Have you guys found that if you are going to be making a big purchase all at once that most places are willing to make you a better than average deal?

If so, could you recomend any sponsors that you worked with.

If I decide to keep my LS1 Car, I am going to drop some coin on it finally.
Been swaying in the wind for about 18 months now.
I have 4 cars, and have not done much with my LS1 cause I have been busy w/new job, moving, buying a house, keeping up w/life etc. I keep putting it off. I am either going to sell my car or keep it and do something with it, this in between crap with my car just sitting has been ridiculous, I have to make a decision and either go for it, and sell it.

If I keep my car I would be looking to pickup the following all at once,
9" Rear End
LS7 Clutch
CAM
HEADS
FAST Intake
90mm Throttle Body
Headers
Cat Back
Custom Y Pipe
and Tuning
I figure the bill will be around $7K-$8K,

Anyone in a similar situation, have a good experience with a certain shop.
I will need all the small stuff to do this as well. 90% chance I will do it all myself, unless I find an offer I cannot refuse.

Its an 02 Silver 6spd, w/77K miles on it.

 

One thing is certain if you go with the upgrade... you'll have a completely different beast in your garage..

For us poor folk, upgrading one bit at a time is pleasing enough as you have time to appreciate the new addition until you can afford the next one. But who knows? You might thoroughly enjoy a whole new car in your driveway! Good luck.

 

Just go to HPE

 

HPE FTW.

I called around to almost every shop in town and asked questions to each. I went with HPE who seemed to be the most upfront and honest.

 

I'm dealing with G Force right now and I have no complaints. Ben and Mike have both been great about answering my questions and returning my phone calls quick.

I called around to HPE, G Force and MTI. Final decision came down to HPE and G Force and G Force ended up winning my money. I've heard tons of good things about HPE too.

 

G-Force Rocks.

 

So HPE & G-Force are very competitive on pricing?
compared to ordering from an out of state sponsor?

 

HPE is good, but I have always gone with LG motorsports for the most part. But if I can make another recommendation Glen Self in Durant, OK for the heads/cam. Don't buy new heads...have Glen work on them...he is awsome, fair priced and one of the best in the country. If you need his # let me know! \

Good luck!

 

I would price them all and go with the one with the best price and closest to home. All of the above are great. If you plan on driving your car on the street make sure to stress that with the shop or you might wind up driving in a with a street car and picking up a off road only car. IE. no speedo, noisy suspension, mega SES light syndrome, no ASR or ABS. That happened to me but is was my fault for not stressing the street car mentality.

 

Who did you deal with in town?

I don't plan on doing too much of the "taking my car somewhere"

I am the guy who takes his wheels off himself, drives them to the tire shop to get balanced, then drives them home and puts them back on myself. I worked as a tech at an independent shop and a dealership for a while, and there is no job I can't tackle, so I do almost all my own stuff. I still have all my tools. I did heavy line work at a Cadillac and Olds shop.
I am open to letting others do the work, but I have to really trust them and we have to be 110% clear on everything, which does not happen much. I have really high expectations, and am always dissapointed. My weakest area would be tuning, and just keeping up with all the new stuff that comes out. I can turn wrenches better than most, I just can't keep up with all the products that all the different manufacturers keep coming out with. I never really used my TECH2000 for anything outside of pulling and clearing codes or watching coolant temp to see when fans were coming on, and with Cadillacs they have been self diagnosing since about 94 or 95, so I could use the AC controls to view all the system stats, making a tech2000 unnecessary in alot of cases. I know what all your sensors do, but dialing a system in for aftermarket stuff is one of those areas where I could spend 60 hours figuring it out myself, or pay someone $500 to do it in 2 hours, so that is about the only area I would pay someone to do the work.

 

SERIAL, very nice! I am doing some ported LS6 Heads, LS6 intake, LT's, ORY, TREx, LS6 oil pump and replacing/upgrading all valvetrain components. You will definitely have a beast there!

 

Thanks,
went to HPE today,
talked to Stephen who owns the black car, that I have heard and read so much about, and seen at a few events before.
He took the time to go over everything with me and gave me quotes on everything,
it was really nice of him, he was extremely helpful.
I was hoping to do what I wanted for around $7K, but its going to be more like $9-$12K.

I will have to give some serious thought to selling my car and building something else,
or keeping it and dumping all the money into it. I could pick up a friends 3rd gen camaro that turns 9's for about $15K, or spend cubic dollars on my 02 camaro and probably turn 10.99s. or sell my 02 and take the money and buy a Reher Morrison 565 that would be a destroyer of other people's dreams, for my other car.


I am going to price out a few other shops over the next few weeks, talk to some more people, try to check out some cars in person and then decide what to do sometime in April.

 

Well, if you want to save a little money you could cut the Fast 90 for now. From what I've read, the gains are minimal on a stock cube motor. You'll see some improvements, but IMO not enough to cover the price.

Maybe when you got bigger or FI it would be worth the price, but I cant personally see paying that much for 10 hp, but to each his own.

Just to give you a little help, I just ordered heads,cam,valve train, oil pump, timing chain, spec stage 3 + clutch and the billet steel flywheel and a new 12 bolt. I'm installing the clutch and 12 bolt, G Force is installing the heads and cam, and tuning the car and I got out the door for right around 7200.

 

Yeah, we discussed that today, waiting on the FAST and TB,
I could port my stock one myself.

Where did you get your clutch, 12 bolt, and Heads/Cam from?

Where is Sweeney?

 

I bought everything from G Force.

Sweeny is about an hour southwest of Houston. Towards Freeport.

 

G-Force did my car, and I have been dealing with them before they even had a shop. They are a great bunch of guys, and they have great prices. In fact I;m about to have them put kooks on my car. You may want to look at other clutch options I don't think the LS7 would be the best choice.

Also if you can they way you are doing it is the best. I went from stock to having, H/C, full bolt-ons, full susp, and 12 bolt all at once. I was very pleased. Also if you do it that way you wont have to worry about breaking things between getting better parts etc.

Thomas