As many of you know, I blew up my tranny back on April 7th and Danni (my 01 vert) has been sidelined since. What you didn't know, was that I have been planning a complete engine build to go along with the new tranny. Having longtubes, we were going to have to pull the motor to replace the tranny, so thought it would be a great time to put a new, built motor in. There was no question in my mind about who I wanted to build my motor ... Dan Wagner (Dad).

So, we decided on the new tranny, a PA SuperComp with manual valve body and then began planning the engine. I picked out all the "bling" you will see under the hood, and Dad took care of all the internals, making sure everything I wanted worked together, and managed the entire project from start to finish. We went with a 302 stroker with billet rods, stage 3 cams and a Vortech T-trim w/ intercooler. (Complete mod list is on page 1 of my GS site). We literally pulled my old motor and tranny, set it aside and began with all new parts. It was a mere 17 days from picking up the new components from the machine shop, to the day we started her up. As you will see below, we moved right through the whole process with very few issues and all of that is due to the outstanding skill and attention to detail by Dad. Here's the amazing timeline of events ...

June 10: Teardown began
June 18: I arrived in NC to help with the entire build and installation
June 22: Began building the engine
July 6: Installed the new motor and tranny
July 8: Fired the engine (on the first try)
July 13: Initial tune and dyno with Tim @ MPH
July 19: Final tune and dyno with Tim @ MPH

To say I am ecstatic would be an understatement. I am so in love with my car and to build a motor like this, with someone so awesome as Dad was the experience of a lifetime. I learned so much and have exactly what I want, and got to help with all of it.

There are so many companies whose parts we used that I appreciate and I'll be updating my member page to reflect all the mods. Here are the key acknowledgements I'd like to make ...

Engine Assembly: Dan Wagner ... and me

Transmission: Performance Automatic
Tuning: Tim Barth @ Modular Powerhouse

Speaking of tuning, I want to say what an awesome job Tim at Modular Powerhouse did. We made two trips to Atlanta (7 hours each way) and Tim and Rhonda were so wonderful to deal with and Tim tuned Danni perfectly. Thank you, Tim!!

So, about those numbers Tim brought out, and remember this is on an automatic car!

650.93 rwhp (780 at the motor)
539.79 rwtq

Lisa