9014josh

iTrader: (1)

That's looking awesome man great job...if it is ready for the 1st of july you should take it down to the summer nationals weekend carshow in worcester,ma its not too far from you

tylercamaro

iTrader: (1)

i must say your garage looks like youve got a pretty nice setup in there also

musclecar70sfan

iTrader: (1)

The more thirdgens the better... we don't see them often and if we do, they're usually beat (like mine LOL). Here's a good website for our region:
http://www.necamaro-firebird.org/

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

Oh I'm sure even just getting the tranny bolted in will drop it another inch or so too. It's still missing a lot of parts haha so ride height will drop a lot. And I do have drop springs in it. The motor itself will be lighter but with all the turbo parts I'm sure it will be right around what a stock all iron engine weighs so the springs should be fine.

Def swing down and hang out! Almost all my freinds love and appreciate a clean third gen, and we could use more of them down there. It's a good time. Burger king has a car show every sat night from 5 till around 10 and the cops don't bother anyone for hanging out so thats where we ussually are. It's a lot of fun!

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

I've been there once. It's an AWESOME show. Love the burnout pad haha. I would love to take mine so hopefully it is finished by then!

If your car is beat, then I don't even know what to call some of the ones I've see around.

Jason E

Well, I definitely have 2 super-clean, nice third gens. My 86 TA is the polar opposite of yours...100% bone stock, and not so pretty on the outside. My RS and IROC are pretty much flawless though...I think they'd represent third gens well

I will definitely take the RS down...not sure about the IROC. People can drive like total morons down there, and while I'd lose a lot of money if someone hit me in the RS, while the IROC is well insured, if someone hit it I'd go postal on them. I cannot replace that car...

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

Worked a little more on the car today and got the first half of the floorboards dynamated. Didn't do under the pass side seat since it needs a second coat of paint that I hadn't gotten to yet.





And just a nice shot I took of the 2 third gens

Jason E

Looks great! Hope your dynamat-fest goes better than mine. After almost 40 hours of using a heat gun to line my whole car with it, it still isn't that quiet

I CAN however crank the hell out of the rather large stereo in it, and get not even a slight vibration

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

LOL......I actually read that dynamat itself will not quiet down the noise in the car. The dynamat is only to reduce the sheet metal vibration. Thats why I bought the neoprene padding as well to line the floors with. Apparently that is what actually reduces noise in the car. Guess we'll find out when it runs haha.

Project 3.4 Camaro

Quiet is overrated tho :P I went the other direction, no carpet or sound insulation whatsoever, and since my hood is has no insulation and a cowl at the back, and I have a loud exhaust....well, you get the idea...

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

Not much of an update but I got the bellhousing bolted to the engine this afternoon. My T56 hydraulic clutch linkage will be here Wednesday so hopefully I will have the tranny in then. Going to be nice to have a shifter and working clutch pedal again! Pics to come soon.

Jason E

As for Dynamat, my best friend worked at Tweeter for several years, installing some of the most awesome car stereos I've ever seen. Indeed, Dynamat's core mission is to quell vibrations, and can help make things feel more "solid." This, it does to a T. However, they also claim that they can help eliminate road noise, further helping your stereo's sound quality by eliminating ambient noise.

With that said, it did quiet the car a little bit, but not as much as I'd hoped. With headers and a Magnaflow catback, its pretty loud...I'm not 18 anymore Regardless, lining your car with Dynamat is not a bad idea....

quickkris2006

iTrader: (2)

Wow man looking good.. its nice to finally have the motor in the beast huh??

musclecar70sfan

iTrader: (1)

Late nights working on the TA huh? lol

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

Sure is! Now I just can't wait to see the turbo plumbed in there as well. Then it'll look like it means business haha.

When I put that last post up last night.....I mean, this morning......I thought to myself, "I wonder if anyone looks at the times on the posts, cause it's LATE?" Guess so hahaha.

resop27

iTrader: (8)

just curious I know it was awhile ago in the post but did you prime all the surfaces before the truck bed liner or did you just clean and scuff?

also your build along with twin turbos has raised the standard on which my car is being done. amazing build can not wait for the finished product.

musclecar70sfan

iTrader: (1)

Lol well being serious it's easy to lose track of time when working on a car, especially such a big project. When I start working on my car (like that fuel pump/cat-back swap I did last week) I usually like to keep the rest of the day clear without commitments.

camaro1185

So it was your fuel pump...I remember the thread from like November where the car didn't start for you.

