When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Hey everyone. New member to the forum but not new to cars. This is to be a semi detailed, likely sporadically updated build thread for my 97Z that will be undergoing an L96 swap with some power assist via Vortech. First, a little history on the car:
I came into possession of a 97 Z28 hardtop that was advertised on craigslist for $1000. The description for the car said it did not start (no surprise)but mentioned a Moser 12 bolt and Vortech V2 supercharger which got the gears turning. LT1s are not a particular favorite engine wise but the price was silly and I figured worst case I'd buy it for the axle, T56 and supercharger and part or scrap the rest if the car was in terrible shape. I made arrangements to check out the car and went there with my trailer in preparation for a basket case that might have some usable parts. Instead, what I found was a very straight and clean Camaro that I couldn't bring myself to part out. The interior was in great shape, it's a manual window/locks/mirrors car, and sure enough it had a 12 bolt and intercooled V2 kit on it. The owner included a set of Trick Flow heads that needed work and a ported LT4 intake. Title was clean, in the owner's name, and matched the VIN. Alright, sold.
I got it home and let it sit for a couple days while I mulled over what to do with it. I definitely needed to tidy up the engine bay since the wiring had obviously been modified somewhat haphazardly but otherwise I hoped it didn't need a ton. I decided the plan was to move my current project (a 70 Camaro I had just finished a 10 pt cage and back half on as well as just purchased a Jerico DR4 for) out of the shop and bring the 97 in to try to get the LT running; I could realistically get this car going before next summer which would get me something cool to cruise for the first time in 5 years where as the '70 was not that close.
The first weekend was pretty much spent cussing as I'm covered in water at every turn. The previous owner, as it turns out, drove through a puddle (or small lake, whichever) and sucked a TON of water into the engine. The supercharger volute was half full of water, the charge piping had easily a gallon or two of water in it, the breadbox was filled, etc. "Alright, not the end of the world," I told myself optimistically, "As long as the block is salvageable I'll use the forged 2pc rms rotating assembly I have from the other Camaro with an adapter, do a 24X conversion, clean up the Trick Flows, use the LT4 intake and it'll be a cool LT1."
I dropped the K member, engine, and transmission the next weekend in preparation to tear down the motor for a full inspection to see how much my cheap craigslist camaro was going to need. This went smoothly enough and was done by end of day that Saturday. While doing this I noticed a few more worrying things. The wiring harness was hacked up for a Crane Hi6 ignition box and boost retard among other things, the heat exchanger under the bumper for the air to liquid intercooler looked like it was a well used skid plate, and there was still more ****ing water. "Oh well, this won't be as bad as chopping and sectioning an FJ40 into an FJ45 gasser" I rationalized using one of my more terrible automotive decisions as a baseline.
Tear down revealed a spun cam bearing which I doubt was caused by water ingestion and nothing else. Rest of the motor looked how I'd expect an engine with 85k miles and some supercharged abuse to look.
However, that cam bearing did a number to the cam tunnel. I wasn't going to machine the block to BBC cam journals (not attached to the LT architecture) so I decided this would be as good a time as any to do a Gen III or Gen IV motor build since I have only ever done Pontiac 400s, SBCs, and BBCs. I decided on an LY6 or L96 depending on availability and ended up finding a 2013 L96 with 9K miles for under 2500 after a little searching. I'm currently waiting on the engine so next update in the week or so it'll take to arrive...
The impeller is slightly chewed up which looks like it's from being ran without a filter for a little bit but the gear train, volute, 8 rib pulleys, charge piping, bracketry, water tank, intercooler pump and air to liquid intercooler are all great. I figured I'd try to adapt as much of it as possible to the L96 to take advantage of the heads and rebuild the blower with new bearings and a billet impeller. I sold the draglites since I have CTS-V brakes waiting for it and the heads/LT4 intake/Meziere water pump are sold as well which means I'm actually only in this car for what the brakes and engine have cost so far which is way less than my other camaro.
Alright, quick update since I haven't had a ton of time to do much on the Camaro.
The interior is stripped to the carpet and the dash/HVAC has been removed while I get to the wiring. While the dash is apart it's a perfect time to do an AC delete with the heater kept intact. I have been stockpiling parts as well including LS1 oilpan (not shown), UMI roadrace K member, Spohn upper and lower control arms with delrin bushings for the uppers and their spherical ends for the lowers, BMR springs with Koni shocks, CTS-V front brake parts, and 1 7/8" Speed Engineering long tubes. I still need to get an ATI damper/hub combo for the supercharger as well as decide where I want to mount the blower itself.
