, both guesses faster than i was thinking. i'm hoping for a 13.0 on the first pass. 12.5x's once dialed. maybe it'll surprise me

the carpet has to come out, the center console has to come out to get the carpet out, lol. personally, i'd just take everything out. it doesn't take that long, and you can decide as you're putting stuff back in what is really necessary and what you can live without (weight wise).

we are going to use Ozite carpet for this. can't wait to get my hands on some of that to see how it lays out.

articwhiteZ

iTrader: (56)

hats off to ya. thats alot of work outside.and in the snow.
was -6 deg. at the new place this week. thats why the new shop.
BBBUURRRR....

STREETDEMON

i'm going to say 11.95-12.05 with sub 110mph trap speeds, depending on the heads and the bite at the tree.

was the roll bar kit pre-fab'd?

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

i'm thinking 108mph max, but as i said, it may surprise me.

it's a competition engineering kit and is pre bent and most of the tubes are pre notched, but they always need a little extra help fitting right. i've used this kit twice now. i like it.

zz17iroc

iTrader: (4)

Think it will run mid to low 12's.

Here is my new project Matt.

unknown_host

iTrader: (1)

12.50 @ 107

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

that's more along the lines of what i'm thinking honestly.

DIGGLER

iTrader: (1)

im just thinking its similar to the lt1 car we ran several years ago.
the vortec heads should be a little better than our stock lt1 heads, your cam is a little bigger than our stock one, and you have a nice intake setup that should work well.
went 11.80@114 with the LT1. manual trans @3100 raceweight. 1.55ish 60'. it was a great running combo that was pretty sorted out, though.

LB9GTA

iTrader: (1)

Good for you to work out in the cold.

I just finished painting my cage.
We didn't put the harness bar in until almost the end for ease of welding.

What's with the Ozite Carpet? Is it lighter?

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

to be honest, i'm not sure we can get it to 60' that hard with the 3500 stall. i'm thinking he'll need to spend some money on a proper converter to get there. the converter we have is a rebrannded TSI so it's not total junk, but it's their low-end stuff. a proper 8" custom converter for bracket racing would really wake it up i bet.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

by a large margin. it's like replacing the carpet with nothing almost.

GreggymacZ28

I've been looking into that carpet, how many yards did you have to purchase?

Also, I have a 9.5" red...neck converter 3500 stall and am pulling 1.55 average 60 foots, so I'm not sure it is too far out of reach.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

interesting on the 60'. makes me realize how tight the 4500 stall i had in my th400 in my car was now. it was setup for nitrous but i run n/a. best 60' ever was a 1.49. i was 3 or 4 tenths slow in my opinion.

i think we were planning to get 4 yards, but might be getting more cause chucky is going to do the door panels in it too i think.

LB9GTA

iTrader: (1)

So it's just bulk carpet and you have to steam and fit it into place?

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

Yes bulk carpet but it's stretchable. No steam required. Just place a heavy foot on it and trim it to fit.

DIGGLER

iTrader: (1)

yep, that sounds about right. my car would normally go 1.55 n/a and 1.30-1.32 on a 100 or 150 shot. it was a tuuuurd without the bottle. it felt like i was driving miss daisy.

LB9GTA

iTrader: (1)

I can't see a price for the carpet, what would it cost to do an interior?

LB9GTA

iTrader: (1)

Just weighed the carpets from my car.
Front carpet with the backing on it = 19lbs
Back carpet with backing = 20lbs

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

http://www.yourautotrim.com/black7.html

depending on how much of the car you do, it's somewhere between 3 and 4 yards worth, so about 80bux. we got 5 yards coming at the moment because we plan to cover the door panels in it too on this car. this stuff is 18oz per square yard. 80" wide x 5 yards long is 11.11 sq yards, which comes out around 12.5lbs. this will be enough to do car AND door panels and you betchya i'll be doing my car too lol

FRMULA88

So it's about 1/3 the weight of the factory carpet?

The weights posted included the sound control backing(insulation) so it is a bit misleading.

Seems to me you could just remove the insulation and just re-use the OEM carpet if it's in good shape.

For a track only car that should be fine and give a finished look to the interior.

For a street / strip car especially one you will be driving from track to track in the summer during drag week I think the added noise & heat would be another PIA to deal with, you may want to keep the insulation. To save some weight you could switch to dyna mat.

At some point we all have to draw the line on "weight reduction"

I still have a full interior, power windows, with RCI race seats.

The car runs in the 10s @ over 126 MPH.

