sounds like a fair price for the procharger setup. I've been reading about your FAST efi stuff. I've got a FAST XFI 2.0 setup sitting at home waiting to go into a typhoon. I totally agree with Comps customer service over the last few years. It has gotten to where I can't get a response on any message I send them and I love my RHS heads but getting anything from them is also like pulling teeth. Several people on other forums have had problems with quality control and customer service from FAST as well. Makes me worry.

 

That's a pretty good deal for what you're getting. You sure you want to road race that? Or , are you going a different route with the car?

 

That's just it. This is a great deal, but the car is very well sorted out as is. Not inclined to mess with a good thing. But...

 

hey folks, I am contemplating a conversion to C6 wheel hubs and new spindles made for them. This is order to expand my options for aftermarket forged wheels. Centerline makes good wheels at a decent price, but they have no options for cars with big brakes. Everyone else I've seen wants $$$ for forged wheels.

To make this worthwhile, I'll need to sell off my existing spindles and hubs. If you are interested, please PM me with your offer. This is what you'll get:

• The spindles
• Kore3 conversion hubs and anodized brackets pictured below.
• Fresh inner and outer bearings (maybe 1000 miles on them).
• existing inner seals + new spares
• 10 lug nuts

This setup will allow you to put C5/C6 base or Z51 brakes on your second gen F-body (or any other GM muscle car using the same spindles). Please note that the rounded tips of the wheel studs had to be trimmed so they didn't contact the mounting surface on the Camaro SS wheels I used. If you look closely at the second pic, you'll see what I'm talking about.

 

Boy, you are never satisfied!
Glad to know the pan and oil pump weren't the problem @RA.

 

Yeah yeah yeah... If I could get a set of forged wheels for less than​ 600 each that fit big brakes and 70.3 mm spindle, this wouldn't be a consideration.

Are you going to the Northwoods Shelby event at RA in April?

 

No, put an LS1 plastic tank in my ThirdGen, had a vendor do the pump/wiring, and now it won't start. I'll figure it out, but wont make April, and Midwest Fbody not doing an event.
I'm always hanging around, though.

 

I guess it's time for an update, as a lot has changed on the car since I first posted my build.

Update 1: Brake Hubs and Wheels. I contemplated conversion to C6 wheel hubs and new spindles for quite a while. This was for a couple of reasons. First I've had a problem with the dust caps and bearing seals leaking from day one. It's a minor issue (not enough to cause a failure), but it was messy after a weekend on the track. Second, and most important, I needed to expand my options for aftermarket forged wheels. It was near impossible to find the right offset + clearing big brakes + clearing the 2nd gen style center hub. Centerline makes good wheels at a decent price, but they have ZERO options for cars with big calipers. Everyone else I've seen wants $$$ for custom forged wheels.

So, I sold off my spindles and Kore3 conversion hubs and brackets to buy new spindles that allowed me to put C6 hubs on the TA. A friend has a sideline business parting out wrecked C6s, so I go the hubs cheap ($25 each, with 20k miles). Since taking these pics, I fabricated dust shields with provisions for brake cooling ducts.





Since I now had relatively shallow hubs front and back, it meant most of the modern-ish forged wheels were now "om the menu." I wanted to stay with something reminiscent of the color scheme on the car (green and gold) and eventually set my eyes on Work Emotion CR-2P wheels, in 18x9. The wheels are being custom made, and should arrive within a couple of months. I literally bought the spindle conversion, hubs and wheels and still managed to save over $1500, compared to the wheels I was originally looking at.



Update 2: More wheels, cheap: Speaking of wheels, I also scored a nice set of C5 wheels to replace the sawblades, and put RE-71s on them for autocross this year. The car also got an alignment more in tune with autocross (-1.4 degrees Camber, neutral toe in, 5.5 degrees caster) and has been handling excellently. Didn't know it before, but the specs were so far off prior to the alignment, that not a single measurement was even close to being on the scale for the alignment rack. It took 3 hours to iron out.


Update 3: Firewall: I had a problem with firewall flex, due to the fabricating I had to do for relocating the clutch master. That got fixed with a brace I made from aluminum scrap:


Update 4: Fuel Delivery: I encountered fuel starvation on the track when the tank was below 1/3. This was due to sloshing gas on hard corners, and the only way to correct it was to replace the tank. Here are the new and old two fuel tanks, in case anyone is interested seeing what the differences are. The Tanks Inc. tank was a breeze to set up, by the way. Fuel starvation problem is gone. Cost was $550ish, including a new pump.




Update 5: Aero: If you look in the racing threads at TransAmCountry.com, you'll see where I stuck my nose into a great conversation on aerodynamics. I had a short splitter at the time, and was making the argument with a buddy for a longer one. I won, after citing this thread, but one thing I didn't consider at the time was needing to stay within SCCA rules.

