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I've been missing my last F-body since I parted it out, so a few days ago I talked to my uncle and ended up working out a deal on a 98 Formula he picked up in a trade.
I'm getting a smoking deal on the Formula, a LQ4 , LM7, and a bunch of spare parts. I have the T-56 on hand from a trade when I parted out my Camaro.
So, the car is a white hard top Formula. Has the LS1/auto in it. The block has a crack in it from not having antifreeze in it. Not sure if it's fixable or not, but I have the 6.0 so I'm not really worried about it.
The plans for this car are just to have a nice daily driver. Gonna re-ring the LQ4 and rebuild/mill the heads and throw a used hotcam in it and call it good. I'll put headers and full exhaust on it also. I'm hoping the 10 bolt won't have any issues so, it'll stay until it breaks. Not planning on running drag radials or anything. Just the 275/40/17-315/35/17 Mickey Thompson Street Comps on some silver ZR1 wheels. Like I said, just a nice daily driver car.
Only things I'm thinking I may do if funds allow is add some 243 heads and flat top pistons. Was debating on a different cam, but I like the way the hotcam sounds and it seems like it'll add a little extra power.
Exhaust will probably be TSP headers and a Borlamouth setup. After I get the car on the road I'll work on suspension upgrades and other stuff like that.
Haha, I just noticed that I mentioned having a T-56 but didn't mention that I'll be swapping this car from A4 to M6. Gonna pick up some 3.42s for the rear end too. Thinking about getting some new axles, a new LSD, and the aluminum cover. Possibly have the axle tubes welded. I doubt it will put down any more than 400rwhp, so hopefully the 10-bolt will survive with a few upgrades.
Depending on the financial situation, I may go ahead and get the 8.8 from Hawks Third Gen... Who knows...
I'll get some pics of the car posted when I can get someone to go snap a few for me. I'm in the military stationed in California and the car is back home at my uncles shop in Mississippi.
Thanks for looking guys! Still open for input if there's anything you guys might change if you were me.
Don't forget about the suspension-stock F body suspensions suck. Go with some Bilstein shocks and BMR or Strano springs, maybe some sway bars, then you'll have a nice handling rocket...
Plans have changed. I picked up some LS3 pistons and rods recently, so the LQ4 is getting sonic checked, bored, honed and built into an iron block LS3 with a decent cam in it. Looking for around 440-450 to the tires. It's still getting T-56 swapped as well.
Going with all UMI suspension (with Roto-joints) and probably Strano springs (cause they're white, lol) and Bilstein shocks (possibly Koni).
Only things I have yet to decide on is the exhaust and rear axle.
For the exhaust, I'm looking at the Hooker Blackheart system. They have 1-7/8 headers and a 2.5" true dual exhaust. Since the car will be lowered, I'm thinking this may be my best bet for ground clearance.
For the rear axle, I have no clue. Looked at the Moser housing and axle package. They're reasonably cheap and I could source my own center section for it. With that, I can use my stock brakes and everything. Also thought about the 8.8 from Hawks Third Gen. They're lighter and don't rob as much power as the 9", but I think it would cost more to get it put together. I'll have to do some more research on it.
Anyways, thanks for looking. Let me know what you think!
yes,youre going to a need a stronger rear. 9" or 12 bolt is what i would go with.
Anyone have any experience with the Hawks 8.8? It could be built reasonably cheap. Like I mentioned before I'm pretty sure they're lighter and won't suck up as much power. It should still handle what I'll be throwing at it.
Idk. It's just speculation at the moment. Trying to gather what info I can before deciding.
Still gonna stick with my original plan for wheels and tires. ZR1s with 275/315s.
Gonna bring this back from the dead since I have a few updates.
I will be installing a stock 5.3 for the time being, just so I can drive it around and work on getting it cleaned up. Plus, it'll get better fuel economy than my truck, haha.
I'm still planning on building an iron LS3 for it. I just have to wait a while until funds will be available. I also want to have all of the parts on hand for the T-56 swap before the new engine goes in.
Plans for the car:
-LQ4 Block (will get sonic checked)
-Stock LS3 Pistons
-Milled LS3 heads
-Stock LS3/7/9 cam (haven't decided)
-LS3 intake
-90mm NW Throttle body
-ARP Rod and main bolts
-Hooker Blackheart Exhaust (Modded for LTs)
-TSP 1-7/8 headers
-Stock T-56 (shouldn't make over 450... should be ok..)
-New Clutch (not sure on what to go with)
-Upgrade suspension
-ZR1 wheels
You get the idea.
