New member! Lots of questions!

**Oldeffbawdy** · 01-19-2019, 11:42 AM

Hello all new member here. I came across a real cream puff of a car. A 95 formula with t tops that is all original minus exhaust tips and a muffler maybe. It's an automatic with 2.73 gears I believe (2000ish rpm 80mph). 117k for mileage. Car runs strong! Always been a fan... I was the little kid at car shows that wanted to sit in these cars and imagine driving one someday. I was looking at the AI 226/234 110 Cam. Add 1.6rr good hardened prs, ls7 lifters and beehives. I am going to have a shop port the intake and stock heads. Adding Egr block off plates and a true dual x pipe exhaust with xs lt headers. Haven't decided on mufflers or muffler if I mount it the stock way. A 160 t stat with appropriate dyno tuning and a 3600-4000 lockup converter with a big cooler. Been looking at options from Yank and Fti. Am I on the right path here? Been lurking around for awhile and found the most helpful info here. I was entertaining using a torqhead 24x signal/hub kit. I have 585 coils and a gen 3 5.3 suburban pcm. But knock on wood the optical spark unit has not given me any trouble. Also it seems there is a limited amount of cold air intakes for this car. They all seem to use the 90* elbow. Any other options? Eventually Koni shocks, complete suspension bushings and a tube K member. Is an electric water pump of good quality a good idea too? If I left anything out please comment. This is my first f body. The car will see track day once in a great while maybe 5 times a year just for fun. It is not driven in winter or daily. It's my pride and joy to take out and have fun with. Practicality isn't needed. I have v sixer work cars for that. Any input would be great! Thanks

***popo8*** · 01-19-2019, 03:53 PM

Welcome to the forum...

Let me start by suggesting LLOYD ELLIOT for your porting and cam needs. He is helpful amd will help u achieve the realistic goals that u want.

For trans/converter advice, products and service contact cahall performance transmissions.... CPT.

Yes, both are sponsors here on the forum, but more importantly they are members and friends to us all as well. They look at helping the community, rather than "selling" to the community.

Finally we have a couple parts vendors on the forum as well that can help u with CAI...

SOOOOOO, with that being said, use the resources available, as these people really do care more avout helping than profiting.

Now, thats outta the way... how bout some pics of this "creampuff...?"

LTXtech.com is my drug...

**Cathead** · 01-19-2019, 05:42 PM

Welcome to the forum! I completely agree with what Popo said, Lloyd, Frank, Moe...they're all professionals in their fields. I've personally done business with all of them and will again. There's a lot of smart people on here that can answer all of your questions.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

**Oldeffbawdy** · 01-20-2019, 10:29 AM

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Rims are number one on the to do list! Going with 18in zr1 clones and 275 tires all the way around. Here she is tho. Looks damn good for being 24 years old. Thank you for the replies. Le offers a cam very similar to the one i was looking at and he has very good feedback so that might be the route i end up going. Love the idle clips from his camshafts. I like the classic muscle car lopey cam idle. This was right before it starting snowing and the car got put away. Stupid winter. Is the square exhaust tips stock? The car isnt loud but its louder than i thought a stock car should be.

***Fastbird*** · 01-20-2019, 11:05 AM

Those square exhaust tips are NOT stock. Those are stock for the Camaro side of the line. The Firebird V8's got dual round tips on both sides during the LT1 era. Someone has swapped those square tips on to the car at a minimum.

**Injuneer** · 01-20-2019, 02:50 PM

To verify 2.73:1 rear axle, look for RPO “GU2” on the Service Parts tag. The alternative would be 3.23:1 with the “GU5” performance rear axle option.

Those wheels are Camaro “salad shooters”.

**sleepy_z** · 01-27-2019, 10:46 AM

Welcome! The paint looks like it's in great shape.

**agenthol302** · 01-28-2019, 09:40 AM

Welcome! another MN boy! where abouts are you located! lost of guy guys in the area and some really good shops , let me know if you need anything!

**QC97Z** · 03-15-2019, 10:38 AM

Looking good! Like PoPo and others suggest, Lloyd Elliot is where it's at for head/cam stuff. He's been in the biz for a long time and truly knows his stuff. Totally understand if you've got a local guy you want to use or have history with, just offering the other obvious suggestion.

As far as your ignition goes, there are plenty of higher-power guys running around that still utilize the Opti. If you wanted to stay with it, I'd suggest a quality cap/rotor replacement (with loctite!) unless you have service records indicating it's been done semi-recently (may want to loctite the rotor screws anyway...). But, I have the 24x system on my car, and I LOVE IT. Just depends on your needs, preference, and your overall plans for the car. As your plans show so far, you could stick with the opti and probably run just fine, maybe add an MSD box to your setup.
You could always go Opti-less at a later date, once you get back up and running with your new setup.

As far as your air intake, stick with PoPo's suggestion or fabricate your own. If you have some fabrication experience and access to tube bending and welding equipment, you could design and make something wicked and unique.
IMO, a cold air intake vs a "warm air" intake doesn't make much of a difference when you're making major engine modifications. You're helping it breathe much better with your cam/heads and delivering that power better through the drivetrain; that's where the power will come from. Your charge air temperatures being different by 20-30 degrees won't amount to a hill of beans.

I have an electric water pump on my car, and I've seen debates on both sides of the aisle when it comes to this. At idle, an electric pump will pump more coolant than the stock cam-driven pump. At high RPM's, the stock pump will pump more. This decision has a few pros and cons. Going electric will take away the need to maintain or repair the water pump drive seal on the timing cover and on the back of your pump housing. use plugs or weld 'em shut! Electric pumps can also fail in a much more disastrous way - if an electric pump dies, you're not pumping anything. The factory pump will never die, since it's driven off the cam (unless some crazy catastrophic thing were to happen and destroy the pump drive, which I've never seen or heard of) - they will just leak when they wear out.

If you decide electric is your thing, I would suggest a warning system - floating around on the forum somewhere is a write-up on how to wire indicator lights in the car. These indicators will light up if you lose ground or power to your water pump - so if it dies, you will notice right away and have much more time to avoid an overheat situation.

Hope this helps, and Welcome!

**Injuneer** · 03-16-2019, 05:51 PM

Don't underestimate the value of a good cold air intake system. And, the more you upgrade the intake manifold, heads, and cam to maximize air flow, the more important it becomes to upgrade the intake system to prevent it from being the weak link. The denser the air in the cylinder, the greater the mass of the air, and the more fuel you can burn = more power.

Air density increase with an increase in absolute pressure, and a decrease in absolute temperature. Reduce pressure loss in the air ducting by 1.5 kPa, and decrease absolute air temp by 20°, and you can see over 5% increase in peak HP. For a 500 HP NA engine, that's an easy 25 HP gain.