John McGraw

You can pick up a complete C4 or C5 front suspension for $500-$700 if you shop around a little. They now build the chassis set up for C5 front suspension, and it is a better choice. It has better geometry, and gives more room in the engine compartment. The 65 that I am doing now is using the C5 front suspension.

A C4 Dana 36 will set you back anywhere from $350-$750 depending on mileage and condition. If you are using an automatic,and less than about 400 horsepower, the D36 will live fine, but if you use a manual trans, or make more horsepower, you will probably want to get a D44 rear, and they will set you back about $1500. A full set of QA1 Coilovers will set you back about another $800.

Regards, John McGraw

jlm44

WOW.....thank you very much John. Those numbers are a lot better then I thought. I'm going to order a SRIII frame tomorrow for my '57.

mramay

iTrader: (4)

John,
Beautiful craftsmanship!! What an amazing vehicle!

Could you provide more info on who sold you the LS2 parts and do you know if they have any more? I've an evil idea to do to a Benz and it sounds like you've found a source that would provide everything I'd need in one fell swoop.

Thanks,
Mike

John McGraw

Mike,
I saw a post over at the GTO forum about the train derailment and started trying to track down the slavage from it the next day. The accident was only a week old when I got my name on the list for one of the engines, and I got just about the last one. I saw that Roush bought 11 of the salvaged cars. It was just pure luck reading about the train derailment and figuring that there might be some drivetrains to be had. As it was, I still waited over 2 months for GM to release the salvage so that I could get it. I was just about resigned to buying a new crate engine and trans from S.D. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good! A Salvage takeout is allways a better deal for one of these conversions if you can find one. There ought to be some wrecked 05 GTO's starting to become available.

Regards, John McGraw

mramay

iTrader: (4)

John,
When did the accident occur? From the work you've done on your Vette, I'd have to guess it was a year ago or more.

I'm on a consulting job in Charlotte, about ten miles from the Roush campus. It might be possible to find someone that knows about those cars. What was on the railcars - Corvettes, GTO's?

Thanks,
Mike

Schitzo

iTrader: (6)

Nice work John. Is that a C5 upper radiator hose you used? If not where did you get that. Thanks

Mad-Max

Awesome job man, looks good. Be proud it, and enjoy the ride.

jtmiller92

iTrader: (74)

Wow, thats nice.

John McGraw

Mike,
The finished car has a LS1 engine and 4L60E trans in it. The chassis in the background is the one with the LS2 and 4L65E trans. The train wreck happened back in the spring and GTO's were the car being transported. Being that it has been over six months, I would doubt that there are any of these drivetrains left to be purchased. 2 months ago, Muscle Car magazine showed a picture of the 11 cars sitting in parking lot over at Roush, but I am sure that that picture is at least 4 months old.

Regards, John McGraw

gnx7

iTrader: (28)

that is one beautiful conversion. Where did you get the tubular chassis from? That is truly a neat car.

Keep the shiny side up! I guess that doesn't hold true for this car both the top and bottom are equally detailed.

red90cobra

iTrader: (36)

awesome man love the conversion

mramay

iTrader: (4)

Thanks John. You're probably right that they've used them for something already but it won't hurt to go look. At least I can hope that a Ford shop like Roush may not have used up all the GM drive trains and wouldn't mind selling one of them. I've flown out of the Concord airport where Roush is located, maybe I could get the tower to let me fly over Roush so I could take some photos to locate the GTOs. They have a pretty large campus over there.

Anyway, thanks for the info!!
Mike

John McGraw

A guy by the name of Mike Stockdale does them. His company name is SRIII motorsports. Hereis a link to his site: http://www.sriiimotorsports.com/pages/691638/



Regards, John McGraw

Posi12Bolt

iTrader: (13)

OMG...I think I just came a little bit....LMAO!!

no no seriously a little came out...lol

that f***er is sooooooooooo clean!!!

I love it...
~Brian

227Hawk

iTrader: (1)

Very Very NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great attention