I am the proud owner As of today of a 2000 Trans Am Ws6 with 21K on the Clock

[sciff5]

Originally Posted by bigleman

i read where you said the lugs helped the vibration, have you tried having the wheels/tires rebalanced?

you might have knocked off a weight with all the work going on
just a thought

Tires are deff balanced the vibration is the same no matter what wheel/tire combo I have on

[sciff5]

Only thing left to check that I can think of is driveline angle, even though I've been told over and over that with the stock rear end and a car like this the probability of it being a driveline angle issue is basically nill.. I've tried everything else and deff frustrated so if this isn't it than again I dont know what it could be.

Just waiting for this thing to ship
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00948295000P

Since its so accurate with a little rigging I should be able to adjust camber with it too.

[Zog]

it seems like it has to be driveline issue. it only happens on-throttle, right? maybe try a whole new driveshaft. everything could look fine, but at speed not be. If the angle is right then I think it's got to be driveshaft related.

[sciff5]

I figured the Wiring would bury me in this swap and it seems like the nuts/bolts mechanical issue is the thing burying me although I'm not out of the woods with the wiring either.


Heres the symtoms
Car drives well around town and vibration starts to become noticible around 40-45 and then peaks in violence at about 60-65. At this speed the vibration is what I would call low frequency vibration (my fuel cell which I unbolted and is hanging off a single bolt visible bounces up and down at this speed) that obviously increases in frequency as the car goes faster. The vibration is worse when I accelerate at all even ever so slightly. When I'm off the gas it does get better though. The vibration originates clearly from the rear of the car and you can feel it through the seat then as you move faster the vibration starts to be a higher frequency and moves through the floor boards and then throughout the car (even shakes the rearview mirror to the point you cant see whats behind you, like haveing a big subwoofer in the car for you audio guys) Car has delrin differential and rear subframe mounts which do transmit noticible gear whine noise into the car but I dont think its possible that a vibration like this could be transmitted just by the bushings.

So the vibration is deff speed related but is also tied to whether you accelerate or coast/decelerate.

What I've done so far
-Thought it was a bad U-joint so I pulled the driveshaft and brought it to get it checked out and balanced. They said the ujoints were fine but they rebalanced the driveshaft. Put the driveshaft back in, and made zero difference.

-Changed the tires just in case and had them balanced, No difference

-Swapped the halfshafts as excess play in the inner CVs can cause a vibration like a bad u joint. Made zero difference.

- Checked driveline angle today of tranny and rear diff in relation to the driveshaft.

Got my angle finder got the angle of the driveshaft, then zeroed it out and took the angle of the tranny (and verified it using the top of the intake manifold. The tranny was sloping down towards the back of the car 3 degrees in relation to the driveshaft. Then measured the angle of the rear end and what do you know its sloping up 4.5 degrees in relation to the driveshaft. So I felt better figuring alright they arent equal I know this can create driveline vibrations. Problem is the rear end is already as low as I can put it. I even put spacers between the rear subframe mount and the body to space the rear subframe down a bit and pull the nose of the differential down a bit, and I've already spaced the tranny down to the point where you can barely thread the nuts onto the bolts of the tranny mounts. So basically the tranny is already as low as it can go without modifying grannys trranny mount and the front of the rear diff is already as low as it can go. So I said well lets try something.

I couldent bring the car on the road today, because its been snowing like crazy. So I jacked the back end of the car and put it on jack stands with the wheels off the ground. I then unbolted the tranny mount all together and literally let the engine/tranny hang by the motor mounts. That gave me 4 degrees of downward slope (not an ideal situation by any meens and still doesnt equal the 4.5 degrees of upward slope of the rear end but closer) well I started up the car and got the wheels up to speed and the car vibrated like usual. Shut it down and then I jacked the tranny back up into place and re-bolted it to the tranny mounts (back where I had it originally) turned the car back on and brought it up to speed and again same ****. Vibration clearly coming from the rear. And the 1 degree difference in tranny angle didnt make **** difference.

Took the wheels off and did it again just to be sure it wasnt the wheels and it wasnt.

