Stang2Goat

Thank you! I spent a lot of time and planning and [eventually] money to get the best intake for my setup. The Svedes were no longer available and the Du looks outstanding. Definite eye catcher when I open the hood for people. Makes a highly modded car look very OEM, much like the microsuede Forza seats that match the stock interior. :-)

What did you replace your 06 Goat with? The 05 CTS-V? Or a different car?

keitho64

Thank you for sharing your build! I have an 05 that I am working on and I echo your comments about the suspension. The car handles good for a heavy stock car but I I keep dreaming about how great it could be with a few well though out modifications.

I am about done with the suspension bushings, am waiting on the Koni adjustable shocks and after reading your write up, the Lovells springs. My car is more of a canyon carver than track star so I do not want to get too crazy with the mods.

I am running the stock 17" rims but have the Falken Azenis rt-615k tires and they really transformed the car!

What do you have the alignment settings at? Are you running a stock setup or something you care to share?

I will also add one modification that I made which made driving much smoother for me. I was never able to heel/toe drive this car so I added a pedal for some help.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your experiences.

Stang2Goat

Sorry for the delayed response! I have some updates to add to this thread for the car but I've been slammed working 80hr weeks at 2 jobs since March 4th.

I didn't think anyone would care about my alignment specs.

Front is -2.0* camber: the most I could fit and still have .060-.080" clearance between the fattest section of my 255/40 front tires and the coilover body. I have no camber wear on the inner shoulders, even running this setting on the street...partly because I never slow down in corners (usually the opposite).

Rear is -0.75 to -1.25* camber (I'd have to recheck the sheet). I raised it up as high as I could to fit the 285/40 NT05R DRs I ran this year, but they still rubbed my cut fenders, so I removed them. The added ride height cost me some rear camber, but gave me the most possible contact patch out back for launching and traction. Therefore, I kept it.

Car would settle better in corners if I dropped the *** back down 6-8mm, but my fat Kooks headers hang down like a donkey d**k and I hate speed bumps, soo...

I love being able to hook up in 2nd again on the street. I can now dead hook in 2nd on 10.5" wide Michelin PSS rear rubber once I have some heat in them. These tires actually ride better than the Nitto NT05Rs did, fit without rubbing, and stick like glue once you warm them.

They were $240/ea before road hazard warranty, which is amost $70 cheaper than what I paid for the Nittos. Anyone wanna buy some 11.5" wide DRs?

I'd have to dig up my most recent alignment sheet from Firestone to tell you the toe settings. I left toe to the alignment guy, I believe -0.25 to -0.5* front toe, and rear almost 0*.

End result, car feels much better on center than it ever has...Hinson motor mounts were a huge help, and the Michelin PSS really bring the package together. They reduce a ton of the coilovers' harshness on the street, stick like glue, and smile at rain like champs.

More than you asked, just explaining everything.

Stang2Goat

Pending write-ups and happenings with the car...

5/5 just came and went. Porkchop is now 11 and still gets frequent compliments. Front bumper just got repainted thanks to a DWF in San Marcos back in February (driving while female). Teenage girl on cell phone in parking lot hit parked GTO. Genius award.

My coolant leak of the last two years has been traced down. First it was a failed radiator cap. Replaced cap. Problem was reduced, coolant was still being lost. Hoses and WP gaskets are relatively new. No visible coolant under car. Pressure tested system this week. Front of radiator (inside bumper area) leaks like a weeping man...




New Mishimoto aluminum radiator ordered. Stock radiator made it almost 75k miles before this happened, chilling a nasty stroker motor and handling Texas summers, road trips, and road racing. I'm not at all unhappy.


Driveline vibrations...been going on for almost two years. Solved that chit, too.

Trans mount was replaced two years ago, but stock style rubber, and it sags/collapsed so much that it was throwing off my driveline angle. Poor car! Vibrations ended up rattling the mounting bolts loose. Shame on me for not using blue Loctite.

