New LS1 Owners - Newbie Tech - new ls1 owner, 99 ws6

hi guys, well I finally picked up my dream car. a black on charcoal 99 ws6. car was all stock minus wheels and magnaflow muffler. 89,000 miles and everything works. got it for $5500 cash out the door from a local dealership tha got it as a trade in on a new truck. has a few minor issues, most of which I have already fixed, but have compiled a list of small things I still need to get for it. only thing I don't like about it is it is an automatic. I was dead set on a 6 speed, but couldn't pass the deal on this car for how clean it was with the mileage and the price. anyone want to trade trannies? lol. the wheels gotta go. I'm trying to sell them or trade them off for stocks or some better wheels. you also may notice that the fender and hood grilles are removed. they were painted an obnoxious shade of yellow when I got the car and couldn't stand to look at them. they came off as soon as I got it home. mods I've done so far are the egr tube delete, TB bypass, and ram air baffle removal. next will be an external tranny cooler and ported TB. the car ran an 8.70 @87 mph my first time driving the car at the local 1/8th mile last week. hoping to improve that number next time out. anyways here are some pics of it. input and suggestions welcome

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b21/dragnblazer/trans-am/transam001.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b21/dragnblazer/trans-am/transam003.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b21/dragnblazer/trans-am/transam002.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b21/dragnblazer/trans-am/transam004.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b21/dragnblazer/trans-am/transam005.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b21/dragnblazer/trans-am/transam006.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b21/dragnblazer/trans-am/2.jpg

and here is my son checking out my new ride. he likes it, already wants to drive

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b21/dragnblazer/trans-am/3.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b21/dragnblazer/trans-am/4.jpg

also wanted to add that those pics were taken the day after I got it and a quick wash. this weekend I did a full detail including a once over with a clay bar and then a wipe down with turtle wax black detailer, and degreased the engine bay. it's great working for a cleaning company. all these cool chemicals that actually work at my disposal haha

Great find man! Glad to see another one of our cars get TLC. Those wheels definitely have to go though. They're hideous...

Welcome aboard! Sweet pic of the water dripping of the ws6 emblem on the back

thanks guys. I'm trying to make up for it's obvious neglect it's received. luckily it wasn't in bad hands too long and it had been pretty well kept up with before then. and the emblem pic was my attempt at an artsy shot. my fiance is a photography buff and she gets mad that I pull off better shots than she does most of the time lol. I just wish I had clayed it before that shot, you can see the dirt still stuck on the bumper in the picture next to the emblem. that is all gone now btw.

Looks good bro. Pull the plugs and check em out, replace if needed. NGK TR55s are very popular. Look through the sponsors on the side and shop around for maintenance parts before you start modding. Also, check your coolant condition. $5500 is a hell of a price for that car, congrats on the pickup.

I'm glad you mentined that actually. I have something kind of unusual going on. the coolant in the radiator is clean and has antifreeze. but the coolant in the overflow tank seems to have a brown sludge in it. I don't have any heating problems or leaking. I regularly check the levels of all the fluids and so far so good. but I'm not sure what is going on with the overflow tank. i'm sure whatever that brown crap is has to be getting circulated into the rest of the cooling system too. any ideas what this could be? almsot looks like someone mixed red and green antifreeze, or poured oil into the wrong cap

red and green antifreeze mixed causes brown crap - flush it ... and give me your hood.

Nice find! Bet ya cant wait for your son to tear it up in 10 or 15 years :jest:

Do a thorough flush, make sure its all out then refill with your choice of Dex-cool or regular green stuff, but DO NOT mix. Search the boards for dex-cool vs regular coolant. You can decide for yourself. It may have been a lack of maintenance or an inherent trait of dex but it clogged the radiator on my firebird. I did buy the car with 119k and probably flushed and filled then.

^ After a ton of reasearch when i got my car i chose regular green.. I did a full fluids replacement. I dont remember why that was a long time ago but yeah havent had any problems but i didnt think i would anyways really both are prob fine..

Good deal! Now you can do a 6 speed swap!

When 'Dex is exposed to air, like in the overflow bottle, it tends to sludge up. Add the possibility of infrequent maintenance and you get even more sludge. Flush and you'll be fine, I'll go ahead and vote for universal/extended Prestone here, as it's compatible with all colors and types of antifreeze.

What're you gonna do about wheels? If I were you I'd try to find a nice set of stock WS6 wheels...

Nice find! These low mileage cars are out there which is great and the prices are coming down as well. In some cases there are a lot of diehard F-body guys that bought these cars and barely drove them and took really good care of them. When I got mine the car looked brandy new in and out until I opend the hood YUUUK!

thanks for all the input guys. that's exactly what I was thinking. a good flush is in order. it scared me at first, I thought I had a blown head gasket or something, but the oil showed no signs of water. then after seeing the green coolant and noticing it smelled strange I figured someone unknowingly mixed the two. seen it before working at a body shop. other than that the car is great. runs smooth and pulls hard.
as for the wheels, yes I am looking for stock ws6 or even regular trans am wheels. anything but these. if I can get money up again, a guy I know has a set of gunmetal c6 z06 wheels and tires he will give me for $500. I think those would look killer on it.

and dabest09, I have already been researching what's involved. if I can find someone willing to trade transmissions with me, it's game on :devil:

Where are you located? On my local craigslist (st louis) there was like 2 or 3 T56s for sale, one was a GTO MN12 actually, none were priced ridiculous like usual, which is strange. One was ~$900 I think.

Where are you located? On my local craigslist (st louis) there was like 2 or 3 T56s for sale, one was a GTO MN12 actually, none were priced ridiculous like usual, which is strange. One was ~$900 I think.

I wish I could find those kind of prices around here. 1200-1500 for a high mile t56. No thanks.

Good looking car, OP. It's hard to beat the looks of a black WS6. Good to hear you want to get rid of those wheels. :barf:

Why bother with an egr delete? EGR doesn't do anything open throttle and lowers rpm (and fuel consumption). When it comes to parasitic smog systems on the car, the EGR is the least intrusive or performance effecting.

Good find man welcome to the money-hole club lol. i found my 98 ws6 for 6k from a lady, nothing done to it and it had 76k miles. give that thing good waxin

nice ws6.. looks like you got a good deal on it.

Why bother with an egr delete? EGR doesn't do anything open throttle and lowers rpm (and fuel consumption). When it comes to parasitic smog systems on the car, the EGR is the least intrusive or performance effecting.

I didn't take the whole egr out. just the simple mod where you pull the egr tube out of the top of the intake and trim it back so it doesn't hang down into the air way. I know it's not going to pick up a ton of power from it, but it was simple to do and figured it couldn't hurt. only took me about 5 minutes to do. did the tb bypass while I was at it since it was right there and easy to get to.

I am from lakeland, florida. right between tampa and orlando. I wish I could find a t56 for under 1000. around here a very used lt1 transmission alone (no clutch, or anything) goes for around 1200. an ls trans goes for 1500 or better.

another little update. had been having issues with the radio. the stock radio display was out and would come on and off randomly. so I swapped in my cd/mp3 player I kept out of my f-150. it came on for a minute and went back off. so I messed with it for a few minutes, checking fuses etc. nothing. put the stock radio back in and still nothing. so i left it alone for a week. while my exhaust note is beautiful and melodious, I began to miss music and my morning radio show (bubba army!). so on my lunch break today I began tracing wires. well as it turns out the groundwire from the factory plug had been pulled back a little and wasn't making contact. i pushed it back forward and it snapped into place. works beautifully now