1995 trans am daily driver

[zoomo]

I traded my 96 camaro rally sport for this car last year. I had the camaro for several years. I did all the suspension on the camaro, lowered 1.5", converted it from auto to 5 speed, Also ended up with 18 inch wheels.. I did everything to that car down to the window tint, and the paint, but thats how i enjoy to do things, and im cheap. When i let it go it had about 275,000 on the clock, the speedometer hadnt worked right in years due to the transmission swap. It still ran great though.

I traded it straight across for this 95 trans am that was knocking like hell and blowing so much smoke you couldnt see behind you. The belt was squeaking ( because of over tightening according to the seller), the knocking was because it needed "head work" (thats what he and his "mechanic" tried to tell me) The tires were bald , it had no spare or jack, the door panels were off and the interior is shot. It was still love at first sight. 165,000 on this one.

I told him that it had a rod knocking ha, and i told him i wanted it anyway, he looked surprised and they said "na its the heads, they need work" . . .


first post, ill edit this a little as i go. cars done and driving now. sorry for the huge photos, all taken from my phone

[zoomo]

Sorry to double post like this but i cant figure out how to place test in between the photos, plus they are so huge its all confusing.

Story is
Went hiking in the mountains in the camaro, hit a pothole, thats ok. Nope, but passenger tires flat %$#@^. So several hours later, thank god my mother finally arrives with two of my stock rims and tires. At least we had a nice view, i think we were around 4500 feet. My mother is scared to death of heights and driving them of course. ha

I already had the camaro on craigslist for sale or trade, i was looking into getting a chevy truck. The two flats happened on sunday, two and a half hours from home. Monday morning a kid messaged me about the trans am wanting to trade. I was standoffish, as i was looking for a truck, but after talking to him a little and seeing some pics i couldnt stay away.

Now luckily the car made it home an hour from where we traded, it was knocking bad. This thing was like Christine, it was knocking and smoking and squeeling and missing.

Anyway, next week i pulled the engine. (it was actually freshly rebuilt, the kid i traded didnt know or didnt mention it) but whoever rebuilt it did a lot of errors. the pic of the oil filter adapter, not sure if yall can see but its cracked from over tightening? Also it still had the oil cooler on it which was bent badly where the filter mates up. The camshaft that was installed had the dowl pin sticking out too far pushing hard on the back of the optispark, this killed the bearing inside the optispark. turned out to be a four bolt engine. there were extra studs for the windage trays? not sure why, maybe different tray in the four bolt or they just used too many of the studded bolts. anyway, the bolts were hitting the pan nearly pushing through in several places. the last thing i can think of is the clearance in the cylinders, it was rediculous. "cut it wide, and let it slide"


Heres the build process. I did all the work myself. From pulling the engine in my yard, to grinding the valves. Nothing really fancy.

Eagle cast crank
comp 276 224/230 112lsa

some sort of five puck clutch with a heavy pressure plate. it was already in the car, and barely worn. Im not a fan of this style of clutch myself with a daily driver, but ill run it for a while. I do still actually need to pull the trans and rebuild it. It has had problems shifting in second and staying in reverse since i got it. But it works fine if you drive it correctly and dont get lazy.

[zoomo]

And here it is finished product, well kinda finished ha I mad several dyno passes this is about as good as it got, although that was with stock manifolds. I will dyno it again and post new numbers very soon. I just installed the pacesetter midlengths over christmas. Also did about 25 1/4 passes. Best i pulled was a little bit quicker than the pick like 14.06. Ill be heading back to the track as well this year to hopefully do better. Last year was the first time i had went, and it was definetly a learning process, though i feel that was about as fast as i could go ,other than the slipper all season nittos on the rear.

Also check out my alignment set up, strings, levels, and tapemeasures. Although i have had a ton of experience doing alignments with hunter and bosch alignment machines i would have never thought i could get it so close. Notice the print out afterwards. All adjustments were mad with strings, level, and tapemeasure, i only had the alignment checked to see how close it was. I specifically told them not to adjust anything until i saw the print out. He came in and went straight into a big speech about how only the dealer can align these cars because of the special turnbuckle that it uses to adjust the camber and caster. I stopped him and said, it can be adusted in the air easily, and also those are the specs i was going for so thank you.

I was shooting for -1 degree camber on each side, 0 toe, and as much caster as i could get on both sides. Although the caster split could be closer, besides that im completely happy and it drivers straight so not complaints.

[harner]

Nice detailed pics, they don't look so bad on my 27" monitor

There should be a little more left in your car with that cam. What are you revving to? Sounds like maybe you need a few more bolt ons (gears for sure) and a tune. I was in the high 13s with gears, exhaust, and a mail order tune on a 100+* day (track rental) with mine and it was my second outing ever at the track. It was also an auto car, which is much different than a manual car. Can't wait to hear more updates!