I shimmed the trans back up to the correct angle, Loctited the two b*tch-bolts, and took car out for test drive this past week. Smoothest it has been in YEARS!!!




Front StopTech slotted brake rotors finally gave out. Front right is warped pretty bad. Ordered up some stock style replacements online that have a 2yr warranty, which I will most certainly use in the next 12-18mo... :p

Going from 165 down to 80 at TWS into Turn 1 when I was green ultimately killed the rotors. I think I can make the next ones last much longer.

Gonna flush brake system, resurface the pads, and hopefully have a smooth brake system that no longer shudders like Michael J Fox on a bad week.




Trunk-mounted battery...Optima Red Top took a dive from the car not being driven enough, and at the time I didn't have a tender. My fault entirely.

After Red Top, I had a flooded style 24F battery that leaked acid into trunk under hard driving. I forgot how hard my car can corner, and its effects of things like batteries and oil systems. I have to clean out trunk today before the acid eats my trunk flooring like the blood from the movie Aliens. God bless the acid neutralizer I keep in a spray can for repairs and terminal cleanings.

I also replaced my ugly, failed, leaking PS reservoir with clear/blue one from a 2009 G8 GT. Awesome mod for $45. Underhood look is nearly complete, and it included a fresh PS cap since my old one was allowing PS fluid to slosh onto my pretty fender and scalding hot longtubes...embarrassing auto-x day.

#oldcarproblems

I will post some videos soon. Finally got some good passenger-reaction videos from the GoPro. Lovely ladies and terrified, giddy men experiencing the launch of this car at low speeds.

Thanks for reading (those of you who made it this far or appreciate the build)!

Stang2Goat

So to recap, upcoming mods/repairs/improvements:

New front radiator, sexy as fak and super functional:


New front rotors

Selling off my prized Corbeau Forza microsuedes:



Replacing them with...




Corbeau LG1 microsuede, adding heated seat option.

I'm old. These still only weigh 26# per seat, which is nine pounds more than my Forzas, and will support my old, broken back a LOT better. I miss being able to recline my seats on road trips and take naps in the car. Don't judge me...

For reference, the stock Goat seats weigh 67# each, btw, and sit way too high in the car. Ask a tall Goat owner. They'll tell you. Hitting your head in the a-pillar getting in and out and having your helmet rub the headliner...not cool, brah.


Lastly, this will likely find its way under my trans...




Hinson trans mount. 80A durometer polyurethane, basically same hardness as my suspension bushings. Won't rattle my teeth out...will give me much better control when shifting at 7000rpm during the big pulls.






That is all. Vids to come. Stay tuned!

2QWK4RU 06 GOAT

iTrader: (1)

Keep up the good work!

smitty2919

One of the best mods I did to my 95 camaro was a electric water pump, bigger radiator, 160* thermostat and manual fan switch.

It may see 200* (reverse cooling system) on a 75* autocross day getting about 20 60sec runs. Every time I come into grid, the hood goes up, I leave it KOEO and flip the fan switch. Within 10min I can drop coolant temps 10-15*. Now I need to address oil temps....when I see sub 10psi oil pressure I know the oil is getting toasty.

For you, I hear the EWP is quite pricey on a LS motors AND for road racing it is not optimal from a RPM/flow perspective.

RidetechJosh

Great job on the car man, you've got a monster there.

Vemon

Thanks for sharing the story of your goat. I am the new owner of a roller 04 goat, so basically a clean slate for this project car. Your build history and what you would do differently now in retrospect is very nice to know when approaching a fresh build. I came from a heavy *** CTSV that I wish I would have spent more on suspension instead of power mods as well. Plans for the project now are 416 stroker iron block with LS3 top end (heads and intake). I don't think I'm going to go too crazy with the NA power, 550hp should be easily attainable and focus on ride quality, weight savings, and aesthetics. Thanks again for the words of wisdom.

Stang2Goat

Been a while since I've touched this (that is also what she said...)

