Yet another 2nd Gen Camaro - Project/update

[glassman]

Congrats on the progress Steve. You'll friggen love it when shes dialed. Unfortunately, they come "in and out" of dialment lol, how do i know?

Good call on the headers, mine are a very sore subject right now.

So what do you and vince meen "3-3 3/8"? where/what reference point are you using? I used a LUK 7 iirc, Josh did that part, but its a stock Z06 (older) set up, but works fantastic.

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Originally Posted by glassman

Congrats on the progress Steve. You'll friggen love it when shes dialed. Unfortunately, they come "in and out" of dialment lol, how do i know?

Good call on the headers, mine are a very sore subject right now.

So what do you and vince meen "3-3 3/8"? where/what reference point are you using? I used a LUK 7 iirc, Josh did that part, but its a stock Z06 (older) set up, but works fantastic.

Hole from the pedal pivot. Most of the cars we do were right at 3". We did have one at 3 3/8 do to the factor hole, which was worn out. Felt good with a 3/4" master. We later replaced the pedal with a new one. You can use different masters and ratios but its all in preference. Another important thing is you don't over travel. The master has a 1.1in travel and you have to measure and add a stop.
I have found that any less than 2.90 in you start running into master cylinder push rod angle issues and piston bore wear.

[FETorino]

Geeze Steve, I have missed a bunch of great progress. It's good to see the guys at ST got things dialed in for you.

Good luck on the dyno

[gerno]

Originally Posted by CURVES

Steve,

Looking good!

Did they adjust the upper control arms just for your car or did they change the entire production line?

My understanding is they changed the jigs for the whole line on the high clearance arms. You should contact Jay, Blake or Roger for the exact details so I'm not speaking out of place. They also gave the shafts more of a brushed than polished finish, it looks very nice.

Originally Posted by Vince@MSperfab

Hole from the pedal pivot. Most of the cars we do were right at 3". We did have one at 3 3/8 do to the factor hole, which was worn out. Felt good with a 3/4" master. We later replaced the pedal with a new one. You can use different masters and ratios but its all in preference. Another important thing is you don't over travel. The master has a 1.1in travel and you have to measure and add a stop.
I have found that any less than 2.90 in you start running into master cylinder push rod angle issues and piston bore wear.

I'll work on the stop. I never got around to measuring but will soon. The pedal is feeling better to me. I think I was just used to the long travel z-bar setups. It should be much easier to drive on the track with the shorter travel.

Originally Posted by FETorino

Geeze Steve, I have missed a bunch of great progress. It's good to see the guys at ST got things dialed in for you.

Good luck on the dyno

Getting there slowly but surely. I'm not making the dyne this week. I called Monday and rescheduled for Nov 14. Deadline was too tight and I didn't work hard enough over the last week. It wasn't work breaking something to meet the deadline.

When are you finally leaving the Bay area to get back on that Torino????

[gerno]

More progress was made over the weekend. The fuel tank was installed and the line ran to the front. I welded a mount to the frame for the fuel filter and ran the -6 hose as clean as possible. It's really nice running only 1 line from the vaporworx tank.

In hooking up the clutch I decided to expand the size of the clutch pedal to be the same as the brake pedal. I welded on some extra metal and it works great. You can also see from these pics where I drilled the new hole for the clutch rod.








I went to O'reilly and dug around for a bit for hoses too. The ones I found fit very nice with just a small bit of trimming. I left the PN's on them in case someone needs as a reference.





I also organized my thoughts for most of my wiring. You can tell from the pics it is not done yet. Original plan was to mount the computer in the engine bay. After laying it out it really looked bad to me. I used the factory 1.5" hole in the firewall for the ECM harness to pass thru once I expanded it to 2". The ECM and fuse panel will be mounted to the heater box just behind the stereo. I think it will work well with easy access and not be visible.

I also decided to go ahead and purchase an alternator mount form LSbrackets.com. I don't want to use it was a permanent solution since I really want it more lower in the car and out of site. That being said the mount is pretty nice. It also works with all the factory 2010 Camaro LS3 components which makes it really nice for a pull out engine swap.

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Originally Posted by gerno

I'll work on the stop. I never got around to measuring but will soon. The pedal is feeling better to me. I think I was just used to the long travel z-bar setups. It should be much easier to drive on the track with the shorter travel.

Yes, and should be soft too.

After you get the stop to limit the push rod to 1" travel, adjust the rod till it releases at 2-3" off the stop. You can do a push roll test to see when its releasing.

[gerno]

Made a bit more progress this weekend. Finally have the top side wiring , under dash wiring , fuel lines fully ran, and the ECM/fuse block mounted under the dash. I had to pull the new harness apart to move the MAF to the passenger side of the engine. I also needed to reduce the length of many of the wires. It took forever but I think the result it not too bad.

