At 170K miles, are mods even worth it?
Man I just bought my buddies 01B4C with 170k miles, it chucked a rod on him last year. When it was done he wanted it gone so I said Id take it. He had a 200k mile car with a bad trans but ran good and great oil pressure. We pulled it slapped it in and I bought it. I did all the normal bolt ons during the swap, 1 7/8 ARH headers, ORY, mufflex clone, UDP, slp lid already had ls6 intake. So I had a 178k mile car, trans, and rear, engine with 200k. Bought it for 4k. I bought a lot of parts for swap and all bolt ons though.
3 weeks later it got a lvl 4 trans from rpm, vig 3600 stall, tci flexplate, and cooler. Same day I picked it up I ran a 13.06 at 103 on old old street tires cut a 1.9. Now that woulda been a 12.7-.8 but my headers are still hitting, tripped knock sensors and lost 3 mph. SES light flashing the whole way down the track.
Trimming headers and getting a chris 1313 ram air for it asap, and doing struts/spings, bushings, other suspension over the winter, and a set of et street radials. Next time out in spring I dont see any reason my high *** mileage fbody wont run 12.2 no problem.
It is worth it? Hell yeah, when Im done the car will be exactly what I want for minor cost. Why buy a 10k car and replace 75 percent of the drivetrain when you can buy it for 4k and replace it all just the same. Now I wont tear into the engine, Im hoping and think it will run just fine as is till the rest the car is done. When the car is done or when the engine goes it will get an lq4/9 or ls2 depending on available funds at the time.
Id follow my example, do bolt ons and suspension stuff with no worries, but I wouldnt put a stall in a trans with 170k miles thats why I built mine.
3 weeks later it got a lvl 4 trans from rpm, vig 3600 stall, tci flexplate, and cooler. Same day I picked it up I ran a 13.06 at 103 on old old street tires cut a 1.9. Now that woulda been a 12.7-.8 but my headers are still hitting, tripped knock sensors and lost 3 mph. SES light flashing the whole way down the track.
Trimming headers and getting a chris 1313 ram air for it asap, and doing struts/spings, bushings, other suspension over the winter, and a set of et street radials. Next time out in spring I dont see any reason my high *** mileage fbody wont run 12.2 no problem.
It is worth it? Hell yeah, when Im done the car will be exactly what I want for minor cost. Why buy a 10k car and replace 75 percent of the drivetrain when you can buy it for 4k and replace it all just the same. Now I wont tear into the engine, Im hoping and think it will run just fine as is till the rest the car is done. When the car is done or when the engine goes it will get an lq4/9 or ls2 depending on available funds at the time.
Id follow my example, do bolt ons and suspension stuff with no worries, but I wouldnt put a stall in a trans with 170k miles thats why I built mine.
Last edited by jrob56; Sep 1, 2012 at 03:14 PM.
how is the car over all? i mean body, interior and looks? are you planning to keep it? if yes then def. go bolt ons..it wont hurt and you can always use it but if the car needs a lot of $ $ $ to restore then id say no.
as for the high mileage ive seen alot of them stay alive and perform well. mine is at 140k and id still add bolt ons if i had to do it again.
as for the high mileage ive seen alot of them stay alive and perform well. mine is at 140k and id still add bolt ons if i had to do it again.
This will be my last attempt at selling it. If it's not sold by September 7th or 8th I'll probably keep it. That's when it's gonna start getting the TLC it deserves.
Without tearing the motor down and visually inspecting the internals and the whatnot, the motor is fine. It passed a compression check when I first bought it in March and only runs stronger now that the tune up has been performed.
My planned list of bolt-ons include TSP 1-3/4" LTs, 3" ORY, and a yet to be determined cat-back. Also 3.73 gears and a lid. Maybe a UD pulley too but for the price I'm not convinced yet. But since I have an automatic I'd almost NEED a stall to utilize bolt-ons and gears, something I'm weary about since the trans also has 170K miles.
My planned list of bolt-ons include TSP 1-3/4" LTs, 3" ORY, and a yet to be determined cat-back. Also 3.73 gears and a lid. Maybe a UD pulley too but for the price I'm not convinced yet. But since I have an automatic I'd almost NEED a stall to utilize bolt-ons and gears, something I'm weary about since the trans also has 170K miles.
I'm running at 122k and didn't even do the majority of my mods til about 110k...just purchased 243's and a cam, going in next week. I would definately start off with suspension, but don't be afraid to mod at high mileage.
Is the suspension really worth starting with on a weekend cruiser that will see maybe five passes a season? I figure I'm gonna set aside about $2,500 for bolt-ons, gears, a stall and tune and that should satisfy me until summertime. I guess if it starts giving me a horrible time hooking on the street from 20-30+ I'll look at some suspension, but I don't think my plans will have me sitting sideways at 50MPH with decent rear tires.
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Run it. My car has over 200k miles. I just put struts/springs/ls6 intake/tons of other small goodies. I just bought true duals and im about to buy headers. Cam is most likely coming next!
Teching In
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 16
Likes: 0
From: Liberty, SC
I just added last year long tubes, true duals, cam (228/235) (614/621) , pac 1518 valve springs, ported ls2 intake with 92mm tb, ls2 injectors and 75 shot and true trac w/ 3.90 gears. That was all at 205k and I'm at 218k now as it is my DD
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The exterior is in good condition IMO. However it does have 170K miles, so it's by no means a show car. But it's definitely presentable. The interior is a little rough (the headliner mainly) but in overall good condition. There's pictures of it in my FS thread if you're that curious.
This will be my last attempt at selling it. If it's not sold by September 7th or 8th I'll probably keep it. That's when it's gonna start getting the TLC it deserves.
This will be my last attempt at selling it. If it's not sold by September 7th or 8th I'll probably keep it. That's when it's gonna start getting the TLC it deserves.
I bought my car with around 150,000 miles on it. It was stock minus a catback. When I got it home I did a front to rear tune up. All fluids, fuel filter, plugs etc...I am at 166,000 now with mods in sig and the mods haven't affected in anyway I can see other than it being a bit faster. I would say go for it if your gonna keep the car. I somewhat regret not doing more suspension work when I first got it. Recently I did all control arm bushings, ball joints etc, but I still need a set of Billsteins and would like some Strano swaybars. If you have wheelhop get some aftermarket LCA's they help a ton with planting the rear and getting rid of wheel hop.
10 Second Club
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 1,261
Likes: 6
My car had 154k on it, ran great, well maintained. Bone stock. Put about 10k on it, and it's my daily. Intake, headers, tune, full exhaust, and stall is in the mail. When it blows I'll be "forced" to buy a 6.0.....
This was my mentality, if it goes 1200 gives me an upgrade(6.0), 500 gets it running(5.3)
