Vendetta

Hey fellas, let's list some of our biggest mistakes as a newbie and talk about them in this thread.

Formula69

BUYING UNDERDRIVE PULLEYS!!!
biggest waste of money ever... i actually just took them off tonight and put my stock ones back on because the thought that i wasted my money on such a useless mod was keeping me up at night... you think im joking but im not.... this was the first mod i did to this firebird and it was over a year ago and i just tonight took them off... DONT EVER BUY THEM!!!

o and once i forgot to gap my spark plugs but that was way back when i was 16 and it was on my honda accord... it ran kinda funny after that and it took me a week to figure out what was wrong... you live and learn, then you buy an lt1 and live and learn again

Alex94TAGT

DO NOT let a budget muffler shop try to weld up your $600 catback. When working on expensive stainless steel, they suddenly go cross-eyed.

Key point being this: If you can avoid it, don't let anyone else ever work on your car. Evade it like the plague. Learn to do it yourself -- you'll save money from labor charges, you'll benefit from the experience, and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing the job was done right.

I now own a MIG welder due primarily to the above experience. Live and learn...

TurboZ28

Definitly try to do everything yourself. Labor cost A LOT. And if you screw it up and can't fix it THEN take it to someone else, but at least you gained knowledge. Take it somewhere else, lose money and knowledge.

urbanhunter44

iTrader: (1)

Do everything yourself. You'll learn and save $100 an hour.

Well, if you CAN do it yourself.

Oh and when you do the TB bypass mod, don't forget to let the engine cool off first.. coolant tends to spray everywhere when it's hot, and your opti-spark is REALLY sensitive to coolant. (Or any liquid for that matter)

DietCoke

iTrader: (18)

Paying to have my cam installed. ($500). With $100 worth of tools, its a cinch. I can do one now start to finish in about six hours.

Jordan57

Lets see....buying a flowmaster exhaust...sucks. Buying a centerforce dual friction (700 dollar) clutch....it was about worthless after about 2 yrs on it....<5k and 1 track day with street tires on it. Forgetting to latch the ttops after I pull the car off the rack...two new ttops later.....damn thats about it....bad luck.

METALBEAST

iTrader: (1)

Not thinking through your modifications before you run out of money.
Case and point.

Vette: Ported LT1 Heads, LT4 Hot Cam, Shorties, Catback, K&N & mail order tune.

Ran out of money and bought a stall that was small (2400 ) and no money for gears (still have 2.59s ) to utilize the power band of the car.

Oh, well. Camaro Project starts this Spring

Vendetta

I'm a model for wasting money on shitty mods... I wasted money on a brickyard spoiler and crossdrilled rotors toward the end of my owning my old Z28. Then I was hit with losing my job, getting into an accident, and needing a new converter all at the same time. Those parts are still sitting in my closet, along with an SLP CAI and a Flowmaster catback, waiting for a new car to go on.

Moral of the story: Don't be an idiot like enisguy

roadtrip120

iTrader: (29)

I will take every HP i can get, even with a under drive pulley

327rwhp 349rwtq NO CAM, ALL BOLT-ON'S


Hotcam and 224/230 are putting down 320-330hp, HUMM???





When doing a cam swap on a friends car, dont forget to put the water pump shaft/dowl back in. You will save about an hour trying to figure out why the car wont cool, and another two hours pulling and installing the water pump. newbie mistake hard core,lol

fattypros

although im still pretty much a newbie, mechanically concerned, in the ongoing adventure that is figuring out why my engine takes so many turns to start, my buddy who is much more mechanically inclined then myself, summed it up to spark plugs, being not to familliar with the car, we didnt think to look under the hood where it told us what the gap was and instead gapped them at .035 After we were finished, then noticed that it said right there under the hood .05 But by then it was after dark and we were too tired to change it at the moment. A few weeks later we got back under the hood and re-gapped them to .05, she sounded fine, left the shop and got on the highway for a brief moment, upon flooring it I found I had **** for acceleration. My buddy sums this up to the fuel pump dying out, which is a project that is coming in the next week or so to try and resolve the hard starts. Turns out in his and my hastiness to get the engine back together, one plug wasn't tight enough, and one wire wasn't fully on, we found this out after we got back home and the car was shaking violently so the next day I make the 2 mile drive back to the shop with the 'service engine soon' light blinking at me from the dash, the best part was at a light I pulled up next to a 93-97 SS and 93-97 V6 and they both looked at my car and laughed. So with renewed dedication I put her back on the lift and threw whole new plugs in her, gapped at .05 from the start, spending 3 HOURS trying to get the plug in cylinder 1, that mother f***er didn't want to go in, but then finally she threaded. Finished that with a half hour to spare before the shop closed. Started her up and she runs fine, well, with the hard start still affecting her. But anyhow, that's the only mistakes I've made so far, getting this fuel pump changed and throwing on the new exhuast should be thier own fun ventures

Fastbird93

iTrader: (10)

Not doing enough research before choosing a route of mods to go with. I.E. building up a powerful motor without the drivetrain or suspension to harness it.

