this car has a long story, but i'm going to start from late 2010.

i put a huge cam, stall, and S60 in this car when i got back from afghanistan in late 2010. on new year's eve 2010, my flexplate came apart at 7000rpms when i was home in victoria on holiday leave. i didint have time to fix it, so it stayed here. it's been here ever since for a year and a half. i had decided to part out the car and started stripping it a year later when i was home for christmas 2011. so the car sat half-apart for 6 months until i got stationed at fort sam. so, for the past couple of weeks i've been restoring the car to serviceable condition as well as making it more streetable for DD use.

here is a combination of what i picked up off the street or pulled out of the car


a wasted set of perfectly good QTP's. i'm already over-budget on this project, so i had to pick up some pace setters for the time being.


oddly enough, the engine, trans and converter are all fine.




this is how the car looked for a while.... a sickening sight.

when i put an axle under it, i immediately cleaned it and rolled it to a better stall.



the very first thing i did was take out all the interior and clean it, since the car had developed a VERY strong "junk yard" smell, which is unacceptable. i scraped all the jute (padding) off the bottom of the carpet and cleaned it with shampoo at the car wash.

then i got a bunch of Q-pads to get rid of some of the exhaust/road noise.



i replaced the jute with double thick stuff and glued it to the metal instead of the carpet



i also scrubbed the **** out of my seats with dish soap and re-conditioned them. they had been neglected for a while. it smells great inside now. sometimes i stick my head in and take a whiff just because it smells THAT good again.


i had to sell my S60 to fund this whole restoration project, so i got a free scrapped LT1 10-bolt from a bro and swapped some LS1 caliper backing plates onto it.


when i went to pull out the axles, i noticed the diff looked unfamiliar to me.......i got a free auburn.... so i grabbed a set of 3.23's to put in it and replaced a couple bearings/seals.



i have a TCI street fighter 3500 that was re-stalled to 4500. since it survived, i sent it to TCI to be inspected and re-stalled somewhere around 3200ish. i havent talked to them yet, so i'm not sure.

i also sold my 317s and donkey-dick-cam to fund an LS3 top end. i'm still searching for the right cam though... something small/mid-sized.


i also sold my borla XR-1's in favor of some 5x8x14 magnaflows. i'm sure i'll have to do some hammering/cutting/welding to make them fit, but it's going to happen, because i'm not going back to a Y pipe setup.


it should be a nice DD for the next couple of years until i can return it to racecar status.

 

Your gonna have a hard time putting the power down with that rear wheel and tire combo.

 

haha. i made a LOT more power than this with minimal traction issues.

but i'm not racing it anymore. i'm daily driving it and maybe taking it to auto cross.


EDIT you're talking about the donut? haha. i should do it just to make a video.

 

Very cool plan- good to see it being saved

 

looks really good.

 

UPDATE: i bought a cam.

226/230 .600.600 114

And a pair of 5x8x14 magnaflows.

 

Sweet!!

 

is that 10-bolt out of your dirt track car?

 

Ha ha ha. Only if it has a Lincoln Locker in it!!! I think it's from Eric's old firebird.

 

Ohyea. Forgot.

 

Yea I was talking about the combo in the picture of just the axle.

 

Looking good!!

 

Looks good man. Keep it up!

 

more pics and vidsfrom the past couple of months.

i took the carbon off the cylinders with a plastic die-grinder thingy. it worked well.


i used ARP 6 point head bolts with 30w oil. i didnt see that they included the ARP torque grease until i was finished. DOH!!

i also used .040 cometics instead of 051 in an attempt to gain as much compression as i can. i'm sitting at about 10.1:1 now. not too bad for an LQ4.












i extended the MAP harness with solder and heat shrink (the right way) and used hose to tighten the fitment. i also bent up a wire retainer and used it as a hold-down bracket.


my old exhaust was too much of a POS at this point to re-use since it's been repaired so many times. i'm replacing the X pipe section and re-using the tail pipes. i'm also adding cats and using 5x9 mufflers instead of borlas. i'll have to modify the rear compartment for fitment. doing that this weekend.

 

i had made a thread with these already, but i figured i'd consolidate it all to this thread.

a very smooth first start.

first test drive

after some slight tuning

the side that's not damaged. lol

 

Can't watch the videos at work. Slow connection and no sound.

But congrats on the progress! Looks like you put in the effort to do good job.

 

**** the cats.... Lol

 

It's looking that way. Lol

 

nice... sounds good as well

 

This is like a Hallmark inspirational story. I love it!