TransAm w/ LS6 transplant

[Constable]

A friend of mine was trying to sell his 2001 Trans Am for a while... it had racked up 65,000 miles due to constant interstate trips. About 4 weeks ago, he got caught in a flood, in a low part of the highway. He had no avenue of escape, but it's his own fault that he drove into the water. The T/A ended up gulping a large amount of water through the intake and the LS1 quickly passed away. From what I understand, the trans was done due to water coming in from some vent tube.

He soon had a check for about $6,000.00 in his hands (ins. money for a new motor & trans rebuild). A few of us (close friends) sat around and figured out a great way to spend it:

1 - He ordered an LS6 crate motor from GM (exact motor that sits in the AWESOME ZO6 Corvette).
2 - TransGo shift kit for his soon-to-be-rebuilt 4L60E trans.
3 - A 3.42 limited-slip from a wrecked T/A (stock was 2.??)
4 - The rest of the $$$ went to a tuner who matched the computer to the motor and reworked some other electronic functions.

All was put together nicely... and QUICKLY! I believe everything was finished in the matter of a week. He was nice enough to pick me up for lunch on Sunday and showed me what the car was now capable of. WOW!!! It hauls A$$!!!. I was very impressed and also concerned... this car is going to hurt somoen if it's not handled gently. Again, WOW. I'll be sure to post some pics and 1/4 times once we hit the track.

[Michael_S]

So... it's been almost a month. What came out of it?

[Constable]

I haven't seen him in about 3 weeks. Last time we were out, he had JUST finished breaking in the motor. It sounds like a Nascar. It absolutely screams. He still hasn't taken it to the track. I think he's scared.

Last year (or maybe two years ago) he was at SLP day at ETown. It started to mist or drizzle a tad. He was the first car to run after that, and ended up smacking the wall at about 70mph. After that, he's been real squirrely everytime we talk about going to the track.

[AlabamaSS]

Sounds awsome!

I test drove a 2002 Trans Am w/ Ram Air (310 hp) and a factory Hurts 6-speed last week. It felt like you could lay rubber in the first three gears. I think you could loose it with out much effort at all.

[Michael_S]

My wife's stepfather spent $15,000 on his '89 Mustang, getting the engine bored and stroked, slightly higher compression (11.0, I think), plus bigger intakes and exhaust, rebuilt transmission, 4.10 (or higher, I don't remember) drive ratio, and high performance but still street legal camshaft.

The end result is awesome, with 490 horsepower at the flywheel and so much acceleration that I wouldn't want to drive it even if he let me. But I don't understand why he didn't just buy a crate engine and drop it in. He probably could have saved $5,000 easily.

[TripleTransAm]

Originally posted by AlabamaSS
I test drove a 2002 Trans Am w/ Ram Air (310 hp) and a factory Hurts 6-speed last week. It felt like you could lay rubber in the first three gears.

It does.
(ask me how I know...)

As for the Nascar-like sound... I've got some sound files of my WS6 that I sampled back in 2000 and 2001. Helps chase the winter blues every time I hear them... here's one:
http://www.tripletransam.com/ws6-old/exh2.wav

And the 310 hp (base, 325 or more for WS6) rating is BS... my bone stock '98 WS6 (rated at 320hp) puts down 310 rear wheel hp. That's about 350 hp at the crank. The 2002s were significantly stronger...