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

[Chad-1stGen]

Originally Posted by makoshark

Are you running a pilot bushing or bearing in the end of the crankshaft? I had a similar vibration on a car once after installing a new clutch. I chased the vibration down by a damaged pilot bushing due to install. I replaced it with a bearing

I don't know. I had a shop assemble the sub and they installed the pilot bushing/bearing. I'll know soon enough I think.

Originally Posted by chr2002ca

I went down this road also Chad when I first put my GM crate motor ZZ454 in years ago. Same exact vibration problem, except I had an automatic. Did nearly all the same things you're doing. Compression check, fuel pressure check, spark plug and wires check(and distributor), harmonic balancer check, mounts check. I eliminated some vibration when I found a bad spark plug wire arc'ing over to my block causing a misfire. But still had some vibration so I then detached the torque converter from the flywheel and shimmed the transmission back to allow the engine to run while detached from converter. I noticed very little vibration then. So, to make a long story shorter, most of the issue was with my flywheel and how the converter was bolting to it, and a new flywheel solved that. I still had a slight harmonic vibration between 1500 and 3000pm after all that, but it was basically just a result of a big cube motor and I came to that conclusion when I sat in somebody else's ride who had the same ZZ454 and it felt exactly the same at the steering wheel.

It drove me nuts for quite a while so I hope you get it sorted out soon and it's something simple.

Thanks Chris.

I think I eliminated tune or engine running incorrectly as a cause of the vibration. I took the car for another diagnostic drive tonight and the vibration is there upon deceleration as well. I even turned the car off in gear decelerating down from about 3.5K rpms and its the exact same vibration. So I'm convinced it's mechanical, rather that anything else.

I have to go out of town this weekend but I plan to pull the motor next week.

Regarding the oil pressure I ordered an adapter for my other sending unit and can play with that next week too. However, when I did my test drive tonight I noticed that at cold oil temps I have a ton of oil pressure (50 idle cold and doesn't drop below 35-40 until a good 10 mins into driving (not idling). If I rev the motor with cold oil it will hit mid/high 70's PSI.

[Vegas69]

Cold oil pressure doesn't mean much. I've had small blocks with wore out bearings down to the copper have great cold oil pressure and no hot oil pressure. Pull that pan and check the oring while you have things apart.

[Chad-1stGen]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

Cold oil pressure doesn't mean much. I've had small blocks with wore out bearings down to the copper have great cold oil pressure and no hot oil pressure. Pull that pan and check the oring while you have things apart.

Agreed. The point I was trying to make was the high cold oil pressure makes me think the sending unit isn't the problem and the reading is accurate. Meaning yeah I gotta pull the pan

[Frankenstine]

Hey Chad super nice build, Not shure you would have the same set up as this guy does (project Schism on Pro Touring .com) but I read on his post page 2 about measuring the radius of the belhousing to make shure the shaft is centered on the crank, or it may cause a vibration a eventuly bearing failure?? just a thought sense you are having a vibration of sorts, he is running an LS3 with a Whipple charger I think, Hope you get it figured out.

[Chad-1stGen]

Well I've been working on the car a little bit each night this week. After failing to get up the motivation to even touch it Monday I made a deal with myself to at least do an hour a night.

So after a few nights I got the tranny pulled and flywheel & clutch out.

Let me just say that trying to pull the tranny without draining it was a bonehead move. I made a huge freakin mess and still have to add fluid. Oh well now I know.

Also, learned that a torque arm and tight exhaust makes driveshaft removal a huge PIA. Luckily I was able to slide it bad far enough to get out of the way without totally removing it. I had a few requests to Magnaflow when I dropped the car off and luckily they did a good job of routing it so I could pull the tranny without totally removing the exhaust.

As far as diagnosing the vibration I did start it up with the clutch removed and just the flywheel installed. Vibration was still there. Today I dropped the flywheel and pressure plate off to get checked and rebalanced if necessary. They won't have it done until next Tuesday at the earliest so I have until then to wonder about the motor lol.

Also found another present from Pomona Valley Customs in the form of a stripped bolt into my block at the top of the bell housing. They installed a totally different thread than the rest of the bolts. What a bunch of friggen yahoos.

[67zo6Camaro]

Originally Posted by Chad-1stGen

Well I've been working on the car a little bit each night this week. After failing to get up the motivation to even touch it Monday I made a deal with myself to at least do an hour a night.

So after a few nights I got the tranny pulled and flywheel & clutch out.

Let me just say that trying to pull the tranny without draining it was a bonehead move. I made a huge freakin mess and still have to add fluid. Oh well now I know.