I know when the wheels are hanging the halfshafts are at odd angles and may cause a vibration in its self but like I said I couldent even get the car a foot down my driveway so I couldent bring it on the highway but the vibration on the jackstands happened at the same speed and in the same fashion as the original vibration.

So now I know the angles of the drivetrain arent perfect and I should fix them but I dont know how its physically possible, but even more interesting is the fact that I dont think the lion share of this vibration is because of the inequalities of the driveline angles. I think its something more rearward in the rear end/ half shafts wheels, In that area.

[sciff5]

I'm gonna tear into it tomorrow. I am gonna disconnect the half shafts first see where that gets me. Then if that doesnt make any difference I'll disconnect the driveshaft from the rear end and pull it. Hell I didnt think I was gonna be pulling the rear end/suspension again but while its out I also might as well do the DTSS eliminator bushings.

[sciff5]

Took the halfshafts off and it still vibrated... although wierdly not as much but still no where near acceptable. So the rest of the day was spent pulling the half shafts, pulling the exhaust. Tomorrow I need to get another jack and drop the rear subframe.. While the subframe is out I am gonna try and loosen up the toe adjusters (which are frozen in place) and get the DTSS eliminators installed.


Pics from today
Pulling the car appart





Driveshaft did have what looked like it might be some wear on the very tip of of the slip yolk






And finally my sentiments about the car and project cars in general
Its a love/hate relationship




Tomorrow hopefully I'll get the other diff in place and test it out but the girlfriend clipped a car with her 4 runner and took her side mirror off.. and now expects me to run to the junk yard and install a new one for her. I tried to tell her plenty of cars back in the day didnt come with a passenger side mirror so she should be fine.

[AceofSpds]

Is your differential welded? When i had a bent LCA on my s14 w/ the welded diff it did something similar. I hope its nothing major man, that would suck if it turns out the rear subframe was jacked up or something.

[sciff5]

Originally Posted by AceofSpds

Is your differential welded? When i had a bent LCA on my s14 w/ the welded diff it did something similar. I hope its nothing major man, that would suck if it turns out the rear subframe was jacked up or something.

Diff isnt welded. I got an alignment and I dont think anything is bent. They didnt even need to adjust the rear suspension everything was within spec already. Front toe was screwed but thats because I pulled the steering rack during the swap.

[sciff5]

Wow long day. Pulled the rear subframe/diff and noticed the rubber front diff mount was cracked. Good thing I pulled this diff or I would have had an issue anyway. I then took the spare diff filled her up as well as as actually cutting down the tube in the middle of the rear diff mounts. So that the rear diff mounts very close to the bottom of the car with only a thin peice of rubber isolating it. Which actually seems great. Then I actually mounted the cup that bolts up under the diff mount to hold it in place upside down which seems to be a perfect job at holding the diff in place. Seems like almost a solid mount but with just some rubber isolation. This pic should give you an idea of whats goin on.



In comparison Look at how thick the delrin mounts are. I HIGHLY HIGHLY suggest than anyone installing these shave them down A LOT. These were actually making my pinion angle even worse than stock.



And finally I spaced my pinion snubber down more. Now it looks nicely preloaded and should really help wheel hop



Finally I think I've achieved what I thought was impossible. I dropped the rear subframe mounts even further and with the rear of the diff sitting closer to the underside of the car. I bolted everything back in place and then took some quick measurements and was seeing approx 3 degrees of pinion angle I am so happy I cant belive I got it down to a reasonable angle. I am gonna bolt everything else back in place tomorrow and keeping fingers crossed it helps vibration. After trying a few different angles earlier today my driveline angle is at least part of the total vibration I'm dealing with.

[sciff5]

Put the driveshaft back in and everything was ****ty as usual.

Pulled the driveshaft right back out and brought it to the shop. He is gonna look at it again. Like I said there is some wear at the very tip of the slip yolk.. Only thing I can think of is the driveshaft is too short and is creating that vibration. I just thought of another thing. I should have run the engine without a driveshaft at all to make sure its not the tranny but I doubt it is anyway.

I'll let you guys know... I may need to get this driveshaft lengthened though

[sciff5]

Also did some more bushings while the rear suspenion/rear end was out.

Got the rear steer eliminator bushings installed after about 4 hours.

