Here's the story. My daughter is making the move from Jr dragster to a big car and thru many trips to look at cars she is going with my suggestion of a Gen 4 F-body. Now I've looked thru many of the threads at some of the conversions and I am just looking for honest pros and cons. I will be stripping the car to nothing and starting over. Like the title says, Strictly for the track. Here is my plan based on what I can get thru my channels.

SBC size yet tbd
Aftermarket EFI (ease of me being able to tune)
Automatic either Turbo or Glyde
Front mount distributor (to avoid the issues at the cowl)

This will not be my first go round in taking a perfectly good car (most likely V-6) and gutting it for a conversion, but it will be my first Gen 4. Truly all I will be using is the shell.
We as a family have raced dragsters, cars and trucks. Reason for doin this besides the fact that she wants to continue racing and I am all for that, I can get my hands on some pretty clean rollers for a good deal and can't find a good deal on a LS car. So for what we are getting for the Jr and what I have available already, this should be the best avenue.

Mods, sorry if this in the wrong section.

Thanks

 

Welcome, Dad, to the Club.
My thoughts are these:
I would pick a 4th Gen Z28 model because the LS1 is awesome design from GM.
LS1 will make more power for less money compared to 1st gen SBC.
Add aftermarket torque arm set-up, frame connectors, four-link.
Add roll bar, lighter seats, lightweight components, especially unsprung weight.
Later on, swap out a 12-bolt design rear axle.
Whatever you do, keep a logbook of the changes.

 

Buy someones project that they want out of, there are plenty of good cars on LS1tech with exactly your requirements. You'll save a lot of money on the big ticket items this way.

 

The big question I have on that is the tuning. If I make changes year to year or even mid season for whatever reason, will I have to take it to someone that can tune the stock computer? I have played with numerous aftermarket EFI systems and they are very user friendly for me and the tech has been able to help easily if I ran into problems.

She prefers to leave on the transbrake, what trans option am I going to have if I go that route?

I had already planned on the suspension and safety upgrades but thanks for making sure I was aware, too many leave that out.

Would you go with the 12 bolt over a 9"?

I am like you, I keep a logbook and also spreadsheets of any changes to reference later.

Thanks for your input. Any other info is greatly appreciated.

One of the best parts of it this is she is interested in helping with the build. So she will know the time and work involved and how things work.

 

I have seen that too. That is one of the reasons I was looking at this route. I am still on the fence on which route. The only given is the F-body.

 

no matter.wich post pics I want to see the dist in the front ,I have not seen one though this wont be a street car ,I would find desent z28 car to use

 

make sure she is 100% vested in a 4th gen, they are a BEAR to work on, but there are a bunch of things you can do, some expensive, some cheap to make your life easier.

They are great cars with very capable suspension, but weight is a huge enemy of them. How fast do you want to go? Are we looking at a small tire bracket car? Heads up car? something in between?

1. Look at the HVAC delete stuff, pulling the heater box/core and all the venting behind the dash out clears out weight, but more importantly a BUNCH of room on the firewall, most of the time you can even get the #8 plug from the engine bay instead of having to go from underneath

2. you can cut back and/or eliminate the cowl in these cars, I'll show you some pics of what we did to mine over the years as I needed more and more room, ending up with the midwest chassis cowl delete

step 1 where I was able to retain the wipers


step 2 was the cowl cut back to the windshield, no wipers and no hvac equipment


step 3 was getting rid of the cowl and also the stock size windshield to do the midwest chassis cowl delete kit. its a decent amount of work, but the room you get is amazing. You can get a glass windshield cut to fit or use lexan, I use lexan for weight savings





3. get rid of the brake booster and look at the manual brake conversions. BMR makes one, burkhardt makes one and I think midwest chassis does also, you can see in the newest pic how much room you get, getting rid of all that junk.

from there, its race brakes, lexan, fiberglass hood, cutting all the interior brackets out that aren't needed, door bars, misc free weight reduction etc

I went with a 9" in my car and would do it 100 times again, the ease of chnaging center sections, finding parts etc is a piece of cake.

I also agree with whomever said to look for a project, I started with a stock car and even thinking about how much I have into it at this point makes my stomach grumble.

THis is a good group here, don't be afraid to ask questions

 

LS has tons of aftermarket support in the tuning department.

Personally, I'd do a TH400 or 4L80. Both are tried and true.

For the rear, you're options are the Strange 60, 9in, or 12 bolt.

The S60 is pretty much bullet proof. Takes a lot to blow one out. The S60 is based off the Dana 60 which is used behind Hemi cars, Diesels and many off road rigs. It's a proven design but is heavy.

9in can also be bullet proof. Seen a few blow up from drag racing. The only issue with the 9in is it does eat more HP than the S60 or 12 bolt but you can change out the gears in a matter of minutes.

The 12 bolt is the weakest of the three, but can still take a lot of abuse, especially behind an auto. It is probably more than likely more than enough for what you need.

 

I have one sitting here on my shelf for the "next" motor, they aren't cheap, but make life a little easier when trying to make room for sure, plus it really cleans up the engine bay

KUP front distributor drive ? Kurt Urban Performance

 

definitely another vote for the th400 also, parts are easy to find should you need them, a plethora of used converters are available and they literally make parts to bolt a th400 into a 4th gen, no modification aside from cutting the ears off the bell housing