I finally may remove the rear seats since they are useless with a cage in the car
not to mention extremely unsafe for small passengers at this point.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

the rubber matting on the factory carpet is what's heavy, and it's not removable. if you get ACC replacement carpet, it does not have this rubber matting, and is probably the same weight as the ozite that's going in. I have the ACC replacement carpet on the front section of my car, and it's been there since 2006. no insulation whatsoever under it. the rear is still the heavy rubber mat backed carpeting. i do not see this as a hindrance for drag week honestly. my car will have a full 3" catback on the car for the "over-the-road" sections of drag week and will be what ultimately keeps me sane on the long drives. dumped exhaust is the worst, no matter what kind of insulation you have in your car.

my car has been 10's at 127 with most of the interior in place also. I'm ready to get over the 130mph marker. 3500lbs is TOO heavy.

skinny z

Just picking up on this thread when I read that. I had pretty much the same experience. I've a cutout just ahead of the muffler in the stock location. Opening that cap gained 2 mph and a tenth in the 1/8. Looks like there's something interesting going on there.

skinny z

As for ET and mph, whenever I see Vortec heads on a 355 I think of my own and at 3700 lbs the best is 12.6 at 107 mph. That's with a 700R4 and a 10" TCI converter footbraking to 2000 . That netted a best 60' of 1.7 flat with a 3.27 gear. The 3.73 were too much with 60's falling back to 1.8.
I'd think with the lighter weight and better trans gearing you should easily reach 12.5 after you're dialed in. That little cam might keep your trap speed down some.

1991sleeper

iTrader: (-3)

What kind of kit ? I need one :-o ... I mean want one

Sent from my XT907 using IB AutoGroup

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

Time for my weekly installment on this car. Today had it's own set of challenges. The mid-atlantic got hammered by snow this week and our area was no exception. I don't know if my desire to get stuff done regardless of weather conditions is a pride thing, or the fact that we simply have too many things to do, and can't sacrifice a weekend due to weather. so....



but i did have an excuse...about 4 hours into work, it was snowing so bad i simply had to stop...i couldn't see what i was working on anymore and i decided to pull the plug on outside activities and moved inside to work on the motor.


I was working on getting the crash bar out, which after getting it out, i'd say it's worth the effort. I don't know what the year split is, but the GTA has the larger heavier c-channel crash bars. no pictures of what i'm doing on the doors yet as i'm not done, and want to get them all done before i share.

After getting cleaned up outside, we moved inside and started fooling with the motor. while i was working on the door some, Chucky had degreased the engine and was getting it ready to swap rockers and paint. the rockers were a stock set, and the seller included a set of roller tip rockers that we through on there. These look like comp roller tips, but don't have the "CC" stamped anywhere. not sure who's they are. so anyhow, not much to show for this weekend.



some of the goodies:


The trans is going to the builder this week to get a refresh. hoping to install motor/trans next weekend!

quik88

man that weather is crazy. makes me love south ms even more. its gonna be 64 tomorrow! we had some ice about two weeks ago and it was a panic. haha and i really mean it cause all schools were closed most business closed and all the news channels advised people to stay off the road. the car is coming along great tho. i finally got around to removing the front crash bar off mine today. keep the updates coming.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

You might have it good for the 3 months we're frozen but you can keep the hot sticky nasty humidity the other 9 months out of the year lol.

skinny z

If that's the case, have I got some work YOU!
We've been below zero fahrenheit (-5 to -10 or worse) here for weeks at a time this winter. No heated shop and that stops the hobby in it's track for me.
You have my respect if not my questioning your sanity.

Edit: Do I see purple VHT rattle cans on the bench? I though that was reserved for the Coupe (or is this the new team colour?).

quik88

hot and sticky? lol it will only be 100 degrees and 90 percent humidity for a few months.... ha

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

i know we're not the coldest, but compared to what i'm used to this is pretty chilly. The purple does seem be becoming a theme throughout both cars. my wife loves it and wants it on her chevelle too, lol!

heh...i'm from middle GA....april to october is more than a few months

1991sleeper

iTrader: (-3)

Nash I'm in NW Alabama n it font stay that hot just July n august really

Sent from my XT907 using IB AutoGroup

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

GOOD NEWS! it seems the trans did not have a flipped 2nd gear sprag and the issues seems to stem from some badly placed check ***** and o-rings. Transmission Specialties are going to do a refresh anyway, as well as replace the valve body with a reverse manual valve body so we know it's good to go. It comes home friday. We could possibly here some grumbling this weekend

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

eye injuries...lord they suck....I got a piece of metal stuck in (not on, IN) my eye on saturday. directly on top of my pupil. We went to the urgent care center sunday morning after a sleepless night of pain and tears. The urgent care center doc said it was obviously irritated but couldn't seem to find any foreign body. she gave me some drops and assured me i'd be fine.

