Jimbo1367

It would be nice to see some more cross braces on the front subframe. I would imagine it’s not anywhere as rigid as stock was.

you’ve come a long way just getting it this far.

best of luck

LSswap

Woody... Love the project. Just glanced through all of it.

Especially like the video with the DIY ECM tuning . Going to use that for my next swap.

Great Stuff. Not a fan of "C" clip in the 8.8 Ditched mine and welded in 9" ends and use 9"axles and retainers.

Woody80z28

I'm open to suggestions. I cut a couple gaping holes in it for the rack, but it does have rectangle tubing welded in to try and offset it. Stock it's two separate pieces, and now it has the rack mount in front and solid bar in back to make it one piece.

Ideally I'd like to make braces from the unibody rails to the subframe mounts close to where the clearance cuts are. Going to be mounting a swaybar there and I'll see what I can do then.

Woody80z28

Yeah, C clips aren't ideal...but $200 for a decent rear axle and I'm rolling with it. My Camaro is still on c-clips too and that 8.5 has taken a pounding.

Woody80z28

Ok. Steering is done for now. Current limitations keep it from being perfect...but I'm gonna roll with it for a bit! I need to do some more research on different racks, but I'm too far behind to keep pissing away more time on it. Snow is coming soon! haha
I got the pedals completely finished and made some progress on the radiator too. Been taking some stuff home to work on during the week to try and get more accomplished quicker. So far it seems to help a little compared to only getting a day or two a week at my old man's place.

Woody80z28

It's alive! Put a shitload of hours in on it over the last week+, cause I'm getting kicked off my old man's lift for his dumb new Mopars. A lot of the final little details turned out really well. It's uncanny how well a truck fuse block and PCM fit a Beretta. haha And my modified headers miraculously can be removed from the top side, and still have access to the starter and steering shaft.
The fuel tank and a couple other things are sloppy cobbed together at the moment, so it's still not road worthy. But it runs and will be making tire smoke by this weekend. More detailed video coming soon, obviously.

Woody80z28

Toight like a toiger

ryeguy2006a

iTrader: (27)

Nice work!! Looking forward to the next video!!

Jimbo1367

Berettas we’re decent quick back in the day for a shitty 2.8L V6. Imagine how it will feel with a LS4.

what’s the first gear ratio in your transmission?

Woody80z28

T56 is 2.68 I think, with 3.73 in the back but short 25" tires.

I built a pretty sweet 3.4 swapped Beretta that was FWD. 13.2@101 with a 5spd on 87...holds the n/a Beretta record actually. But this one is RWD now, not LS4 like the Montes, etc. It's only an LR4 4.8 but it should still dip into the 12s I think.

Woody80z28

Here's the thrash video. And the next one will show smoke!




After I got it fired, I discovered the clutch wouldn't fully disengage. 6.1:1 Wilwood pedals and 3/4 bore master should have been ok considering the 4th gens had 6:1 pedals and 3/4 master cyl...but apparently McLeod and Spec clutches both need a 7/8 master. Fittingly enough, my used Spec clutch did come with a 7/8 master. Probably should have done some homework on that then. But it was a universal style Tilton that fit the Wilwood pedals just like the Afcos I'm running.



It was sketchy AF on the initial test drive! My "oh how bad can it be" bumpsteer was really bad, so I stole a couple 5/8 heims from the Camaro and dialed it in a lot better. I also adjusted my pinion angle (cause I had forgotten) and made a tweak to the driver rear lower control arm length. Should be a marked improvement on the next test drive.

Jimbo1367

Look how clean the bottom of the car is. Based on that, one would think the car is from the South

burn out: Look cool. Why no video though? LOL. Congrats on your car. That’s aLOT of work.👍

Woody80z28

It's from southwest PA. Not typically where clean cars come from, but it sat in a junkyard from '17-21 anyway.
I knew it would be a fair amount of work...but it's been about double what I expected. 🤣
Next video will have lots of burnouts. I've been having a blast with it I missed having a fun hot rod.

Woody80z28

This thing is so much fun. I love it.

Woody80z28

Video is up!
And I'm also thinking about doing some t-shirts.

Woody80z28

Coilovers for the front in the works! No pillowball mounts and nasty NVH though...I'm using a DIY non-adjustable strut mount with 2 more degrees caster built in. And it has rubber isolators for the spring and the strut stem. My mock up shows it working beautifully. The picture on the ground is in the center of the adjustment, so I can go up or down about 2 inch from there. More info to come once I finish it up and make a video.
You can also see another change if you look close, but I'm not gonna spill the beans on that just yet.

Woody80z28

Got the coilovers done and the video up.

Alex cut some plates on his plasma table from a PDF I designed in Adobe Illustrator (poor man's CAD). haha. I moved the pivot back for more caster and isolated with rubber so the NVH should be fine. Using 200lb springs instead of the factory 145lb, and I had to cut the perch off completely. I also cut the steering arm down so I can use it as a mount to make the 33mm Blazer swaybar direct acting.








Now the front looks so good I'm hacking up the rear unibody frame to get the *** down to match. On the next episode of...Gearhead dezign. haha

Jimbo1367

FWIW,
the weld on the strut tower brace is COLD. Will it matter, Who knows. But it is cold. You shouldn’t have those puddle lines. So pronounced

Woody80z28

Thank you for the feedback. I do appreciate tips for improvement. This is another pic I had of it.

Woody80z28

Guess I forgot to post my "rear subframe" video. Worked out pretty nice as some new rear structure to be able to clearance the unibody for lower ride height and move the coilover mounts up to keep my full shock travel. It's also going to be a nice solid mount for the fuel tank but that will be in another epsiode...





Even bought a new tool...that I should have bought years ago! Love it already