This car has bounced around between a few friends. First acquired by a younger friend of mine in 2010, in stock form for way too much cash. We thought the 305 was too slow, so I built a 98 Vortec L31 for him, installed it with Headman stainless headers, pypes 2.5" exhaust and a manually shifted 4L80E. Used a Holley blue electric fuel pump he acquired with a regulator on the motor to 680cfm Edlebrock carb and away we went. The AC sucked, so we deleted the HVAC. It was mostly stuff I had kicking around, the motor, the trans, etc.
To be clear, the fuel pump would lean out the car or flood it at times... may have been operator error, may not, but after doing it a few times, my younger friend was done. So I acquired it.
It's a fully optioned car.
To be clear, I was not much of a fan. The floor boards were rotted, it was relatively slow in comparison to some of my other cars, so when another friend wanted it for his son, off it went.
They got it running right and drove it a total of about 300 miles in that configuration, but did things like an electric fan, an HEI in place of the MSD stuff, a Dakota Digital converter to run the stock speedo etc.
After a few years of sitting, I needed an SBC for a customers car (a Studebaker). This is a very nice L31, so out it came and we thought about selling it as a roller. Oh and I acquired it back for a Corvette chassis I had kicking around.
Thus we get into the "Might as well phase". I had a very very fresh L33 sitting around with a side mount Whipple super charger on it. The 4L80E was built to handle 500 + hp, so might as well throw it in. I had some GTO headers, but those didn't work in the G Body.
So, the blower the motor was built for doesn't fit and the only headers I had won't work... what do you do?
Go looking through the pile, pull out a H1E turbo from a M939A2 military truck that got a turbo upgrade, that matches the 59lb injectors in the motor... it will run out of steam around 5900 rpm but have a boatload of mid range. Go fishing for some manifolds to mount forward, buy some 2.5" v bands and get the welder out.
That's a truck manifold, cut and flipped forward, but we didn't like the way it worked with the steering column... more in a min, as I hit the 10 pic limit in this post.
We also get out of the might as well phase shortly, as we now have a purpose to this car and more time to think with 18 + inches of snow on the ground.
I am Grendel BTW, I am blessed to own a shop my father started back in the day. He did all restorations, I do hot rods. When he died, the business passed to my twin brother and I. My twin does the pure restoration work, my friends and I bop really fun ideas and projects off each other... things like high rev LS2 motors, COE Chevy trucks on semi chassis and all sorts of things that get to 90% finish rates and passed off to another in the pool.
More in a min, if y'all want it?
To be clear, the fuel pump would lean out the car or flood it at times... may have been operator error, may not, but after doing it a few times, my younger friend was done. So I acquired it.
It's a fully optioned car.
To be clear, I was not much of a fan. The floor boards were rotted, it was relatively slow in comparison to some of my other cars, so when another friend wanted it for his son, off it went.
They got it running right and drove it a total of about 300 miles in that configuration, but did things like an electric fan, an HEI in place of the MSD stuff, a Dakota Digital converter to run the stock speedo etc.
After a few years of sitting, I needed an SBC for a customers car (a Studebaker). This is a very nice L31, so out it came and we thought about selling it as a roller. Oh and I acquired it back for a Corvette chassis I had kicking around.
Thus we get into the "Might as well phase". I had a very very fresh L33 sitting around with a side mount Whipple super charger on it. The 4L80E was built to handle 500 + hp, so might as well throw it in. I had some GTO headers, but those didn't work in the G Body.
So, the blower the motor was built for doesn't fit and the only headers I had won't work... what do you do?
Go looking through the pile, pull out a H1E turbo from a M939A2 military truck that got a turbo upgrade, that matches the 59lb injectors in the motor... it will run out of steam around 5900 rpm but have a boatload of mid range. Go fishing for some manifolds to mount forward, buy some 2.5" v bands and get the welder out.
That's a truck manifold, cut and flipped forward, but we didn't like the way it worked with the steering column... more in a min, as I hit the 10 pic limit in this post.
We also get out of the might as well phase shortly, as we now have a purpose to this car and more time to think with 18 + inches of snow on the ground.
I am Grendel BTW, I am blessed to own a shop my father started back in the day. He did all restorations, I do hot rods. When he died, the business passed to my twin brother and I. My twin does the pure restoration work, my friends and I bop really fun ideas and projects off each other... things like high rev LS2 motors, COE Chevy trucks on semi chassis and all sorts of things that get to 90% finish rates and passed off to another in the pool.
More in a min, if y'all want it?
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) that you can put a little 315 series tire on the back... and we're not afraid to use the plasma or TIG either.
