1987 IROC Camaro Pro-Touring Build

[SSLance]

I hate those last minute gremlins but glad to hear you finally made heat!!

[garage_engineer]

Intake manifold is back apart so I can find that coolant leak. Turns out it was coming through the threads from one of the bolts that holds the runners to the base. This bolt passes into the coolant crossover in the back of the intake and I didn't have any thread sealant on the threads. Not too bad, I was worried the whole base was going to have to come back off! Now I just need to order another set of gaskets from Lingenfelter for $50 since they got ruined when I took the runners off.

Intake back apart:


Leakpath:


Since I had my intake apart I gave everything a fresh coat of paint since it had gotten pretty scratched up with all the parts getting installed around it. I used an engine enamel this time so hopefully it should hold up a little better:


I also disassembled and painted my old Holley throttle body:
Disassembled:


Cleaned and ready for paint:


I love it when stuff is clean and freshly painted! Re-assembly is the best part!




I was able to also pick up my brake calipers from the painter who did a great job laying down some red:


I went to install my rear calipers and ran into a bit of trouble though. (I have Delco-Moraine rear calipers.) I COULD NOT get the piston to go back into the caliper. Apparently this is a common problem on third-gen Delco Moraine rear calipers and GM actually issued a recall for the problem. I researched the many upgrade options there are for rear brakes, but in the end I decided to rebuild them for now. Yes, it would have been nice to upgrade, but I'm picking my battles here with balancing budget and getting the car done and driving. I used the proper "recall" rebuild kit so these should serve me well until I am ready to upgrade the whole rear axle, at which point I will do the brakes as well. A few pics from the rebuild:

Cool vintage box the rebuild kit comes in:


Rebuild was pretty straight forward if you just take it step by step:


Ready to go back on the car:


Next I figured out my reverse light situation... the previous owner that swapped in the T56 modified a 4-pin connector to fit on the 2-pin switch (after chipping away a lot of the plastic shroud.) It worked, I guess, but I soldered on a new, proper connector to go with my new reverse light switch:




I'm currently working on getting my new wheels and tires stuffed into the front fenders (18x10.5" wheels with a 315/30 tire). Almost done and should have lots of info in my next post!

[garage_engineer]

OK here's my update for tonight. I am not yet finished with fitting my wheels under the fenders front and rear, so I will save that info for now and do a complete post on the process once I'm done.

In the meantime, I got to work putting my front bumper support and bumper cover back on the car. This was a huge relief to get this back on the car so that it not only started to look like a car again, but that I could get it off my garage floor!




Once that was complete, I double checked my headlights were working and ran into some issues. Throughout this project, I have gotten much better at electrical troubleshooting and being able to systematically work through electrical systems to find the problem. This really tested my skills however! First, nothing worked when I pulled the switch. I was able to track this down to a bad headlight dimmer switch on the column (the one that switches between low and high beams) by by-passing the switch altogether and confirming the headlights came on. So, drop the column and install a new switch:


Then, only one light was working. Then both would work. Then just the other one. I tracked this down to a bad ground, after confirming that both lights were getting power and they would both work if I grounded them right to the battery with a jumper wire. So, fixed that and now I had headlights:


Lastly, none of my parking lights were working. Turned out one of them had a bad socket and one had a bad bulb, so all is good now with the lights! By the way... I have an older HID kit on my car and while I like the looks of the clear lenses, I don't like to blue bulbs. If anyone has a suggestion for a whiter bulb I can use, I'm all ears!

Next I re-installed my intake with its fresh new paint job. I had been waiting around for a new set of runner to base gaskets from Lingenfelter as they are on backorder. I lost patience and ordered a set of Edelbrock gaskets for their high-flow TPI intake they fit pretty well with just a bit of trimming.


Once the intake was back in, I could get started on making custom spark plug wires. I personally don't like it when spark plug wires are too long and hang all over the place in an engine bay, so this is a project I was looking forward to taking on. Here is what I used:


The MSD kit was really nice, and came with everything you needed to make the wires, including the tool to strip the right amount of insulation and then crimp the terminals in your vice. There are extra terminals and boots included as well in case you mess one up. I ended up using the double crimp style terminal, but they also include the old school single crimp style:




The first couple of wires went a little slow, as I struggled a bit with figuring out where to strip the wires so they ended up in the right place. Once I got the hang of it though, I had my little assembly area set up and I was cranking them out!


