So I went to buy some console parts for my wife's Tahoe and I noticed a homely Firebird, nothing fancy, paint roached, figure its a 6 cyl car and hood is popped so I Take a look under and surprised to see a TPI engine - and a 350 to boot, it hasn't run in years


so I noticed 2 air cleaners but no intake tube and I inquire - its there, but not cherry, but usable


so I strike a deal to buy the car? WTH I just went for a few parts! My wife just smiled when I told her - Whew!
I started thinking i never looked at the car- I mean look at the car, didnt look underneath, he told me it had a disc brake rear which is nice
I did get the code tag in console

went back last Saturday to take a better look and see its not a 10 bolt - 9 bolt I guess but know it wasn't the 3.23 10 bolt that car was coded for
car is supposed to get delivered today where I can take a better look at it

I did post some pics on a thread about Formula production numbers and didn't want to hijack so I started this thread so you may have already seen this

 

I don't know what you paid for it but that intake is probably worth as much as the car.

 

WHAAAAAAAAATTTTTT!!!!!!!! Super cool!

 

 

Very cool score!!!

 

Very nice score indeed! That's an SLP dual intake setup!

 

Did the guy even know about the intake?

 

I amazed that it has not been stripped for parts yet. This looks like a build thread is coming!

 

You brought home a new mistress, and your wife just smiled?

 

That's a cool intake! Never seen one of those. How much for the whole setup? LOL, doesn't hurt to ask right?
Also, where does the battery go in those cars? Hatch?

 

I know and he didn't


Right? I've known about its rarity for years and was as surprised as all you
famous words: "They're still out there"

Big cable to drvr side rear like O or OO gauge

 

can you please post a picture of how the battery is mounted in the rear. looking to relocate my battery and would be a helpful reference. did they run the battery cable in the car or underneath?

 

The battery relocation was up to the car owner and cables could be routed many different ways. SLP offered a fairly generic relocation kit through summit.

 

it used to be in LR corner - nothing there now cable is messed up so its a non player anymore

Yup I'm habitual like that , not first car I've up and bought on her - 30+ years - shes used to me but hasn't given up on training me

 

Well its home now, made for a late sweaty night



cleaned the car with wet towel- and ruined it
I feel better now more dings and dents than I noticed before but its solid no rust Texas car



that appears to be good news - hope its accurate I have a friend running a Carfax to see what we can tell about its accuracy
and the possibility of getting a title for it

 

Well this derelict has more surprises in it,
OK I know the original 10 bolt was gone and thought someone put in a 9 bolt,to be honest never thought much about it but the day I went to look at the car better I noticed the lug studs were little long for stock closed end lug nuts...


guessed that maybe had been replaced with longer a/m studs another a/m part that fit wrong, but after getting this home and looking I now know it's much more



I am just floored! its a 3.55 ratio Dana 44
Oh and what was left of the exhaust impeded it being loaded on the trailer as it got wrapped around the axle and sawzalled off all except what they couldnt get off the axle ugh

 

The plot thickens............

 

Yup, title then a build thread.

Here's an SLP price sheet with part #'s in 1996

 

 

I'll be the guy to ask. What did you pay for it? If you don't mind.

Have you checked the front brakes yet? Maybe it has good parts up there too

 

This kind of thread makes me wonder how many times I walked past a Dana 44 back in the day and never even noticed. The junkyards usually had 20 or 30 thirdgen hulks in varying degrees of smashed and stripped. Usually didn't look much further than to observe drum vs disc. Of course back then, aftermarket parts were kind of unusual to see. Most of the popular custom touches were GTS tinted plastic crap, chromed steel Sears card wheels, or 4" chrome stacks from the ******* (sun-burned upper back to lower head interface) truck aisle.

So what headers has it got on it? From the AIR tubes they aren't stock manifolds, or later SLPs, if I were to place a blind bet I'd guess Edelbrock or maybe SLP Tri-Y's? Either way, just the Dana and the cold air are probably worth a couple times whatever you paid for it. Wonder what other goodies are hiding in there... Looks like a line lock, and the obvious tubular panhard bar...

 

thanks all its really just luck I guess I almost didnt give it much thought as it looked like so many other 6'ers out there as far as payment I'm not into 4 figures yet .the headers are shorties? I guess I found a really beat to S%$# y-pipe in the back seat here it is


the one pipe is about half the normal diameter
and here is all that was left after they loaded on trailer and delivered it Ouch!

there was alot more when I originally viewed it, Oh well,maybe you can tell me what headers they are I cant see how they would connect to shorties and now it needs all the exhaust replaced
I wasn't looking for it but like I said they are out there! you need to keep looking, turning the stones over and see whats under there. I used to go junk yarding a lot one day i looked in the bed of a truck and found a complete 70 Chevelle 12 bolt 3.31 posi with sway bar and boxed control arms with original spiral shocks - should of kept shocks and you don't wanna know what I got that for (under $50) oh sheet! I said that. OK that said no title to car what now get title and get it running or part it out? I really think its a buildable car its still one of 800 something formula 350s made in 1990.

