Modifications, Upgrades, and Repair...part two

TRAGEDY STRIKES...again

In May my car club and I got together with some other F-Body owners from North Carolina to cruise out and spend the day at the North Carolina Zoo at Ashboro. The day started out nice, but ended with a very bad deal for me and my car. On the way out something happened to my car, but we were unable to troubleshoot the problem at the time. The car idled and revved fine...or so we thought.

This is part of the damage done...

...a broken rocker stud. :( So, again my car is given a ride home after at a cost of $240.00 and waiting for two and a half hours for the wrecker to show up.

The broken rocker stud wasn't the worst of the trouble as I found out two weeks later when I got home from my trip and had the car towed to Charlotte. When I arrived with the car I was met by Jay and we went to work only to find much more grave problems have occurred. In addition to the broken rocker stud, the push rod also broke because the lifter underneath it disentigrated. Luckily, however, it was only the guts of the lifter and not the roller part which would have spelled certain doom for my rotating assembly. So much for using good name brand parts in my car. Comp Cams all the way...not.

The reason for the rocker stud failure...

Since the top of the motor was torn apart I gave in to the urge to upgrade to earn myself some more power. Currently the car is still sitting in Charlotte waiting on one part to complete this portion of the upgrade. Since it's going to be sitting there for a little while I've decided that I'll be doing some other stuff while I'm at it. *EG*

Here's what it looks like so far...

With the new upgrades the car should easily put down 300+ horsepower to the wheels. That's the goal anyway. Once I reach that magical 300 horsepower goal then I'm done and I will have made a car capable of holding it's own against new cars. After that's done then it's time to start saving for bodywork and fresh paint. Then the new wheels and tires and the car will be done...I hope. :)

Christmas in July.

These are the majority of the parts for the T56 swap and rear-end work that is going to be done to the car over the course of the next seven-weeks. :) I can't wait to drive my car with the new six-speed and gears along with the upgrade in power under the hood. It's going to be awesome!

The parts include:
1LE Heater Box (AC Delete Box)
Motive Gear 3.70:1 Gear Set
Spohn T-56 Conversion Crossmember
6-Speed lower shift boot
6-Speed Vehicle Speed Sensor pigtail connector
6-Speed Slave and Master Cylinder
TA Aluminum 9-bolt Differential Cover

From the WS6 Store I ordered a leather wrapped Hurst Shift knob and a aluminum short stick

Pictures of the Borg-Warner T56 six-speed manual transmission that I scored a while back. It also came with a set of LT1 pedals, the bell housing, and clutch fork. A rebuild, clean-up, and in it goes along with the parts I recently ordered. I'm looking forward to it.

A picture of the GenIII manual transmission console bezel I scored off of Thirdgen.org for $20.00!

09/24/2008:

While I was in Alabama during August my car continued to show its true colors.  Come to find out the differential carrier was shot and unusable.  It took a few days to track down a good carrier assembly for the new gears and rebuild kit to be installed on.  Once all the parts were recieved, it didn't take anytime for the rear-end to be put back together.

When I purchased the car in 2005, everyone that rode in my car thought I had a shift kit because of how it felt when shifting into gears.  Later, I found out the cones were going bad and it was causing my posi unit to not properly engage on take off like it should.  Hence to purpose of the rebuild.  The rear-end was serviced within the first year I owned the car along with a replacement of all the bearings.  It was unknown even then the full extent of teh damage to the carrier assembly.  I am so glad that my rear-end didn't blow up as I rolled down the road because of it's condition.  Here are some pictures of the devistation.

10/10/2008:

I recently took a trip out to Charlotte to see how things were going with my car and to visit with the fellas from Zeus Performance.  The install on the transmission was going kind of slow since the clutch and flywheel had not been delivered yet.  Some progress had been made though.  Also, I recieved some more bad news.  The LT1 intake conversion was a failure.  Apparently, unknown to all of us, the holes for the 113 aluminum heads is different than the cast iron stock set.  Because of the difference the intake would not seal properly and when put under pressure would leak around the four middle bolts.  Since there isn't a good seal that means the old intake setup has to be put back on the car...not by choice though, because of funding.  That's okay.  I now have a different route now, but it's going to cost me about $1300.  Time to start saving pennies again.

