Mods
(650rwhp/575rwtq)
Engine is a 6.0 iron block LY6, Summit Racing Pro Ls forged rotating assembly, Tunetime Performance ported 823 heads (fully rebuilt by HeadGames Motorworks.) Brian Tooley Racing valve train with their stage 4 pds blower cam. Holley Terminator X engine management, un-ported LSA Blower, 102mm Nick Williams throttle body, TuneTime Performance ported snout, 5 inch intake, Weaponx 2.4 upper pulley, ATI 9.17 lower, LSX Concepts LSA Race accessory drive, 270 amp DC Power Engineering alternator, Siemens deka 80lb injectors, Walbro 450 fuel pump, Kong Performance dual pass blower lid, eBay dual pass heat exchanger, twin Derale cooling fans, and a Champion dual pass radiator. It also running on meth and has a custom 10 gallon ice tank in the trunk. It#039;s making about 16 lbs of boost.
Transmission is a bone stock 1994 6 speed t-56 manual thats been converted to work with an ls motor. It had about 100k when I installed it, today the synchros are basically toast, (t-56 magnum waiting to go in.) Clutch is a triple disk from Monster Clutches, paired with their billet slave cylinder and a Tick Performance adjustable master cylinder. Bell-housing is from Quicktime Performance, MGW shifter, chromoly driveshaft and S60 rear end (4th gen width) from Strange Engineering. Differential is a trutrac posi with 3.73’s, also from Strange.
For exhaust it has Speed Engineering 1 7/8 long tube headers that merge into a custom 3 inch y pipe that necks down to a single 4 inch out the back. Muffler is a straight through 3 inch Dynomax with a 4 inch cutout right before the inlet.
Suspension wise it has UMI Performance subframe connectors, adjustable torque arm, adjustable weight jacks, tubular panhard bar, tubular rear control arms, KONI Yellow Adjustable dampeners, delrin front lower control arm bushings, poly motor mounts with UMI ls swap adapters. The car sits on 18x9.5 C5 Corvette wheels with 275/35/18 rubber on the front and 275/40/18 on the rear. Drag setup consists of Racestar Recluse wheels and Hoosier bias plys. The rear has mid 90#039;s 4th gen disk brakes, the fronts are 14 inch Brembo 4 pistons from a Cts V using conversion hubs from BigBrakeUpgrade.com
Engine is a 6.0 iron block LY6, Summit Racing Pro Ls forged rotating assembly, Tunetime Performance ported 823 heads (fully rebuilt by HeadGames Motorworks.) Brian Tooley Racing valve train with their stage 4 pds blower cam. Holley Terminator X engine management, un-ported LSA Blower, 102mm Nick Williams throttle body, TuneTime Performance ported snout, 5 inch intake, Weaponx 2.4 upper pulley, ATI 9.17 lower, LSX Concepts LSA Race accessory drive, 270 amp DC Power Engineering alternator, Siemens deka 80lb injectors, Walbro 450 fuel pump, Kong Performance dual pass blower lid, eBay dual pass heat exchanger, twin Derale cooling fans, and a Champion dual pass radiator. It also running on meth and has a custom 10 gallon ice tank in the trunk. It#039;s making about 16 lbs of boost.
Transmission is a bone stock 1994 6 speed t-56 manual thats been converted to work with an ls motor. It had about 100k when I installed it, today the synchros are basically toast, (t-56 magnum waiting to go in.) Clutch is a triple disk from Monster Clutches, paired with their billet slave cylinder and a Tick Performance adjustable master cylinder. Bell-housing is from Quicktime Performance, MGW shifter, chromoly driveshaft and S60 rear end (4th gen width) from Strange Engineering. Differential is a trutrac posi with 3.73’s, also from Strange.
For exhaust it has Speed Engineering 1 7/8 long tube headers that merge into a custom 3 inch y pipe that necks down to a single 4 inch out the back. Muffler is a straight through 3 inch Dynomax with a 4 inch cutout right before the inlet.
