For general info of others that are pondering an LS1 swap and wanted to know the cost of the drive train swap and out the door excluding the engine/transmission/transmission mount and all the other hardware costs. I spoke with Owen today and the labor is $2500.00 give or take a few. This sounds reasonable to me after reading and researching the swap.

One of you is going to have an AWESOME ride when he is done with it.

I hope so, I just got my Ronal R15 Firehawk wheels today. Pretty impressed they got here that quick since I ordered them monday afternoon. I am putting some BFG KDWS 275/40ZR17 tires to handle that LS1 power

When is the car supposed to be ready?

Hopefully mid February. I have been working 6 days a week this whole month and haven't checked the progress much. I am probably going up there tomorrow to make a payment and will check on the progress. While I am waiting I am ordering some other parts like suspension, wheels & tires, etc.

Sounds like your doing it all man. Who knows before the end of this year you might have one of the sweestest thirdgens in Houston.

well i will be putting off the body work for a while but at least i have the parts to fix it in storage. It won't be a looker but it will be a sleeper

So basically you’ll be in the same boat as me. I am in the process of taking care of my trans prob. Then I am going to take the care of the wiring, maybe add a bigger cam, and hopefully I will be ready to run by the spring event. I am having a hard time justifying spending the money on bodywork when I could be going so much faster.

Wish we could find a body work guy/place on the same level as Owen at ARD. Good work/cheap prices! I'm getting tired of looking at my crappy paint finish, but can't afford the normal route.

We need to find somebody just starting out on his own, that needs the work. Anybody know any place like that?

Maybe we can try again with ESC's guy but make sure he actually shows up

I can share a little bit of info on body work with you guys. I never got the car painted but I enrolled in the local Tech. School auto body repair class to learn body work and painting. My wife spun my 82Z into a 4 inch post and took the hit between the door and passengers side rear wheelwell. I had it repaired and it looked ok but I knew there was a ton of bondo under the paint. I then later had the car painted by one of those in and out in 20 minutes places, looked awesome until one encounter with the Texas summer sun. I decided that the only way to get it done the way I wanted it done was to do it myself, so I went to school. Replacing the quarter panel was not difficult just cut out the bad, press the 1/2 inch lip, make a templet, cut and fit the replacement and weld it in. The hard part was learning the art of filler shaping. I spent my three nights a week putting it in sanding and then removing it and starting over....until one evening..poof 45 minutes and it was great..I just had to learn the "art" and see what I wanted to happen. If you look at the area above and forward of the rear wheel you will see all of the curves and shapes in the metal that made it so hard for me to see/feel how it should be. I took the car to bare metal and was ready to put the real primer on it and paint...the dupont cronar is still in my garage..it was never applied..I saw a 67 Chevelle that I just had to have and my parts girl said nope...one at a time buddy..so I sold the Z.

My point is that you guys seem to be in the same area and more or less know eachother. If you have a place to work and practice get a couple of body parts and get together and do some sanding and spraying. You will be surprised what you can learn to do in a short time. With the basecoat clearcoat coatings you can get the base coat "right" with less effort than you expect. Apply 3 or four coats of the clear coat so you can color sand and buff away some of the minor flaws. A friend just did from the doors back on his TA using a a booth he put together with plastic and and a fan in his shop. Space is the real limiting factor and if you have the work space available "just do it" and remember that prep is the key to it all. If you get ready to do the color and clear coat and suffer a panic attack I bet you a coke you can tour the body shops and find a shooter that will come over on a Saturday and do some side work for you. As to the quality of the TA done in the "home built" booth...it aint bad.

What will really give you gas is that he stole the GTA...80XXX miles, leather a disconnected sprak plug wire for a Kbuck.

If the person I am talking about reads this feel free to add corrections or info.

Sounds good except I need a whole paint job!

The process is the same, if you can take the car off the road for the prep work just dive in. You will have some difficulty getting a shop to shoot the color and clear on your primer and prep work but you can find someone to do that outside the shop. I have looked around for estimates on my IROC and the price to paint the car has ranged from 2500 to 6000 with the only difference being the price. The one thing I forgot to mention is that the air compressor must be big enough to maintain air flow to the gun when you apply the final finish coats.

I talked to Owen on Friday and I will probably be up there in the next week to get some pics of the engine. They have been pretty busy over there, every time I go back the place is full of different cars. So by the end of the week I should have some info on the progress. By the way I refered a friend's cousin to ARD, he had a 2002 transam with a cracked block and Owen swapped in a 6.0 liter block and from what I hear he loves it

yep that black ta with the 6 litre has the stealthiest cam ive ever heard and that thing runs great.

My latest purchase was a LeBra front nose cover , I have to cover up all that frontend damage til I get it fixed . Damn these things went up in price too much. I should be going up to ARD friday since that is my one day off, and hope to have some progress news.

How much was it? Where?

Let me know when you are heading up there and I'll meet you there with the gears and posi.

BTW, I am still looking for the article on how to fix a worn out 10 bolt posi.

Hey eric I just recieved a pm from jay and he is selling me his complete rearend, sorry but that makes it easier and cheaper for me than having to pay to have mine setup. give me a call on my cell phone, i am off today instead of tomorrow but have some errands to run, I can meet you at ARD this evening probably so you can finally get the serpentine setup.Pm sent also

I believe like $75 at autozone and I had to order it since it isn't a regular stock item. I believe these used to be like $50

That sounds about normal. I got one there a few years ago and I want to say it was around 70.00 for the full nose and hood bra. I usually go look on ebay anymore though.

