Replaced my Camaro with a.....Camaro. 4th Gen LT1 Fbody Content

I sold my 6th Gen Camaro SS 1LE. I loved the car and it was incredibly capable, but I like wrenching and improving and its pretty hard to improve and very expensive. I couldnt shake the feeling that I always had more fun in my old 4th Gen. I had gone through the suspension/interior/paint/transmission and put a huge cam in it, and it was a riot. So after it sold I started hunting for one. The 93-97 Fbodys are getting pretty thin on the ground. There seems to be only two types, super nice expensive ones, and super ratty cheap ones. It seems like all the drivers have been fixed up real nice or they slowly slipped to terrible condition. After about a month of looking at basketcase after basketcase AnthonyGS messaged me on the forum. Said he has a 96 SS that was pretty clean with high mileage and it nice but not completely sorted. I agreed to buy it and on the second try I was able to meet him in Louisianna to pick it up. Outside of traffic the trip was pretty much problem free. I got home about 9 and he had mentioned it was straight water in the cooling system, so I drained a gallon of coolant and put some concentrate in it and went to bed.

Here is the first picture of it the next day in my driveway.

I sent this picture to a buddy of mine and he said my driveway looks like a senior engineer's from the late 90s.

I havent really gone over the car completely. Obvious things are its had a decent respray, I forgot how small the stock LT1 brakes look behind 18s, check engine lights on for EVAP, and a little bit of interior is apart from AnthonyGS doing the ignition switch.

We have some really bad weather rolling in, so I wanted to get it in the garage, so I had to clean up the garage. Here is a shot of the extra parts it came with.

The original ZR1 SS wheels. Its what I ran on my old 4th gen, so Ill probably swap back to them. The original SS airbox, its broken, like most of them, Ill hang on to it and see if it can be repaired and if I feel like it, car has an RKsport ram air box that looks like the original but it stronger. C6 brake swap, with calipers and brackets, hoses, pads and rotors, I may go more aggressive on the pads, we'll see. Global west decoupled torque arm, I looked into the unabalanced engineering setup about a decade ago, but other than that I know nothing about these. Stock rear bilsteins, and new front Konis, Konis are already on the rear. Ill probably hang on to the original Bilsteins, have them rebuilt and throw them in a box on a shelf eventually. Car already has BMR springs and aftermarket sway bars, but I cant remember which ones, and GM C6 Z06 wheels. More importantly it has the LT1 SS hood, which is getting harder to find, lots of people are doing the LS1 scoop on an LT hood, LT1 SS spoiler which was discontinued from SLP in like 2006, and only RKsport repops it last I looked, and the 2OTL exhaust which has been discontinued for about as long, but nobody repops and is very sought after. The TBSS wheels didnt come from AnthonyGS.

Got it in the garage.

Thats where its going to sit until we get through this cold front.

This view made me considerably happier than I expected.

First plans are probably just to sort it. Anthony said he has already done all the fluids except diff and coolant, and even gave me a little bottle of Delco brand limited slip additive, so Ill do those. Ill put the interior back together, get the headliner recovered, and the small tear on the drivers bolster repaired before it gets worse. I think it has a brake light and check engine light, so Ill take care of those. I want to clean it up and ceramic coat it. After that Ill probably just start driving it and see what pops up. Obviously Ill put Konis and the brake kit on, but I need to verify the C6 setup fits under a 17, I know the C5s do but the C6 swap was just getting more popular when I sold my last one. Ill probably get some Lloyds mats. I am considering wrapping the mirrors and top in black, which was more common on the standard Z28s, Ive always liked that look more, but the all red is growing on me, so I dont want to do anything irreversible. 

Longer plans is probably to imitate my original build and put a big ole cam and a bunch of gear in it, that thing was riot on the street. It will mostly be a street car, with the occasional trip to the drag/autox/track. If the engine ever lets go, Ill build a 383/396, but it will stay NA and have decent manners. I really regretted selling my first one, even after replacing it with a vette/multiple generations of miata/6th gen, so I expect this thing will be with me for a long time.

