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  #11  
Old 11-29-2010, 06:09 PM
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Let the tear down begin. Keep us posted Bryan.
The sub frame and rear end look great!
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  #12  
Old 12-03-2010, 04:58 PM
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My DSE goodies arrived yesterday!



And Jake sent me a few more pictures of the completed rear end housing and Watt's Link mount:





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  #13  
Old 12-03-2010, 05:21 PM
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Very nice Bryan.
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  #14  
Old 12-07-2010, 04:33 PM
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Default Dyno plot

I received my dyno data the other day from Golen. I found the data very interesting and thought others might as well....

As a little refresher, the engine is an LS2-based 402ci with L92 heads, lightly ported. Originally it had an L76 intake with a 90 (or 92) mm throttle body. I'm replacing the L76 with an Edelbrock Victor Jr. and 4-barrel throttle body since I want to use a functional shaker scoop with my hood (without crafting an airbox. ).

There are 3 plots on the chart (I created the chart in Excel from the raw data):
  • RED - original 242/248 Golen cam and L76 intake (not completely tuned, which accounts for the much lower torque below 4000rpm)
  • GREEN - my custom grind 234/242 cam and L76 intake
  • LIGHT BLUE - my custom grind 234/242 cam and Edelbrock Victor Jr. intake

Now, I expected to lose some low-end torque with the short runners of the Victor Jr, but I didn't quite expect to lose 60 ft-lb! Don't get me wrong, this engine should have plenty of power for what I want to do with it, but if I ever do decide to go back to a long-runner composite intake, I will know what awaits me.

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  #15  
Old 10-12-2011, 03:35 PM
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So Project TOW has taken a little change of direction... Earlier in the year I decided to sell my house and move (still within Austin), but that left me with the problem of what to do with the Firebird. After a lot of thinking, I decided to sell the car. Tough choice, but I believed that I could find a better starting point, and given that I was going to be living temporarily without a garage, it just made sense.

I've been searching since that time for the next car, and about a month ago I found it. This car was located in New Hampshire, about as far away from Texas as I could get of course. I spent a lot of time on the phone with the seller, he had owned the car since 1988 and had done a complete restoration on the car (including the replacement of much of the sheetmetal) during the 90's. So even though I couldn't see the car in person, it was nice to talk to someone who had actually turned a wrench on the car as compared to so many others that I considered that were 'owned' but not 'built' by their current owners.

The plan for the car remains the same, with the exception that some of the work is going to be done by Jake at JRS. Jake arranged to have the car picked up from the seller (about 3 hours away from him) and now has it at his shop. I flew up last weekend to check it out and make a plan with Jake, and the disassembly should start later this week. Jake's going to do a lot of small projects for me that he and his crew can do a lot faster (and better) than I would do myself, such that when the car gets down to Texas, my part of the project should go a lot faster! I'm closing on a house purchase at the start of November, a house with a nice 2.5 car detached workshop btw, so the timing should work out great for me to have the shop all ready for the car's arrival.

While I originally really wanted a red car, I love the blue on this car! I found a picture of a 72 Trans Am that was painted in a Dodge Viper Blue color with the white stripe, and I fell in love with that combination. This car isn't quite that dark of a blue, but it's darker than the original Lucerne Blue that Pontiac used. I imagine that someday I will paint the whole car, and I'll go with a slightly darker color at that point. Until then, this car will be great!

Jake is going to replace the Formula fenders with a pair of Trans Am fenders, the hood with the VFN hood that I already have, and the nose with a carbon fiber one as well. I would love to do the entire CF front end, but that's just a bit out of the budget at this time I think...

Jake's also going to install or fabricate the following for the car:
  • JRS Watt's Link Bracket
  • DSE Mini-tubs
  • DSE SFC's, modified to allow the subframe to bolt in
  • Muffler-back exhaust to weave through the Watt's
  • Firewall to subframe down-bars
  • 4-point roll bar with removable harness bar
  • JRS Apex front spoiler/splitter
  • Front tow hook

There may be a few more items as well, but this is the plan for now. Should keep him busy for a few weeks, but fell in perfectly between some projects that he had on-going.

