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Starting with a 1979 Pontiac Firebird WS6 Trans Am 301 4 speed T-Top car. Bought it as a roller and have taken it completely apart, thrown it on a rotisserie, sand blasted it and dropped it off at the body shop. The whole project is currently just an expensive pile of parts lol. Hoping to have the shell back in a couple of months so I can start putting things together. Alas the easy part will soon be over.
Engine
OEM
BB
L18 Gen VII BBC 8.1L Vortec 8100
8
496
Hamster
Fuel injection
OEM
Cast Iron
OEM
4.25
4.37
6.54
9.10
Raylar BP-203 Street / Strip Camshaft
I have Raylar's roller rocker and camshaft kit that has their BP-203 cam (largest you can run with stock pistons) and their 1.70 ratio stainless steel roller rockers. This engine come compliments of a theft recovery of a 2002 Chevy 2500HD that was stolen from my employer when all they got back was the front section of frame with the engine, transmission, transfer case, and front axel. It sat outside a few years before I started working here and I was able to pick the whole pile up cheap enough to sell all the parts I did not need and get my money back. So I got a free engine. I have a coworker that builds BBC's for a hobby so he took it all apart to inspect the condition. Prognosis was all good and I did a cam upgrade. Factory power rating was 345 HP / 450Ft LB. Shooting for 450HP / 525Ft LB. when it is done
Exhaust
Header
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X-Pipe
I have a set of Summit Racing BBC Headers and will be running a custom 3" exhaust with X Pipe. Looking at possibly flow master mufflers and side exit before the axel.
I bought a 78 Formula about 10 years ago and it had a flattened camshaft lobe in the factory 305. I was going to fix and drive it but decided that the 305 was a waste of money to fix. I started to save up to build a 350. Before I got that far I switched gears and picked up a Pontiac 400 and a Th400. I decided to rebuild the 400 before I dropped it which lead to buying a stroker kit and all kinds of other go fast goodies. Well I had almost all of the parts to get the engine together and in but decided I wanted to add fuel injection so I started saving up to bite that bullet. Enter a new job and an engine sitting in the yard behind the building. After buying a huge pile of parts for a good price and parting out everything I did not need I ended up with a 8.1L Vortec 496 for free (actually I made about 800 lol). So I sold off all of my Pontiac parts and decided to finally pull the car out and drop in my new found big block to get her on the road after 10 long years. Much to my disappointment the car had lots and lots of rust from sitting outside. As I am not much for metal fab it was time to find a solid body. Enter the 79 T-Top and 4 speed!! So I went from a rusty hardtop auto to a mostly rust free T-Top 4 speed car. Coolness factor increased!! So I decided to try and do everything right from the beginning on the new build and took it completely apart and rebuilding everything from the ground up. So I will have the modern big block fuel injected motor, 6 Speed trans. Upgraded rear end, PTFB Gen II Racing Comp Suspension kit with front coilovers, Hydroboost W/Willwod master, 1LE front brake conversion, Wilwood Rear Brakes, 18" Wheels 285/35 Pzero Nero's, Subframe Connectors, PTFB adjustable front and rear sway bars, PTFB bumpsteer correction kit, PTFB sway bar brace, PTFB Pro G-Braces, PTFB UCA & LCA, 800 Series 12:1 ceramic coated gear box, Solid Body Bushings, Dakota Digital gauges with cruise control and their interface to the ECU, and far to many other parts to list.
Video links
Magazine links
Future plans
I am hoping to get the car back from the body shop with all the metal work done, undercoated with Raptor Liner, and the interior sprayed with Lizard Skin Sound and Temp coating. The firewall will be painted and the rest of the car will be in primer. I am currently doing many subframe mods per NOT A TA's write ups and will start assembling everything. The next big hurtles after I throw the pile of parts at it will be wiring everything, interior, final body and paint, and firing everything up.