I went to work monday, a scary 45 minute ride up I95N through Baltimore. Try as i may, i stayed till 3:45 or so when i called my boss begging him to let me go home. Another terrifying ride back down I95S and i was home. my wife took a look at me and said "call your aunt" (a nurse practitioner) which led to the decision to go back to the doc. This time we went to John Hopkins where the Wilmer Eye Center has an Opthalmologist on call 24/7. 5 hours in the waiting room, and a 10 second glance into my eyes, the doc said "yup, there it is. sit tight, we'll ****** that out". an HOUR worth of digging into my eyeball with a needle has 90% of the issue resolved. whew. took a tetanus shot and the day off yesterday, and i'm working from home today, one eyed.

so...moral of the story? even though i was wearing a a face shield, be sure to wear goggles when you're cutting/grinding/welding. eyes are a precious thing. a daunting task of watching the websites for drag week registration information two eyed has become a near impossible task one eyed, lol.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

picking up transmission in the morning from Transmission Specialties. we're PUMPED

STREETDEMON

good news about the trans and being able to retain your eyesight.

molten metal, fast moving slivers, etc make me cringe. i've got some fantastic weld burns on my arms, hands, and feet.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

HUGE progress today. I'm so glad because i feel like i had to redeem myself a bit after last weekend where we didn't get much at all done and then getting hurt on top of it just sucked. so here's a run down of what we did:

-acquired, modified and installed astro steering shaft.
-painted booster
-tucked wiring (the engine bay is basically fully wired in these pics only a couple small things left)
-installed engine/transmission
-built exhaust system
-i worked on the door a bit more but i'm not done/satisfied just yet.

here's the pictures from today. can't wait to hear what it sounds like through that y-pipe either. it's 3"x3.5"










next weekend we are planning a two day tackle on it. we still have quite a bit to finish up.

-hook up fuel system
-reassemble front suspension
-wire up water pump/fans/linelock, then tuck that harness as nice as we did the rest
-finish up my door lightening project and get a weight of what we took out.
-tach
-radio pod/gauge/switch panel mods
-ozite carpet install.

1991sleeper

iTrader: (-3)

Looks like I've already spent alit a $ .. so y not use full roller rockers .. i love the purple BTW .. I wanna use a green about that same shade for various pieces

91' firebird .. 305 TBI .030 over , balanced bottom end , speed pro hyper flattops , 10.6:1 CR , all ARP rod bolts and main studs , melling HV oil pump , trick flow super 23 175cc heads, Howards HR 214/218@.050 .488/.495 lift on 114 LSA , full roller 1.6 RR = .520/.528 lift , summit dual plane intake port matched , shorty headers into 2.5" Y w full 3" flow master system and 3" cutout in front of axle , msd billet dizzy, 620cfm TBI , custom CAI , tubular adjustabke LCA pan hard , umi torque arm wonder bar , BMR trans cross member , COMP engineering SFC's, disc rear w 4.10's, drilled an slotted rotors, EBL flash , VRFPR, WBO2,

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

the engine internally is as we got it from the PO. we are spending money on things that matter. a full roller rocker over what we have here is worth probably 2-5 hp. everything else we bought are things we needed, not necessarily things we just wanted. it's a very tight budget build, we have less than $3500 in it total.

1991sleeper

iTrader: (-3)

I heat ya .. just asking .. did u build that exhaust system or buy it ? I want mine just like that except with 2.5-3"

91' firebird .. 305 TBI .030 over , balanced bottom end , speed pro hyper flattops , 10.6:1 CR , all ARP rod bolts and main studs , melling HV oil pump , trick flow super 23 175cc heads, Howards HR 214/218@.050 .488/.495 lift on 114 LSA , full roller 1.6 RR = .520/.528 lift , summit dual plane intake port matched , shorty headers into 2.5" Y w full 3" flow master system and 3" cutout in front of axle , msd billet dizzy, 620cfm TBI , custom CAI , tubular adjustabke LCA pan hard , umi torque arm wonder bar , BMR trans cross member , COMP engineering SFC's, disc rear w 4.10's, drilled an slotted rotors, EBL flash , VRFPR, WBO2,

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

i built it

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

a very rare, but very much appreciated mid-week update: Chucky painted the roll bar. reassembly can continue



that's silver hammertone. can't wait to see how it laid down in person.

