Cool setup Joe! Don’t sell it.

 

This is my current project.




I think at a minimum I'm going to sell the vortech t trim, it's obnoxious anyway. I may run the firebird naturally aspirated for a little while or run a smaller self-contained quiet drive blower.

I think this c3 is going to probably get a Gen 2 LT1.

 

^ The C3 frame screams drag race me. Hope you race that thing...

- Rob

 

Not a chance lol. This is a high dollar build. Think driving to car shows and eating ice cream. Gonna do a gen2 LT1, small cam. It's a 4 spd car. 3.07 dana rear end. Not a drag car.

There is a million reasons these make crappy drag cars. You need to do a tubular frame, straight rear axle, etc as a starting point.

-- Joe

 

im lost please disregard this post. lmao

 

Think of what you just said though. The stock engine is in no way set up for drag racing because they are pathetic, which is more than likely why you're going the LT1 route to give it some form of decent power. So the engine is being changed. If you change the engine, the trans and rear ideally would (or should) follow. The reason why I said they scream drag race me is because of the positioning of the engine, trans, and where you're sitting. It's a forty year old Viper frame. I mean of course, nobody is saying to drag race it with a stock frame and drive train because the tech for both back then were still in its' beginning stages, but being you have the car down to its' bare frame the assumption here was you were planning some serious modifications to the frame. As far as the straight rear axle / solid rear axle, that is debatable. Plenty of extremely fast seven second IRS cars out there. So long as you're enjoying the car, it's cool either way...

Best of luck with it.

- Rob

 

Joe,

I had the car out again putting on 200 miles or so. Cruising and hard boost runs. Everything is good except for the lean condition at the top of third. It does go sideways at the top of that gear... I’m really starting to think this may be a voltage issue to the pump but am unsure. Do you have, or can you take some pics on what you did for the relay and lower gauge wiring? I’m trying to get better with electronics. I think the E85 Walbro 450LPH pump should be sufficient for what I’m doing. For now anyway.

 

I'll be honest, I think if I were to build a dedicated drag car I'd probably use a vega or a tube chassis car. As far as this C3, it's kind of an expensive build. I haven't finished tallying up all of the new parts, but basically we're looking at about $12,000 in parts, $10,000 in body work / frame work, and we haven't even done paint, interior, engine yet. They estimated the value when completed would be 40-50k, which ultimately was what the guys wife used in divorce court to get "her half" which resulted in him writing her a $25k check for "her half" of the car.

Anyway, so that LT1 I've had in the shop for 5 years that came out of a '93 camaro, I did a compression test and most cyls were 165-180psi. One was 100, and one was zero (yes zero).

Removed the rockers, and did a leakdown test and found a few exhaust valves leaking. did the good old "mallet whack" and they ended up finally seating. But now every cyl is between 165-180psi, which is still "old and tired". I've got some loss past the rings when pressurizing the cylinders, and oily carbon on the piston tops indicates oil control ring failure. Cylinder walls don't have damage but are worn. Ridge is minimal but you can feel it. At minimum it needs a hot tank, hone, re-assembly and I don't think putting that type of effort into a 2 bolt LT1 makes sense. So off to the scrap pile haha.

So I guess we're back to what to do with my thirdgen, and I think at this point it makes the most sense to pull the 412 and stick it in the C3 naturally aspirated, and do rear end gears. And sell the thirdgen as a roller. Maybe someone would love to put there own engine in it. It's a fully restored car, with tubular suspension, k-member, new interior, etc.

-- Joe

 

I'll take some pictures tomorrow for you. It's absolutely a voltage drop issue. I simply ran new wires to the back of the car and replaced the factory relay with a 40 AMP relay.

-- Joe

 

Throw up some more clean pics, I’ll nominate itfor car of the month