LY6/4L80e from rough van into rough 69 camaro
Your wheels are prolly stock 15 x 8's and if so more than likely came off of a Monte Carlo or Corvette both of which had a 4" back spacing. The wheels I bought are from Wheel Vintiques and are available from Classic Muscle here in Winston Salem, NC their website is oldmusclecars.com
Yeah I dont blame you on the tag!!!
Yeah I dont blame you on the tag!!!
Hey guys!
I just got onto this site yesterday and this was the first thread that I started reading. I really enjoyed reading through everything (enjoyed the humor as well) and found it very informative, especially since I want to put an LS engine in my '69 Camaro SS that I've had since about 1981 when I was in college. Anyway, I read through this thread, and then I came back a few hours later to find additional posts saying that the car was running. Very, very cool indeed!!
Congrats to "Futureuser" on a great write-up about your project! I look forward to following the project as it progresses into the awesome '69 Camaro that you want it to be. Keep up the good work!
Bill B.
I just got onto this site yesterday and this was the first thread that I started reading. I really enjoyed reading through everything (enjoyed the humor as well) and found it very informative, especially since I want to put an LS engine in my '69 Camaro SS that I've had since about 1981 when I was in college. Anyway, I read through this thread, and then I came back a few hours later to find additional posts saying that the car was running. Very, very cool indeed!!
Congrats to "Futureuser" on a great write-up about your project! I look forward to following the project as it progresses into the awesome '69 Camaro that you want it to be. Keep up the good work!
Bill B.
Teching In
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 42
Likes: 0
From: DFW, TX
After that, a '73 Z-28, and then sold that so I could go back to college. After I got settled into school, I was able to buy another '69 Camaro, the one that I still have. I had another Camaro later, a '72 model with a 307, but I sold it when I bought a Datsun 240Z. Somehow, I managed to hold onto the 2nd '69 Camaro, driving it a little here and there. But it hasn't been started in 5 or 6 years now. You guys are helping me get inspired to get it started back up.Take care!
Bill B.
futureuser...you might want to call Jan at Xtreme Motorsports in Tempe. They charge $500 for a tune. Mine took most the afternoon. Only about half an hour was on the dyno. The rest of it was spent in the car, on the road or in the shop, doing drivability tuning. He would tweak the tune, drive it, tweak some more, drive it, etc. He did that a LOT. After he had that where he wanted it, he strapped it to the rollers and did the WOT tuning. I was impressed with his patience and attention to detail. Car runs well and has great manners.
I see you posted you have a 8.5" rearend? Did you change it out? I have had four rearends under mine since I first bought the car. It came with the weaker 10 bolt from the factory with a 3.08 open diff, I then bought a 9" Ford and have had a multiple number of gears in it ranging from 3.56-5.14:1 with a spool, I then used a 12 bolt with a 4 series carrier with 4.10:1 gears posi, and now have a 10 bolt 8.5" 3.42 posi all new with Richmond gears and Timken bearings it is out of a '79 T/A with disc brakes. I moved the spring perches and rebuilt it from scratch. This is why I had to go with 4 1/2" back spacing on my wheels since the rear is 1/2" wider then stock on each side. Its amazing what the 12 bolt rears are worth! I sold it to a guy I think in Connecticut for $1200. Of course it was all original GM and came out of a '70 Z/28. I traded 2 old bucket seats and a broken console for the 10 bolt 8.5" and away we went. With the 4 1/2" back spacing I was able to still use the wide bands I had on the 4". When are you going to the tuners?
Beware of ebay control arms The fact that my camaro was/is an rs/ss and had/has rust, made someone to beleive that it would make for a great parts car in the 1980s. So it lost it's spoilers, rs grill, backup lights, console gauges, some other things and of course, it's factory 12 bolt. F#$@! Then it was half *** restored with patches and cheater quarter panels. The saving grace is that when I bought this car for $1000, I didn't know what it was. I found out years later what it was when I got paperwork from gm of Canada. When I was under the dash recently I found the cut vacuum lines going into the headlight switch.
