Car was built with torqstorm supercharger and have nothing but great things to say about that supercharger, small and worked great on the street, made about 12psi on stock 5.3 and with custom cam/ported heads I made about 10-11psi, figured I was around 480-500rwhp. The Supercharger was maxed out pulley wise so I was all done with it, going to save it for a retro style build as it looks the part. Only gripe with the supercharger is the BOV street sweeper noise... couldnt stand it on the street.

In the quest for more power I jumped on a CX single turbo kit. Going with the 76/65 journal turbo for the moment (i also have a new GT45 sitting on the shelf) but could easily step up to a 78/75 or something if I wanted more. Hoping to get to 600rwhp 12-14psi and all in by 3k.

Turbo kit mocked up and it fits but makes contact with my fan shroud at 1 point and the serpentine belt rests on the crossover. I'm going to recirculate the waste gate as I'm all about stealth and quietness now. Going to cut up the crossover and make some minor adjustments to pull it closer to the block and push it farther from the tensioner. I'm also pulling the Stock stand alone LS harness/pcm for the new Fitech ultimate LS self tuning system

Here are some specs on the car already.

87 formula 350 TPI car
85-90 TA body kit

Engine
99 5.3 with 151k
Fbody oil pan, turbo drain installed
GMPP HV oil pump (LS6 with larger outlet)
Custom cam 218/228 .561/.561 114.5+5.5
7.350" BTR moly pushrods
Morel 5315 lifters, LS2 trays
Stock rockers with Straub bushing retrofit
NNBS new intake
Custom billet fuel rails with ICT billet spacers
72lb bosch FIC matching injectors (going to run them at 60lb or 43.5psi)
92mm WARR TB

Exhaust
CX hotside (all 3" piping ugh), 3" dump that will connect to 3" summit catback with dynomax ultra flow SS muffler (2.5" tail pipes into CME tips)
60mm CX wastegate with 2" dump. I purchased some 2.25" SS pipe to recirculate it back into the downpipe for more turbo whineeeeee

Turbo
CX T4 76/65 with .81AR 3" Vband oulet journal bearing

Cold Side
3" piping, FMIC, AEM progressive meth controller spraying 50/50 or 70/30 wiper fluid at 750ml at the moment
50mm BOV

Drivetrain
2004R built for 800hp/tq CK peformance soft and billet steel hard parts
2400-2600 Billet 10" converter, anti balloon yadda yadda and oversized lockup clutch
3" Dennys nitrous ready drive shaft 1350 u joints
Ford 8.8, hand fabbed Tq arm mount, 3.55 ford gears, trac lock with SVO carbon fiber clutch upgrade, ARP cap studs, Moser support girdle. running stock ford 28 spline axles, Rear is from a 2003 crown vic
C6 Z06 18x9.5 rims, 275/45r18 sumimoto HTRZ II tires

Suspension/brakes
racecraft moly Kmember
UMI tubular front LCA
TDS wonder car
Hand made 3 point STB
Founders poly rear LCA, Adj PHB
Jegster tunnel mount shorty tubular Tq arm
8pt roll bar
2 sets of home made SFC
Jegster driveshaft loop
Stock ford 11.5" disks with vented/slotted disks, organic pads
BAER 13" black label front disks, aluminum hubs, hawks ceramic pads
KYB front adj AGX struts, Viking double adjustable rear shocks
Vogtland lowering springs
hotpart caster/camber plates

 

My pops had one when I was a kid, was an 88 ta 305 though. Yours is super clean!! Makes me want to build one for him, will be watching this one!

 

Thanks, they are still relatively cheap to buy they are going up in price.

 

Nice looking and everything is tastfully done. Truck intake fits the look well I have seen some people shave them down and they actually look pretty nice. I like the CME too do you plan to put a or make a CME rear valance? Great looking ride!

 

No idea why the first image rotated... file is prob too large.

Thank you, Car was in rough shape when I got it. Its had 3 sets of doors, fenders are new Ebays, bumpers, GFX, tail lights are from donor cars. Wing and deck are camaro Car has had 4 paint jobs so its been through alot lol.


Yea I like the truck intake honestly and since it just barely clears my hood I like that its taller and makes a ton more power than the car versions below 4500. I wont be shaving it as I want to keep its strength. I would rather build a cover for it which I have but it doesnt clear the stock good. 4" cowl allows me to do anything but it blocks too much of my driving view for the street. I removed the older truck intake which I was running on the supercharged version and wanted to go to the NNBS as I think it looks better not to mention makes considerable more power over the older version. Going to keep its ribs and bracing as I plan to throw minimum 12psi but probably closer to 14-18psi or until I'm happy with the power.

CME was me trying to be different. The TA doesnt have the same lines as the camaro on the rear bumper so a valance is harder to fab. Some 82-92 camaros do a REALLY nice job on the rear valance and it looks frigin awsome but they tuck it up and cut the bumper out. I can't do that on the TA as the rear bumper doesnt come down as far and the floor pan is right there. The CME tips on my car are basically resting on the truck floor pan. I got some cheap rubber ebay splitter crap to try out but decided against it as I was mocking it up. I would love to do some carbon fiber but haven't messed with the stuff yet.

 

Great progress!!!

Get ready for stickier tires

 

Thanks! Yea that’s probably the only thing I wouldn’t mind buying maybe get another set of rims with 305 NT05s or some mickey Thompson’s. Or might go 15s with some taller wall drag radials. I only drive on the street so longevity is a factor like they need to last 10k as that would be like 5-7years with my current driving habits.