Porkchop had a pristine Monster LT1-SC twin disc since 9/2014, and a new ACDelco slave. Both were faultless, though the SC was pretty grabby and most folks couldn't drive it.

i stiill had issues with 4th gear lockout above 5000rpm. 1-3 were fine, 4th would lock me out and 5th would often grind but would engage.

Trans was a level 2 T56 rebuilt by a local fella in 2011 who only does T56s. "I wish I knew then about trannies what I do now..." -Bruce Jenner

For the last couple years, unbeknownst to me, My input shaft bearing was toast. Input shaft had a lot more play than it should have. This was ultimately responsible for my higher rpm shift problems, especially with fourth year. It was also responsible for destroying a perfectly good GM pilot bearing within 4000 miles of occasional driving and some racing.

End result from the fiesta of needle bearings is was a destroyed clutch, slave, pilot bearing, and a trans that had to be rebuilt. I work hard for my money, but lost $3k on this deal.

If we're being honest and assigning blame, I should have learned more about inspecting input shaft play to prevent this. #neveragain

So now for some good news… Steve @ Monster ultimately came through and made me a wonderful deal on a replacement clutch to control my losses. New clutch is the LT1– S and has some very cool features I will post it here in photos.

I was also able to resolve a lot of little drivetrain issues I've been discovering while the car's apart.
Driveshaft has been completely rebuilt with a fresh carrier bearing a new donuts. I ordered up a Stang shifter gasket to help the shifter vibrations, sourced a new shift handle.

The trans received a host of upgrades that should also help me significantly. A C6 style Corvette breather tube was installed (stock one was worn and toasted), along with a bronze shifter cup into the shift rod.

This time the transmission was built front to back, from the input shaft to a brand-new billet mainshaft, along with several fresh gears, and some even higher quality billet keys than I had before. Jason and Chase at TDP worked with me by phone to plan out having the parts in stock so that I can drive up there to Fort Worth with the transmission, have the rebuild done in a few hours, and drive back home in a single day. I was completely exhausted but it was all over, but also relieved to know that my transmission is finally done correctly.

Stang2Goat

This really should be sent from my computer and not my cell phone… [facepalm]

So now the entire drivetrain from the engine to the rear pinion flange has been refreshed or replaced...again.

I'm excited to feel the improvements from the fresh trans and rebuilt DS. My stock donuts were holding fine, but they were heat cycled to hell and harder than a teenager on Cialis.

Carrier bearing was on its way out, but looked and felt good for 85k miles, 11yrs in the Texas climate, and 1000+ race passes.

Finishing up the install this week and hope to have the smoothest 7000 RPM shifts this car has ever experienced. :-o

Will post more pics as they become available.

Thank you everyone who has helped or been helped by this thread!

Please shoot me an email if you have any car related questions for me: detailaddicts@gmail.com

or check out the website: www.goatautomotive.com

Cheers!

-S2G

Kingsize

iTrader: (13)

Hey Michael! How goes it? Looks like you have been having fun building her up some more. The weather has been perfect lately, hopefully I can pull mine out from the back of the shop soon and put some miles on her.

smitty2919

What's the reason for sticking with a 2pc driveshaft? Why not go 1 pc and never worry about center carrier bearing again?

Looking forward to pics/update

Stang2Goat

Driveshaft Q&A w/GoatBoy


Delayed response! I’m following up on this thread now.

I am one of the few who can and does regularly rebuild the stock 2-piece driveshaft for GTO and G8 customers.

Here are the 5 compelling reasons for keeping it (on Porkchop):

1) a rebuild kit is cheap. I currently use the Dorman carrier bearings with lifetime warranty and a Koyo center bearing. The donuts, when good, can last 10 years or more if they’re proper quality. Only in the last year did the GM donuts truly become extinct.

2) the 2-piece design is the ONLY way to be vibration free up to and beyond 170mph, without spending $1200-1500 for a CF D/S.