This is where the "build story " will now reside? May I ask again about a pic of the factory induction on this ? 

759NRNG said:

This is where the "build story " will now reside? May I ask again about a pic of the factory induction on this ? 

Sorry must have missed the question in the other thread

Forgive the picture quality its dark outside so they came out a little fuzzy

This is the stock upper air box. It says Z28SS, and used to have 2 bars that ran across it. These probably broke but it used to be pretty common to cut them out so you didnt have anything impeding airflow, especially the WS6 which had a whole grid.

This is the RKSport intake that AnthonyGS swapped on. Its the same design, just built much better. The stock ones break all the time.

SLP claimed the addition of the "ram air" intake added 20HP over the stock 285 hp. The optional two out the left exhaust was supposed to add the extra 5hp up to 310.

I think the SS airbox isnt the prettiest, and obviously has to do a full 180 turn, so Im considering to a more conventional intake like a Morosa or K&N. Ill hang on to it, so maybe one day I can do a back to back drag test.

Good morning, I'm a bit cornfused where did the rest of this thread go ?

In reply to 759NRNG :

The original thread was in Grassroots section, Im doing the build thread here

The sound the induction system creates along with the TOTL exhaust is incredible.  I'm not sure I'd change either for a few hp one way or the other.  You can find all the power you want elsewhere.  That's just my opinion though.  

Not sure of the physics behind it but one place I always thought that LT1's >> LS1 and later was sound.

In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :

The 2OTL isnt going anywhere, Ill have to hear the sound of the intake, but the conventional CAIs were pretty loud also, my main concern is breaking it and not being able to replace it, even if I take it off its staying with the car, hopefully I can find a good condition real SS intake, and Ill box that up and put it on the shelf. My over the radiator setup on the race car was very loud, I could hear it even with true duals and turn downs under the cab.

In reply to A 401 CJ :

Youll get no arguement from me here. I always got compliments on the way my LTs sounded from my LS friends.

Got a little bored after my meeting, a couple of interior panels were still off after the ignition switch replacement. I found most of the hardware, and had some spares from disassembly of the race car, and was able to get everything reassembled. Im missing the lower plastic piece on the drivers side. So far it looks like the interior needs a carpet (couple holes), headliner (sagging), a couple trim pieces, seat repair on drivers side, and a console lid. Even if the carpet was nice, I think a nicer slightly darker carpet really dresses these up, so it was on the list anyways. Ive got a really good upholstery guy whos been very reasonable, and Im expecting the seat to be saveable with just a couple panel replacements and the headliner to be pretty inexpensive. Interior will probably be the first thing I address after I do a little mechanical sorting, I dont want the driver's seat to get worse. I made that mistake on my first one.

Before

After

Probably wont get much work done until next week, like most of the country weve got some dumb weather rolling in.

-15F here right now!

Today was the first day above freezing in about a week and Ive been hankering to work on this thing. First thing I wanted to do was a quick wash.

So I did a quick wash and clay barred it

Then I put it in the garage and hit it with an alcohol mix to strip any wax or anything like that.Ive been looking at some of the DIY ceramic coatings and wanted to try one. I went with Avalon King, after watching some tests, but someone on here recommended the turtle wax spray on stuff, so Ill probably try that next. Paint correction and body work is way far down on the list. The main thing I wanted was some protection. I did everything painted and all the glass besides the hatch. It seemed to go on and buff off very easy. Much faster than waxing, so if this stuff works I wont be waxing anything anymore. It was my first good look at the body. Overall its pretty dang straight. Its a decent respray with a couple dings and scratches. Front bumper is torn on the right side and has some scrapes, but really a new bumper and some paint correction and Id be very happy with the body work. Here are the afters from the ceramic coating. Its very overcast today and red doesnt show well in pictures, in person it seemed to make a difference. We will see how durable it is and for how long though.

I only had a few minutes when I was done before I had to go to a party. I put some conditioner on the seats to sit, hopefully softens them up.