It is really easy to loose track when working on cars. I finished up installing my rear end last night relativly early, but after double checking (ok quadrupedal checking) the bolts and such it was getting pretty late.

musclecar70sfan

iTrader: (1)

Yep I think I had a dead fuel pump, or a dying one at least. And yes this happened in November. The old one would start working after sitting for a while, but I didn't trust it anymore. It was too cold to work on it until recently since I have a small garage and I like to keep it open while working on the car. Fortunately the old pump worked enough for me to jump the relay and drain the gas from the tank through it, making the wrestling match with the tank easier . I replaced the fuel lines and I put in a magnaflow 3" cat-back in while I was at it... check it out . Sorry for thread jacking lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN8jMLCj2Z8

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

I just took some 80 grit paper and scratched up the original paint pretty good and then applied the herculiner. No need for primer since the factory paint acts as a good enough primer itself. And FYI, I am doing a single turbo...not twins. Close enough though lol. Thanks for the kind words!

It was more like taking a half an hour to install the bellhousing and then drinking a couple budweisers and staring at the car over the course of like 3 1/2 hours, then realizing what time it was lol.

No prob, and the car sounds great! Magnaflow makes a nice product. Very high quality and I think they are 100% made in good ole USA too still.

resop27

iTrader: (8)

o sorry I ment "twinturbo" the member yours and his build threads.

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

Ahhhhh, ok. Misunderstood you, but it makes sense now. His build is fantastic as well. I have been keeping an eye on it every now and then and have picked up one or two ideas from him as well since he's a little farther along in the build than I am.

Burntz

not gonna lie, this build is amazing. Iv been glued to my computer for the past hour reading it all lol.

Did your car come with that heater box under the hood? I removed mine yesterday, but it had the a/c in it which looked terrible. I would love to know where to find one like yours.

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

Thanks for the compliment! And my car was a factory AC car. The heater box is just a regular old non AC optioned third gen box that I found in a junk yard. They came on any car that didn't have AC optioned from the factory. Check ebay or the classifieds. I see them for sale all the time but you'll probably spend around 100$ for one. Hawks third gen also sells a fiberglass non AC box that is very nice as well. I think theirs goes for around $150 or so.

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

Made a little progress today but not as much as I had hoped. Ran into a problem with where the slave cylinder bolts to the transmission. The first few threads were completely stripped so I had to find longer bolts that went in deeper to catch the good threads. I found 2 bolts I had that went ALMOST all the way in though and it worked out perfectly but set me back some time so the tranny will have to wait till tomorrow to actually be in.

I did however get the clutch master cylinder bolted in and attached to the pedal and I cleaned up the coil packs and got them on the engine. Now it really looks like an LSx. Just need the intake manifold! Anyways, heres a few pics from today.

Tough to see but the LS1 master is slightly wider than the T5 master where the bushing goes so it has to be grinded down a bit.


I read on here that you had to drill the LS1 master cyl bushing out, but mine just popped out since it is a 2 peice design. Maybe the guy that drilled his out didn't realize that?


And heres how it looks on the car. Just like factory!

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

Heres 2 shots of how the pedal sits. The LS1 master cylinder is the IDENTICLE size to the stocker so the pedal sits exactly how it would stock





Heres the new GM slave cylinder bolted to the tranny ready to go. Not looking forward to bleeding this...


And heres a shot of the coil packs on. They were filthy, but looked brand new once I took them apart and cleaned them up.

Burntz

man, thats steep for a non-ac box! junkyards here in nebraska are CHEAP though. I bet I could snag one for $5 as they probably wouldn't even know what it was. Just gotta find a t/a or camaro sittin around. Matter of fact, I remember one at a nearby one. Gonna have to check it out.

Awesome progress though! I plan on doing a 6.0/t-56 swap, with a single hair dryer next spring.