Aluminum 3.5” units cannot come close. Most hit critical speeds between 130-140 and vibrate like a chihuahua with the Hershey squirts.

For the A4 trans crowd and folks making below 500whp, most are fine and content to stay below 130-140.

My setup routinely broke 140-160mph in races. It pulled hard in 5th all the way out to 6800. 3.91s allowed this. So did the big hungry motor. It’s delicious… 😋


3) I NEVER had a driveshaft failure on this car. I drag raced on 26-27” slicks w/16x8” wheels, and that sidewall wrinkled and absorbed the shock of the launch, just like I wanted.

I was on stock axles for 90% of my drag racing days. Never broke a stub or C/V. 1.65-1.80 60’ times.

Where a lot of people f**k up is when they run a low profile drag radial that has zero give on the launch, then they experience wheel hop off the hit, but fail to get out of it in time.

“Hop hop hop pop pop SNAP BOOM” 💥!

(lots of videos online showing this)


4) The 1-piece aluminum units have caused a lot of issues on the faster manual cars over time.
There are some archived threads from Bill Price (WRP) and others on LS1GTO.com back in the days when it was still a productive community. Premature wear and failure on the output shaft bearings. Shifting issues. Shifter rattles. Driveline vibrations above 120 (critical speed varies by shaft diameter, shaft length, and final drive gearing).

We later learned that you have to do a lot of calibration on the rear driveline angles of these cars (the orientation of the rear axle/pinion ylk to the angle of the transmission output shaft) to make a 1-piece metal shaft work and function correctly. For me it wasn’t worth the risk.


5) I didn’t have $1200-1500 available to buy the CF DS. This has been a very expensive and time consuming hobby/project. And the cost of living in my part of TX has increased aggressively every 1-2 years since 2010. So budget was definitely a factor. I spent most of my available funds on the suspension, engine, and tires tires tires...


A big part of me wanted to see what the real power limit is on the stock D/S when it has quality components on it, and a car that doesn’t wheel hop.

My suspension upgrades and GF anti-hop axles have made wheel hop nearly impossible, so that is also a huge factor at play.

Hope this helps some folks! 🍻

Stang2Goat

Well…lots of catching up to do!

I’ve sent this thread to hundreds of interested car peeps and customers over the years, to demonstrate my commitment to detail, cleanliness of a build, and research.

However, I completely stopped checking it after ~2016?

Here’s what’s happened since 5/2015:

Input shaft bearing had been failing for years, and I didn’t know.

1/21/17:
I was racing with friends that Saturday night, and the trans finally s**t the bed like Amber Heard on a drunken night of revenge. Car wouldn't go into ANY gear. Would grind and block me, and I wasn't gonna fight it.

Called a tow truck. Didn't even get angry. This stuff happens annually, part of racing a car and finding the limits of parts. Truth be told, I had my two best guy friends with me at the time. We hung out in a friend's GTO enjoying his DVD and audio system, and ordered pizza to pass the time while we waited for slow South Austin tow truck drivers. We were actively making jokes about the broken goat and hamming it up.

Failure isn't so bad when you have good friends and a dark sense of humor. Write that down!

Bruce Jenner problems:
The tranny damage was catastrophic. It took out a very new $1400 Monster clutch & FW (from 3/2015) that was super low mileage, and required a trans build...rebuild #2, but with a much better builder this time.

This is why the car would always block me during the 3-4 shifts and grind on the 4-5. I learned valuable lessons there and now inspect every input shaft on every manual car that has the trans removed.

Steve @ Monster clutches eventually took pity on me and lent a Texas sized hand. Got me a new LT1-S this time, a much smoother and less grabby clutch, since it has organic material on the discs and not cera-metallic. It's essentially a stock C7 Z06 clutch and PP, but with a special flywheel and shimmed pedestals to set the correct spacing for the clutch.

