Late to the Party - Turbo V6 Camaro

Loving it. 

Well.... I was so late to post that there might only be two updates.

I was willing to fix minor damage, but not this.  This is flat out unsafe.  I think it's time to clean up the garage, get my tools in order, enjoy a short break from cars, and start planning where I'm going to swap my good parts.

Sorry guys....

It happens, man.  Good that you found it now instead of on the track.

I for one am stoked to see what you get next. 

After trying to get excited about a new project car or body swap I realized that it wasn't going to happen, so I decided not to give up on the old girl.

First of all, I have done a lot of work on this particular car.  Removing the whole dash for heat only function was a huge project that I don't want to do again.  The other thing is that I actually kinda dislike fourth generation F-bodies in general.  I just like MY F-body because of sentimental reasons.  Tossing the shell for a rust free one makes sense, but then it wouldn't be the car I remember as a kid anymore.

I could also just sell the good stuff and scrap the rest, but again I'd be left with needing to start all over on a new car that means nothing to me.  Not to mention the countless amount of labor I have in the Camaro would be pretty much for nothing considering how little I've driven it.

The plan is to ignore that ugly picture above for this year.  After seeing how solid the k-member mounting points are I'm not worried about the car falling apart.  I'm just not going to race it or beat on it much.  I'm going to finish patching the floors, installing the weld in sub-frame connectors, reinstalling the interior, and some unfinished business under the hood.  That should take me to about the beginning of the summer.  I'll putz around in it to make sure that I've fixed all the things that I've wanted to take care of this winter.  Then I'll proceed to build a new assembly off to the side.  Once I have a new k-member with suspension adn L32 or L67 bottom end I'll remove all the old stuff.  Having a clear engine bay should make repairing that rotted out section super simple.  Then while it's apart I'll probably repaint and restore the whole engine bay.  I'm not a professional body man, but I can make the car stronger than it ever was, and look better than it is now!  It's just going to take some extra patience.

Here's some proof that I'm not a quitter.

Another project I'm working on in the background is my catch can set-up.  Adding boost to a 150k mile engine and switching to E85 is a great way to create some blow by and aggravate all your seals.  Ask me How I know. lol  The stock PCV is not at all compatible with boost, the valve cover breather was too small, and it made a huge mess anyway.  Enough is enough!  -12s for each valve cover feeding separate tanks should suffice.

In reply to V6Buicks :

berkeley yeah, man. 

I haven't shown how bad the rust is on my Mustang, but it's bad enough that I know many would pass on her if looking to buy one.  I keep her cause she's mine.

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Haha I'm not entirely proud of my rust repairs.   In fact, I was a little embarrassed to bring it to the work car show this year.  However, the way I should be looking at it is that I've done way more for this car than anybody else would have!  It kinda deserved to be scrapped.  This whole car has been a learning experience for me.  It has it's fair share of mistakes and boogers, but that's okay.  I figure that I'll never get better if I don't try, and why not practice on a lousy V6 car? lol

Keep it up. This is a great build and I love how far in you've committed. Do you have any videos of it?

In reply to crankwalk :

I don't really have any videos yet.  I have one from when I first pulled it out of the garage, but I don't know how to post it.  It's also just a dusty V6 car with no exhaust pulling out into the street. No turbo noises. BARF. lol

I finally got to take a break from my Volvo headaches. I'm back to therapeutic garage activities.

I ran out of gas just before taking this pic. Holy crap though.... Since doing the other side, I have learned a lot. The angle grinder is a game changer, using the correct type of roloc pad instead of a wire wheel is a game changer, and using my step bit for drilling out spot welds is a game changer. Having the right tools for the job is always great. Now I kinda want to go to the other side of the car and correct my mistakes! I might as well. It's better than going back in there and doing it later. If I don't do it now that will be inevitable.

This simple air tool rack is also a game changer.

A lot of people don't understand my love for hanging tools on the wall rather than putting them in drawers. I just find this a lot more convenient. Besides, the walls aren't being used for much else! I'm also much more likely to put things away when I can easily see the open spot on the wall. When you have two 170k+ mile daily drivers a GN and a restoration/racecar project, and only a two-car garage you better have your stuff organized really well. Otherwise, every little job will make you want to rip your hair out! The garage itself is like a whole other hobby in itself. That's a whole other topic though.

Since I ran out of shielding gas and I wasn't tired yet, I decided to start putting the braking system back together.

Lol. Check out this rust hole that saved me from needing to reach my arm around the whole fender!  Beaters for the win! 

Right about here is where I wish that I had the engine out of the car. That would make the rest of this job sooo much easier. Oh well. I'll figure it out as always. I'm so glad I got all this done last night. I admit that I've been in an awful mood lately, but this small amount of progress turned me around.

So, is the motor the Camaro V6 with a turbo?

I admire your enthusiasm for this car.

