1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Forgive me, but I havn't posted my build here yet. I have to copy and paste most of it from another forum as I'm sure posting a direct link to a competing website would be frownd upon.

Here's what I'm starting with. A multi colored 1970 Camaro RS that I've owned for about 10 years.

Running 12.6 @106 at Seattle with the 355" SBC, stock vortec heads and a mild roller cam. I was daily driving this thing then.


Burnout in the rain. So easy a caveman can do it.


One legged burn-out with the 305 shortly after I got it when I was 17 in 1999.


The engine combo that only ever ran two city blocks...and layed rubber both ways. 454 and B&M 177 mini blower.




And my fearless shop helper, Duncan.




I plan on making a go at installing a 550 hp LQ4 on a fairly low budget. Just a smidge over $3,000 including the price of beer.

I have a good foundation with a suspension that was rebuilt a few years ago with Eibach front springs, a huge Hellwig front sway bay, Z28 5-leaf springs and poly bushings all around, including on the subframe to body mount.

I will be keeping my built up 700r4 and 3,000rpm stall converter. As well as the 10-bolt with an Auburn pro posi, superior axels and 3.73 gears.

After I get everything in place I will adapt to my new motor a 3" X-pipe with Spintech split case mufflers exiting out the sides that I used on a previous 355 SBC.

Here are some parts I scored for cheap, and a little bit of progess.

After discovering watery oil in my supercharged 454, I decided to rebuild it and go with a N/A setup. To help finance this project, I put the B&M mini blower up for sale. The local guy that got a hold of me said he had a complete 6.0L LQ4 GenIII motor out of a 2002 Silverado truck. Although my supercharger was worth slightly more than his motor, we decided on a straight up trade if he delivered the motor to my house.

Water in engine


My 6.0L laying in wait





So far I have picked up a set of used ported LS6 heads that flow 320cfm @ .600 lift for $600 with valves and seals, no springs. They're in great shape, almost new. The CNC port job on them is beautiful.




I also got a used camshaft, a G5x3 which is in the 234 @ .050 and .600 lift area on the intake and bigger on the exhaust. It's cut on a 114LSA to pick up a bit of vaccume(efi aplication cam, but you can't find many used short LSA cams for sale). I grabbed some slightly used PRC springs and comp R lifters. Cost me $500.



I got a used ignition controller for $200 as I'm planning on running a victor jr carb intake and my 850cfm holley.


Should be a fun project.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Drained some "Oil" out of the 454 before I pulled it.

Here's 16 quarts of water that came out the oil pan:


And the "oil" that came out after it...another 12 quarts of this crap came out.

and yes, I paid for not pulling that grass off the headers. I dropped it into the oil pan later that night.

Here's what the lifter valley looked like before I started.


And here's after I drained everything out.

I cleaned out what was left behind and oiled the block.

Pulled the passenger head off and the cylinders and pistons look perfect.



Wonder what the bottom end will look like. If it's rusty as hell my budget will be even tighter as I wont be able to sell it for much. But if it's rust free and I can clean it all up I should have plenty of cash to finish the swap after I sell it.

Neat comparison of the large oval port BBC heads and the GenIII LS6 heads.





Interesting note, I can lift the LS6 head with one hand with ease...but the iron BBC head is tough even with two hands. And I'm a big dude.

Pop quiz, which head flows more air?

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Pulled the driver's head off last night. Second verse same as the first. Bores look great, have to clean them a bit, oil them down and put plastic over them like I did the passenger's side. Still hoping the bottom end looks like the cylinders do.





Also, I visited my parents over the weekend and picked up the first tool I ever made. Been a decade since I made it with my dad, but he still had it in his garage. It's a transmission support tool. Bolts to the bellhousing and rests against the frame. Works perfect. So now when I pull the 454 out, I can move the car around as I please without having to worry about support the trans. This is very important to me since I have a tiny garage. I will show it in action when I pull the motor.



Here's how she looks now. I'm going to pull the water pump and radiator before I yank out the 454 shortblock.



70 splitbumper came over today and helped me pull the 454. I got two really good action shots of him pulling the motor out...and when I plugged my SD card into the computer's reader...it died. Should have used the friggin USB cable. I went back out to the garage and snapped a couple of pictures.

