i just recently bought a gta and already got a race lined up against a friend with a 5.0. ive kinda got a lot riding on this race, so im just wondering who ya guys think would take it.

ive got a 350 tpi, with edelbrock tes headers, aluminum pulleys, high perf. runners and around 94,000 miles. im not sure if the gears in the rear end are 3.08 or 3.23 since the guy i bought the car from wasnt sure. its got the stock 700r4 trans.

he's got a 5.0 with bbk headers, a bigger fuel rail, flowmaster cat-back and muffler, ram-air intake.

thanks in advance.

 

i say he will prolly get you...

 

it will be a closer race.... if he's a stick that is... stick should have the advantage with better gearin...so if he could drive, i bet he might slightly pull on you from a dig.

from a roll it will be closer.

guy i know took a bone stock lx to 13.9s.... he drives the crap outta that car!! never heard a L98 go faster than 14.3 but i think thats cuz its an auto.

 

yea, he's got a auto. and it more than likely will be from a standstill. ive given thought to putting in a jet stage 1 chip, but idk. havent heard much about them though. thanks guys.

 

i'd save your money and wouldnt buy that chip.

if he's an auto, you should beat him good

 

awesome. just saved some money torwards a new throttle body there.

 

I wouldn't waste your money on a throttle body either, if you want something that'll make a difference get a new base (Edelbrock, Accel, or the best of all a Holley Stealth Ram if you don't need to pass emmisions). Drop the Tstat to a 180 and wire the fans up to a switch, and follow the rest of the free mods listed in the tech articles. This should put you on par, or ahead of him.

 

A great mod is putting a new Torque converter in. I paid $100 for a rebuilt corvette converter that supposedly stalls at 2500 (mine is 2200.) Car takes off hard now...when it hooks.

You can also bump the timing to maybe 6*. Depending on what octane you run. I was able to run 89 with 6* with .5* of timing retard under heavy load in the hot florida summer with the AC on. But every car is different.

 

The vette stall, or a 95 up 2wd 4.3 S10 stall are both the same and are a great upgrade.

 

Yes I suggest the stall as your next mod as well...

TB don't do much unless you make 500+...

 

+1

Your throttle body is not a restriction yet. So you will gain VERY little if at all.

The intake manifold itself is much more of a restriction at this point.


If his 5.0 is an auto you SHOULD smoke him. My fully optioned iroc run circles around my friends 5.0's...

 

stock timing is 6 degrees base.....i run 10 now and think it might actually be slowing me down. i'm gonna mess around with it sometime whenever i get the rear end back together


i would say save ur money and put it into the trans by puttin in a shift kit and converter. biggest bang for the buck ever. u'll go from 1.9x 60s and low 14's to 1.7-1.8x 60s and 13.7-13.8s.

 

You've never heard of an L98 go faster than 14.3? thats funny, cause mine went 14.25, with some slip, and I have a huge, heavy, sub box, probably could get just inside the 13's with it out. My car is stock, and it runs faster than 14.3...

 

decent! good time man. i felt these cars with drag radials bone stock are capable of low low 14's with full stock 1200rpm brake stall LOL

 

My bolt on 87 350 TPI with the smaller cam did a 13.8 on ET Streets. That was with long tube headers, duals, gutted stock air box, and misc bolt ons (MSD box, K&N filters and such). That was with right at 200,000 on the ticker. Biggest mod done was a TH350 with a 3000rpm stall.

 

I am pretty sure they are not the same. I've had both and the corvette converter feels ALOT looser. Plus I gained ~200rpm stall speed.

And is it 6* stock? I might be at 8* then. It has been a year since the car was taken apart.

Another good/free mod is gutting the air boxes. Just cut the bottoms out of the biotch. Every little bit counts. You can also port your plenum. TPIS does this for $100.

The biggest problem I encountered was valve float. Over 3500 my car had nothing. I swapped in a set of Comp 981 springs and LT4 retainers. They are a great upgrade and they are very cheap. ($90 for both.)

 

is it a coupe or a gt??? cause if its a GT.. i think you would take him... hes an auto, if hes got the stock rear end, its only a 2:73 gear... the only 5.0's that were the quickest in bone stock form were the 87-88 models due to the fact that they had speed density... the 89-93's had mass air and the 93's had about 10 less hp and didnt have forged internals.. but i say that you could most likely take him

 

I swapped in a set of Elgin cheapo 110 seat pressure springs, HUGE help but my springs had around 200,000 on them so they were WAAAAAAY overdue. Don't pay a dime to get your plenum ported, get a die grinder (electric or air) and some carbide bits and do it yourself, my plenum was my first adventure with porting and I did it with a dremel tool, tackled the lower intake with an air grinder at a friends house (there's big gains to be made in the lower intake). Now for a question, I've heard that the early 5.0's had forged internals but I've also heard they have hypereutectic internals, which is correct? The limiter for the 5.0's doesn't seem to be the rods or pistons, but rather the block but that's a different discussion, I'm just wanting to know what's up with the pistons, rods, and crank. If you mod your car for this race you should post up what you do to it, and if you do race please don't forget to fill us in on the results. Once again good luck!

 

the 93-95 5.0's were hypereutectic. i know that 85-92's were forged... but im not too sure of what was before those years

 

Interesting ill hafta pick up a late 80 point and find some boost...

 

pre 93 were forged, 93 were hypers (actually didnt hurt the car at all, and could still handle the same power you throw at the block) and the rating for 93 was less because Ford changed how they rated the cars. The 93s made the exact same power as the 87-92 cars.

An auto and stock gears are his biggest crutch, so you should take him easily! Also autos could have 2.73, 3.08 or even 3.27 gears stock... to let you guys know!

 

awesome guys, thanks for all the replys. he's got 3.73 or 3.75 gears in the back. i cant remember the exact number as of right now, but i could find out in a lil while.

whatever they are though, until he hits fourth gear, you hear the engine high revving, but nothins happening. and yea, its a 5.0 gt automatic.

and yea, yesterday i was reading through the boards and saw that a new throttle body would be pointless for right now.

thanks again guys.

 

take that back, their 3.25 gears in his car.

 

Your 1988GTA should have the Borg Warner nine bolt rear end with 3.27 gears if it has the factory read end in it.

 

They couldnt get 3.25s, maybe 3.27s or 3.55s?

 

sorry, im a putz. they are 3.27 gears in his car.

 

well, i finally got a chance to race the kid. it took a while, lol.
the first run we went from 50 to 100. i pulled ahead from the start and started putting distance between us. the second one was from 45 to 75 because we started coming into town. he pulled ahead for a second, but i managed to come back and pass him and held his nose at the beginning of my door.
next time we're going from a dig.

 

Roll racing is for pansies.

 

if you take him from a role your gonna kill him from a light or watever if you hook

 

I kind of agree, but racing from a dig in a 14 second automatic car is not that much better if you ask me.

If you won from a roll you will win from a dig.

 

well, unfortunatly we were kinda on a highway so its damn near impossible to go from a stop with traffic behind ya.
im probably going to take the car to the track. id at least like to know the 1/4 time for it.