94 Formula Has Been Sold - But not forgotten

2613 Views 77 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Injuneer, 7 d ago

Injuneer

Discussion Starter · Apr 3, 2022

2

On March 20 I closed a deal on selling my 1994 Firebird - purchased new 27.5 years ago. This heavily modified car had been sitting in my garage undriven, for several years. I've reached the age (80 years old) where I'm not capable of maintaining it and continuing to modify it. I had never reached my goal of making a 9-second pass, even though the car was fully capable of it.

I had several people interested, but they seemed to want to convert it back to a "street" car, and that was at odds with what I wanted for the car. I was looking for someone who fully understood the car and wanted to continue on my path to proving its capabilities.

I was fortunate to find someone "local"... someone who had admired the car for years, someone I had helped several times on the ltxtech.com site, and someone who was obviously "hands on" capable of continuing my work at my high standards. I will have every opportunity to watch the progress, and be present when it fulfills my goals,

Off it goes, into the sunset:

Tire Wheel Vehicle Plant Automotive parking light

Tire Vehicle registration plate Automotive parking light Wheel Vehicle

More progress info to follow.

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21 - 40 of 78 Posts

GaryDoug

· #21 · 6 mo ago

TubbyFormy said:
reflection from the oil/flash. the areas the solid rollers were contacting are super shiny/polished, but there is not a groove that is able to be felt even with a razor blade. it was a cast cam core though. the new cam is going to be billet with duration in the 25x/26x range and lift in the .670 range on a 109lsa

Looks like clear grooves on the lobes to me. Of course I know nothing compared to youse experts! I am remembering my poor 1970 400 cam which became very noisy above only 3k before I replaced it. Nobody ever told me not to rev it over 5k......so not my fault ;-)

Reactions: 1

TubbyFormy

· #22 · 6 mo ago

Lloyd said orders in the system, so now we wait, hopefully comp isnt too backlogged.

may break down the intake manifold and have it powdercoated dark metallic green so it matches the car better than the red, undecided

TubbyFormy

· #23 · 6 mo ago

cam arrived 253/261 .684/.691 109+4lsa

should be spicyyy

Reactions: 1

Injuneer

Discussion Starter · #24 · 6 mo ago

Looks "BIG"..... 😲

Glad you got the damper hub threads straightened out.

Reactions: 2

TubbyFormy

· #25 · 6 mo ago

Injuneer said:
Looks "BIG"..... 😲

Glad you got the damper hub threads straightened out.

yeah that was a scary situation but so far i think i will be ok

Reactions: 1

Injuneer

Discussion Starter · #26 · 6 mo ago

How hard was it to get the ATI damper hub off? Not sure why they make the fit so tight, when there's a keyway. Ice cubes on the snout and saute' the hub in boiling water

Reactions: 1

TubbyFormy

· #27 · 6 mo ago

Injuneer said:
How hard was it to get the ATI damper hub off? Not sure why they make the fit so tight, when there's a keyway. Ice cubes on the snout and saute' the hub in boiling water

yeah it was alot tougher than a fluidampr or stock replacement hub. bigger thing now is the link bars of the lifters are 0.025-0.030 away from the lifter boss

Reactions: 1

Injuneer

Discussion Starter · #28 · 6 mo ago

Is that because of the smaller base circle cam?

Reactions: 1

TubbyFormy

· #29 · 6 mo ago

Injuneer said:
Is that because of the smaller base circle cam?

partially, the other reason is they used standard sbc roller lifters ie for pre-87 blocks, not the post 87 +0.300 height lifters for factory roller blocks.

i spoke to a few engine guys and they said as long as its 0.025 or greater i should be fine, but to maybe soften the edge of the lifter boss a little with a dremel.

sadly i am unable to reuse the spring seats/ti retainers too. the ti retainers have a varied diameter on the inner spring step and more than half do not fit inside the innner spring.

Injuneer

Discussion Starter · #30 · 6 mo ago

If you go through the paperwork and bills I gave you, the lifters are not shown anywhere. I only know what they told me they put the Crower Cutaways in there, but I couldn’t find any specs or pricing on the paperwork. I just assumed they forgot to bill me for them. Maybe they just used something they had laying around??? They basically had a “blank check” on parts selection.