Suspension wise it has UMI Performance subframe connectors, adjustable torque arm, adjustable weight jacks, tubular panhard bar, tubular rear control arms, KONI Yellow Adjustable dampeners, delrin front lower control arm bushings, poly motor mounts with UMI ls swap adapters. The car sits on 18x9.5 C5 Corvette wheels with 275/35/18 rubber on the front and 275/40/18 on the rear. Drag setup consists of Racestar Recluse wheels and Hoosier bias plys. The rear has mid 90#039;s 4th gen disk brakes, the fronts are 14 inch Brembo 4 pistons from a Cts V using conversion hubs from BigBrakeUpgrade.com
Build story
I bought my car back in 2014. It was a 100% stock base model sport coupe, and originally gray. It had no ground fx, a 2.8 mpfi v6 paired to an automatic transmission. It even had factory steelies with trim rings. I always liked this body style of f body so I picked up the closest one I could afford, even though I wasn#039;t a huge fan of the base model look. I did a bunch of stuff to the 126#039;ish hp motor repair wise. Plugs, wires, distributor, intake gaskets, injectors. It was slow as hell but ran like a top, for a week... About a week later the motor threw a rod so I started on the modifications. I did a manual conversion to a 94#039; lt style t-56, along with a carb#039;d 350 small block I rebuilt in the basement. Eventually that motor started burning a significant amount of oil due to worn out cylinders and my then lack of knowledge regarding honing grit..
I pulled that motor out and knew I wanted an ls swap. I found a cheap iron block 5.3 on craigslist for 300 bucks, and converted my lt1 t-56 to accept the ls/vortec motor. I bought a plug and play wiring harness and put on a 4th gen accessory drive, of course including the a/c. It had an ls1 cam that I grabbed from someone on ls1tech, and an ls6 intake with stock manifolds. This setup made slightly over 300 at the wheels (dynojet) and was a blast to drive, plus reliable as hell. I eventually put on some long tube headers and made my own y pipe. I swapped in a stage 2 turbo cam expecting to go turbo in the future, along with 799 heads, ls9 gaskets, pushrods, and a trunnion upgrade. I topped it off with a fast 102 intake and was just waiting for the opportunity to add some boost. This setup made 340rwhp (mustang) and was fun for a while.
After this I focused on the body work. The original gray paint was pretty worn so I took it down to bare metal and sprayed it in the driveway with some black epoxy primer. I put on some staggered C5 vette wheels and ran it this way for a while. Eventually I picked up a doner car for 1000 bucks with all the ground fx pieces I wanted. I installed them onto my sport coupe along with an oem early 90#039;s Z28 wing to match. The hatch was from a 92 as well, and the hood is a 2 inch steel cowl I grabbed from Summit Racing. I only started my youtube channel around the time of the blower install, so unfortunately I don#039;t have any videos on this work.
I did all the body work myself including welding up the old lip spoiler holes, and filling any dents/dings/repairing any rust. I primed and block sanded the car in the driveway under a harbor freight pop up tent. I knew I wouldn#039;t be able to get the finish I wanted spraying the base and clear outside, so I caved and brought the car to Maaco 100% prepped for paint, for cost reasons.. They did a base/clearcoat job and I drove it home after to color sand the unbelievable amount of orange peel off. Its been almost 4 years since the paint job, and nobody has guessed it was sprayed by Maaco unless I told them! For badging I used lsx emblems in place of the factory ones. I didn#039;t want to pass this car off as a Z28, so I thought the lsx stuff would be a good touch. I also have a plain base RS grill instead of a Z28 bowtie, once again somewhat retaining the hidden base car underneath it all. I also kept the 80#039;s long mast antenna and sealed beamed lights, and really have no intention of going to led#039;s.
The interior was converted from gray to black, I went from 3rd gen, to 4th gen, to Corbeau fiberglass, to the current Corbeau seats that are in it now. I also swapped in the early 90#039;s dash from the doner car, being it had the newer vss speedo which works flawlessly with the ls swap. Of course the chassis has weld in subframe connectors, and the cage was a kit that I welded in myself to help stiffen everything up a bit more. I could go on for hours about the stages the car went though, but ultimately it ended up exactly where I wanted it.