The FW LT1-S FW from Monster is said to weigh 22lbs, but with all the meat removed from it, mine was closer to 20lbs, which was perfect for a 3500lb street goat. The small diameter clutch also has a low MOI, which allows the motor to rev faster, and high RPM shifts are "like BUTTAH!"



New clutch is good to 650whp, mayyybe 700whp if you have everything just right.

The clutch is slicker than a wet seal when you operate this car. It’s so good that I regret upgrading my master cylinder to this beefier one (not a Tick). My current slave travel is too short and it makes the engagement point super shallow and grabby. Replacing the MC on these cars is an epic PITD, so I won't touch it for a while.

Anyway, back to the timeline!

Sunday 1/22/17
The very next day, the beautiful woman I was living with learned that her birth control failed. We were having a son. That was a busy weekend to process all the news!

Broken goat and a baby on the way. FML… 🙈 😩 😖

My life was about to be completely uprooted.

Porkchop sat broken for a while until I had a builder and price lined up for the Bruce Jenner box.

Jason Bailey of Texas Drivetrain Performance (formerly Diamond Clutches) did a bang up job at repairing my grenaded T-56. The rebuild is good for about 700lb/ft, maybe a little over.

He also educated me a LOT on the internals of these transmissions, and why the TR6060 is so vastly superior. (seriously, if you're a T56 owner, you'll cry when you see the difference in the size of the internals).


3/2017 - “Tranny Boneducci”…

I loaded Porkchop’s gearbox into a crate, and hoisted it all into the trunk of my old Toyota Camry. You now I was still fit back then, because that wh*** was easily 115lbs.

I drove 3+hrs to TDP early one morning, delivered the trans. Jason gave me the full tour of their (now extinct) Weatherford shop location, and introduced me to his young apprentice, who would be handling my build. I wasn't happy about this at first, but the kid knocked it out beautifully when all was said and done.

Sleepy Goatboy…with time to kill, and not much energy, I went outside and napped in my car under some trees for a bit, listened to the wind and birds. Very peaceful stuff compared to the city life.

I went back inside sometime later and had some lunch. Not long after, they were finishing it up.

I cannot put into words how GOOD the trans felt with the new LT1-S clutch after resolving all of these issues. Shifts at 7000 were fast and consistent like never before. Steve and others have taken the clutch as high as 7500rpm on shorter stroke engines.


9/21/17 - my son is born.

I have never been more stressed and afraid than I was for the bulk of 2017. I had zero experience with kids, since I’m last of the line in my family, and none of the cousins lived in Texas. I had no idea what the added expenses would be. I knew only that I was barely supporting myself and my car hobby before (when I was single through 9/2016).

Suddenly I had a woman, a dog, two cats and a baby to provide for. 👀 🤢 😩

But I was also excited, because I always knew in my gut that I would get to share this car with my son if I held onto it long enough. I knew this many years before I had even met his mother. Just intuition and hopes.


2017-2018:

After the $2300 expense in March ‘17, + the $1k or so for the new clutch kit, I was halting ALL major GTO repairs and upgrades.

I would drive it as is, stop racing so much to prolong the integrity of the drivetrain, and try to just appreciate the results of the work. I devoted my time to working 2 jobs, 7 days a week to build up some savings and maybe, eventually buy a house.

I had a family to support now, and I refused to even consider selling Chop. No amount of blood money would be worth the loss of my 10-year project and rolling resume. The car is and was a living extension of my accomplishments and abilities. Then again…so are our children. 😉

Stang2Goat

More pics (write up will continue here)

Stang2Goat

Build Continues: 2018 forward!


11/2018 - Eli’s mom fought me on taking our infant son in the GTO. She felt it was too rough and harsh for a baby. She was half right.

It gave me incentive and rationale to put a little money and time into the Porkchop Express.

Get SPRUNG!
The key to eliminating harshness from the BC coilovers is to ditch the shitty Taiwanese/Chinese springs. There are multiple spring dyno tests showing absolute **** poor QC on BC springs. Rates are incorrect and inconsistent throughout the compression cycle.

