Building up dad's camaro.
03-02-2019, 07:54 PM
#22
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03-02-2019, 09:58 PM
#23
No. I am building another car right now. I have been putting parts on my SS when I get a chance. I have had it two years now and took it from 36,000 miles to 60,000. I signed onto this forum to lurk around about LS7 swaps. I have an LS7 left over from my 1970 Camaro project that I sold. I will start something when I get to swapping that in. I don't want to high jack you thread but I will tell you in the last two years I have added: TSP 228R cam and spring kit, complete level 2 trans rebuild, new clutch, flywheel, .390 gears, long tube headers, white face gauges, complete stereo system, slotted and drilled rotors, and I had some custom seat covers made and installed them. I also just added 2013 Corvette Grand Sport wheels, UMI roto joint lower control arms, and matching adjustable panhard bar. I live in Sugar Land. I would like to see your car one day. I really like these cars and I have driven mine all over the country. It still gets 25mpg on the freeway and has surprised a lot of expensive cars here Ft. Bend county. Good luck with your car.
03-02-2019, 10:07 PM
#24
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No. I am building another car right now. I have been putting parts on my SS when I get a chance. I have had it two years now and took it from 36,000 miles to 60,000. I signed onto this forum to lurk around about LS7 swaps. I have an LS7 left over from my 1970 Camaro project that I sold. I will start something when I get to swapping that in. I don't want to high jack you thread but I will tell you in the last two years I have added: TSP 228R cam and spring kit, complete level 2 trans rebuild, new clutch, flywheel, .390 gears, long tube headers, white face gauges, complete stereo system, slotted and drilled rotors, and I had some custom seat covers made and installed them. I also just added 2013 Corvette Grand Sport wheels, UMI roto joint lower control arms, and matching adjustable panhard bar. I live in Sugar Land. I would like to see your car one day. I really like these cars and I have driven mine all over the country. It still gets 25mpg on the freeway and has surprised a lot of expensive cars here Ft. Bend county. Good luck with your car.
But uh....if you don't get around to swapping that ls7 in....I'll take it
03-09-2019, 05:32 PM
#25
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Another Saturday update.
Installed the torque arm today. Was a giant pita. Every single bolt hole and mating surface was caked with paint. Had to clearance everything.
So you can kind of see in the picture. Most of the flanges were not parallel to each other and I had to fight to get the bolts to pass through.
I guess you get what you pay for. Makes me hesitant to spend any more money on speed engineering products. Was planning on going with the headers/td's and rear suspension.
Installed the torque arm today. Was a giant pita. Every single bolt hole and mating surface was caked with paint. Had to clearance everything.
So you can kind of see in the picture. Most of the flanges were not parallel to each other and I had to fight to get the bolts to pass through.
I guess you get what you pay for. Makes me hesitant to spend any more money on speed engineering products. Was planning on going with the headers/td's and rear suspension.
03-09-2019, 05:59 PM
#26
Man I feel your pain. I hate getting parts that don't fit right. I am working up to what you are doing right now. I am going to get the matching UMI torque arm to what I have already purchased. Putting a torque arm on in your garage is a hard job to begin with. Good work though. Keep it coming. You are inspiring me.
03-09-2019, 06:16 PM
#27
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Man I feel your pain. I hate getting parts that don't fit right. I am working up to what you are doing right now. I am going to get the matching UMI torque arm to what I have already purchased. Putting a torque arm on in your garage is a hard job to begin with. Good work though. Keep it coming. You are inspiring me.
03-09-2019, 11:31 PM
#29
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Thanks! Yeah I'm definitely not buying anymore of their suspension parts. Was looking at founders since they are cheap but have been around for forever. I am on a budget so we'll see.
03-20-2019, 10:20 PM
#32
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So surprise surprise had more issues with SE products 
Headers arrived first. Dented as fack. Most certainly because there was ZERO padding in the box. They were literally thrown in a bag and tossed in a box.