Ive got some work to do tomorrow but hopefully after Im done I can start working on the cooling system and the warning lights. It has a brake, abs, and check engine light on. I scanned the check engine light and its p0441. Its pretty common on these. Probably needs a charcoal cannister, but there are a couple things to check first. Havent looked into the brake stuff at all. AnthonyGS said he had working on it a little, and its probably the fluid level switch.

I had a bunch of plans to work on this thing last week and I got the Flu. Boy, Ive never had the flu but it was miserable, and Im still getting over it, but I felt good enough yesterday to do some small things.

First I changed the 3rd brake light bulbs

Then I was running it to do some quick evap tested for the check engine light. Good news is I found out the purge valve is hung open. Probably needs a cannister to, but Im gonna throw a purge valve on and see what happens. Bad news is 3 seconds after discovering that the radiator sprung a leak.

It was pretty late on a Sunday and I had too much to do Monday to put it off. I drove into town and grabbed a rad, and had about an hour and a half of daylight left. Luckily I still no my way around an LT1 and was able to get the old one out, flush the block and get the new one in. Monday morning I just needed to hook up 2 hoses and fill it. In the filling process I made a rookie mistake and broke one of the bleeders off.

Luckily Oreillys had a couple in stock so, just a slight delay.

Got her all back together and bled.

Then I had other crap to do and left it.

Next is to get a purge valve and pop it on, and figure out the brake and ABS light. I need to get it inspected so I can get it registered and drive it legally. Problem is when GM moved to OBD2 they left the ABS data on the OBD1 circuit, so pretty much nothing but a tech2 will read it. So im pretty dead in the water until i can get some data out of it. Scan94/95 will do it, but cant figure out if I need an OBD2 cable or the OBD1 cable with the OBD2 connector. It's a whole thing,

In reply to Opti :

What generation Corvette did you have and what do you like better about the Camaro? This thing looks great after cleaning it up by the way, I never noticed before they they have blacked out A pillars like my RX-7, which creates kind of a cantilever look to the roof.

In reply to A 401 CJ, I think the reason the LT1 sounds better than an LS is due to having a different firing order. 
Opti, if I spend hours browsing marketplace for 4th gens tonight instead of sleeping, I blame you.

In reply to dannyp84 :

I had a C5. I went from a finished 4th gen to a stock C5. 4th gen handled better, was faster, sounded better, was easier to work on and hooked better than the C5. I had a build thread on here, I didnt keep up with it towards the end so it didnt have everything but it had most of it, IIRC. C5s are pretty garbage stock, the tune alone kills so much of the fun, but a couple hundred dollar tune really does change the car so its not a huge deal. When I was done with the C5 it was much better than when I started and I liked it alot more, but making it a more fun car would have made it a worse car The 4th gen is never really a great car, but it is always a fun car.

Most of the V8 cars also have a black roof, sail panels and mirrors.

I have a tech2 now, so I was able to pull some codes.

a terrible screen from a piece of 90s tech doesnt photo well. Imagine that.

It has a wheel speed sensor variation code, rear bs channel will not move, ebcm turned on red brake light, and circuit code for the red brake light. I have the 96 Service manual, but Im definitley not going to spend the time to diagnos it correctly. I am going to load up the parts cannon though.

Ive got an ABS pump and modulator on the way and a hub assembly. I can grab an EBCM super cheap so I might pick one up. If that stuff doenst take care of it, then maybe Ill actually spend the time to properly hunt it down.

Purge valve should be here today, so I can see if that takes care of the P0441

Purge Valve came in so I threw that on

Old one was hung wide open. I blew through it and slapped in on the concrete a bunch and got 1 piece of what looked like carbon to come out. So the cannister may or may no be bad, normally when they come apart Ive got much more in vent and valves. I did one key cycle from ambient, hasnt popped a pending yet, but  I need to drive it some more to be sure.

I also went ahead and popped off the ground stud and cleaned it up.

