LS6 4th Gen Camaro Aims to Make Rear Mounted Turbos Cool Again
There are plenty of reasons not to go with rear mounted turbos on this Camaro, but the owner doesn’t care.
There are valid reasons why you rarely see rear-mounted turbos any more. And LS1 Tech forum member ddnspider is well aware of all of them. Regardless, he doesn’t care one bit. Instead, he’s on a mission to do something different with his 4th Gen, LS6-swapped Camaro Z/28. And he’s documenting the entire process right here in the forums.
“I’ve always been curious about rear mount setups. Some work awesome and some suck. I understand the inherent deficiency with heat retention with the turbo in the back. Also, I remember the build threads from over a decade ago and the ‘zombie rear mount saga.’ The idea of keeping the under hood essentially unchanged and keeping stock fans is appealing to me so I’m giving it a shot. I missed out on a local mp112 kit by 2 days and stumbled across a rear mount kit for a fair price that had everything except oiling. Shout out to TPIZ92 for packaging everything well and shipping it promptly.
With kit in hand, the OP lays out his plan and relatively modest goals.
I recently rebuilt an LS6 swapped Z28 that I picked up with a trashed motor with help from WS6store.com. We gapped the rings a bit larger just in case, even though I tried to resist boosting this car. I couldn’t resist and finally gave in. The plan consists of an insta spool from a GT67 STS turbo, 38mm STS ultragate, and 50mm BOV from the latest gen STS kit that fixed many issues. Car makes low 400whp given the logs and some races I’ve had. Goal is to add about 100whp and have it drive the same.”
Initial measurements revealed that this lowered Camaro was going to prove a tight fit. But that didn’t dissuade the OP one bit. Instead, he started cutting stuff off and installing new stuff. And at first, the job turned out surprisingly easy.
“FMIC mounted….holy crap this was easy. Factory holes, FMIC has tabs….bolts through tabs and done. Since all the long cold side is supposed to be a mini intercooler, I’m going to leave the bumper support alone and see how the IATs are. Bit of a bear to get some of the pipes lined up because they all have mounting brackets and holes to mount to factory holes and all cars are slightly different from each other. I will say that the pipe is BEEFY thick wall tubing so it’s very solid.”
Things were moving pretty fast at this point.
“Nothing to see here. All piping from the turbo to the TB is done. Front bumper trimmed to fit the intercooler and front bumper is back on. Have to find some bolts for the wastegate pipe to bumper exit and then all piping is completely finished. That leaves the oiling system, exhaust wrap, and fuel stuff.”
Outside of an oil leak, the OP hasn’t had too much trouble with his sleeper Camaro setup. And we personally can’t wait for him to finish the job and get this thing on the dyno. So be sure and head over here to stay tuned for that and some track action!
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