Also, learned that a torque arm and tight exhaust makes driveshaft removal a huge PIA. Luckily I was able to slide it bad far enough to get out of the way without totally removing it. I had a few requests to Magnaflow when I dropped the car off and luckily they did a good job of routing it so I could pull the tranny without totally removing the exhaust.

As far as diagnosing the vibration I did start it up with the clutch removed and just the flywheel installed. Vibration was still there. Today I dropped the flywheel and pressure plate off to get checked and rebalanced if necessary. They won't have it done until next Tuesday at the earliest so I have until then to wonder about the motor lol.

Also found another present from Pomona Valley Customs in the form of a stripped bolt into my block at the top of the bell housing. They installed a totally different thread than the rest of the bolts. What a bunch of friggen yahoos.

Good luck with the Flywheel and Clutch. I hope that the fact you got the engine at such a big discount dosen't have anything to do with a potential crank balance problem.

Anyway, just as a reminder I re-tapped several of those case holes, if not all of them, because they had SAE bolts instead of the metric. And maybe two of them seamed on the loose side because of the prior damage. I purchased all new bolts for you also....So, who else had that trans out after me? You could just re-tap the stripped ones to the next size up and/or thread pitch.

Man, sounds like you just can't get a break with this thing.

[Mkelcy]

Originally Posted by Chad-1stGen

Well I've been working on the car a little bit each night this week. After failing to get up the motivation to even touch it Monday I made a deal with myself to at least do an hour a night.

So after a few nights I got the tranny pulled and flywheel & clutch out.

Let me just say that trying to pull the tranny without draining it was a bonehead move. I made a huge freakin mess and still have to add fluid. Oh well now I know.

Also, learned that a torque arm and tight exhaust makes driveshaft removal a huge PIA. Luckily I was able to slide it bad far enough to get out of the way without totally removing it. I had a few requests to Magnaflow when I dropped the car off and luckily they did a good job of routing it so I could pull the tranny without totally removing the exhaust.

As far as diagnosing the vibration I did start it up with the clutch removed and just the flywheel installed. Vibration was still there. Today I dropped the flywheel and pressure plate off to get checked and rebalanced if necessary. They won't have it done until next Tuesday at the earliest so I have until then to wonder about the motor lol.

Also found another present from Pomona Valley Customs in the form of a stripped bolt into my block at the top of the bell housing. They installed a totally different thread than the rest of the bolts. What a bunch of friggen yahoos.

I never drain the transmission except when I mean to change fluid. Instead I use one of these, which you can get in almost any auto parts store:



They seal really well. I needed to put the tape on mine to fill in the gap between the normal size rear seal and the larger seal in the Viper T56 .

The bolt situation on these cars is really a pain. The M10-1.5 metric bolts are almost the same size and thread as a 3/8-16 SAE bolt. If you have both sitting around, you really need to pay attention.

[GregWeld]

I wouldn't just re-tap the aluminum hole... I'd go with a HeliCoil if you have decent access to it.

My old rule is do it right the first time -- and then you don't have to worry about it forever and ever.

Sorry you're having these issues!

[Chad-1stGen]

Originally Posted by 67zo6Camaro

Good luck with the Flywheel and Clutch. I hope that the fact you got the engine at such a big discount dosen't have anything to do with a potential crank balance problem.

Anyway, just as a reminder I re-tapped several of those case holes because they had SAE bolts instead of the metric. And some of them seamed on the loose side because of the prior damage. You could just re-tap the stripped to the next size up and/or thread pitch.

Man, sounds like you just can't get a break with this thing.

Yeah I remember that Brett. Those were the bolts from the trans to the bell housing and in fact I think they are all ok. Have torqued those bolts myself and BOS did with no issues. This new present is from the bell housing to the motor. I don't think you removed that right? I was also assuming BOS didn't remove it though I guess I can ask them.

You aren't the first to raise that question on the motor Brett. I just have a seriously hard time believing the previous owner knew something was wrong. The motor was way too pristine and the dust way too thick lol. I honestly don't think it ever came out of the crate before I took it out. There is a whole list of things I went through that convinced me this motor was never fired after leaving Mast. So if something is wrong with the balance job on the motor I'm convinced it shipped that way from Mast.

Originally Posted by Mkelcy

I never drain the transmission except when I mean to change fluid. Instead I use one of these, which you can get in almost any auto parts store:

They seal really well. I needed to put the tape on mine to fill in the gap between the normal size rear seal and the larger seal in the Viper T56 .

The bolt situation on these cars is really a pain. The M10-1.5 metric bolts are almost the same size and thread as a 3/8-16 SAE bolt. If you have both sitting around, you really need to pay attention.

That's a cool gizmo. Live and learn!! I was reminded of using a spare yoke trick but never seen anything made for it. I will be looking for one before I reinstall for sure.