I've seen threads with newer LS3 Camaros putting down almost 430rwhp with full bolt ons. I'm hoping I will be able to reach that with the setup i'm wanting to build.
Let me know what you guys think. I'll be posting some updates sometime over the next couple weeks when I go to LKQ and pull an engine for it. Gotta love the u-pull-its!
Sounds like a fun build! You'll definitely want to get rid of that 10 bolt though. A 6-speed + > 400hp is a dangerous combo if you ever want to dump your clutch.
I went to LKQ last weekend and pulled a 5.3 from a 04 Tahoe. It was wrecked in the front end just hard enough to bend the frame, but not enough to hit the engine. So, I'm fairly confident it will run good. Didn't seem to have any oil leaks and it looked clean inside the valve covers.
I'm going to make the trip to my uncles to swap it in this weekend and hopefully be able to drive the car back home.
I'm hoping it will run well enough without a tune to drive it around for a while. My uncle swapped a 5.3 in a truck that had a 6.0 and didn't change the PCM and it runs fine, so I'm hoping I'll have similar results. I'll be using all of the sensors and everything from the LS1 in the car now.
Here's a pic of the 5.3 after I got it loaded in the truck. Don't mind the seatbelts. I cut them out and used them to pull the engine, lol.
Car has 225k.. lol. Engine has around 140k, but it was damn near clean enough to eat off of when I pulled the pan to swap it.
I got the engine swapped over the weekend, only to find out the fuel pump is bad. We took the pump out and whacked on it with a hammer a couple of times and got it to run long enough to start the car and let it run for a few minutes. It starts and runs beautifully on the stock LS1 tune.
I have a Racetronics fuel pump on the way (thanks WS6store.com). Should be at the shop on Wednesday. I attempted to get a video of the 5.3 runnning, but once we shut the car off the first time the fuel pump quit working again.
Sucky part of the situation is that I'm in Tampa, FL and my car is in Mississippi... So, it's not like I can just walk outside and fix it. Fortunately my uncle is gonna help me out and install the parts when they get there. Hoping to have it on the road and driving before mid April. I'm not gonna have a change to go back over to mess with the car until then.
Question... Anyone have any idea what might cause the windows to not work? The mirror controls work fine, but locks and windows do nothing... Same with the headlights... I'm wondering if there's a ground loose somewhere.. just have to trace the circuits out and see what's going on I guess. Car has been sitting since 2014, so who knows.. rats maybe...
The window problem could be bad motors, but it's funny if they both don't work. You can get remanufactured motors at Advanced for around $50 with a limited lifetime warranty.
Got the windows figured out. I hadn't had the chance to do any real troubleshooting at the time. Turned out to be the switch was unplugged.
On another note, here's a few pics of the car.
Bolted to the k-member with Spohn solid mounts from my old Camaro.
Excuse the dirtiness, but it's in.
After a bath
ZR1 Wheels with 275/40s
Decent sized gap between door and fender. I know that fender has a crack in it. Hopefully it can be adjusted to be correct once a new fender is located.
Slowly but surely. Still have to install the Racetronix fuel pump and wiring harness and get the stereo installed. Just minor stuff for now. I will be ordering everything to put some Hella 60mm projectors in it soon as well.
Just ordered my Hella 60mm projectors. Gonna order the brackets and HID kit next week. It's almost time to start pulling the stereo out of my truck and get everything ready to go into the car.
Won't be long before I can drive it
It's currently still at my uncles shop in MS.... I'm in FL...
Projectors came in a few days ago. Just need the brackets at this point. I may run them for a while with the normal halogen bulbs to see how I like it. I will most likely switch to HIDs in the future though.
I pulled the headlights off of my truck and used the high beam plugs (9005) to test out the projectors. They put out a lot of light with just the halogen bulbs, so I'm gonna run them for a bit.
I'm also going to order some LEDs to replace all of the bulbs in the car. Interior, gauge cluster, turn signals, brake/tail lights... the whole car pretty much. Might replace the carpet soon too. Definitely need to find some seats in good shape or get mine reupholstered. I'd really like some seat covers from 6LE, but they're expensive and I'd have to wait a while to afford those. I have other things on my priority list.
Anyways, just thought I'd give a little update as to where I'm at... Not sure how many of you folks are reading this... haha, but just in case. Hopefully it won't been too much longer before I'll be able to start doing some performance mods to it. Might start working on the free mods when I get it here in Florida.
04-25-2015, 01:47 AM
98 Formula build ideas--Thoughts? 