In a nutshell, I could have a splitter, but I needed to stay within the rough outline of the car, as viewed from the top. No long beaks sticking out the front :-) . I also could not extend the splitter beyond the halfway point of the front axle. In practical terms, this meant the splitter's rear edge was about 1" forward of the centerlink. Here is the result. The wheels are 4th gen Camaro SS 17x9s, with Hoosier R7s, btw.


Update 6: Safety: With the car getting faster on the track, it should come as no surprise that some sanctioning bodies require more safety equipment. This year was the first time I needed to have fire suppression handy. The Quick release steering wheel makes it easier to get in and out of the car.

 

Nice update. I enjoy this build

 

I'm glad that I returned to this thread. This car is still one of my favorites on here. Great work as usual, thanks for sharing the knowledge of the build.

 

Thanks guys.

New wheels arrived, and I did some test fitting for the front (need to another pair of 18s) and installed the rears. Things fit very well, and it looks like there is more than enough clearance on the front brakes to go with 14" Z06 rotors if I wanted to. These are Work Wheels Emotion CR-2P in 18x9 with a +3 mm offset. They fit 245 to 275 width tires. If I didn't want to stick with a "square" setup, I probably could have gone with 11" wide rears.

 

What's the reason for not going the typical 18x10.5?

 

I have a set of wheels dedicated to road race, which are 17x9.5. When the current tires are worn out on those, I will likely sell them off and try to get a set of 18s with bigger rears. 17 inch tires have a relatively small selection, compared to 18s.

This new wheel set is intended for street, cruise and autocross. The main limitation I've had with autocross has been front end traction, not rear. At autocross speeds/throttle, the rears are more than sticky enough.

The front wells, with the car lowered and having a stock subframe, realistically clear 9.5 inch wide wheels at most. Max tire size is 275 wide. That size of tire will also fit on 9 inch wheels, which allow more clearance for things like tie rods ends and the front sway bar. I needed a "square" wheel set, so I have the option of rotating wheels when the fronts start wearing uneven.

With those restrictions and needs, 9 inch wheels were the best choice.

For road race, slicks don't last long enough for rotation to be a realistic option, and there is also a bigger problem with rear traction. Thus, when I eventually get them, THOSE wheels will likely be 9 or 9.5 front and 11 rear.

 

Latest pics with the new wheels are below.

Another change impacting aero happened last night. No, i didnt hit a deer

I needed to put in a smoother CAI duct to get away from turbulence which was causing my MAF to throw codes. In order to do this, I was forced to also change my radiator fan and overflow bottle design. I went from a JY fan from an old bonneville to JY fan from a Honda (I think... it was a piece of crap) + fan shroud I fabricated from aluminum sheet.

Now, while driving around, my temps hover around 185. When I click on the fan, it drops to 175. Previously, the car hovered around 160 to 170 while driving, and 185 if I turned the fan on (which I only did if I got stuck in traffic; no airflow).

Even sitting still, the temp won't rise above 175 with the fan on, so that was cool to see. My read on this is that the shroud setup is effective, but impacts air flow at speed. I'm guessing it is also reducing underhood air pressure somewhat--in combination with the upper front grills being blocked off.

 

I don't know if they really made any difference, but I added some rubber flaps to the shroud of the Taurus electric fan I have in my Mustang. As I recall, I snagged the flaps off a Volvo of some sort at the junkyard, but I've seen the same type of thing on a variety of cars. (That's why I got the idea that it might be beneficial.)



If you do a googly image search you can find all sorts of examples of similar flaps (and even bigger ones) that folks have done on their aluminum shrouds.

 

Good idea! That way ram air at speed can pass thru, but when fan is on at low speeds, they suck shut!

 

Good idea, thanks!

 

Now I'm beginning to iron out issues with my aero setup -- need to work on blocking off unwanted airflow into the engine bay through gaps around radiator.

The bottom shot attempts to show what I have going on in front. Most of the air entering the left marker light hole is forced through the oil cooler and out through the gap between the core support and driver side fender. Both grill sections by the headlights are blocked, so the only air entering the engine bay from the front comes through the bottom feed and marker light holes.

 

awesome project!!
i am building a very similar car that i am building in stages (cause i am on a budget)

current setup: (stage 1) AKA get the damn thing running
1980 firebird w/ iron 6.0 L92 truck motor w/ LS9 cam & T56 from a 4th gen camaro using the hooker swap mounts and cross member.
currently i have the CPP corvette C5 brake conversion stock lower control arms and speedway motors 8 1/4 inch tubular uppers with 1/2 inch longer LBJ & UBJ
the rear end is bone stock w/ drum brakes stock leaf springs poly bushings.
I was going to leave the rear end stock for now because i have been thinking that the stock 10 bolt may be a weak link and if i need to step up to a 9 inch or similar i would ditch the leaf springs and go with something like a Truck arm w/ panhard or triangulated 4 link and disk brakes. (aka Stage 2)
working on rebuilding the brakes right now going to use a 1st gen camaro power booster (because i have it and the master cylinder fits) an S10 1 inch master cyl wilwood adjustable combination valve, front 2 piston C5 front calipers and stock drums out back (until i can save up for stage 2)
any thoughts?

