Broke EF

Alright, I will try to keep this as short as possible but no promises. Lets start all the way back in the beginning, back in 2008 I believe. My best friend Chris bought a red 1998 Trans Am WS6 clone from a local guy. The car was immaculate, and basically stock from what I can remember. Over the next 6 or so years we built the car into many versions. Started by building my first ever turbo kit for the LS1 with a Percision 76mm turbo. Then we ditched the 6 speed for a TH400. Put in a Midwest Chassis 9" and rear suspension. Then came a Texas Speed forged 6.0 and a revised turbo kit. It went back to Midwest chassis to beocme the prototype car for thier front suspension. It also got a 10 point cage at that point and the 9" got narrowed as well. Then came rev 3 of the turbo kit, Holley Dominator, and more. After a long stretch of work on the car we got it on the dyno and had a blow out of the dump tube from the wastegate. We had to repair it before we could continue, and as we were talking the car off the dyno I noticed that the turbo had touched down on the housing. That started a massive round of changes which included a new Garrett GT5533R 94mm turbo, Dart LS Next based 427 (I think it was the second block released to the public), a 25.5 upgrade, bigger fuel system and so on. As the car was coming together with mini tubs, new rear mencer coilover and so on Chris lost interest in the project. He sold the car as a complete roller (everything minus engine and trans basically) and then sold off the engine and everything else. I was pretty crushed by this after so much time and effort on the car, and I always wanted to try and get it back.

If you want to get fully caught up on the history
https://ls1tech.com/forums/drag-raci...ld-thread.html

The new owner picked it up, and started doing some work on it. He started by having the car painted black, and having the suspension adjusted to drop the car and corner balance it. He also had the windshield and rear hatch glass replaced with optic armor. They then got his engine and trans in the car, and all wired and plumbed. As far as I know its been on the dyno once, but he never ended up taking it to the track. I was on him for years to run the car, and/or to sell it to me. Well after 8 years he FINALLY said come on down and get it! This happened sometime around June of this year and I was trying to see if I could really make it happen, and if he was really serious about selling. We went back and forth, and it seemed to be getting locked in. He was supposed to send me current pics and videos showing me the car since I hadn't seen anytning for a few years on it. That dragged for a bit, but when he finally did he mentioned I should just buy it complete. I responded with I am sure I cant afford it, but I have to ask how much. He threw out a crazy number for the whole car, AND his enclosed 28' trailer that I could not pass up. I booked the flight, booked a rental truck, got the money and impatientally waited for the big day!

Friday FINALLY came around and I was a wreck from not sleeping for the previous two weeks. Thursday I got to bed around 1:30AM or so, and I was wide away at 4:45! The flight wasnt until 10:15 but man I couldn't wait, I was nervous and excited and didnt know what to do with myself. Lets just switch to pics with captions to make this a bit faster (its going to be a LOT still)

Our plane pulling up!





Goodbye Chicago





Hello Tampa





My chariot awaits! I was not expecting it to be a diesel, but I was happy it was





Had to make a Walmart trip (well this was the first) to get a hitch and locks. Pain in the *** having to get a 2-1/2 shank for a 2-5/16 ball. The selection wasnt great, so we had to go big, which worked out because it was a larger drop as well.



Even had to buy a pipe wrench to put the ball on. Lou (a machinst) was like dont let anyone see me using a pipe wrench, so I grabbed a pic LOL



AND HERE SHE IS!!!





Grabbing the trailer from storage





In the box





Back to Walmart for some straps. He said he had some, but they were not 2" so no dice for me for 20+ hours of driving. Met a super sketchy dude while we were changing the tiedowns!





Much better even though they are crazy long.





First fill up. Honestly I have no idea why I didnt do this before we got the trailer, but oh well we had time to kill.





Had to get some Waffle House! Only a little sketchy, across the street was worse but thats what you get in Valdosta at like 1AM or whatever it was.





We had a hell of a time finding a room. We made it almost to Atlanta before we found a hotel with 1 room.





Still there in the mornig!





Same with the other engine....





And the car [img]data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7[/img]





We made it back to my house about 1AM today. Here is a shot of it in the driveway after I slept a few hours.

Broke EF

I had a great plan to install a hitch like I did on the SC so I could use the ATV to move the car around. I had ordered the hitch a week ago, and when I went to install it I found that we had covered the access holes years ago. So that project will have to wait. Got the car rolled out to get a look at it and come up with a plan.





We were able to just remove the chute and use the anchor point for it.





DAMN she looks good!!!





I am going FULL hillbilly over here LOL





Trying to charge the battery, but shes dead dead.





Of course everyone wanted to come check out the car, including the old owner [img]data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7[/img]





He is VERY excited that I have the car, and loved looking over it all just like I did to see what has changed (not much).



So I wanted to get it fired up today. I have never messed with a dry sump before, and wasnt really sure what I needed to do. Long story short I over filled it and made a little bit of a mess. With that dream shattered I got it on the lift in the garage.





No pics under the car yet, I need to clean it up some. I also need to run through the wiring and the Holley configuration to see how he had it all setup. The car is like 95%, just needs a little finishing here and there and some changes to be current and legal. One thing I didnt really expect is that the Holley screen is so old that I will have to replace it, along with the harness. Not the end of the world, but I thought that was going to be more optional than required. The other big thing to resolve is the chassis, making sure it current.

rpturbo

iTrader: (47)

Well that's a super cool story! It's crazy the attachment we get to cars at different times in our lives. Look forward to the updates.
Just a little advice, if you're going through the trouble of changing the Holley harness in a car like that, I would probably spend the extra $, and buy a harness from Devin Vanderhoof. HCR Innovations. His are a much better quality than a Holley.

Reject

iTrader: (24)

Subscribing

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

Glad it all came together Sean. I need to cruise out there and check it out. I remember seeing you and Chris race it back in the day.

Jimbo1367

Congrats on getting the car. A major plus (in my book anyways$ is he had it painted black.

im glad you kept it short. LMAO

jordoza

Awesome. it is always nice to get an old friend like that back in the family.

Broke EF

Well a little more work/investigation this weekend. I got the intake off, found some lose hardware doing that.





I was also surprised to find that it has a traditional gasket and not an O-ring style like I am used to on LS





The one breather like for the oil tank was knocked down from at least -12 to a -8, and was then just slid over the tube on the stock valley plate. That's gonna change!





Besides that I just figured out what is feeding the oil on the valve covers, that the TB is 90mm (surprised by that), and minor other things. I didn't get too crazy yet because I was still deciding what my plans were going to be. I think I am starting to get locked in on what I want to do.



I also recorded some video, and hopefully will have that edited together this week to post.

Broke EF

Whoa, just noticed that my last post was cut short. That should be fixed now.

I am pretty sure I am going to go with dual fuel systems. I am debating modifying the intake I have, or getting something else. Doesn't seem like there are many options for dual RAIL intakes for LS7 heads. Also I have seen some others that use a paper gasket like the one I have. Wonder why they are not using the o-ring style?

Broke EF

I finally got around to finishing the video about the new car!

slowride

iTrader: (3)

Cool story for sure. Was that an industrial type rental as most companies won't insure the truck if used for towing?

Dragframe

iTrader: (14)

Is ole plumbob still in business? I really want one of those motor plates....