Just Got Carried Away with the Family Project

[OVRKILL]

So who's the lucky tuner?

probably only an "approved" mifbody tuner .....which would narrow it down to one.

[farmington]

So who's the lucky tuner?

[BlackBirdDaddy]

We filled, bled the brakes and started the ride today and backed it out of the garage under its own power. No idle but it ran.

I'm not really concerned about cutting the springs because I have a couple of sets. It's a good experiment. Actually, when we took it outside and jounced it, the front came down another 1/4". So we are now down to 26" (wheel opng to ground). That is about as low as I want to go because of the header clearance.

Clearance with original springs:





Clearance with modified springs:






We are going to trailer it to a tuner to get it programmed and running properly and also have him mount my exhaust axle dumps for now. But I have a leaky power steering pump that I can't fix. I took it off three times and I'm pissed-off now. Does anybody have a spare pump for sale?

[nascarnate326]

Cutting springs always makes me a bit nervous.

I never understood why people frown on it?

[MeenZ28]

Cutting springs always makes me a bit nervous.

[Iroc'nthe87]

Jealousy meter is off the charts right about now..

[BlackBirdDaddy]

After the first attempt of "squatting" the front end I decided more needed to be done.

I had orginally cut one coil off the spring and nearly nothing happened. Then today, I disassembled everything once again and cut another 3/4 of a coil off the spring and to my amazement, it dropped the suspension about 1 1/2". I think it was at 27 3/4" and now it came down to 26 1/4". It looks way better IMO but we will see once I get the rest of the car assembled.

Here is a picture of only one coil cut off the spring:





Here it is with the extra 3/4 of a coil cut:







I'm figuring that the rear should come down a little more with the installation of the hatch and the whole thing may relax a bit more once I drive it with all the new bushings and junk. I would like to bring the whole thing down another 1/2" at least, but I also have to beware of header clearance issues. So we'll see.

[WMCC Gary]

Well, progress is creeping along slowly. (What the heck, who wants to drive their cars anyway, right Brent?)

[OVRKILL]

Well, progress is creeping along slowly. (What the heck, who wants to drive their cars anyway, right Brent?)

[c0ncEpT]

There is no break in for a hydraulic roller cam. Just head cycle the valve springs a few times and you are good to go.

[BlackBirdDaddy]

Well, I was determined to fire-up this LS2 conversion from a 3.8 this weekend.

With all fluids topped off, I wanted to make sure we had fuel at the rail prior to cranking. With the ignition on, the guage would not go beyond 8lbs before droppping back to zero! New Racetronix fuel pump, new lines and filter sooo, baffled indeed. With a Vette fuel rail the fuel return is near the filter. So, we disconnected and blocked the return line and then we had over 100lbs of pressure at the rail. Needless to say, I did not have a Vette filter which has a built-in regulator.

Quickly went and bought one and did some re-plumbing and surprise, constant fuel pressure at the rail. I still wasn't expecting this thing to fire-up but it did!

I was going to do a cam break-in but it seems to be running a little rough for that. I need to trailer it to get it tuned before I go any further. There is a leak at the power steering pump and lower radiator that I need to take care of. I still have my list of detail work to do and paint, so the road is still a ways away.

One thing though, it sounded half-way decent with open headers!

[nascarnate326]

I love the low miles.

Im curious, what kind of insurance will you have on this? Surly standard 3.8 firebird wouldnt cover a quarter of the costs.

[Curt_irocz]

good work. I was just as exstatic when my car cranked, and the fuel pump turned on when I did my LS swap.

[BlackBirdDaddy]

Well, progress is creeping along slowly. (What the heck, who wants to drive their cars anyway, right Brent?)

Hood and all other misc. parts are finally in the painters hands. We'll see how long that takes.

Finalized the wiring on rear mounted battery, grounds and all the other powertrain stuff.

After completely reconfiguring everything from a 3.8 to a 6.0 LS2 (harnesses, extra wiring and whatever), to my amazement, I turned the key too ignition and I could hear the fuel pump. So, I turned the key a little further and the starter engaged. This was a huge relief for me seeing that I figured that something wouldn't be correct in those two areas. I'm not getting my hopes set too high as the engine has yet to be started and running.

One note: I had to buy a new guage cluster because the 3.8 would not work well with my set-up. Anyway, I bought one a few months back from a salvage yard on the west coast and I had actually forgot that I supposely paid a few extra dollars for one with low miles.




Now that will keep it simple!!

[BlackBirdDaddy]

Looks great!

Might I suggest the new BMR 1" drop lower control arms? I used them on my car with stock springs and koni shocks on the lower perch and the thing is slammed yet still rides great without cutting the springs (the front of my car sat abnormally high for some reason). They're spendy, but worth it if you don't want to use lowering springs and don't want to cut the stock ones (in your case, cut them more than you already did).

Also, what is "silking the edges"?

Hey Jim, thanks!

Thanks for the suggestion, I actually do have a set of Eibach springs but would rather not use them and see how this works out first. I like removing the strut and springs multiple times!

This is an economy build and if I can show the "kids" that this works than I'm a hero. If not than I'm a dumb a**. I'm confident that I can get the ride height correct by cutting the springs, but the ride quality will be the ultimate test.

"Silking" - I mean super thin f/g cloth and resin. I needed to do this because we added a f/g impregnated filler to the edges of the hood to get the correct gaps. I wanted to add a sense of assurance that the filler would not break.

As you can see from this shot, we had to recreate the corner of the hood and add a lot of material to make that gap look correct.