…well my buddy Jason and I took his LS1->RX7 out AutoXing yesterday. It was supposed to be raining so I decided to leave the Z06 at home (I don’t want to race on the 19s and my Kuhmo 710 race rubber doesn’t work so good in the rain, already did it last month). We just brough his car on the stock wheels w/ 245 Potenza RE730s w/ lots of tread (he has some 18s w/ 710s also, but again, expecting rain).
So it turns out to be dry and clear. 
We both were wishing we had brough my car along w/ his and all the 710s. But our dissapointment quickly went away as soon as we started running the FD. That car is truly amazing… super well balanced, predictable, catch-able and down-right fast. Even in the dry on high-perf. all season street tires we were one of the fast cars, about top 10. I believe we were the fastest car on street tires all day, though it was really close w/ a nicely prepped STi. Of course he was on some very fast street tires as compared to our fairly average ones. Hopefully I’ll have some vids up soon.
Anyway, on to the point of the post…
On the way home out of nowhere we start getting a little tick. Maybe an exhaust leak? About a minute later it’s MUCH louder and the oil pressure was dropping. Yay… spun bearing.
The whole deal w/ this motor/tranny was basically a raw fuck in the ass. Jason bought it for 3k. Sounded like a great deal, heads/cam LS1, T56, Spec III clutch etc. We know the previous owner, he pulled it for a 408 build and a G-Force. We knew the motor had several bottle of nitrous through it… but it was healthy. So we pulled the bone-stock LS1/T56 out as a unit and slammed the new one home (8-10hrs work total, including replacing a leaking radiator, really, the LS1/T56 fits so damn nice in an FD). First thing that happens when we put it back on the ground is it grinds going into R and pops out. 9/10 you have to 1-2 it first to get R then it pops out if you don’t hold the stick in. Oh well, you don’t race in R. 
So then we go to my tuner (he picked up about 20 RWHP for me when I first got the Z06 compared to another local tuner’s tune that was in it… top notch work) and the car only would make 360RWHP w/ a perfect tune. Granted that’s through the CARB legal shorty headers and stock cats he used to make it CA legal, but still pretty shitty.
Now this. Fuck.
But hey, he’s probably picking up a LS2 402 w/ ETP 245s for it. His LTs are on the way, it’ll get a 90/90 and hopefully hit 550 RWHP. He has a full set of Derlin bushings, new pillow balls, and a clutch type FC diff. rebuilt w/ better clutches etc. the fast RX guys use down to 9s going in. It’ll come back stronger.
-TJ
PS- I didn’t post this in Import or Domestic since it’s a bastard child. 
