1997 LT1 Trans Am, The History
07-27-2012, 08:51 PM
#1
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
1997 LT1 Trans Am, The History 2004
The Beginning
This 1997 started life as a Formula Trans Am trim and was in the hands of a Hispanic that ghetto lowered it, put flashers and underbody neons on it and a SLP Ram Air hood with an SLP LM1. My father and I have known about this car for a long time as the second owner was his secretary. Her husband added an OE LT1 Ram Air box and he was very meticulous so it's remained extremely clean. They ended up selling it to my father and he brought it home.
When my dad pulled up I thought he got it for me as we talked about it before. Well, he did, but for right now he said I wasn't mature enough, I was only 16. He was right as I'm still 12 mentally! Man was I still bummed. He still let me drive it from time to time and I always spent a day out of my weekend to wash it. This car was literally love at first site. My father drove it for a couple years but he got sick of it as he drives, to this day, 45 miles one way to work. The MPG, SLP LM1 drone, and ride quality with those nasty springs made him lose interest rather quickly. I ended up selling my Grand Am and gave him the money for it, it has been my only car since 2004.
Between my father and I, at this point in it's life the exterior basically looked the same as it does now, the neons and flashers are gone, brought it back to stock height with Beltstein shocks and springs, added Infinity speakers, MTX molded box to fit in storage area and Amplifier for the sub and rear speakers:
1984 Corvette (Dad) 1966 Mustang (Mom) 1997 Trans Am (Me)
The Beginning
This 1997 started life as a Formula Trans Am trim and was in the hands of a Hispanic that ghetto lowered it, put flashers and underbody neons on it and a SLP Ram Air hood with an SLP LM1. My father and I have known about this car for a long time as the second owner was his secretary. Her husband added an OE LT1 Ram Air box and he was very meticulous so it's remained extremely clean. They ended up selling it to my father and he brought it home.
When my dad pulled up I thought he got it for me as we talked about it before. Well, he did, but for right now he said I wasn't mature enough, I was only 16. He was right as I'm still 12 mentally! Man was I still bummed. He still let me drive it from time to time and I always spent a day out of my weekend to wash it. This car was literally love at first site. My father drove it for a couple years but he got sick of it as he drives, to this day, 45 miles one way to work. The MPG, SLP LM1 drone, and ride quality with those nasty springs made him lose interest rather quickly. I ended up selling my Grand Am and gave him the money for it, it has been my only car since 2004.
Between my father and I, at this point in it's life the exterior basically looked the same as it does now, the neons and flashers are gone, brought it back to stock height with Beltstein shocks and springs, added Infinity speakers, MTX molded box to fit in storage area and Amplifier for the sub and rear speakers:
1984 Corvette (Dad) 1966 Mustang (Mom) 1997 Trans Am (Me)
07-27-2012, 08:51 PM
#2
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
Mid 2009
The Real Beginning
After years of saying, "I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that!" I finally committed to what I've said for years. I bought Pacesetter headers / ORY / ARP pack from Summit. I also did a full tune with new wires, plugs, water pump, opti, Nitto 555Rs in the rear and maybe a couple of other things. I also got the car dyno tuned. With this setup the car finished the Dyno @ 280 rwhp and ended up running a breathtaking 13.7 down the 1/4 mile! This was the real beginning.
The Old:
The New:
The Real Beginning
After years of saying, "I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that!" I finally committed to what I've said for years. I bought Pacesetter headers / ORY / ARP pack from Summit. I also did a full tune with new wires, plugs, water pump, opti, Nitto 555Rs in the rear and maybe a couple of other things. I also got the car dyno tuned. With this setup the car finished the Dyno @ 280 rwhp and ended up running a breathtaking 13.7 down the 1/4 mile! This was the real beginning.
The Old:
The New:
07-27-2012, 08:52 PM
#3
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
Early 2010
Wanting More Go
I basically continued with a new Yukon Dura-Grip Carrier and 3.73s on my anemic 10 bolt. I Was then having wheel hop issues and launch issues so I then ordered UMI's full catalog offerings and bought some Strange things. This ended up taking the car to a neck snapping 13.3!
Wanting More Go
I basically continued with a new Yukon Dura-Grip Carrier and 3.73s on my anemic 10 bolt. I Was then having wheel hop issues and launch issues so I then ordered UMI's full catalog offerings and bought some Strange things. This ended up taking the car to a neck snapping 13.3!
07-27-2012, 08:52 PM
#4
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
Late 2010
Death of an LT1
Around December time the head gasket blew on the highway. My dad had to come tow the car back home to Detroit from Kalamazoo. The car ended up hydro-locking which broke the starter casing. It sounded like there was massive damage in the engine, we had no idea what it was at the time. He gave me my bicycle as kind of a joke... But I had to use it sometimes.
