Thread: Saved a 2000 GTP from the junk yard...but what to do now.

Well I didn't save it from the junkyard as much as I saved it from its owner. I noticed this car sitting in our work parking lot for about 7 months and through it was one of our guys on a long business trip as the tires were flat and it was apparent it had been sitting for some time. I sent out an e-mail with pic and this guy e-mails me back that it had a blown head gasket so he just parked it. I bought it, towed it home and once I found metal in the oil, what was left of the oil anyway since it had almost all leaked out, I ordered a new engine for it from Precision Engines out of Texas and the transmission is being rebuilt just for good measure.

I have been tracking your forum for a few weeks now and decided to beef up the trans and torque converter, I bought the speed daddy headers off of e-bay which are featured by some of the pros in this forum and I picked up a blue tooth adapter for the Torque app. So my question is less of I need help with some technical problem and more of WHAT WOULD YOU DO! haha but I need to drive this thing to work so we cant do all that but I want to have fun with it. Should I take back the OEM plugs or get something hotter in anticipation of a smaller pulley or a cam? I probably wont have cash to do anything else to it (such as a cam) until beginning or middle of next year.

What do I want to do? I want to drive the crap out of it and have fun. I would like to tune it down the road and get a smaller pulley. I would like 300 hp out of it. The motor will be delivered tomorrow and I'm not sure what I sould do now which will pay off for the future or if I should even thread those stock spark plugs in there or start off with something hotter. I'm open to all suggestions gents.

P.S. As soon as I can figure out how to make the attachment manager work I will upload a few pics.

01 and ffdp thanks for the advice as it was very helpful. Dan, I need to put the engine in the car right away so this project does not sit. I have no more cash left for a few months. What are 605s? and I really like the supercharger so I want to keep it but a turbo sounds interesting. I don't think I want to install a turbo though just because of the lines and everything. FYI I have read the "Safely modding your 3800" several times over and will continue to read it. I have also read the diy tune and I took auto computer courses in college so I think I can hack it vs paying someone to do it. A tune costs about $350 but the equipment costs $500? When I get a few more paychecks in I can swing one of these.

Thanks

Do NOT get a different torque converter. If you're going to replace it just get a stock GT one. The aftermarket ones suck and you'll just end up with issues down the road. For example because of a crappy 3000 stall converter on my car it shows up on the dyno with 45 less WHP than it should, makes my gas milage suck, and just overall sucks. Just stick with a stock GT one.