Turbo Camaro Build

Well after much waffling the big red car has grown on me. TIME TO TURBO.

Slowly.

As funds allow.

But for now! I'm making it less fat and hopefully fixing the suspension a bit and playing with tuning! This post will probably be a bit long and full of not awesome updates and grammatical errors (not sure if these pictures are going to work either.)! Let's get started.

Stages:

1) Maintenance - tune the engine up, take care of body issues, etc. Gutting will happen here too.

2) Suspension - new shocks/front swaybar/watt's link rear/Lighter k-member?

3) ECU - MEGASQUIRT

4)BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOST TTTTTTTTT

TTTTTTT TTT

I'm currently reading "Engine Management: Advanced Tuing" and "Designing and Tuning High-Performance Fuel Injection Systems" by Greg Banish. I've also managed to order the factory manuals for the 98' camaro. Noice.

Got the A/C compressor/condensor/accumulator yanked. That was a good 25ish lbs (by my well calibrated weighing arm) off the front end. Added a newly routed belt. Look at all that room!

Got some Seafoam into the gas tank and into the oil to help clear up the lifter tick (or destroy my car). I TRUST THE INTERNET.

Went to my best friend, the Pull-A-Part, (awkward phrasing) and snagged a rear tail light assembly to fix the cracked one. After which I pulled a bit more of the interior.

You might say to yourself; "self, that's the front of the car." Well I forgot to take a picture of the rear and it's dark now. CAMERAS DON'T WORK IN THE DARK.

NOW: to poll the audience. I've been peering about the interweb for suspension bits and pieces. My current conundrum pertains to Koni Yellows, the accepted awesome shock. They run 1000 for all four corners, I can find other "performance" shocks for 400-500 for all four, so are the Koni's worth double the price?

REF THREADS

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/junkyard-turbo-setup-3800-v6-camaro/41147/page1/

Down here, I'd consider AC mandatory.

None of my cars till I bought my 2011 Cruze Eco just recently have had A/C. Not a big deal for me. Plus, T-TOPS MAN.

It is worth noting this isn't a daily driver. I have a 94 Civic if I need to putt about, but I bicycle everywhere.

I was happy with regular bilstiens in my Vette. Bilsteins were also used on some of the Camaros.

@Gearheaddotaku - I see, I would like to try a bit of tracking (and autoXing) with this car, would you consider them ample? For less than the cost of the koni shocks I can get a full suspension for it...

http://www.stranoparts.com/partdetails.php?PartID=138&CategoryID=20&ModelID=7

accordionfolder wrote: It is worth noting this isn't a daily driver. I have a 94 Civic if I need to putt about, but I bicycle everywhere.

Ah, okay then. Biking can be fun, but I get a sense of terror everything I tried it in traffic.

I've been bike commuting/pleasure riding for the last 5 years. My work is only 3 miles in, a nice ride really. None of my co-workers can fathom why I have 3 cars and bike to work. :)

That was a fun read . Don't know a damned thing about Camaros, but I await your updates.

Not a bad start, all the room you just freed up is just the place to stuff a charger of some form. A buddy suggested looking for a Park Avenue, I guess they had a supercharged 3800 from the factory and will fit under your hood, can anybody confirm that?

Oh an I know he has several bikes, a serious biker, when he was moving he almost beat me from the old house to the new and I had a motor!

mechboy wrote: Not a bad start, all the room you just freed up is just the place to stuff a charger of some form. A buddy suggested looking for a Park Avenue, I guess they had a supercharged 3800 from the factory and will fit under your hood, can anybody confirm that? Oh an I know he has several bikes, a serious biker, when he was moving he almost beat me from the old house to the new and I had a motor!

Many GM FWD's came with an eaton M62 or M90 on them. Pretty sure they were all the same in mounting. Quite compact. I've also seen Grand National motors stuffed in F bodies.

Dont know much about Camaros. How many big holes in the block? Would a super charged 6 give more umph than an 8? What about tourque?

3.8Liters of furious GM fury. Also known as "The Buick v6."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_V6_engine

http://forum.camarov6.com/forumdisplay.php?s=ae52095066e6e53fcc13e9de5e8ac5ed&f=12

And as you can see here, it can be done, but you have to put a right angle bend into the intake. Twincharged anyone?

accordionfolder wrote: CAMERAS DON'T WORK IN THE DARK.

