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87 TA single turbo 5.3 build

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Old 10-14-2017, 11:23 PM
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Thanks guys. Wayyyy too much love and money in this car.

So got a ton done. Basically finished the entire EFI install and all the wiring and crap. Man that was fun. All new power wires from the rear battery stud in the Engine bay. New power wires to the starter and New grounds from the engine to the frame. This also means all new power distribution blocks, and fuse blocks, new layout for everything and I had to relocate everything to the back of the engine and firewall to keep it all away from the Engine heat. Engine is fully connected and TB is installed with TV cable finished. Just need to fab up the throttle and kickdown bracket.

This includes wiring the AEM progressive meth controller into the new FItech harness.




Old 10-15-2017, 01:29 PM
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Very clean install!
Old 10-15-2017, 04:56 PM
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Originally Posted by Mungface78
Very clean install!
Thanks! I hope it works as good as it looks.
Old 10-15-2017, 05:11 PM
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Alittle more done. Had to put the air filter on the turbo and realized some of the wiring got in the way. No big deal. Getting the turbo filter on was a PITA. It basically pushes up against the rad support and back of the headlight area. I might spend the $50 and get a cold air kit with the piping that I need and bends and just run it right down in front of the front pass wheel.

I started on the coil covers and modifying them to pull the wires against the valve cover/heads. No idea if this will keep the wires from getting burnt but it does pull them right up against the head. Then hope the header wrap and plug wire sleeves do there job. Otherwise the only real option is cool relocation which isn’t horrible but it does mean I need to find space for the coils and running universal wires. Coil covers modified with 304 stainless wire with silcone hose to keep rubbing to a minimum. The coil covers really make the engine look wide and mean I missed these!

Dont mind the coil cover decals. I already have new ones to go on so it doesn’t say supercharged anymore.

I also had to add a exhaust hanger behind the driveshaft loop to help keep the exhaust from sagging and putting stress on the turbo DP. but it’s all done so now I’m thinking of doing a stainless wire to hold it up by the back of the engine as an extra support.







Old 10-15-2017, 05:12 PM
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Deleted double post.

Last edited by customblackbird; 10-15-2017 at 05:17 PM.
Old 10-15-2017, 09:46 PM
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Did alittle more. Sorry for the random updates, I have a 19month old so when I get time I use it in spurts lol.

Turbo blanket is on, WG line hooked up to the compressor outlet, turbo filter installed, overflow tank mounted and line run to rad, rad is filled. I also was able to finish th pass side coil cover and used one of my new decals still waiting for the other decal from the printer.






Old 10-15-2017, 11:45 PM
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Love 3rd gens!!! Kinda want another one my favorite one was my 87 iroc......ahh the memories.......gonna work on my rat tail, maybe just a clip on.....

I can't believe all the negativity about the wing! I love it!
Great build!
Old 10-16-2017, 10:08 PM
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Originally Posted by slocaddy
Love 3rd gens!!! Kinda want another one my favorite one was my 87 iroc......ahh the memories.......gonna work on my rat tail, maybe just a clip on.....

I can't believe all the negativity about the wing! I love it!
Great build!
thank u! I like the camaro front end better than the TA actually.
Old 10-16-2017, 10:17 PM
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Small win tonight! Spent about 30min or so trying to fit the stock fbody dipstick with all the turbo crap in the way. I totally
forgot about it and thought i was going to have to spend $70 on a shitty lokar braided one. 30 min or so of fussin and bending I was able to get it in! Win! No where to attach to to hold it down so I SS cable tied it to the header primary near by. Hopefully it doesn’t work it’s way out or loose. No way I was going to get the stock truck dipstick to work, luckily I had the new fbody dipstick I got with the pan that I bent to crap to try to work with the superhcharger and found the stock truck one worked much better.

I was was thinking of getting some 15x8 rims and wrapping them in some MT SS street drag radials in the 275/60r15 size to run on the back instead of my 18x19 rims with 275/45 sumimoto rubber. Figure the MT streets will give me a bunch more grip but is it really necessary on the street. Car won’t make it to any tracks in the foreseeable future. Any ide show many miles you get out of the MT streets on a DD style car? 5k? Or less?


