| Check out this list on where to start on your car
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 Here is a list I compiled together for building an F Body into a very quick car
Here is a list of items that I put together for building up the chassis prior to adding the horsepower. People are always asking the question of whether to go with a head and cam package, or go with a supercharger or turbocharger. There is no way you are to match the power of an ATI ProCharger with a head and cam package unless you use a pretty radical camshaft. Nitrous oxide could be used instead of going the forced induction route, with very good results at a fraction of the cost, although you have to maintain bottle pressure and keep the bottle filled. A cold air kit would be required if you elect to use nitrous oxide instead of going the forced induction (ATI ProCharger) route. The ATI ProChargers come with a K&N cone filter. With forced induction, such as the ATI ProCharger, the power is always going to be there when you want it, with no nitrous bottles to constantly refill. A turbocharger could be used instead of an ATI ProCharger, but I am not convinced that the turbo kits currently out on the market will stand the test of time. The APS kits are the best ones we have used to date, and we are indeed impressed with them, although they do take approx 1/3 longer to install than an ATI ProCharger. Only time will tell how well they hold up, and APS has recently announded they are leaving the North American market. TurboChargers go through extreme heat cycles, which can fracture the turbo housing mounts.
With the items listed below, your car would be quite capable of routinely running low eleven second 1/4 mile times, or faster, when combined with the M/T Street radial rear tires, or E/T Street tires.
Everyone has their opinions on what is the best package, and here is mine.
1. Subframe Connectors - Absolutely necessary to keep your F Body from twisting and stretching. I have seen too many of these cars lose their door to fender gaps from having gone too long without subframe connectors. Subframe connectors will make the car handle better, you'll get fewer squeaks and the car will get better traction. We use BMR's box tube subframe connectors on most of our builds. BMR subframe connectors will not get in the way of exhaust systems, where a lot of the diamond style subframe connectors will cause interference when trying to run true duals.
2. Torque Arm - BMR, Global West and Spohn all make torque arms that relocate the front mount off of the transmission by relocating the front mount back behind the transmission. The relocation of the front mount relieves the stress from the tailshaft of the transmission that the torque arm places on it, as a result of trying to contain the rear-end and it's rotational stresses. The stock torque arm is a stamped piece of sheetmetal that has broken apart for many people, and it sometimes takes out the driveshaft with it when it goes. By relocating the front mount of the torque arm behind the transmission, the geometry of the rear suspension becomes much better and really aids in hooking up the rear suspension. While replacing the torque arm, check the transmission mount, as the stock torque arm places a huge load on the mount, and the mount breaks quite often when using the factory torque arm. The adjustability of these aftermarket torque arms allows the user to adjust the pinion angle of the rear suspension which aids in finding traction.
3. Moser Nine Inch - Sooner or later the weak 7.5" Chevy S-10 derived 10 bolt is going to break. I wouldn't waste any money into attempting to build up the 10 bolt, it just doesn't work. There isn't one strong point to the stocker. For those of you with a six speed transmission, the 10 bolt has broken on many M6 cars with stock power. Expect the worse to happen... 3:75 gears in the Moser rear-end is a good compromise, especially when adding a lot of power to the engine.
I recommend the 9 inch rear for the higher horsepowered cars, and for those who have a manual transmission. Here is why.
Put a 12 bolt into a early Chevelle, Nova, Camaro, etc and you can beat the crap out of it, and not hurt anything. Put one into one of our cars with a torque arm, make a couple 4000 to 5000 dragstrip launches, and I can just about guarantee you'll pick up gear noise. If it is a drag only car, you'll never know or care about the gear noise. Drive your car home from the track, and the noise will drive you nuts. I feel the torque arm stresses the 12 bolt housing, causing distortion. We have never seen this happen with the 9 inch housing.
You can order a Moser 9 inch with ABS, or with ABS/TCS if you also have traction control. If you have ABS and you decide not to get the rear with ABS, the info below may be of some help.
Without ABS hooked up on the rear end you will not have ABS on the front brakes either. ABS stands for automatic braking system, without it you will be back to old school threshold braking, which I prefer. With old school brakes if you stand on the pedal, you're going to lock up the brakes, which can result in a magnificent looking skid mark, or you could end up in a ditch... With old school brakes you learn where the point of lock up is, which is how hard you want to apply the brakes in a panic situation.
With your ABS disconnected you will have a light staring at you on the dash, there is no way to tune it out, either live with it, pull the bulb out or put some black tape over it. You can remove the ABS assembly, which will remove 14 lbs of wight from the car. It will clean it up so it looks better, but you'll still have that stupid light to contend with. Bob
4. Driveshaft - The stock GM driveshaft have broken for many enthusiast, both the steel and the 3.0" aluminum GM driveshafts are fairly weak. I recommend an aftermarket PST 3.5" aluminum driveshaft with a 1350 Yoke with a 1350 U Joint. Combined with the Moser 9 inch with their supplied 1350 yoke, you will have a strong drivetrain. I sell the PST 3.5" aluminum driveshafts, which are rated at 1000 hp. They come with a lifetime warranty, a deal you just can't beat. http://www.exoticperformanceplus.com/performance_parts/index.html?item=541
5. Clutch and pressure plate - I recommend the Spec Stage 3+ clutch and pressure plate. Expect some chatter for the first 500 miles, then it will be pretty smooth. I would also add the '01-'02 slave cylinder for the older models, and do the "drill mod" to the master cylinder. Do a search for the drill mod, and you will see what it entails.
At this point I believe the suspension is capable off supporting a lot of horsepower, and you can go straight to item 14.
For those of you who are dragstrip bound, I would also add a few additional items.