The rx7s had a passive rear steer system that used a bushing that would flex under cornering to change rear toe. After 20 years though these bushings are like jello and the toe changes randomly going over bumps or under acceleration ect. The eliminators are delrin so they eliminate the system all together.

Hopefully it will stop the car from feeling like its moving side to side when going over bumps and help wheel hop some more.

Its a dirty time consuming job but I miss these simple jobs where I actually feel like I know what I'm doing.


Pulling the old bushing using a 5 ton jaw puller from the zone


EVerything appart.


Old bushing out, the center pushed out and then I had to cut the metal sleeve and then push that out, kinda a PITA like most bushing jobs.


New bushings installed

[natespence]

Seeing as the trans am you pulled the tranny out of smashed into a tree backwards at 70 mph, you just might have a bent output shaft in the tranny. This happens quite often in bad accidents of that nature. This is Nate from Atlantic Subaru btw..

good luck with your car, I think its pretty sweet. Stop by the dealer sometime when your down here, Id love to check it out!

[Zog]

man jawpullers are a whole lot more fun with an impact. they suck bad with an old fashioned wrench.

now that you mention it the tranny itself is the only thing you really haven't checked, right? good luck.

[sciff5]

Originally Posted by natespence

Seeing as the trans am you pulled the tranny out of smashed into a tree backwards at 70 mph, you just might have a bent output shaft in the tranny. This happens quite often in bad accidents of that nature. This is Nate from Atlantic Subaru btw..

good luck with your car, I think its pretty sweet. Stop by the dealer sometime when your down here, Id love to check it out!

Hey man!

Been down the cape almost every day but I've been working on the car. Wired the dash today so my factory gauge cluster works.

The output shaft being damaged is a good idea. Deff havent thought about it but I hope thats not it. Only thing that would lead me to think its prob not anything in the tranny is the fact I dont feel vibrations through the shifter.

Still could be the output shaft.. if the driveshaft work doesnt fix it, I may put that next on the list.. I meen it would friggen suck to pull the tranny but now is a better time than any while I have the car on the stands and the tranny mount off and the exhaust off. Hell If I had the tranny out I could put the clutch in as well. Still hope thats not it but I'm suprised you didnt hear my car go by I diagnose my highway vibrations by going by subaru and getting on the highway and taking the first exit and looping back around.

[sciff5]

Had to go back down to my rents place where the car is to do some laundry so while waiting for a couple loads I re-pinned the harness for the factory gauge cluster. Now everything works perfectly

My very organized workspace

[natespence]

Well I can't hear **** from the air guns goin all day lol. Although Im surprised I havent seen you either since I road test cars all day. A kid I work with has a black STi with black wheels, maybe you've seen him. He lives in Bourne.

[natespence]

Hey if you want I could probably set up a time on a Saturday to put your car on a lift and check the vibration. I can get someone to drive it while its in the air and look around underneath to see whats up. We do it all the time with subarus to check wheel bearings and what not. PM me with your number if your interested.

[sciff5]

Big thanks to Nate. Thanks buddy it was good meetin you. He can attest to this thing being pretty roudy right now. Btw on the way home the car stopped misfiring cause we were playing with that green wire. I really need to fix that this week.

Anyway I had just go the car back together mostly and brought it out on the highway to test it as usual, as usual it made no difference. So seeing as I was going by Subaru anyway I figured I'de stop by and see if Nate was there. We got the car on the lift and the only thing we could see was visibly really wrong was one of m halfshafts is wobbling even though the cv joints dont seem to have any play in them. I got the car off the lift and the next day I tore into it. I pulled the halfshafts and ran the engine up to speed and it still vibrated so theres more than likely something wrong with my halfshafts and driveshaft. I then pulled the driveshaft and took a spare slip yoke I had sitting around and slipped it into the tranny and ran the car up to speed with just the yoke in place. No vibrations at all, man would I be happy if this is how my car felt.

Great to know once and for all its deff not my tranny although when the car was up on the lift we didnt feel any vibrations coming from the tranny anyway.

I asked Nate who he recommended to rebuild my halfshafts and took his advice. I brought both sets of half shafts and my driveshaft to cape cod axle and the guy there is gonna tear everything appart and check everything.