Remove the BC coils and use them as a paper weight in your office. So I upgraded to Swift springs up front, Lovell’s 350mm drop springs in the rear (1/2" drop from stock), all of them in 7kg (400lb/in) rates. This would be an excellent compromise between competitive street handling, and daily street comfort.

The issue with the BC rear springs is they were excessively short, and constantly collapsing, so they could not hold the right height over any period of time. Ditto on Pedders springs, which appear to be made in the same Taiwanese factory as the BCs.

Pedders actually had to go back and revise their spring rates for the XA coilover kits to address this issue with subpar spring quality.

On the BCs, the issue with the front springs was insufficient compliance for the road. The whole car rode kind of like a skateboard, and I was always trying to address the issues by changing damper settings, but this was a bandaid.

I thought the dampers were the problem, but once I installed the fresh springs all around, the car became exponentially better. *Exponentially.*

More compliance. More usable suspension stroke on compression. And now the monotube adjustable dampers could SHINE. They were so much better than I ever knew possible.

With actual springs (and not wooden blocks) all around, the ride quality and behavior of the car could be quickly and easily altered by twisting some *****. Seeking road trip comfort with the family? 3-5 clicks from full soft. Aggressive canyon carving with your European car club? 8-12 clicks from full soft: give 'em hell.

I’ve found the first 15 clicks of the BCs and Pedders to be most useful and effective.

Above 15 clicks, they can no longer react properly keep the tires on the ground when road surfaces get choppy. It practically pogos over dips and bumps. Not cool.

That behavior can send you airborne on the highways if you hit a bad dip or hump. We had a Corvette owner wreck from this same condition along the 183A tollway in Cedar Park some years back. Dash cam footage was frightening.

Anyway, the 3-15 click range produces awesome results.

Strut Mounts - I also added some SuperPro front strut mounts and sold off the harsh Whiteline poly mounts. I will never again run stiff poly strut mounts, on any car I drive in the street. They were awful. Very hard durometer of poly.

Just the front Swift springs and SP strut mounts transformed the front of the car to a BMW-like suppleness. And this is high praise to the Germans.

Where as the stock BC springs felt like an over-damped M package car, slapping and punishing when road surfaces became less than smooth.

Anyway, this is getting long. Switching to the laptop before my left hand develops carpal tunnel.



Stay tuned - Lots of pics coming!!!! 🤤 🍆 ⛲️

**** pics of Chop's engine bay.


ABOVE: it's never gay when there's cars involved. Me playfully dry humping my (then) close race buddy Darryl.

Darryl is a Ford guy. They love guy on guy action. It's in their owner's manuals when they buy their first Mustang. 👌 ❤️

BELOW: fat Michelins. Just dumping relevant pics here.


BELOW: Porkchop at a beautiful weekend car show in Round Rock by Old Settler's Park.






s

BELOW: pics taken of Porkchop on a Kerville 3 Sisters Run, by GTO owner Eric Raabenshlag.

My close GTO buddy of 10-12 years and I still can't spell his German @$$ last name. Great man though. He (semi-accidentally) introduced me to a fantastic woman this year. His IBM GTO is one of the cleanest around.




I think we need more pic-tars.

Stroke material for the masses! 🤗 🍆

Enjoy, my lovely readers. 🍻

Stang2Goat

Believe it or not, these are vintage pics of Chop, from ~2008-2014.

Stock 18s for a long time. Lightweight VMRs didn’t happen until ~2014. I bought chop 9/15/07, so that was a long time running the heavy aviator wheels.

Vararam intake I custom insulated above and below the tray.

Kooks 1-7/8” LTs with HFC mids that I ordered discretely. Short fun story: I had them shipped to my work, so that my woman (at the time) wouldn’t find out and criticize me for spending on the car.

