F-Body International

Guess this will my first thread and an introduction to my project on LS1Tech. I decided to join after seeing the website for so many years and also seeing people mention it on the other forums I belong to. I'm going to copy my other forum posts to bring it up to date real quick on here...

My car is a 1979 Pontiac Trans Am 400 4spd. It has the correct final year production 400 engine and the rest of the drivetrain in it. Although I'm modifying my far from stock, I do plan on trying make it appear like a factory built car.

Here is how I built it about 5 years ago....





Nothing special but here's a couple videos of it running...

F-Body International

Picked up an Edelbrock Super Victor 4500 EFI intake for Pontiac engines off another forum I belong to. This intake has received a lot of work. I had to grind the outside of the plenum just for it to accept the throttle body. After that, I found the throttle blades were contacting the plenum pad so I had to port match the throttle body to the manifold. The throttle body is a 4500 dominator style from FAST. I'm also using their whole FAST XFI 2.0 system, ignition, distributor, etc. Here is a quick overview of the transformation.



Lettering removed...



Port matched throttle body to the plenum...





Painted intake manifold 1970's GM Corporate Blue...

F-Body International

Another setup I'm working on is installing '87 GTA Trans Am seats. These seats offer adjustable headrest, electronically controlled lumbar, recline, lower cushion adjustment and rear cargo net. '79 and '87 both offered carmine red interior so this luckily turns out to be a close match for me. I still need to work out some issue with mounting the seats but I have a general idea of how it will install.

'79 driver seat vs '87 passenger seat...


'87 seats roughly in the car...

F-Body International

Figuring out where to mount the ignition box and ecu required a lot of thought but I think I found a good spot under the console. I welded in some mounting brackets to space the ecu and box off the tunnel but still keep it under the console.

F-Body International

Got the coil hidden inside of the car. This ended turning out to be a nice install as well.

Mounted the coil to throttle bracket...


Installed on the inside. Here you can see where the spark plug wire is on the backside of the firewall...


MSD firewall feed (Part# 8211) used to feed the spark from inside of the car. This is a very short route for the ignition to travel...


View from top...

F-Body International

For suspension, this was also another debate on where I should go with the car. I ended up deciding on sticking with a leaf spring set up. I've seen mixed reviews on Hotchkis but I'm going to try them out. I only have their rear sway bar, leafs and Fox shocks.



Hotchkis Fox shock absorbers...

After...


Hotchkis sway bars...

After...

F-Body International

Brakes on my car will be 4th generation '98-'02 F-Body brakes. Some refer to this as the LS1 brake setup. I picked up two sets of rear brakes and I'm using both driver side "L" assemblies to work with the old style staggered shock orientation. I also modded my driver side backing plate so emergency brake lever could pull forward like a 2nd gen.

Picked up a set of spacers from BRP Hot Rods to work with the old style 8.5" 10 bolt. Here's a link to the spacers if anyone else is interested in this kind of setup...
http://www.brphotrods.com/mm5/mercha...ry_Code=BRK12F

Here's a pic of the initial mockup...

30thanniv

iTrader: (2)

Nice build! Keep the photos and info coming.

LFSADRG

iTrader: (1)

'scribed. Nice work.

Interested going to EFI on my '72.

hardbones

Great job, subscribed!

F-Body International

I've seen your '79 W72/WS6 over on TAC. Good luck with the sale!

F-Body International

Thanks, this car is new to the site but I've been going about all the project stuff and displaying all the stuff you see here over the past 2 years. I'll get some more progress pics up soon enough.

F-Body International

Rear end finished this week and I finally got the car set down after being on jack stands for a year. Right now it's sitting on Hotchkis leaf springs but it has no gas tank, bumper or anything else to weigh it down so I imagine the rear end will come down even further once the rest is installed.

Factory 8.5 10 bolt rear...
-Moser 30 spline axles
-Detroit Truetrac carrier
-Strange chrome moly driveshaft yoke (machined to accept a magnetic collar for detecting driveshaft speed)
-Motive gear
-'98-'02 F-Body brakes
-Axle tubes welded to center section

WS6 #3392

Very nice! I love the 77 through 79 TA's!

F-Body International

Thanks, I like the early ones as well but for me, the '79-'81 has the best options overall for 2nd gen. WS6, blackout lights, color matched steering wheel, bigger spoilers, bigger t-tops, etc. The only thing negative was the engines but that's easily modified like anything else.

Heck, all years of the Firebird are cool for me. I've actually been thinking about applying later style GTA Trans Am or Firehawk badges and wheels on this one. It already has the GTA seats which carried through '02 and it has the '98-'02 brakes.

WS6 #3392

I have wanted to build me a 77 - 79 TA with a modern power plant, and all the new stuff kind of like Year One TA.

F-Body International

Go for it! Whichever path you choose is probably cool on this website. LS swap in the early cars is very popular these days. Mine is probably an abnormal build because I'm applying some pretty wild stuff to the original drivetrain. To each their own on this hobby though. I'm new to this forum because I've mainly stuck with the traditional Pontiac forums but it's cool to see someone on this forum installing a real Pontiac engine into a 4th gen.

F-Body International

After doing some testing and comparing the Hotchkis sway bars with Dave @ Pro-Touring F-Body, I ended up selling the Hotchkis parts and bought an adjustable PTFB high clearance sway bar. The Hotchkis sway bars were nice but after testing, it proved to be about as strong as a factory WS6 sway bar but created less inboard tire/wheel clearance. The Pro-Touring F-Body sway bar is stronger and also has some very nice end links. Here are some pictures showing the comparison between a Hotchkis sway bar and PTFB's adjustable high clearance sway bar. You can see how the PTFB bar is pitched in more to allow for more tire/wheel clearance and also has a highly adjustable end link with bearings.





Since I ended up switching to the Pro-Touring F-Body sway bar, I've been consulting with Dave(79T/A man)@Pro-Touring F-Body and John Paige (NOT A TA) to further develop my front suspension. We ended up deciding that I pull my whole subframe out and do a whole build at the Pro-Touring F-Body shop since I live nearby. Over the next few weeks I'll be posting some pictures and doing a write-up as it progresses. This is going to be as good as it gets for building a 2nd gen subframe!

The following modifications will be done to the subframe...
-Pro-Touring F-Body coil-over install kit
-Pro-Touring F-Body upper control arms
-Pro-Touring F-Body lower control arms (built for coil-over only)
-Pro-Touring F-Body adjustable sway bar
-Pro-Touring F-Body sway bar brace
-ViKing double-adjustable coil-over shocks
-John Paige (NOT A TA) upper control arm adjustable supports
-John Paige (NOT A TA) lower control arm frame reinforcement kit
-John Paige (NOT A TA) body mount frame reinforcement kit
-John Paige (NOT A TA) sway bar mount upgrade

RidetechJosh

Car is coming along nicely!

F-Body International

Thanks Josh! So far it's been a battle that's been mixing restoration, sleeper, pro-touring, drag racing, etc. It took a good few years of my friends convincing me on efi but I have finally switched from carburetors. I've thought many times about going with an LS engine but I think my original Pontiac is coming along very well at this point. After the frame and floor is finished, I will to revisit the engine. I'm not happy with the cylinder heads at this point because I have exhaust crossover heads with a non crossover intake now.


...that's a long thank you response haha