Hey guys. When I was 21 I bought a 94 Z28 with 19k miles. Drove it for a year and had to park it due to a marriage. However I kept the car as a garage queen. Id say since I parked it in 2003 I took it for a spin 40-50 times. Changed the oil only a few times since 2003. Never had to repair a thing on it. Now im trying to buy back memories with my Z28. Im divorced now, and ready to build a track car out of the aging thing. Bone stock, A4, 31k miles. It’ll be my play toy. Cheap car with potential. Right now im driving another car as my daily driver that I have loved for some time now. A 2009 CTS-V, bone stock with 84k miles. Bought it brand new in 08 and never looked back. My whole decision for building on the LT1 platform is that I’ve always wondered what it can do once given that proper attention.

Im ready to start from a clean slate. My inspirations & goals for this LT1 is nurburgring built to match the 2014 Z28. A high rpm, high top end power, fair amount of low end torque, HR cam, and capable of taking nurburgring abuse (though it probably will never drive that track). Im planning on taking it to sebring raceway when all said and done.

For the whole car my budget at the moment is 40k. Motor alone the budget is between 15-20k. At the same time I have no problem investing a little more for a better quality set-up (callies, AFR, jesel) if needed. Im sure you guys know the starting budget for a 3400lb F-body producing around the range of 480-520rwhp N/A. weight reduction is free, but most of you LTx guys can chime in on what route to take to meet my goals for the motor.

Suspension, wheels, brakes ill be posting in that section. For that part of the car 12k is at the most ill be able to make this work.

Trans looking into either a T56 or a TR6060.

Aside from that I know this is primarily a drag tech section, but anyone with your experience with road course and what you think about the capability of a 2nd gen LT1 please state your suggestions.


Thanks,
Adon

 

The world is your oyster. With that budget, trying to stay NA, I'd look into a big cube lsx tho, and shoot for 700rwhp NA. I think tanner hit 650+ on his 398ci ltx with hand ported AFR 227s.

 

Damn this is a tough pill to swallow. You have a low mileage car with 31,000 miles on it and your going to strip it out? I would NEVER do such a thing. If I had a time capsule such as you I would build the motor and leave the car Full Weight.

 

lol your going to spend 40k on a 20 year old car. just buy a new 14' ss 1le. case closed. this is a bigger waste of money then that time i bought the petercopter.

 

You can do pretty much anything you want with that budget. For a NA powerhouse I'd do a 396 or 383 with AI trickflows and a stout HR cam, that would get you right around 500rw NA and cost ~12-15k to build. $3-5k will get you a T56 with cryo'd internals and Viper shaft and the requisite street twin clutch. Rear would be a $2k S60. So there's a good solid half of your budget right there, without even touching the brakes or suspension or accounting for labor costs, if any.

I'd have second thoughts on molesting a clean, low mileage car to that extent though. You obviously have some financial resources, so if I were you I'd keep the car you have now clean and relatively stock, and go shopping for another M6 car that maybe isn't such a low-mileage creampuff to do your all-out build on. Such can be easily had for 3-5k. A build like that entails replacing practically every chassis and driveline on the car anyway.

 

This build if completed is going to be one BADASS F-body. Like most people say though the task will be no easy one and nor is it practical or ideal. However with that kind of budget I believe it can be done with the right driver. As for stripping it out, that is a very low mile LT1 and us LT1 guys tend to rarely see such a piece so when one does pop up it's almost insulting to do away with it. I'd suggest keeping it as a cruiser and then finding a clapped out LT1 F-body for a couple G's and then building that. With your budget a clapped out F-body will hardly dent it.

No matter what you do though, it'll be a good idea to keep people posted. I can see this build getting really interesting really quickly - for better or worse

Cheers

 

I actually agree with this. I know the resale value of LT1 4th gens isnt that great right now but why not just keep it full weight and build the rest of the car up or go with a car you can go nuts on? If my car had 31k miles on it I would be that guy parking at the back of the parking lot, wiping every smudge off of it, and only driving it when the weather is nice. Not stripping it down and running at Sebring. But seeing how that is your car do what you feel man and good luck.

 

Before you start, do yourself a favour at take a look at the C5s for sale on the corvette forum. For that budget you could buy yourself a decent track car and keep your Z28.