Old 10-17-2017, 10:39 AM
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Very cool project. Subscribed.
Old 10-17-2017, 11:32 AM
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Really, a LS1 wing on a third gen? I'd love to see that? Dont suppose you have nay pics?
Old 10-17-2017, 12:07 PM
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Car’s coming along nicely. Space becomes a premium no matter what it seems. If you start with a lot of room, you just keep adding stuff. As far as time to work on it.....I almost changed my license plate to “NAP TIME” because that’s when I’d sneak out to the garage! Lol. Lookin forward to your progress.
Old 10-17-2017, 12:14 PM
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4th gen TA wing. Takes a bit of work to fill in the gaps in the center area as the 4th gen has a raised trunk. It looks ok but i think its too big and bulky.

Old 10-20-2017, 11:53 PM
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Got some done. I tried the other graphic out on the driver valve cover. This one I did with hollow lettering... not sure which one I like better.

I also fabbed up the throttle bracket and Tv cable cable bracket. It’s not done yet, not happy with the angle of the TV cable to TB. I’m also going to weld a small strip of metal to the bottom that will go down to the fuel rail mount and that will give it full support. Then a small bracket that will go from the throttle bracket mounting bolt and lay a strip of metal over the MAP sensor so it doesn’t blow out. Going to tack the top bracket as well. That whole bracket is cut from 1 peice of 3”x 1/8” steel so it looked like a jigsaw puzzle when I cut it out and then bent it together so it’s very rigid already. The issue is the NNBS intake tilts the TB at an upward angle , the older truck intake it was dead level and the angle worked out better

I could have hacked up the stock bracket and I started to but I didn’t need the cruise control square hole and the throttle hole was mega huge so I had to use washers to take up the space on the stock bracket. It worked fine but didn’t look trick.

Also debating on the coil wires wires and crap. I could relocate the coils to the top strut tower brace but then I have to run longer wires. I could keep the coils in the stock location and then make new wires that push it out the back of the coil cover and hope that works. But the short wires is the best part of the LS ignition. Not to mention I’m looking at $80 for wires that I have to make, then $50 for relocation brackets, $20 for mounts, $50 for coil relocation harnesses and possibly coil harness extensions. Ugh. But $200 is better than a burnt wire on the road.



Old 10-21-2017, 05:45 AM
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It's kind of funny. I remember a few of the threads you started and I would answer questions or be like what is he thinking? I never completely understood your reasoning behind everything. Watching this build thread though I'm like wow you are a great fabricator. The car looks amazing!!! Now if we can keep your ideas in a good direction we can have greatness
Old 10-21-2017, 11:34 AM
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Originally Posted by silvea
It's kind of funny. I remember a few of the threads you started and I would answer questions or be like what is he thinking? I never completely understood your reasoning behind everything. Watching this build thread though I'm like wow you are a great fabricator. The car looks amazing!!! Now if we can keep your ideas in a good direction we can have greatness
haha thanks I think! I do change my mind quite a bit which is part of the problem. My main issue is I like to tinker and change things so I’m always thinking of the next thing. The car ran great with the supercharger but it was loud (BOV) and I wanted more boost. Plus a turbo spoiling is a sweeter sound. All I would do to this motor is maybe a turbo specific cam and an upgraded quality turbo down the road. But for now I want to see how it runs and if the FItech stuff works well. Bc I’m also building a spare 5.3 that will be supercharged or turbo for a future project I would love to have.

If you have any questions or concerns about anything I’ve done I’m more than willing to converse about it and whether or not there is a better option or design flaw.
Old 10-21-2017, 12:57 PM
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Originally Posted by customblackbird
haha thanks I think! I do change my mind quite a bit which is part of the problem. My main issue is I like to tinker and change things so I’m always thinking of the next thing. The car ran great with the supercharger but it was loud (BOV) and I wanted more boost. Plus a turbo spoiling is a sweeter sound. All I would do to this motor is maybe a turbo specific cam and an upgraded quality turbo down the road. But for now I want to see how it runs and if the FItech stuff works well. Bc I’m also building a spare 5.3 that will be supercharged or turbo for a future project I would love to have.