Flash?

jstein77 wrote:

accordionfolder wrote: CAMERAS DON'T WORK IN THE DARK.

Flash?

The Flash is a pretty cool super hero.

Sooooooo Update. Of sorts. Pretty lame one really.

I scoured the junkyard for a supercharger. It's amazing how many types of cars run the 3800 II. I found a few that used to be supercharged, with the super charger yanked :(

If anyone spots one, LET ME KNOW.

I washed the car. It needed it badly. I think it may have counted as a weight reduction. I forgot to get good before pictures, but here is one of the rims prior.

And here is after cleaning:

And the tail light I fixed.

Everybody got a bath today!

The Big Red Car is really starting to grow on me. Hopefully I'll get it fully registered and insured tomorrow. The KY inspection is stupid easy.

I'd give Sam Strano a call on shocks and see if there is anything new in the realm of cheaper shocks, but Koni SAs are still the affordable 'gold standard.'

I don't know how you like how the car handles now, but its pretty much horrible compared to my car with Koni SAs / Strano springs.

Of the top of my head, there are some custom valved Bilsteins that were up to snuff that were cheaper than the Konis. The HD line is not much better than the stock DeCarbons, and stay away from the KYB AGX units, as they adjust rebound and compression at the same time.

Hey! Thanks for the input! I often go to the Strano website to drool a bit at the tubular k-members and such. Thanks for the warning on the KYBs. I'm leaning towards the Bilsteins as everyone says they are a good bargain. I'm really hoping that shoving 11" wide tires on all four corners will really take care of any handling issue :) I'm thinking Diamond racing rims will work (Input on that front is welcome too.). Those and a larger front bar should round out the handling department.

mechboy wrote: Not a bad start, all the room you just freed up is just the place to stuff a charger of some form. A buddy suggested looking for a Park Avenue, I guess they had a supercharged 3800 from the factory and will fit under your hood, can anybody confirm that? Oh an I know he has several bikes, a serious biker, when he was moving he almost beat me from the old house to the new and I had a motor!

Oh! And hello mi padre, I wasn't ignoring you. They had a bunch of park avenue's at the Junkyard, none of them where supercharged (well, two of the appeared to have been supercharged before someone snagged them....).

I really think it would be cool to twincharge it.....

I'm going to vote for Sam Strano's stuff as well. I've got his setup on my F-body and it handles really well. It's not quite like my Miata, but 3x the hp almost makes up for 2x the weight

I've got a 'vert, so I consider some good subframe connectors as mandatory.

In reply to accordionfolder:

I have 17x11 ZR1 replicas (50mm offset) that I run on all four corners. The front required a 1/4 inch spacer, ARP extended studs, and some grinding on the upper steering knuckle to get them to clearance. I'm unfamiliar with what would be needed for the Diamond wheels, but it might be pretty similar depending on how much offset you run.

You might want to familiarize yourself with this thread (and board):

http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/index.php?showtopic=2922

Pretty much nothing but hard core f-body handling tech.

imho megasquirt is a step backward from the gm pcm and creates a ton of unnecessary work. gm obd2 stuff is infinitely tunable, i'd pick up a good tuning program instead.

patgizz wrote: imho megasquirt is a step backward from the gm pcm and creates a ton of unnecessary work. gm obd2 stuff is infinitely tunable, i'd pick up a good tuning program instead.

Ah, but I'm not playing with this car for max performance. I'm playing with this car to learn a lot, and have fun. Megasquirt sounds fun for a software engineer. :)

Depending on what's available for the GM, it can be just as much of a headache/fun. I use a tweecer on the squire, and that's just insane with the amount of charts/tables/functions that you can dig into on a stock PCM. Makes my head hurt just thinking about tuning again.

Also look at grand prix GTP's and other FWD gm's. There were quite a few models that were supercharged. Most people snag the blowers quick from the JY's and put them on ebay/CL.

I've got a "notify me" on every car that came with a supercharged 3800 at my local pull-a-part. Hopefully I'll be quick enough on the draw to snag one up.