Look for more progress pictures now that I am back on track! Hopefully Jake can post a few as he makes progress as well...

Pictures from my visit to JRS earlier this week:







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  #16  
Old 01-11-2012, 02:37 PM
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It's been a while since I've updated this, but Jake has been making progress on TOW. We're close to having it ready to ship back down to me in Texas! The minitubs and SFCs are in, the front sheetmetal has been replaced and repainted, the Watt's mount is in place, the 4-point bar is installed. Hopefully in the next week or so it will be wrapped up and on it's way.

Here are some pictures of the work Jake has done so far:





















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  #17  
Old 01-11-2012, 08:34 PM
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I like the blue better Good luck with this one.
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  #18  
Old 12-13-2012, 10:26 PM
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Time to revive my very old build thread...

Sadly, I haven't done much to this car at all over the last year. But that is about to change. I've been living in an apartment for the last year, and while I've been both house-shopping as well as shop-shopping, neither have worked out for me this year. So unfortunately, I haven't been in a place where I could work on the car.

On top of that, I changed jobs about 3 months ago. I've joined a small tech-startup company (my 5th of these), so my time is also now very limited.

I went through some serious soul-searching about this project, whether I should sell it since I wasn't in a position to work on it, nor did I even have the time to if I had a place. But then about 3 weeks ago, SW posted about his last 2nd gen project, and he finally spilled the beans about his local builder. So I touched base with Eric (Griffith Metal Shaping) and stopped by one Saturday to check out his shop. After a couple hours of conversation, I left with the idea for a new plan for the project.

On these projects, I really enjoy the build phase as much if not more than the driving part. So this wasn't an easy decision for me. But realistically, I wasn't going to make any progress on this car for a long time. And thus, I've decided to let Eric tackle most of the bigger parts of the project for me. I dropped the car off with him on Sunday (after running it out of gas and stranding myself on the side of a highway for about an hour, ugh!), and then on Monday we sat down and made a plan for what I want done.

Here she was before I dropped her off. The only thing I've done this year is add the stripes to the car:



Since Monday, Eric has jumped right in.

End of day 1:



End of day 2:





Well that was quick, although admittedly these cars do come apart pretty quickly... He's almost at a point where he's going to be stalled until I get him some parts! That is going to happen on Saturday. I have a truck and a friend lined up to load up everything and delivery it across town to him.

Last night I made up my list of parts which I need to order, and I jumped into that today by ordering my 3rd member from Strange. I'll work on the other pieces over the next few days.

If all goes as I hope, I should have the car on the road in the spring. Realistically, my holdup is going to be ordering a set of wheels/tires for the car. I am not placing the order until we have everything assembled again in order to check fitment. Figuring those will take 5 or 6 weeks to arrive, that's going to cost me some time. But everything else should go together pretty quickly I think.

Since he's joined the site here, hopefully Eric can keep the picture coming as he makes progress on the car. We're not doing any paint/bodywork on the car, other than filling the firewall hole, so that should let us make good project on it.

On another note, I should probably change the name of this project. It's stranded me 3 times now, and I haven't driven it more than 15 times in the year that I've had it. Bad omen! And the 'other' woman that the car was named for is no longer in the picture, so perhaps it will become the 'only' woman for a while.

I'm really looking forward to getting this thing on the road. I've been looking at it everyday for the last year, so I'm excited!
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  #19  
Old 12-15-2012, 03:52 AM
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This is going to be great when you finish it... Did you keep that. Front subframe somewhere to use it now.. Or are you picking up another set up?
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  #20  
Old 12-15-2012, 07:01 AM
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Very cool Bryan, keep it up you will get it done!
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