The engine arrived, was cleaned up, and painted after a once over of the internals. The engine only has 9K miles and looks as close to new as possible internally. Bolted up the truck conversion brackets from LS brackets using an LS1 Camaro PS pump and 2013 Silverado 2500 HD 160 amp alternator. Water pump is for a 5th gen Camaro SS. The typical spaced out LS1 camaro water pump will not work on a VVT motor as the cam phaser hits the rear of the pump housing. I should have thought of that before hand so now I've got a new pump and spacers to resell. Oh well. I originally planned on keeping the truck intake and modifying the hood as necessary to keep some costs low but I came across a great deal on a complete LS3 intake with rails, injectors, and throttle body which changed my mind.
Have a PSI wiring harness ready to go, once the heater box is back in tomorrow that's the next step in this process.
Awesome. Are you going to convert the lt1 t56 or are you searching for a ls1 t56? I hope to do similar suspension and brake mods that you are doing. I just couldn't afford it all this time around. I am running the same Umi k member. I only had one problem with it. I was trying to run brand new stock engine mounts and they sagged letting the clam shells rest on the gussets. I upgraded to Prothane inserts and they fixed the issue. I wish they would of put the gussets on the bottom of the mounts. My brother just got a Bmr turbo k member and his doesn't even have gussets.
Thanks, it's getting there slowly but surely. I got poly inserts too since I didn't really want to go the solid mount route, hadn't considered that even new rubber mounts would compress enough to hit that gusset though.
Plan for now atleast transmission wise is to buy the bellhousing, front plate, and input shaft to convert the LT1 T56 to an LS1. Haven't found any decent deals on complete LS1 units, kinda odd since when I started my '70 I wanted an LT1 T56 but only found good deals on LS1 transmissions. Now it's the opposite, can find LT1 transmissions cheap but I already bought a used Jerico for it and went a pure street/strip route.
I've been buying as much used stuff as I can to keep costs from getting too crazy, the BMRs and Konis were used before being pulled and resold so I got them for maybe half price. I've been clearing out a ton of parts from previous projects too which I just roll right back into this one, not really a good money saving technique since it's stuff I'm getting 25 cents on the dollar for at best but it is what it is. Also trying to find things that I'm better off fabricating myself, so far haven't found a ton since I haven't had much time but I'm thinking the supercharger mount will probably be something I'll just do myself.
I almost went with the BMR turbo K member, was thinking of doing some trading with a friend for a borg warner S488 he has but wasn't sure I'd like the lag of an 88mm turbo for a mostly street car. Looks more like a drag race only or street/strip piece though and I'd like this one to at least make an occasional trip to High Plains Raceway for an open track day. Is your brother planning a turbo build then?
He is planning on it one day in the future. He has a 01 Ws6 and he spun a rod bearing. He bought a used ls1 block and is doing a N/A build for now with a ms4 cam.
Crankshaft has been pinned using the ATI kit. If I had it to do again I'd have gone with Innovators West for their setup, 3 dowel pins and a woodruff key for 75 dollars verse the 150 or so ATI gets for a couple pins. I don't think it'll make enough difference to justify adding even more holes to the snout but if anyone is reading this considering a crankshaft pin kit there you go.
Went with a 10 rib 8% overdrive damper which will drive a 3.33" pulley on the blower. I want as much belt wrap as possible, I hate hate HATE belt slip!
If anyone has the ID and offset of the power steering pump pulley for a 5th Gen camaro or LS truck I'd appreciate it. Hopefully one of these has the roughly 3/4" bore and a close enough offset but I haven't found anyone with actual numbers yet. I have a Trailblazer SS pulley currently for the 6 rib drive but have not located anyone with a 10 rib version and the idea of sitting around for 5-6 weeks to get a custom one isn't too appealing.
Blower is getting changed out due to packaging. The clockwise rotation V2 Si I have isn't going to work how I want it to. I now have a V1 T trim CCW rotation unit from a Mallett Corvette on the way. This thing shares my garage with my dad's V7 YSi blown 70 Chevelle build so I might as well step up blower wise.
Also, decided on some wheels. 18x9.5 and 19x11 iForged TE14s.
Thanks! I haven't done a build thread before so if there's anything in particular that I need to provide more info on let me know. I just keep track of parts for myself since I haven't done the same build twice.
"New" supercharger came today, have it sitting on the left compared to the old V2.
