I'm surprised to see so many people who are interested in cars on here...
At any rate, here's my current project: The 500whp for $5000 project. Current total is: 89' MB 300e sedan, M104 engine, auto trans, came with EBC rotors and EBC racing green pads, $600 Chevy LQ9 engine + harness, 4L80E, and TCU for $1200 Garrett GT45 from Volvo truck - $500 (ebay) Megasquirt III V3.57X - $600 Delphi 998cc Injectors - $400 Dual Bosch 044 fuel pumps (running E85)- $300 Hotrod Satin Black paint, 1gal - $120
$1280 left to fab motor mounts, subframe connectors, put aero wheels and 10" DOT hoosiers on the rear, buy euro headlights, redrill rear hubs to 5x4.5 PCD, fab up fiberglass flares for the rear arches, and so forth. Should get interesting.
Currently repairing a small piece of rust, and welding up the new trans crossmember. Sorry if it looks high off the ground, there's a jack under the front crossmember currently.
My other rides include: 1971 Buick Riviera, 455, a bit of work, just over 515whp. 1962 Ford Thunderbird, 390 interceptor, waiting to go into the booth.
Sweet list of cars. I love that era of Riviera, such a unique car. My brother has a 72' Cutlass with a 455 in it, mostly stock and it still hammers out 450ft-lbs of torque.
Discovered this weekend that electing to use Hawk pads on the Nova were a wonderful idea! Pictures and video of my run at Tail of the Dragon will be up soon
Nice project!!! That GT45 will be too large for just 500whp though... if you take the top rings on the LQ motors and widen the gap some they can handle 800+ whp on stock internals and everything, and be pretty reliable to boot!
Nice project!!! That GT45 will be too large for just 500whp though... if you take the top rings on the LQ motors and widen the gap some they can handle 800+ whp on stock internals and everything, and be pretty reliable to boot!
Yeah, i know i could get well over 500whp with that turbo, but i'm restricting it to that via the onboard megasquirt boost control for reliability of the driveshaft flex joints, and to make sure the stock rear end stays in one piece, haha.
Hopefully once i sell the thunderbird, i can go for the next round of upgrades, which will have a goal of 750whp on "driving" boost levels, consisting of a driveshaft, kirkey drivers seat, nardi wheel, lsd, L92 heads, tremec T56, custom tunnel ram, LS2 cam, milled pistons for lower c/r, new rear LCA's for wider rear tires, tubs in the front and rear, Koni reds on the front with H&R 1.5" springs, custom coilovers in the rear in the spring pockets, and in typical mercedes fashion, an AMG bodykit w/ ducktail spoiler, so in other words, the next $7-5,000 round of "upgrades".
On another note, lent my 92' c1500 to someone for a week, a year ago. Just got it back, the rings in 3 cylinders are just gone, at first i was upset, then i realized, mehh, its just TBI, no real loss.
Has anyone else ever lent a vehicle out, and had it come back in terrible condition?
Mhm. Trans failed in his 95' c1500 (Hmm, wonder why), i had no idea that he was such an "agressive" driver, so i lent him my truck. I didnt really need it at that time, figured it would show up next week, and then the next week, but i trusted the guy. Here's one of the pics i took when it got back to my driveway. Gore warning.
Even as beat up as she looks, still VERY fap worthy. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT scrap that engine for a Chevy 350 unless you absolutely completely 175% certain that the Olds engine can't be saved (assuming anything ever happens to it).
Also, as an owner of a car that used to have drums on all 4 wheels, I HIGHLY recommend upgrading the fronts to discs ASAP. The longer you wait to do it, the harder kick in the ass you give yourself when you eventually do the swap. It took me 6 years to do them on my Nova, and every time I hit the brakes hard I think "why didn't I do that sooner?"
yes im gonna do the bodywork my self...my uncle will put the quarters on tho.....
my dads camino has 4 wheel drum breaks it isnt tooo bad and im defsanetly KEEPING the olds engine even if it is gonna be pulled out my buddy has 2 spare engines.....this car has the 2 barrel he has the 4 barrel ones....this kid has a 72 cutlass s,68 vista cruiser,71 vista and 72 vista so parts are gonna be easy to find for it......my main concern is fix all the rust,freshen up the motor and new breaks......ohh yeah tires! defanetly want SS cragers the vinal top is shot so im pulling it off the car will be grey primer till i can save up for a decent paint job...
i love cragars....my dad had em on all his chevelles hes putting them on the front of his El Camino too i know they aint for everyone my cuz put vette rims on his 68 so im buying his cragars
I never understood why people would want to add weight to their cars.... A set of those cragars would weigh about 30 lbs more than a set of D-hole aero's, at $50 a pop, but hey, to each his own i guess. If you ever want more displacement, i have an olds 455 hanging in my shed. :3
Just fronts. Next step is to get bigger rims (16" minimum) so I can fit "LS1-style" 12" rotors & dual piston calipers. After that, I may consider rear discs, but maybe not. When I was researching the fronts, I got a lot of "if it's not going to see a racetrack every weekend, rear discs aren't worth it". Time will tell!
In reply to Scutterbotch, #12835: im not racing it lol its my DD i want an oldschool look but i hate american racing wheels.......welds are too blehh i had em on my fox but they fit the car perfect and they were a pain in the balls on my camaro.....and im nott running a rim bigger than 15''
I have Crager soft 8's on the truck. Something about a steel wheel just fits a truck and the price was right when I bought them. I would put them on a car in an instant, but not if I was looking to race. IMO, a steel wheel beats an aluminum wheel for DD'ing because it is much easier to repair. The only reason I run aluminum wheels on the DD right now is because I like the style.
In reply to Scutterbotch, #12835: im not racing it lol its my DD i want an oldschool look but i hate american racing wheels.......welds are too blehh i had em on my fox but they fit the car perfect and they were a pain in the balls on my camaro.....and im nott running a rim bigger than 15''
Hate American Racing? What about the Hot Rod 500 series of wheels?
