XtremeModifier

Rebuilding my 1995 Trans Am, its a MMM TTops and T56 car with almost no mods now and 225k, sat in a barn for almost 3 years. My goal is 400-450hp with potential for more and decent reliability, looking at a $6000 budget for this build. I know it needs an oil pump and starter, probably gonna do a water pump as well since I hated my last opti replacement. Any ideas? I want a street/strip car that can run a couple autocrosses for fun (so it needs to have "managable" handling and power). Thinking either h/c or ported stock heads and cam, nothing too radical but still something thatll give the boss's sons stock 2009 gt stang and a coworkers i/e ls1 a good run/thrashing. Gonna be WV so emissions? What emissions lol.

Thanks and sorry about the grammar, but doing this on my new android.

Jake R.

96z28_lt1

iTrader: (3)

full bolt ons and a decent cam with ported heads intake should get you around the 400 fwhp mark for sure. I'm sure others will chime in around here, although from sitting be prepared to replace a lot of parts, i replaced just about every sensor and auxillary part on mine when i did my head cam combo.

ahritchie

iTrader: (1)

I 95% restored my 145K 94 Formula 6spd a few years back, you will need to roughly double your budget depending on what shape the car is; how far are you taking this restoration? Figure at least $2500-3000 for suspension; lowering springs, sway bars, new shocks, boxed control arms, panhard bar, weld in sub-frame connectors, wheels/tires, ect. Another 4-5K min to do a mild engine rebuild good for 400RWHP, good heads cam package, roller rockers, various bolt ons, various gaskets, sensors, maybe try to save some cash on used cat back and headers. You'll have to upgrade the clutch at a minimum, ~$450, decent shifter ($200) My interior needed a new headliner and the leather seats were cracked up (got some nice low mileage stock leather seats), that was around $600, DIRT cheap paint job done for labor cost only (got a friend who's a service manager at GMC dealership) with free leftover plum crazy purple paint, me and a buddy did all the body prep work, still cost $1000. Another $125-500 to tune it, depending if you get mail order or dyno tune. Figure a two year project if you just work on it on weekends. Then of course there's bound to be some unexpected problems, 6spd had to be rebuilt, stock posi died, sensors go bad, these things happen especially once you start adding a bunch of HP, and of course the car is not worth the $$ invested, only worth it to me

cardo0

Your post wants head work and cam after difficult fix of oil pump. But your profile says its already a 383 with long tubes and that your an mech engineer.

To get the oil pan off u will need to remove the eng again. Thats the time to do all your eng mods. When u get that far let us know.
Opti's? Delphi and MSD. Cam? Measure your piston and chamber volumes and nail your compression first.


Good luck Jake,
cardo

Catmaigne

iTrader: (6)

I wouldn't really bother modding an engine with 225k on its bearings, especially one that "needs an oil pump." A quality rebuild is going to cost big bucks and a higher mileage motor will probably need more machine work. Save money and base your build around a stock shortblock. You can usually score a low mileage LT1 with iron heads for a few hundred bucks from a local U-pull-it or full service junkyard. Add full bolt-ons + ported heads + cam and you'll get to 400rwhp without a problem.

Your 10 bolt isn't going to like 400-450 horses and some M6 clutch dumps. Be nice to the rear until you can afford something better, the 10 bolt is a lost cause. I've put more money into my stock rear than I ever wanted, I should have bought a 9" long before I did. The T56 is also questionable but it really depends on how it was driven.

You can save a lot of money by buying parts used. It's better to get nice used parts than new cheap ****.