I didnt even think they could spin balance drivshaft assemblys, I always thought they pulled the ends off the driveshaft and balanced just the shaft. He said he would also tear appart the half shafts check the bars the cv joints everything. I talked his ear off for about 15 minutes telling him everything I had already gone through and he seemed pretty sure he'd be able to find the problem. He seemed like a pretty cool guy he took one look at the used slip yoke Rhode Island driveshaft put on my driveshaft and he said I wouldent sell that to anyone. He thinks the reason I was having so much trouble sliding the yoke into the tranny was because it was rusty and pitted. I thought the yoke was actually too long and I may have been damaging some internal seal forcing it into the tranny so he gave me a brand new spicer slip yoke with the same part number to see if it would slide in easier and it slid all the way in no problem. So no worries about having damaged a seal . Just need to get rid of that yoke and get a new one.

He said the yoke being so pitted also may be why the rear seal of the tranny wasnt creating an adequate seal and why it was leaking. I think I'm finally closing in on this thing and getting close to finally squashing this gremlin.

Getting help from people who know what they're doin helps too

[D Love]

Hopefully this will fix your problems.

[sciff5]

Got an update from the place working on my driveshaft and halfshafts.

Hes gone through the driveshaft and found that it was NOT balanced at all. In the back of the driveshaft (where I felt the vibration) he needed to add not a little but a good bit of weight.

He doesnt weld aluminum so he epoxied the weight on. He said it should be fine and I know its a pretty common practice but still makes me nervous when this driveshaft is going to be spinning about 8000 rpm. He is also replacing the yoke with a brand new one.

I think the fact that the yoke rhode island driveshaft gave me is so pitted is why that seal is leaking. I the leak stops when I get the new yoke on there I'll know thats what it was. This still may not fix my issues but safe to say RHODE ISLAND DRIVESHAFT RIPPED ME OFF. They charged me 110$ and I got nothing but over a month of headache in return.


He also tore down the halfshafts but hasnet gone through them yet.

This is ****in expensive

Rhode island driveshaft charged me
$84 to balance the driveshaft (and didnt do it)
$25 for a used spicer 2-3-6081x slip yoke

Cape cod Axle is going to charge me
$75 to balance the driveshaft
$60 for a new spicer 2-3-6081x slip yoke
$75 x 2 to rebuild each half shaft.

I dont know about you guys but I am going to try this new driveshaft and halfshafts and if my vibration is gone afterwards I think I should ask for my money back from Rhode Island driveshaft.

[sciff5]

Today the skys opened and a ray of sunshine has decended from the heavens.. Not really it actually was was cold and rainy, but thats how it felt.

This is the weight the second shop added


After about a 6 hour day getting my electrical system and fuel system in place I put the driveshaft in and put some gas in her. Got her up to speed and shes positivly smooth as glass

I still need to make sure it doesnt vibrate on the highway, but there was a vibration with the driveshaft in before and now theres not. I got RIPPED. But I think I'll be ready for track opening

While I was down there I also got the car NHRA legal







I also wired the clutch safety switch in too.

If all stays good I will be running her at the track next week. Keeping fingers crossed

[Dhunterx]

Originally Posted by sciff5

Got an update from the place working on my driveshaft and halfshafts.

Hes gone through the driveshaft and found that it was NOT balanced at all. In the back of the driveshaft (where I felt the vibration) he needed to add not a little but a good bit of weight.

He doesnt weld aluminum so he epoxied the weight on. He said it should be fine and I know its a pretty common practice but still makes me nervous when this driveshaft is going to be spinning about 8000 rpm. He is also replacing the yoke with a brand new one.

I think the fact that the yoke rhode island driveshaft gave me is so pitted is why that seal is leaking. I the leak stops when I get the new yoke on there I'll know thats what it was. This still may not fix my issues but safe to say RHODE ISLAND DRIVESHAFT RIPPED ME OFF. They charged me 110$ and I got nothing but over a month of headache in return.


He also tore down the halfshafts but hasnet gone through them yet.

This is ****in expensive

Rhode island driveshaft charged me
$84 to balance the driveshaft (and didnt do it)
$25 for a used spicer 2-3-6081x slip yoke

Cape cod Axle is going to charge me
$75 to balance the driveshaft
$60 for a new spicer 2-3-6081x slip yoke
$75 x 2 to rebuild each half shaft.

