1987 IROC Camaro Pro-Touring Build

[ZMAN1969]

Do I spy a Super Ram going in? I have one planned for my 90 Formula but it will be a couple years till it get to it -pretty much gathering parts and adding 91-92 style bumpers on it T56-Dana 44 too it will be second Firehawk I've cloned

Edit: DOH! went back and re-read thread yes its a SR intake - nice build BTW
third gens are way overlooked as GM finally built a car that could handle really well with a little bit of work Sad they never offered a HD diff 3rd or 4th gens-I know the Dana 44s are good answer but almost unobtainable, Right now there's one F/S on thirdgen.org for 3k

[garage_engineer]

Originally Posted by WSSix

Glad to see you're still plugging along. Keep it up.

Originally Posted by SSLance

Nice progress. You are in the slow tedious part but this is also the part the pays the most dividends when done properly the first time. Keep up the good work.

Thanks guys, appreciate the comments. Definitely in the slow and tedious phase and I keep running into small little snags (need to order a special bolt, etc) but I'm getting there!

[garage_engineer]

Do I spy a Super Ram going in? I have one planned for my 90 Formula but it will be a couple years till it get to it -pretty much gathering parts and adding 91-92 style bumpers on it T56-Dana 44 too it will be second Firehawk I've cloned

Edit: DOH! went back and re-read thread yes its a SR intake - nice build BTW
third gens are way overlooked as GM finally built a car that could handle really well with a little bit of work Sad they never offered a HD diff 3rd or 4th gens-I know the Dana 44s are good answer but almost unobtainable, Right now there's one F/S on thirdgen.org for 3k

You're right it is indeed a Super Ram... very tough to assemble with lots of little pieces but according to the legend John Lingenfelter it was the best TPI intake you could buy back in the day!

[WSSix]

It was until the mini-ram came out. That's basically the same thing as an LT1 intake though. Easy to install and breathes great. Certainly nothing wrong with the Super ram though. It is a good intake also and will work very well for you.

[garage_engineer]

Quick update for tonight. My intake is on for good (hopefully!) so I gave the throttle body a quick clean up and stuck it on as well:



All of the vacuum ports on it were plugged when I took the car apart, and I would like to get them all functioning again, but for now I'm going to keep it as-is just to get the car started.

I then spent a little while getting my serpentine belt sorted. For those new to my thread, I'm retrofitting a serpentine system to my car from a later third-gen and have been taking a while getting all the small bolts and brackets together. I think I finally have it together though, and decided to put a small idler pulley in between the crankshaft and the AC compressor where to AIR pump would normally be. I bought an AIR delete kit from Hawks, but the pulley it came with was pretty big and had ribs for the inside of the belt, so I bought a new smooth idler pulley from Advance and swapped that out instead because I wanted it to ride on the outside of the belt. I think it should help keep the belt stable when I'm on the track with sustained RPM since it's a pretty long, straight shot from the crank to the compressor with no support otherwise. After a bunch of tries I settled on a 96.8" belt and it fits like a glove.

The pulley that comes with the Hawks kit, and my new one on the right (well, the box at least):


New pulley installed:


Clearance from tensioner pulley to water pump pulley looks good:




A really like to clean look of the serpentine system over the old v-belt. Hopefully it runs nice and quiet!

I'm getting very close to firing up the car for the first time in a couple of years, just tracking down some last minute little things and wrapping up some loose ends. Hopefully next post I'll have a running car!

[LS1-IROC]

Looking good man! I don't envy you on the Super Ram, I did a few of those years back, real PITA!

[ScotI]

Keep chipping away @ it & posting your progress.

[garage_engineer]

BIG MILESTONE!! I HAVE A RUNNING CAR!

I finally got through my "before first fire up" checklist and was able to turn the key a few days ago. It certainly didn't start on the first try though. I changed and updated so many things I knew it would be a miracle if it fired up first try, but I was just relieved that nothing major went wrong.

The first issue I ran into was my starter was dead. I first checked to make sure it was getting full power from the battery, and then also getting a full 12V on the exciter wire when they key was in the start position. With that confirmed, I took the starter off and tested it on the bench and sure enough it was dead. Luckily I have a guy in town that rebuilds starters and alternators and he was able to turn it around for my in about a day. He said some oil had gotten inside it and turned into sludge and a lot of the contacts were corroded. Makes sense since it was sitting on the shelf for 2 years. Here is a pic of the bench test:



After I got that figured out, my fuel pump was not priming with the key in the RUN position so I couldn't set the fuel pressure. I installed a new fuel pressure regulator so I really wanted to check this before I started the car. So, I first tested the relay and it seemed to only work when it wanted to so I replaced it with a new one and the fuel pump primed right up.

Testing the relay:


Setting fuel pressure... I set mine to 44psi before starting the engine.


Lastly I swapped the 2 year old gas I had sitting in the tank for some fresh 93 using my transfer pump:


At first the engine turned over fine but wouldn't catch, so I played with the distributor a bit and got it to fire up! Hopefully this video works:
https://youtu.be/gUDaUeyyz5A

Even though it fired up, it was having trouble idling. I tried checking the timing with the tan connector over the AC box disconnected, but it was all over the place. I also checked it with the A and B pins in the connector under the dash shorted but that didn't help either. I need to look into that as a really wanted to get my base timing dialed in.
I also noticed a slow coolant leak out of the back of the intake, which means I possible could have a big vacuum leak as well. This could definitely explain the rough idle, so looks like I may be taking my intake apart again to check that out. :doh:

Other than that, super pumped to have a running car and that nothing blew up!

[ScotI]

Nice. Sucks on the intake leak though.

[WSSix]

Congrats on getting it running. Might want to check our dipstick for high oil level and milkiness. There's nothing stopping coolant from getting into the valley and the crankcase if it's leaking from the intake manifold gasket.

How much was your timing bouncing around? RPMs steady during this time? Don't be afraid to hold the throttle open just a smidgen to get a steady idle. 50 or 100 rpms over idle won't hurt for setting base timing. Good luck!