Made it home to Detroit!
Death of an LT1
Around December time the head gasket blew on the highway. My dad had to come tow the car back home to Detroit from Kalamazoo. The car ended up hydro-locking which broke the starter casing. It sounded like there was massive damage in the engine, we had no idea what it was at the time. He gave me my bicycle as kind of a joke... But I had to use it sometimes.
Made it home to Detroit!
07-27-2012, 08:52 PM
#5
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
Early 2011
Resurrection
It was time to put it back together and since the top end was going to be completely off why not put a cam in it? I went with the XFI268, a fairly good cam for a stock bottom end. I also had the engine builder, Jack, do his competition valve grind on the heads. This made a very good refresh for the LT1 engine.
This broken starter was the cause of our scary mechanic noise.
What did it sound like now?
How did it perform? Ask this AMS tuned 450 awhp Evo X:
Resurrection
It was time to put it back together and since the top end was going to be completely off why not put a cam in it? I went with the XFI268, a fairly good cam for a stock bottom end. I also had the engine builder, Jack, do his competition valve grind on the heads. This made a very good refresh for the LT1 engine.
This broken starter was the cause of our scary mechanic noise.
What did it sound like now?
How did it perform? Ask this AMS tuned 450 awhp Evo X:
07-27-2012, 08:53 PM
#6
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
Spring 2011
Dyno Day
I came back to Detroit to get the car Dynoed and tuned. I wanted to make sure everything was right and nice. I went to change the oil and what did I find? Glitter with very little oil is what it looked like. How could this have happened? Well, Jack the engine builder, decided it would be wise to put cheap springs for the XFI cam. This was a huge mistake as all the inner dampers broke, every sing one. There was no performance change nor any noise to find out this happened. You either remove the valve covers and inspect or change the oil to find metal in the oil. My results were the later.
What happened next? Basically re-read the above post but with a lot more anger. Jack bought all the parts to do the build again, I was the labor. We were hoping the engine would be saved, sadly it wasn't. I started it up and instantly smelled oil. The engine was toast. I drove it burning about a qt of oil a week for the rest of the summer and was waiting for it to go, it never did. I decided, ef it, and took it to the track. What did it run with the XFI cam, burning oil and base tune? 12.8@108 mph, not bad.
Here are some pictures during that summer!
This is the last visual media of that set up with some tunnel blasting:
Dyno Day
I came back to Detroit to get the car Dynoed and tuned. I wanted to make sure everything was right and nice. I went to change the oil and what did I find? Glitter with very little oil is what it looked like. How could this have happened? Well, Jack the engine builder, decided it would be wise to put cheap springs for the XFI cam. This was a huge mistake as all the inner dampers broke, every sing one. There was no performance change nor any noise to find out this happened. You either remove the valve covers and inspect or change the oil to find metal in the oil. My results were the later.
What happened next? Basically re-read the above post but with a lot more anger. Jack bought all the parts to do the build again, I was the labor. We were hoping the engine would be saved, sadly it wasn't. I started it up and instantly smelled oil. The engine was toast. I drove it burning about a qt of oil a week for the rest of the summer and was waiting for it to go, it never did. I decided, ef it, and took it to the track. What did it run with the XFI cam, burning oil and base tune? 12.8@108 mph, not bad.
Here are some pictures during that summer!
This is the last visual media of that set up with some tunnel blasting:
07-27-2012, 08:53 PM
#7
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
Fall 2011
We Have The Technology We Can Make It Better
I ended up planning on building an LT1 383. I found an LT1 out of the car on Craigslist for $150, I offered him $120 and he took it. There were no photos or anything like that so I figured it was the short block. Nope! It was the whole damn set up, wire harness, opti, computer, coil, intake, everything! I figured I was set, I got the new engine to work on while I can DD the dying engine... Nope! I was on the highway and the transmission let go and lost all gears. Welp, time to start the build then.
What ended up being done? Pretty much everything... I even replaced the horns. This was a 3 month process working 5 days a week 7am to 7pm. It started early October and I finished right before Christmas. It was a massive undertaking and I'm still working out the bugs to this day.
There are TONS of pictures as I documented the whole build so here is a link to my photobucket slideshow.
The Build
And here are some vidyas!
We Have The Technology We Can Make It Better
I ended up planning on building an LT1 383. I found an LT1 out of the car on Craigslist for $150, I offered him $120 and he took it. There were no photos or anything like that so I figured it was the short block. Nope! It was the whole damn set up, wire harness, opti, computer, coil, intake, everything! I figured I was set, I got the new engine to work on while I can DD the dying engine... Nope! I was on the highway and the transmission let go and lost all gears. Welp, time to start the build then.