K-member, engine mounts, headers, damper, etc mounted. The A-arms fit loose enough within the K-member that if the bolts were tightened would just try to bend in the pockets maybe 30 thou, I threw in a washer in each pocket to take up the extra space so everything bolts in solid. Have the rest of the 10 rib parts on the way, going to try a truck power steering pulley and see how the offset works out. Tomorrow I'll be starting on the supercharger bracketry. Plan is for a couple 1/2" aluminum plates, should be stout.
Well, went to Barrett Jackson and hung out in Scottsdale for a week followed by work picking up. Got a little work done to the Camaro though. Full 10 rib conversion is done, had to get creative with the power steering pump pulley as it wasn't exactly meant for my application. The water pump pulley was the only part with any kind of difficulty. Pulleys are a mix of ATI and Innovators West. Waiting on some material to come in for the blower bracket
along with a new shift rail for the T56 to finish my rebuild. Put in a steel 3-4 shift fork, billet keys, brass pads, brass cup bushing, new seals, LS1 input, LS1 front plate, and was planning bearings but it looks like this transmission had been rebuilt fairly recently as the bearings look near new and it has a 30 spline mainshaft. This car has had some weird mods done to it; there's a Moser 12 bolt but totally stock suspension otherwise, upgraded mainshaft but still had plastic pads, added wiring and the addition of the T-Rex pump were done terribly but the main supercharger installation was done well.
Darth Vader, the GM test mule. The most interesting part to me was it had 18" versions of the WS6 alloys. Never seen them before
"I rationalized using one of my more terrible automotive decisions as a baseline." I love this line because I've been there. Looks like a clean/straight car nice build and nice toys in the background!
That would explain it, not too knowledgeable on modern stuff to spot the wheels being Vette pieces. This camaro is the newest base car I've used, friends have been calling it the bolt on car since it's also the only project I haven't done heavy fabrication on.
Fell into a 300 dollar LQ9 with some blow by from a buddy and sold the V3 supercharger I had planned for my '70 to the guy that borrows part of my garage for a couple of his cars (my dad). So, looks like I'll have a second 6.0 powered camaro, though likely with a turbo of some sort.
Waiting on some parts, rear axle comes out this weekend to address the fuel system and rear suspension. Someone butchered the T-rex pump install
Been dealing with getting tires for a while now, turned into far more of an ordeal than it should have but it's finally done.
275/35/18s in front and 325/30/19s in back, will need to lightly massage the rear inner wheel wells with a 3 pound body realignment tool (translation: I'm going to bash the hell out of the wells with a nice sized mallet)
Had some 96 tail lights sitting around for a while, the ghetto tint bothered me enough to finally swap out the lights. 97+ style just wasn't worth the price to me considering these were practically free.
I also removed the rear axle and suspension. To my surprise the 12 bolt acts like it has an open carrier, hold one rotor and the other will spin just fine with zero drag on the rotor I hold. Whether this is due to this axle having a clutch posi that's worn out (Moser does not offer an open carrier as an option for obvious reasons) or some ******** swapped in an open carrier at some point remains to be seen, I'll get that figured out next weekend. The Edelbrock non adjustable torque arm was mounted finger tight to the axle and nothing was done to adapt the 5/8" hole in the TA to the 1/2" bolt Moser uses. I'll be making some tube adapters to fix that and think I'll be switching to an adjustable arm so I can get pinion angle where I need it.
That's it for now, I'm currently dealing with 3 different vendors that have had issues shipping parts needed or parts getting lost in shipment so have to change gears a little bit on what to work on while I wait.
That could be a torque sensing dif. It won't lock both axles until it gets loaded. I know Currie offered that. I have one under a Fox body. The advantage is for cornering. It acts like an open dif mid corner so it doesn't push the nose of the car around and when you apply power on corner exit it acts like a posi.
Pulled the girdle cover, found a 33 spline Detroit True Trac which sure enough does not react the same as an older style posi. I'll be keeping the LT1 style brakes for now as the bracket also acts as the bolt on end plate and with the balance these cars had I might not need much more rear brake. Maybe next round of mods will involve going to LS1 rears or something and pulling the LT1 rears for my 70.
10-31-2014, 11:19 PM
Supercharged L96 97 Camaro Conversion 
.
and nothing was done to adapt the 5/8" hole in the TA to the 1/2" bolt Moser uses. I'll be making some tube adapters to fix that and think I'll be switching to an adjustable arm so I can get pinion angle where I need it.
