Recently we had th
e pleasure of having one of our very first customers come back for some work on his car. We first worked on this 1995 TransAm back in…well, 1995…when both the car and Thunder Racing were brand new! The customer has put many miles on the car with the bolt-on parts that we installed back then, but after 15 years, he figured it was time to make a few changes and give the car a complete check-up.
The first thing the customer wanted to do was a cam swap. On a car this age, we opted to go a little farther with it and do a complete tear-down and inspection, and re-gasket the engine. We dropped the engine out and took that opportunity to clean up some battery acid damage on the frame, and give the engine bay a good scrubbing!
Once on the stand, the engine was brought down to a short-block, then completely cleaned before replacing all of the seals and gaskets and adding a new set of LS7 Lifters. It was then buttoned up with a Melling oil pump and a Canton road-race oil pan.
For the valvetrain, Shane spec’d a custom camshaft with 224/230 duation and .573/.568 lift to give the customer just the right amount of “bump.” We added Patriot Extreme valve springs and hardened pushrods, along with a set of Comp Cams 1.6 ratio Ultra-Pro Magnum Rocker arms. The rocker arm studs were upgraded to 7/16″ for added strength.
The original plan was to re-use the customer’s Arizona Speed & Marine mid-length headers, but they were quite corroded after so many years. After checking them over, the customer decided to go with a set of Kooks stainless steel long-tube headers with dual-cat y-pipe. We replaced the old “factory location” Taylor plug wires, with a new set of wires using our Over-the-valve-cover wire kit. To keep with the customer’s red theme, we used matching red Taylor fire sleeves. A Powerbond balancer replaced his factory one that was in poor shape.
We kept the customer’s original Vigilante torque converter, but added a B&M Transmission Cooler to help keep the temps down. To finish things off, the rear end was torn down, inspected and sealed back up with fresh bearings, gasket and fluids. The TA also got the full treatment of Red Line fluids in the engine and transmission.
The end result: A very, very happy customer! We took his 15 year old car, increased the fuel economy, drivability, and horsepower, and did a lot of extra clean-up and general maintenance to add the finishing touches. The customer has done such a good job keeping the interior and exterior of the car up over the years, we were happy to help him get the rest of the car back into shape. It’s our belief that it’s the little details that keep customers like this one coming back to Thunder Racing year after year.
