As the Florida sun sets on...
As the Florida sun sets on this pristine example of an ’02 Trans Am, you wouldn’t suspect what surprises are lurking under the hood.
“Though I’ve always owned mainly Camaros, the WS6 Trans Am lured me in,” Dino Clark says. In July of 2002, he found himself on the lot of Dick Norris Pontiac in Palm Harbor, Florida. The dealership had one of the few remaining WS6 Trans Ams in the area, and it also happened to be the exact iteration he was looking for—Bright Silver Metallic with a six-speed. The retired Marine grinned his way through the paperwork and took the T/A home. He could have never imagined how far he would come with the car.
No stranger to the hobby, the 39-year-old service advisor knew the easy mods to free up some power from his LS1. Before tearing into the virgin engine, he established a baseline. It was secured to a Dynojet and once the rollers came to a halt, the screen displayed some incredible numbers—335 rwhp and 353 lb-ft of torque. “Since it made more power at the wheels than it was rated for at the crank, I knew something was up,” he recalls. “My friend and former business partner Kyle Breise and I hunted around to see if there was anything that stuck out as being different on this car than we had seen on other cars.” Using a mirror and a flashlight, they looked behind the driver-side cylinder head on the block and ran the block code—12561168. It turned out to be an LS6 block. According to LS1 folklore, around 10-15 percent of 2001 and 25 percent of 2002 F-bodies came with an LS6 block. While these numbers haven’t been officially confirmed, it has been proven that some did in fact come with it. Could this explain the unusually high dyno numbers? Not really, as the same folklore says that it was just the LS6 block that went into these Birds. They did not receive the more aggressive 204/218-degrees duration at 0.050 with 0.551/0.547 lift cam or the higher flowing 243 heads. Regardless, Dino was one happy camper who couldn’t wait to tear into his factory freak.
Kyle and Dino procured a set of Felber Racing cylinder heads that were milled to bump compression to 12.2:1 and ported to flow in the neighborhood of 310 cfm. The LS mill is carefully dancing on the brink of detonation on 93-octane to maximize the compression bump. A set of Comp 921 springs with titanium retainers was installed to compensate for the large cam. The low-mile lifters would remain to take command from a 236/230-degrees duration at 0.050, 0.602/0.598 lift, 114-degree LSA custom cam and tickle a set of 1.7:1 Yella Terra roller rockers and stock 2.00/1.55-inch valves via Comp hardened pushrods.
At this point, it was determined that the factory 28-pound injectors weren’t up to the task, so a set of Ford Racing 36-pound injectors were popped in, along with a Racetronix fuel pump to safely support the new power level. The oil pump was replaced with a Group Red Motorsports ported pump and the factory plug wires were swapped with MSD truck wires. Air is drawn in through an MTI clear lid with a K&N filter into a factory 75mm throttle body and LS6 intake manifold. For the exhaust, Jet Hot 1.75-inch headers and an off-road Y-pipe scream into a Magnaflow 3.00-inch after-cat that struggles to silence the engine.
Externally, the LS6 block...
Externally, the LS6 block looks no different than an LS1. It was determined to be an LS6 block car when Dino ran the casting number. During the buildup, he added a hotter cam, hi-po heads, and headers with free-flowing exhaust. Dino also had a set of custom valve covers made, relocated the coils, and added polished covers to the fuse boxes and battery—show and go.
Each year, Dino tries to drive...
Each year, Dino tries to drive up to Atlanta for the F-Body Gathering, where he has won several awards. GM Fourth Generation F-Body Product Manager Scott Settlemire has signed the passenger-side strut tower several times at the event, but Dino continues to accidentally wash it off in his constant obsession for ultimate cleanliness.