When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
My 1987 TA clone, LS swap, supercharger and lots of other goodies
Just got her back on the road yesterday for some first tuning runs! She's a beast!
Original car is a 1987 formula 350, upgraded to 383 HSR (car was stolen and gutted) then had a 521 BBF and now has a 5.3LS with centri supercharger.
Everything on the car was done by me, engine, trans, rear, body work and paint.
Engine
99 Silverado 5.3 with 150k
LS6 valve springs
GM fbody oil pan
72lb Bosch injectors, billet LS fuel rails
Torque storm supercharger 3" pulley
Snow performance stage 1 meth kit, dual reservoirs, Devils own check valve
HV LS1 water pump
130amp alt
Stock PS pump with 5" smaller pulley
Howe 28x19 fabbed radiator 2 core
Mark VI 2 speed fan with controller
160tstat 30/70mix with wetter, 16lb cap
Trans and rear
2004R upgraded to 800hp with billet parts
2400 stall billet converter
Denny's nitrous ready i breakable 3" driveshaft
Ford 8.8, 3.55 gears
Brakes
13" BAER black label fronts
11.5" stock ford rear with drilled and slotted rotors
Custom hydroboost setup, SSBC proportion valve, all new brake lines, stock MC
Suspension
Hand maid weight jacks front and rear
Racecraft moly Kmember
UMI tubular front control arms
Hot part caster camber plates
UMI rod end rear LCAs
UMI rod end PHB
Founders PHB relocation
Jegster style tunnel tubular tq arm
8pt roll bar
Custom STB
KYB AGX struts, Viking rear adjustable shocks
850 front springs, 175 rear
Interior
Summit cloth racing seats, custom mounts
New Newark carpet
Full speed hut custom gauges and layout
Innovated PSB1 boost/WB02
AEM meth flow gauge
Stewart Warner trans temp
B&M mega shifter
1 touch express window conversion
Exterior
Aftermarket cheap TA fenders
86 TA front bumper, GFX and rear bumper
Z28 high rise spoiler
4" cowl glasstek bolt on hood
Aero latch hood pins
4 bixenon projector lazy eye pop up headlights
Medium dark charcoal metallic single stage with 2 coats clear paint
1.25" front billet spacers, rear 1/2" slip on spacers
18x9.5" OEreplica C6 Z06 machined face black wheels in 275 sumitomo HTRZ II tires
Re: My 1987 TA clone, LS swap, supercharger and lots of other goodies
Originally Posted by customblackbird
Just got her back on the road yesterday for some first tuning runs! She's a beast!
Original car is a 1987 formula 350, upgraded to 383 HSR (car was stolen and gutted) then had a 521 BBF and now has a 5.3LS with centri supercharger.
Everything on the car was done by me, engine, trans, rear, body work and paint.
Engine
99 Silverado 5.3 with 150k
LS6 valve springs
GM fbody oil pan
72lb Bosch injectors, billet LS fuel rails
Torque storm supercharger 3" pulley
Snow performance stage 1 meth kit, dual reservoirs, Devils own check valve
HV LS1 water pump
130amp alt
Stock PS pump with 5" smaller pulley
Howe 28x19 fabbed radiator 2 core
Mark VI 2 speed fan with controller
160tstat 30/70mix with wetter, 16lb cap
Trans and rear
2004R upgraded to 800hp with billet parts
2400 stall billet converter
Denny's nitrous ready i breakable 3" driveshaft
Ford 8.8, 3.55 gears
Brakes
13" BAER black label fronts
11.5" stock ford rear with drilled and slotted rotors
Custom hydroboost setup, SSBC proportion valve, all new brake lines, stock MC
Suspension
Hand maid weight jacks front and rear
Racecraft moly Kmember
UMI tubular front control arms
Hot part caster camber plates
UMI rod end rear LCAs
UMI rod end PHB
Founders PHB relocation
Jegster style tunnel tubular tq arm
8pt roll bar
Custom STB
KYB AGX struts, Viking rear adjustable shocks
850 front springs, 175 rear
Interior
Summit cloth racing seats, custom mounts
New Newark carpet
Full speed hut custom gauges and layout
Innovated PSB1 boost/WB02
AEM meth flow gauge
Stewart Warner trans temp
B&M mega shifter
1 touch express window conversion
Exterior
Aftermarket cheap TA fenders
86 TA front bumper, GFX and rear bumper
Z28 high rise spoiler
4" cowl glasstek bolt on hood
Aero latch hood pins
4 bixenon projector lazy eye pop up headlights
Medium dark charcoal metallic single stage with 2 coats clear paint
1.25" front billet spacers, rear 1/2" slip on spacers
18x9.5" OEreplica C6 Z06 machined face black wheels in 275 sumitomo HTRZ II tires
Re: My 1987 TA clone, LS swap, supercharger and lots of other goodies
Originally Posted by Edwardgp
Very nice. I am running a 454 in my 83 coupe and was just wondering how you like the 8.8 rear end.
Worked great thus far. I still run the stock 28 spline ford axles and hasn't broken yet. Stock trac lock with SVO carbon fiber clutches, ARP cap studs, moser support girdle and ray tech solid pinon spacer. Besides the tq arm mount and transferring all the stuff from my 9bolt it's been trouble free.
