another newbie

[bnoon]

Newbie coming on board here. Here goes...

Basics on my '86 Trans Am:

• WS6 suspension
• New interior via Hawks third gen
• 305 TPI
• 700R4 trans
• SLP runners
• Summit 1104 flat tappet cam
• prom burning equipment
• ...and a MIG welder. What else do you need?

Parts already purchased or otherwise acquired:

• Aluminum tapped tubes (in my spec'ed lengths supplied from Coleman racing products online) for rear trailing arms and panhard rod.
• Steel tubing from same for custom strut to firewall tie bar and steering brace (AKA "wonderbar").
• Tubing and sheet metal from local metal supplier for subframe connectors.
• Dropzone 2" drop specific rate springs (700 front and 400 rear)
• Weight jacks supplied from Coleman (still not 100% sure I will use them).
• Lt1 intake, fuel rail, AFPR. Modified by me to run a distributor for use with older style small block. Control will be by the stock TPI ECU, harness, and custom dyno tuned chip by me.
• 305 block with SCAT 9000 stroker crank, KB pistons, 5.7" GM powder metal rods. Full ARP studs and splayed 4 bolt mains. Don't tell me to not run a 305 block because I've already been there and done that with some larger Chevy engines. Besides, this setup only cost me $200! If a 350 roller block and 383 pistons fall into my lap, I'll use them, but until then, this is what I've got to play with.

Still to purchase:

• Wheels (if I decide not to keep my stock optioned rims)
• tires (need new even if I stick with the stock 16's)
• Trans - 6 speed swap if I can swing it. Know of any rebuildable ones anywhere?
• Suspension bushings

More pics will be posted shortly on my website, including pics of her winter wheels with moon discs. This is my year round daily driver!!!

[USAZR1]

Welcome to the site,bnoon. Glad to have you aboard.

[zbugger]

Welcome to the board!!!! Got any pics of that intake setup? Sounds interesting.

[bnoon]

Welcome to the board!!!! Got any pics of that intake setup? Sounds interesting.

I've got some pics on the home PC, but none here at work or on my web space yet. Until I do get some pics, you can read all about the conversion on http://www.lt1intake.com/ . The guy's name is John Millican and he's on the http://www.thirdgen.org forums quite a bit. The third gen forums took a hit, so that's when I went looking for another site to hit up and I remembered lurking around at this place... I think I'll stick around for a bit and help decrease the first gen F-body to every other car ratio a bit!
Thirdgen rules! LOL!

FYI about the intake setup. If you go buy every part already converted and help John out, that's great, but the real advantage to something like this is doing it yourself. Otherwise, personally, I would have gone with the Holley SR setup, especially now that they have one for Vortec heads. The way it is now though, I like doing things myself... I spent $50 for a used bare intake, $20 for rails and pressure regulator (which will be made into an adjustable setup) and made a very easy jig to locate the distributor hole. You have to eliminate EGR, or some have added a Corvette type EGR to other systems, so I don't see why something couldn't be done here. You also have to use the small cap electronic HEI distributor from '87+ GM's (or is it '89+ that have them???) unless you want to do some major hacking on the intake's EGR ports to clear the larger cap dist. Also FYI, the LT4 intake will adapt to Vortec heads in the same manor... though it kills some of the draw to the modification since the LT4 intake costs around the same price as the new Holley without the hassle and I doubt a used LT4 would go for 50 bucks.