SO GLAD THE SITE IS BACK UP AND RUNNING!! HUGE THANKS TO MR BANDIT!!!
Been a few weeks since my last update, but haven't had any real progress on the car. I did find a great tool that I think everyone working on older cars should put in their toolbox. It's an attachment that goes on an air hammer that allows you to put on a socket. I used it for the frozen stuck Philips head bolts on my tailgate hinges and was able to loosen all 8 without breaking them off. Absolutely amazed. I picked mine up at Harbor Freight. Once it was loosened, I was able to adjust the tailgate for a better fit.
If you haven't noticed a common theme in my build, I'm a sucker for a good deal and like to buy things used when I can. Back before Thanksgiving I found a guy who posted on a different forum a bunch of parts for sale including an LS6 intake which piqued my interest because he was only about an hour and 20 mins from me. He didn't post a price or a really detailed list of parts either, but it was enough that I messaged him. I was stoked when he got right back to me with a very reasonable $600 bucks. It was a fantastic deal and I made arrangements to pick it up as soon as I could. Come to find out he had a ton of either brand new or very lightly used parts. He sold his car in 2015, but many of the parts were bought back in 2005-08 timeframe. When I got there he actually found even more parts, but didn't charge more.
When I got home and took inventory of what all I had picked up. Brand new NOS LS6 intake manifold, brand new NOS SLP Headers with Y pipe for 98-02 LS1 cars, SLP Loudmouth exhaust for 4th gen, NOS front and rear Bilstein shocks with Eibach springs, Ported 853 LS1 heads, Hypertech LS1 tuner, brand new Actron Scanner, bunch of misc. gaskets, Gen3 LS ARP head studs, complete LS1 rocker set, factory push rod set, pair of SLP 3" high flow cats, and a few books/manuals for 2000 Fbody Cars. It also came with a supposedly new GM ASA cam, but wasn't greased when he stored it and it was severely rusted. Overall was blown away with how many parts and the best part is they were all stored in a dry basement.
That intake was probably the coolest find. NOS intake from 2006!!
SLP Headers
The guy told me that he just wanted to get rid of everything at once, so he didn't even care if I resold them all. So with that in mind, I knew that most of the parts didn't fit my application so I was going to move them. I listed several parts right away with what I felt were appealing prices recoup some of my money. In a few days the shocks/springs sold for $300, and then the next day the scanner sold for $100. At this point, I was almost to the point where I had free parts which is probably the coolest thing. I also love to barter, so I put several feelers out there for items that I'd like to have. I found a guy who swapped me even for the SLP headers and Y pipe for a pair of fresh LS3 821 heads with lightweight valves. Not sure what I'm going to do with them, but they are very clean and came with the rockers/stands/factory yellow valve springs.
After a bunch of thought, I realized that I didn't want to run the LS6 intake so I listed it locally on FB marketplace. I realize I could have likely held out for more money, but I listed it and had a cash offer within a day for $500 and took it. At this point, I'm in the positive for $300 bucks with a bunch of parts left to sell or trade. Score!!
I didn't have many bites on the ported LS1 heads, but had in the listing that I'd trade for LS parts. One guy offered to trade me a 6.0 for the ported heads plus a few extra parts (stock push rods, yellow valve springs, valley cover and LS1 rockers) that I was going to use. After talking with him more, he ended up giving me a single 823 head and a TBSS intake w/ TB too! Done deal, made that happen and got it back home. My youngest son had an absolute blast helping me tear it down and inspect. It had one bad piston with some scoring. After I got it torn down we also found that it needs cam bearings. I got the bad piston out and then used my dingleball and the scoring isn't very deep at all and would probably be good to send. I'm probably going to get a new piston put a cylinder head on and do a compression test to see what it looks like.
Bearings look good and the other cylinder walls cleaned up very nicely.
No idea what I'm going to do with the engine right now, but I'll try to collect parts to put this engine together. Maybe I'll pick up another project or roller and swap it into.
Then when we were visiting family in NY, I found an ad for a Dorman 615-901 LS2 intake for $350. For those that don't know, these allegedly use the old FAST 90 lower intake manifold with Dorman's upper intake. There are many guys out there with documented flow bench tests where these will outperform LS6/TBSS manifolds by a good bit under .600" lift on a flow bench and have a 90mm TB opening. I remember when they first came out and were about $350 bucks which was a good bargain, but are now selling for over $1k online. For that price you may as well buy a real FAST intake, but they used to be a great budget intake. I picked it up for $250, and I'll plan to use it on my Nomad. I need to buy some new fuel rails since these won't work with my LS3 style injectors. I'll do some light port cleanup since there is some flash where the two half's are glued together. After all that, I'm still $50 in the green and still have a few more parts that I can sell/trade.
I'm also starting to collect parts for my Turbo swap. I decided to go with an A2W intercooler since they are more efficient and more flexible. That way I could keep my radiator and fan assembly but add a heat exchanger instead of having to change my whole radiator to account for a large A2A intercooler. First part was a CWA 50 Pierburg pump off of an X5 BMW which is the same pump I used on my Camaro. It worked flawlessly and flows a ton of water/coolant.
That's all for now, but I do have another deal in the works for some 9" parts. I picked up a 9" a while ago that is the right width for a 55-57 Chevy, so I'll just need to buy a set of 3.25 gears and I'll have everything I need to swap that into my car. That's probably the next project because I want to have my driveline ready for when I add boost. The factory rear that's under my car is in good condition, so I'd rather not blow it up. It will be worth something to someone.
Cheers,
Ryan