One thought - with the larger base circle on my “baby” cam, those lifters must have provided adequate clearance. And they achieved that with less mass (6 grams) than a taller (0.300) lifter, which is an advantage on a high RPM build. Or maybe that’s just nonsense.

Is the any part # marking on the lifters?

TubbyFormy

· #31 · 6 mo ago

Injuneer said:
If you go through the paperwork and bills I gave you, the lifters are not shown anywhere. I only know what they told me they put the Crower Cutaways in there, but I couldn’t find any specs or pricing on the paperwork. I just assumed they forgot to bill me for them. Maybe they just used something they had laying around??? They basically had a “blank check” on parts selection.

One thought - with the larger base circle on my “baby” cam, those lifters must have provided adequate clearance. And they achieved that with less mass (6 grams) than a taller (0.300) lifter, which is an advantage on a high RPM build. Or maybe that’s just nonsense.

Is the any part # marking on the lifters?

no part number on them, only know they are severe duty cutaway solids. i think we will be ok, diving back into it in about a half hour

TubbyFormy

· #32 · 6 mo ago

i have 0.030 clearance between lifter link bar and lifter boss on all lifters, so i think we are good. i ordered up some 8.050 pushrods based on the base circle change between the old and new cam (old pushrods 7.900). also started taking those pita comp ptfe valve seals off. the ferrea intake valves have a helluva double notch on them that is a nightmare to get the ptfe seal over, even with a valve seal removal tool

TubbyFormy

· #33 · 5 mo ago

cam is in, comp 943 valve springs are in, installed the timing cover and opti last night. hoping to fire it off by christmas eve.

Injuneer

Discussion Starter · #34 · 5 mo ago

Try and record the startup. With the HUGE (253/261 .684/.691 109+4lsa vs. my 230/242 .590/.590 114) cam and the solid roller valve train it's going to sound sooooooo evil.

Reactions: 2

TubbyFormy

· #35 · 5 mo ago

Injuneer said:
Try and record the startup. With the HUGE (253/261 .684/.691 109+4lsa vs. my 230/242 .590/.590 114) cam and the solid roller valve train it's going to sound sooooooo evil.

oh the camera will definitely be rolling

TubbyFormy

· #36 · 5 mo ago

youtube.com

1994 Firebird new LE cam

youtube.com

we are live

Reactions: 2

Injuneer

Discussion Starter · #37 · 5 mo ago

👍 👍 👍 👍 👍

Reactions: 1

Injuneer

Discussion Starter · #38 · 4 mo ago

Shaun never ceases to amaze me.... does all his own engine work, and does all the tuning. This is the latest revision, a "big" solid roller cam - 253 / 261 109 LSA 0.684 I / 0.691 E .

Here's a vid of the amazing sound, specially the clatter of the solid roller lifters. Note - it starts instantaneously at first turn of the key ! ! !

Reactions: 3

TubbyFormy

· #39 · 4 mo ago

Injuneer said:
Shaun never ceases to amaze me.... does all his own engine work, and does all the tuning. This is the latest revision, a "big" solid roller cam - 253 / 261 109 LSA 0.684 I / 0.691 E .

Here's a vid of the amazing sound, specially the clatter of the solid roller lifters. Note - it starts instantaneously at first turn of the key ! ! !

Thank you Fred! getting there slowly, swapped injectors again to deka 60lb because i was out of fuel on the 30's at 4300rpm lol.

Looking like a converter change soon as well. the current converter is way too tight with this mountain cam

Reactions: 1

TubbyFormy

· #40 · 4 mo ago

Injuneer said:
Shaun never ceases to amaze me.... does all his own engine work, and does all the tuning. This is the latest revision, a "big" solid roller cam - 253 / 261 109 LSA 0.684 I / 0.691 E .

Here's a vid of the amazing sound, specially the clatter of the solid roller lifters. Note - it starts instantaneously at first turn of the key ! ! !

here fred, cold to warm. converter is getting swapped soon for the new cam

youtube.com

Stone Cold to Warm solid roller LT1

youtube.com

Reactions: 1

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