What ended up being done? Pretty much everything... I even replaced the horns. This was a 3 month process working 5 days a week 7am to 7pm. It started early October and I finished right before Christmas. It was a massive undertaking and I'm still working out the bugs to this day.
There are TONS of pictures as I documented the whole build so here is a link to my photobucket slideshow.
The Build
And here are some vidyas!
Trending Topics
07-27-2012, 09:02 PM
#8
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
Spring / Summer 2012
Weird Life Stage
Well, Oregon is a dead end. Emily's job is god awful, to make a long story short the people here just don't work well with other people and "outsiders", thus, they don't treat us right at all. There are no jobs out here so I will be unemployed for six months. I did work at Oregon Raceway Park and also had some freelance Graphic Design jobs but nothing to start a solid career. Not good. We have made the decision to move back September 1st, yay and crap!
There is a really weird oiling issue with this new motor. It developed on the way to Oregon near the end of the trip. Basically, once the engine was warm including the oil it will drop from 60psi to 50psi going WOT when it goes above 4,500 rpms. Odd and not very settling to the stomach. I'm hoping it's the oil pump and not something extremely major with the bottom end. I have investigated a little bit but with no flat ground and no real tools I haven't gotten far. Basically the car has been fairly inactive since we arrived in Oregon.
To make things worse I went out for a drive and ran into a local with a brand spanking new Green w/ Black pinstriped 392 Challenger... We had a little go from a 20 mph roll. I put roughly 4 cars on him in 2nd gear when I lost my 3rd and OD. He ended up passing by me with me frowning and waving goodbye. Of course now he is telling everyone we never raced *rolls eyes*. So, thankfully, there is an LT1 enthusiast / Mechanic / Trans builder 4 hours up north that is actually picking the car up tomorrow to fix the trans and hopefully nail down any further issues I have this car. I already went to visit him and check out his shop, he has a VERY nice 1996 LT1 Camaro that he is in the process of building a very nice 392.
Anyway, I figured I would give a proper introduction to my fellow LT enthusiast. Much love and I hope I can assist you all in our common and strange issues.
Here are some super crappy photos I tried to shoot a couple days ago, figured I would give you a tiny prize to read this last section. I did a full Clay Bar / Polish / Wax on the car... Thing still has the winter tires because the summer set up is in Detroit
Weird Life Stage
Well, Oregon is a dead end. Emily's job is god awful, to make a long story short the people here just don't work well with other people and "outsiders", thus, they don't treat us right at all. There are no jobs out here so I will be unemployed for six months. I did work at Oregon Raceway Park and also had some freelance Graphic Design jobs but nothing to start a solid career. Not good. We have made the decision to move back September 1st, yay and crap!
There is a really weird oiling issue with this new motor. It developed on the way to Oregon near the end of the trip. Basically, once the engine was warm including the oil it will drop from 60psi to 50psi going WOT when it goes above 4,500 rpms. Odd and not very settling to the stomach. I'm hoping it's the oil pump and not something extremely major with the bottom end. I have investigated a little bit but with no flat ground and no real tools I haven't gotten far. Basically the car has been fairly inactive since we arrived in Oregon.
To make things worse I went out for a drive and ran into a local with a brand spanking new Green w/ Black pinstriped 392 Challenger... We had a little go from a 20 mph roll. I put roughly 4 cars on him in 2nd gear when I lost my 3rd and OD. He ended up passing by me with me frowning and waving goodbye. Of course now he is telling everyone we never raced *rolls eyes*. So, thankfully, there is an LT1 enthusiast / Mechanic / Trans builder 4 hours up north that is actually picking the car up tomorrow to fix the trans and hopefully nail down any further issues I have this car. I already went to visit him and check out his shop, he has a VERY nice 1996 LT1 Camaro that he is in the process of building a very nice 392.
Anyway, I figured I would give a proper introduction to my fellow LT enthusiast. Much love and I hope I can assist you all in our common and strange issues.
Here are some super crappy photos I tried to shoot a couple days ago, figured I would give you a tiny prize to read this last section. I did a full Clay Bar / Polish / Wax on the car... Thing still has the winter tires because the summer set up is in Detroit
Last edited by xDetroitMetalx; 07-27-2012 at 09:10 PM.
I hope I can keep an fbody long enough to have a tail of my own one day. Car sounds nasty. 
07-27-2012, 09:47 PM
#13
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
Technically I'm on 2 top end engine rebuilds and one whole rebuild. 1 rear end rebuild, and it's dying with a nice whine of pain! Will be on 3 transmission rebuilds. This has all happened in two years, I'm not a happy camper, but I'm trying.
07-27-2012, 10:16 PM
#14
TECH Enthusiast
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: In the garage fixing LT1
Posts: 634
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Great to see another dedicated LT1 person. I have mine working nicely after many late nights and weekends. I even rebuilt the 700R-4 myself and have another I'm rebuilding as a backup. Your car really looks good, red only looks good if it's well taken care of.