 

My car was totalled in a fire earlier this month.


The fire


The aftermath

The car is "run and drive"...
...and now located in Saint John IN.

I drove it onto the trailer, and into my garage at home this weekend. I also received confirmation of settlement approval from the insurance company, so i can now more serioudly entertain offers.

This car was the fastest car at the inaugural SCCA Time Trials last year (Gingerman raceway). It was also the fastest classic car at the SCCA TT Nationals (NCM). The list of parts should give you a solid idea what was invested, and what I can get out of it by parting out. So, please be realistic if you are interested in parts.

I will consider trades, will consider partout, will also consider building up the 2001 Firebird I have in the back yard as well :-) i added the investment price i have into each section, just to give ideas. I DO NOT expect these numbers as offers.

Build Sheet:
1. Stock 2008 Corvette LS3 with 1-piece pushrods, new injectors, new timing chain, 10% underdrive fluidampr crank pulley (keyed), Improved Racing Oil cooler adapter and remote oil cooler, Turn One PS pump, C6 oil pan and accesory drive, Tanks Inc fuel pump and tank, after market harness and mail order tuned ECU $5700 (except engine, everything was bought new).

2. Texas Drivetrain Performance prepped C5 T56 with a F-body tail (more synchros compared to F-body unit), with MGW short throw shifter, SFI boot, Quicktime SFI bellhouse, Spec level 3 clutch, aluminum pressure plate option, ACT Prolite flywheel, Holley trans cross member -- set up for quick rev matching while on track + great torque holding capacity. $4100 (all new, trans has @12k miles on rebuild)

3. Driveshaft was custom made by Action Machine in South Bent IN. Single piece aluminum, spun balanced to 10k RPM $350

4. Rear end / suspension: GM 8.5" 10-bolt with Eaton Trutrac diff, 3.42 Motive gears, Moser bolt-in axles, 4th Gen LS discs, hypercoils composite leafs, Hotchkis adjustable rear sway bar, RideTech monotube SA Shocks and FAYS2 Watts link -- this is the best sorted stock-design rear suspension you'll find for a 2nd gen f-body. $2500

5. Exhaust: Edelbrock long tube headers, O2 sensors, dual 3" Pypes exhaust with X pipe and high-flow cats. Dumps in front of rear axle $1000

6. Front suspension / brakes: Stock F-body subframe with Global West upper and lower control arms, del-alum bushings, CPP conversion spindles, C6 Z06 bearing hubs, RacingBrake C6 Z51 Two-piece rotors (PN 2068) , Stoptech C6 Z51 rotors, Wilwood W6A 6-piston Calipers (140-12629, bolt on upgrade for Corvette Z51), Wilwood and Carbotech pads, dust shields set up for 3" brake ducts, Hotchkis "Handle Bars," aluminum cowl brace, QA1 Dual-adjustable coilover shocks, Wilwood brake and clutch master cylinders, and WS6 front sway bar; two spare c6 bearing hubs included. For those who dont know, base Corvette rotors are 12.7" diameter, Z51 13 4", Z06 14" -- a second gen f-body can use 17" 4th gen wheels or Covette wheels with these brakes provided you use 2" spacers, which i am including. $4300

7. Interior: obviously damaged by fire, but some things survived: NASA-spec bolt in roll cage, quick release steering wheel, fire extinguisher (go figure, right?), Corbeau racing seat mounts, VDO gauges appear good, but lens are darkened from heat. $1400 into the items that survived.

8. Body: Nose and hood are both fiberglass and were not impacted by the fire (they still need cleaned/repainted). There was a cotton blanket on it. The black stuff is mostly the blanket, trunk lid is good, doors are solid / rust free, driver side rear quarter section is solid / rust free, passenger side rear has bondo/body work due to prior accident, front quarters solid (driver side has dimples from prior body work, no holes or rust).

9.Wheels: pictured wheels are Work Wheels CR 2P 18x9" forged, with bronze center and mirror polished aluminum barrels. Offset is +6mm. Made to fit a GM muscle car with Corvette front hubs. Stock spindle design will not clear the center hole on front. $2300
I am pondering the idea of a direct sale or part out, but not set on either path. Make a reasonable offer for whatever part you want via PM please. The stuff is used, but in good condition, and i am not one of those nuts who demands new prices for used stuff.

A reasonable ballpark would probably be half to two thirds new price, depending on item. Make an offer. Worst i can say is no.

Trades considered. The car is restorable as it sits (will need cleaned/blasted and painted), and has a valid Indiana title. Car is located in Saint John IN.