2002 Trans Am- Need Ideas Please

[MasterC117]

i dont think i like the idea of the 7.0 engine upgrade. you conferemed my fear of it being a hack and put back together job. my goal for this cars is to be able to show it off years from now and be able to say that it was great car when i bought it and i just put a few little add ons. i no its wierd, its like saying i wana modd it till it can fly and at the same time saying i want it to stay original. i want the engine as a whole to stay the same, except a few minor upgrades here or there ex- comuter chip, air intake box thing, and maybe a turbo (which is why i liked the idea of the sts, because it away from the engine). about the shifter i dont feel its too bad but i think ill upgrade to a better one. do u know how much it will cost for a good one? i also would really appreciate if someone told me what the deal is with this sts turbo. i was thinking of making a topic just for it becasue ive heard more mixed reviews about this turbo that any other thing in my life (heres the website where they make it sound awsome www.ststurbo.com). i also was wondering what Jay 02 TA ws6 meant by never getting a paint job as good as the factories (or something along those lines). this is bothering me becasue the first thing i wana do apperance wise is new paint and now im feeling like if a good job wont be done then i dont need it. also i am looking in to soem new rims. im looking for nothing bigger than 18s and something very similar to the ones on in the link i gave u guys earlier for the cool paint job. and thanks to Drychtnath for the suggested read. books, links, or pics are really helpfully (thats how i got here at f-body ). and i have this other question thats gona sound really stupid, so brace yourself. i dont know the difference between a turbocharge and a supercharge or even if there is a differance. so i was wondering if i could get some help on that to. thanks for the info and help

[Jay 02 TA ws6]

Turbocharger vs. supercharger..............

Both are forms of forced induction. Forced induction means compressed air is shot into the combustion chambers, rather than the natural aspiration of an engine. Because air is compressed, more fuel can be added to the air/fuel mix... air+fuel = power.

Superchargers come in different forms - roots, twin-screw, and centrifugal. If you want an advanced description of the pros/cons of all three PM me, or catch me on AIM. Bottom line is that superchargers are belt driven... the RPMs of the engine are responsible for turning the supercahrger to compress the air.

Turbos are basically centrifugal superchargers that are NOT belt-driven... rather they are driven off of the pressure from the exiting exhaust.

The positives of superchargers is that they have no "lag". The power is instantaneous and linear. The negative is that they exhibit a parasitic quality on the motor, since the motor has to use some of its power to spin the supercharger. At low RPMs, the supercharger will actually cost the engine some HP.

The negative of the turbo is that it will have "lag". It will take time for the exhaust pressure to build and to spin the impeller up to speed to make boost. When you hit full boost, you'll get a real kick in the seat of your pants. The big positive is that there is probably a little more potential working with a turbo since you don't have to deal with the parasitic loss. The fastest LS1 cars that I know of are all turbo'ed.

You really need to snoop around ls1tech for a while. Seriously, if it's possible to do to an LS1 car, it's been done by someone on ls1tech.

As far as the paint job is concerned, all I meant is that usually the factory paintjob is the best there is... but, if the paint is less than perfect now, you have nothing to lose.

Lastly... CHANGE THE SHIFTER.

[Dave M]

There are very good paint shops that can do a better-than-factory job, but expect to pay for it. I've seen custom paint jobs cost over$5,000, and that was for simple black. If you want more complex, it'll cost even more. Going someplace like Maco, or Bob's paint shop might get you a paint job for $1,000, but it will also get you a crappy paint job. If you're willing to spend the money, there are good paint jobs to be had out there.

To ad a P.S. to Jay's post on superchargers vs turbos, if it were me I'd go with a supercharger, especially if you're just looking for more power and won't be professionally racing. I believe they're more hassle free, easier to install, and there's a larger support network for them. They are probably cheaper too, but I haven't researched prices.

[Injuneer]

You might want to consider picking up this book. It take a fairly objective look at the LS1 engine, and what can be done to beef it up, all the way from FREE mods like altering the thermostat opening temperatire by shimming the spring, to all out 454 cubic inch fire breathing performance engines. Won't help you with regard to "appearance" or audio systems, but the performance info is very good.