Here are some progress shots of how it looks now.

Lastly, new parts for the custom cold air intake pickup that's being installed.  Oooo, nice and shiney.  It's going to look hot once it's one.  I just wish that it was going on with a new intake instead of the old aftermarket TPI and runner setup I previously had on it.

 11/07/2008:

I went out to Charlotte today to visit with the fellas from Zeus Performance and see how my car is coming along before I leave for a 120-day trip to play in the sand.  It's coming along nicely.  Since my car is listed as one of their on-going projects they work on it in spurts so they can bring other cars in that need quick fixes so they make money while working on the big stuff.  Kind make me feel honored that mine is considered a "project" with them.

I was pleasently suprised when I got there today.  I talked with them about a week ago after I got home from a trip to Texas.  Jay, the owner, said that the old TPI stuff was back on the car.  They just had a few things to button up and they'd be ready to install the tranny.  The suprise though...Jay and his partner Erik had a rough day with another project so they toyed around with my car and did something for me that was totally unexpected...

Where's my wiring harness?

Let me tell you...the picture doesn't do it justice.  It's clean and it really helps set off the motor.  No gawdy wire looms and such hanging all over the engine bay.  Everything was moved out to the edges and now runs along the fenders away from the motor.  I like it because it makes for a very clean look under the hood.  The only thing that Erik says is missing is a little color.  I guess my red MSD wires isn't enough color so I'm going to be thinking of something to help break up the "dark" look under the hood.  Check out the passenger side of the engine bay...typically the most cluttered part of the GenIII engine bay:

There still a couple of things that have to come out, but  it's so much cleaner now and I can actually get to all eight spark plugs without having to go from underneath the car.  :D  WOOHOO!  Next is the driver side.  When they had the LT1 intake on the car Jay and Erik had to weld a plate onto the fender so they could mount the remote t-stat housing.  Well, since that didn't work out the plate had to come out because both Jay and Erik are sticklers for a clean look under the hood.  You can't even tell there was a plate welded there now.  They also cleaned it up, but Jay says there is still a little bit he has to do to it before that area is finished.  It looks good to me.

The CAI is almost done.  Jay has a little bit of cutting he has to do on the passenger side before it's completely done as well as a little trimming on the piping sp that it sits at the right angle.  This part is going to look absolutely sick on my car when it's finally installed.  It'll give it a nice "bling" effect.

The car is just about done, but unfortunately is going to sit there until I return from my trip in March.  That's okay though because it's getting some other things done to it as well.  I can't just let it sit there idle with nothing being done to it.  LOL!  Take advantage of the time it's in the shop.  The next go 'round is doing some suspension stuff...finally.  Nothing big this time, but I'll be having a set of shocks/struts put on as well as a new set of springs.  Th esprings are TBD at this point though.  Just waiting for the transmission to go in to see how much the higher the nose is going to sit without the AC and some other stuff removed to lighten up the car.

In addition to the new shocks/struts and springs I'm finally going to have the Grant steering wheel and Pontiac horn button installed after sitting in my shed for the past two-years.  I did paint the horn button flat black to match the wheel spokes before I dropped it off today.  I'd hate to have an all black steering wheel and this bright crome button in the middle.  Something tells me that just wouldn't look to good...

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: RPO and Technical Data
Page 3: How RARE is it?
Page 4: Photography of Vader...part one
Page 5: Photography of Vader...part two
Page 6: Photography of Vader...part three
Page 7: Vader's Heart
Page 8: Inside Vader
Page 9: Modifications, Upgrades, and Repair...part one
Page 10: Modifications, Upgrades, and Repair...part two
Page 11: Modifications, Upgrades, and Repair...part three
Page 12: Modifications, Upgrades, and Repair...part four
Page 13: Literature and Awards
Page 14: Car Shows and Events
Page 15: The Track and at Play
Page 16: My other Firebirds