First off, this forum is incredible. So many hours of my life have been spent here reading and searching and reading more. This is my first post besides my intro.
I have an 87 T I bought back in January. It was the right price at the right time (had to sell my AMG due to divorce and this car was an affordable fun replacement). It ran decent enough but also had a long list of issues and what I believe to be a history or poor maintenance. The VIN and RPO codes also indicate the car originally came with a 307 so the GN motor and drivetrain were swapped in at some point in its life, probably from a rusted out T because it's indistinguishable without checking the numbers.
Blah blah anyway, I have the grand fortune or living a reasonable distance from Richard Clark's Garage and Xavier is currently going over the whole car to ensure it is running in top condition with no mechanical defects, then we are adding a little performance to the mix. I'm on a $10-12,000 budget. I expect at at least $5000 of that to be spent on repairs (they're already replacing the rear end) which include a tranny rebuild. That leaves about $7000 for performance, slightly more if the repairs/restoration goes smoothly. The car currently has:
Stock turbo
Stock IC
50# injectors (unsure of their flow quality as they are the old style green striped)
Adjustable FPR
THDP
Unknown fuel pump
Stock MAF
TT chip
GTA wheels
I believe everything else is stock, but I really have no idea because the car had the remnants of an alky kit and actually had a TT alky chip installed when I bought it, so some parts were obviously removed from the car before I bought it.
My goals are trap speed based rather than ET based, and I haven't had any luck searching for the kind of discussion I'm interested in. The car will be literally 99% street driven. Probably not daily, but I want it to be reliable enough for a daily driver. I doubt it will ever see the track. I have a lot of drag racing experience, I just don't really care about track performance with this car. I want it to be a mean street car. It will wear street tires almost exclusively. MAYBE DRs if it is just too much of a handful. I'd like it to be capable of 115-116mph trap speeds though. I believe that would place it in the 450-500whp range. Someone please correct me if that's off.
So in saying all that, if anyone is still reading, I'd like to hear people's opinions as to what performance mods may get me there within my budget. I'm leaning heavily on Xavier and Richard Clark for their input since they are building the car, I just like soaking up the massive amount of wisdom from the guys on this forum with their own experiences and considering all options.
My thoughts were:
Bigger turbo (I'd love to hear turbo recommendations, I'm thinking bigger than a 49 or 44 to run less boost and more fuel to reach my goal)
Converter based on turbo choice
FMIC or duttneck mod (cost dependant)
LS1 MAF w/ translator
Potentially larger injectors
Alky kit
Ported stock intake
I believe that still leaves me with a few thousand bucks to play with. So what are your thoughts on my mod list, as well as any additional mods necessary? Will those moods alone get me to my goal? Should I use the extra cash to port my stock heads? I'm open to all ideas and suggestions. And like I said I have absolute faith in RC and Xavier to get me where I want to be. I'm just curious to see different approaches to the same goal. I also need to have a small budget cushion for some smaller unstated upgrades like gauges, boost control device, etc.
I have an 87 T I bought back in January. It was the right price at the right time (had to sell my AMG due to divorce and this car was an affordable fun replacement). It ran decent enough but also had a long list of issues and what I believe to be a history or poor maintenance. The VIN and RPO codes also indicate the car originally came with a 307 so the GN motor and drivetrain were swapped in at some point in its life, probably from a rusted out T because it's indistinguishable without checking the numbers.
Blah blah anyway, I have the grand fortune or living a reasonable distance from Richard Clark's Garage and Xavier is currently going over the whole car to ensure it is running in top condition with no mechanical defects, then we are adding a little performance to the mix. I'm on a $10-12,000 budget. I expect at at least $5000 of that to be spent on repairs (they're already replacing the rear end) which include a tranny rebuild. That leaves about $7000 for performance, slightly more if the repairs/restoration goes smoothly. The car currently has:
Stock turbo
Stock IC
50# injectors (unsure of their flow quality as they are the old style green striped)
Adjustable FPR
THDP
Unknown fuel pump
Stock MAF
TT chip
GTA wheels
I believe everything else is stock, but I really have no idea because the car had the remnants of an alky kit and actually had a TT alky chip installed when I bought it, so some parts were obviously removed from the car before I bought it.
My goals are trap speed based rather than ET based, and I haven't had any luck searching for the kind of discussion I'm interested in. The car will be literally 99% street driven. Probably not daily, but I want it to be reliable enough for a daily driver. I doubt it will ever see the track. I have a lot of drag racing experience, I just don't really care about track performance with this car. I want it to be a mean street car. It will wear street tires almost exclusively. MAYBE DRs if it is just too much of a handful. I'd like it to be capable of 115-116mph trap speeds though. I believe that would place it in the 450-500whp range. Someone please correct me if that's off.
So in saying all that, if anyone is still reading, I'd like to hear people's opinions as to what performance mods may get me there within my budget. I'm leaning heavily on Xavier and Richard Clark for their input since they are building the car, I just like soaking up the massive amount of wisdom from the guys on this forum with their own experiences and considering all options.
My thoughts were:
Bigger turbo (I'd love to hear turbo recommendations, I'm thinking bigger than a 49 or 44 to run less boost and more fuel to reach my goal)
Converter based on turbo choice
FMIC or duttneck mod (cost dependant)
LS1 MAF w/ translator
Potentially larger injectors
Alky kit
Ported stock intake
I believe that still leaves me with a few thousand bucks to play with. So what are your thoughts on my mod list, as well as any additional mods necessary? Will those moods alone get me to my goal? Should I use the extra cash to port my stock heads? I'm open to all ideas and suggestions. And like I said I have absolute faith in RC and Xavier to get me where I want to be. I'm just curious to see different approaches to the same goal. I also need to have a small budget cushion for some smaller unstated upgrades like gauges, boost control device, etc.