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Ugh - I cant decide on what to do with my Firebird
Re: Ugh - I cant decide on what to do with my Firebird
Not a fan of SUV's at all. I like being down low to the ground where I can easily maneuver. I still love my car and wanted a project car. Don't really see the point in buying a Z28 because although its the same cost as the motorswap, I can have a much lower milage motor plus more power for the same price. Already owned a Z28 - Don't forsee myself buying another.
I have been contemplating on a bunch of ideas. I think way too much which makes deciding even harder.
I think I'm set on an LQ4 6.0L / LS6 / L76 Heads build. I was contemplating deeply on F.I. but I'm hesitant on performing it on my current high milage motor plus all you need is one injector to go bad and boom... just alittle too finicky for my needs.
I was thinking of using a Tubular K Member but I have heard that they have snapped under LS1's so an LQ4 would definately snap one... Oh well... the idea listed is good for atleast 450 HP anyway so I'll be fine.
Re: Ugh - I cant decide on what to do with my Firebird
Who told you their snapping tubular K-members? Almost ever drag car has a tubular K-member and I've never heard of one snapping from too much power. Wheelies, and ******* street driving are usually the culprits. Even then, I've never heard of many of them breaking.
Who told you their snapping tubular K-members? Almost ever drag car has a tubular K-member and I've never heard of one snapping from too much power. Wheelies, and ******* street driving are usually the culprits. Even then, I've never heard of many of them breaking.
Mainly these are street driven / auto X cars that experience this problem. Drag cars don't really have this problem but everyday road wear can cause problems on the tubular member's as they can crack at their joints due to steering pressure and sometimes snap over a period of use.
Re: Ugh - I cant decide on what to do with my Firebird
Don't get discourage man. If anything worst comes worst-just replace the whole engine. You can easily pick up a 3800 for less than 500$. Dropping an LS1 is not as easy as they say here. You'll still have a lot of bugs to iron out.
Don't get discourage man. If anything worst comes worst-just replace the whole engine. You can easily pick up a 3800 for less than 500$. Dropping an LS1 is not as easy as they say here. You'll still have a lot of bugs to iron out.
dropping an ls1 in isnt very hard at all.. its just the price factor
dropping an ls1 in isnt very hard at all.. its just the price factor
You know I installed a SC in my bird and it's pretty simple, but there's a slew of bugs I have to work on. I've learned reading the ones who did it in the search botton that each one of us had unique bugs to deal it. So installing a SC or even a Turbo is not as straight forward as people might think.
LS1 may sound easy to drop, but I'm sure it's not that straight forward.
Re: Ugh - I cant decide on what to do with my Firebird
LS1 swaps are very straight forward, it's 90% plug and play if using similar years... they're just not cheap due to the excessive hardware necessary and almost nothing is interchangeable between the two motors.
Eh, the LQ4 idea was dropped out the window, I'm going to have to do something relatively budget due to a certain circumstance arrising. I'm thinking of just throwing in a GTP motor and modifying the S/C to fit.
Most of the work is going to be done with me and a friend at a shop so I will incur no labor costs and we're looking at a window start date somewhere between January and February.
The goals...
I'm not looking for something excessively quick, I'm going to eventually buy a 2010 Camaro SS as my "FAST" car. but I want something spirited until that time comes. Anywhere between 300 and 350 HP will suffice.
WHY not get a 2010 Camaro V6?
Simple, If I put $5k down on a 2010 V6 on a 5 year loan I will be paying $500 monthly for 5 years and I'm not footing that. I just got done paying the Firebird off. - Not accusing but stating why I'm not going that route right now... (I'll be getting the SS when I'm finished with college loans and have a good job)
WHY not trade in for a LS1?
Stupid reasons really. I'm attached to my Firebird and plus there's no good deals on LS1's in my areas, they're mostily in the $8 / $9k range for vehicles that are 100k miles... not paying that.
--------------
Turbo vs GTP S/C
The disputes between the two ideas has had me stiffled for quite some time. Honestly I believe I would be content with the power gains of a powerdyne but their availability seems rather... ...null...
Here's whats going on. Currently my 3.8 is losing coolant through some invisible leak. There is no reek in the engine bay and no visible leaks while the motor is running, however every week I find my radiator empty after refilling it with that expensive dexcrap. My car also has a very strange stumble to it upon start up where it will lope and idle rough but it disappears as soon as I put it in gear. On a few occasions it will not crank first try, although this isn't very often...it DID take me up to 5 attempts once to get it started. With that, my O2 sensors (both up stream sensors) have seemed to prematurely foul out at about 10k miles of use (they're 6 month old bosch units). With these symptoms in mind I have a very strong feeling that I have a failing intake gasket, or POSSIBLY leaking head gasket which is leaking just enough to allow coolant into the motor but not enough to cause loss of performance.
With that said, I was leaning more toward the GTP motor as this would include a low mileage 3.8 which could be used to replace my motor automatically solving the intake gasket failure - but as I know there will be plenty of modifications required, and then with the Turbo setup, I was going to repair my current motor (160k miles) as it still runs fine asside from the coolant leak and then add an GN TE-49 turbo, GTP headers, dual small intercoolers (one on each side of the airdam). The downfall is, reliability. My current motor already has problems and I don't know how it's going to like the extra abuse even after I solve the current problems plus the high miles (160k miles).
Now efficiency, I AM concerned about that too since I will be using premium fuel at all times. CURRENTLY My bird is only getting 21 MPG on the HIGHWAY. Something isn't right with it as it used to be able to crack 27 all day and night but I haven't addressed it because I was going to change everything soon anyway. I don't wanna lose MPG... I know the Turbo setup is more efficient than a S/C setup because it's not always in boost when you're cruising, but what about the GTP L67? How will it fair economy wise, especially in a RWD platform?
Finally I have a question regarding the L67 swaps and Tubular K-Members for our cars. I know with Tubular K-Members you can run an intercooler but how would a Tubular K-Member and the V6 fair as far as streetability? Will they crack over time?
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