Introducing " Chain Reaction "
 

September 2006 I attended Run Through the Hills II with my fourth gen Camaro and fell in love with the old iron that could do it all. Within 30 days I had sold my 67 Camaro and purchased this project from this forum. At the time it felt odd to me to document the build here as it was another members project. I chose to use pro-tour dot com and although I enjoy that site, I will admit I use Lateral-g almost as much, without posting. Well I thought it was time to change that and introduce it to this forum.

So here it is after a full season of racing. These are some mods I'm in the process of making to better suit its intended use, track days. I chose to perform this build during the long Chicago winters, while driving it each summer. With that being said there is alot of unfinished work, making it look a bit ratty. Although the look on a C6 drivers face when I'm inches off his rear-end is priceless. :D And the rat look seems to get more attention than I expected.

I plan on making the Long Haul this year and attending the Motor State Challenge the weekend after. I am a member of the Midwest Council of Sports Car Clubs ( http://www.mcscc.org/ ) and will be racing with the club as well.

Matt Altamore

http://inlinethumb11.webshots.com/40...600x600Q85.jpg




So after last years summer of events and the September race body mods, ( http://www.pro-touring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47895 ) I made the decision to pour more dough into the car in the name of performance.

1. Dedicated track wheels and tires ( Z06 style 17 x 9.5 with Toyo R888 )

http://inlinethumb21.webshots.com/44...500x500Q85.jpg

I used Skulte wheel adapters after taking carfull measurements. My goal was to use the same size tire at all four corners. This allows me to rotate and keep replacement costs down. One more benefit will be a wider track width in the rear, albeit less rubber on the ground. I'm hoping they will offset each other.

http://inlinethumb15.webshots.com/45...500x500Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb53.webshots.com/43...500x500Q85.jpg

With the 275/40 17 tires on the front I will lose some turning radius and will modify the front wheel wells. This pic is with the suspension at full bump. I rushed to cut and really did not need to take as much out of the rear section. The car should never reach full bump with the wheel turned out ( inside tire on turn ). Oh well I'll just have a little more work to fab up a filler piece.

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2. New 2008 6.2L L92 engine.

LS7 cam going in

http://inlinethumb25.webshots.com/35...500x500Q85.jpg

3. Upgrade sway-bar to control body roll

Mocking up for front splined swaybar, I ended up going with a straight arm instead of the 30* arm.

http://inlinethumb51.webshots.com/44...500x500Q85.jpg

I'm starting with a 1 1/4" splined .095 wall sway-bar up front. The large steel pillow blocks in the pic did not fit the Chassis works front sub-frame. I played with the idea of using the Bronze bushing inserts with the CW Aluminum pillow blocks, and may re-address this down the road. For now I purchased energy suspension pillow blocks, whose rubber inserts fit the CW mount perfect. To the right is a 1/2" end-link which will not be used, instead a 3/8" will be used due to packaging constraints. Over to the left are unfinished A-arm to end-link adapters I started fabricating.


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Great looking project!

For the record, I dig the rat look myself. :cheers:

very cool project. i have been thinking about going to a splined sway bar myself so I will be keepin an eye on this.

Matt, great to see you here. I really loved the unfinished look with the aircraft style tags stenciled on everywhere at RTTH last year. The car ran very well there in September so the engine upgrade and suspension tweaks should really boost it. Keep up the good work and the updates.

P.S. I just came out of lurking over here a couple of months ago myself. LOL :_paranoid

Mocked up the KRC steering pump and Woodward reservoir. The KRC has a replaceable flow orifice ( blue fitting on pump ) which allows adjusting the feel of the steering. The Woodward reservoir has a dual wall construction, the return comes in at an angle and flows through small holes on the lower half of the inner wall. ( kind of hard to see in pic ) One nice surprise, the pump inlet -10 90* fitting does not hit the alternator bracket.

