Well to be blunt with my car, it needs a lot of crap. The previous owner skimped on a lot of parts (only work i've done so far is 42 lb injector swap and a pcm tune), and she needs an intercooler, a smaller pulley, longtubes/ORY, a higher stall torque converter, a better cam, ported heads, an intake mani, a 58mm TB, and the most blatantly obvious, A REAR.

My question is this... do you guys think I should stop modding and save up for the rear (the most expensive part on the list), or just keep going on with that list until I kill the 10-bolt, and borrow money from my parents for the rear and pay them back? I know the most intellegent thing to do would be to stop modding and save up for the rear, but that's sooo hard to do

What are your opinions?

 

On the one hand I think money is better spent on making these cars RELIABLE before spent on making them even FASTER... on the other, I say don't fix what is not broke.

If you stay off the track, and keep away from the DR's on the street, you should be ok on the stock rear. No hard launches- and you'll be able to make it last until you can afford to address the issue. I was putting out over 520ft/lbs of torque and my stock rear never broke. It sure did whine by the time I was done with it, but never broke! (I babied it until I could afford to replace it) Of course, I never saw a track, never did a high RPM clutch dump, ect. The one and ONLY time I put DR's on the car, I bent the stock drive shaft in the middle of a spirited 1st to 2nd gear shift on the street.

The problem is that the stuff we THINK these cars need always end up being just the beginning- and the project and costs tend to snowball. You need to be prepaired for that.

Personally, I wouldn't feel right asking my parents for a loan for something I could have prevented... or for anything "mod" related, for that matter.

You've already listed about 6 grand worth of future mods, not including a $2,500 twelve bolt. Better question to ask yourself, is if dumping another $8,500 into an $8,500 car is worth the time and money... esp when you know that WHEN it breaks, you will have to hit up the folks for a loan.

Personally, I'd drive it nice, enjoy it, and save up what cash you can until next winter when it's not "fun" to drive it anyway and THEN decide what you want to do. If you really need to do something... LT headers would probably be the best idea for you at this stage. By the time it's all said and done you will have over a grand wrapped up doing the headers alone.

I love my car- but building these things can be a nightmare.
It always ends up costing twice as much as anticipated- and taking 3 times as long as planned on.

I'd advise driving it nice and getting some cash saved up to bail yourself out with before proceeding.

Good luck.

 

you can make the 10 bolt stronger with a few parts and will probally be ok for a while. Do you ever run slicks or DR?

I can tell you my car has been very good to my 10 bolt. I have broken one set of gears they were 3.73's I put in a solid pinion suport and a girdle and it lasted all last year pulling a best 60ft of 1.54 and avg. of 1.60 I don't worry about it anymore but that don't mean it will never break again. I also have good luck with my 4L60E and stock d/s too but I am sure one day all is going to come to an end.