Redoing that old Camaro

More problems with stuff one really doesn't need, a nothern/summit rad that doesn't quite fit...and they call it direct fit! Nice! Have to cut and weld the tank and fab a new mounting bracket for it, the stock one is too narrow.

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Original thicker aftermarket copper and non fitting northern aluminum rad. Hmmm...now what could be the problem here...hmmm...

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Fender done, all it needs is a little filler and paint
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At least this looks nice!
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ON that radiator, the fix is simple.....

hit something till it fits....

get a larger hammer and a 2x4.....

jeez......:tomato:
 
Got the prototype intake. It's most likely a GM piece, has a winters snowflake on it and a lot of porting and epoxy work done to it. Going to clean it up, most likely I'll remove some of the epoxy stuff in the plenum..it's very rough and I don't see how it improves things there....

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I have seen that intake (or one exactly like it) before, I believe at the F-Body Gathering II event at Road Atlanta, back in the late 90s. It was on a 3rd gen Firebird with twin turbos, built as a development car by GM. The car itself probably doesn't exist anymore (many of them were crushed, or sold off with all of GMs troubles). I never saw it anywhere else. Next time I run into Scott Settlemier (the former Camaro brand manager for GM) I'll ask him about it. He was involved with the GM historic vehicle collection, and may have some more info.
 
bolt pattern difference? Are you talking about the 72 degree center 2 bolts? That's only for cast iron heads, happened to the TPI in 87. Vettes always kept the 90 deg. bolts, all others got the 72 deg stuff so if your manifold is off a camaro, trans am, impala...yadda yadda...it has 72deg. bolts in the middle.

Nah, I was thinking of the LT1 intake, bolt angles, straight up/down...same port locations,...so why change it?? TPIS had a very expensive similar casting for the L98 engine, back in the day....

I have a home made adaption of the LT on the L98 and it was a LOT of work...and that was one nagging question of why bother changing bolt locations and angles??

I beleive it had to do with the different cooling passages for the reverse cooling on the LT1. The Vortec heads (based on the LT1 heads) are different, too.
 
Larry, it has to do with the instant center location and where you want it for acceleration (anti squat) and braking (reduce wheel hop), the 2 conflict and a decoupled torque arms is a short sliding shaft that connects the diff to a solid point, this is used under acceleration, under braking a large beam with a snubber up front contacts another point under the car, much like traction bars, and this makes that the snubber pushes against a fixed point and all braking torque is introduced there, to a braking instantaneous center very far forward of the centerline and down low.It takes advantage of a 2 arm geometry and a virtual swing arm/instantaneous center as a result, much like the forward links on a C4 IRS. Do you have the Herb Adams book? it's in there, mentioned briefly.

Found that someone actually makes on for a 4th gen, the 3rd gen rear is almost identical, there's just less roof in the trans tunnel. This thing won't bolt up also because it mounts to the completely different subframe horns on a 4th gen but still they have a very nice kit. Worth copying or maybe modifying.

http://www.unbalancedengineering.com/Camaro/TA/

Not sure if you're aware of this, but Spohn and others make the decoupled torque arm for the 3rd gens, too. I never installed one on a 3rd gen, but did several 4th gens with them, and they make a HUGE difference! I wouldn't build a serious 3rd or 4th gen without one. On the 3rd gens, they mount directly to a supplied transmission crossmember (they make the crossmembers for every trans you can think of); on a 4th gen, they replace the "wavy plate" body stiffener behind the crossmember. With your skills though, you could probably make one pretty easily.
 
I don't care what anybody says, I like Third Gens...of course, I am from Georgia, like guns, and have a Confederate battle flag hanging in my garage! I have 2 3rd Gen TAs, both projects, and did the mechanicals and custom bodywork on a Firebird that won at the TA Nationals in Dayton, OH back in '02 (ex-girlfriend's car). Once my Vette is finished, I'll be looking for an IROCZ for my son(he's 11 now, and we want to finish it before he's 16). They have a reputation as a "mullet mobile", but with a little work they will outhandle just about anything on the road (I'll put one up against any 4th or 5th Gen, or C3), and they are easy to upgrade. Personally, I love the way they look.

BTW, what did you plate the bolts with? Chrome or some type of cad plating?
 
Spohn does not have a decoupled torque arm, they have a remote mount one, that mounts on a crossmember (other brands have those too like UMI, BMR...) but that's not the same as a decoupled torque arm.

The bolts are all passified zinc plated.
 
I added a factory fuse holder and relay to power the additional booster fuel pump. I like stuff to look factory and hate crappy wiring and lack of detail

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I positioned the relay like this so I could use a hole that was already drilled there by someone who installed a remote washer pump, probably unaware that you can simply swap out the ones in the wiper motor. Even wired it off the original prongs inside the wiper motor (pump was missing)
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I also clocked the compressor differently, I don't want to route the pipes through the sides of the battery tray and opposite side, going totally custom. Thinking about machining the drive mandrel for grooves like a serpentine pulley and drive stuff straight from it using a 5" water pump pulley and a smaller alternator pulley.

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Also designed a rad upper mount, hopefully I'll have that done soon. The holes will be dimple died (.75" die) I'll share the model w/ anyone who wants it after I am done with it and can confirm it's 100% accurate and fits.

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Well, got the TFS G1 heads so the engine will come apart again, I'm going to paint it red. The silver was too overwhelming with all the aluminum parts. Going to upgrade the fasteners w/ ARP most everywhere, it'll have to hold for now. If the thing grenades I'm swapping for a de-stroked 400 most lilkely.