Sometimes that ground can cause some funky stuff, It didnt look terrible so I doubt it did anything, but figured while I was there.

I also got my carpet samples in today.

​​​​​​I want to go as close to black as I can without it looking out of place. Most people go with something like the second to the bottom. Im going to look for something between the bottom (actual black) and the one above it. I essentially want one shade off black with a little brown in it. Thatd be similar to the later model ebony carpet but a little darker. Stock is the top one, looks darker in the car but when you pull it out, its surprisingly light. Now im just waiting on my other parts.

Opti said:

In reply to dannyp84 :

I had a C5. I went from a finished 4th gen to a stock C5. 4th gen handled better, was faster, sounded better, was easier to work on and hooked better than the C5. I had a build thread on here, I didnt keep up with it towards the end so it didnt have everything but it had most of it, IIRC. C5s are pretty garbage stock, the tune alone kills so much of the fun, but a couple hundred dollar tune really does change the car so its not a huge deal. When I was done with the C5 it was much better than when I started and I liked it alot more, but making it a more fun car would have made it a worse car The 4th gen is never really a great car, but it is always a fun car.

Most of the V8 cars also have a black roof, sail panels and mirrors.

I'd do engine work all day on a C5 before touching a 4th Gen.  4th gens always reminded me of working on vans the way the motor is tucked up tightly under there.

In reply to A 401 CJ :

Id do anything on top of the motor on a C5 no problem. When the harmonic balancer inevitably falls apart, and you need to drop the cradle to get the rack out, (or put a cam in, or change the timing cover gasket) Im out. I also hate doing clutches, rear ends or pretty much anything on the back of the car.

The 4th gens arent terrible once you clean the engine bay up a little. Toss the air pump and egr, and evap and there is a lot more room. They do kinda suck to do anything with all the emissions equipment though.

 I did just drop a radiator in in about the same time it took me to put one in my GMT400, so its not all bad.

You guys just listed all the reasons I got an OBS!  Working on it is so much easier.  I just have to figure out what engine and trans combo I want to go for in it. 

Opti texted me with some not so good news today.  I'm dead serious, I'm in for the road trip when the big job needs to get done.  I feel bad for not knowing all of the issues with the car. 

Had a junkyard score today. Its pretty rare you see these in yards around here, so I usually rely on guys parting them out and ebay, but I got a notification yesterday that one was at the local pink-n-pull. This morning I got up and was there when they opened. It was a relatively complete 6 cyl car with 40k miles, and a pretty gnarly front end collision. I got a fuse boxe cover which is broke on mine, a interior fise box cover which i broke a couple days ago and the main thing....

A complete a perfect headliner I was able to extract without damage or creasing. All for the tidy sum of 40 dollars. I was probably looking at at least 150 to recover mine, which has already been recovered, so it may not have been possible.

Ill probably do a little work on the car this afternoon, maybe I can get the headliner in.

In reply to Opti :

Awesome scores!  That fuse box cover bothered me as well.

In reply to AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) :

Not quite sure how Im going to get the rest of the plastic stud out of the fusebox at this point

I had a little time this afternoon, so I figured Id try and get a couple things done.

First was the hub assembly. Rockauto really came through, I like them but they normally, for me, arent very fast, but I order a hub a day or two ago and it already came in, so I popped it on. Old one felt fine.

It was quick and easy, Id much rather put a hub on this than my OBS Chevy.

Then I backed it onto my ramps to check out the rear suspension. I did notice it has nice diff cover. I want to do an ultimate 10 bolt cover with the studs that can stabilize the carrier and then brace the axle tube, but I do like this pretty aluminum one.

It has Konis AnthonyGS installed and an aftermarket sway bar that I forgot to measure. I ran a 35/21 combo on my old car IIRC, and I really liked it, I dont know if it will be worth it to swap if I have something different on it now, but its way down the list right now. Next I was going to clean up some of the grime, so I covered it in degreaser and....my pressure washer died. It cleaned off some of the grime and axle tubes, but its not good enough, so Ill get my pressure washer fixed and finish cleaning it up.

