I'm not very active on the board, i mainly use it for researching information. I currently have a 91 Syclone.
My dad and I have been going to car cruises for about 15 years (started when i was about 9 years old). My dad has a numbers matching 69 Mach1 428. He instilled in me thats its great to own something that no one else has.
I love 3rdGen firebirds and LT1 firebirds. I've had 3 of them. After owning "regular" F-Bodies, i wanted something special, and started looking for a TTA. I found a couple local, but each one had its own faults. Too many mods, too much money, too high miles. So i started looking for a Syclone and found they were a little easier to find, and afford. Each of my prior vehicles were showroom stock, and cleaner then anything on the street.
When i decided to buy a Syclone, i wanted to attempt to do an engine teardown & rebuilt. I had never done it before. So i narrowed my search to low mile trucks with a good clean body/frame, but with mechanical issues. I found my truck in Minneapolis MN (i live in Pittsburgh PA). The owner said it had an late model crate engine and needed to be tune. I went and bought it and drove it 1000 miles home. After going over the truck i found that the engine was not the low compression 4.3L that would've come in the truck. It was a higher compression AC Delco replacement shortblock. 12# of boost was the most it could hold without knocking. The rest of the engine was rough around the edges, but all there, and all stock. I got it running half decent, and drove it through the summer to car shows. I made a couple 1/4 mile passes and best of a 14.3. Everyone had they're fun street racing the 14 second "Quickest Production Truck"
So last winter i decided to pull the engine to do a full driveline rebuild. I bought a stock block out fo a Typhoon. Stock crank, Eagle h-beams, Speedpro pistons. I had a set of factory GM heads ported, and bigger valves added. I had one of the SyTy shops custom spec a cam. I'm running the stock intake & exhaust manifolds. PTE 65# injectors, the stock TB, stock W2A intercooler, and a journal bearing 72mm turbo. I tune it with TunerPro and an algorythm called Code$59. Which allows the factory ECM to be a fully adjustable 3Bar system. This is also my first time tuning.
I had the stock trans sent out to Carl Rossler in OH, and he did a beefy rebuild on it. I upgraded to a 3400 stall hybrid 9"/11" lockup converter. Still running the stock transfercase, and stock front and rear differentials.
After street tuning for a couple months. i go to the 1/8 mile, and made a bunch of consistant passes at 8.0 @ 86mph, 1.7 60' on regular street tires. A week later i got the truck on a dyno, and made 360rwhp, and 460rwtrq. On 23psi, 17* of timing. For some reason my truck redlines at 4800rpms. which sucks cause my cam is a 3200-6000 cam.
I have a Razor's alky kit on the truck, but never ran it yet. i have alot of traction problems, even at cruising speeds. So this winter i'm going with larger C4 corvette wheels, and Nitto DRs on all 4. I'm also gonna run bump stops as front end limiters, to stop the nose from lifting and unloading the front tires. Also swapping all the brakes to LS1 Camaro discs.
Its alot of work, and mods for a show truck that makes 8-10 track passes a year. But its fun for the street.
So this year with more tuning experience, better traction, and more power from the meth, it should be an impressive ride.
Engine bay when i first bought it:
Truck at a couple car cruises:
Me at the 2007 SyTy Homecoming in Detroit:
The engine during my rebuild:
3" stainless downpipe, homemade:
Transmission:
My dad and I have been going to car cruises for about 15 years (started when i was about 9 years old). My dad has a numbers matching 69 Mach1 428. He instilled in me thats its great to own something that no one else has.
I love 3rdGen firebirds and LT1 firebirds. I've had 3 of them. After owning "regular" F-Bodies, i wanted something special, and started looking for a TTA. I found a couple local, but each one had its own faults. Too many mods, too much money, too high miles. So i started looking for a Syclone and found they were a little easier to find, and afford. Each of my prior vehicles were showroom stock, and cleaner then anything on the street.
When i decided to buy a Syclone, i wanted to attempt to do an engine teardown & rebuilt. I had never done it before. So i narrowed my search to low mile trucks with a good clean body/frame, but with mechanical issues. I found my truck in Minneapolis MN (i live in Pittsburgh PA). The owner said it had an late model crate engine and needed to be tune. I went and bought it and drove it 1000 miles home. After going over the truck i found that the engine was not the low compression 4.3L that would've come in the truck. It was a higher compression AC Delco replacement shortblock. 12# of boost was the most it could hold without knocking. The rest of the engine was rough around the edges, but all there, and all stock. I got it running half decent, and drove it through the summer to car shows. I made a couple 1/4 mile passes and best of a 14.3. Everyone had they're fun street racing the 14 second "Quickest Production Truck"
So last winter i decided to pull the engine to do a full driveline rebuild. I bought a stock block out fo a Typhoon. Stock crank, Eagle h-beams, Speedpro pistons. I had a set of factory GM heads ported, and bigger valves added. I had one of the SyTy shops custom spec a cam. I'm running the stock intake & exhaust manifolds. PTE 65# injectors, the stock TB, stock W2A intercooler, and a journal bearing 72mm turbo. I tune it with TunerPro and an algorythm called Code$59. Which allows the factory ECM to be a fully adjustable 3Bar system. This is also my first time tuning.
I had the stock trans sent out to Carl Rossler in OH, and he did a beefy rebuild on it. I upgraded to a 3400 stall hybrid 9"/11" lockup converter. Still running the stock transfercase, and stock front and rear differentials.
After street tuning for a couple months. i go to the 1/8 mile, and made a bunch of consistant passes at 8.0 @ 86mph, 1.7 60' on regular street tires. A week later i got the truck on a dyno, and made 360rwhp, and 460rwtrq. On 23psi, 17* of timing. For some reason my truck redlines at 4800rpms. which sucks cause my cam is a 3200-6000 cam.
I have a Razor's alky kit on the truck, but never ran it yet. i have alot of traction problems, even at cruising speeds. So this winter i'm going with larger C4 corvette wheels, and Nitto DRs on all 4. I'm also gonna run bump stops as front end limiters, to stop the nose from lifting and unloading the front tires. Also swapping all the brakes to LS1 Camaro discs.
Its alot of work, and mods for a show truck that makes 8-10 track passes a year. But its fun for the street.
So this year with more tuning experience, better traction, and more power from the meth, it should be an impressive ride.
Engine bay when i first bought it:
Truck at a couple car cruises:
Me at the 2007 SyTy Homecoming in Detroit:
The engine during my rebuild:
3" stainless downpipe, homemade:
Transmission:
I had a Typhoon years ago and loved that thing. It was a blast to shock the hell out of people with it.
