LE2 355 build done. Details and pictures for you all.

[FormulaJoe]

Been a while since I posted on this thread, but I thought I'd keep it going as there are so many good build threads on here and everyone loves a good build thread. This is an really long post for me, and I might go on a little bit, but I figured I'd get you guys totally familiar with where the car is at.

I reinstalled the lifter last August, everything went fine, drove the car around for a couple weeks until I had some family problems which made me take a step away from the car for quite a while...
I mentioned earlier in this thread that my mom was living in Mexico and that I was sending her money ( being an older lady in Mexico basically means your fucked when it comes to getting a job... unfortunately..) and because I was sending her cash I didn't have extra to do a lot of things. Among them was go to last years shootout, get a dyno tune, save for a rear end, etc.... I was literally her only source of income from the beginning of August until mid September and I was already sending her a majority of my pay checks since mid March. Well on Sept. 15, only a couple weeks after I stopped posting on this thread my mom committed suicide, then a month or so later my grandfather passed away (87 years old). Needless to say anything having to do with my car took an abrupt halt, lost interest in the car for a little while, and I even contemplated parting the car out, which is indeed a dark thought.

I felt bad that I was telling everyone on here that I was going to the shootout only to figure out it's not happening only a couple weeks before hand. I'm 19 years old, turning 20 in June, and I want to join the Marines. My dad supports me but he wants me to take some time to figure out if it is really what I want. It is, and has been for a couple years now, but I understand where he is coming from.. He's urging me to give college a try, even if it's only a year at a community college, before I up and enlist and if I still want to join the service he will give me his blessing completely. I have plenty of time to consider what I want to do right now, and if I don't enlinst this year, then I'll have to try and make it to the shootout this year.

ANYWAY, back to the reason this thread exists, the CAR!

As I think might be obvious, I haven't parted her out =) and for the last couple months I've been doing quite a bit of work to the car.

One of my first mods the the car was those cheap stainless Ebay headers (LPP knock-offs). They required some k-member grinding and shifting the steering column over a bit. I thought I had clearanced the headers enough, but when I did a data log on the new engine I noticed I was getting .2-1 deg. of knock retard randomly throughout the RPM range. I eventually determined it was false knock. Figured out the passenger header was banging against the frame and so I did a little BFHing and cleared that up, I must have gotten used to the banging, because after I clearanced the header it was a night and day difference, the engine/car feels so friggen smooth now haha. It really is crazy how I thought that that rumbling and shaking was normal hahaha.
When I bought the car the previous owner had taken all the AC stuff off, and being that I don't drive it in the winter, and now that I have a DD I don't drive it in the rain I pulled the dash and took the heater core and all the ducting off. Boy was that fun. Made a couple small cracks in my dash along the process. While the dash was off I cleaned up some unnecessary wiring, re-routed the wiring for my gauges, re-taped the whole interior harness because it was looking sad, pulled the steering column to put a new ignition switch in. I had a push button starter wired up all shabby like because I was a little intimidated by the steering column to pull it when the switch went out last August lol.. Turns out pulling the steering column is wayyy easier then I thought it would be. Shboxs write-up to thank for that! I also got rid of the evap canister in the right quarter panel and the hard line that runs with the gas and brake lines.
My transmission to drive shaft seal was leaking quite a bit so got a new one in there.
I took my firebird to work for one last ride before the snow fell last fall, when I hit the highway I noticed that the engine temp shot up to 190 real fast, so I took it easy and sure enough the temps kept climbing... I pulled off the highway and turned the car off, temps had gone from 190-250 in a good 5 seconds. I was pissed and because I had to stop I was getting close to being late to work. Wondering WTF happened, I pulled the hood and looked around and found that my inline fuse holder for my EWP broke, the clips that held it on just snapped.. Thankfully I had a pliers in my car and I was able to just hard wire the EWP back together to get to work and back. Fixed that with a more robust inline fuse from NAPA.
After I get done with some house work I'm doing today I'm going to start working on installing new front upper + lower control arm bushings. Should be interesting. I've been having a clunk when I back out of my driveway and turn the wheel to the right, which I narrowed down one of the UCA bushings on the drivers side.
I also want to do the ls1 brake upgrade, but I'm debating just canning that idea for c5 brakes.. It's going to be a little bit until I actually go forward with a BBK as I still have to get an alignment and then a dyno tune, so it will be at least a month and a half before I have to decide where I want to go with the brakes.
Also my stock valve covers are leaking a bit, not a lot to where it's dripping on the garage floor, but its annoying me. I think I went a little too dremel-happy when clearancing them for my RRs. So I'm in the market for new VCs. Anyone have any opinions? I don't want them to be real bulky like the cantons, but I can go that route if they are worth it.. Any good options for sticking with the stock alternator location? Or should I just drop the coin on a relocation kit? I kinda want to go with the relo. kit, but at this point it's money that if I don't have to spend it, I wont, especially if it's simply for aesthetics.