I got the duals today, and they were dented as well but luckily it was mostly cosmetic. They did do a marginal job of protecting them.
So yeah kinda wishing I had spent a little more and bought TSP headers and duals. But these are here and they will work.
Headers arrived first. Dented as fack. Most certainly because there was ZERO padding in the box. They were literally thrown in a bag and tossed in a box.
I got the duals today, and they were dented as well but luckily it was mostly cosmetic. They did do a marginal job of protecting them.
So yeah kinda wishing I had spent a little more and bought TSP headers and duals. But these are here and they will work.
03-22-2019, 07:34 PM
#33
Hey. That dual kit looks pretty nice. My car has CME so I have been looking for an exhaust solution when I do my engine swap. Have you heard any sound clips from it? I just ordered my torque arm kit from UMI today. Looking at your thread has me spending money. Keep up the good work.
03-22-2019, 08:26 PM
#34
That sucks that the headers came in banged up. When I got mine (SE means speed engineering I'm assuming...), they had plastic sleeves on them and brown paper stuffed in to stop them from banging around. I don't recall any bubble packaging being there. I'm a stickler for cosmetics lol... But as long as the dents aren't that deep, should be fine. I'm sure if you contact them, they'll help you if your worried about it though. Good luck with the build!
03-24-2019, 10:39 AM
#35
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Hey. That dual kit looks pretty nice. My car has CME so I have been looking for an exhaust solution when I do my engine swap. Have you heard any sound clips from it? I just ordered my torque arm kit from UMI today. Looking at your thread has me spending money. Keep up the good work.
Go surf this thread. I have cme as well. I am debating on if I am going to keep it or not. There is a guy that posted pics and vids of his set up with cme modified to fit these duals. I have a few issues with it though, 1) it's already a long bendy exhaust set up as is and mating it to the cme makes it longer and bendy-er. 2) the flat tips of the cme add rasp where as the corsa clones help to reduce rasp slightly. 3) My cme tips are old and nasty and they are heavy cast pieces that just don't tickle me in the right way. The corsa clones just look better IMO.
The downside being; trying to remove an almost 20 year old fascia with out killing the paint underneath it. Luckily I work at a dealership with a body shop and I am going to repaint the exterior of the car anyways sooooo. IDK. I'm kinda torn. I am also planning on ditching the stock SS hood for a VFN sunoco. So I'm not staying true to the original body lines anyways.
That sucks that the headers came in banged up. When I got mine (SE means speed engineering I'm assuming...), they had plastic sleeves on them and brown paper stuffed in to stop them from banging around. I don't recall any bubble packaging being there. I'm a stickler for cosmetics lol... But as long as the dents aren't that deep, should be fine. I'm sure if you contact them, they'll help you if your worried about it though. Good luck with the build!
03-26-2019, 01:17 PM
#36
Yeah, other than that, I'd order new clamps besides the ones they provided... I had hella issues with my ORY leaking all around the spots it was clamped... It's welded now, since I don't plan to change it, might get the 1 7/8 headers since I changed directions and went for a head cam swap the year after lol.
04-19-2019, 07:40 PM
#39
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So good news everybody. I'm not f*cking crazy...I found the source of my tick!
So brought the block up to work to start tear down so we could send to the machine shop. I found one of my cam lobes had started to deteriorate at the peak pretty bad and I found a second that had just started to pit. I pulled a derp though and forgot to take pics. Oops, oh well I'll take pics monday when we load everything up to send off. This is a relief though, I was starting to doubt whether or not I should've started down this road.
So brought the block up to work to start tear down so we could send to the machine shop. I found one of my cam lobes had started to deteriorate at the peak pretty bad and I found a second that had just started to pit. I pulled a derp though and forgot to take pics. Oops, oh well I'll take pics monday when we load everything up to send off. This is a relief though, I was starting to doubt whether or not I should've started down this road.