L695speed

Looks like you did the same thing I did to make the M/C fit on the clutch pedal. nothing like a lil grinding to make it look stock. I drilled out my bushing a lil to enlarge the hole. It worked out well enough and only needed a lil bit drilled out to work. Alas, I've got the LT1 version and will need to change the slave to make it work. I agree with you...I would hope to never have to bleed that slave. Progress is good man keep up this pace and the car will be done before you know it.

ghettocruiser

iTrader: (4)

When guys talk about drilling out the bushing on the master, they mean ream the hole so it fits on the thirdgen clutch peg. The thirdgen's peg is larger in diameter than the 4th gen. Those of us running a spherical rod end dont have that luxury without a machine shop, so we need to modify our peg..or use 4th gen pedals.

What you did is perfectly fine and will work great until you want to upgrade the hydraulics! The only weakness to the LS set up in my opinoin....

As for bleeding your clutch... Why not buy a remote bleeder? It makes bleeding the clutch 100x easier. You dont even have to jack up or crawl under the car. With the LS clutch set up, you really should make it a regular practice to flush some new fluid into the system every so often. I do it every other oil change...takes only a little more time than it does for the oil to finish draining out. You've come this far...waiting on a clutch bleed line wouldnt kill ya

J.

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

^^^ I actually already got the tranny in and bled the slave. I saw the remote bleeder line but honestly I can't see changing the fluid too often since the car will be a nice day cruiser only. I even bought a nifty low profile 11mm wrench set up from sears and it fits in there perfectly to get to the bleeder. Had the set up bled in about 15 minutes with a buddy. If the fluid starts to get dirty over time I'll def change it but for now I'm happy with how it worked out. I even called Textralia and asked them if they would recommend a tick master and they're words were "Honestly, because of the almost stock pedal pressure on the Tex clutch, we wouldn't recommend any aftermarket master. The stock one will work perfectly and we designed our clutch around the stock hydraulics." So I'm happy with that lol. Guess we'll find out over time how it holds up.

I can say though that WOW, the textralia clutch feels stock when you depress the pedal. Night and day difference from my brothers Spec stage 2 plus clutch. I'm still in awe that this thing is rated to 750 lbs ft of torque!!!

And as far as drilling the rod, I do get what your saying now. Forgot that some aftermarket ones had a spherical bearing.

19f0rmula88

this is looking great man keep up the good work!! last sunday i took all my interior out and sanded all the surface rust away and then cut out major parts(only one tiny spot that went through) but anyway...

this is a long thread so im not sure if i missed it or if you went over it before already, but what are your plans for that ls wiring? are you going with a painless or are you combining it with your stock harness?

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

I'll be using all painless wiring for the chassis harness and LSx harness. Gonna be FUN! Haha, not.

Anyways on the other hand, I got the tranny in today. I can honestly say I've never had such a hard tranny to get in. Going from the stock 75 lbs T5 to the 120 lbs T56 SUCKS on your back! It went in pretty smooth though and it's done. Got the clutch hydraulics bled as well and the pedal feel is GREAT for a clutch that will handle 750 lbs ft of torque. Put the stock driveshaft in and spun it with the clutch disengaged and it locked right up while in gear so it's working. Also ordered an LS1 aluminum driveshaft which will be here Monday.

For those of you who have been checking out the youtube walk around vids, I'll have a new one up tonight as well.

Heres the pics...





Guess I can at least sit in it and pretend I'm driving it for now with a shifter


Painted up the bracket for the clutch reservoir and got that in today as well.


I'm pretty happy with the amount of work I got done today and as soon as the driveshaft is here the drivetrain will be done. Then I can work on wiring it up and putting the interior back in. It's getting there!

TPI TERR

iTrader: (9)

great build!! ive been keeping up with this. looks like its ganna be one fun and fast car!

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

Thanks! I love your camaro as well. Gorgeous car and I had a lot of help looking through your threads as well as a few others who have done the swap.

quickkris2006

iTrader: (2)

Hell yea man looks great! I didn't think the t56 weighed that much.. and I love that shift **** I want one! I went to the junk yard today n got everything I need to almost finish up mine so I might be able to actually get mine started before I leave !!! Also Ever think of painting the valve covers to match the body?

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

Yea the T56 Is right around 115-120 lbs.....gotta put the weight of that extra gear somewhere lol. As far as the valve covers, I thought of doing them black but I honestly like the all factory aluminum look of the engine so I left it all natural. I'm still considering painting the intake manifold the orange that my car is though.