I grabbed some White Diamond in a bottle and polished them on my lunch break, then installed them late at night after she went to sleep.
Normal people sneak off to strip clubs or support their drug habits. I just make my cars faster after the sun goes down...

My #commitment to Sparkle Motion is real. The Kooks secret remains to this day - our relationship ended a couple years after, so all is right in the Hooniverse.

Anyway, enjoy seeing Aussie Greyjoy through his iterations in the pics below. 👍 📸

Stang2Goat

2019 - I don't remember much car-related. It was a really dark year with my son's mother, and I won't say anything else publicly on that. I think I had a couple of summer cruises with friends and that was it.

Most of the year was spent picking up the broken pieces of a failed dream (having a loving, 2-parent household for my kiddos).

The relationship ended 1/1/2019, and I went on to stay single and avoid women (at the intimate level) for four years from 2019-2023, while I repaired myself, and atoned for the mistakes of my 20s. #MGTOW Monk

Lots of healing, studying the manosphere, and investing lots of time with my youngsters to ensure they had a better childhood than their parents did.

I took a trip to South America 8/2019 and spent some time down there trying to heal the soul and mind a bit.

December that same year I took a trip to Colorado (had never been), taught myself to ski, how to drive in snow and ice up dangerous mountain passes, and I learned a lot about myself along the way.

By 2020 I was determined to get back on my feet. Porkchop sat covered and protected in the garage most of 2019. I think I took Eli to some C&C meets on weekends and that's about it.


4/25/2020 - Covid Cruise!

One of my GM car friends who owns Goats and a clean navy blue T/A hosted a "Quarantine Car Cruise" to and through downtown Austin. It was unexpectedly zen during an otherwise terrible time in modern memory.

I have pics somewhere I'll try to post up. But downtown Austin, normally a s**t show of tourists and clueless drivers, was completely empty due to the shutdown, save for the homeless folks and a few dirty hipsters on skate boards; all of whom were VERY curious about the high end cars at the event. GTRs, Porsches, C6Zs, and two clean and classy GTOs...

We all parked at the Paramount Theater on Congress Ave and took epic photos of our cars in front of the glamorous lights and the state capitol in the background. Photo angles with the cars in the middle of Congress that would have been impossible under any other circumstances.

I met some new peeps, including Kenny H. with a monstrous 720hp all-motor C6 Z06 that spins to 7800rpm. His cam is larger than Danny D with humongous overlap, and when he let me drive it, I could barely keep the thing from stalling on his tune at the time, despite a decade driving and repairing cammed cars.

But none of that mattered when he took me for some highway pulls on an empty stretch of road: every upshift above 7500 felt like a shotgun blast to the chest with a kevlar vest. I will never forget it, and I want that level of mechanical violence available for 'Chop someday.


~5/10/2020 - Corbeau seat upgrade

I needed seats that had a fast adjustment; that could tumble forward quickly to allow Eli and friends ease of getting in and out. Stock GTO seats are garbage, IMHO. They look great. They fit fat people with large waistlines. But the motor adjustments take a long time to move, and the seating position is way too high unless your 5'8" and under. So mine are now customer chairs in the shop, and quite popular conversation starters.

Anyway, the Forza seats lowered me an honest 2", which was great. But they didn't recline., So I sold off my the Forza microsuede buckets after many years of fun and racing.


They looked awesome. They got my curb weight down to ~3450 on 18" wheels, and 3390 on skinnies and slicks, but the Forzas are "Iron Throne of Westeros" uncomfortable after 45-60 minutes of driving. Zero back and lumbar support. And every winter they would tell me when I was getting too fat, since they were set for a 36" waist, and mine would sometimes swell into the 37" territory...

If you had the food we have in Texas, you'd eat your feelings, too! 👀 😈



I replaced the Forzas with a set of Corbeau LG1 seats in leather. I didn't *want* leather, but it was available locally at a steal of a price from a Shelby Mustang owner who went a different direction.

