1994 Firechicken - My Relapse into LT1 Sickness

My buddies and coworkers and I have been drag racing quite a bit lately. Ive even been taking the Volt and the ND out there. Beat a new Civic Type R with paper plates, he out MPHed me by over 10 mph, but I took the win light, but it's just not the same as racing a V8 powered car. As much as I loved my C5, and recognize the LS1 is the superior engine, I have a soft spot for LT1s.

Friday at work I found a 94 Formula A4 for sale for pretty cheap that looked beat, the owner said I could come see it, so after work me and buddy went to check it out. It had been sitting, the interior was filled with 2 sets of seats, carpet was missing, it was rough. Body looked pretty straight, besides a dent in the right rocker panel, ehh who cares its a race car. Paint was beat. Fired up, sounded good and smooth, all kinds of lights on the dash. We go for a short drive, it overheats, bring it back and it has no coolant, we fill it and bleed it and go drive it again. IT WAS BAD. creaks and pops and grinds, and the wheel is about 45 degrees from straight, and when it shifts at WOT from 1 to 2 it jumps to the right, ehh who cares its a race car. Head home and call the guy next day and offer him under challenege money and he accepts.

HELL YAH IM BUYING ANOTHER MULLET MOBILE.

Call up my buddy and tell him lets go get it. He's what we call an shiny happy person, or as others say it, an enabler. I want to tow this thing because its obviously unsafe and its pouring down rain, and he watches too much roadkill and wants to drive it, atleast to the shop, if not all the way home. Tow company is 3 hours out, okay lets drive it. He says he'll lead in his beater that way if I lose brakes, we'll just have a turd sandwhich and we wont hurt anyone elses cars. So we keep it under 30 and on backroads.

About 5 minutes into the drive I realize the broken multifunction switch means I have no wipers, and all the noises STOP, completely. UHH I think I liked it more with all the ruckus. Im quite confident Im going to lose a wheel and second. Engine seems to run smoother and smoother the longer it stays running. Make it to shop so wound up Im about the pass out.

We put it on the lift, and It has a Terrible right lower ball joint, has play in every direction, but the rest of the mechanics are in decent shape. BONE STOCK, it has the only factory airbox Ive ever seen. It does have the ubiquitous Flowmaster 80 series welded into the stock exhaust. It also has some of the most bent wheels Ive ever seen, and the tires are trash, but other than that, actually quite surprised, at this point I finally think to check mileage and it only has 126K miles.

The left outer door skin was separating at the front and when you went to open the door it would hit the fender, unless you pushed it in, kind of a pain in the ass when your getting out,  but I was really worried about the tow guy yanking it open and breaking E36 M3, I came up with a solution.

#racecarmods

Now onto the pictures

How I got her

Those seats are super rare...and super trashed

First step was take all the unnecessary seats out of the car. All of these were in there, plus the two that were almost bolted down, you know the nuts were there but not even snugged up.

All the windows are there, but the car was filled with glass

Original spare from 1993

Gonna need the warranty info, unfortunately Government motors doesnt deem it necessary to warranty a ball joint for 25 years. Thanks Obama.

Red panels are still decent, will sell these

Found this hidden in the dash

And all this crap to

Bueno

Es No Bueno

Proper way to wire speakers

We pulled and scrubbed panels, simple green ruined the already trashed console but atleast its not slimy and sticky anymore. Pulled a little wiring and the radio out, because race car, then put it back together. Carpet will go back it. The plan is for it to a drag car that can drive to the strip and resemble a street car, at a glance.

Had these overnighted from Japan

Car was full of trash

Once we pulled the seats out, we found this. Cutting a trap door is pretty common on these, but this is the worst butchery Ive ever seen. Ill just cut all that trash out and make a big plate to cover it all. Who needs two retaining rings?

Stock LT1 engine bay, wont be so bad, once i start pulling everything out

Everyone knows the Opti will melt if it gets touched with water, so I figured the best thing to do was pressure wash the engine bay, because I have a pressure washer and I like to use it. I begin the process full of confidence and hubris, which slowly fades into, E36 M3 it's ruint (working on my crammit vocabulary, I will sprinkle them into the build thread), but she fired right off and ran just fine

Helped a little

Before Pressure Washing

Blew a lot of grime and bad clear off. 

Control arm is here, also ordered a dipstick tube and stick since mine is broken, and an oil level sensor since I have a low oil light and they die all the time.

Next week or two will just be fixing some of the basic stuff like the column, getting it driving and probably body work. The plan is to just shoot everything under the belt line with matte pearl white plastidip, and wrap the roof and sail panel in gloss black vynil and spray the mirrors black. Ill pull the door molding and delete the antenna.

I dont plan on any power mods, until It makes a stockish motor pass, I might pull some weight out, but it wont be modified until after I get a baseline. I think the next street night at Ennis is in October so I have a little time.

