V8 conversion has started on my 1997 camaro

Just a few minutes ago, I hooked up pertinent wires and turned the key on and security light went out and the 3.8 in the Z28 fired right up.

I still have to change the fuel lines under the hood since they don't work well with the 3.8 and of course quite a bit more work till it is road ready.

I will address the horrible lifter ticking later down the road, it last for about 10 minutes on cold starts. Also going to look into rebuilding the 3.8 for my girlfriend.
 
One thing I remember from the 3.8, there's one or two plastic elbows on the coolant lines right by the serpentine belt. Many many moons ago I had to fix this in a 3.8..... When the plastic elbow leaks coolant it sprays right onto the serpentine belt and causes it to blow off the pulley.... When you have a small leak there it is not very obvious, actually not obvious at all because I replaced the serpentine belt a few times and even the tensioner before I realized WHY the stupid belt came off the pulleys.....
Bottom line: there's upgraded parts available but at a minimum put two fresh elbows in there.... It's like $15 or so incl. the O-rings......
Lifter ticking: lifters are cheap..... When you say rebuild the engine- is there anything else wrong or why do you want to rebuild it?
 
Last edited:
MYBAD79 said:
One thing I remember from the 3.8, there's one or two plastic elbows on the coolant lines right by the serpentine belt. Many many moons ago I had to fix this in a 3.8..... When the plastic elbow leaks coolant it sprays right onto the serpentine belt and causes it to blow off the pulley.... When you have a small leak there it is not very obvious, actually not obvious at all because I replaced the serpentine belt a few times and even the tensioner before I realized WHY the stupid belt came off the pulleys.....
Bottom line: there's upgraded parts available but at a minimum put two fresh elbows in there.... It's like $15 or so incl. the O-rings......
Lifter ticking: lifters are cheap..... When you say rebuild the engine- is there anything else wrong or why do you want to rebuild it?
Click to expand...

Mine has upgraded metal elbows, looks like a sludge bomb went off under this 3.8. The LT1 is really clean with only a power steering leak. Not bad a nice little 75hp gain and 100ft lbs tq. for free. Doubt I will miss the 3.8 much, think the power difference will be noticeable.

girlfriend buying the z28 for a grand so aside from labor this v8 conversion costed nothing.
 
Hooked more stuff up on my LT1 today

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Then evacuated the a/c system for a 1/2 hour and it has held like this now for around 2 hours so it is ready to be charged at a later time.

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Both cars are completely done now.

No other mods are planned any time soon on either car.

this is my camaro

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Here is the LT1 at cruise speed, no issues such as over heating like prior owner said.

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both a/c systems are now charged, my camaro blows right about 42 degrees and her z28 blows a hair above 40 degrees

evac'ed

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my camaro after charge

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her z28

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Small update. As you might recall the z28 had the wrong rims (93-95) and they were painted black. So far I have stripped them and repainted them silver since my girlfriend hated them black.

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She also hated the flat black mirrors so we found a really nice set of gloss black mirror for some year and like how it goes better with the gloss black roof.

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Ain't it great to see a plot come together???

So what you planning NOW?????


:hunter:
 
mrvette said:
Ain't it great to see a plot come together???

So what you planning NOW?????


:hunter:
Click to expand...

Next few things we are going to do are

find a gloss black tail panel between the tail-lights or a silver one and then paint camaro letters black

fix the bubba'ed headlights and driving lights

find a headliner and sun visors

replace some messed up plastic trim

replace the hood and trunk lifts


That is why the v8 went into my camaro instead of just fixing up the z28. The z28 has just to many issues to repair to get it to the quality of my camaro.

She has been occasionally using the z28 and loves it though, it is her baby now. We have so far put about 150.00 into the z28 mostly just using stuff from pick a part, We threw away all that half assed HID lighting stuff because prior owner electrical taped the bulbs into the headlight housings the baling wired the headlight assembly and driving light assemblies in place.

We have gotten all the stock lights now and retaining hardware to put it back how it was stock.

This is her first project car she has built and she was under the car getting greasy as hell helping put the motor in it. When I first met her she didn't have a clue about cars other then checking oil. I'm very proud at what she can do, she definitely isn't afraid to do the work once I show her how to.
 
Interesting man, my daughter got her paws greasy as a Brownie Scout, and I helped her over the .net and phone some years ago...to change her own serp drive belt on her car.....so she snapped a pix of herself with cphone and greazy paw stuck out in a victory dance.....

of course my son can fix damn nearly anything, being ASE cert in many fields.....

now to teach him carpentry, drywall, concrete, roofing, framing, construction in general.....

AND get him EVERY tool in the box....except a phillips screwdriver.....


:bump:
 
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