The LGs look stock and clean in the car. They keep with the sleeper image and the refined look of the build. No one is ever the wiser. But they recline and have MUCH better back and lumbar support. The LGs are a gem, just on the shorter side of height for folks above 5'10". I'm 6' even and they barely work for head support.


In hindsight, the microsuede A4 wides would have been perfect for me, but these were a $1400 seat set I scored for $800-900. And I actually made a $100 profit selling off my old Forzas. Woot!


May 2020 - (most of) 2020

I forgot to mention...the A/C high pressure line for Porkchop broke years ago. 2014? It's a giant PITD to fix. It's the line that runs from the bottom of the A/C condenser, around the fenders, back behind the motor and into the expansion valve on the firewall. You need to tear apart a lot of top end parts on the motor to replace it, and pull the cooling fans and radiator. Smurf that, I just dealt with no A/C. This meant that Porkchop sat a lot more than normal due to the Texas heat. I would only drive him in the mornings and late evenings to protect myself and Eli. Windows down like the poors.

Something I forgot to share earlier...in 10/30/2017

...For my second midlife crisis, I bought a very fast and beautiful 2017 GTI SE that became my daily and fun car.


...Which also meant even less use of the Porkchop Express. This is why we have some long deficits on GTO adventures.

If you're still with me and chewing the popcorn, Porkchop's story has a deeply sad ending that's coming up.

Hope you all are following along on this journey...

Stang2Goat

10/1/2020 we moved into a nicer house in a better neighborhood. Just me, Eli and Athena. And the Russian blue cat we picked up back in February that year. Getting 3 cars to the new house with little to no adult help was extra special.

We drove Porkchop when the temps made it permissible (no A/C). Did some Lime Creek Rd canyon runs, went to weekend car shows. But the writing was on the wall:

I was experiencing oil pressure issues and didn't know it. Why? Because the c**k suckers @ GM didn't equip these cars with an oil pressure gauge, and I had just recently purchased, but not yet installed, my own gauge set. So I had no idea how bad it was until I hooked up my Alltel scan tool and logged the cold and hot oil pressure values, at idle and at 2500rpm. Saw ~15-19psi at idle and 22-27psi at 2500, if I recall correctly.

There was none of the typical evidence of low OP, such as lifter noise, rough idle, etc. Blame lies on both parties here on the oil pressure gauge deal.

I did a compression and leakdown test sometime late 2020 and found that Chop had 17-23% leakdown in cylinders 3, 7 & 8, and compression was on the low end at 175-184psi all around.

This is on a 12:1 SCR stroker motor. 200-210psi is ideal when it's healthy.

At this point, the shortblock had 11 years, 50k miles and over 1000 passes on it (the top end only had about 1/4 to 1/3 of that).

It should have had a proper rebuild/refresh some time ago, but I'd been a poor single dad sine 1/2019, and I don't know any good engine builders in my area. So there you have it...




4/4/2021 - "DEATH COMES FOR US ALL..."

I remember that Sunday morning vividly. Pistons at the Park car show at (formerly) Austin's Cars & Pizza. Huge turnout. Racing a LeMans Blue H/C/I C6Z on the way back home, both of us zinging out to 7000rpm. It was beautiful. Weather, turnout, etc.

Chop was due for an oil change, and I had recently invested in the special tool to cut open oil filters, so I did an oil and filter analysis. Clean pan; drain oil; run a clean telescoping magnet through all of the oil in search of any metallic debris.

Oil looked normal, but that afternoon/evening, I cut open the Mobil 1 filter and saw something truly awful:

The lower piston rings were coming apart, and the filter was capturing the bulk of the debris. Tons of copper looking material inside the bottom of the filter. Thank GOD for the oil pickup screen on these motors that keeps solid particles from getting sucked into the oil pump. 🤢 🙈 🙏

Porkchop would sit parked and stored from this day forth. I didn't have any funds available for a costly rebuild, nor did I have the space in the shop to have ANY cars down longer than a week. My dance card was painfully full...