Jenson

iTrader: (32)

So 96 buick regal front strut inserts and suburban rear shocks huh...interesting. Im about to start on mine once I get the harness ordered. Coil overs as soon as its road worthy. I actually have a spare 85 wagon with tons of interior parts and junk if anyone needs anything. I plan to strip it and slap 20# of tannerite to it since it has a certificate of destruction title

Rogue Status

iTrader: (1)

Drive shaft is a custom single piece I had made at a local shop.

The mounts are a mix between C5 Pedestals from Ronin Speedworks, E30 BMW M3 poly mounts from RevShift and custom aluminum spacers from Shayspec. I also had to notch the crossmember to clear the Camaro oil pan.

Rogue Status

iTrader: (1)

What color is the interior on the wagon? Where are you located?

Jenson

iTrader: (32)

Both wagons I have are tan. Both getting stripped. Also, if you need some tuning and are back in Georgia sometime I'd be glad to help. As long as you pay for the $100 worth of credits. I'm right on the border of GA/SC on I85, near toccoa.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

This is exactly why I invested in a wide-band and HPtuners and grabbed a 2nd-hand computer instead of going with the PSI supplied baseline. Headaches and potential danger is so much less if you know your AFR and can make adjustments yourself.

Rogue Status

iTrader: (1)

I don't think you are trying to bash PSI. I do want to say that Jon@PSI never said the tune would be 100%. He said I could start run and drive the car to work and back until tuned. I took it upon myself to got WOT, drag race it, street race it, ect. Again, I don't think you had bad intentions with your post, just want to make sure everyone knows I place no blame on the A/F ratio on PSI. Car should have been tuned a LONG time ago, just never forced myself to spend the cash and then the axle ordeal started as well as life.

I thought about getting HP tuners and fiddling with it myself, but decided against it. I am sure I could get a decent tune going with some time but I am sure I would be selling the car short compared to what an experienced tuner could do. In addition, I only plan on having the car tuned twice. Now so I can continue to drive the car over the summer and again if I add a turbo. I am sure I can have plenty of fun with the current power to leave it alone until I add a turbo. When I do add the turbo, I am sure 600whp will be more than enough to keep myself busy bringing the chassis up to the level required to make it hook. Maybe one day I will have the urge to get behind a laptop and tune, but for now I am happy just putting my right foot in it and hanging on.

In other news, getting some extra cash through work for a successful sales lead! Not a ton of money but will help with getting the car on the dyno and tuned sooner than I had planned. If I can sell some of the Volvo stuff I might even have enough to toss a cam in the car before hand.

As far as the cam goes, looking at a 228R TSP unit or a Tick Performance SNS Stage 1 but am open to suggestions. Hopefully I can get lucky and find a used cam and save some cash. Of course springs and push rods will be added as well. Would much rather get the cam done before tuning than after so I won't have to pay again to have the tune touched up down the road. Looking for 300whp+ which I think is VERY conservative considering what other folks have put down with similar mods. Would be really nice to get close to 350whp. That would be almost 100whp on top of what it has been making. An 8 second pass would be easy and I think it would suppress the urge to turbo the car until winter.

skyrockbike

iTrader: (1)

Following updates of a volvo

Jenson

iTrader: (32)

If you really plan to add a turbo down the road, triple 12 cam.

Rogue Status

iTrader: (1)

I have also thought about that route. Tick makes a nice Stage 1 turbo cam, as well as the Isky Triple 12. Just not sure how well they would do in a NA application. I am sure it would be a compromise, but isn't everything. I will poke around and see if anyone has numbers or impressions on a turbo cam being run NA.

Jenson

iTrader: (32)

The 212/212 on 112 will work just fine N/A. It will be a torquer. The 228/228 will also work just fine for both as well. I'm going to run a 217/221 LSL on 112 to do just such a thing. It seems to work the best vs the stock Z06 cam N/A down low and still pick up 40hp up top. It is also great for boost, all this is theoretically based in engine analyzer pro.

Your right, its all a compromise when it comes to the cam, my current drift cam is a 228/232 on 110 to try and bring the power in as early as possible while still making a lot up top. It all depends on what you want to do with the car and how you want it to respond. I really want to do a large cam with a super Vic and 4150 TB on my volvo though. Everything I have read points to throttle response resembling ITB's if done right.