Re: My 1987 TA clone, LS swap, supercharger and lots of other goodies
Looks great man liked your car from the start so looks amazing now!!! Great job and cool to see some different ideas with headlights, spoiler, previous bbf engine
Re: My 1987 TA clone, LS swap, supercharger and lots of other goodies
Originally Posted by maks10
Looks great man liked your car from the start so looks amazing now!!! Great job and cool to see some different ideas with headlights, spoiler, previous bbf engine
Thank u, car feels much different as its alittle sluggish down low compared to the raw tq of the BBF. Esp below the 2400 stall (wat it stalled with the BBF) so I'm not sure of the stall as of now but like 2500ish + the car is much more fun to drive.
Headlights are pretty good, no wet weather approved but thinking I might upgrade to the new 7.0 minis and doing a projector in the fog light as they glare too much with HIDs.
Re: My 1987 TA clone, LS swap, supercharger and lots of other goodies
Originally Posted by lswon
Very clean engine bay! Have you considered wetsanding the paint? It's a nice color but kinda blurry looking
Thanks, and yes I have considered. I actually just threw a stock hood on it and painted that (something happened in the clear coat and it didnt turn out good). I will eventually wetsand with 1000/1500 and buff but Haven't ever dont the buffing before. Paint was new last summer so I didnt want to sand/buff being so fresh. This year with the new motor/exhaust/setup and tuning I haven't had alot of time to do anything like that. I will eventually do it tho lol. Just driving it as of now and enjoying it.
Some areas came out better than others. Front bumper is very smooth, fenders not so great. roof/rear quarters not very glossy compared to the bumpers car was done in peices with $250 worth of paint including the guns lol it was just to get it all one color!
Re: My 1987 TA clone, LS swap, supercharger and lots of other goodies
Lol the cruising isn't the fun part per say, its nice to cruise comfortably compared to the 521. The "feeling" comes when you mash the pedal the boost builds and vroooooom! lol. Cruising is just the waste of time from when I can floor it again lol.
The setup has changed quite a bit actually. Now I run a FMIC, Dual BOV's, dual nozzle water/meth injection with progressive controller, Air dam mods, glowshift dual air temp gauge so i can see temp drop from supercharger to after meth injection. Removed and sold 4" exhaust and swapped to a 3" summit catback with CME 4th gen dual center exhaust tips. Headlight openings have been filled in. Had to swap to a smaller case alternator to clear the stock hood or cut the hood bracing. The Alt is a powermaster black powdercoated 165amp and does pretty good at idle for charging even with the MarkVIII fan on both speeds.
Car is doing very well and try to take it to work 1-2 times a week and 1 local show if weather permits.
Last edited by customblackbird; 08-17-2016 at 09:32 AM.
Re: My 1987 TA clone, LS swap, supercharger and lots of other goodies
Ended up cleaning and painting the stock valve covers with 500*F engine primer and then 4 coats of VHT wrinkle paint and baked it at 200*F for 1 hr. They came out real nice and I plants to do it on other parts like the water pump etc when I pull it for a cam/head swap.
These pics show the OEM used 585 heat sink coils on their OEM bracket. I had billet brackets but they pushed the coils down to far and I burned a plug wire on the header. Can't say I feel a difference in power but they look alittle nicer than the 581 truck coils.
Re: My 1987 TA clone, LS swap, supercharger and lots of other goodies
Agreed, 4.5" cowl made street driving a little scary trying to look over the cowl and draws attention. Stock hood I get the viewing back and also less attention.
Re: My 1987 TA clone, LS swap, supercharger and lots of other goodies
Originally Posted by customblackbird
Agreed, 4.5" cowl made street driving a little scary trying to look over the cowl and draws attention. Stock hood I get the viewing back and also less attention.
Stock hood makes the car look much better than the cowl. I've been thinking of going with the early t/a and formula hood as well. Just makes the car look sleeker. Great work so far! Car is definitely bad ***.
Re: My 1987 TA clone, LS swap, supercharger and lots of other goodies
Thanks guys. Big fan of the stock hood as well as the 3rd gens are very sleek/aero dynamic and the cowl didn't flow. I did like how it followed the windshield curve tho and the crap ton of room it allowed in the engine bay lol. But for looks and driving the stocker is a must.
I will only run the early hood or bulge hood as that's my favorite. I don't like the stocker or the TA. And it took me like 2 months to find this one for $100 which had some dents and needed a smidge of bodywork. Normal cost of these hoods is much more. My 87 formula 350 had this hood on it stock but I junked it after a deer put 30 dents on it... Hindsight I wish I never junked it.
Re: My 1987 TA clone, LS swap, supercharger and lots of other goodies
Hahaha yea my moms commentary gotta love it. Eh a lot of people think I have a squeaky belt that stops squeaking the more gas I give it. That's how I know it's a sleeper.
Re: My 1987 TA clone, LS swap, supercharger and lots of other goodies
Took it out to a show today/tonight and decided it was time for WOT and datalogs on the way home. Floored her and she's flyin. All done by 5200 but 3500-5k is great. So reviewing the datalogs I got her running pretty good except at high load lower RPM like cruising at 2500 at 85mph in OD with a locked converter. Where it richens up pretty good. But it's gravy other where else and this is in open loop so no 02 corrections just the VE table, PE and BE.
Here's a quick pic to show the proof! Hit 180.6kpa at 5300 Rpms which equates out to 11.87psi boost! Whoop whoop.
But I def want to be able to spin this thing to 6000 so it looks like a cam is going in. I've already recieved my morel lifters, Howard high lift springs, rockers for a straub bushing retrofit, used Lq9 cam and just ordered some reman 862 heads. Then it's just gaskets and possibly pushrods and I need to get ARP head bolts. 180.6kpa and 18* timing. And my 72lb injectors are at 69.2%
05-15-2016, 01:35 PM