That is one ugly piece of crap. Makes me want to drive up to DFW to watch you run it. And visit my kid at college. But mostly to watch you make passes fast enough that the pictures are blurry so it doesn't look so bad. 

Looking forward to seeing it develop. 

I have to disagree Seth .......what a freekin' sweet SCORE!!!!!.....loved the Formula v TA ......following here Y'all

  This is awesome, now I want one.  But I am out of room, so I will just have to watch....

at least it's got the 150 mph speedo, so it should have the 3.23 gear.

As an LS1 owner -I still like the LT1. Always felt like they had more low end power.

Wonder why it was low on coolant, I seem to remember the water pump on these would start leaking then spray the nearby Opti-Junk with coolant/water thus killing the ignition system.

Can't wait to see the baseline! (....I'm putting 14.5 at 90 mph in the  betting pool..)

In reply to AngryCorvair :

People get that option mixed up. The 150 speedo, came with the summer tire option. The giveaway for 3.23s is the gear shifter. If it has 1st as selectable its 3.23, if you can only select 2nd, Its 2.73.

There was a noise regulation for sound levels at 40mph in lowest selectable gear, and the 2.73 cars could do it in 1st, so instead of making it quieter, GM just blocked out 1st, and 3.23s couldnt do it in 1st so it didnt matter. You can actually cut a pin off the shifter mechanism and have 1st available in a 2.73 car im told.

We are going in October so itll be a little cooler, we dont have great air here though. It was 3300 DA last time we went down, Im hoping the cold air brings that down some. Im not gonna lie, i'd be pretty butthurt if It cant trap better than 90 mph, that makes it slower than the miata.

Id be pretty pumped with a mid 14 or lower, Ive seen some of these run in the 13s in good air, obviously this one isnt the picture of a well cared for or maintained car though.

Mine does have the 3.23s.

I dont know why it was low, we didnt see any leaks and the WP looks relatively new, it hasnt dripped anything on the garage floor yet, so Im not too worried about it, and as long as you seal the opti well when you put it on, a little water on the outside doesnt hurt them. I think they get a worse rep than they deserve. I literally sprayed mine with a pressure washer 2 days ago and it fires up immediately.

Yes, breaking the pin will allow you to select 1st gear. Sometimes just pulling the shifter back hard will break the pin. Better to cut than risk breaking something else.

The 1995 Trans Am I had (auto, 3.23 gears) ran a best of 14.14 at Atlanta Dragway. So low 14s are not hard to reach.

I had a 97 Formula this exact same color with the slicktop and the auto trans.  All grey interior though, even with the 2.73 it would roast the tires at will.  Damn I miss that car.  Watching with interest

Nice buy! LT1's are a great bargain.

My '95 Roadmaster went 15.4 at 92 MPH at the $2016 Challenge, and had over 500 lbs on yours.

My ‘94 Formula was 6 speed manual.  3.42 gears and 110 mph speedo.  It was governed to 110 too.  Found that out the hard way getting spanked by a Nissan Pulsar on Interstate late at night.  I could pull away up to 110 but with a little downhill, there he’d go.

Opti said:

In reply to AngryCorvair :

People get that option mixed up. The 150 speedo, came with the summer tire option. The giveaway for 3.23s is the gear shifter. If it has 1st as selectable its 3.23, if you can only select 2nd, Its 2.73.

 

There was a noise regulation for sound levels at 40mph in lowest selectable gear, and the 2.73 cars could do it in 1st, so instead of making it quieter, GM just blocked out 1st, and 3.23s couldnt do it in 1st so it didnt matter. You can actually cut a pin off the shifter mechanism and have 1st available in a 2.73 car im told.

i was unaware of the noise issue.

i worked on the ABS/TCS on these cars at GM's proving ground in 1993 and 1994.  I believe we are both correct, as the summer tire option was tied to either the 6MT (which only came with 3.42's) or the 3.23's on the 4AT cars.   So the combination of 2.73 + Summer tires (ie 2.73 + 150mph) was a no-build, as was the combination of 3.23 + All-Seasons (ie 3.23 + 110mph).

A 401 CJ said:

My ‘94 Formula was 6 speed manual.  3.42 gears and 110 mph speedo.  It was governed to 110 too.  Found that out the hard way getting spanked by a Nissan Pulsar on Interstate late at night.  I could pull away up to 110 but with a little downhill, there he’d go.

that is interesting!   all of the 6MT development vehicles i drove were equipped with the summer tire option (Eagle GS-C the first years, changed to Eagle RS-A for model year '95 IIRC), so I've never seen a 6MT with 110 mph speedo.   and yes, the all-season cars were electronically governed due to the speed rating of the tires.

Since those are not V8 Crammit wheels, check your lug nuts for bite. I tried to use a set of them on a 96 Z28 and they would only spin on about two threads. I regret to say I didn’t realize it until I’d driven on them a day. Close call. 