LB9GTA

iTrader: (1)

Just make sure it is warm enough to dry and cure.
I painted mine in the garage with the same paint and I had to do a second coat because the temps need to be above 60f.
Also, the second coat needs to be within 4 hrs or after 7 days.
2 coats is recommended

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

it was chilly today, so i'm guessing it'll take a little while to cure. i'm hoping it'll be good to go by saturday.

LB9GTA

iTrader: (1)

It's not the curing, it won't make the paint turn into the hammered look if its too cold.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

this weekend is going to be a big weekend. we have our sights on it running again. we'll see how it does, but i have high hopes

so far this is what the weekend is going to look like:
-Wiring (Fan, Linelock, water pump)
-hook up fuel system
-finish door lightening
-install tach
-install battery relocation
-subframe connector updates
-bumper cover support fabrication
-aftermarket overflow bracket and tank fabrication and installation
-new upper radiator support bracket fabrication and installation
-door panels
-front suspension reinstallation
-carpet
-centerconsole
-paint seat brackets
-install 5pt harnessees
-replace pinion seal, service fluids in rear
-bleed brakes
-radio pod/gauge pod/switch panel
-reassemble front fenders and bumper cover

this list isn't exhaustive, but these are the things we are focusing on.

Fast 383

iTrader: (2)

That's not always true. 8 inches can be a real pain in the butt behind lower horsepower motors. In many circumstances, when dealing with a "street motor," a street converter can do wonders. 10 inch street converters are much more predictable in 400-500hp motors that are only looking for 3500-4500 stall. Also, if your motor only requires a good 4000 stall and you get an 8 inch to stall at 4000 the car will 60ft like a fork lift. You'll want to stretch the 8 inch out to a 5000+ stall to get it to transfer good power from the motor. Now you have a $850 converter that stalls over 5k and could possibly run like the $450 10 inch that stall 3800.


For the record, my car went 1.52 60 ft with a $330 ******* ebay converter. It only stalled at 3200. It was just a mild 383 street motor. The guy who bought my motor combo put an 8 inch 5200 stall Coan converter in and went 1/2 second slower.

Love the project write up BTW. Keep up the work.

Dialed_In

iTrader: (3)

Seriously though, good post. My junk goes 1.38-1.42 60' with a $300 Hughes ST3500 converter. Footbrake around 2800.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

well this is all very reassuring. I hope it 60's well, cause the 60' is where it'll need to perform since this will be no top-end screamer.

it's been a long week, i'm ready to jump on this project. i want it DONE. i have things that are waiting on my car now. the idea is to get the majority of the car done this weekend, so chucky can focus on details between now and the Mu11et Militia Spring Race, and we can get a couple large projects on my car done.

mw66nova

iTrader: (13)

This weekend was long and hard. It started off with opposition. The battery cable for relocating the battery had just been shipped friday from alabama, even though we had put the order in for it on monday. so no go on the battery relocation for this weekend. Additionally, we ordered a switch panel bracket for using the contura switches. The modular ones that where you buy two ends and however many middle pieces you need. Well that was shipping from Baltimore....never showed...yet the window switches we ordered from CHINA made it to us in 3 days....who'd have thunk.

Since we didn't have all the parts we needed, we just pressed on as best we could with what we did have. we opted to put the battery up front, but put the pass-through lug on the firewall and energize the lug, then set up everything like the battery was in the back anyway, which should make moving the battery pretty straight forward then.

i spent a ton of time fooling with wiring. i wanted to make sure the wiring is nice and neat, and tucked out of sight where possible. i've managed to accomplish most of that. unfortunately the weather turned on us this afternoon, so most of my pictures are from yesterday, of which most of the wiring was still a bit unkept.

we were not able to get the front clip back on, carpet in, or build the door panels. We got the driver's side door lightening done. 15lbs saved out of the door itself. the c-channel crash bar is 12lbs by itself. i highly recommend removing it if you have door bars in your roll bar.

everyone wants to see pics more than anything so i'll shut up and post the pics.

only picture of the relay center i took. looks way cleaner now.






this is the passenger's side door, which i haven't touched yet.







chucky loves this purple color. i think it's pretty cool too.



here is our driver's door in the "after" state.







oh...and it fires up and drives now. Chucky about pooped himself on his little voyage down the street and back. gave it a quick romp and he couldn't wipe the smile off his face. wish i had gotten it on video but the weather was moving in quick and we had to get the car on the trailer. here's the pair of cars waiting out the next snow, hoping we get warmer temps soon. 8-14" for tonight/tomorrow.



yes it runs...video!