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I also mocked up the rear diff vent system. I used aluminum line I had, but will change over to stainless in the future. I wanted to run the line parallel to the brake line but the exhaust is so tight with the Quadra-link I had to duck under the brake line and route it up the back of the housing. The pics make it look all deformed, which I'm attributing to the lighting and camera angle.

http://inlinethumb30.webshots.com/20...500x500Q85.jpg
http://inlinethumb46.webshots.com/42...500x500Q85.jpg

I had some time to take pics last night.

I ended up using a 30* arm for the front sway-bar to get better angles for the end-links. AN hardware was used through-out, along with 1/2" rod-ends bushed down for -6 ( 3/8" ) bolts. One advantage to AN hardware is they are only threaded on the end. This gives the load bearing section of the bolt a uniform surface and the full strength of the bolts diameter. AN harware is also close tolerance, having drilled all holes with a mill the bolts are rather tight.

http://inlinethumb36.webshots.com/43...500x500Q85.jpg






The Chassisworks pillow block pads would not allow the collar locks to sit against the pillow blocks. I bought some UHMW plastic ( Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene, similar to Delrin ) and machined it as a spacer.


http://inlinethumb62.webshots.com/44...500x500Q85.jpg

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The L92 is coming along.

http://inlinethumb61.webshots.com/42...500x500Q85.jpg

Mock-up of a dual pcv oil seperator system. I used two Canton oil filters I picked up, with internal mods of course.

http://inlinethumb19.webshots.com/30...500x500Q85.jpg

The rear sway-bar installed. I was worried about the loads this may see and elected to weld the attaching brackets to the frame.


http://inlinethumb27.webshots.com/42...500x500Q85.jpg

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A better pic of the differential breather system. Of course AN fittings were used just like the fuel and brake systems.

http://inlinethumb48.webshots.com/45...500x500Q85.jpg

WOW!!
Looks good. That beast should handle really well.:thumbsup: :wow:

Well after a week of late nights I finally started the new engine last night. Sorry no pics, I just have not had time, once I have time I will get some up. I still have a week of late nights getting her ready for the Power Tour and then Gingerman the week after.

Sick car man...love it

Matt...the first picture you posted says it all. I have no doubt you will build one heck of a call and drive the wheels off it. :thumbsup:

:captain:

Cool ride man...look forward to seeing more.

rear swaybar
 

hi there. cool ride, what type of steel is those swaybars made of? is it solid or is it a pipe? whats the diameter of rear swaybar?

thanks, hope u understand what i wrote, Im from Sweden.:thumbsup:

Nice work man...it's fun to upgrade.

The front is 1 1/4" hollow .095 wall and the rear is 3/4" solid steel. I bought all the parts from speedway engineering. Here is a link to their webpage.

http://www.1speedway.com/standard_swaybars.htm

thanks man.

The last month Power Tour and Motor State Challenge
 

Here are a couple of pics of what I did to mod the filters. The pic of the inside is after 500 miles and 1 hour of track time. After the Power Tour I had about 3 times the amount of oil over 2500 miles.

http://inlinethumb52.webshots.com/14...600x600Q85.jpg
http://inlinethumb46.webshots.com/19...600x600Q85.jpg

So the last month has been either thrashing on the car or enjoying it. Two weeks prior to the Power Tour I turned the wick up and lit the candle at both ends.

3 weeks prior to Power Tour

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This

http://inlinethumb61.webshots.com/22...600x600Q85.jpg

Necessitated this, my turning radius is reduced, but the Toyo's are, Charley Lillard quote " CRACK TIRES " give me some more :) I did things with these tires I never thought possible, more on that below.

http://inlinethumb27.webshots.com/44...600x600Q85.jpg

Racine WI day two we were parked on the lake.

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100 miles into the 650 mile trip home, " Hello mister trooper ( VA state police Lee county). I plan on doing a blog about the tour when I get time.

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Here is a pic of the fuel vent system I fabbed up.

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The car Dynoed 420 Hp and 392 lb.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c1...sDynopull2.jpg

Driving impressions after all the changes / upgrades.

The car is still very well balanced with a noticable power increase. There were some small issues and some larger ones. I have yet to get my clutch to release like it should. Most of the time its very hard to get into gear at high rpm. The Engine PCM will also throw a P2101 code, this is a predictive circuit and does not like full throttle. So with that said I have to drive around these two issues.

