Hey everyone, finally joined after getting frustrated with national forums and trying to negotiate parts pick up across multiple state lines and blah blah blah, we’ve all been there. But in case anyone’s bored today and feels like doing that thing called reading, I’m gonna tell you about my stuff.
The jist of it is in my signature, but again, if you’re curious…my most recent purchase is another f-bomb–an '88 WS6 81U bright red T-top Formula. Originally VIN’d as an LB9 H.O. 305, sadly it has been molested and swapped for an '86 TPI 305 with it’s inferior non roller valvetrain and perimeter valve covers. The previous owner(s) have some 10ga. wires spliced into the harness that bolt to the B+ terminal…wonderful. But the MAF/cold start management is going bye-bye to make way for a '90-'92 speed density set up.
Other mods on the list are some worked-over 58cc TPI heads, Summit cam/lifters (hold your comments), Summit roller-tip steel rockers, ported Corvette (non-EGR) baseplate, 5.7L injectors, good used SLP siamese runners, ported MAP plenum, 52mm throttle body, March aluminum underdrive pulleys (came with car), Hedman long tubes (came with car as well), Ed Wright chip, and AIR delete with a Zoom clutch.
Some more unique mods to the body/chassis may intrigue some of you. I’m paying hommage to a 1LE/Super Duty thing. Since I bought the car from a guy with Guns n’ Roses cassette under the seat, he did his own A/C delete which consists of a hammer to the evaporator box. Well done. $75 for a steel A/C delete box from the local junkyard fixed that and motivated me to take further steps. An idler pulley that is originally used on C/K trucks for non-A/C models was put in place by Axel, and obviously lightens things up a bit. $75 for a REAL 3-bolt 1LE A/C delete pulley is a little outrageous so this one works for now. And the C/K unit is made with less metal so…it’s lighter. Some things like the condensor are still in place with cut lines, and needs removal. Crawling under the car revealed the impact absorber had been removed, leaving just the Endura bumper cover and steel reinforcement bar…which has been replaced by an '82-'84 Recaro Edt. Trans Am aluminum crash bar. So with that, the rear impact absorber is being removed.
Anyone that knows real 1LE cars, knows they came with an array of delete options. This particular 'Bird will prey on lesser autos with a bunch of cool, retro-1960’s-factory-go-fast concepts. Alloy front bumper, A/C delete, AIR delete, radio delete, rear seat delete, manual locks, driver’s manual window/electric passenger window (Dodge Neon inspired), power hatch pull-down/release delete, acrylic roof panels, ABS rear deck lid spoiler, spare tire delete, all the while sporting an otherwise full interior.
Future upgrades are written on the drawing board as an L33 swap. LS1 swaps are becoming more and more popular among the third-gen world and Vortec’s are a little cheaper. The only alloy Vortec is a VIN “B” L33 5.3L that ONLY came in 2006/07 extended cab Z-71 Silverado/Sierra’s. The aluminum block keeps with the light-weight theme and the L33 comes with higher-compression pistons (versus typical iron 5.3L’s) and '01-'04 Corvette Z06 LS6 “243” casting heads with LS1 valve springs. It’s also the only truck motor to use a car base cirlce cam with a Vortec grind…which means an LS6 cam can be put in place and the rest of the valvetrain lines up. Some unpopular tuners have stuffed in an LS6 cam and LS6 flat floor intake on the L33 and made 371 dyno horsepower. Not bad for an $875 engine that runs on 87 octane…
Thanks to all that read this novel in full. Appreciate all comments.