I also cut out a piece of steel plate to use as a clutch reservoir mount.








Tonight I hope to get the knock sensors, main battery and starter solenoid all hooked up. I also want to complete the relay block for the fuel pump in the trunk.

[gerno]

More progress has been made with the car but I've hit a lot of roadblocks along the way. b Sorry about the novel with only a few pics

Last weekend I hoped to have the car started up.... this didn't happen. After getting all the wiring in pretty well (not fully satisfied with my routing/looming) I hooked up the battery to crank it over. Starter engaged but engine wouldn't budge. I then tried to spin the engine over by hand and it was locked solid. I knew the engine spun fine on the stand so it had to be something with the clutch/trans. I backed the bell housing off ~1/8" and the engine spun over so something was wrong in the clutch/trans/pilot/throwout area.

I went ahead and pulled the trans out to start measurements... which pretty much sucked.... I get it out at 10PM saturday because it's a mess with the TA x-member. I have to pull the subframe loose to get the TA x-memenber out since the trans hits it in normal position. Later on I'll have to figure out a way to fix the issue.

Sunday morning I began measuring. I started with the Bellhousing alignment. It was ~.0035 off so it was in spec. Next I checked the overall input shaft length. It was good. I checked the Throwout bearing length fully compressed compared to the clutch. It was good. Finally I checked the length of the input splines compared to the pilot bearing depth....I found an issue. I still had the factory LS3 sealed pilot bearing in the crank. Talking to Monster Clutch I was under the impression it would be fine....it wasn't. The splined part of the input shaft was pressing on the pilot bearing which was loading the thrust bearing and locking up the crank. Thankfully Monster supplied the roller bearing with the clutch kit. I pulled the sealed bearing out and install the roller. Everything was good to go. I reinstalled the trans. By 5PM sunday I was back to where I thought I was Saturday at 5pm. While it was out I also redrilled the trans x-member to pull it forward ~5/8”. At least I made a little progress and the day wasn’t a total loss.

After it was all back together I started on the air intake. I purchased the Air Raid build yourself tube that is basically a big 4” plastic tube with multiple bends and straights that you cut and rebuild as you need. The also sell a ~12” straight section with a fitting for the cartridge style MAF. I mocked up the tubes and cut them out. Sanded the ends nice and smooth. Here is the end product after it was all glued together. I still want to sand it all down and repaint it but for now it should work pretty well.





Final piece I need was the oil filter and oil them. I scrapped my original filter mount and decided to get one with fittings on the side to mounting would be easier. I also picked up and Earl’s thermo. Final mounts will not be made until the fenders are back on but overall I’m happy with the routing. The filter will go behind the driver headlight area and the thermo in front of the radiator. One issue I do have is with the thermo fittings. It is made of 0-ring fittings. Apparently I bought radios O-fing fittings and they don’t seal at all. Oil is leaking everywhere with only 25PSI cranking pressure. I’m going to head to the local perf shop and find some regular fittings to replace the ones I have







After all this I was ready to start it. I crank is over and nothing…. It spins just fine but doesn’t even think to fire. I put a scanner on the car and noticed a P0010 code for the Cam sensor and a few codes for the accelerator pedal. I decided to pull the cam sensor to make sure it isn’t damaged. It decides it wants to stay where it is and breaks into pieces. I have to pull the front cover off and push the sensor in but do get it of. Looking at the sensor I also see 1 of the 3 connections is missing so think I found the issue. I grab a replacement sensor, put it all back together and try to fire. NOTHING…..





I go ahead and check spark and power while cranking. Fuse panel has power while cranking. The spark plugs are also firing. I pulled one out and arc’d it back to the engine.

Next area is fuel. I have 60PSI based on the gauge on the rail but need to see if it’s firing. I decide to pull the rail up slightly to see if fuel squirts when I cranks….NOTHING. I also pick up a NOID light kit (never heard of one before) to test the injector signal. The light never turns on when cranking.

I called PSI to chat about the harness. We go thru the basic troubleshooting and can’t really find an issue. I was worried the DBW pedal may be wrong and causing the issue due to the code since it’s not the exact same PN noted in the instructions. Tech says that since I hear the TB moving with the pedal movement there should be no issue.

Next step is to call the tuner and future out what he put on for a base tune on the ECM. Only thing I can gather is something is wrong with the VATS or some other tuning aspect. Unfortunately he’s tuning another car right now and will have to call me back after. I was due to have mine tuned tomorrow but due to the troubleshooting I still have no exhaust and am not comfortable bringing a car to the dyne when I’ve never cranked it. Until the car runs the dyne tune has been postponed indefinitely. SUCKS….