The learning curve is big with the LT1 I have found. I have and LS1 T/A but somehow it doesn't have the same feel or pinache of the old smallblock Chev. Once you figure out what makes the LT1 happy it's a rewarding engine.
The learning curve is big with the LT1 I have found. I have and LS1 T/A but somehow it doesn't have the same feel or pinache of the old smallblock Chev. Once you figure out what makes the LT1 happy it's a rewarding engine.
07-27-2012, 10:19 PM
#15
Honestly an LS3 swap is in the works... Possibly a twin turbo set up... That's a few years down the road though. I'm taking my time on that one.
Technically I'm on 2 top end engine rebuilds and one whole rebuild. 1 rear end rebuild, and it's dying with a nice whine of pain! Will be on 3 transmission rebuilds. This has all happened in two years, I'm not a happy camper, but I'm trying.
Technically I'm on 2 top end engine rebuilds and one whole rebuild. 1 rear end rebuild, and it's dying with a nice whine of pain! Will be on 3 transmission rebuilds. This has all happened in two years, I'm not a happy camper, but I'm trying.
But i figure with everyone totalling theyre ls1 cars full swaps pop up for under 4 grand theres one right now k member,tranny,wiring harness,dash and exhaust for 3500 wish i had the dang bucks lol
07-27-2012, 10:32 PM
#17
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
Thanks Speedy, Matt and Sox! It is true, it's hard to make these things happy. I often compare us to DSM owners, there is something wrong with us. Not even a veteran engine builder can really help with decisions because they aren't used to the platform. My builder wanted me to run 10.5:1 compression. When I told him I was aiming for 12:1 he thought I was crazy. So they ended up doing some calculations and ended up at 12.3:1, I said that would work! I found it funny because even though he was 100% sure that I wouldn't be able to run on 93 they still did it, lol. When I brought it up to their shop when it was together and running they were giggling like little school girls. They thought it was awesome! Once I got the full build sheet and entered the numbers into various static compression calculators on the internet I kept getting varied answer from 13:1 to 13.3:1, holy moly!
The engine ended up being tuned in OL, had it tuned once at a shop on the east side and was unhappy with the results. I knew something was wrong and half-assed and I was right! They must have ran out of time to gain a profit so they just gave it back unfinished. I went to another shop on the West Side for a second opinion and overlook. They ended up finishing what was started. Sure enough the air fuel ratio was lean at WOT and none of the shift points were changed from the first tuner, which is contribution to the demise of the 2nd transmission in addition to other things.
This build won't end up going anywhere when everything is said and done. My father wants to put it in his Vette which would be awesome. This T/A has always been a great father and son bonding experience. It's really turned into a life project between us. Even though him and I have come close to throwing fists at times it's brought us extremely close. He was an old school Woodward Ave racer when he was around my age, it's just in our blood I guess.
The engine ended up being tuned in OL, had it tuned once at a shop on the east side and was unhappy with the results. I knew something was wrong and half-assed and I was right! They must have ran out of time to gain a profit so they just gave it back unfinished. I went to another shop on the West Side for a second opinion and overlook. They ended up finishing what was started. Sure enough the air fuel ratio was lean at WOT and none of the shift points were changed from the first tuner, which is contribution to the demise of the 2nd transmission in addition to other things.
This build won't end up going anywhere when everything is said and done. My father wants to put it in his Vette which would be awesome. This T/A has always been a great father and son bonding experience. It's really turned into a life project between us. Even though him and I have come close to throwing fists at times it's brought us extremely close. He was an old school Woodward Ave racer when he was around my age, it's just in our blood I guess.
07-28-2012, 09:22 PM
#20
Staging Lane
Thread Starter
Late July 2012
Familiar Sight
The fellow LT1 enthusiast / mechanic I met on another site that I explained about earler, picked it up today to bring back home with him to fix the trans and diagnose a couple of other issues. I'm excited for him to check it out and he's excited as well to work on something unique and fun. Thanks to sites like these for finding such a great person and a very good new friend. I can't thank him enough for trailering it all the way from Moro, OR to Spokane, WA... A 300 mile journey one way! Luckily for both of us he was coming this way anyway.
This is a familiar sight for me
Familiar Sight
The fellow LT1 enthusiast / mechanic I met on another site that I explained about earler, picked it up today to bring back home with him to fix the trans and diagnose a couple of other issues. I'm excited for him to check it out and he's excited as well to work on something unique and fun. Thanks to sites like these for finding such a great person and a very good new friend. I can't thank him enough for trailering it all the way from Moro, OR to Spokane, WA... A 300 mile journey one way! Luckily for both of us he was coming this way anyway.
This is a familiar sight for me