Chevy LS1/LS6 Performance, by Chris Endres

One caution.... the book uses "Agostino" as one of the performance shops they reference, and there are better shops out there. Agostino has fallen on hard times over the past couple of years and several people have been screwed out of money, or not gotten the parts/modifications they paid for (at least if you believe the threads posted on many of the F-Body bulletin boards).

[Jay 02 TA ws6]

I was under the impression that ARE still has one of the best reputations out there ...

[DeWynter]

There are very good paint shops that can do a better-than-factory job, but expect to pay for it. I've seen custom paint jobs cost over$5,000, and that was for simple black. If you want more complex, it'll cost even more. Going someplace like Maco, or Bob's paint shop might get you a paint job for $1,000, but it will also get you a crappy paint job. If you're willing to spend the money, there are good paint jobs to be had out there.

To ad a P.S. to Jay's post on superchargers vs turbos, if it were me I'd go with a supercharger, especially if you're just looking for more power and won't be professionally racing. I believe they're more hassle free, easier to install, and there's a larger support network for them. They are probably cheaper too, but I haven't researched prices.

Unfortunatly Black is not simple. It is the hardest color to paint as it will show every imperfection in the body of the car. Black paint usually costs more due to this factor. Many bodyshops in my area will not paint a black car unless they are allowed to do all body work and prep to the car that is nessisary to have it look good, as they dont want sh|ty work coming from their shops.

[Injuneer]

I was under the impression that ARE still has one of the best reputations out there ...

You'll have to decide for yourself. There have been threads from a lot of people on the boards claiming they were stiffed for large $$$ items they paid in advance for, opened up engines and found obvious "used" and mismatched parts, flowed heads and got nowhere near what they were supposed to flow. One of our club guys, Jim Hogan who owns the fbody.com site was hosed for a substantial amount of money.

ARE appears to have changed hands... or at least day-to-day management several times. Nick was gone for a while, and is back now. They are guaranteeing that their engines will delivered on the day promised, or they will be "free".

I have no first hand personal experience with ARE. A friend of mine does, and I trust his judgement. Others have posted horror stories.... but this is just words on the web. I am only trying to caution people to act with care.

I have no axe to grind with ARE, could care less about them, but over the past 6 years of working numerous F-Body boards, I've seen a lot of interesting posts.

[MasterC117]

thanks for the reasurrance on the paint and the other info, but i have another question for u guys. can some oone please explian to me how skip-shift works. all i no is that when ur going too slow on the first the car forces u to shift to the fourth, or something like that. but i dont get how it forces u and what happens to the actual shifter. does it go in fourth on its own, or do u have to put it there. and what happens if u dont want to go to the fourth? it seems dangerous in traffic . i also heard it was to save gas but i dont get that either.

[Injuneer]

Skip-shift is simply a solenoid on the side of the tranny that blocks the shifter from engaging the rail for 2nd gear under certain RPM/MAP conditions. When it blocks 2nd gear, the shifter then naturally engages the rail for the shift into 4th gear. If you feel it start to happen, you could just move the lever up the 3rd instead. You can also just make sure you always push a little harder on the accelerator pedal when you are in 1st gear, so you are outside the MAP conditions that allow the feature to engage.

But its not a very useful system, other than allowing the engine/tranny combination to avoid the gas guzzler tax and keep GM's CAFE high.

It is very easy to defeat the system. You can buy a "skip shift eliminator" for $25-30. Pull the harness connector off the side of the tranny, and plug the "eliminator" into the harness. You could also accomplish the same thing for less than $1 by getting a 2.2Kohm resistor and pushing the end wires into the terminals on the harness connector and taping it up.

This is the location of the solenoid on the LT1 T56.... the LS1 will be in the same place:

[1sickbird]

if i were you i would rather spend my money to upgrade engine than paint job.and i also get better tire and suspension than buy rims. keep something that you can and upgrade something you need to upgrade like jay said TA ws6 is performance car not a pimp car. to make ws6 TA looks good it is OK but to make TAws6 going 10 sec 1/4 miles that whole other story.