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WarShrike's V6 Firebird

34K views 295 replies 46 participants last post by  96firephoenix 
#1 ·
Figured I'd post up a bit of so some of yall have an idea who I am and all that fun stuff.

I've owned this car since 2002, paid it off and never looked at another car payment since.

I initially didn't want the car. It was under the pressure of my dad to buy it and retire my worn out '83 BMW 533i is when I relented. And Automatic? AND a V6!? Why!?

My dad never taught me how to work on a car outside, check the oil, how to change the tire, etc. etc. He works in the automotive biz, he didn't want me to get the bug and try to turn it into a trade as well.

Anyway, I drove it primarily as a nice A to B car and never thought much about it. Things slowly changed as I got to enjoy some of the nuances of the car, even if others just smirked at me.

I decided to do some minor things, installed a whisper lid (coolest mod ever) and next was a set of beefier swaybars and then longtubes.

A cam was going to be the last thing...

I never really set out to make the car fast or a V8 killer. I just wanted to give it a little more pep and something to help me enjoy the drives a little more.

Well, I found problems during a cam install, decided on a full rebuild, had teething issues on some things that weren't documented and not well known in the general V6 community. I decided to document it, hence why my Project V6 Firebird threads appear everywhere. I try to do it as a benefit to others. Especially when it is the "Ohh I wanna hop up my V6!" posts. Point them to my threads and tell them to read through and re-evaluate what they want.

It's a lot of work, but it has been a creative outlet. Yes, the V8 route would have been blindingly easy and simple, especially here in Lubbock with an abundance of V8 cars, and both Scoggin Dickey Parts Center and Texas Speed & Performance within a short drive from my house. I wanted to learn on the V6. Small steps you know?

Anyway, before:






After:






Engine specs are now:
Intense S1X NA Cam: 212º/216º .556"/.546" 113º LSA (With 1.7 ratio rockers)
Yella Terra 1.7 Platinum series roller rockers
PAC 130# springs
60°Inclusive ported heads and intake
10:1 Compression
LS6 Fuel Injectors w/ FAST spacers
Manton Pushrods
"LS7" lifters
Fabricated Valve Covers

Overall look of the car before (Circa 2005):


Now:




Yes, the tint is bubbling, it's 12 years old and on the list of things to do:


It has progressed over the years in stages, and I am currently at the next step of building a spare engine with the desires of turbocharging.

I've taken a car with performance looks and a generic powerplant that overall was suitable for a prom queen driving around, painting her nails while chatting up her BFF on her new flip phone to something a little more enjoyable for myself and has been an amazing tool in teaching myself automotive maintenance and modding.

I read a lot of information on the forums, asked good questions and listened to the counsel of the more successful V6 modders in the community. I didn't go down paths when I got the "That's not a good idea," posts or try repeatedly at getting something to work if I kept failing at it and took it to skilled people who knew what they were doing.
 
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#149 ·
Kind of a "meh" day of trying to find bolts that were supposed to be in one spot but after a year later, they...migrated. Oh well, found them and got things moving along.
Really like the eye for detail that the guys at Total Engine Service have for their engine assembly. It's those little things that tend to make me happy.

"In the beginning, there were no accessories. And then a lot of terse words were spoken..."



New water pump and an underdrive WP pulley from ZZP.



Mmm, all sealed up.

Notice the NPT plug? This prevents unfiltered oil from going through the bypass and washing the mains. Spun bearings are one of the lead causes of 3800 engine death. This helps fight it along with good filter and oil selection.



Accessorized!



More tomorrow.
 
#150 ·
The brown truck stopped by today!

UMI Performance Inc. boxed A-Arms. This is pretty much the last part of the suspension puzzle for the car. Just got really busy with other things today and things are competing for my time when I really wanted a clean and open schedule to finish...this...car!

I actually remember asking about boxed A-arms like the LG Motorsports ones a few years back and Ryan from UMI piped up that they actually had prototypes in the works. So, a few years later I finally get around to buying them, better late than never!

Really clean design, looking forward to putting this through the paces soon enough:
 
#151 ·
For the first time since August of last year, there's an engine in the car.

Exhausted and have a few mixed feelings since it has taken so long to get to this point. Still have to reconnect and reinstall a whole lot of parts.





 
#154 ·
Looks really awesome good job !!!! But fair warning installing headers is a huge pain in the ass

Sent from my iPhone using Camaro Zone
Meh, not my first rodeo. I've had these headers out multiple times over the past 7 years I've had them.
 
#162 ·
Created a new cover image for the car's facebook page. Makes it easy to do that because I can share from one location on just about everything.

Just a silhouette with a word collage around it that involves everything in the car.

https://www.facebook.com/ProjectSturmvogel

 
#163 ·
WarShike I'm completely disappointed with the people that you got your valve covers
finally had enough money to buy them at the price of 220 and now they want 420.00 plus shipping for them, now thats ****ing ridiculous (please excuse my language)...
what happened that the price jumped up 200 bucks?!?!? any insight as to what happened?
 
#169 ·
Been busy with school, since it's out it is time to get back to wrenching. Still have a long laundry list of things to accomplish.

Finally got the k-member aligned as well as the trans cross member:




Still nothing to attach wheels to:


Gonna clean these things up after I do the new collectors:
 
#170 ·
Did some repairs to the harness loom and started plugging things in. I feel like my knees have been hyper-extended from leaning over the fender for so long...

Really wish I had been able to spring for the Painless Performance wire loom that isn't this crazy plastic, but that will have to wait for later a later project with fresh connectors and all that fun stuff.





 
#171 ·
Finally got the spindles opened up to accept the MASSIVE CTS-V 6-piston brakes. Spindles are currently drying from a few coats of primer. While waiting on that, I prepped the UMI Performance Inc. front control arms and loosely installed them in the k-member and pointed the zerk fittings out to where I could easily service them.

