Nice car.. wish mine was closer.. I think mine is a 10 yr project now...

 

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

Ended up taking it to the track Friday night at Route 66 in Joliet. Got there at 5, passed tech around 6:45, got my first run in at 7:45, and then a second at 9:55, and third and final at 10:55. The track was really nice, but I will never go there again for a test and tune night. Tech took forever, they just let the much faster and more expensive cars go multiple times before letting the street cars go down. It took 5 minutes to do the burnout and stage the car before actually running, and when one breaks it takes 45 minutes to clean up. Not really my idea of a test and tune especially with so many street cars, probably at least 75 were there with me.

My best run was also my first ever run at the track, the car went 12.86@106.99 with a 1.98 60'. My car is already faster than all my other buddies' cars, so when I got the timeslip I was ecstatic. The next run was a 13.1 and the final was 12.9. I feel that the way the car is now I can get some better times, I just need some practice at the track. I think I'm going to try and get down to US 41 in Indiana. It's about an hour and a half from my house and I don't have a trailer, so the car will have to be a trooper.

I've got some different mufflers on the way, Pypes Violators, to replace the Pypes Street Pro's. Reason I stuck with Pypes is because of the size. I really don't want to have to add more pieces to the exhaust than there is now considering nothing is welded together yet. I'm also going to contact a couple local shops and see what the wait time is like for an appointment to get the car dyno tuned. The Frost mail order tune is great but the car runs extremely rich and it feels like it has more to it. Also want to switch to a 160° thermostat and adjust the fans. Perhaps give the car a more aggressive idle as well but I'll wait until I install the mufflers before doing anything else. I'd also like to try disconnecting the front sway bars, dropping the rear tire pressure down to 20, and stall the car up a little more.

Before Friday I was never really into the whole chasing down a tenth of a second thing, but that all changed when I launced the car on the track for the first time. Best adrenaline rush I've ever had. Not sure if it really means anything but a guy with an 03' Cobra that's raced the car quite a few times was only running 13.1-13.3 on DR's. I was more than happy beating out an LS1 Firebird and a 2010 Mustang GT.

That's all I have for now. I'll try and get the videos from Friday night and if I go to 41 I'll definately have to get a cameraman to join me.

 

What were your 1/8 times?

 

Nice build. Route 66 is terrible for time runs. Union grove on week night or 41 will let you get more time runs. I ran about the same as you but changed the nitto"s to mickey thompson drag radials and got better 60 foot times. I ran when it was about 50 degrees and still was very rich. I need the same thing as you a tune. Let us know after you get one and go back to the track to see how much faster it goes.

 

Thanks for the advice a buddy who is building a turbo 6.0L Monte is going to let me try out his MT's at 41 when I can get the chance to get down there. I'll go get the timeslips out of my car tomorrow for the 1/8 mile times. My 60' is brutal though I can't wait to go back and practice some more at it.

 

Awesome!

 

I'm losing motivation on this car so the best way I know how is post up some progress on what I've done since I last posted to this thread.

A couple weeks after the first pass at the drag strip I decided to ditch the mail order tune and go with a dyno tune. Went up to FAST Motorsports in Woodstock, IL and had Brandon do the tune for me. Ended up picking up somewhere around 70rwhp with his tune compared to the mail order. With the same exact setup, just a different tune, the car ran 11.83 at Great Lakes Dragaway in Wisconsin.

I ended up breaking the transmission, oddly enough when I put the car together I never noticed there was a pilot bushing shoved into the crankshaft. I stupidly pulled the converter to the flexplate and eventually over time it destroyed the pump, converter, and trans.

Had the trans rebuilt and the converter restalled to a 4000. Installed a much bigger cam from Pat G and EPS, and installed a FAST 102 intake and NW 102 throttle body with some Bosch 36lb injectors.

Had the car retuned after that and put down 408rwhp through an unlocked 4L60 and 4k stall, on a Dynojet dyno.

Took the car to the track and with the changes I made I also added a Spohn rear ARB, Summit drag shocks all the way around, and Spohn DA upper control arms set in the factory location. Also switched the S10 wheels to some Weld Prostars with 275/60-15 MT Drag radials in the back.

Car ended up with a best of 11.28 with a best 60' of 1.505.

Drove it around like that all summer and fall just crusing.

Took it apart during the winter to change my front accessory drive to the Holley setup, along with adding an ac compressor with again, the Holley bracket. Also switched out the coolant block off plates in the rear and fabricated my own little setup out of AN line and a vacuum manifold off of eBay.

That's where the car sits right now. I bought a house and got promoted to journeyman so I'm paid flat rate and if I'm not working on the house (which I fully gutted and rebuilt with my father) I'm staying late to get more work done at my job. I also traded my old daily in for a newer truck, bought a huge new toolbox at work, and adopted a dog that was staying at a shelter. I couldn't say no lol

Here are some pictures in no particular order

My driving my car around Chicagoland Speedway during the Goodguys 2011 show



New parts still to install




New truck

Old truck never to be seen again

My 2 yr old Husky named Roy. Not sure who named him but it's fitting and he responds to it lol

Cam specs

My house

My garage

Tool box from Extreme Tools in Naperville, IL. Awesome quality check them out

This is my workspace until I can get it to my house, theres a fridge in front of my car plus the crap in this pic

Pic of my buddy's MCSS next to my car

It's current state under the hood

My favorite picture

Here are some videos
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...72524052829886
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...77086337701527
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...64764771078806

 

cool car, truck, dog, house and pics. I bet when you get your garage in order, the motivation will change a bit...nice to see someone making it happen

 

Good job on the pictures and documenting your build. It is a great looking project.

 

Got the car driving again tonight, after 5 minutes I kept asking myself why the hell didn't I do this sooner lol

 

Wow man awesome build!!

 

hey are the headers on your malibu for a f-body? and did they fit that bad that you did not use them. kinda on a budget and can find find camaro headers cheap. so if i can make them work for now i will get a g body set later when i can afford them

 

The headers on my car now are the BRP ones made for G-bodies. F-body headers will not fit with my engine mounts which are the BRPs. If you have the setback plates like the dirty dingo or the trans dapt then the F body ones will work I believe. Mine were hitting the frame to the point where I couldn't get them in even after closing one of the primary tubes halfway

The headers were definitely worth the extra money I had to pay for them I wish I bought them in the first place and didn't even bother with the pacesetters. Now I have a junk set of headers laying around in my garage