My 1978 Trans Am project

[calereeves]

I'm in the process of building a TT 540 BBC to go in my 78 T/A. I'm getting all of the plumbing totally finished before I start on the long block. So far I've finished the headers. The individual tubes are now at a welder's being TIGed since I can't TIG worth a darn.

I built this one last spring break:



Then I sold the motor and used a dummy block and head to build this one at Thanksgiving break a couple of weeks ago:



After I got them all tacked together, I broke the tubes off of the flanges. Once the tubes are TIG welded, I'll tack them back onto the flanges and tack the collectors back on, then drop the assemblies back off at the welder for the finish welding.



Here's the car as it sits right now:



Over Christmas break, the plan is to build my tubular core support (4130), that will house an aluminum radiator and two air-water intercoolers. The intercoolers will sit right above the frame rails, on each side of the radiator. I'm moving the rad forward and tilting it forward in the process to allow more room for fans, as well as room for the cold-side plumbing to run between the rad and the engine accessories.

Its not really going to be able to handle corners for much of anything, since it's gonna be back halved with some huge friggin slicks in the back, but the plan for now is to have two separate rears, one narrowed for the slicks, and one stock width for the 18x10 ROH R/T wheels on the street. Yes, I said the street. The overarching goal for the car is to be able to take it cross-country on something like the Power Tour and still be able to take it to the track and run high 8s, low 9s in race trim.

Cale

[F70t/a]

Damn thats gonna be one sick motor man!!!

[Ralph LoGrasso]

That thing's going to be crazy fast. What kind of hp numbers are you shooting for? Nice choice on the RTs, they should look great on there.

[calereeves]

Thanks Davey!

Ralph- I'm hoping to see around 1300-1400 hp in race trim, on C16 gas, with about 18-20 psi. In street trim I'm hoping for somewhere around 900 on pump gas with a very conservative tune, with around 6-8 psi. I'll also have a tune saved for long drives where the wastegate stays open.

[71FirebirdLS1]

muh hahahaha... sweet!

[calereeves]

71FirebirdLS1--- I love what you're doing to your car! My original goal was to change the entire interior to a C5 Vette dash/console/seats. Well...originally I wanted to do exactly what you've done, with the 4th gen F-body stuff, but I think now I'll try to go at it with the C5 stuff. What sort of bracing and mounting did you have to fab up to get that dash in there? I love it!

[calereeves]

Looking at some other posts, people tend to want to know a little about the P/T aspects of a vehicle around here, so I thought I'd update. The car is getting a Martz front end, power rack/pinion, tubular a-arms, 18x8 front and 18x10 rear wheels, 4w disks, 4 corner coilovers, etc. Most important to me at present is to fnish all of the plumbing for the turbos and full exhaust out the back, instead of the side like it is in the pic. I'll be building my tubular core support over Christmas break which will not only make room for the intercoolers, but also lighten the front a bit. Between the Martz front subframe and the core support I'm hoping to lose quite a bit of weight off the nose.


The engine will be an AFR headed, Shafiroff-built long block, mated to a 4l80e tranny. The rearend is where the P/T ends. Getting a full chrome moly tubular backhalf from Chris Alston. I'll have two separate rears, as stated, one narrowed for the superwides, one stock width for the 18x10 street wheels.

[calereeves]

Here's an AutoCAD rendering I made of my planned intake. It'll get twin throttle bodies. The cold side plumbing coming from each intercooler mounted in the core support will come to an X-pipe of sorts to equalize the pressure from bank to bank then each outlet of the "X" will feed a throttle body on the intake. I'm going to have to take some more measurements of injectors and fuel rails, because right now I have the design such that the injector bungs are sitting horizontally in the open area under the runners. I fear that there won't be enough room for fuel rails and injector banks to fit, unless one side is tilted down and the other tilted up. If there is not enough room, I'm going to try a 8100 Vortec-style single fuel rail with the injectors coming out of both sides of it. That is, IF the fuel rail can support the power I'm looking to make. If neither of those solutions work, I'll just move the injector bungs to a more traditional vertical orientation above the runners.