In reply to conesare2seconds :

They are v8 crammit wheels. They came on the LS1 cars. They are referred to as snowflakes and IIRC they are the lightest of the OEM 16s. Pretty much all the 4th gens got the 16 inch salad shooter, Camaro 5 spokes, snowflakes or abs wheels, the exception is the 16" steelies on some of the v6 cars and the 17s that came on the Firehawk, SS, and WS6.

In the past I have pretty much interchanged them all on cars and not had any problems, I always felt like even my stock wheels didn't have Great thread engagement. This one has to get longer wheel studs anyways, you know, for track stuff

Maschinebau

This started as a hunt for a d or bbody, to turn into a sleeper. I really want a clean Roadmaster wagon, but they are very high around here, I found a pretty clean one for 7k.

My attainable dream car is a 97 red WS6 TA M6 slick top.

Working on these things has made me want to another one as a street car. My old Z28 was way more fun then my C5.

I am going to look at another one for my buddy Saturday, he's building an LT1 drag car also, while we are doing that my other buddy is picking his LS1 car up. It's a pretty decent Z28 for 4k. I have a feeling, I might be the slow one of the group

I've toyed with the idea of another F-body.  Watching with interest. 

I sold my NA miata the other day. The ND was better in every way except for interior space, and I needed room for the Fireturd. I finished throwing the poly bushings in and got her on the ground and started driving it, that way I could shake it down and fix any small issues while I was trying to sell it. The day before I sold it I realized it wasnt a bad car, and I regretted not doing it sooner, but oh well. Last picture of the little guy

I couldnt sleep Sunday morning so I headed to the garage to slap this control arm on. Uhhhh, its so much easier to work on a NA miata.

I got it removed, and in this state, the suspension is about as stable as it is with that busted ass ball joint installed.

Went with a whole arm, because the ball joint had been replaced and it was moving around in the arm, so Im pretty sure they pooched it when they pressed it in.

Got it installed.

3+

Front end is pretty tight now, did find a little play in the upper control arm bushings, but its pretty minimal, and I think Ive got to pull the shocks to get to them, so Im not in a hurry.

Also. You dont need this E36 M3 to go straight, so it got tossed. Gram strategy bro!

\

After that I decided to go make a little run and see how she does. The suspension noises are gone, engine is getting smoother and smoother everytime I drive it. Might have a miss in the midrange, but Ill find out more when I can give it a more thorough shake down. I roll out onto a little side road, no traffic, so I slow to about 5 and punch it. It makes a bunch of noise and barely goes anywhere, and I think E36 M3 this thing is slow, or maybe the trans is slipping, so I turn around to do it again, and I see my two long stripes, and it dawns on me, OH i have power again, I can spin tires. Thats a sensation I havent felt in a while. Take her back home and realize I have 2 diff sized tires, and one rear is separated and the other is 14 yrs old and I am no longer impressed with my sweet skids. 

I called a buddy of mine and while we were talking he mentioned he had a couple 16s and a set of good tires I could have for 100 doll hairs. I need this thing to be safely drivable for the immediate future before I start modifying it, and I didnt feel like paying for a drag pack right now, so I took him up on his offer.

Got 2 of his tires mounted on my two straight wheels, and then put his eagle alloy 16s on the front, to replace wobbly fronts.

At least the tires match now, even if the wheels dont.

I was trying to find someone who parts these cars out, since my old guy doesnt do it anymore, so I joined some facespace groups, and found a few guys, when I mentioned that I may need a console, he asked if I wanted just the lower or upper also, and I thought well maybe I could save the upper after I wrecked it cleaning it.

So i grabbed a heat gun and it took me about 10 minutes, I think its usable for a drag car now, gotta have a lower though, I cant deal with the missing armrest

Before

After

I too relapsed into LT1 ownership this weekend. Of course, when i drove to pick it up it wouldn’t start and presuming a dead optispark 

it’s also about as big a turd as the one you picked up.  Blank slate

I try and work on the fireturd everyday, unless Im waiting on parts.

So after work I decided to tinker with it a little.

First I decided to remove the door molding

Before

Weight savings BRAH

After

I didnt try very hard to remove the adhesive, I worry about that when I plasti dip it

Next project was to fix my #stancenation window

I start pulling the door panel off and  I find more shenanigans. Window switch wont stay in the bezel, well we could buy another bezel...or we could cram a dirty sock behind it

I expected this broken guide. It happens all the time, it was also wrapped in a sock. What did this guy have a sock tree or something?

What I didnt expect was this, you can see the bracket that holds the roller for the guide is torn. Probably from the window flopping around from the broken stop.

This is supposed to be attached

Regulator has been replaced, great rivet job.

Also pulled the speaker out and when I was admiring my weight savings, I noticed the dirty ass sock was stuffed with paper...what'd this guy have a paper tree tooo?!

Then I quit working on it, because I need to look for a door or a glass, got a lead on a few guys that part these out.

Probably gonna fab some door panels, the OE panels weigh 16 pounds, so I can save me some weight, gonna check out some materials out at the home depot racing outlet over the weekend.