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LT1 Project - Long Live The Dirty BirdStill down and dirty, the 'bird creeps ever closer to that elusive 10-second timeslip. From the May, 2012 issue of GM High-Tech Performance By Justin Cesler Photography by The Author
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"Push, push, push!" Greg was still in the driver seat, but the rest of us were pushing as hard as we could to get the Dirty Bird back on to the trailer. It took a while to get it off the track and back to the trailer by hand after the nasty--and awesome looking--backfire ended our night on what looked like it would have been our best run to date. Nitrous is nasty stuff if you're off--even just by a little--and tonight our 10-second pass just wasn't in the cards, even after solving our previous rear end issue and substantially improving the suspension, which we will get to in a minute. After running an 11.03 on our last official outing, we told you, "We are just a rear end upgrade away from running the number." And, truth be told, we were and still are on track for our 10-second pass, but unfortunately things don't always seem to go as planned. In our case this latest slew of 11-d'ohs was three weeks in the making, with our first track outing ending in an engine bay full of coolant thanks to a non-functioning radiator cap. At the time we thought we nipped a head gasket (you know, always assume the worst and panic type of stuff), so we rushed a set from Summit Racing, only to find out we didn't need them (yet). This night we started with high hopes, thinking that the Dirty Bird was in tip-top shape, although the crew responsible for its maintenance (that's us, unfortunately) may have been a little behind the eight ball. First pass out, with our new Summit Racing supplied suspension upgrades and a set of 4.10 rear gears, the Dirty Bird looked like a missile, lifting both front tires high in the air and recording our best 60-foot time to date, a 1.555, which was .161-seconds faster than our previous best of a 1.716 and .143-seconds faster than our first nitrous runs, which netted the Dirty Bird a respectable 1.698-second sixty. Excited, we quickly pulled Dirty back into the lanes, opened up the nitrous bottle, checked tire pressure, and sent Greg Lovell back out on track to put the Bird in the 10's. It wasn't until about 300-feet out that we realized the nitrous bottle was empty. And we didn't have a spare. Enter Pete Epple, a usually worthless friend who works on a Mustang magazine by day, who quickly sprung into action, put his "get $#!* done costume" on and went out in the pits to find us a bottle. The plan? Find the grudge racers, borrow a full bottle and hit the track on our borrowed nitrous to hit our goal, return the bottle and wrap up our series on the Dirty Bird with a victory. If only we were to be so lucky... Burnout. First bulb. On the two-step, bump into the second bulb, transbrake. Yellow, yellow, yellow. Click, boom. The fireball was impressive and the air filter's final landing location was even better, but seeing Greg and the Dirty Bird sitting at the 60-foot marker dead in the water, well, that wasn't as cool. For the 20 or so feet that Dirty was under power, she looked good. Both wheels straight up, the new Mickey Thompsons working hard to hook up, and the Summit Racing supplied shocks and mini-spool doing exactly what they were supposed to do. It would have been glorious, but woulda-coulda-shoulda don't mean a thing if you can't collect the timeslip. So, that leaves us here, with a potential 10-second budget-friendly LT1 project that currently fires up but won't run. The motor sounds fine and nothing looks hurt, but we think the MAF took the brunt of the force during the backfire. We could probably take this new downtime as a chance to upgrade the Dirty Bird even further, adding a couple more parts to try and go a bit faster, but, honestly, that wouldn't be fair to the project or to the theme of this build. Truth be told, the Dirty Bird is done and needs nothing more to be a fun, awesome track toy that we can beat brand spankin' new ZR1's with while remaining cost effective and awesome. That said, we're not planning on leaving you hanging and we've got a couple more track days planned for the Dirty Bird yet, so we're going to ask you to join us on the interwebs for the conclusion of this project. You should already know where to find us (www.gmhightechperformance.com on the web, www.facebook.com/gmhightech on the book face) and it will be there that you can see the Dirty Bird finally run a 10-second pass or blow up trying. Either way, we've had a ton of fun trying to make this work and we're hoping you've enjoyed seeing what a stock bottom-end LT1 can do in the hands of the capable crew at AntiVenom and all of the awesome manufacturers and parts suppliers that have helped us along the way. Now go on and build your own budget racer and send us some pics! We're waiting...  1 Looking back, the Dirty...  1 Looking back, the Dirty Bird sure has come a long way since we pulled it out of a trash pile back in May of 2010. For our money we got a bolt-on LT1, a shot 4L60E transmission, a barely working Optispark, a ton of leaves, and a set of halfway decent wheels. She wasn’t much to look at, but the foundation was there.  2 Our baseline run, a 13.590...  2 Our baseline run, a 13.590 at 99.35 mph. Considering the condition of the car at the time, we were excited with this number (believe it or not) and knew then that a truly budget 10-second weekend warrior would be the perfect goal for our new project. Last issue, we went 11.03 but broke the factory posi unit and still had trouble hooking up, an issue we set out to solve here.  3 We probably could have...  3 We probably could have spent a good chunk of change on a quality aftermarket posi unit for our 10-bolt, but the budget just wasn’t there for such an expense. Plus, we’re not street driving the Bird, so it was an easy decision to order this Motive Gear Mini Spool from Summit Racing for the amazing price of $89.85 (PN MGR-MS75-28). Built from steel, this affordable solution fits in any open carrier equipped 10-bolt differential with 28-spline axles.  4 Of course, no F-bodies...  