I dont know about you guys but I am going to try this new driveshaft and halfshafts and if my vibration is gone afterwards I think I should ask for my money back from Rhode Island driveshaft.

Personally I would go and b**** out the first shop. Show up with the paper work for the second shop and ask why they charged for a job they obviously didn't do. Car looks like it's come a long way though, congrats on finally (hopefully) getting it to run.

[sciff5]

Got the car out today with the newly balanced driveshaft/halfshafts and we can pretty much put an end to the vibration issue... almost. The car was smooth as glass. It was great. I got it on the highway and I didnt get a half mile before BANGG!

So I pull over, its dark. I look under the car and look to see if anything is going on. The car seems to be driving fine though and I cant see anything out of place. I drive the car right home and notice man.. this car is vibrating..wtf is goin on?

Then it clicked.. the ****in weight the guy had just epoxied on came off at only about 60mph (think of if it was 120) after only a half mile. Get the car up in the air and what do you know the weight is gone.

Lol 2 steps forward one back.. I'll drop the exhaust tomorrow and pull the driveshaft lol I cant even be mad at this point. I feel so much better at least knowing whats causing the vibration that the extra labor getting it repaired again doesnt even bother me that much.

Otherwise the car ran perfect. I have ZERO wheel HOP after my homemade hockey puck differential mounts and a ghetto thing I added.. I basically put a huge ratchet strap around the top of the front of the diff and then around the rear subframe. Its an 11000lb strap and doesnt really fit too well but I know between the strap and the pinion snubber theres no way I'm breaking the front diff mount. I might take the strap off but it seems to be working for me.

[bigleman]

looks like you were right to be nervous about the epoxy
find someone who will weld it on so it will never be an issue

[sciff5]

So lately I've been working on the drivetrain trying to get sorted the cluster **** that Rhode Island driveshaft created.

Now that I'm finally through that.. or at least it seems that way, I got to the misfire today. Turns out it was a little more than just a misfire. Cylinder 2 was barely firing, and 4 was misfiring. Cylinder 4 is due to a bad connection... which still isnt perfect but I put some tension on the connecter by the coil pack and cylinder 4 comes back online 100%. Drove the car and the backfiring studdering was reduced but not gone. So I get back to the garage after driving around in the pouring rain with the windows down because the whole car foggs up to the point you cant see under any window and sticking your head out the window or continuously wiping the windshield is the only way to see.

So now to get to cylinder 2. Which is barely firing. I change the plug first even though the plugs look good. didnt help. So I took the coilpack and moved it to see if the problem would follow and it didnt. So I pull the spark plug wire and replace it with an old one I had. Get a good look at the nice expensive MSD wire I just pulled and the boot was torn and the thing was messed up.. Start the car back up and bring it for another drive.. Looks like I'm finally back to a v8 instead of a v6/v7. Car is pulling way too hard for wet roads, no back firing, no backloading/stuttering. In fact now rolling around town in 6th gear is no problem with no stuttering. Car runs a lot better. Hopefully it doesnt give me any further issues.


The rest of the day was just putting the car back together. Getter the masses of wires throughout the car wrapped up, remounting the pcm and putting the interior/ gauges and stuff back in.

As the car sits it should be ready to run at the track. I just need to add another 1/8th" peice of flat stock to my homemade ghetto hockey puck differential mounts above the hockey pucks. Looking at my current setup if the hocky puck fails its possible, but highly unlikely the differential could bend the flat stock out of the way and come disconnected from the car.. Not really possible but when doing homemade engineering its always good to go with overkill as a game plan.
Heres what I'm talking about





I thought it was ghetto of course but it works fantastic. I havent had any wheel hop since. But seeing as I've been getting flamed like no other by everyone I promised I'de re-do it with some homemade polyurethane mounts instead of the hockey pucks

Things left to do before hitting the track.
-Get a helmet
-Get the panel that used to cover the stock fuel pump or make a panel from sheet metal
-Tighten hood pins
-Finish putting everything in the car back together
-Adjust rear camber to zero or as close as possible
-Mount the drag radials
-Make or find top radiator mounts
-Bleed the brakes again
-Adjust the fuel level sending unit for full/empty

And finally drive the car as much as possible to make sure any issues show themselves before the track including some top speed runs. I hope to run this week, but I said that last week too.. and it ended up getting rained out, as it probably will this week too but the car should be NHRA legal now.

