Thread: My Baby - 2000 Silver Mist GTP :) lots of pics!

Ok, I'm going to try once again to get this going... Lost 3 different attempts due to my WiFi, So my apologies, I will post three pages so I can edit them later and fill in the blanks, keeping all my posts in the front of the thread.

My 2000 GTP Silver Mist, 88,000 miles, Leather Interior which is mint, the exterior needs a little work to be done later. A few dings and a dent in the driver side rear door, the front and rear bumper covers need some TLC too. I know the previous two owners and the cars is clean. It just kinda fell into my lap and I couldn't pass it up!






So what was I to do... I have another GP, a 2001 Galaxy Silver SE - 3100, that I've had since she was 3 yrs old, that car is clean too but is waiting for a few overhauls and my son will take her in the springtime.



The GTP was completely stock, nothing fancy...







Not so clean when I got her... but that would all change.

I was sure I knew what I wanted to do, I just needed to put a list together and make a plan and then get going! I can't say how helpful this forum has been other than to say I probably wouldn't have done all I have so far without it. SO THANKS everyone who have posted here...

My Plan not in any particular order...

Open Cone (Spectre 45* Elbow, Silicone Coupling & 9" Cone Filter)
Headers (Pacesetter Ceramic Coated, 3" DP with High Flow Cat - ZZP)
New LIM Gasket
Valve Cover Gaskets
Coolant elbows
Tranny Pan drop (was not pink, but not yet burnt, no metal in pan, thank goodness!)
Tranny shift kit (feels nice...)
Ported TB (took hours but worth it)
Ported SC (see above! lol)
New SC Coupler
Plugs (Irridium's)
Wires (Taylor Spiro 8.5mm)
Tightened up suspension:
GMPP Swaybars F&R, ST Bars F&R
Don Rome ST Brackets and Billet Aluminium Diagonal Braces
HT Motorsports Trailing Arms
New Moog Lower Control Arms
New Moog Tie-Rod ends
Poly Bushins = Energy Suspension Sway Bars & End Links...
Polished Billet Aluminium Dogbones (just for looks)
Poly Motor mounts (front uppers only, removed rear uppers to calm vibration)
Synthetic Oil, New Filter
New Fuel Filter
180* T-Stat (drilled)
Passenger Compartment Leak Fix (had it on my old GP so a preventative fix)
New Idler Pulleys, one melted off, the other made noise - so I changed all (4)...
New Headlights (RockAuto - $75 for both sides)
BlazerTech Fog's & Harness/Relay, (customized bracket I made it to work) Throws more light than headlights, lol...
-

Those are what I planned to do, in addition I now have to replace an axle as the boot I loosened when replacing the CA on the passenger side and it's throwing grease around, so will change that out as soon as it makes noise.

Future upgrades:
Retrofit Headlights with Projectors
Rocker or Cam upgrade, probably Cam...
Inter-Cooler? Maybe, but a long way off
Tinted Windows
New Rubber - I like - Bridgestone Potenza Pole Position, used them on my other GP
Maybe, Maybe Rims, but I like the stock Aluminium ones.
Brake Upgrade
Last but not least, Vogtland/KYB's or Coilovers

Hahahaahaaaaa, can't forget the body shop to remove the dings and repaint her... then I can freak out parking her two miles away from any other car at the malls, movies, parking lots, etc., lmao.

Anyways... onto the project!!!

First up were the plugs and wires... coils looked pretty bad, so I cleaned them up and diaelectric greased the hell outta everything. Plug boots were like welded on but eventually it all came off with a little elbow grease





Next up, the Open Cone and PCM Tray...





Was an easy job, I bought the Spectre Elbow and Rubber coupling just for ease of installation, for $35 it was worth it.  I drilled a 7/8 hole and reamed it with an exacto blade for the IAT sensor which I put in the rubber coupling, it worked like a charm. Next up, new headlights cause I couldn't see crapola at night





an easy job for anyone. Next up, Polished Aluminium Dogbones and Poly Upper Motor Mounts and Diagonal Braces.





I like how it's looking... but can't stop now!

Next up... GMPP Sway Bars and other suspension items to tighten things up a bit.



Don Rome STB Brackets



It's a tight spot, but no worries... I had my son climb in there





The DR Brackets are real nice and make for easy work...



The old trailing arms...



and the new!



more to come...

.

Some comparisons...

Old/New rear sway bars



Rear End Links



Trailing arms



Front Sway Bars



Control Arms (Moog's)



New Front SwayBar installed





And yes, I did something to the axle, or didn't notice the grease before, took it for a ride and noticed the grease



A bit of a hiccup along the way. Coldest day so far of the year and I go out to start car and there's a weird noise, not sure what it is, but find out soon enough. Lol, so a pulley is added along the way...



ok, now onto the serious work... starting the LIM job, Porting, etc...





more...
.

Porting pics... cleaned up nicely...



Before...



After...



After on the TB, I removed the lip, cleaned the hell out of it...



Added some High Heat Ceramic Engine paint and all re-assembled



And yes, a ZZP MPS with a 3.5 for now... and Ceramic Engine Paint on the Fuel Rails too... Not sold ont he RED but it's ok for now, maybe Powder Coated rails later...

...

All Back together now





I'm probably missing a few pics if I find some I'll add them later.

Ok, so I got my Pacesetters and Overkill PCM last week and they went in the car right away. Obviously there's no need to show what the Overkill looks like or the install. But I'd thought to add the Pacesetter Header install here to my car's thread.

They arrived... and the pro kit from ZZP, I know you can get the stuff much cheaper if you just go out and get it yourself, but I figured it was just easier to get it from them.





Some pics of looks before the headers are installed...