Still waiting on a set of 18" wheels, have to send out my injectors to get cleaned and a list of other items. A whole lot less boxes filled with parts though. This thing is getting closer...



 
#172 ·
Not blazing through it, but getting some of the finer points taken care of. Finished spraying the spindles, should be able to install those sometime tomorrow.



Finished connecting some of the harness to the trans. Installed the longtubes for a temporary fitment check with the new exhaust. More on that soon.



Test fit the UMI A-Arms, they're pretty nice, and finished setting up the Global West upper control arms that were modified by Blaine Fabrication.



 
#173 ·
Kinda got stalled on a few things that took longer than I had really hoped to, but it's down to just chipping away at it all now.

I need to find longer shock bolts for the A-arms, I forgot that I had read a thread awhile back, so I need to go to the local hardware store tomorrow after work.

Exhaust is just loosely mocked up, will install rear end and stuff when I get a chance in the next few days.

 
#176 ·
Made some nice progress today!

Rear axle assembled, e-brake lines run, installed and loosely bolted in with UMI Performance Inc. Torque Arm and Poly/Roto-joint rear LCA's.

Drive shaft is installed, have to reconnect the rear brake lines (notice the stainless axle to chassis line?), sensor harness, mount up the springs and swaybar from Strano Performance as well as the Fays2 Watts Link. After that, it's back to the front suspension while I wait on a few last ditch items!







 
#179 ·
Well, I got a phone call with some bad news about my injectors. *I bought those things after the completion of my last build, supposed to be LS6 injectors all around. *Turns out 2 of them weren't the same, were of a different part number even though they looked exactly alike externally. *The guy doing the match/cleaning found them to range from 240cc to 270cc in flow after cleaning and when he couldn't figure out why the flow was so far out of spec, he noticed the part #'s were different.

This explains a few things that I had noticed while doing scans w/ HPTuners where my fuel trims would bounce around a ton. *I might just get some injectors to handle the necessary flow for E85 (something around 42lb/hr).

I'll post up whatever transpires.
 
#180 ·
Update on the injector stuff. I'm getting a killer deal from the owner of Fuel1 on a set of brand new Bosch 0280158227 injectors. These are rated at 36 lb/hr, flow matched and ready to go. I'll have to swap to a newer style connector on the harness, but that's not too bad of an ordeal with how direct plugin adapters are pretty common on the market nowadays.



Otherwise, I'm snowed in for the next few days (not something I'd expect to say here in Texas) so I'll probably brave the cold temps in the garage (currently 26°F outside in the sunlight) and maybe try to bolt a few things together like the front and rear swaybar assembly, test fit a few other items and make some measurements.

Still need to get a nice set of 18" wheels and sell my 17" Speedlines, gonna have to get the tires off of them and clean them up before I post them FS. They might be the only set of the Mistral 6's left in existence, so it's hard to tell how much to list them for...
 
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#181 ·
A little bit of progress tonight. Very cold in the garage but finished the front suspension entirely. I need to go run some errands tomorrow including getting the rotors honed to fit over the hubs.

Shout out to Keith from Fuel1 Injector Services for sending me some high quality injectors after my last fiasco that I had posted before.

Need to run the front brake lines, ABS harness and then install rear swaybar and watts link tomorrow!







CTS-V Two-piece rotors up front, there's more clearance than what you see in the picture. The caliper was just loosely bolted into place, with it level with the upright, it had plenty of clearance. Going to head out to get the rotors honed in the morning...

 
#182 ·
Ive never heard of 2-piece rotors before, thats kinda strange sounding.

Sent from my LGL41C using Camaro Zone mobile app
 
#183 ·
2 piece designs have been around a long time. These are made for the "racing" industry. They can shed 10lbs per rotor. The 2 piece design allows for the rotor to be made from 2 different materials, Aluminum (the rotor hats, the part that mounts to the hub) and Allow Iron, the actual rotor part the pads brake (squeeze) on.

Posted from iPhone 5s using Camaro Zone Mobile App
 
#184 ·
Well today was the good old birthday and got to spend my day off trying to tie up all the loose ends on the car. Waiting on the last little bits of things here and there.

Got the brake rotor hubs opened up by a local shop, D&S Machine did them for $20/ea, not bad considering how much it can cost hourly on for general work in a machine shop.


The 36lb/hr injectors are installed, waiting on the plug-in adapters. I've already spliced in the EV1 connectors from the mismatched "LS6" injectors, and I don't want to do more splicing on this harness if I can avoid it.



Working on installing this Watts link has been an absolute PITA. Bought it used from somebody and apparently they lost the shims that go in the clamshell spot for the axles. Should have just bought it new and never looked back...



Still waiting on wheels...



Still have to do:
• Rear swaybar.
• watts link.
• header mods.
• plugs/wires.
• PCV re-route to catch can.
• UMI Driveshaft loop.
• Fluids and bleed/burp system.
• Wheels/tires.
• Have a local shop tie in the last part of the exhaust.
 
#185 ·
Dead day today so I added horsepower mods to my tuning laptop:



Got in some slip on turn downs for my headers until I can get the whole exhaust connected since I'm using a system intended for an LSx powered F-body. *This is so it doesn't piss off my PCM for reading it being too lean due to reversion at the collector and killing the car in traffic when it starts dumping fuel... I had it happen a few years ago, lesson learned.

Also so that I can direct the sound more diagonally instead of straight down. No more brown note for me!

 
#186 ·
Forgot I did this awhile back, got to spend some quality time with my daughter in the garage, took a timelapse run of it with the gopro. Hadn't done this before so it was essentially a test run.

 
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