There is also one MAJOR thing on my mind right now. It's this; am I going to start setting up the suspension for 1/4 mile times, or road racing?
I've been to the drag stip a lot, and I love it, but after doing some major researching, watching videos, and reading on forums like Frraax and the road racing sections on these forums, I'm seriously wanting to give it a try and I'm almost positive I'm going to be hooked. If I like it enough, I'm going that route bar none. The 1/4 is fun and all, but I really think road racing is where the sheeiiit is at. I totally understand it is a one way or another thing. As far as my suspension mods go, they are LCAs with relo brackets, and SFCs. And I'm in the process of freshening up the front suspension and steering. IMO I'm at the fork in the road, and my next suspension mod is going to be the beginning of the next level. If I go with RR, I'll still go hit the strip with friends and what not, but I'm not going to be shooting for a specific ET with DRs and all that, it would be just for fun.

Anyway, thanks for reading if you did. Any and all opinion on what brakes or VCs I should go with are more then welcome. Sorry this was turned out to be such a massive post, from now on I'll be updating this thread a lot more, so the posts wont be as lengthy and there will be many more of them. I'll try and get some pictures of some of the stuff I've done, and will definitely be throwing more pictures up as work continues.

[popo8]

Let me start by saying....wow... At 20 years old u have done alot of growing up. Im sorry for ur loss...TWICE, and am very glad u kept with the ltx...even if it meant putting it on hold for a while...

As for the vc questioms...I run cantons...and they were used...and a pita to make right...but after a lil time in my friends hands (hes a body guy) he made them seal awesome.


Finally...I think ur dad is a smart guy...and I suggest also giving college a chance (just stay out of trouble, so u dont ruin chances to be a marine later) then hit the marines if its not for u.


Larry (Popo8) Co-owner
LTXtech.com

[FormulaJoe]

Thanks, Larry. I hear a lot of the cantons being a hassle. I'll do some looking around when I got time.



Doesn't look like I'll work on the control arms tonight. I'll probably get at them tomorrow.

[FormulaJoe]

Didn't get much done today on the car. Haven't gotten to the front suspension yet.

I searched for some valve covers. Only ones that I liked I would need to either clearance for the alt. or get a relo. kit. So I'm still pretty up in the air about them... If I could find a nice set of lt4 composite covers I would be all over them...

Still wondering on what to do with the brakes, though I think I'm going to plan on a C5 upgrade kit. I want my brakes to be decent enough to get some good learning in my first few times at a road course. I know ls1 brakes are enough for a beginner with the right pads, I just don't want to go upgrading them again for relatively the same price as the first time when I could just go with c5s and be good.

On other topics;
@ Larry, it's not that I don't want to go back to school, I do. My dad wants me to go to school first to see if I might decide the military isn't for me. He just doesn't want me to forget my options as a kid I guess and wants me to try things out.

One more thing, I didn't really care to post up all my major personal family issues that happened in the last year or so for everyone and there brother to read. As I'm sure is the case with most of you. And I definitely did NOT include it for sympathy or whatever. I included it because it ties in to the cars story. I was serious about last years shootout until my moms money problems escalated, and felt sort of bad that I couldn't go after saying I would to lots of people so many times. Also depending on what I decide on school and the military, it could be years until I do some of the more major things that I want to with the car (something I'll get in to more details about in another post) and also if I go to the more near future shootouts.

[FormulaJoe]

Alright guys, been really busy lately but I finally started tackling the front control arm bushings. Things have not been going too great. I started on my passenger side and my front LCAs rear bushing sleeve is seized to the bolt very badly, which I've figured out is a pretty common problem. Well today I finally got around to borrowing my neighbors sawzall and went to town on the sucker. Got the control arm out, but now I'm left with the rest of the top of the sleeve stuck to the bolt, *5th and 6th pictures* which I'm going to try and put my air hammer to and hopefully I can pop the rest of the bolt out of what is left of the inner sleeve. If that wont work I'm not sure yet exactly what the plan of attack is, maybe some of you could give me some advise?

