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Holly smoke just read the whole thread, had to go get something to eat at page 8 and come back and finish reading it.

 

Sounds like you got your heart set on one of them. Only way to make money on a car is if you start with a rare car from the get go, otherwise your lucky to break even when it comes time to sell it, despite whatever you did because most buyers don't even care if it had a Ford 9" in it. If I were you, slap that old L98 engine with the original turbo setup you had on it back into the Iroc, put the original converter back in. Give that L98 a nice tuneup, then sell the Iroc like that. Let the new owner worry about a better breathing intake. Once it sells, get your 49-53 Chevy coupe and throw that ZZ3 engine with your Precision turbo (rebuilt) into it and have some fun. Lose the GTR, I had one for a few months then returned it, insurance was a killer...

 

This is very depressing news hearing you want to sell it, however I do understand your frustration. I have considered selling mine a few times due to it being broken at least once a season. I probably would sell it if I wouldn't loose almost 50% of my investment. I see what you are saying about not being noticed much at shows. There is not much 3rd gen love these days!

Your attention to detail is amazing, if you do get the coupe I will be very interested in keeping up on the build!

 

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These engine swap ideas come and go. Once upon a time, everyone wanted a big block in their third gen, seemed like everywhere you looked at car shows and at the track you would see a 454 Chevy, 455 Buick or 400 Pontiac in an third gen. Pretty much dominated the magazines, too. Nowadays, we're lucky to see two or three of those big block third gens left on this whole entire forum, everyone switched back to the SBC w/port injection. Now you have LS swaps and the same thing is happening, people have their fun but then want to go back to the SBC, just take a peek at the classifieds and you'll see what I mean. If it were me, I wouldn't stop to look at an LS based '51 Chevy coupe, but a '51 Chevy coupe with a twin turbo charged original straight six would grab my damn attention, but that's just me. Also, in the above response I recommended going back with the original turbo L98 in the Iroc, and turbo ZZ3 in the next vehicle to try to help save you some money. You might not get what your looking for with today's economy by keeping the ZZ3 in the Iroc and selling it like that, or even parting everything out for that matter. In the end though, you already have a car that grabs everyone's attention, the GTR is the hot item today and is the car to beat. Unless you hang out in a bar with a 50 year old plus crowd, or are looking to impress a bunch of divorced women in that age bracket, a 51 coupe might be the way to go. But if you want attention from 20, 30 and 40 year olds, keep the GTR...

My two cents Steve, and I try to be as practical as possible...

 

Couldn't have said it better myself, Street Lethal! Lots of engine swap fads come and go for sure!

Interestingly enough, I had my car at a local dyno day this fall and there were a couple turbo LS cars there. While they put down some impressive numbers, my '92 with a built small block, Stealth Ram, and turbo setup retaining factory A/C, cruise, etc. seemed to draw more onlookers than either of the LS cars!

-Paul

 

Turd gens have already hit rock bottom and are on their way up in desireability. Most all of them are screwed up/swapped/messed with at this point so a clean fairly original one is for sure going up in value.
The ls swap stuff will be old news in a couple years once the next big thing comes along.

 

All the LS has going for it are great stock parts like heads, intakes, and blocks. Sure the EFI is nice but that's just as available for any engine platform now.

If you build a stout bottom end SBC and put some 18* or 15* heads and intake on it (comparable money to the better aftermarket LS heads), your are right there with the LS stuff. You can run the same cam profiles, the same timing, the same fueling, same computer, the rotators are pretty much the same, even some new LS blocks (dart next) use Gen I bottom end design and are going to Cleveland (Ford) bearings.

I've very glad I didn't go LS when I considered it a few years ago.

 

I would personally keep it. Looks to be a very clean iroc-z which seems to be rare these days. Yes most are LS swapped like mine. Stock for stock yes its a better motor but SBC's can be built up just as good. I would vote leave it as is. You already have so much invested (time etc) on the SBC setup. Beleive me the LS thing is a huge craze but to be honest my Turbo LT1 setup got WAY more attention. My current build thread with my LS swap no-one seems to care of voice opinions/ideas. I think I went like 10 consecutive posts updating my thread with no replies lol.

I vote sell the GTR , they just dont do it for me.

Jay

 

Yup but 15-18 deg sbc heads are still expensive and bit big in size for most street rpm ranges. But can work ok on a 400-434 sbc. Have to have a custom core and size it small like 250 cc. Thats about as small as 18 deg heads come it seems

But even with a good 23 deg head like i have, the results are similar.
My good friend has a 408 lsx. Built bottom end and big 247cc heads. 88 mm s500 he made 1097 whp at 20 psi on c16.
My 401 made 1009 whp on 24.5 psi but on pump 93. Guarantee i match or best those lsx numbers with good gas. Several deg timing would gain me that power easily.
Now he is still on ls6 or ls2 type intake tho. It may pick up more on single plane like i have. But either way the numbers are close. We both have th400's and 12 bolts

 

It's so funny you said that, about three years ago during an open house at Vengeance Racing they were doing free dynos with 2 free pulls and of course I was the only gen 1 SBC car there, but after putting down 441RWHP on motor and 589RWHP on the bottle the first thing someone said was "is it a LS" and the guy that was running the dyno also said "I'm glad the car didn't break". Of course I gave the dude a look. Ever since then I told myself I'll never put a LSX in my car when I could just buy one with it already in it. Anyway I have way to much money and time involved in it to change plate forms. Life is to short and my car is just a hobby.