An example: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-c...eels-lots.html

 

But if your dead set on trying to make a solid rear axle beat a modern IRS then your going to want to ditch the LT1 for the LS1. nothing against the LT1 its just cast iron and 100lbs heavier than the LSx. your going to want to shave as much weight as practically possible. but this whole project seems retarded.

 

I know guys, may seem offensive to take a low mileage LT1 to unexpected heights, and smarter to auction it off. I don’t blame you guys. I would be thinking the same thing if I were you guys. Personally however thats where I twist it and do something (from my knowledge) has never been done before. Why not? Original equipment will be saved in my 3 car garage warehouse in bubble packaging boxes. It would be stupid to sell clean, low mileage, low wear parts from 1994. Everything from lifters, pistons, rings, struts, wheels, tires (original tires Goodyear Eagle GA P235/55R16 DOT: 94) not even dry rotted. Checked pressure even when I didn’t drive it. Interior is flawless. Hoses are getting dry a little bit, and belt is rotted somewhat. Battery is obviously not original, alternator is however. Coolant has been flushed 4 times due to not being driven. Oil has always been Valvoline 5w-30 conventional, one brake flush I had my wife help me with (lol), one trans flush & filter change, lubed tie rod bushings, ball joints, all bushings since 03, and every now and then sprayed penetrating oil to prevent rust on the whole bottom end, chassis of the car. Thats about it. Car was washed & waxed more times than how many miles it has.

The car has been ignored (driving wise) by 2 owners for 20 years. Guilt is starting to set in, and buying another 4th gen camaro that has had its share of plenty of owners just doesn’t feel right. Some enthusiast would understand that and some wouldn’t.

Speaking of weight saving I never said I would strip it down to bare metal and a cage. Car will have full accessories minus A/C. Obviously (MOVIT or Brembo GT1’s that’ll save weight) power brakes, Power Steering, original stereo, power windows, power seats, and most importantly back seats. The car won’t behave like a stocker but from the inside will feel like one with the motor off. Weight dropping would mean excess sheet metal and material in fenders, bare metal trunk, no spare, and a few other things. The expense in weight dropping would be to drop the iron DS for a strong american or german made Carbon Fiber one, ditching the Iron rotors, exhaust, lightweight Forged wheels, Carbon Fiber hood that is painted and fits. Then again safety equipment would add weight. So it certainly will be a project that would need some professional advice to sort the whole car alone. Even if I stripped everything out to get a faster lap, putting all the interior back in shouldn’t be a nightmare. We all know our interiors are cheap making easy to remove/replace panels vs competetive german and european interiors. F-bodies are great cars to be a track car one day and the next day a show car. That isn’t my interest though.

Motor I mentioned Hydraulic roller but will go solid roller if necessary would my goal. Im picky as far as quality so the motor will be built by one of your top recommended guys or companies. Any other information go ahead and fill me in.

Thanks,
Adon

 

Do it! Z28's are a dime a dozen low mileage or not, it's not like it's a rare SLP LT4 car or something; it WOULD make more sense to strip down a beater, but that's up to you....I'd take inspiration from project Thunderchicken from way back in the day (I took a little inspiration from it for my build )

Much of the aftermarket suspension/braking/tire/head/cam/PCM technology has come a long way from 15 years ago. I say why not?

http://www.gmhightechperformance.com...tires_install/

 

Simplest instructions possible....contact Sam Strano.

 

https://ls1tech.com/forums/suspensio...ong-story.html

Check that thread out, particularly the mods he ended up with in the end. I'm pretty sure he could have with a few more laps or did beat the new z28 time. I know it's a ls1 but he didn't do much at all in terms of motor mods, he did do a lot of weight reduction. But With a little more HP and some well thought out suspension and brake work + good tires you could get there.

 

With that budget why not just use the GMPP erod crate engines?

LS3 430hp for $8000

LSA 556hp for $13000

Or Golan has a 396 LT1 with 550hp for $8000

 

contact sam strano for suspension, Ellwen Racing Engines for a bullet proof engine, MWC for a rearend, they have been doing good work lately but it takes them forever cause they are swamped...

 

Unless you really want to just spend money then skip getting a bigger rear end, the stock rear with a nice diff and a Watts link would do you just fine in autox or RR... Bigger rear means more unsprung weight, which when handling is concerned is not a good thing..

There is also a road racing/autox section in the "racing department" forum you should check out..

Also, go to Frrax.com It's a Fbody specific road racing and autox forum. SO much information in that forum