[popo8]

One hell of a write up... kinda like a build and intro... so welcome, and great work!!!

[zoomo]

Thanks for the kind words and welcome. I had to brag about all my hard work to someone. Up to now ive spent all my hours doing the work on it, and reading about tuning. Reading about tuning is a crazy, never ending, constantly learning process ha.

As far as at the track, i definitely feel the car should be a little faster. I tried shifting at 5000 and 5800 seemed to run a little slower shifting lower. Im hoping after adding the headers will have made a decent difference. I was really contemplating re building the rear end with some 373 or 411 but decided to get the headers instead. My take offs are horrible, i left sideways once or twice ha. Running some new nitto all seasons on the rear so they are slippery to say the least.

Ill get it on the dyno in the next few days and see what the headers did for it. and back to the track as soon as they open back up, looks like april around here.

Anyways thanks again guys!

[HellTeeOne]

First off, don't take any of this the wrong way, I'm trying to be constructive.

Those numbers (both track and dyno) are way off for a basically stock motor rebuild with a 224/230 cam. Stock, unrebuilt engines with cams similar to that and a proper tune regularly dyno in the 340s and 350s and trap in excess of 110 mph at the track. The headers are sorely needed and will wake it up in a big way though, make sure you delete the stock cat as well. You didn't quote the lift specs on the cam, but the 224/230 should pull cleanly to around 6200-6400 rpm.

Was any port or chamber work done, or were the heads just reconditioned?

What is the static compression ratio? What sort of pistons were used? Gaskets? Quench height?

If the rear in your car is stock, has 3.42s and is in good working order, I'd leave it alone for now, it's the least of concerns.

Looks like some of your pictures are on the BRP. You in WNC somewhere? Where are you dynoing the car?
Oh, and welcome!

[zoomo]

Was any port or chamber work done, or were the heads just reconditioned?

What is the static compression ratio? What sort of pistons were used? Gaskets? Quench height?

If the rear in your car is stock, has 3.42s and is in good working order, I'd leave it alone for now, it's the least of concerns.

Looks like some of your pictures are on the BRP. You in WNC somewhere? Where are you dynoing the car?
Oh, and welcome!

No offense taken, please critisize i would love to find something ive missed.

Running on stock rockers, the cam lift is supposed to be 503 and 510.
relaced all 16 valve guides, getting the old ones out was a pain on these heads they kept busting
i did a four angle valve job, re using the stock valves.
new springs, good for 550 lift.
surfaced the heads just enough to knock the marks off.
had to do two inserts on two spark plug holes that were badly damaged.
i did not port them at all, i considered it but i just wanted to get the car back on the road.

i used sealed power forged pistons with four valve reliefs.
I also did not have the blocked decked, so its at stock height.
Also used stock style head gaskets.
So with all that being said the compression and quench are unknown to me and pretty close to stock. No offense by this and i know there are a lot of people who build engines with high compression that run on street gas but ive not been so lucky. i know there is some more power in decking the block and getting the quench lower and raising the compression but it can also become a fight of engine wear and detonation. so i wanted to go back really close to stock with this car cause i plan on putting at the very minimum 100k on this engine and i hope for more.in hindsight, i guess i should have at least had the block decked, but i would have had to have someone else do it ha.

the reason for the gearing thought was because somoeone has actually installed a rear end with 273 gears in this car. I did some readong at it doesnt look like it should have came with that. It is at least a positrack with disk brakes and working well.


I agree though in feeling the car should have made more power and went faster, and just like with everyone ill always be searching for that hidden, free 50 horsepower ive missed somewhere lol

Also yes we are in the charlotte area and those pictures were on the blue ridge parkway. We love to go hiking up there, and go play on the curves ha.

Im using the dyno at the shop i work at in kannapolis.
Also i went to the rockingham dragway.

And thanks for the welcomes guys!

good to see theres at least one person in the north carolina area on here, i'll be glad to help with anything i can if anyones in the area.

Also we specialize in vw, bmw, and mercedes, i saw someone on here just recently purched a golf tdi. All i can say is goodluck!! hahaha Just had a 2011 golf with the gas tsi engine towed away from our shop after it got towed in. 80k miles and the timing chain tensioner let loose, and smacked some valves. they are taking it to vw to warranty it for a , oh what do they call it, good costumer relations or something.Oh and heres another recent one, 08 touareg gas engine. timing jumped, it was strange because it still had compression but wouldnt start. Timing chain is on the back of the engine, all the plastic tensioner crap broke.

Sorry , not trying to turn into a vw bashing thread, i just get distracted easily.

[popo8]

Hell... my all stock hi mileage, unknown gear a4 ta is way slower than that... im curious to see what the dyno says that car is makin now with the headers.

[mikey4play]

My 97 Z M6 car did 13.80 @ 100 mph only mods are pcm tune and K&N