It's one thing to build a Challenge car and race it, and entirely another thing to build one, drive it there, race it, and drive it home after! Nice job man. And it was cool hanging with you and your brother. 
BTW, 15.9 for a TBI 305 powered 'Bird is not bad at all. A cam and tune will bring it down even further. 
Those lower control arms.... All you have to do is take yours off then take scrap steel and box them in. That's all the aftermarket ones are.
Also you can brace your own rear diff cover. Pretty dang simple and cheap.
I'm looking for a good manual for my 3rd gen. Also some good seats. If you see any manual 3rd or fours gens crop up I'd be willing to drive a long way for a decent deal.
10 years ago I had a Year One (I still have it but prices are off) 1982-2002 Camaro Firebird book. You should order one and get part ideas out of it... It was the absolute best reference resource I had.
Yeah it was good to meet everyone.
The 9 bolt should be strong enough for what I'm doing, but it never hurts to beef up right? Whats your EZ plan for that?
Mexican stand off
aussiesmg wrote:Mexican stand off
I wish there were better pics of this, that's a pretty cool pose.
The Firebird is winning in this picture. It has claimed more territory under the canopy. 
Will have to remember to do some formal group photos for $2014.
Gearheadotaku wrote: The Firebird is winning in this picture. It has claimed more territory under the canopy.
If I recall correctly, there were comments regarding turds and flotation. 
So the Mustang is floating away in the rain?
In reply to Gearheadotaku: No it is anchoring the Firebird
"Aww, please let me drive a real car"
Gearheadotaku trying to gain Concourse points by picking a prime location to park.
One more with a smudge to the right of the Rustang
aussiesmg wrote: One more with a smudge to the right of the Rustang
Oh Snap! Are you gonna' take that, Gearheadotaku?
I'm kinda like having a little brother around. Sometimes helpful, some times funny. Annoying and underfoot the most of the time.
For the $20xx challenge competitions, where do you go to get affordable extreme performance summer tires or slicks? My Camaro is still under budget for when I can compete.
Id also like to know how to strengthen a stock diff cover.
I was running the old worn out tires the set of wheels i bought came with. purchased used R-comps, but rain on autocross day made them pointless. Tried the R-comps as slicks for the drags with inconsistent results.
The $2014 rules basically state that 1 set of tires is 'free' from the budget. Check out Tire Rack.
my diff cover is stock, I'm using a Borg&Warner 9 bolt. Checkout some of the drag racing forums if you've got a 10 bolt. There are aluminum covers with braces out there. Maybe you could score a deal on a used one. Unless you're ramming 400+ lbs of torque into the diff with slicks at the drags, I think you'll be OK with a stock cover providing the rest of the rear end is in good shape.
Ok, it's out of storage and already kicking butt. I scored a set of GTA wheels over the winter for cheap and put on some fresh rubber. 245/50ZR16 BFG Sport Comp 2's. Not the perfect autocross tire, but about the best I could do in this size short of a "R" compound.
It was good enough to win the season opener today in CAM class. I was not quite 2 seconds slower than the FS winner (a CTS-V wagon on RE-11's). Car felt well balanced and smooth. Should have new exhaust in a couple of weeks.
Time for another episode of "Mullet Madness" here on GRM.
First lets introduce my new DD. It's a 2000 Firebird 3.8/5speed w/80k miles
Oddly enough it had manual windows and locks so I spent the last couple of weeks doing a power retrofit. Luckily the harness is fairly stand alone from a donor car and the BCM didn't require any programming. 31 highway MPG to boot!
Moving back to the 1991, I'm 3 races into the autocross season and enjoying a good points lead. Race 4 was cancelled so I've got a couple weeks before race 5. Just enough time for some mods! Since I'm running in CAM, I can do pretty much anything I want, though still staying within Challenge budget. Looks like the 'couple of weeks' from my last post didn't pan out.
Scored a exhast upgrade and started to install. G92 exhaust manifolds from a 350 TPI car and the 3" y-pipe. The TBI manifolds have a 1 7/8" outlet (should be 2" but thats what I measured) while the G92 is 2 1/4". The TBI y-pipe is 2 1/4 each side and stays 2 1/4 throuh the outlet. The 350 has 2 1/2 leading into a 3" outlet. Sure, headers would be better, but not gonna fit the budget once you do pipe work etc. Besides, they always seem super noisy and tend to leak.
That cast gray paint holds up well. Way better than rust right?
Bigger pipe, better breathing. I did a better patch on the hole out back (pop can didn't do much afterall) and it got way quieter. Hopfully I'll be able to eliminate the glasspack.
Of course the tight confines of the engine bay required a 'special' length socket. Standard on left, then the cut down deep well, regular deep well, finally the bit I cut off... felt bad cutting a good socket.
take it back to Sears when you're done if you wanna laugh. I like "custom" wrenches myself since you can buy a set and hack all you want for what the SnapOn guy wants for just that one wrench! Some times the 1/2 drive stuff is just long enough but not as long as a 3/8 deep.
Weld the other end to a flat bar handle and hang it on the wall. :)
Slow going but nearly done. Decided to drop the oil pan and swap out the relief spring in the pump. Should give me an extra 10-20 PSI of pressure.
All Done! No puddles of oil either. 
Car seems to a have a little more pull at higher RPM's now. More noise without the glasspack as a resonator, but with the big hole plugged the muffler seems to be doing a decent job. Not my favorite tone, but it will do. Freeway cruising sound level isn't too bad.
Finally found a proper chip for the computer. I've been running with the automatic chip all this time, got one for a manual trans car now. Idle and cold start is much better, and it pulls more smoothly under sustained load. Before it had a mild surge as if the timing was advanceing then backing off. Wish I had done this a long time ago!
This thread suits my inner redneck so smurfing much.
I still want to know how you found such a clean example...
Like everything else, it always takes too long to do anything.
LT1 cam install complete! I can feel more power, but excatly how much more remains to be seen. Hope to make it to the track in the next couple of weeks.
So heres how it went:
1st, take it all apart. Messy, but not hard. Good time to clean and paint stuff too.
New valve springs are required. This was certainly the right tool for the job, and well worth the $45 at Jegs. Plenty of leverage to compress the spring, and it locks in place so you have your hands free. Was able to use the hose from my compression tester as an air hold, but my tiny compressor could barely keep up. Got the job done, slowly.
I had pulled the radiator , but the condensor was still in the way for pulling out the cam. Luckily I was able to rotate it up out of the way just enough to clear the cam. No picture, I wanted to move swiftly along as the lines were flexing way more than they were meant to!
Trash can cams! Because I'm so sanitary in my engine work...
Starting to take shape, wanted to strip the intake to bare aluminum but the paint was too tough to get out of all the nooks and crannys. Went with universal black. Timing cover fought me like no tomarrow.
Went with silver for the valve covers. Wasn't too sure about it at first, but it turned out well.
Of course the more stuff you clean and paint, the worse all the old stuff looks. Then you drape a bunch of plumbing, wiring, brackets, etc all over your hard work. The air cleaner is pretty ugly at this point. I may get an open element and remove my rigged up cold air system.
What you can't see is the three times I had to peel off the valve covers to get the valves adjusted right! Frustrating....
So the cam was a used 1992 LT1 Corvette, a $30 score of the Vette forum. Fresh valve springs for $60 and a couple of 350 injectors from the junkyard for $4 each. Guy at the F-body club burned me a chip for $25, a few bucks for gaskets and I'm still safely inside the Challenge budget!
You'll need to log in to post.