[sciff5]

Lol btw I forgot to tell you about what happened after the epoxied weight fell off the driveshaft. I brought it back to cape cod axle and the guy balanced the driveshaft again and then sent me down the street to get the weights welded on. Lol get it tacked on. So I get back to my house pull the driveshaft out of the trunk and look at the weight welded on there and notice the welds look cracked now.. just 10 mins ago at the shop they were fine.. Wtf.

So I touch the welds and the weight moves a little bit, I grab the weight between my fingers and I try to move it a bit and the welds shattered and the weight fell right off. LOL

So I bring it ight back and the next time they dont mess around. They didnt want to add too much weight in welding material to the driveshaft becaue it will throw off the balance but this time around the drill a hole in the weight and plug weld it, which is a lot stronger but the balance may not be perfect. That being said I didnt notice any vibration on the highway any more.

Just thought it was funny. just my luck the welds would shatter. At least it did it before I got the driveshaft on the car.

[D Love]

Congrats on finally getting the vibration issues, and misfiring figured out. Can't wait to see some #'s at the track.

[Kyle00]

you ruined a perfectly good hockey puck

[sciff5]

Thanks guys , unfortunatly the misfire came back today. I'm almost positive its right at the connector that feeds the coil packs on that cylinder bank. I could prob hack that connector out and get some aftermarket connectors and splice them in but I really dont wanna hack up the harness any more than it already is.

When the car was running on all 8 it was runnin pretty good otherwise it was sputtering and backfiring under any load. I got the drag radials on hoping for some more traction, but I still cant mat it to the floor in first even rolling without spinning the drag radials. That surprised me a little. It spun first, seemed to clean up the tires a bit and I hit second and it stuck. I felt like I was starting to push the car a bit.. and then reviewed my max values for the day. I never hit 100% throttle position so I never actually hit WOT and although I thought I shifted close to redline, max rpm for the day was only 5700.. still leaving a lot on the table power wise.

Did get a few things done today, although I admit I spent too much time just enjoying the nice weather and driving the car around the cape. I did get the hoodpins tightened up, I did clean up the wiring just basically wrapping things up and getting the harness protectors on and wrapping/tucking wires throughout the car so thinks look at least a bit organized. I got some more flat stock and made a second det of diff mounts to make absolutly sure my hocky puck mounts are going anywhere. The diff is now held in place with a 1/4" of steel on either side and a huge fender washer. Its deff not going anywhere

Was a great day down the cape though, skys were clear all day and I ended up driving the car around for about an hour and a half. Knock on wood everything except for he misfire seems to be working well. I need seat time with this car. Its not stupid fast, its just stupid powerful for the amount of control I feel I have or dont have. This thing is getting sideways whether you want it to or not and I'm not going WOT yet, I'm not powershifting I'm not launching the car. I'm basically driving semi agressivly and still find myself saying wow this is gonna be an adjustment to get comfortable in this thing.

It wierd I'm kinda scared to push the car too hard yet before getting more seat time but I already wanna make it faster. ;D

[sciff5]

Ha HAA fixed my misfire. It was a connector on the harness the whole time creating a loose connection and thus my car running on anything from 6 to 8 cylinders. 2 wires feeding 2 of the coil packs were loose so I just cut those wires on both sides of the connector and used a connector I had laying around, that used to feed the coils for the rotary.

Car runs 8 cylinders all the time. car runs smooth and strong. Again I kinda spent the whole day driving it around again but today I really enjoyed it for the first time ever. Car has enough torque I can cruise around town at 35/40 in 6th gear or I can start it in 3rd easily. When using the right gear the cars deff not sluggish either. I did some 50-100 sprints starting in 3rd, shoulda started in 2nd if I really wanted to get the best jump, but even starting in 3rd this thing was moving out. I went through all of 3rd, then on a couple runs got up to the top of 4th. Looking down at the speedo quickly was somewhere around 110. I did it again and this time got it into 5th and a got a quick glance at the speedo in 4th and it was around 95, than I shift it into 5th which seemed like a second later, and it read 119mph. LoL I let out a YEE HAW after that one but got on the brakes quick.. That was way more than fast enough for shake down runs especially when I need to bleed the brakes again.

