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Long time Lurker..... Been coming to this website for years for ideas and help on my Firebird (my very first car). Just figured I'd finally get around to posting a bit of my story.
2008 (17yo me) searching auto trader for either a Camaro or Firebird (v6 models). Finally come across one in Fayetteville, AR at a Mercedes Dealership that an older gentleman had traded in for a new car. it has 107k on the meter and we buy it for $5,100. Picture of that day included!
Drive all thru High school no problems.
2012 - working at a local salvage yard for my first job, pulling parts, inventory, Long haul part pickup/ Delivery. Go to Martins Salvage in Rose, OK one day and there is a 2001 Z28 smoked pretty good dead center front. Owner says $2100 for Motor, Transmission, wiring, Accessories, everything pretty much! So i clearly jump on that deal. He drops it all of at my salvage yard. Get it all installed in car no problem (find that LS6 intake is smushed from accident, so replace with LS1 intake). once i get exhaust welded up, there is a noticeable knock coming from driver side top end. So I pull the Driver Head and find part of the piston is broken off and missing. cylinder has super deep scoring.
I give motor back and get $1000 back. Go to GM Performance and order a brand new LS1 Crate motor ($3,000) , end up getting a Corvette Motor with bat wing oil pan. April 2008 2012 - 2nd attempt after finding 1st motor no good
Over the next several years i start modifying the car more and more, exhaust, Trans am style deck lid, and a Trufiber Ram Air hood.
blow up the 3.08 open diff original to the car, survived many one wheel burnouts. Now have a 3.42 with a Torsen.
2023 I finally make the jump to the wheels I've always wanted on the car. 17x9.5 Fronts and 17x11 Rear Torque Thrusts rocking 275's up front and 315's on the rear
Now its 2024 and I would like to really wake up the LS1, body of the car now has 200,000+ miles and the motor is a little over 100k. Ordered a LS6 intake. trying to talk myself into ordering some 36# injectors, ARP headbolts, and balancer bolt, then make the call to Texas speed to see what Head and Cam combo will work best for my needs. Would like to break the 400 RWHP mark but still retain the current converter. The 4L60E was built back in 2012 and still blows the tires loose hitting 2nd gear. I don't race or anything, mostly just a weekend cruiser.
Nice 'Bird! You've really improved the looks compared to how it looked when you bought it. Me, I like the pure Formula look, but that's the fun of modifying these cars, you can build it how you want it. In regards to heads and cam, what converter do you have right now? If it's close to stock, you're going to have to run a mild cam or you'll have drivability issues. I would send your factory heads out to be rebuilt and ported, as that's the most cost effective. Mill them to bump compression, and if you have to keep that converter, I'd stay in the 210-215 @.050 duration ( on the intake side ) area to keep it drivable. Otherwise, buying a quality torque converter will improve the performance of your car more than nearly any other mod. Search around on here, .5 - .7 second reductions in 0-60 times aren't out of the question, and that's with no other changes.
Talked to Texas Speed, and I was recommended the PRC 225cc As-Cast heads, Torquer V2, 232/232, .600/.600, 112 LSA, with a 3,600 stall converter. said wasn't worth machining my stock 241 heads. with my LS6 intake and my 1 7/8 headers with true duals i should be over 400 RWHP the guy said.
Got the car hopefully high enough to get the trans out to swap out converter. The whole exhaust system including headers have been pulled off.
Should be ordering all the big ticket items this week. Decided to go with the yank 3600ss.
Got my BTR LS7 lifters in today and have to return them right away because one of the lifters rollers lock up when spinning by hand. Oh well.
Got the transmission prepped to come out this weekend and throw in the converter. Got the pan dropped and old tranny fluid drained and filter changed.
when I went to put my 24mm socket on balancer bolt to rotate motor to remove Converter bolts I saw the bolt move...... Have no idea how long the balancer bolt has been loose, but i am glad the balancer never left in a rapid fashion.
Yank 3600 stall is installed! Wasn't to bad, regret using impact so many years ago to put bellhousing bolts in, they were tight!
Gonna need to make some spacers on the Lathe at work roughly .220 thick to take up some space between flex plate and converter and get some longer bolts.
Forgot I was running the V6 transmission crossmember...... took me a bit to realize why my new mount was so much shorter. So now I've got a v8 crossmember on the way from Ebay ($75) so that I can install the correct OEM rubber mount.
Sweet! You're going to be really happy with the performance increase. I'm getting ready to install my engine and trans tomorrow, and I'll hopefully have mine on the road by mid summer. Hasn't been driven since 2009!
Sweet! You're going to be really happy with the performance increase. I'm getting ready to install my engine and trans tomorrow, and I'll hopefully have mine on the road by mid summer. Hasn't been driven since 2009!
since 2009! That's crazy to think about.
I'm so stoked to get this done so I can just drive it. Been working on getting the motor tore apart today. Until TSP sends me my parts I'm at a stand still.
Benefit of being a machinist, sneak in a
side project between jobs . 316 stainless .220 thick converter spacers, picked up factory style bolts. The ones provided by yank are way to short now.
Still waiting for texas speed to send my stuff. So in the mean time i figured I would pop valve covers off and give them some paint. I was amazed how clean the top end was at 100k. I have religiously changed the oil every 3,000 miles with Mobile 1 5w-30 full synthetic. The spacers I made at work (.220 thick) ended up being perfect for bolting the converter up and also got the trans cooler mounted to condenser.
Tried to get balancer off today and after destroying two 3 jaw pullers I gave up and ordered a balancer specific puller from Amazon. Hope balancer isn't welded to crank. The bolt to the balancer was loose when I started engine teardown......
04-14-2024, 08:41 PM
1999 Firebird Project - Started 2008 
