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Project Power

This was my winter project for 2001-2002. I divided it up into a couple different phases, some performance related and some are just for looks! Enjoy...I certainly have, it's been a real learning experience.

Phase One

This was probably the hardest phase, at least for me. This was the biggest undertaking that I've ever done in the world of automobiles. But I learned alot in the process and found it to be fun.

Phase One involved the entire removal of the plenum, runners, fuel rail and injectors. The entire removal process took me about 5-6 hours to do. I probably could have done it quicker, but decided to take my time and make sure everything was labelled and accounted for. Once everything was removed, I took it all home with me for cleaning and porting.

With Plenum Removed With Whole TPI Stuff Removed Five Plus Hours of Labour


With everything home now, the cleaning process started. It took a totally of two cans of engine cleaner, a can of throttle body cleaner and some Ajax along with a wire brush, scrub pad and steel wool to get the inside of the plenum and inside of the runners cleaned up. Fourteen years of gunk is not easy to remove. Now it was time to port the plenum to remove the EGR shroad walls and smooth out the edges inside leading to the runners. Between the soaking, scrubbing, and porting, I spread this work out over a couple days.

Runners Before Cleaning Runners After Cleaning - 1 Runners After Cleaning - 2
Before and After Port - 1 Before and After Port - 2


With everything cleaned up, it was time to do some more polishing and painting. I decided to polish the fuel rail and clearcoat it. I painted to fuel lines red to match the other red accents that I was going to be doing and painted over the green line that was around the centre of the injectors with red too. I also at this point installed the new Holley APFR and the Accel on-line fuel pressure gauge (not exactly as shown). The runners and plenum were sanded smooth first before being painted in silver with red accents inside the fins. I also painted the throttle body with the same colour scheme and polished the inside of the ports.

Fuel Rail, Holley AFPR and Accel Gauge Throttle Body - 1 Throttle Body - 2 Test Fit


During the time that I was doing all the cleaning and sanding and stuff, I had sent my injectors out to Rich Jensen at Cruzin Performance to be cleaned, flow tested and matched. Turns out that I had better than expect injectors to begin with. Here's the static flow numbers that Rich sent me back:

Static Flow Test:
Injector #1-98.5ml
Injector #2-99ml
Injector #3-99ml
Injector #4-98.5ml
Injector #5-100ml
Injector #6-99.5ml
Injector #7-98.5ml
Injector #8-98ml

This shows that the delta between the injectors averaged about 2% which is almost a perfectly matched set as is. I was very pleased to hear this. Now that everything is painted and cleaned up, it was time to put it all back together on the car. Another 5 hours of labour but it was worth it in the end.

Fuel Rail Install - 1 Fuel Rail Install - 2 Accel Gauge and Holley AFPR Runners Installed
TB Coolant By-Pass Finished Product - 1 Finished Product - 2 Finished Product - 3


And this concludes Phase One of Projec Power. :-)


Phase Two

This phase of Project Power is all about looks. The original plan was to get the front nose piece repainted and a new windsheild put in. Well I got a bit carried away and went witha custom ghost flame paint job instead...I couldn't resist after seeing it done on another friend's car. So in the beginning of February the car was towed to Xtreme Customs in Flamborough and dropped off for about a month. Here are some pictures of the project as it got underway. The first draft of the flame outline we found to be a little short and too populated. So back to the drawing board and the second draft was born and that's the old the pearl coat ghost flames were based on. Also is a picture of the old versus the new turn signals that I replaced with brand new GM ones.

Custom Hoist First Draft - 1 First Draft - 2 First Draft - 3
New vs. Old Turn Signals Second Draft - 1 Second Draft - 2 (bef & aft) Second Draft - 3


And here are some pictures of the final product in the garage and at the 2002 Performance World Show with the TFBM club. The base coat was done with a PPG white and the main part of the flames are done in a course pearl metallic aluminum. At the tips of the flames a blue pearl coat was applied that unfortunately doesn't show up in these pics. I will have some better pictures posted soon that show off the blue pearl and the great paint job that Xtreme Customs did.

Flames without grill insert - 1 Flames without grill insert - 2 Performance World 2002 - 1
Performance World 2002 - 2 Dave&Busters Meet - 1 Dave&Busters Meet - 2


And that last part to P2 was the installation of the MacEwen Motorsports white face gauges and Xenon bulbs. It involved removing the whole dash pad and driver's side front speaker to get at the speedo cable. Once the cluster was removed from the car, I painted the needles red, installed the Xenon Blue bulbs I bought from Ryan at MacEwen, and then put on the white overlays. I painted the bezel around the gauges red to add a little accented touch and match the red leather interior in my car. These gauges got a tonne of attention at the Performance World show and I love the way the look compared to the old black gauges. I also installed a set of new aluminum pedals and a leather-wrapped T-handle shifter from a Trans Am (donated by Paul Hughes) before Performance World.



And this concludes Phase Two of Project Power.

Phase Three

Phase Three is completed now. Originally included in phase was the MSD 6A ignition box but that part has been put off for now. This phase included the following parts:

  1. MSD Cap and Rotor
  2. MSD GM Blaster Coil
  3. MSD Super Conductor 8.5mm Wires
  4. Replacement of AC Delco Rapidfire plugs with regular AC Delco plugs

So far the MSD cap and rotor, GM Blaster coil and 8.5mm wires have been installed. The regular AC Delco plugs were installed too, and this was in preparation for install the MSD 6A ignition box, if I ever get around to buying another one.

Phase Four

Phase Four will include the testing of a ADS Superchip that I picked up real cheap over the winter. Also a exhaust cut-out, residing before the muffler.

I was waiting to dyno the mods the first few phases before stuffing this mod into the car and they are now completed. Dyno results to date for what's been completed on the first three phases is 207 RWHP and 304 lbs-ft TQ with the fuel pressure set at 46PSI. This is a gain of approximately 6 HP and 12 TQ over last years best numbers. So I'm pleased so far and this is with the stock chip. I finally got around to dynoing the car with the ADS superchip and the results were garbage. Although in everday driving I noticed some positive things from this chip, like slightly different shifting pattern and the cooling fan coming on a little earlier, but performance was definately not there. The car dynoed with 9HP less than with the stock GM chip.

Phase Five

Phase Five originally involved the repainting of the flames. It will be a slight change over the existing design with a few minor flaws fixed up too. But alas, other things have taken priority and this will be done next year. Instead, Phase Five will consist of some interior modifications. Check it out:

With LEDs installed With Neons installed Clear sidemarker Sidemarker with yellow LED


Phase Six

Phase Six has been updated as of December 2002 (finally) and is to include the following mods:

  1. SLP 1-5/8 headers
  2. Custom stainless steel y-pipe via Noyz Boyz
  3. New fuel pump
  4. Custom Ram-air setup (Completed...see below for pics.)

This phase started a little earlier than planned. The ram-air setup was installed in early fall and I finally have the pics. The SLP headers have arrived and are waiting to be prepped and painted. Once the spring hits I'm hoping to have enough money to get the headers and y-pipe installed.

Unfortunately this happened in this past fall on the way to the track...

Fuel Pump Toast


The fuel pump decided to go south. So I had it replaced with a OEM unit. Otherwise money's tight (that's what happens when ya buy a house I guess...haha) so it's gonna be a quiet winter for the IROC.

Ram-air completed...
From above From below





As always...stay tuned. :)

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