The thing about all this is everyone wants to go fast. But no matter what motor plate form you choice, it still cost money. Too each its own!

 

What's the good word Steve, which direction is life taking you bro...

 

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did you ever dynoed the car with your new fuel pump and turbo?

 

just take a break from the iroc for a couple months, its easy to get burnt out always working and spending money it. if you come back to it maybe you come in with a fresh outlook on it and figure out what you need to do to get it perfect.

 

At this point a Holley Stealthram would be a 100HP+ easy bolt on!

 

very well could

 

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Don't blame you Steve. Next project for me is something different as well...

 

Stp wanting to attract a "crowd". Learn to love thy self.

 

if the iroc had third row seating i would come down and buy it right now. lol

 

I kind of agree. Steve you built a really, really awesome sleeper. You intentionally built it to make sure it doesnt look a fast or sound as fast as it is. Not really sure why you're expecting crowds to come look at what appears to be a stock, clean IROC. I personally whole-heartedly agree with this type of modding. I think it is by far the best way to do it. But if you want to turn some heads, get some weight jacks and some 17 or 18" wheels on it. Even slammed with some Weld RTS wheels will turn a bunch of heads. With a more moderate ride height and stock wheels it's going to blend in, and that's exactly what it's built to do. Ive spent years messing with my car, and as soon as I got the cheap vette wheels and the weight jacks on it, I have people talking to me about it ALL the time out of nowhere. People that never even noticed it before and I just got that setup together a couple of months ago. With the 16" wheels and a 1 inch drop that looked like it might be stock, no one ever cared about it. They'd say "oh it looks clean...." and that was about it.

Either wy, I wouldnt suggest spending the money on that at this point, your heart isnt in it anymore. But I do think if you wanted attention, you would have gotten quite a bit of it on some CCW's and weight jacks. I think the stock sleeper look is cooler, but that's not what draws crowds.

 

Meh, Stevie just needs the right motivation...

 

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^pass

 

Oh hellz yeah, I'm loving loving the old models "come on guys let's get to work"...

 

I now the feeling. to want something cooler. it seems that to get people,s attencion on a third gen has to be something radical looking or radically fast!, nobody cares for a stock looking car. when I need a brake from my car I borrow my friends grand national for a while.

 

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that's nice!

 

needs the driveline from the iroc

 

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Twin turbo LS???? Are you kidding????

Put what belongs in that gem, a big block with a huffer.

By the way, nice choice in car's Steve, she sure is purrrrrrty...

 

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My opinion on the IROC is throw it up on CL for what you want and see what happens. Hate to say that, but you may find a buyer. I definitely wouldn't sell it out of spite for a big loss.

Nothing wrong with an LS. As said previously, they've out small block chevied wthe small block chevy in terms of being swapped into everything these days, but for the bucks you get a lot in terms of a modern engine.

On that front if it was me though, I'd do some basic mods to what you have and leave it be for the summer. I'm to the point I just want to have at least one of my heaps out and driving damn the power. So far I'm succeeding.

 

Doesn't have to be BBC w/carb, can be BBC w/FI and big ole roots huffer...

 

I say keep the iroc, by the looks of it, its a clean example. Starting to get rare to find a nice clean stock looking 3rd gen. But then again i sold/parted my last one even though people said dont do it. At the time it was the right decision as I wanted a C5 even though I was never a huge vette guy. Drove the vette for a few years and started to get the itch to do some dumb things to it and decided to go back to a 3rd gen. I find 90% of the fun is the build.

However it doesn't hurt tossing it up for sale just to see what kind of attention/money it can bring. They seem to be getting more respect lately lol

Jay

 

Congrats on the new house buddy, you've deserved a fresh new start for quite some time now. What township is it in Florida? Although you couldn't pull me away from Atlantic City and the Jersey Shore, I must say that I envy you because that location looks awesome, not to mention the constant beautiful weather. Christen the house with a new puppy to enjoy that enormous yard Steve, and I wish you the best of luck with it brother...

 

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what converter is in it ?
tried freakshow converters yet ?

i need a reminder on the combo zz4 with a cam?

 

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Converters can be a pita. PTC usually is on their game though. Was it spec'd for your combo? I made the mistake of buying my converter New "used" off someone. Not really thinking the stall speed would be effected much with my lower cube motor. Its a 3800 stall triple disk spec'd for a 427 blower car. I figured great it would stall up around 3000rpm. Nope. Im lucky to get 1600rpm before the rear tires spin. But I do love the manners of the converter so I will probably upgrade the brakes to get some more holding pressure.


I thought the GTR was going? Decided to keep it?

Jay

 

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I LOVE this statement.

As I have said before your attention to detail is second to none. I would love to follow a ls iroc build up of yours.

As for the stall, toss that auto and get yourself a proper t56 and put it behind a turbo LS in the iroc! That would be a blast!

 

Turbo cars sit on jackstands enough as is.....LOL

Jay

 

Was that Breakaway that you went to? I've been living here for 2 1/2 years and never made it down there. I can never seem to find info on when it's open. Always end up at Cottonwood

 

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why not take the tpi off , and put it in a box somewere so u can put it back on if u sell the car , and pick up an hsr or one of the cheap ching chong hsr's ( if they are available again yet that is )


i bet that change alone would be the power ur looking for and widen the powerband of the motor more then enough that u could get a converter to work properly


freakshow performance makes some nice converters and they are priced very well , few members here run them , and i regret getting an fti over a freakshow myself