 

 

The headers are the rare slp tri-y headers.

 

It's a Tri-Y downpipe, probably SLP. SLP switched from the Tri Y's to the typical 4-into-1 headers in the 90's, if that gives you the idea how long the Tri-Y's have been out of production. Seem to remember SLP cleaned out all the spare parts for the Tri-Y's somewhere around 1999/2000. So if pieces are missing, you'll probably need to fabricate them.

 

Also worth pointing out, that looks to be the driver's side down pipe. You should have something similar for the passenger's side. See these photos for example

 

 

 

Tri-Y w/air tubes

 

Why cant I find stuff like this? Just once before I die. Been to every junkyard I could get into from florida to Socal. Have never seen anything crazy besides for that formula vert like 3 years ago.

 

But that pic is the later 4 into 1 SLPs... and someone welded the original AIR plumbing onto them...

 

Funny how Dana/Spicer has a "crate axle" division to sell you a Dana 44 for a dumbass Jeep, or whatever tarded off-road, mudd boggin', rock crawlin', piece of garbage, what have you... But they don't seem too interested in putting out a 3rd gen/4th gen rear that would really hit 'the spot'.

https://spicerparts.com/applications/crateaxle
https://spicerparts.com/parts/axle/a...ont-crate-axle

 

Congratulations on the killer find!

 

 

 

Time to petition them to offer a thirdgen/fourthgen center chunk. If they beat the price of the other bolt in options, the Dana 44 could become an easy choice for Camaro enthusiasts. Given that the other options really don't fit well, and are heavy, it seems like it'd be a better option if the price was right.

 

I believe I guessed correctly on it having a dana 44 and pointed out it may have SLP headers (or they could be the Accel brand).

 

From the production numbers thread:
Yeah you sure did! it did make me look more specifically when it was delivered when I looked at car the second time (had to make sure body wasn't that bad/ or that I'm crazy for buying car just for air intake!) . I was a little disappointed that the orig rear was gone but surprisingly not now this is first Dana 44 I have ever seen in Gen3 and I have owned a third since 91 when I bought my '87.
When I found the down pipe in car, as badly beat up as it is I thought headers were some crappy brand too and now junk, maybe not 100% now
I will next week go to DMV to see if I can get title copy
I am also starting to look for exhaust, intake, taillights to get the car at least back on its feet again
I do not want to part the car out

 

 

I'd love to find something like that! Congrats!

 

I'd buy one! The original 7.5 in my 82 recently came apart in spectacular fashion, and my son is gathering parts to LS swap it. It would be perfect!

 

what the hell,you found the holy grail by accident.nice score and it looks minty.this car definitely deserves to be built.

 

There's another thread around here where someone contacted Dana and asked. They reportedly stated that they'd have to have a commitment of 500 units from an existing dealer. It'd be nice to see another option available, but finding 500 buyers might be a problem. Probably get a bit closer to the mark if they were 4th gen length to take advantage of a broader market, but not everyone here wants to run 4th gen spec wheels. Someone who was serious about getting it done would have to spearhead an effort.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tran...ml#post5490137

 

you got a white formi,nice .oh,you have several nice cars by the look of it.

 

Thanks for the info. Sounds like they're not interested in the enthusiast market, and are quoting a minimum they would approach an OEM with. I thought it sounded plausible given that they undoubtedly have the tooling, but there's no way 500 is a reachable #. I wonder how many they sold when it was available thru GM?

 

well I decided to go ahead and swap rear ends out of the car and see what we have


these are 1/2" studs 2.5-3.0" long!


and there's a problem with the studs one was spinning in the axle luckily I could hold the end with vice grips and wrench it off


looks like several were welded to shaft one other was loose So I guess I can go axle shopping as I don't know about having Moser re-drill them? well that's a project for another day. Now to see exactly whats in it looks like 46-13 that makes this a 3.54 I assume there are clutches in there as I am not familiar with Dana posi's I usually mess with 10&12 bolt GMs


one thing I noticed there are 3 sets of holes for the LCA to bolt through- is the normal?




I also found last owners name and trying to get in contact with them fingers crossed

 

I hope you get in contact with the previous owner. I am interested in hearing how this car ended up with those parts on it.

 

The 3 holes aren't normal . (Edit: Didn't see the control arm mounting had been extended so my info was incorrect)

Most def like to hear some info on the cars history

 

none of the other 44's have that? I don't plan on using the uppers as the farther from the center is better, I need to measure distance on stock and see if bottom is same or lower (like they should be)

 

Not from dana, only one set of holes per side.. besides, you normally want to move the control arm down at the rear, not up.