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Well, tore the motor apart and decided I needed to take one of my old oil pans and fabricate a drain tube w/ NPT thread so I can use AN hardware. I hate hose clamps.

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I have an hoses on most everything, same for the supercharger. I'm going to undo the FMu of all that ugly black quick disconnect fuel hose too

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I figured this was the best way to do it, most room for draining right there and angled up and toward the supercharger so there's no horizontal spots in the drain line )especially since it's a rather small ID line, I use -12 stuff on my turbo motor)

I also had to hammer form and reshape the whole deeper sump section because as I suspected it didn't fit with the milodon oil pump and pickup (not a fan of the melling pumps)
All I have to do is blast and powdercoat it now. It's getting there now. Different color, it was supposed to be red. As soon as it hit the engine (primered silver even w/ aluminum epoxy paint) it turned to a shade that's a lot more orange than red... damn! A redder shade of chevy orange. I didn't want it orange but oh well.

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The problem now is.... I think I need a zz409 cam ;)
 
Yes, there's some red thingies with hoses, a black thingy with wires, and other gizmos with doodads in there LOL
 
And a Merc 428 CJ, complete with hood pins.....:cool:

No wonder good old hotrods are so expensive, TT/VTwin got them all.....

:lol::tomato:
 
I know what kind of intake it is, it's a McFarland design. As far as I know now there's only 3 of them and this is the only one with the fuel rails. The other 2 are still brand new and come w/ the EGR adapter (I don't have that and I was outbid on the brand new one that was for sale)

I installed the booster pump. Apparently the procharger instructions tell you to screw the pump to the floor pan and to cut a fuel line and use the supplied rubber hose to plumb it in. That stuff doesn't fly for me, so I came up with this. Some adapters on the short rubber section between tank and body and using AN hardware I routed it to the pump. unfortunately the pump has hose barbs so I had to resort to hose clamps there (I hate those things) but all in all it's a lot cleaner than per the instructions. That Fays 2 sure is handy for hanging stuff off.

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Humm....one side has rust behind the ground effects. No wonder, screws thread into bare steel. Probably self tappers too. More stuff to fix

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Took the whole wing off because that side needs the door hinge bushed too

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Thinking about going with the later GFX, the fake air ducts give it a more modern look

Didn't get to do a lot more, stripped most of the front end for spraying and fixing some minor issues.

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Going to install 2 Spal 12" high perf. puller fans instead of the stock dual fans, problem is I'll have to design a mounting bracket or shroud for them. More custom work to be donie.

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Ignore the crookedness of the radiator, that's how we receive our stuff here courtesy of UPS.

Quickly designed a neat mounting bracket. Didn't want to go with a full shroud, the fans will cool plenty as is and I don't want them to mount closer to the engine and with the fans against the core a shroud is useless. It's the yellow part in this design

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Here's ver 2.0 of the rad mount, this time I can dimple die it. This version fits around the tanks, not just the core.

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The fan shroud
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Started putting the engine back together after finally getting the zz409 cam (stupid customs here was holding on to it for a couple of weeks). Also visible is my drain hookup for the P600B.

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The stock v/flat belt combo pulleys are giving me issues, I'll either have to convert the aluminum spacer thing for the SC pulley into a pulley by having it cut or flat belt grooves or have a new one made with a wider front diameter for a larger pulley. I already have a smaller waterpump & alternator pulley.

Got the radiator all done:

Fits like a glove
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Used carriage bolts, the square below the head is hammered tight into the aluminum so they won't spin
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all done, these fans move a lot of air. Gale force winds LOL

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Rad mount ver 2.0 now dimple died
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The whole shebang installed
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I also made good progress building up the engine. Cam installed and everything buttoned up/dialed in. Mounted the supercharger and made a custom little bracket since I don't have the OEM serpentine drive, it spaces the whole assembly forward about as much as the stock serpentine stuff does. Also, there's an additional hole that corresponds with where normally the bolt goes through the alternator. I'm going to add a 4th bolt & spacer to it since I still have 1 unused hole in the head and bracket. There's a small bolt in there now, adding a longer bolt & spacer only required drilling the supercharger bracket. No big deal. Also have the oiling system & return all hooked up. Going to either cut serpentine grooves in the drive spacer (alu spacer thing) or design a new one, larger diameter. Have to figure out the drive ratios first and see where my KRC pump ends up.

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Maybe I'm not understanding something, but wouldn't mounting the pump to the linkage channel more vibration to the pump? Otherwise, nice work on the project.
 
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That black thing is just the mounting frame, it doesn't move and the pump is hung on rubber isolators and is clamped down with a rubber noise suppressing sleeve around it.

Neki, do you have the Fays2 system on your camaro?
 
Did some more work. Started doing the inside with sound deadener

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Found a clean way to mount the FPR, only need a 90deg. 3/8 -> 6 AN adapter to clear the valve cover. Also visible is the sandwich plate w/ 3 injectors, part of the superfueler.

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Installed a 92 F body KC4 (RPO code) heat exchanger because of the way it bolts up without using hoses & hose clamps (just like an AC comp. line) and the lines are aluminum (now powdercoated) instead of the stock steel ones that rust like crazy. It's a real tight fit with the headers. Good thing I have wrap around them.

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Added the 4th bolt to the SC bracket

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