In reply to Harvey :

Yes, and thank you!  It's not the nicest.  In fact it's pretty roached out, but it's a good car for learning and practicing new skills.

You made me realize that I haven't really posted any glam shots here, so here's my most recent.  It's not the most photogenic car out there, so I don't take pictures of it very often.

Interesting, so it's a 3.8L V6 and you're running the turbo setup on the stock ECU with a custom tune?

In reply to Harvey :

Yep!  I have EGR, rear O2, VATS, and EVAP deleted.  It has a stock 1 bar MAP, so it's really all in the MAF and injector tunes.  The L67 MAP sensor is not compatible with the Camaro ECM unfortunately.  Also the 411 upgrade that a lot of LS and 4.3L guys do is not possible either.  I'm kind of limited with this EMS, but I do plan to go with a Holly system in the future.  That will really open a lot of doors including tuning the car myself.

I agree with your tuner though, if you want to push any limits at all you should do a dyno tune.

In reply to Harvey :

I'm not disagreeing at all, but it would be a bit counterproductive when I still have some major mechanical issues.  The main thing I'm dealing with is not having a clutch that's rated for the power I'm already making.  I upgraded it over the summer, but it's slipping under boost pretty badly.  I grossly misunderstood how little of an upgrade it was.  Oops..  Once I get that fixed along with the brakes, blown oil seals, and catch can set-up I'll be scheduling an appointment.  Until then, it's just going to be on jack-stands anyway. lol

I was so excited to post my progress until just now. Although the picture makes it look like crap, my welds are much improved.

According to my original plans for this winter I'm "done" with the floors!  However, this section of floor took so much less time compared to the parts I did last year, that I'm going to go back to the driver side to clean up some of the spots I missed.  It seriously pains me to cut this car up even more instead of finally throwing the carpet back in, but I know that I'll thank myself later. It's a mess...

More you fix now the better off you will be. 

You seem pretty handy with the welder, you'll get this all done.

Excise all the rust before putting it back together otherwise you will just be going back in sooner rather than later. Throw on some sort of rust protection before putting it back together as well.

In reply to Harvey :

Thanks!  I'm definitely getting better.  As long as I stay patient in terms of making sure that my metal is clean and cool before continuing the process goes pretty smoothly.  The biggest reason I never completely finished the driver side was because of this strange foam backed plastic liner that GM put across the whole firewall and part of the floor.  I assume it's for sound deadening.  Anyway, it doesn't look like it can be removed without pulling the whole dash and wire harness... Even when I had the whole dash out of the car I said "forget that!"  I'm going to end up doing what I did on the passenger side and just cut a big portion of it off.  That way I can expose the rusty metal behind it.

Good to see you staying with it and saving the car. Seems like everyones tolerance for rust is getting lower and lower with many repairable cars being scrapped. If we don't save them there will not be any more!

Horsepower is horsepower regardless of how many pistons you use. Its never "just a V6". Lots of V8s were slower than your stock 6.

Here's an expensive tool I got years ago and never had a chance to use until last night. Is it worth the money? Probably not to most hobbyists. However, I must say that it made straightening this coil extremely easy.

I removed all the old lines, wire wheeled and encapsulated the rusty hose brackets, and ordered new hoses. The SJM line lock kit is nice, and I'm sure it would be really simple to install as is. However, I can't get myself to follow directions. lol

The system is already open and I know that the front lines are rusty enough to give me issues in the near future. The line lock kit uses compression unions and tees to tie everything together under the hood. I don't necessarily have a problem with that, but I see unions as an opportunity for leaks. I might as well extend the new line I already need to make in a way that I won't need a union. Then I can take this another step further... Why put the tee under the hood when it would be better suited under the floor? Again, the system is open and I'm already bending custom lines. Let's make this kit better than it was ever intended to be!

By the way, by some amazing grace among all this rust, the brake lines came loose without any hassle. Thanks, car! That was easy.

After a lot of fighting, the brake plumbing is done.  If I didn't have to touch brake fluid again for a couple years that would be greeeaaaattttt.

Time for my new block vent set-up.  Until now, I just had a PCV packed full of JB Weld, and one valve cover breather.  That breather was a big mess.  I wanted something cleaner, and went way overkill.

Modified power steering reservior bracket

...and another!

Stealthy!

I plumbed the petcock valves closer to the ground for easy draining.

Changing the power steering lines on this car is really messy.

\

This is the part where I REALLY want to go for a spirited rip, but cant because there's a giant patch of bare metal floor. Dang, I hate body work, but this is exactly the kind of motivation I need to finish it. Due to medical expenses on top of booking a vacation, I can't buy my clutch kit yet anyway.

Rust repair, Brake fluid, PS fluid. If you throw in covered with gear oil that's the worst things about being in to cars. You'll be rewarded for getting all that out of the way.