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Cheaper through DSE, on my car I had to do some light clearance to get it to slide on to the column end of the shaft, even then it was still a super tight fit. When I called DSE they said that was fairly normal. Factory they slide on with plenty of room them tension with the bolt, this isnt like that.
Cheaper through DSE, on my car I had to do some light clearance to get it to slide on to the column end of the shaft, even then it was still a super tight fit. When I called DSE they said that was fairly normal. Factory they slide on with plenty of room them tension with the bolt, this isnt like that.
Holley Retrobrights installed, 5700k, purchased from Screaming Chicken. Drives really nice with the new UMI and DSE sway bars, main thing I noticed with the solid bar up front the car feels really flat and planted while turning. It handled well before, but the main difference is how smooth and flat it feels when you make turns.
So the time came to do an LS based build for this car. The shop who finished turning the long block in to a short block is doing the swap. They typically don’t touch LS swaps, but they’ve also been there from the start. They also know the level of detail we put in to picking parts. We talked a lot about the cam choice, I stuck with it because one of things I wanted was a smooth idle. I have already built one Fbody that has had two big cam set ups in it, wasn't looking to do another. The body on this car has about 49K miles, so I wanted a nice set up with good parts but I didnt want it drawing a ton of attention. Just look like a nice low mile GTA and if you heard it, not much would give away what was done.
Harness/PCM/Fuel
0411 and a Pocket Harness he built some years ago for me. Nick Williams 90mm TB, cable driven.
Hawks third gen Trick Flow/Aeromotive regulator. The car already has an Aeromotive tank already with 340 Aeromotive pump.
Engine
Gen IV 6.0 Iron, bored .01. Mahle Forged Piston. GM Gen 4 Rods with ARP rod Bolts. Stock 24X Crank. Fbody Oil pan. Cam Motion Mild Grind 220/230/117 .595/.595. Katech C5R Chain. RPM Speed Mahle Oil Pump. L92 Heads valve job by Faerman Race Engines, milled to factory LS2 compression. LS3 Intake Manifold.
K-Member/Trans Cross Memember/Accessories/Exhaust
UMI Tubular K Member & Holley Black Heart Transmission cross member.
Kooks 1-7/8” Headers, Custom Y Pipe & GMMG Stainless Exhaust
Accessories: Rebuilt Tahoe Alternator, Turn One Fbody P.S Pump. The power steering pump will be all 6AN lines.
Holley R4 Top Mount AC due to the K member.
Transmission
The core started as 2006 GTO 4L65E, had it completely rebuilt & upgraded, also converted for Fbody use. Went with a Circle D Billet 3200 rpm converter & their billet Flex Plate. Once the trans is in, I bought a AN line kit from Bowler & the trans will be run off a Derale dedicated cooler. The set up being as mild as it is, talking to the transmission builder it was built overkill for the power the car is going to make.
Already in the car
Dewitts Radiator and LS1 Fbody dual Fans, Hawks radiator cover.
Left to Decide
Once the motor is in, we’ll have the measure what size pipe will fit between the R4 compressor and radiator, easiest solution will be a Universal Air raid style kit, the other is to have the fabricator who is building the Y pipe to build a custom air intake also.
I still have the air box, when I get home in a few weeks I will collect it.
It runs, not really tuned but currently having the Y pipe and air intake fabricated. I initially planned to use an Air Raid set up, but those were on back order. Car wasn't very happy with the MAF location but once the intake is built that will be resolved. Going back to the passenger side like the factory routing.
Picked it up from the fabricator a few weeks ago, its a custom fabricated Y pipe in to a merge, I used two Kooks high flow cats, the car doesn't have to pass emissions any longer, but I don't want it to stink and they mellowed the exhaust some, albeit marginally. The "cat back," portion is a GMMG I purchased from Madhammer and tips are similar to what GMMG offered, they came from Stainlessworks. I had wanted some SLP Dual/Dual style tips as they're more subtle, but oh well. The intake had to fabricated, I have a Dewitts radiator and a Holley R4, when I ordered the harness from Pocket years ago, I just said to keep the battery on the factory side, driver. That limited the off the shelf intake options like a GTO or Silverado, due to the narrower space some thing custom had to be fabricated. Other option would be to relocate the battery but the car has a really nice cable set up from Gary Clark at Innovative wiring. Its all since been powder coated and all clamped, this is just when we picked the car up. I actually got to bring the car home, but had to leave to go back off shore.
Early on when I replaced the spoiler with the Hawks fiber glass, the body work though looked ok in pictures left a lot to be desired. It wasn't terrible, but over time I began to notice sanding marks and poor prep on the spoiler prior to it being painted. Also spider webs and cracking on the nose cover paint where they went heavy on the filler. For as long as I owned this car, I really wanted a early TA/Formula hood. Nothing was wrong with the GTA hood I had, just always liked the Early TA/Formula hood more. I made a post on the North Thirdgen Facebook group, and a guy in Dallas had one. Ended up going to get it, so while its at the body shop for the hood, I want to get the nose cover and spoiler redone. After this, going to speak to a PDR guy to take care of the numerous dings on the car.
Have any other pictures under the car showing where the subframe connectors get close to the transmission crossmember? I removed my SFCs (think they're the same as yours) as I was seeing they would be occupying some of the same space as the transmission crossmember. Would love to get another set back on though.
11-23-2021, 12:12 PM