Here it is on the engine stand before I oiled it down and plastic wrapped it.


Believe it or not, after sitting with 16 quarts of water and 12 quarts of watery 'oil' in the crankcase...the bottom end looks like this:

Looks brand new. Who would have thought. I will probably pull a main cap and a rod cap to see what the bearing look like, but I'm sure they will be fine as it was never run with the water in the crankcase.

Here's a closer look.


The transmission support tool I showed you earlier in action.


And the empty engine bay:


Near future plan is to strip out most of the crap from the engine bay, clean it up and paint it. Swap on the ported heads to the 6.0L and install the camshaft. Then it will be close to the time I will be installing the new motor.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

A few weekends ago I organzied my garage (this was brought on by a generous gift of a new craftsman compressor by my father....funny things happen when you ask to borrow the old man's tools, sometimes he just gives me a new one so his doesn't go permanently missing). While I was at it, I wrapped the 454 in plastic and put it in the corner. No one seems to want it, even for $500!

Got the LQ4 on the engine stand and started taking it apart starting with all of the EFI intake junk, the coil packs (to be reused), and valve covers. Here's a pick I like of the rockers after I got the cover removed. Not sure how much I like the gold tint to everything.



Here is a passenger side head after removal (for sale!)

Looks like the rear cylinder wasn't too happy!

Driver's side head (for sale!)

Everything looks peachy.

Passenger's side cylinders

Oh, the carbon! This will be fun to clean.

Driver's side cylinders

Second verse, same as the first.

After much tinkering and thinkering, I came up with a plan. Carb cleaner. I rotated the engine so that one set of cylinders we perpendicular to the ground and filled each cylinder with about 2" of carb cleaner. This server two functions, one to loosen up the carbon and two, to check ring seal(already did a leak-down test and everything looked good). Came back four hours later, still had a considerable ammount of cleaner in the cylinders. Grabbed some shop towels and wiped off the cylinders. Viola...something even a wire brush couldnt remove just wiped right off! I then cleaned the gasket surface with scotchbrite, brake cleaned everything, then oiled down the cylinders and wiped them out a few times while I turned to engine over to complete the cleaning process.

Looks pretty:


Ready for heads now...but only after I finish taking to oil pan off (throwing away for a CTS-V pan) and installing the ARP rod bolts and new camshaft. Probably throw on a new ported oil pump while I'm at it.

Here's the mess as it stands now and all of the brave blue shop towels that gave their lives so that this LQ4 may live.


This is what I found when I woke up this morning:


The parts fairy had visited me in the night!


My ham of a fist agrees, this is good.


Like the kids from a Christmas Story, I tear into the boxes:


Love it, big smile.


What is it that put a big goofy smile on my face?


THIS

SLP, ARP, Fel-Pro, Edelbrock, Trick-flow, Hughes, Summit. The gangs all here.

Oh and a bonus from the fine folks at the Summit Racing warehouse.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

SWEET!


ARP rod, intake, balancer bolts and head studs


MSD wires


Edelbrock mount adaptors

Surprisingly poor quality in the finish. Lots of burs and sharp edges. I will have to clean them up before I install them.

See.


Hughes LS1 flexplate for TH350/400, 700r4 transmissions.


Billet Double roller timing gears and chain


SLP ported oil pump. Impulse buy, could have just gotten a cheap stocker and ported it myself.


Interesting note on the SLP oil pump, it comes with another pressure relief spring to up the oil pressure if needed and a new cap and o-rings too.


K&N Extreme Flow filter...


Something I should have known better, the K&N comes with the required carb stud and hardware...bought some cheapo Summit stuff too. Oh well.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

On top, the bolt supplied by Edelbrock for the intake. Below, the bolt recommended by summit, ARP 430-2001. Picked them to bling up the intake a bit....they are all WAY too long. What am I supposed to do with them? Looks like Summit gets a call tomorrow.



Here it is, plane as day on the Summit website, they are recommending you use bolts that won't work...


