Cutlass...TAKE TWO..ACTION!!

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DSPbuilt

G-Body Guru
Jan 7, 2016
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Cape Coral, FL
I guess now would be a good time to start my build thread.
As I said before some might remember my other build from LONG ago. I had an 84 cutlass with a 355/T-5 swap in it. The thread is still here if you're interested in looking it up. I've regretted getting rid of that car every single day. After the Cutlass I had a few mustangs that I really enjoyed but nothing like my cutlass. I recently traded my last mustang for another Cutlass. I've driven the car once and I'm already happier than ever. Here I will try to document my build the best I can. I generally suck at writing.
I like to build things a little different than most.
I've built quite a few cars. JDM, European, Domestic. I like to read on a lot of build and use as much as learn in all my builds. Whether it's something drifters do or rally type build.
I have no one favorite type of build. I enjoy all builds. I enjoy the car culture as a whole (when they're functional that is). Any build that shows passion and dedication deserves respect.

My build while likely have different odd things I have learned from other efficient well built cars that flat out work.

My goals for the car is just a reliable(lol) quick-ish fun car that could be somewhat competitive in several forms of racing. (roll racing, drag, autox, standing mile, half mile)
I've had other pretty quick cars and I've built some pretty fast customer cars. I know I'll never have the fastest cutlass so that is not what plan to try and do with this.

The ultimate goal is 700-ish whp 6spd with big brakes that I would have no worries getting in a driving daily if need be. As far looks I'm leaning toward a ring bothers style build where it racecar but still classy.

Any how on to the build itself.

The car itself is an 85 Cutlass. At the moment its not much just a stock gutted car with a 5.3 and th350.
Here is short list of the plans at this time.

As said before the goal is 700ish wheel.
as far power plant I'm undecided whether it will be turbo or and LSA blower. I leaning towards the LSA because i want the torque all over that power band but it is getting pricey to do the
LSA swaps.

For the trans I while be going with something that might be pretty weird for you guys but its a CD009 from a 350z/370z they're a pretty stout 6spds. A lot of people are using them for swaps on drift cars they are known to take a lot of abuse, eat 800whp even in drag applications in stock form. The trannys themselves are rather cheap around $600 that swap kits are rather expensive usually around ~$1500.


As for suspension. Recently I was up late on OfferUp which is not a good idea but paid off this time. I found a guy selling an 84 Monte SS as I looked closely I noticed red upper control arms. After talking to the guy it turns out the car had UMI control arms front and rear as well as UMI front and rear sway bars. the diff(which is what i was looking for to begin with) is "built 7.5" lol. has an eaton posi and 3.73s with a t/a cover. The car also has a Dakota Digital Dash. Which I cant use but will help me make some money back on the purchase. With in the next couple weeks I plan to swap just about everything I can from the monte to my car.
I'll be taking pics long the way.
in the mean time here are some pics of the monte.
 

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1evilregal

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Apr 23, 2009
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looking forward to watching this one progress.
 

87National

G-Body Guru
Apr 15, 2009
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eastern SD
As said before the goal is 700ish wheel.
as far power plant I'm undecided whether it will be turbo or and LSA blower. I leaning towards the LSA because i want the torque all over that power band but it is getting pricey to do the
LSA swaps.
VS racing billet 7875 would be ideal for 700 whp. Or if you go the twin turbo route......gt35 (or similarity sized).
 
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DSPbuilt

G-Body Guru
Jan 7, 2016
564
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Cape Coral, FL
I will likely go the turbo route for budget reasons. Something about a turbo here a bov there. It’s a lot easier to explain to the wife. Imagine her face when I told her I was buying a car to get parts for mine :oops::oops:
I would love the LSA for simplicity and the nice fat torque curve. I know the turbo will give me power cheaper and will make the power much easier. One of my coworkers has a 2014 Mustang, coyote, full Cobra Jet suspension. We did on a Roush Phase one blower with a smaller pulley and full exhaust. Makes just over 620whp on a custom tune. Let me tell you even with all the suspension tuning we have done on it. That car is such a blast on the street. On a 295/60/15 ET street it still lights them up.

I know the blower will make the power but it’s gonna take a really nice port on the blower. There are plenty of LSA build making nice power, look at Matt’s (sloppy mechanic) LSA 4.8 G35 makes great power for such a simple build. He is also running a CD009 trans
 

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DSPbuilt

G-Body Guru
Jan 7, 2016
564
1,526
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Cape Coral, FL
Well it's finally time for some updates! 2 weeks ago my wife gave birth to our daughter. Fortunately I work for a great company that is very family oriented. So as of 2 weeks ago I am on 12 weeks of PAID parental leave! So I have three months of diaper changing and car building ahead of me!
Today I finally got to actually put in some work. I began to remove most of the interior from the monte and swap some of it over to the cutlass.
i was able to get the door panels and weather strips on the doors. the monte seems to have had the weather strip recently replaced and they are all in really good condition. While I was trying to remove the rear seat back(obviously) the last bolt decided it did not want to be removed and the head stripped. Tomorrow I'm just gonna cut the head off I have plenty of spare seat belt bolts.
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I swapped over the driver mirror as mine was broken.
 
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Injectedcutty

G body LS mafia
Nov 24, 2014
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Congrats on the little girl, I have two girls(4&8) and they've got me pretty wrapped!
I also considered doing an LSA blower setup, but I'll stick to the turbo idea down the road unless I come up with a LSA blower unit for cheap. The Cutlass is looking good, and having a few months to devote to it and the new baby will help the head! Carry on sir!
 
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DSPbuilt

G-Body Guru
Jan 7, 2016
564
1,526
93
Cape Coral, FL
Congrats on the little girl, I have two girls(4&8) and they've got me pretty wrapped!
I also considered doing an LSA blower setup, but I'll stick to the turbo idea down the road unless I come up with a LSA blower unit for cheap. The Cutlass is looking good, and having a few months to devote to it and the new baby will help the head! Carry on sir!

Thank you! We three boys(6,4,2).Being to stay home helps so much except that I still have to deal with the other boss telling me to finish the baby’s room. I want the LSA bad! There was one recently on OfferUp, $900obo COMPLETE minus TB. By the time I messaged him it was gone.
 

mclellan83

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Jun 27, 2017
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Definitely looking forward to the progress on this
 
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