6. Adjustable lower control arms - The aftermarket lower control arms are much stouter, and will not flex like the factory lower control arms. Going with adjustable ones will allow the user to center the rear end in the wheelwell. The stock rear end position from the factory tends to be .5" towards the rear of the car. You really won't notice it until larger diameter tires are installed. If a car tends to consistantly veer to one side of track, the adjustable lower control arms can be adjusted to get the car to straighten out.
7. Lower control arm relocation brackets - Lower control arm relocation brackets are meant to be used when the car has been lowered, which alters the angle of the lower control arms. We have found that the relocation brackets also help in getting traction in non lowered cars. We use the weld on style that BMR offers. Moser is now offering lower control arm relocation brackets on all of their rear-ends!
8. Panhard bar - The factory pan hard bar is pretty flimsy and additional traction can be found by replacing the factory pan hard bar with a heavier duty aftermarket bar. The rear in these cars tends to sit closer to the right side, and by purchasing an adjustable pan hard bar, the rear-end can be centered in the body.
9. Strut Tower Brace - Eliminate flexing in the front end by adding an aftermarket strut tower brace. You will also notice that the car will handle better with a strut tower brace.
10. Battery box relocation - By relocating the battery to the trunk, you will remove a lot of weight off the front of the car and place the weight behind the rear-end, where it will aid in traction. The car will also be able to handle better with the weight relocation.
11. BMR X-treme rear anti sway bar. This anti sway bar can be pre- loaded to eliminate the right side body twist that is common when launching out of the hole.
http://www.exoticperformanceplus.com/performance_parts/index.html?item=183
12. Adjustable shocks and front coil over springs - We use the Hal QA1 adjustable shocks on our cars, the ones with two dials. It is easy to adjust these shocks for street use, and then readjust them for strip use by simply rotating the 12 way adjustable dials. The Hal QA1 front coil over springs allows the front end height to easily be adjusted.
13. K member - By replacing the front K member and upper and lower control arms with light weight aftermarket tubular ones, a lot of weight is removed from the front suspension. Since front end weight is removed, better off the line traction and better handling will occur. We have had good success with the BMR parts, and combined with the Hal QA1 shocks and coil over front springs, gives the car a much better chance of getting traction on the starting line.
14. Headers and cat back exhaust - Everyone has their favorites, but we have grown very fond of Kooks and Hooker headers, and the Hooker and Magnaflow Cat Back exhaust systems.
Kooks stainless steel and Hooker ceramic coated headers fit very well, with excellent ground clearance. The ceramic coatings go a long way towards keeping the exhaust temps in the pipes, keeping the engine bay cooler and improving internal exhaust scavenging. These two brands of headers will give you 2.5" more in ground clearance compared to the older SLP headers.
The Hooker and Magnaflow cat back exhaust systems give these cars a good muscular sound that will not drown out your stereo while driving down the road. The exhaust tubing is larger than the stock tubing and is mandrel bent, for better exhaust flow.
For those of you who want it loud. If you are looking for an exhaust system that will annoy everyone around you, the two above exhaust systems are not for you. The SLP "Loud Mouth" cat back is a good system for those of you who want to be noticed. When we have one of these cars on my dyno with a loud mouth exhaust system, everyone around our area can hear the car!
15. ATI ProCharger D-1SC eight rib supercharger, pn# 1GJ204-SCI. Simply the best and easiest way to get 450 to 500 rwhp (140 rwhp gain) out of your car in my opinion, when combined with headers and a good cat back exhaust system. The car will still see great part throttle gas mileage, overall driveability will still be excellent, and the power is always there when you want it. At 8 pounds of boost, the car will be very dependable, and with the 4.5" twin high flow air to air intercoolers, unleaded premium is all you need to use.
We offer a complete package for the ATI ProCharger D-1SC that includes everything you need.
We take all the items found in the standard ATI ProCharger 1GJ204-SCI D-1SC model, and add 60lb Siemens fuel injectors, a Walbro 340 HP in tank fuel pump, an ATI Performance Products harmonic balancer, and an ATI Performance Products pinning kit! You can even send us your cars computer, and we will install a tune in it for you, all for the one low price!
What's the basic difference between the ATI ProCharger P-1SC and the D-1SC?
The P-1SC and the D-1SC both use the same housing. The internals of the D-1SC are designed to handle more boost than what the P-1SC can produce. If you have both of these blowers producing say, 8 psi, the D-1SC would end up having a larger pulley on the head unit, as it doesn't have to be spun as fast to produce the boost. In theory the P-1SC should start producing boost a little sooner than the D-1SC in the rpm band, but I really can't tell a difference between the two.
Many people start out with the P-1SC as they feel that adding the supercharger is all they are ever going to do with their vehicle. Power is contagious, and once most of us get a feel for it, we end up wanting more. 8 psi is about all I recommend on the stock bottom end of an LS engine, adding forged rods and pistons to these engines gives you the ability to up the boost into the 14 to 16 psi range. The P-1SC isn't going to get you there, especially if you add more cubes, cam and heads.
How much boost the blower can produce depends on many variables.
* Cubic inch. The larger the engine the less boost it will make with a supercharger.
* Headers and exhaust. A better flowing system will produce less boost, requires a smaller pulley to regain the loss in boost. Ultimately though, more power will be gained.
* Camshaft and heads. A camshaft with some overlap will leak out some boost through the valves. Better flowing heads react a lot like a better flowing exhaust system.
* Altitude. Elevation plays a big part in how much boost is produced. Those people living in the higher elevations have to spin the blower harder to see boost.
* Condition of engine. An engine with real good sealing rings will ultimately produce more boost than one with worn rings.
* Rpm. An engine that is spun up higher in the rpm range will normally produce more boost.
Hopefully this list will help you in your quest for having a quick car! Bob |
