Here’s a little story of what’s going on, you don’t have to read this if you don’t want to, my questions are down below

Well guys, i’m just sitting here at home thinking about my car. Right now I’ve been working on it for hmm lets see...3 months now. Here’s a little back ground of what happened. I used to have a 1988 Trans Am GTA. 350 TPI, very nice car. I bought it around February this year, but then I got into a bad accident and it got totaled a few months later . Fortunately though, the motor was ok. So at the time I had NO money whatsoever and I needed a car, and I didn’t want to leave the 3rd gen fbodies! So, what did I do? I bought an empty 1986 Trans am body, with a t-5 Trans in it. I wanted to transplant my old engine into the new car. I never did it before, but I don’t mind doing it, I know ill learn a lot from doing this. I love working on cars, especially mine so I figured why not!



Anyway, this is what I did to my 1988 L98 engine.

Converted to carb:
- used edlebrock carb (about 650cfm) 4 barrel
- New edlebrock lower intake
- used vacuum advance distributor

Converted to manual transmission
- used stock flywheel, re-cut before I put it in
- Almost new clutch
- used pressure plate

All emissions stuff will be gone, I put a brand new hooker cat back on and there’s no computer in the car anymore. I put on a cheepo 9" air cleaner on for now, and I no longer have electric fans, just a belt driven one.


Well what do you guys think? Good/bad choices I made? I want to hear your comments or opinions.


Also, how is that carb? Is that enough for my current setup? Eventually I want to get a nice k&n air cleaner just to make sure I have clean flow, some hedman headers, and id like to do a heads and a cam upgrade. What heads and cam would you guys suggest? I'd like to see anything between 50hp-100hp without going way over $600 for the heads.

Or should I go another route? Anything you guys can suggest would be great. Thanks...



p.s. i'm going to upgrade the suspension too, and get Ed miller's c4 brake kit.

 

if i were in your shoes i most likely would of did the same thing, i am not sure how you drive but the t-5 tranny maybe iffy depending on how u drive.

what rear end does it have?

if the t-5 is not even a world class u might have some issues, i think g-force makes a good rebuild kit for the t-5's to make them a bit stronger.

somethings i would different:

hooker headers at least.
i would of went with at least on single electric fan wired through a relay and switch.

 

thanks for the reply MdFormula350

yes, the t-5 is the main problem. im sorry to say i will be learning to drive stick on this car . i've heard t-5's are weak so i'll just have to see.

as for the rear end, i swapped out the rear end from my 1988 GTA so its either a 2.77(stock) or a 3.27 (G92 option). i had no pro codes in my GTA so i am not sure.

i could do hooker headers, but they're just more expensive. i chose hedmans because of the price difference.

as for the electric fans, i wouldve kept the dual electric fan setup i had in my old car, but i lost all of the mounting hardware for the fans. i still have both of them in my shed, so if i can find the mountings hardware, ill put them back in.

 

and whats a better way to go...new heads or a new cam shaft? i know of course both is best, and getting new heads usually requires a new cam, but can i get decent results with just a cam? or do the stock L98 flow really sh!tty? what kind of gains am i looking at with just a cam shaft upgrade?

and i wouldnt mind getting a little muscle car pop-pop- rumble in the exhasut either ...just as long as that cam does completly KILL my gas milage...heh.

 

bump