Looks like at the track if I'm doing things right based on what other ls1/rx7s have run I'll deff have to shift into 5th at the end of the track, which worries me, today at the top of 4th I tried shifing into 5th and put her back in 3rd.. woops, got the clutch back in quick enough though that it wasnt too much of an issue but it coulda been real bad and I grinded reverse again today trying to go into 5th.. So 5th is a hard gear for me, and I'll run quicker 1/4 mile times if I can get some larger tires out back and cross the line at the top of 4th.

Like I said other than getting the misfire taken care of I didnt get too much other stuff done. The only other thing I got done was I got some sheet metal from home depot and made a panel to cover the hole in the back of the car by the fuel cell.

Gotta say this is the first time I really enjoyed the car. believe it or not its been somewhat painfull up untill now. I just cant wait to get some warmer days, some more seat time and then some time at the drag strip, autox, circle track, hill climb hell I just wanna race it in any type of racing I can do so I can get better behind the wheel.

Overall really good day

Flyby and burnout vids coming soon.

[sciff5]

First WOT vids

I am downloading them from a friend right now, at the same time uploading them to streetfire now and I'll post them as they complete upload

This vid was the first one we shot. It was early in the day and only about 45 degrees outide. Just before my buddy got the camera on I had rolled quickly into 1st during a slow roll and just blew the tires off. Up untill this point I was always spinning 1st and 2nd. This was the absolute first time ever I got 2nd gear to stick and we got it on camera on a back road heading out to the highway. Going up hill, going through 2nd, 3rd, and some of 4th.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/L...h-a_645951.htm


First Flyby. Didnt launch the car at all just quickly rolled into 1st gear off the line and thankfully the tires stayed put.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/F...the_645907.htm

[liqidvenom]

sounds very good, the first vid wasnt working for me though

[sciff5]

Originally Posted by liqidvenom

sounds very good, the first vid wasnt working for me though

should work now
thanks

[sciff5]

This is the new top speed run. I didnt know Jose was recording I just knew he wanted to go fast again when I heard him say the guy moved over for me.

The scan gauge gets its speed reading from the PCM. The PCM is set up for a slightly smaller tire so even though we hit an indicated 129, it was actually closer to 135.

In the begining look at the speedo, before I hit it we're doing 34 and then I hit it and within about a second the speedo was reading like 55. Passing power is pretty good

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/L...3rd_645961.htm

[tlrmax]

I wish my maxima sounded like that

[max ride 41]

damn dude, ive been following your progress since you got the trans am. watching vids of the build and car exhaust,i gotta say id love to take a ride in that ***** man. i just bought wheels from another member near u mass, almost want to come out and check that baby out in person!!! nice!!! yet????

[Zog]

that was mildly boner inducing. nice to see your project getting to the fun part! hit the track and record it !

[sciff5]

Now that I'm getting the tires to stick. I plan on hitting the track this week if its as warm as the news says its gonna be.
If I can launch it decently and get through all of the the first 4 gears. I'll have a decent time.


The first time out though I just want a good trap speed (to be sure I'm really making power) and the ET will just come down from there as I learn to launch better.

[tigersharkdude]

i remember those days, my bros camaro pegged the speedo at 160+

[sciff5]

Originally Posted by tigersharkdude

i remember those days, my bros camaro pegged the speedo at 160+

I dont know how fast this car would go if you just had all the road in the world and a death wish. I dont plan to find out though. I didnt know I was going as fast as I was in that vid. Car didnt seem to feel light in the least bit.. or even like air was coming through the seams. These cars for really economy sport coupes of the 80s are very solid. The doors are heavy and solid, when you go over bump even though the car is stripped its a solid thud. No insane rattles other than the stuff I havent really bolted down yet.

I've been in some older hondas that are serious rattle traps. I'm always suprised how solid this car feels.