Chad's 68 Camaro V3.0 build. LS3 & TCI goodies

[Chad-1stGen]

Originally Posted by Flash68

So TCI engineered it to actually not sit in the middle of the wheel well? Did I read/interpret that right?

Originally Posted by Ron in SoCal

Just a guess, but it prob wasn't the intent...just the fix.

Originally Posted by Vegas69

Positive caster moves the upper ball joint to the rear of the chassis. My guess is that they engineered the chassis with the wheel centered at 0 caster. Has anybody looked to see if a wheel is perfectly centered on a stock subframe. I doubt it is.

TCI engineered their subframe to place the front wheel in the same spot as factory, which according to them is slightly back from center. I do know that my old factory subframe with 5.0* Driver and 5.5* Pass. of caster the wheels were not exactly centered, they were back in the subframe as well, it just wasn't as obvious as it the new set up which is apparently due to the radical amount of caster BOS's alignment friends added.

Originally Posted by Track Junky

Sounds to me like BOS tried to make the wheels equal in the opening on each side and ended up with two different caster dimensions to make it happen. Either the subframe has been installed out of square or the sub is out of square. Could also be the control arms aren't equal or the CA mounting points on the subframe are off.

It is normal for any street driven car to have 0.5* more caster on the passenger side than the drivers side. So they didnt' do anything funky in the alignment. The only issue is that they put in a good 0.75* more caster per side than TCI recommends. New vette's and BMW's get run with 7*+ of caster so I think it would of been a good idea to allow folks to run higher caster rates but most first gen Camaro's consider themselves lucky to get 5*

[Flash68]

This got me wondering if my fronts were ever centered. I never measured exactly but this side pic appears that they are slightly back a bit? Look similar to yours Chad either before or after?

My last caster numbers were 6.34 left and 5.26 right. Stock sub.

[Vegas69]

It's to bad they didn't use a wide angle lense. They may have got my bumper.

To me it's another one of those deals you will forget about once you start using the car again. These cars weren't perfect 40 years ago. They will never be perfect today. Factory cars aren't perfect. Finish it, beat on it, and all will be well.

[Chad-1stGen]

Like Todd said unequal caster for road crown.

for whatever its worth I've run the standard 0.5* unequal caster in every alignment I've done in my car so far. I certainly wasn't a mad speed demon but I did see 100+ mph on several tracks including 120 range at Big Willow. I never noticed any pull or instability.

Originally Posted by Vegas69

To me it's another one of those deals you will forget about once you start using the car again. These cars weren't perfect 40 years ago. They will never be perfect today. Factory cars aren't perfect. Finish it, beat on it, and all will be well.

Thanks Todd. I still have a lot of confidence in the results of the TCI parts and running 5* vs 7* at my skill level and level of build effort probably isn't going to matter anyways lol!!

The TCI car has the prototype subframe and it's mounting points are a 0.25" further back than the production and I've never heard anyone giving them grief about how their wheels look on the car and it certainly performs awesome at the local good guys and RTTC events I see it at! I got a lot less concerned once I figured out the issue wasn't specific to one side of the car.

As long as I can run 5*+ of caster and a 275 front tire I'll be pretty happy.

[Chad-1stGen]

Originally Posted by Flash68

This got me wondering if my fronts were ever centered. I never measured exactly but this side pic appears that they are slightly back a bit? Look similar to yours Chad either before or after?

My last caster numbers were 6.34 left and 5.26 right. Stock sub.

I decided to go through my cardomain pics and forgot I had a pic uploaded of V2.0 with a 275 up front.

So my old set up looked like this when trying to stuff 275 up front with about 5.5* of caster. NT05 275/40/18 on a 9" wheel with 5.5" of BS.


R888 275/35/18 on a 9" wheel with 5.75" BS and 6.25* of caster with the TCI subframe.


Looking at these pics it seems pretty clear TCI does indeed attempt to duplicate the tire position as a stock subframe.

[Vegas69]

5 degrees of caster and 2 degrees of camber will treat you fine. Alignment has a lot to do with the application. The middle road that pro touring dictates is tough for alignments. It's a compromise. 2 degrees of camber will wear the inside edge with a bunch of street miles. It really just depends on the amount of track time if tire wear will be a problem.

Forget all that, you are running R888's now. You won't have to worry about it.

[DFRESH]

I'd start this project all over again.

[67zo6Camaro]

Originally Posted by DFRESH

I'd start this project all over again.

Wow that's tuff love... I thought you guys were friends.

Chad, glad to see some progress on the car. Looks good.

[Chad-1stGen]

Originally Posted by 67zo6Camaro

Wow that's tuff love... I thought you guys were friends.

Chad, glad to see some progress on the car. Looks good.

Thanks Brett. Doug and I had lunch today so he got to hear all about the latest in person. And actually, part of it was me telling him how I seem to keep adding to my list of opportunities for the "I told you so" from you!!

[Track Junky]

Originally Posted by Chad-1stGen

It is normal for any street driven car to have 0.5* more caster on the passenger side than the drivers side. So they didnt' do anything funky in the alignment. The only issue is that they put in a good 0.75* more caster per side than TCI recommends. New vette's and BMW's get run with 7*+ of caster so I think it would of been a good idea to allow folks to run higher caster rates but most first gen Camaro's consider themselves lucky to get 5*

I've got well over the 5* of caster you are talking about so I dont know what your talking about. I dont want to give up my alignment specs but lets just say it's closer to what the Vette and the Viper are running.
As far as unequal caster....good luck with that....I would never run unequal caster on each side but I will add my alignment is done while I'm sitting in the car.