New Caprice - Discussion forums

So I am making this thread more to document for myself what I have done and what I want to do with this car. I bought the car December of 2017 to replace my F250 (a bit of a change I know). Its a 2011, 6.0, retired Antioch, IL squad car. It had just over 88 thousand miles and was in relatively decent shape save a few small dents around on the fenders. My intentions for this car were to keep it stock for as long as possible and just use it to commute to school. This lasted about three days when I started messing with the exhaust to try and hear the damn thing. This and drivers around me acting like complete cretons led to my giving up of the "keeping it stock" approach and started my list of upgrades. This is the car a few days after bringing it home:


I immediately started to rid the car of some of its chrome with plasti-dip (I'm going to properly repaint now that it is warm again).


Interior-wise I bought two used seats from a fellow forum member (dauderm1, super nice guy) and combined the best parts of all four seats to make a good pair. It had the Nenno center console already when I bought it and I love it. I put an always-hot trunk switch in as was documented on another thread and made a phone holder ( I drive for uber and can't stand suction cup holders that block half the windshield).




My plans for this car are:
lower it with the Eibach G8 springs
JBA long tubes
some sort of header back setup, maybe custom if I can get it on a lift
modified stock mufflers (well that makes no sense )
light window tint
new wheels
better intake
small cam, maybe just ls3 or ls9

So, you know, exactly what everyone else does... This will be a challenge however, as I have almost no budget being in school and having my only income be drill pay from the guard (not that much). It will be my daily driver the whole time but hopefully will also see some track use (I live about 5 min away from an 1/8th mile strip).

So recently I did a few more things to the car, wanting to get rid of the police car look and as you will see I went towards a blacked out look. Uncoincidentally, it looks very similar to other member's cars on here. I took off the spotlight, blacked out the emblems and side reflectors, and changed wheels.

Here it is with Camaro wheels; 18x7.5 with stock PPV tires:


And with them plasti-dipped black with some glossifier on them:


I also installed a Vararam intake and I must say, it was one of the best upgrades I've done to any car.

Very nice build so far. I also noticed you blacked out all the chrome trim around the windows. I'm thinking of doing the same because I'm missing one so it wouldn't be as noticeable.

Yea, that's plasti dip too, haha. It came out pretty well and matches the sheen of the window frames though. Quite a versatile medium I must say, and I hate chrome, so it works out nicely.

Man, that's a serious phone holder!! Don't cut yourself on it.

It looks great!

If you're going to stay N/A, I'd recommend the LS3 cam over the LS9. The LS9 is fairly strong up top for a stock cam but gives up a little on the bottom end where you will spend a lot of your time as a DD. I ran the LS9 N/A for about 8 months.

Chevy Performance also has a "hot cam" for their 376CID crate engine if I remember correctly. That would be an interesting cam to try as well if sticking with N/A although it is more expensive than a good Comp, TSP, or BTR, etc. cam.

I'm loving the LS3 cam i put in over a year ago, wanted to do something crazier than that at the time but decided to try to keep this a DD machine.

I have LS9 cam and it's "ok". Didn't want anything crazy (mainly just do away with DOD), but wanted a 3 bolt cam. With a 3.45 rear I think the cam would be much better. I will say that compared to stock there is definitely a stronger pull up top. Cruising on the highway, put the pedal down to drop the gears, and it likes to go. I mean it's not laggy like a big turbo or anything like that, but sometimes I wish it had a little more snap down low (could probably rectify with a rear diff swap).

Bear in mind I don't even have an intake and am tuned for 89 so there is absolutely more power to be found. All in all, I am pleased... One day maybe down the line when I have all the bolt ons I'll do something a little crazier, but for now, no complaints.

How is the offset on these rims vs stock wheels? Just picked up a set for 200 bucks lol. Any fitment issues?