Tsnow thanks for the info, I don't know what my diff came out of, but I think it's a nova. It is all factory parts and still works very well. I ran it with 9 inch slicks and 4:56 years ago and it held up nicely. I should probably do something to it to make sure the wheels don't fall out if I break something. If my exhaust is done by this weekend, I could have tuning next week.
Today I am $127 poorer and out most of a day replacing the kmj ebay control arm ball joints with new moog replacements. The upper ball joints had slop in them and all of the rubber was cracked after being installed for a couple of months. I knew I was taking a chance with these and maybe I'll have better luck with the inboard bushings. The rest of the construction seems okay and I'll post how the alignment goes. I did learn how to use a ball joint press I borrowed from Advance auto in my driveway.
Tsnow thanks for the info, I don't know what my diff came out of, but I think it's a nova. It is all factory parts and still works very well. I ran it with 9 inch slicks and 4:56 years ago and it held up nicely. I should probably do something to it to make sure the wheels don't fall out if I break something. If my exhaust is done by this weekend, I could have tuning next week.
Today I am $127 poorer and out most of a day replacing the kmj ebay control arm ball joints with new moog replacements. The upper ball joints had slop in them and all of the rubber was cracked after being installed for a couple of months. I knew I was taking a chance with these and maybe I'll have better luck with the inboard bushings. The rest of the construction seems okay and I'll post how the alignment goes. I did learn how to use a ball joint press I borrowed from Advance auto in my driveway.
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futureuser...you might want to call Jan at Xtreme Motorsports in Tempe. They charge $500 for a tune. Mine took most the afternoon. Only about half an hour was on the dyno. The rest of it was spent in the car, on the road or in the shop, doing drivability tuning. He would tweak the tune, drive it, tweak some more, drive it, etc. He did that a LOT. After he had that where he wanted it, he strapped it to the rollers and did the WOT tuning. I was impressed with his patience and attention to detail. Car runs well and has great manners.
Thanks! I bought my first '69 in 1975 and built it up with a 350 for street racing, eventually running low 13s on street tires and full exhaust. Man, that thing sucked the gas, though. Then, I sold it and bought a Chevelle. After that, a '73 Z-28, and then sold that so I could go back to college. After I got settled into school, I was able to buy another '69 Camaro, the one that I still have. I had another Camaro later, a '72 model with a 307, but I sold it when I bought a Datsun 240Z. Somehow, I managed to hold onto the 2nd '69 Camaro, driving it a little here and there. But it hasn't been started in 5 or 6 years now. You guys are helping me get inspired to get it started back up.
Take care!
Bill B.
After that, a '73 Z-28, and then sold that so I could go back to college. After I got settled into school, I was able to buy another '69 Camaro, the one that I still have. I had another Camaro later, a '72 model with a 307, but I sold it when I bought a Datsun 240Z. Somehow, I managed to hold onto the 2nd '69 Camaro, driving it a little here and there. But it hasn't been started in 5 or 6 years now. You guys are helping me get inspired to get it started back up.Take care!
Bill B.
That's a real bummer on the balljoints. The cracking boots is obvious, but did they also have slop when attempting to align it? You hadn't used these arms at all before this, right? The cracking was just from weather?
The car handles great since I had the alignment with the new balljoints and the 2 20 valve agr steering box is a massive improvement with all of the other parts. The steering is now more porsche like than muscle car, with much better steering feel than many rack and pinion cars I've driven. The steering upgrades were well worth the investment.
I have ls3 manifold. Pcv in drivers side valve cover to inlet in intake behind throttle body on pax side. (Soon I may install catch can there) Pax side vent in valve cover to leftover k&n sbc valve cover breather. This is temporary until I can get it into the air intake where it belongs.
I am going to say in the configuration he has he is going to lay down 395rwhp. The auto will hurt him a little, the throttle body will hurt him and his cam is on the small side for horsepower up top. I think he was after more torque than high horsepower anyways. I got $50 that says it will be within 10 horsepower up or down once the tune is set up right.