Ok, so the take apart is pretty easy, loosened all the bolts on the front and rear exhaust manifolds, took the open cone off, driver side diagonal brace, removed spark plug wires, plugs, the front and rear engine LIFT brackets and the rear vacuum thingy over the fuel rail. That's it. I've read that others had to take the throttle body off and bend the Tranny Dipstick tube, but I found that wasn't necessary.


Anyways... now some install pics and such...






Clean the Heads good once the manifolds are off...

ok, the most ridiculous piece of engineering I have ever seen... the U-Bend...



Measurements just for the hell of it...





Ok dropped the rear header in



Front...



Crossover...







Band Clamps, Stainless Steel step clamps, nice...



Underneath hmmmm, ridiculously long hangers, cut them back to give more ground clearance...



Copper RTV all the clamps and tightened them down like no tomorrow...







That's it... Only things I can add are these...

I had to remove the EGR to get the tube into the rear header without messing it up, no big deal, two bolts, and I forgot to move the starter cables as they ARE too close to the front headers after they're in, again, no biggie, just a little easier to do with the header not there so I recommend doing it then.

Two concerns... the headers are real close to the evaporator tubes in the front so I put some sort of home made heat shielding there and I think the bottom of the exhaust is a little low after the complete install.

Regards!

I hate silver soooooo much, such an ugly color.


One more thing, you do some mods, you wont want to run iridiums, run some Autolite 606's copper cores, tho they need changing every 12-15k miles, at 12 bucks for all six, its cheap.

Originally Posted by Fivefingerdeathpunch

I hate silver soooooo much, such an ugly color.

One more thing, you do some mods, you wont want to run iridiums, run some Autolite 606's copper cores, tho they need changing every 12-15k miles, at 12 bucks for all six, its cheap.

Silver is ok, I like the Silver Mist actually, but might change her to White when I get the body work done... :

What wrong with Irridium's?
(Fill me in please)

I was being sarcastic. I figured you see my SIG pic and see I have the same car as you.


Iridiums dont work with mods, you want to run the hottest plug you can get away with, with these boosted car. It kind of sounds back assward, but its true.

606's are stock heat range
605's slightly cooler
104's are 2 steps colder
103's 3 steps colder

I would either run the 606's or 605's, and I see you already put that 3.5 on there and I suggest you get headers asap, unless you have already done them, but I cant tell because you havent finished the updating.

Lol, I think he was joking about the color


Good work.

Originally Posted by Fivefingerdeathpunch

I was being sarcastic. I figured you see my SIG pic and see I have the same car as you.


Iridiums dont work with mods, you want to run the hottest plug you can get away with, with these boosted car. It kind of sounds back assward, but its true.

606's are stock heat range
605's slightly cooler
104's are 2 steps colder
103's 3 steps colder

I would either run the 606's or 605's, and I see you already put that 3.5 on there and I suggest you get headers asap, unless you have already done them, but I cant tell because you havent finished the updating.

lol, hehehe, sorry I didn't notice the sig, was editing my other post as I replied to you, multi-tasking and I missed it, how embarrassing lol...

I've read about the heat ranges and I plan to gap the plugs down to .55 as well. I have Ceramic Coated Pacesetters and a 3" DP with Hi-Flow Cat on the way, should be here Tuesday so very gentle throttle rides for now. I just want to know if there is disadvantage for the Irridiums over the Copper plugs? Heat is Heat, no? I'm a noob with the SC and modding so forgive my ignorance...

I also ordered my Overkill PCM too which should be on it's way

I'm excited about the Pacesetters and can't wait to get them on the car so I can take her out and open it up a bit.

Originally Posted by Hippo Machine

Good work.

Thanks

Originally Posted by real diehl

Might have missed it but are those Moog rear end links?

Yes, sorry, I will edit all the pics and clarify what I used. BIG difference between the original and those moogs, nice they have grease fittings too, I took pic before I put it all together, lots O' beef on them (Moog's).

Love the car, love the mods. Out of curiosity, why are you replacing hard parts instead of just bushings, etc.?

Originally Posted by Steel Armadillo

Love the car, love the mods. Out of curiosity, why are you replacing hard parts instead of just bushings, etc.?

I think the pics tell that tale? Big difference in the stability... I can say that the ride tightened up considerably. So much so that now my tires are losing grip before I feel any body roll. They're ****ty tires but will keep them till summer or I get tired of the screeching and sliding on turns, lol.

But seriously, the stock Trailing Arms I could twist by hand, the rear sway bar I could compress (side to side) and the front sways, wooooo, big difference even though the bar is not a Dorman solid bar. Also, the prices were pretty reasonable to go with hard part replacement instead of just going polys, bushings and replacing the ball joints, etc. Lower CA's were just another $30 more and I got all bushings new on them too without worrying about getting the old one's off and pressing in the new ones.

Ok, I can go with that.

Originally Posted by SF9777

Awesome GTP bro, i like silver and that looks cool on the GTP. If i were you id make the bottom two vents on the bottom of the car even more darker black which would look great with the silver. Thats IMO and what i would want to do, besides that the engine looks great and the car too

Thanks!
Not really sure what I will do when paint time comes, but all options are open... Lolz

OBD2 Bluetooth Reader arrived today, direct from China for a big time $20. Downloaded the Android app called Torque and I'm thoroughly impressed! Gotta play with the app for a bit though as it has a lot of options. Lol...

On a side note...
Got confirmation that my headers and my Overkill PCM will be arriving tomorrow... Feel like a kid on Christmas-Eve... Can't wait to get those boxes! Lolz

glad to hear that what youve done to the suspension has worked out so well. good job on keeping her healthy