If you have any questions or concerns about anything I’ve done I’m more than willing to converse about it and whether or not there is a better option or design flaw.
Keep doing what your doing. I'm literally stuck between a turbo or a supercharger on a 5.3 and I think I'm going to blame you for at least wanting the supercharger since I saw it over on thirdgen... my biggest thing was stuffing a into my thirdgen. Well now that I have a lemans and more room.... I'm back to debating on what I want to do. So here you are basically do both builds for me. Haha. I do have to agree you do some amazing work and have alot of attention to detail when it comes to some of the smaller things.
Old 10-22-2017, 09:45 AM
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Originally Posted by cypris09
Keep doing what your doing. I'm literally stuck between a turbo or a supercharger on a 5.3 and I think I'm going to blame you for at least wanting the supercharger since I saw it over on thirdgen... my biggest thing was stuffing a into my thirdgen. Well now that I have a lemans and more room.... I'm back to debating on what I want to do. So here you are basically do both builds for me. Haha. I do have to agree you do some amazing work and have alot of attention to detail when it comes to some of the smaller things.

haha your welcome . Glad I could do both builds for u as well... it’s been a good learning experience. You can’t go wrong with either setup honestly as they should both perform well. The supercharger was a much cleaner install. Like you can run stock style plug wires, you have access to the spark plugs and can remove them with the car on the ground with no issues. I’m not excited about doing plugs on this turbo setup. I have no access to them and I would have to jack the car up to get them from underneath. Even then I don’t think I could do the pass side without removing the downpipe. And forget about torquing the header gasket bolts... I barely have room with a open ended wrench. So not sure how I’m going to tq the header bolts to remflexs 20ftlbs. I’m also still debating on the plug wires... do I leave it or make my own and run them out the back. Relocating the coils is prob the best idea but that also costs more money... like $200 so add that to the cost of a turbo kit lol. And thank you for the kind words.
Old 10-22-2017, 09:52 AM
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Not too much to report back. Finished the throttle bracket, didnt fix the tv cable angle but will. Looking into welding in a small peice or a removable bracket as it’s really tight against the intake and doesn’t leave much room. But this bracket was fully welded and painted.

Also recieved my 3” stainless stamped vband gaskets yesterday. So I plan to install those so I can button up the hotside final install and then I can work on the cold side. Just need to add an IAT sensor and meth injection bung into either the aluminum piping (drill and tap style into the tubing and hope it doesn’t leak) or possibly add a stainless section and house the meth and IAT sensor. I wanted the meth injector to be farther away from the TB and the IAT sensor so it doesn’t get “wet” but my feeling is that it will no matter what.



Old 11-02-2017, 12:57 AM
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Haven’t gotten a ton done.

Started my new turbo spark plug wires. I wasn’t happy with the stock routing so I removed everything and got some
new taylor street 8mm wires and started making new ones underside up around the back and to the stock coils in the stock location. Driver side is done and pass side just needs the coil boots installed. I’m going to get some seperators to keep the wires apart and also everything fits under the coil covers

turbo vband gaskets are installed and man was that a PITA! I also got a new fuel filter, swapped out the 40 micron Billet for a 10micron billet. I also got a AEM 380 in-line pump to add on as well if the 450 doesn’t cut it. Then I’ll install the 380
inline and in series and it will bump flow a smidge but allow
me to run crazy high fuel pressure if I run out of injector. I also got my new exhaust clamps so I can finish that up. I got some new rust free stock truck coils and swapped my rusted ones out as well to clean it all up. Getting close to cranking her over!! And good too bc it’s gettinf cold out.

Pass underside
Driver underside
Driver too side with new coils/brackets etc


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