Here is the final look. I'm super happy with how clean it looks! I wasn't sure if the red was going to be too much, but I think it adds just the right amount of color to the engine bay.

[SSLance]

I used those made4u wire clamps before and really like the clean look they give us center bolt guys. Nice job on the wires also.

[WSSix]

Looks great. The red wires on your black engine was a good choice.

[garage_engineer]

Big update for tonight on all the work it took to get my wheels and tires to fit.

For reference, my wheels are 18x10.5" Weld S71s with a 6.6" backspace on all 4 corners. The tires are 315/30ZR18 BFG Rival S 1.5. I did my fitting with a small 1/4" thick spacer in the front.
EDIT: I am also running a front brake upgrade that replaces the stock rotor / hub 1-piece assembly with a separate hub and rotor. This adds an additional width to the track the thickness of the rotor flange. Mine are Corvette C6 Z51 rotors, and I can get an exact thickness for someone if they need it.

My ultimate goal is to be able to drive this car without any compromises... so not having to go around speed bumps, avoid railroad crossings or have a huge turning circle. I want to be able to toss the keys to someone and not have to give a long list of things to worry about. A big part of this is doing your homework when installing new wheels to make sure nothing is going to rub or worse... cut a tire! With all of the autocrossing and road racing I am planning on doing with this car, I spent a lot of time here massaging everything to make sure I don't have to worry about tire rubbing.

I will start with the fronts. I removed the sway bar, front springs and the bump stops so I could cycle the suspension through it's full travel.

Here is where I would like my ride height to be:



This is where I expect the suspension to be at full compression (maybe a bit higher):


In just moving the wheel straight up, there were 2 areas that needed to be addressed.

The first was rolling the fenders. There was no way around this. I considered using the old school wooden baseball bat method, but ended up finding a fender roller on Amazon for about $40 so I just on it. The tool turned out to be pretty nice and worked like a charm. The tape was my guide for the area I needed to roll.




Next I trimmed a bit of material away from the pinch weld where the outer and inner fenders come together. If the tire were to get up into the fender well, this edge would definitely puncture a tire. I tried to get some good pictures but it was tough:


After the vertical clearance was taken care of, I started turning the wheels lock to lock at different areas of the suspension travel (from full compression to full droop) and adding clearance or removing material where needed. All of the pictures below are from the passenger side so just mirror things for the driver's side (except the battery box, obviously).





Here is another look at the battery box interference from lying under the car:


And with the final cut made:




I don't currently have a welder, so once I get the car driving I'll have to find someone to weld up that corner with a little patch piece for me.

After, that things looked pretty good, so I painted to wheel wells and double checked everything:


The real test will come once I get out on the road but for now I'm pretty confident I've done my homework and will be OK. I'll post up the mods I did in the back next.

[WSSix]

Looks great! Did you give yourself enough clearance to account for tire flex?

[garage_engineer]

Originally Posted by WSSix

Looks great! Did you give yourself enough clearance to account for tire flex?

I hope so! I gave it as much clearance as I could, and I figured there will be very few times when I will be at full steering lock with enough cornering force for a lot of tire deflection (maybe a 180 turnaround in an autocross?). If the clearance was still tight in a certain area at full lock, I at least ensured there were no sharp edges so the tire would not get get cut. I could then go back in and make some more adjustments in that area afterwards.

It's definitely going to be a work in progress to get the perfect fitment.

[ScotI]

It's definitely looking good! The clearance you did will make a big impact on the 'get in it & drive w/no worry' philosophy.

I have a g-body I'm working on that buzzes the tops of the fender-wells because of the drop amount. It is annoying when you have to approach dips & asphalt patches @ a crawl to minimize the buzz.

[SSLance]

Nice work! Pulling the springs and cycling everywhere is going above and beyond but also necessary to prevent troubles down the road. I've done quite a bit of that myself...