so this is the story of my first car! yes first and current. first it started out as a daily driven gas saver, then my interest in cars cam about and this was available. i started research on facebook and google, finding many pages, websites, and forums. this was when the modifications began! but before i get into that, here is a few pictures of what it looked like when i first got it!
when i got it, the engine had broke a timing chain because the water pump failed an it wasn't worth fixing in my opinion. so we pulled the engine out of another z24 we had at the house. and here is how it went!
soon after i got tired of the boring automatic transmission LD9 so i decided to buy another cav. a 2000 z24, this had the LD9 (with a hole in the block, that wasn't being used) with a 5 speed getrag transmission. so i had a big task ahead of me..if you didnt notice, my car was a 98 cav and the car i bought was a 00. so my plan was to swap everything,all wiring, transmission, mounts, fuel tank and lines, evap stuff, ect.. and this car had some cheap lowering springs on it, so i decided to go with those on my car. it took a little time and a lot of patience but i got it done, and it paid off! i now had a lowered 98/00 cavalier!
the parts car:
both of them
after the swap!
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about two months later i wanted a set of wheels to change things up, so i met up with a guy and bought these wheels for cheap, they are drag DR 11's 17x7.5 with a 45MM offset. 5 lug universal. they need a little work on the chrome lip but other than that they were in great shape! ( they are for sale now, let me know if your interested)
i did some more reading on the forums and found out about the IRS swap and i had to do it! so i traded a wiring harness and PCM and some mounts that i had obtained for a full IRS setup shipped too my door, the next day i had the suspension mocked up on the parts car that i had got my transmission out of. then i took everything off and undercoated the trailing arms.
after i figured everything out there i, with the help of my dad got the suspension mounted up, here is how i did it.
how it was mounted
finished product!
getting the exhaust done
i was going to do a how to on here that was better than the original, that had more detail, but i never got around too it. the day after i decided to cut the springs so they would match the front ride height. it was going to just be temporary, but here i am two years later and its still like that and works perfect!
then came this year when i had a series of issues during my time at school that cause the car to be down for about six weeks.. so that's when i said enough is enough and i sold off the LD9 and decided to 3400 v6 swap the ol' girl! i also put grand am suspension on the front finally! i got a good deal on a whole grand am front end, including a
4T40E transmission that's for sale!
its already been running. As of now im just waiting the PCM with the new flash to come back from Milzy Motorsports. and since all the work is done here are the pics! haha
ill have another update when i get the PCM!
A neat little progression thread you got going here, Ill be back for more. Props bud.
Also, 60 degree V6 swap for the win! My friend Rob's Sunfire is 3400 swapped, god that thing is a blast to ride in.... its pretty damn quick.
You will not regret the swap.
Hey man thanks! I'm excited to get it in the road! And iv been trying to make this threads for years and finally got it done!
Looks good Jacob.
Do you still have the 2k parts car? Looking for a drivers side door.
~2014 New Z under the knife, same heart different body~
______________________
WHITECAVY no more
2012 numbers - 4SPD AUTOMATIC!!
328 HP
306 TQ
Thanks a lot! And No man, unfortunately I don't.. It got stripped and scraped..
ok cool
~2014 New Z under the knife, same heart different body~
______________________
WHITECAVY no more
2012 numbers - 4SPD AUTOMATIC!!
328 HP
306 TQ
Wow this is all winning! Great work so far. Interested in how you like the IRS swap when she's rolling again.
"In Oldskool we trust"
Y3llowCav wrote:Wow this is all winning! Great work so far. Interested in how you like the IRS swap when she's rolling again.
Thanks a lot man! I have had the IRS done for about a year now and it's great! I have no complaints. Great handling, smooth ride, great look, and not to mention the brakes! I would highly suggest getting it, for any application!
Good stuff man. I want more info on the A/C swap.
GMR has got nothing on this
DOHC_tuner wrote:Good stuff man. I want more info on the A/C swap.