I eventually grabbed an lsa blower off of eBay and slapped it on the stock bottom end 5.3 with adapter plates. It held up great until I installed the 2 step... I don#039;t know if it was excessive meth spray or too much torque at a low rpm, but I bent every one of those rods... I then decided to swap the 5.3 out for a 6.0, and the rest is history! (documented in the video above of course)
I built this car with the purpose and reliability to be just as or more enjoyable on the street than the track. Living in downstate NY, drag strips are becoming harder and harder to come by. Most of my build choices were made with a &what if& attitude in mind. What if I want more power down the road? What if I want to try auto cross? What if I want to daily drive to work in the 95 degree heat all week, then decide to drive 2 hours to the drag strip on the weekend, AND make it home. Apparently gen 3 rods, a 2-step, and 2600rpm doesn#039;t get you that last part..
I pulled that motor out and knew I wanted an ls swap. I found a cheap iron block 5.3 on craigslist for 300 bucks, and converted my lt1 t-56 to accept the ls/vortec motor. I bought a plug and play wiring harness and put on a 4th gen accessory drive, of course including the a/c. It had an ls1 cam that I grabbed from someone on ls1tech, and an ls6 intake with stock manifolds. This setup made slightly over 300 at the wheels (dynojet) and was a blast to drive, plus reliable as hell. I eventually put on some long tube headers and made my own y pipe. I swapped in a stage 2 turbo cam expecting to go turbo in the future, along with 799 heads, ls9 gaskets, pushrods, and a trunnion upgrade. I topped it off with a fast 102 intake and was just waiting for the opportunity to add some boost. This setup made 340rwhp (mustang) and was fun for a while.
After this I focused on the body work. The original gray paint was pretty worn so I took it down to bare metal and sprayed it in the driveway with some black epoxy primer. I put on some staggered C5 vette wheels and ran it this way for a while. Eventually I picked up a doner car for 1000 bucks with all the ground fx pieces I wanted. I installed them onto my sport coupe along with an oem early 90#039;s Z28 wing to match. The hatch was from a 92 as well, and the hood is a 2 inch steel cowl I grabbed from Summit Racing. I only started my youtube channel around the time of the blower install, so unfortunately I don#039;t have any videos on this work.
I did all the body work myself including welding up the old lip spoiler holes, and filling any dents/dings/repairing any rust. I primed and block sanded the car in the driveway under a harbor freight pop up tent. I knew I wouldn#039;t be able to get the finish I wanted spraying the base and clear outside, so I caved and brought the car to Maaco 100% prepped for paint, for cost reasons.. They did a base/clearcoat job and I drove it home after to color sand the unbelievable amount of orange peel off. Its been almost 4 years since the paint job, and nobody has guessed it was sprayed by Maaco unless I told them! For badging I used lsx emblems in place of the factory ones. I didn#039;t want to pass this car off as a Z28, so I thought the lsx stuff would be a good touch. I also have a plain base RS grill instead of a Z28 bowtie, once again somewhat retaining the hidden base car underneath it all. I also kept the 80#039;s long mast antenna and sealed beamed lights, and really have no intention of going to led#039;s.
The interior was converted from gray to black, I went from 3rd gen, to 4th gen, to Corbeau fiberglass, to the current Corbeau seats that are in it now. I also swapped in the early 90#039;s dash from the doner car, being it had the newer vss speedo which works flawlessly with the ls swap. Of course the chassis has weld in subframe connectors, and the cage was a kit that I welded in myself to help stiffen everything up a bit more. I could go on for hours about the stages the car went though, but ultimately it ended up exactly where I wanted it.
I eventually grabbed an lsa blower off of eBay and slapped it on the stock bottom end 5.3 with adapter plates. It held up great until I installed the 2 step... I don#039;t know if it was excessive meth spray or too much torque at a low rpm, but I bent every one of those rods... I then decided to swap the 5.3 out for a 6.0, and the rest is history! (documented in the video above of course)
I built this car with the purpose and reliability to be just as or more enjoyable on the street than the track. Living in downstate NY, drag strips are becoming harder and harder to come by. Most of my build choices were made with a &what if& attitude in mind. What if I want more power down the road? What if I want to try auto cross? What if I want to daily drive to work in the 95 degree heat all week, then decide to drive 2 hours to the drag strip on the weekend, AND make it home. Apparently gen 3 rods, a 2-step, and 2600rpm doesn#039;t get you that last part..