1970 Camaro RS Operation Budget LSx

[1970camaroRS]

70 splitbumper came over today and helped me pull the 454. I got two really good action shots of him pulling the motor out...and when I plugged my SD card into the computer's reader...it died. Should have used the friggin USB cable. I went back out to the garage and snapped a couple of pictures.

Here it is on the engine stand before I oiled it down and plastic wrapped it.


Believe it or not, after sitting with 16 quarts of water and 12 quarts of watery 'oil' in the crankcase...the bottom end looks like this:

Looks brand new. Who would have thought. I will probably pull a main cap and a rod cap to see what the bearing look like, but I'm sure they will be fine as it was never run with the water in the crankcase.

Here's a closer look.


The transmission support tool I showed you earlier in action.


And the empty engine bay:


Near future plan is to strip out most of the crap from the engine bay, clean it up and paint it. Swap on the ported heads to the 6.0L and install the camshaft. Then it will be close to the time I will be installing the new motor.

-Nathan

[1970camaroRS]

If you havn't guessed, all the above posts are copy and pastes from another forum. I've been at this since late summer. A few weekends ago I organzied my garage (this was brought on by a generous gift of a new craftsman compressor by my father....funny things happen when you ask to borrow the old man's tools, sometimes he just gives me a new one so his doesn't go permanently missing). While I was at it, I wrapped the 454 in plastic and put it in the corner. No one seems to want it, even for $500!

Got the LQ4 on the engine stand and started taking it apart starting with all of the EFI intake junk, the coil packs (to be reused), and valve covers. Here's a pick I like of the rockers after I got the cover removed. Not sure how much I like the gold tint to everything.



Here is a passenger side head after removal (for sale!)

Looks like the rear cylinder wasn't too happy!

Driver's side head (for sale!)

Everything looks peachy.

Passenger's side cylinders

Oh, the carbon! This will be fun to clean.

Driver's side cylinders

Second verse, same as the first.

After much tinkering and thinkering, I came up with a plan. Carb cleaner. I rotated the engine so that one set of cylinders we perpendicular to the ground and filled each cylinder with about 2" of carb cleaner. This server two functions, one to loosen up the carbon and two, to check ring seal(already did a leak-down test and everything looked good). Came back four hours later, still had a considerable ammount of cleaner in the cylinders. Grabbed some shop towels and wiped off the cylinders. Viola...something even a wire brush couldnt remove just wiped right off! I then cleaned the gasket surface with scotchbrite, brake cleaned everything, then oiled down the cylinders and wiped them out a few times while I turned to engine over to complete the cleaning process.

Looks pretty:


Ready for heads now...but only after I finish taking to oil pan off (throwing away for a CTS-V pan) and installing the ARP rod bolts and new camshaft. Probably throw on a new ported oil pump while I'm at it.

Here's the mess as it stands now and all of the brave blue shop towels that gave their lives so that this LQ4 may live.


-Nathan

[1badchevelle]

Nice project looks like you know what you want. I do have a question why ls6 heads and not the l92?

[waynieZ]

Nice cleanup work. It looks in good shape. You have a nice project going here.

[70rs]

Because the LS6 heads were there and priced right I am guessing.

I remember that 454 coming out! How are you doing Nate?

In case anyone is wondering who this "70 splitbumper" nut job is, that's me. I have another life under an assumed name here.

The 454 was pretty easy to get out but I was amazed at how much crap came out of it and it was still in great shape.

For those of you that don't know who 1970 camaroRS is, he is a guy that lives near me that I met over on Nastyz28 last year. We bacame friends and spent some time with tools working on his car.
He is a really good guy, lot's of fun to hang with and I am glad he has decided to start a build thread here. Now we just need to talk him into forgetting the drag strip and work on going around corners.


Thank god those pictures of me got lost off the SD card!

Hey Nate, check out the new site started by some members here. Camaros only too! www.thecamarosite.com I think you will really like it!

Let me know when you need me to come back over and supervise again!
We CAN STILL BBQ in the middle of winter ya know!

[GregWeld]

So my question is what happened to the one rear cylinder that showed real nasty on the one head? Burnt valve? or??

Nice work guys... You too Eric...

:>)

[camcojb]

yep, great project and very similar to what I'm going to do. Please keep us updated, and check out the Camaro site linked above.

Jody

[1970camaroRS]

Originally Posted by camcojb

yep, great project and very similar to what I'm going to do. Please keep us updated, and check out the Camaro site linked above.

Jody

Joined and posted. I remember you front NastyZ28.

-Nathan

[1970camaroRS]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

So my question is what happened to the one rear cylinder that showed real nasty on the one head? Burnt valve? or??

Nice work guys... You too Eric...

:>)

Looking closely at it I appears to be a burnt valve, but it held pressure before tear down and the piston and cylinder wall look no different than any other.



Head gasket also looked good. I'm sure after I get the engine put back together and I do a compression test everything will be ok.

-Nathan

[computeruse20.0]

Nice project looks like you know what you want. I do have a question why ls6 heads and not the l92?