I went for a drive afterwards. The Check Engine light is still off, so heres hoping i fixed it. First time I beat on it a little, and I remember why I love these cars so much. I did a great big long smokey powerslide. I have a clunk in the back of the car that AnthonyGS told me about. Feels like its the torque arm bushing or maybe the trans mount. Ill investigate when I put it back up to clean it. Still waiting on the ABS module, and I still need to install the headliner.

I got up and headed to the DMV this morning right when they opened to get the car registered and titled. AnthonyGS took the time to track down a one year only special license plate from 1996 and got it registered to the vehicle. I originally planned on doing a vanity plate, but the 96 plates grew on me and decided to keep them, so I took them with me. I informed the nice lady at the DMV of my intentions to use the plates and she was not as excited as I was. They told me they werent a valid TX plate, and then they told me they where from 1995. The plates say "150 years of statehood." She was unimpressed with my basic math when I explained to her that TX became a state in 1846 and 1846 to 150 was 1996. If it was a 1995 plate it should say "149 years of statehood." She was also unphased by the fact that Anthony was able to register them to the car last year in a county just a couple over, and the plate still wore the sticker as proof. Luckily tx.dmv.gov has a list of all the plates theyve issued and the years, and after getting the final no from the manager, I showed her the TX DMV website showing it was a 96 plate, and magically they were able to find it in their book.

I didnt take pictures of mine, but heres a 1996 TX plate for reference.

\

After that I decided to go home and do a little work on the car. My ABS modulator and pump showed up so I figured Id put that on first. It should have been a 10 minutes job, followed by a little bleeding, and some work on the tech2. It was not. It was about 2 hours because all but one of the brake lines were seized in the module. I used a ton of heat right next to the fuel lines, since they run right over the module. Managed to catch my car and self on fire while only slightly damaging the brake line nuts.

You can see i have a pretty liberal definition of "only slightly damaged" I didnt have anyone to help me bleed so I just opened everything up and let gravity do its thing. Then I hooked up the Tech2 and messed with all the abs circuits and rehomed the motors, then i gravity bled them a little more and dumped the codes. The wheel speed sensor code hadnt come back since the hub, but the brake and abs light where turning on as soon as I touched the brake pedal. So i took a deep breath and hit the brake pedal.

NO WARNING LIGHTS! Then I remembered to check engine codes and it looks like the EVAP code still hasnt popped pending. So it looks like I might have fixed something.

After that I decided to crawl under the car to check the clunk from last night. I found both torque arm bolts at the diff were very loose and the torque arm was flopping all over the place. I looked up the torque spec and then torqued them precisely by sending them home with the ugga dugga maker. Thats fixed.

The C5 has big problems with clutch hydraulics, many think the root cause is nasty fluid, so I changed my very often and it turned into a habit on all of my manual cars. So i went under the hood and popped off the reservoir cap.

Im glad I did the fluid was pretty nasty. It also looks like the master and slave have been done, which is good because they are a pain in the ass and I do not enjoy replacing them. I sucked out the nasty fluid, wiped out the reservoir, and filled it back up. Then you hit the pedal about 30 times, and do it all over again, until the fluid doesnt get dirty anymore. It took a couple cycles and now it has nice pretty DOT 4. As an added benefit it made absolutely no difference in clutch pedal feel.

Then I committed the cardinal sin and pressure washed the engine bay.

After

Not perfect but much better. The opti didnt melt and it started right back up.

Then I got back under the car to finish what I started yesterday.

Before

After

Much better. I ended up missing a bunch of spots, so I went over it again a couple times, it ended up looking much better but I was losing light by that point, so I couldnt take an actual final picture.

I called it a day after that. Didnt actually drive it. Brake pedal feels pretty good, but Ill see tomorrow when I actually go drive it. Im hesitant to say Ill put the headliner in tomorrow, because apparently that means Ill find anything else to work on if I do that