I got mine from ebay for $50 or so. plus shipping it still comes out to be close to what you paid. These things are getting expensive.

Update: Owen got rid of Jody, but hired someone new, car is a little delayed with my mom being in the hospital and waiting for parts to come in.( Hawks Long tube headers get here on monday )

I had a chance to meet the new guy "Kerry" last week, he welded my relocation bracket on the Camaro.

Once the headers are installed post some pics, im curious if you have any fitment issues.

I'm gonna have to do something with my fuel lines that run on the driver's side frame rail cause they are rubbing the header and I don't have enough room to put in a heat shield

no problem, hopefully they should be installed soon. Steven, how did you do your intake and filter, any pics?

Its not done yet. I was actually just argueing with a guy in the LS1 section about this. He said he got a kit from FBodmotorsports for $250!

I'll probably just fab something quick and dirty so I can drive it to a ***** shop and have them make me something for waaay cheaper than that.

That is unless I can find a elbow and some tubing that will work, but most likely the best place to find that is somewhere that deals with turbos and whatnot.

daniels motor is one of the best stock rotating assemblies ive seen built in a while

I went to ARD on friday to drop off some parts and the motor was installed with the headers, I think there may be clearance issues with the fuel lines like steven had. I also found out that Jay found a spiders nest somewhere on the car sorry jay I haven't cleaned it in three years, hope you didn't get bit

no problem daniel, i fought those damn spiders with a lot of brake clean and air gun and got most of em out, just glad they werent black widows like in anothers guys project truck. fuel lines will just have to be moved over about 6 inches, owen already knows what to do on it, piece of cake

PLEASE show me what you end up doing with this as I will need to do the same.

Can't move em up, cause there isnt any room, and I don't think it would be wise to put it on the bottom of the framerail incase I run over something....

I'm new to this site, but i've seen a couple of cars with ARD stickers on them at a car meet I go to off of 249.Their was a thirdgen up there once before that I saw that sounded/looked badass with an ARD sticker on it also.Does this owen guy have a thirdgen of his own?If so, I might have seen him at a car meet.And the phone number posted earlier, is that his personal number or business?I may just call him tomorrow since i'm hearing so much good stuff about ARD
What is their location?I'm on the east side of Houston.

thirdgen was probably xtremeirocz's car, Owen has a fourthgen formula. His shop info should be in one of the posts stickied at the top of the southcentral forum.

Owen
ARD--Advanced Racing Dynamics
5023 Addicks Satsuma rd, Suite b,
Houston, Texas, 77084
832-593-9140


From I-10 and highway 6, go north past keith harrow till you reach addicks satsuma. take a right turn and go about 1/2 mile down and you will see the sign and it is located on the left in a business park.

Thanks for the info.Hopefully i'll be seein some of ya'll later

whatsup man , i saw your car out there the last two weeks. I meant to come say hi. Your car sounds pretty good, what all do you have done?

Well i don't have anything compared to your ride.Your **** sounds Badass.What all is done to your ride?

Mods:
Rebuilt 350 boring out to a 357 long block,performance cam, headers, custom y,3 in. highflow cat, 3 in. cat back with SLP loud mouth muffler,B&M short shifter,and custom chip.

I said what's up to you once before.The first time I saw your ride, I came up and asked you what year it was.I was one of the big black guys standin around.

I was just wondering, is this ARD shop good with 3rd gens?I still have my stock computer and need to either get'er tuned or get a wire harness for it.

I guess i'll prolly see you next time man.

Will

If it's a TPI, PM 1bad91Z --best on the south!

Its all good, I was so pre ocupied trying to get a race setup. Owen knows his stuff and wont let your stuff no be the best quality he can put out, he also stands behind the work. he can do anything to your car and do it right. My car is now a 408 stroker moter ls1 with turbo 350 and 250 shot on directport. I have not really gotten any times on it yet but on my old 364 cid with 200 on it I ran a best of a 10.9 @ 125 so I am expecting to get a 10.5-10.3 out of it now without upgrading the suspension and subframes, plus im on a 10 bolt

hey jay i sent you an email, i am not able to use pm for some weird reason

hmm, i didnt get anything, Ill give you a call tommorrow from the shop

U have changed motors since the Fall Brawl?

hmmm......I must not have been paing attention!

Man that's pretty bada$$.Hopefully i'll get to talk to you this comin tuesday.I should be up there.And i'll probably definately be checking out ARD/Owen's shop this week.Thanks for the help.

Hey will i got your pm and all i can say is talk to owen about what you want because my price is with alot of extras, he gave me a great deal and he is a very nice guy.

Jay i forgot to ask you today, do you know where(salvage yard maybe) I can get the dual fan setup off a fourthgen?
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If anybody needs headers I have some hedmans for sale, these have the air pipes for those worried about keeping emmisions legal. Shorties, one and five eighths, sorry computer wont let me type numbers for some weird reason.

yep changed last month, datalogged it today and it doesnt pull barely any knowck and thats on pump gas so it is running happy

I should totally pay you to come over to Austin and help me finish mine up. Sooo close....

to be honest, if you cant find them at the regular places, Owen knows a couple salvage yards of the beaten path that have a ton of stuff like that and at a good deal