 

I hate that spoiler, but otherwise it's a damn nice car. I've had a number of these cars myself. 5 or 6 of them actually.

 

lol it grows on you. The stock wrap around is nice and flows with the lines but they are all heavy cracked poop at this point. Aftermarket fiberglass are $$ and dont fit worth a damn. I dont like the 4th gen TA wings enough for all the fabrication to fit and the Z28 is light as ***** so the lid opens like a spring.

 

The cost of the aftermarket wing does suck, but they fit OK. An alternative would be the 1991-1992 Trans Am and Formula Firebird wings. Those are fiberglass and look better than the fourth generation wings on those third generation cars.

As always, I just say no to Transmaro.

 

Yup, every thread Ive seen of the fiberglass wings they have gaps and issues. The 91-92 AERO wing is okay but to me they dont have enough side profile and look too wide from the top, like a flat fat cookie sheet.

 

Car looks great! Neat clean install. What motor mounts are you using? Does the pan hang below the front k member?

 

Thanks. Motor mounts are ebay steel SBC LS adapter plates, and eBay universal Solid SBC motor mounts. I redrilled one hole on the bottom of each mount that bolts to the kmember bc of the funky 3rd gen pattern as it’s not like the old school setups. Everything else bolted right up. I believe the mounts lowered the engine a tad compared to the 3rd gen specific mounts which helped the stock truck intake to clear the stock hood. Oil pan is new GM fbody with associated GM new parts, pickup and windage tray but I’m still using the stock truck oil dipstick which works and I just had to make New fill Marks on the stick about an inch or so higher. I want to say the oil pan is about level with the kmember but will snap a pic of it. The moly kmember helped a TON and gives a lot of extra room.

 

Got alittle time to work on the car and started modding the crossover pipe. It hasn’t been easy but getting there. I really wish CX used 2.5” piping. It would have been easier for me probably to create my own crossover at this point. Also my flexpipe was very stiff before and now it’s moves easily.... does that mean it’s broken? I used a camera to look inside and it’s a bellow style with braided cover and can’t see anything broken from the inside.

 

I asked because this is the first truck intake I have seen under a stock hood. I built my own mounts and the pan is flush with the bottom of the K member. I think I left 1/4" of K for just in case but its as low as I could get it safely with the F body pan. Anyways it would be great to see a pic from below facing back of the bottom of the pan/K to see your clearance.

 

Looking good man! Glad to see a build thread!

 

Thank you!

Made some progress yesterday. 2 Steps forward 1 step back kinda deal lol. I finished the crossover and gained my clearances from the serpentine tensioner and fan shroud but man that was a PITA to do. My one vband that attaches to the driver header has warped some how and I didn’t do any welding on it. Maybe like a inch away when I shortened the tube but I did put alittle more bend in it. Either way I got like 1/16” gap on like 1/4 of it. Besides getting one single flange and cutting off and rewelding I’m thinking of an alternative For sealing. I’ve added small pieces of tuning inside to help align the vbands and add sealing but on that side there very little tube sticking out bc they welded the header vband tube so close there’s no room and it’s cocked so some of it has 1/8” protrude and as low as 1/16”. I’m thinking of adding a gasket to seal it for good. I’ve read online about people using copper rtv for small sealing and some guys running custom gaskets. They sell 3” vband gaskets now but they are thin stainless and I want something like a crush remflex. Who doesn’t make one for a v band. So I think I’m going to cut some collector gaskets down to fit and call it a day.

I also started on the DP to the exhaust connection. There exhaust pipe would have worked out fine but I have 2 sets of SFC blocking the stock routing so I can’t run it. So I cut it up and started running it along side the tranny. Still need to fab and connect the cutout and get it to fit to the catback. Going to be more involved than I thought.

I thought my flexpipe broke as I kinda heard a pop when bending the crossover a bunch to install it and it moves freely now so when I cut the crossover open I inspected and it seemed ok. Still worried it might have cracked or something which I won’t know till I start it up.

CX put a O2 sensor on the underside of the DP... seriously? That’s like 02 bung 101 and the worst position is 6 o’clock. So I can’t use it. I’m going to have to add two 02 bungs for the EFI and WB02.

Still thinking about the WG dump. Looking at it it will require just a 90* off the WG to the DP but not sure I want to open that can of worms and try to recirculate it. That means I’m dedicated and means it will all have to lined up to install. I looked at the routing of the dump they provide and it clears everything but it doesn’t leave room for any kind of muffler due to all the bends.




Crossover to pass side



Tensioner clears!



Hard to see the clearance now.



New crossover fitment.



Can see the gap by the flex pipe. That was resting on the fan shroud and fan power wires of course.



Driver side crossover with the bent flange and misaligned inner aligner to clear the driver header.

 

Very cool. I have a 89 T/A that I'm selling but constantly thinking about throwing a LS/turbo bullet in it.

I like the color a lot.

 

Im itching to see how this car performs.My backyard diy setup vs this new kit with a truck intake should make good jam and far exceed my numbers for sure.Its soo close lol

 

Thanks. I say turbo it! These cars are light compared to all the fat pigs on the road today like the camaros and chargers etc.

Color is Summit racing dark medium charcoal metallic, 2k urethane. Summit black primer sealer and 2 coats of summit clear. Not bad for a $300 total cost lol harbor freight paint gun and a tent in the driveway. It looks more grey/green but in the sun she sparkles like a motha!