Paying other people to do the work for you. I'll NEVER do that again (save for actual motor building).

Completely tightening your ASM headers before installing the Y-Pipe. That was self critiqueing.

Installing a street twin clutch without a 12 bolt. No more good launches is the outcome.

waltsfastz

iTrader: (4)

Thats one I was gonna say.
Another is dont put a stock balanced flywheel or flexplate on an internally balanced set up. IT WONT work. Like to have never got my stroker lined out because of this. It cost a lot of money and a damn lot of time and hard work because I didnt Know this.

Chuckels

iTrader: (4)

Gutting my cat...I dont think any power gains were had from this and it sounded like ***.

WannaZ28

getting an F-body in Brooklyn, good luck finding a place to work on it if you dont have a garage

yeah, got a nice birthday gift finding the passenger side ruined by a car

at least thats why they make guns for

BOTTLEDZ

Above all else The biggest mistake i ever made when i got my first F-body,was that it was my only car and I use to beat the **** out of it. then i decieded to spray it.
I guess my only bit of advice would be that if you have a car and your going to mod it and beat on it have a back up veh, because when it brakes you are up **** creek with out a paddle.
buy a $400 dollar car something that runs good gets good gas milage but look like **** So that when not if you throw that rod or drop that valve you will be able to get to work to make money and fix it.Trust me i learned the hard way.

Hambone 7

AMEN to that. plus you know its installed the right way because you did it yourself.

get a 3" offroad pipe and you'll have much better results.

*dont buy an 80 series flowmaster expecting it to sound like a hooker or GMMG.

*if you have a transmission rebuilt, do it at a reputable shop that provides a written warranty. better yet retrofit to a th400 or 700r.

*you get what you pay for. this is especilly true for suspension components. although, never pay full price just for a brand name.

these are either from personal experience on my T/A or on one of my friends f-bodys.

Rob 94Hawk 319

iTrader: (7)

Not necessarily stuff I've done, but that I have witnessed.

Make sure you're damn sure that you have the Opti clocked right from the get go. Go over it 2, or 3 times. The 93/94 F-Body LT1 seem to be the most difficult to clock because of the stupid splined setup they have. The 95-later have a 2/3's chance of being wrong.

When doing a heads and cam swap on a high mileage LT1, do try and replace the oil pump at the same time, or at the very least, make sure you did your bearing and bearing surface measurements to the 4th decimal point.

Get quality parts the first time, don't get cheap ones thinking you can replace them down the road. The proverbial $.02 part can kill a $2500 rebuild.

Don't count on all f-bodies to be in the same tolerance range as your own. Apparently GM had varying degrees of tolerance ranges for the f-body.

Give yourself enough time to mess stuff up, because more likely than not, the first time you do something, you will mess it up. Take for example, I can drop and replace a 10 bolt rearend in a f-body in 45 min's, tops. I watched my friend take about 4 hours to do one by himself the first time (He wanted to learn without my help, he suffered).

Do a really good job of cleaning all gasketed surfaces the first time, or you WILL have to redo the job.

Replace the opti when a waterpump fails, because the Opti will fail later because of it 8 out of 10 times.

Get an alignment done ASAP after doing a springs and shock swap.

Change stock shocks to good aftermarket upgrade when changing to a higher rated spring.

Nut and bolt your car on a regular basis.

That's just a few for now.

pillagenburn

iTrader: (2)

If your car rattles because of your exhaust, you ****WILL**** have problems. What do you think is happening to all of the bolts/nuts etc. holding various IMPORTANT parts of your car together when your exhaust is rattling like that?

just a thought

00Z-28-LT1

iTrader: (1)

1) no shortie headers, 2) spend the time to keep the wires off the primaries....broke down plenty of times from them acring 3) work from the back foward...no point in 500 hp if you have a scattered rear, twisted shaft, and a trans that wont shift 4) DO NOT GET A CREDIT CARD UNLESS YOU ARE RICH !!!!