And thats sweet that you got some more parts. It would feel good to finish it before you left. I'll check it out when you get some updates.

Thirdgen89GTA

iTrader: (5)

Still much lighter than a 700r4 or 4L60E would be, especially including the Torque Converter.

I can barely believe how light the T56 is, I can pick it up no problem, but the 700r4 I is really uncomfortable to lift.

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

Thats a fact! Auto's are def a little porkier and not a 1 man job most of the time without a tranny jack. I could move the T56 around the garage no problem but on my back under a car thats about a foot and a half off the ground is a different story.

delicious d

great color and project im going to do a similar project and thinking about orange 2 it looks great........good luck with your build

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

Got a little more done on the car today. I was so busy enjoying the gorgeous 70 degree day we had that I didn't work on the car much but it's still something! Got the cowl screen re-painted with some SEM trim black and put the wipers back on and also painted the crash bar and bolted that up. Heres a few pics.

85f-bird

beautiful work in progress. When you're done, i would appreciate if you pack up shop, drive down to Missouri, and we can start working on mine. Ya know, with this attention to detail, you could probably make a career of this sort of thing....ideas, ideas...PS, i'm paid on commission!!!

TPI TERR

iTrader: (9)

Thanks its a work in progress.

That engine bay is way too clean. lol!
What exhaust set up do you have in mind?

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

Hawks has a clean looking 4" muffler-less system that I may buy and just route my downpipe to it. It's a little expensive for a system with no muffler but it looks like nice quality. I'll probably end up welding in a Borla XR1 race muffler as well to keep the drone down. I know the dynamax bullets are popular too but I don't know if I really care for the hollow sound they give the car. We'll see when the time comes but thats my plan for now.

musclecar70sfan

iTrader: (1)

I saw that black firebird on the pike yesterday!! Couldn't find you though lol.

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

LOL where were you?? You should have stopped by and said hi! Were always either at BK or at the DD right next to town fair tire. I was riding shotgun in the black TA (my brothers car).

PM me your cell number and I'll get you mine. Text me next time your down there and I'll let you know if I'm around. Were going to be down there pretty much every weekend now if the weather is decent. It differs though whether we go down sat or sun.

musclecar70sfan

iTrader: (1)

Yep just sent it to ya through FB... we were hanging around there for a little bit but then had to head home lol.

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

Good news! I just worked out a deal with my brother on swapping rear axles since it will work out for the better for both of us. He just picked up a 91 bird that had the very rare SLP dana 44 axle (firehawk axle) in it with 3.55 gearing. His car has way too long of gears with the viper T56 in it so he needs 4.10's. I just so happened to have a freshened up 10 bolt with a rebuilt posi unit and heavy duty cover with 4.10 gears currently in my car so my brother said for my axle and some cash I can have the dana 44!!! Thats great news since the 10 bolt was the weak link in my car before and with the power my brothers car is making, it should hold up fine for him and perform a lot better as well. The lower 3.55's in the 44 rear should be perfect for me as well, having a turbo engine.

Anyways, as soon as we do some swapping, I'll get pics for you. Also got my aluminum LS1 driveshaft in the mail and put the front bumper absorber piece on as well as a few little things here and there. Pics coming soon.

LTL_DMON

iTrader: (1)

So..... when can I order mine? Awesome build, maybe one day I'll be able to do something like this.

camaro1185

Good deal man! Dana 44s are really rare. I think they also came on the TTA.

I have been searching for one for a long time with no luck.

whitedevilTA

iTrader: (8)

I thought the TTA's all had 9 bolts....could be wrong, but I am almost positive the dana 44 was either available in the firehawks or over the counter at GM as a replacement only.


Got a few pics too. We got the dana 44 out of my brothers car and got my 10 bolt out of mine. The 10 bolt is now in his car and boy did it make a huge difference with the 4.10's combined with the T56 he has. Car feels like a new animal so he is happy as well as me for not having to worry about blowing my rear up now!

Swap in progress


Dana 44 (close) compared to the 10 bolt (far). If you look you can clearly see how the dana 44 axle is befier than the 10 bolt.


Here it is. I have already powerwashed it and put a fresh coat of black chassis paint on it since this pic. I'll be making new stainless brake lines as well and cleaning up the LS1 style disc brakes on it and I'll get a pic of it all cleaned up.