At Bristol the track was slow, with short shifting and throwing the P2101 through the lights I managed 114 mph, et was a wash.

The Motor State challenge was an eye opener. Having some track time under my belt I felt some confidence in my driving, but had yet to really see what the car could do on the track with all the changes. With the car being driven around these issues I was able to post a 1:39. ?? good enough for 2nd in time trial class. ( that excluded manufacturers ) On the autocross my best time was 31.09 if memory serves me correct. There was one run that felt great, but when I released the throttle coming out of the last chicane the engine code hit and I lost throttle control. This left me coasting around the last tight apex and at one point I thought I would not make the finish line beams. Click a 33.? something second run, I personally believe this would have been my best time, but it was not meant to be. When all was said and done, my combined times put me right between Jack A** #1 and Bad Penny #3. What more could I ask, those are one he** of a pair of bookends. I'm elated at the performance of this car and look forward to the potential still left in fine tuning the fuel curve, curing my pcm and clutch problems and of course adjustments to the suspension.


Edit: Motor State Challenge results were incorrect when I posted this, I ended up in 3rd behind Mark Stielow and David Pozzi respectively

Best time dropped 2.5 seconds at home track
 

So after all the upgrades this winter I finally made it back to my home track. The car feels neutral in turns right now. There is still more in the car, I just need the time to tune the suspension ( stiffen up the sway-bars and shocks to see how she reacts ) and engine fault code problems. Here are some pics a friend took on Saturday.

She still has some lean, which I'm hoping to even out. As I pushed the car later in the day, I was getting a wash board effect as I was running around the corner I'm entering in the second pic.

http://inlinethumb60.webshots.com/13...500x500Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb05.webshots.com/17...500x500Q85.jpg

The fuel vent system I fabricated over the winter was still allowing some fuel to vent out when full. While I had the tank out I added an 90* AN elbow on the tank and bent up a line to effectively put a loop in the path to the reservoir and overboard filter. Prior to this I would smell fuel when it vented and or have it leak out. The original setup had a brass fitting pointed straight toward the front of the car. After wailing on her at the track with a full tank, I have not experienced any odor or venting to the ground. ( fingers crossed, I think it worked )

Here is a pic of what I added:

http://inlinethumb12.webshots.com/42...500x500Q85.jpg

very cool project I like it:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Love your project man....all business. I made a similar set up to your tank vent. Mine will push a little out at full tank. I'm getting ready to put a couple loops in mine as well. Hard to believe with an elevated resorvoir that it will still push some fuel out.

Great looking project. I am interested about the fuel vent system you fabbed up. what is the red canister in the system and were do vent it out to?
Thanks

I bought a used Peterson fuel filter cut off the -16 AN end fittings, welded in aluminum plugs and drilled and tapped it for -6 AN / 3/8 npt fittings. Used filters with large AN fittings normally sell for very reasonable prices. The outlet line runs to a bulkhead fitting in the trunk floor with a small S & B filter attached to the bulkheads other end. ( the filter is located just behind the driver side rear wheel well. )

ooops

Racing Season #3 prep / mods
 

Last year several issues poped up.

1. The clutch had intermittant problems. Solution: I'm installing a 7/8" bore Tilton master cylinder and an adjustable clutch pedal stop.

http://inlinethumb06.webshots.com/43...500x500Q85.jpg

2. With the R compound tires I would get oil pressure fluctuation in long corners. Solution: Accusump accumulator and oil cooler install. I used some angle iron I had laying around, so she looks like a piece of farm equipment. LOL some time in the future I'll make something nicer, but for now function over form.

If you look close at the brackets I welded to the sub-frame you can see I incorporated tie-down / tow-hooks.

http://inlinethumb04.webshots.com/46...500x500Q85.jpg

3. My front street tires, sucked!! ( major push on an auto-x ) Solution: I sent out the front rims and had them widened to 10" and mounted 275 BFG KDW's.


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Nice additions. That's a good place to put the accusump. Not many options.

Awesome.
Thanks for the update.:thumbsup:

I agree nice work.