young guy from NE florida, starting my ls1 swap!
 

hello to all! my name is branden. i am 23 years old and live in jacksonville fl.

After searching for nearly a near, i have finally pulled the trigger on the swap. i found a 2000 pontiac firebird formula with a busted front passenger knucle for a mere $1200!!!
completely stock, runs good but may need a tune up at 115k. It is an auto :( but by the time i part the car out i should have MADE $800 minimum (plus me keeping the ls1 and wiring harness, and maybe the aluminum driveshaft to be shortened).

I have had my 95 miata for nearly 5 years. I have considered turbo and supercharger but what i really want is throttle response, torque, and reliability. That and if i went either route it would bump me into SSM or XP with the scca. I am currently in csp and not very competitive with the guys with 06+ miatas with 40 more hp than me, but keep myself within 1.5 seconds with blown shocks. What I truly want to shoot for is FTD, not just winning a class.

Right now my miata is still assembled with a leaking head gasket and a worn clutch. I plan on fixing those two issues while I gather parts for my v8 swap, although i have my wrx as my daily driver. Once i have the majority of the parts needed for the swap, i plan on buying another miata shell, swapping my 1.8 stuff in, and selling the whole car to maximize profits.

The firebird is being disassembled everyday after work, with parts hitting ebay and craigslist as soon as they're pulled. When the car is completely stripped im going to sell it to a scrapyard for chump change to get it off my property.

I am hoping to have everything needed in a year or less, with as little money spent as possible. I feel i am already ahead of the game by a large portion, especially once all the extras are sold off.

The route i plan on going includes; the rearward v8r kit, getrag diff from a cts with 3.73 gears,
shortened stock driveshaft, complete wiring harness from the ls1 car, t-56, cts accessories and drivebelt, no ac, ducktail spoiler, racing beat style II front bumper, hardtop, cowled hood, and charcoal grey with 2 red stripes.

I know i still have a ton of research let to do, including the wiring, but you can count on me to listen to everything you have to say!

Hi brandog, enjoy your stay :)

Hey Branden welcome to the forum! I'm really excited to hear about your build because I'm doing the exact same thing as you are! I'm about 2 months ahead of you and pretty much done with the F body part out. You will make A LOT more than 800 bucks on the extra parts from your bird if you have a little patience. Craigs list is great for the bigger stuff but LS1tech is really good for odds and ends. I have sold stuff I never dreamed anyone would want there.


I hope you do a build thread because I would love to follow your progress. If you have any questions please ask there are a couple of guys in the middle of LS builds here now and we would be glad to help.

I have a feeling I have a million questions I will ask, if I can't find legitimate answers after searching.
when I said I should make 800 bucks, i meant i should make 800 on top of the 1200 i spent, hopefully.

When you sold the headlights and tail lights, did you fetch 150 per tail and 250 per headlight like i see on ebay?
And i just joined ls1 tech as well.

I will do my best to do a build thread, although it may take awhile to come up with the rest of the funds.

No I found it best to ask reasonable prices and sell things fast rather than try to get every last dime out of parts. This is a little bit dated but if you go here you can see what I have spent and what I got for most of my parts so far.

https://skydrive.live.com/view.aspx?...EnMKcJ0CspHsIw

It's really easy to sell the performance parts but a bit harder to sell the stuff like doors. My numbers are a bit high because I had some very choice performance parts on my Camaro. The dash pad and seats bring really good money if yours are in good shape. If you want to go with a T56 there is always someone looking to do a complete swap so you will be able to sell your auto. If your budget is tight you could look at a T5. All the Ford guys use them and they are just fine in the Miata.

Subscribe to this thread and read it every morning: Parts Wanted - LS1TECH

I say read it in the morning if you can because I have had guys find parts before I responded in the evening. You'll see in the sheet I had a guy buy my brake lines. I had to go out to where my shell is and get them because I had tossed them. You just never know what people will buy from the car so becareful what you toss. I'm shipping some gears today I really never expected to sell

Also get a an account with Fedex or UPS so you can ship easy on line. I use FedEx because they are way cheaper than UPS and I am very close to a drop. Post office is OK but no tracking and hard to file a claim if something goes wrong. Oh and it pays big time to pack boxes very well! Shipping damage is a pain in the rear!!

Your best weapon in this is research and learning from other peoples mistakes. There is so many options it's kind of hard to know what makes the most sense but you will find your way if you just take your time and be a sponge.

You can reach out to me anytime here or at 507 360 5382.

By the way your factory oil pan is really easy to sell too. There was a want to buy one on LS1tech today. I'm hoping to get 150 out of mine cuz it's low mile and mint.

If you part out your rear end rather than sell it whole your brakes bring decent money and are easy to sell. I'd buy your posi unit from you if it is a series 3. (I can tell you how to check that if you don't know) If you sell your springs and struts pretty cheap I'd be interested in them too. Wish you were not so far away!!

I see you found Pats build thread. He is the other guy I mentioned that is just ahead of you in your build. He has not posted for a while so hopefully he slowed down some and I can catch up to him!

I hope you find my blog some value too. If you seam weld your body we should talk cuz there are a few things I would have done differently.

Welcome Branden! I built my first one when I was relatively young (about 28) and had a great time doing it. I too had to budget my way through it so I know what you're trying to do. One word of advice though is to only sell stuff off that you are POSITIVE will not be needed for the build. You'd be amazed once you start building how many stupid little fasteners, clips, bolts etc. from your donor car will come in handy. Also...and please don't take this the wrong way, I am only speaking from experience...one of the aspects of being in your 20's is a very optimist outlook when it comes to judging how things will work out financially. You can combat this by ALWAYS underestimating what something you are going to sell is going to bring in (not what it's worth-what it will bring it) and ALWAYS overestimating what things will cost. You will be amazed at how much taxes and shipping will add to your total cost in the end. If you do this the worst case is the project will only cost you a little more than anticipated, the best case is it comes in under budget and you have money for the gas you’ll need to drive the car.

Also, make sure you finish the project before creating offspring. If you don't your next window of opportunity will not occur until your late 40's.

Start up a build thread when you get the chance. Even pics of your disassembly process would make a good start to the thread.

Good luck with your build,
-Jason

LOL +1 big time to that ^^! You get the biggest raise of your life when your last kid is done with college!

If I get time I will start a build thread today. My wife and I decided to not have kids until we reach a few more goals, like this build for example. We have about 8 Years left on our house (got it really cheap) and my wife supports everything I do, and even buys me car parts on birthdays and such.

Well good news on a few parts listed eBay... for example i sold one headlight for 200 (minus 25 for fees) when they sold for 250 plus shipping. I hope to get as much sold as i can thru ebay because its a seller's market 80% of the time.
If i can get most of everything needed for the swap while the miata is still assymbled, parts sold from the miata should be icing on the cake. (Torsen, 1.8, ac, tranny and such)