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7 minute(s) of a 176 minute read
6-6-2009
The reason for the radials is the goal all along has been a budget 10 second car I could drive on the street and take to the track. As a matter of fact, I currently am daily driving this car till winter comes and I pick up a beater. I actually drive 60 miles round trip 5 days a week so I got the weight down on the front as best I could without affecting safety.
The battery will be changed here soon. I actually am going with a trunk mounted kit, I just need to unbury my GTO and pull the wiring out of it since it was trunk mounted but Im going back to stock on that car. But I already have mounted the kill switch for it, just need to run the wires and get all that weight transfered to the rear.
The wheel studs for the front will be on hopefully this week. The speed shop I got the rears for only had enough for the back. They said they were going to order some more. The fronts are easy to swap out too, so no biggie. Plus if I am pulling the wheels down the road, I am gonna want those studs in front.
The cage, its mild steel. I paid 165 plus 100 shipping and I only had a little left after the wheels and want to race sometime soon, so went with this one. I took out alot of weight so a couple pounds shouldnt be a big deal.
6-16-2009
Just an update on build cost so far...
1994 Camaro...$3500 (Golf Mill Ford)
Summit Race Seats with leather covers (bought used) $100
Alternator Relocate/PS Delete Bracket & Belt (bought used) $75
Sheet Metal for A/C/Heat-Delete Block Off Plate (Menards) $4.60
Grant Steering Wheel...$29.95 (AutoZone)
Wheel Adapter Kit...$20.95 (AutoZone)
LS1 Lid Base...Traded for LT1 CIA
SLP Lid...$102 (Summit)
Glasstek 4 Inch Cowl...$400 (bought used)
Hooker Headers...$Free (Thanks Carri!)
EGR Block Offs...$Free (Again...Thanks Carri and Carri's Dad)
Windshild Replaced...$150
K&N Filter...$Free (Leftover from Trans Am)
ARP Extended Wheel Studs...$50 (Local Speed Shop)
DynoMax Race Magnum Mufflers...$Free (Thanks Ken!)
Dual Exhaust Pipes and Labor...$230 (Local Exhaust Shop)
Weld ProStars and Roll Bar...$1220 (Summit)
Front 165/80 Tires...$40 (Just Tires/Work Discount)
Hood Painted...$75 (Cost of Paint)
6-27-2009
Yeah, the opti ended up going. Turns out I didnt have the MSD opti, just the previous owner put a MSD cap on the stock one. Waiting on a GM Performance Parts Opti to get off backorder and hopefully can get the car running good again. Kinda a bummer because my SFC's, Tach and Nitto Drag Radials came in just the day before the opti went. Trying to baby this engine and get the rest of the car set up to run low 10s then do the engine last.
I ended up mounting the tach in the meantime but cracked the flat plastic dash piece while pulling the piece out. If anyone has this piece, let me know or thinking of upgrading to the LS1 dash if anyone is parting a car out.
The Nitto Drag Radials ended up coming into work the other day. Went with the 275/60R15s...
Not letting the opti get me down, I managed to get my Nitto Drag Radials mounted on the car. They are 275/60R15s. I was thinking of going wider, but good thing I didnt as these barely fit in the wheelwell. I had to cut off the bumpstops and the tabs to clear them. The rear bumper edge comes pretty close too so I may have to heat that up and bend it back a little. I am really happy on the size though, the Nittos fill up the wheelwell and overall give it a nice beefy look.
Closeup of the wheel and tire
I also decided to take the tint off the taillights due to poor night visability and I actually now perfer the stock look on it.
Picked up a used B&M Pro Stick shifter at a swap meet. I believe it was used in a powerglide equipped car, but what is nice about these shifters is you can swap the gate plates to fit a different speed transmission. I ordered the plate for like $13 from Summit Racing.
Picked up a set of barely used MSD 8.5 plug wires with heat protectors on them for free off my friend Ken, so Ill be adding these with the Opti swap. They were on a Gen 1 SBC so they are a little longer, but Ill see how they fit and trim as necessary.
To keep the plug wires clean looking and prevent a wire touching the headers, picked up the over the valve cover wiring kit from Summit Racing.
Another "freebie part" Met a guy in the local car club who gave me a tach he never ended up using. Not sure on the brand and neither was he, but for free, cant complain. Although ended up cracking the dash panel in the process of installing so either going to recover in leather to hide the crack and the mounting base or find a new pad.
I also had some time to start tearing into the opti swap. Thankfully since I freed up ALOT of room when I did the weight reduction, I was able to strip the LT1 down to the opti in about 45 minutes, most of which was spent looking for tools in my messy garage.
Took a couple pictures of the disassembly and will snap some more when I get the new opti.
Here is the LT1 with the LS1 lid and the coolant hoses removed. Just need to pull the water pump off to get to the opti
Water pump pulled off and the opti is ready to come off. Just need to pull the crank pulley and the opti will be off and ready for the new one.
New opti should be here the first of July hopefully.