Thanks man, and it's a really simple swap, get the whole n-body a/c system, lines, condenser, and accumulator. Cut the ends off of the n-body lines at the firewall and weld the j-body connections on. And I'm not sure if they will bolt up to a cav compressor or not?
Looking good, can't wait to see you finish it up.
KillerDragn wrote:Looking good, can't wait to see you finish it up.
thanks alot man! i cant wait to get it done!
so the PCM made it to the house today! but i'm out of town till tomorrow night... but tomorrow night i'm hoping will be the first drive!!
anyway here are a few updates from this past weekend.
i had to make the grand am PCM holder fit under the dash, so i had to cut a chunk out of the dash frame
it fit perfect beside the BCM and i still have more than enough room for my feet!
then i moved on to the the toe issue and got that fixed temporarily until i visit and alignment shop that'll actually touch my car that has full grand am suspension...
if i had a rack i would do it myself!
then i went to the battery box and modified it to fit around the upper radiator hose to temporarily work until i get my battery box made.
this is what it ended up looking like.
then i started putting the interior back in, and picked up some new axle nuts yesterday.
hopefully tomorrow night ill have an update worth posting!
hey guys, sorry for no updates!
well to start i got my PCM, belt, and EGR delete kit from milzy on Thursday and i got everything put on that night!
except the EGR delete kit, i couldn't get the EGR tube out of the manifold, so i need to get a line wrench and heat it up.
i ran into a problem with the fuel pump not coming on, so i checked and wasn't getting a command from the PCM, so i just jumped the relay and got it started. it did not run good at all.. so i packed up for the night and got started on it Friday night after work.
so once i dug in a little i found out it was a bad ground at the relay. so temporally hooked up a ground.
after that i got it running after everything was hooked up it still ran like crap.... so i ran it till it got warm and ran just fine, i took it for a test drive and everything went good.
i still have to figure out why it runs bad on cold start up. hopefully getting a scan tool on it this weekend.
well here are a few videos of it running and the first test drives!
looking good man, coming together nicely. Thanks for the 2.4 lol its installed in its happy home now.
Haha glad it worked for you! 😉
So, been a long time since an update, I drove the car for months problem free and finally got the motivation to do what I want with this thing! I graduated college and I'm working full time, so now I have the time and funds to do what I want! I parked the car for a winter, and started buying parts. So what my plan is, is to have a daily driver but also a car I can take to the road course and have a good time. So to begin I bout the turbo, it's a borg warner turbo off of a 6.5 chevy. That'll be going on with a set of manifolds I'm making and a few other mods like racetonix pump kit, AEM fpr, bigger injectors, so on and so forth.
Next thing would be the 5th Gen camaro brembo calipers that are going on! Not much to say about this, I'll be making a thread and possibly selling a kit once everything is completed!
The next thing would have to be a few small things like a prothain dogbone, grand am control arms with prothain bushings and brand new ball joints, along with moog sway bar bushings.
Ok, last but not least and the best in my opinion, BRAND NEW no longer made gravana coilovers! They have been sitting in a garage for ever and a day! I cleaned all the dust off and they are perfect!! But I do need to make new lower mounts for the rears to fit my grand am suspension. And also I ma looking for camber plated for these so if anyone knows of any please let me know!
That's all for now!
P.S.
this is going up as of now so a warm place this winter will be nice!😃
15min later and still drooling after that turbo
Haha Thanks man! Glad to entertain!
Are you going to build the 3.4 at all? How much can the stock bottom on those take?
This is an exciting project.
Im going to be building a structure on my property soon now you have me itching to do it sooner than spring!
"A car just isn't a car without a little blood, sweat, and beers." -- Shadowfire
Yeah I do plan on putting on 3500 heads with ls valves and throttle body, not to sure about the internals yet, still deciding on that!
youre 3500 heads are still sitting in the back of my van all boed up and ready to go.