Another thing that is a problem, my shock perch (I think that's what it's called, it's what the upper control arm bolts to) is SEVERELY rusted. *Check the first 3 pictures.* Just from touching it with a little pressure I was putting holes through it =( So it looks like I'll at least need a new one of those... Does anyone have a part number? Or just go to a junk yard or something? Are they the same for V6s? The body tower has a bit of rust *4th picture*, but it doesn't seem like too much, should be able to wire brush it off and paint it.

Also, I have a smallish tear on my lower ball joint boot. *last picture.* The ball joint is in good condition and doesn't have any play so can I just replace the boot? Do I have to remove the ball joint to do so? Or am I stuck getting a new ball joint? The upper is in good condition still. I guess if I have to replace the lower right now it wouldn't be so bad, the upper is really easy to do so I can do that at a later time when it needs it. I'll be bringing my control arms in to get the bushings presses out anyway so I can just get the lower ball joints out of the way then too if need be.

Really wanting to get this on the road... I pushed back doing a lot of work on it because of the really late winter we had here. On top of that my sister just turned 16, got her license, and bought a car with a few problems, so for the last couple weeks I've been working on that car a lot without much care afterwords to do anything to the firebird. Now it's June and I'm only partially through the 1st side, still have the drivers side to tackle... Maybe that side will yield better results, but I'm not so hopeful right now...

On a happier note, I finally got a set of lt4 valve covers!! I lost the bidding on a set from an lt1 corvette the other day on ebay. Then these popped up yesterday with a buy it now option for $210ish. Definitely couldn't pass these up, so those should be coming in around a week from now or so. The guy had them listed at lt1 vette covers but from the pictures it looks like it doesn't have the tabs that the lt1s had so I'm guessing they are just lt4s. Either way I'm happy to finally score a set for a somewhat decent price.. I'll get some pics up when I get them in.

Long post, I'll try and update more often to keep the posts a bit smaller. Any and all advice is really appreciated!!

[FormulaJoe]

Some more carnage..... Soo much rust... . From the research I just did it looks to me like the shock is donzo. Going to start pulling apart the drivers side. I wanted to go one side at a time to minimize space taken up in the garage, but I need to know what condition the other side is in so I can asses the damage to my wallet more thorougly and have a clear idea in my head of what all needs replacing... I'm guessing, but not sure, that I'll have the same problems on the drivers side... Might just start saving for Konis at this point. I don't really want to spend money on some stock replacement shock/s. And if I need to get two front new ones, I'm just going to go Konis all around and be happy.

Almost wishing I waited on the valve covers. Though my stock ones that I over dremeled are leaking a bit but not dripping or anything, new ones were are a good idea.

[FormulaJoe]

Got the other side taken apart today. The LCAs rear bushing was terrible, the inner sleeve and bolt were able to spin freely inside of the rubber. Had to sawzall that bolt off to get the control arm out like the other side. Now I'm just left with what remains of the bolt and inner bushing sleeve sandwiched on the kmember like shown in one of the pictures I posted a couple posts ago. I can't get a good enough angle with the sawzall to chop the rest off so if the air hammer doesn't work (haven't gotten to that part yet) I'll go and find an oxy-acetylene torch to get it off.
Rust seems to be just as bad on the shock mount area on drivers side too.
Lower ball joint boot had a tear in it. I'm going to just go ahead and get the lower BJs replaced on both sides. Might as well. The uppers are fine so I'm leaving them for later when they need replacing as they are much easier to take apart.

Looks like the bird is getting a bit more freshening up in the front then I originally thought was needed. Oh well. Can't wait to see how she drives with all new components.

Going to be ordering new shocks, shock mounts, isolator plates, the bracket between the mount which the upper control arm bolts to needs replacing on both sides as they are rusted to oblivion, and lower ball joints. Also going to be giving the front suspension a POR15 makeover before I have it all back together.

All in all, a much bigger project then I anticipated. But glad to have found some serious issues and fixing them. Will be posting pics as parts come in and the project starts progressing towards its finish.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!