Did some digging, and low and behold, I need 6mm x 1.0, 50mm long bolts instead of 113mm long. Here are some in 12-point. Someone please double check and tell me if this is the part I really needed in the first place.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ARP-770-1007/

Also found this AWESOME source of information on misc bolts and parts for GENIII engines.
http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=837831&da=y

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Just got off the phone with Summit....btw, 5am is THE BEST time to call them. The night crew is very knowledgeable and the wait time is non-existant. I alerted them to the issue and they're going to fix the website and ship me the correct bolts, ARP 770-1007 (2 packs).

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Got the oil pan off today and took a look at the bottom end. As soon as I get myself a torque wrench with the proper range I will install the ARP rod bolts and do a step by step.





I cleaned everything off and then oiled everything down. No discoloration, just general varnish and carbon build up on everything. Previous owner definately didn't change their oil too often. Thank god it looks like they never ran it low.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

After working a 10-hour Sunday shift for the Boeing co and having my obligatory valentine's bedroom time with my wife, I escaped to one of my two man-caves. (the other is my office where I'm at right now).

After finding a three-jaw puller and getting the balancer/crankshaft pulley off, I was finally able to get started.

Installed the camshaft (should have gotten a picture of it sitting next to the stock truck cam....what a difference!) and then I installed the SLP double roller timing set. That was a breeze. It's a really nice piece too.



Check out the dot to dot on my install....anyone think I screwed it up? I think I'm right on.



Test fit the ported SLP pump without the shims just to see.



The chain does get REALLY close to the pump, but doesn't quite touch. I can see that in operation it probably would, hence the shims that were included with the pump.



Ran out of time and didn't have any sealant for the shims....so that will probably be that for the week. Tune in next week when I install ARP rod-bolts, complete the oil pump install and button up the bottom end. If I'm feeling up to it, I might even install my ARP headstuds and the ported heads. But that's only if I find a valve spring compressor in time. Might just have to go buy one....

boosteddakota

nice build man. cant wait to see the final product

9sec93

iTrader: (67)

you are not going to be able to run the shims and clear the front cover. even without the shims you will have to do a good amount of clearancing on the front cover. i went through this a few yeas ago when building the motor for my camaro. same oil pump and chain.

hcb1700

iTrader: (9)

Nice build. I'm subscribing to this thread. Keep us posted on the updates. I have a '78 Z28 that I've been thinking about dropping a LM7 engine that I have sitting on a stand. Hey, what's the part# for the "Hughes LS1 flexplate for TH350/400?" Will this allow you to directly bolt on a TH350/400 without any other adapters, or is there still something else that will be needed?

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

The part number is HP4004 and the claim is it has the same bolt circle for the 350/400, 700r4 torque converter. You still need a spacer for the crank.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

I was worried about that. I guess we will see how mine shakes out soon. If I have to warm up the die grinder, then so be it.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Worked my butt off last night. Got the oil pump installed and got the timing cover to fit right. It ended up working without the shims on the oil pump because the SLP pump is already clearanced for the double roller. I just had to tweek a few high spots on the back of the pump. I also, for the sake of science, got the cover to fit with the shims in place...but decided I liked the install without the shims. Didn't like the ammount of pre-load on the cover, I'm sure it would have leaked.

Also got the rod-bolts installed. Curious thing, the ARP instructions say the rods should be resized. Did a little digging and found that the instructions for the LS1 rodbolt kit are the same instructions that come with the SBC kit.

Pictures to come tonight.

70lx327

nice build, good find on the msd controller. i keep up coming late on getting one bought used.

Dickie-311

iTrader: (1)

didn't you degree the cam in ? didnt see that part of the thread , and are you going to RESIZE the rods for the ARP bolts ?

rsz288

Resize a cracked powdered metal rod? IIRC the only way to do a resize is with a rod bearing with larger OD shell.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

No degreeing the cam, just put #1 piston at TDC as measured with a dial indicator and went dot to dot on the timing marks. I will check PtoV clearance later, but I'm not going to degree the cam. It's not truely necessary.

And you don't have to resize the rods when you changed to ARP rodbolts on cracked PM rods. Nothing changes during the process...bolt A gets yanked along with the ferrel, bolt B goes back in its place. One at a time and there won't be an issue. Guys do this all the time without problems.

Dickie-311

iTrader: (1)

i'm swaping out rod bolts in my motor on saturday , what did you TQ the rod bolts too ?