4 Of course, no F-bodies came with open differentials (one wheel peel), so if you’re going to install a Mini Spool like ours, you’re going to have to first rob a carrier from a 10-bolt equipped S10 truck. You can find these almost anywhere, since, you know, who else would want one, and they bolt right in place of the stock posi carrier. Notice that yellow paint on the ring-and-pinion? We snuck a set of 4.10:1 gears in there, just to see what they would do.  5 Installing the Summit Racing...  5 Installing the Summit Racing supplied Motive Mini Spool is comically simple. First up, Greg Lovell of AntiVenom dropped the two main Mini Spool “gears” in place, which will lock the axles together.  6 Next, Greg slid the stock...  6 Next, Greg slid the stock 28-spline axles back into the 10-bolt housing and installed the stock C-clips, one on each side. Installing these may take two people, one to put the C-clip in place and another to pull the axle away from the center of the car to lock it down.  7a Next up, the two Motive...  7a Next up, the two Motive Gear supplied square locks drop into the assembly, which locks the entire unit together, ensuring that both axles rotate at exactly the same speed...  7b ...The stock pin goes...  7b ...The stock pin goes in next and then you’re done. In the time it took you to read these last four captions, you could have this installed—it is that quick.  8 With the rear complete,...  8 With the rear complete, the AntiVenom crew turned their attention to the front of the Dirty Bird, trying to get a little more control and weight transfer out of the front end. Those poor stock shocks have been blown for a long time and weight transfer wasn’t even a consideration for the little LT1 on track.  9 These Lakewood 90/10 shocks,...  9 These Lakewood 90/10 shocks, however... well, they might as well have “weight transfer” written right on them. At $169.95 a piece (PN LAK-40525) from Summit Racing, they did put a slight dent in our wallet, but the gain in our 60-foot times would be well worth the initial cost. As a direct bolt-on piece, all we needed to do was pull the old struts out and slide these in place.  10 We’ve covered the removal...  10 We’ve covered the removal and installation of these parts before (“Hooked Up and Gone,” December ’11) during the installation of the Eibach Drag-Launch springs you see here. It doesn’t take much—just a couple of bolts hold the strut to the lower control arm, while two bolts and two nuts hold it to the shock tower.  11 On the spring compressor,...  11 On the spring compressor, Kyle Miller of AntiVenom worked to compress the Eibach spring and remove the upper mount from the stock strut assembly. We shouldn’t have to mention it, but for safety’s sake, make sure you do this the right way. Loosening the nut and letting the spring fly across your driveway is not safe. Although it is funny. But seriously, not safe.  12 With the stock De Carbon...  12 With the stock De Carbon junk out of the picture, Kyle slid the new Summit Racing supplied Lakewood 90/10 unit in place and compressed the Eibach spring to gain access to the top of the strut. The stock mount is reused, so just slide it in place and tighten everything down.  13 It’s easy to drop everything...  13 It’s easy to drop everything back into the chassis of a fourth-gen. The installation is just the opposite of the removal. Since the Lakewood shocks are not adjustable, there is nothing to mess with here, you just need to put them on and head to the track.  14 We’ve been using a set...  14 We’ve been using a set of old, worn out Mickey Thompson 28x11.50/16 ET Streets and thought they were just the right size for the ’Bird. For our final phase of the build, we didn’t want to chance it on the old worn rubber, so we called up Mickey Thompson and ordered a fresh set of stickies, knowing that we could use all the traction we could get.  15 Unfortunately, Mickey...  15 Unfortunately, Mickey Thompson no longer offers the 12.50-inch wide ET Streets in a 28-inch size (with a 16-inch wheel), so the company sent us a set of 28x11.50s instead, which was fine by us! While an inch may seem like a big deal, it really isn’t and the fresh rubber looked and felt great on the Dirty Bird.  16 I must have spent three...  16 I must have spent three hours on Thursday telling everyone about how awesome the Dirty Bird was, explaining in detail how we were obviously going to run a 10-second pass right off the trailer and how nothing could possibly go wrong. This blur is the Dirty Bird leaving the line at Bradenton Motorsports Park…  17 And this is a picture...  17 And this is a picture of the engine bay covered in coolant, which promptly ended our night. So much for that 10-second pass… Luckily, our coolant problem was actually just a radiator cap and not a head gasket issue, so it didn’t take much to get ol’ Dirty back up and running, although we did have to wait a week to get back to the track.  18 Those new Mickey Thompson...  18 Those new Mickey Thompson ET Streets made some serious smoke as Greg heated the hides before our first pass at Bradenton. You can’t see it in this shot, but just behind the camera is one pumped up automotive journalist, just waiting to see the Dirty Bird bust into the 10s!  19a Look at that launch!...  19a Look at that launch! Wheels up on a 10-bolt rear with a stock bottom-end LT1! Believe it or not, this was an all-motor pass (no nitrous) and Dirty laid down a 1.555-second 60-foot time on the way to an 11-second run...  19b ...Compare this wheels-up...  19b ...Compare this wheels-up shot to our baseline launch (on the right) and you can really see how far we’ve come.  Looking back, we’ve seen the...  Looking back, we’ve seen the Dirty Bird go from a 13-second struggle to an 11-d’oh machine. Make sure you check out GMHighTechPerformance.com to see the final results of this build and join us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/gmhightech) to see more as it happens live! Regarding these pages, well, this may be the last time you see the Dirty Bird in here, although its legacy will live on in new projects and articles, so make sure you stay tuned.
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1999 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am - Street Heat
Almost no other GM model pulls off the aggressive look quite like the fourth-gen Trans Am, and when you modify one like Nathan Turjillo from Las Vegas has, well; you end up with a real showstopper....
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