1970camaroRS

iTrader: (8)

Oh no, not bashing PSI at all. I'm running their harness on my swap in-fact. I just looked at my budget and decided spending a little extra on HPtuners was worth it if I subtracted the money spent on a baseline tune from PSI, which would be over-written later anyway. This is nothing against PSI, it's just mail-order baseline tunes in general, I think, aren't worth it.

Rogue Status

iTrader: (1)

Local Euro show yesterday. Heat index was over 100* but still had a great time. Took home 1st place in their open Euro class and Best Engine!

IDP FTW

Saw that on FB. Congrats!

I picked up HP Tuners for my dyno tune this week. It's really an impressive piece of software. but just a little too much for me in terms of self tuning currently. I'll leave it to the professionals.

SWAGON

Such a small world that you ran into my dad at cars and coffee down there!!!

Rogue Status

iTrader: (1)

He said "My son has a BMW wagon with an LS7" to which I responded, "Does he live in Richmond?". I knew it was your folks at that.

It was a hoot, we chatted cars for a while and he was showing off his 240z collection, VERY NICE!!!

One of these days I will make it up to VA in my wagon.

Rogue Status

iTrader: (1)

So no real updates lately, aside from the swap has been done for over a year now with no real issues aside from grenading the two Volvo axles. Still never managed to run an 8.99 or better in the 1/8mi. but with the extra weight of the axle and 17" wheels, I don't think it is possible without slicks or drag radials. Still extremely happy with the build and have a smile on my face each time I drive the car.

I still have plans to continue to "refine" the car, interior needs some restoration and with the almost bolster-less seats, they are on the list for replacement/upgrade. In addition, 13" rotors and 4 piston brembos in the front, possibly some vented rear rotors for the 8.8 and POWER STEERING. The pump has been in a box in the garage for almost a year now, I need to get a rack and make lines, just lazy.

Then there is the power, or lack of. I am almost embarrassed with the 250whp/300ftlb it currently makes. While fun, it deserves more, and a dyno tune as well. Hopefully in the coming months I can throw some more money at the car and take it to a new level with the proposed additions. I am sure I can easily attain the 8.50 or better pass with some practice and another 75whp.

I am still toying with the idea of a turbo. Nothing insane, just a reliable (yep, I said turbo and reliable) 450-500whp. I feel at that level the car will be silly, fun, but not quite what I intended. While it has not been my daily for some time now, I do still drive it often. I think I am just afraid that with the addition of a turbo and almost doubling the current horsepower it won't be as fun to drive. While it will look cool under the hood and bruise ego's on the highway, I won't be able to drive it sanely with any sort of urgency. I definitely want to go for a ride in a turbo ls car before I make any decisions, as I feel it is a whole different animal than the turbo 4cyl I am used to.

Well that is it for now. I hope to have more, "real" updates in the near future. Thanks again to everyone for the support and help along the way, I couldn't have completed this in the short time I did without ls1tech.com and it's members.

jeremytap

As for the power steering. On my swap (1990 245) the stock power steering lines worked for me. I used the stock truck pump. It might work for you.

Rogue Status

iTrader: (1)

Already have a Camaro pump and bracket in the attic.

I have an awesome hydraulic shop locally so I will most likely have them make the lines to my specs. Hoping they look like an OEM part with nice ends and crimps.

Rogue Status

iTrader: (1)

Have been busy working on my garage and getting it finished. Finally close to complete, just need to finish the stripe and add some wall cabinets around the TV. Should be a nice place to work in moving forward.

Looking forward to paying down some debt and working on the car some more. Little refinements here and there to make it more drive-able on a regular basis. Guy over on turbobricks.com is making some adapters for Cadillac ATS calipers and 13" rotors, plan to jump on that with the hopes of more power in the future.

3D draft:



Picking up the steel and building the frame:









In place:



Centered TV and added a back splash along with an additional outlet:

BudRacing

iTrader: (3)

Nice setup. I've been reading up on GarageJournal getting some ideas together for my garage. Lots of good info there. You could even end up spending more on your garage than on your cars.