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So this is a post I’ve been wanting to make for awhile. Skip the next couple paragraphs if you’re not interested in the backstory of how I ended up buying this car.
I purchased this car awhile ago from a guy who advertised the condition as “the only flaw it has is leaking transmissin fluid”, which definitely wasn’t the case. It was supposed to have an LS3 shortblock, 243 heads, a custom cam, and an aftermarket converter so I was interested when he lowered the asking price to $4800, When I got to check it out, I found multiple flaws with the car upon initial inspection to include a hacked up harness, SES light on, expired tags, poorly installed trans cooler, and an interior probably pieced together from several other cars. I told the guy that he was never going to get $4800 for the car, but we agreed on $3500 and I drove it home. If I had known what all was really wrong with the car, I would have walked away.
On my way home with the car, I stop into Autozone to see what codes are turning on the SES light. I was expecting like 3 or 4, but the look on the Autozone employee’s face told me I was wrong. There were 16 codes. Pretty much all of them are from the **** poor installation of a Gen IV egine into a chassis originally meant for a Gen III engine.
I make it home with the car, still completely oblivious to how lucky I was that the car didn’t catch fire and that I didn’t die in a big ball of fire. I pop the hood in my driveway and immediately got to work. Unfortunately, the more I dug into it, the more problems I found that needed to he fixed.
It was at this point, I knew I messed up. Once I removed that starter, I found that the block had been welded up behind the starter. Apparently it had kicked the rods out and someone picked up the pieces and welded it all back together. Some of the weld went into where the side bolt went into the #5 main cap. I figure I had a 50/50 chance that the bolt wasn’t even in there in there and that I would at least be able to take the cap off.
Talking to the previous owner, it became apparent that he was not interested in making things right, so I decided to plan out a new build since I had this empty Camaro carcass and a ton of parts laying around in my garage. I started with a 4.8L shortblock I had only paid $100 for. I stripped it down, cleaned it, and put in coated OEM main bearings from an LT4 Corvette and coated OEM rod bearings from an LSA Cadillac, both of which were free. Clearances were over .002”.
I honed the cylinders with a Flex Hone and bought new Mahle rings which I gapped for boost.
I got a set of non-castech heads and took them to a local machine shop to have them clean, cut a valve job for 2” intake valves,and surface .005”. Cost was about $300 including the price of the heads.
The valvetrain consists of BTR dual springs and 3/8” pushrods with a TSP 222/226 cam, NMotion billet single roller timing set, and OEM LS7 lifters.
I degreed the cam just to verify lift and centerlines, which were all on point as expected. I also checked PTV with some clay and had plenty of clearance with the TSP cam.
The heads went together without a hitch. I reused the dual springs from the Camaro, which were meant for a lot more lift. I shimmed them up some, but they're still something like .140" from coilbind. Usually I like to set the springs up about .060" from coilbind.
The stock heads have enough room to fit a 3/8" pushrod, but it's tight. I took a drill bit to the pushrod holes for a little more clearance and they fit a lot better. Yeah, stock trunnions too...
The rest of the engine went together smoothly with OEM head gaskets and TTY head bolts.
Wow KCS! NICE going turning a badly mangled sow's ear into what will be comparatively a finely crafted silk purse!
BTW, I HARDLY EVER wander into the FI forum, but I saw this and HAD to read on! Glad I did! Good luck man!
I have seen some hacked up cars but nothing like welding a block back together. Good luck man, i hope it all works out for you. You are building that 4.8 exactly how i would have done it though you seem to find better pricing then i ever could haha, damn new york.
I don't know if I should be pissed at the seller for pulling that shady **** or compliment him for being able to put that junk back together and getting it to run. WTF.
Is the body any better? Do you have any pics of the rest of the car?
You did a great job with just rolling with the punches. I'm sure everything will come out great since you're doing the work now.
I took advantage of one of Huronspeed's Group Purchases and order a V3 T4 A/C kit and some extras, like the BMR Turbo k-member. I'm REALLY glad I did as I got a hell of a deal on everything after all was said and done. Before the engine went together, I mocked up the turbo kit while waiting on parts to show up. Doing this outside of the car made it a little easier to figure out how to clock the turbo for the oil drain and route the lines.
Old k-member versus the new BMR piece. Swapping the two was real easy with the engine already out.
The intercooler fit great on the Huronspeed brackets after trimming the front bumper.
I ended up replacing most of the black oxide coated hardware supplied in the kit with stainless or zinc plated bolts. For the turbo flange, I picked up some studs and Whiz-lock nuts from the local hardware store and cut to length where needed. The turbo was a lot easier to install with the studs, plus it allowed me to torque the nuts.
Wow KCS! NICE going turning a badly mangled sow's ear into what will be comparatively a finely crafted silk purse!
BTW, I HARDLY EVER wander into the FI forum, but I saw this and HAD to read on! Glad I did! Good luck man!
Originally Posted by TPIZ92
I have seen some hacked up cars but nothing like welding a block back together. Good luck man, i hope it all works out for you. You are building that 4.8 exactly how i would have done it though you seem to find better pricing then i ever could haha, damn new york.
Originally Posted by Fastbird93
I don't know if I should be pissed at the seller for pulling that shady **** or compliment him for being able to put that junk back together and getting it to run. WTF.
Thank guys. I've put a lot of time and effort into it that I was not planning on doing. It's good to finally see some progress.
Originally Posted by 383z
Is the body any better? Do you have any pics of the rest of the car?
You did a great job with just rolling with the punches. I'm sure everything will come out great since you're doing the work now.
Thanks. The body isn't really any better. It's straight but the paint is peeling and the interior is coming apart. Power windows don't work and they leak. I'll take pictures and post them later. Most of it is simple fixes or things I planned to remove or replace anyway,
As the previous pictures showed, the trans cooler was zip tied to the fan harness. I don’t know how anyone would think that would be okay, so I mounted a new one to the back of the intercooler bracket. I got a little fancy and splurged on Fragola AN hose and fittings to plumb it in. The lines are only zip tied until i get some insulated tie downs.
The power steering lines also got replaced with AN lines courtesy of Huronspeed. The OEM hardlines get in the way of the exhaust as it makes its way toward the back of the car and over the steering rack. The pressure side is a little long, so I’ll be cutting it down a few inches to get rid of some of the slack.
The wiring from the battery got relocated, with the alternator cable running with the starter cable below the engine and the cable to the jump post ran over the Derale fans.
This guy is a PITA. The Huron kit has an option for the pipe to recirculate the wastegate into the exhaust. You have to make sure all the v-band clamps after the turbo are loose to get it to fit, and then fo around to each clamp and tighten them a little at a time.
The radio was wired about as you would expect, so it was ripped out and replaced some sheet metal from Home Deport. A little bit of fabricating and the AEM wideband gauge found it’s home in place of the old radio.
Finally, with such a basic and popular combo, I was able to get a pretty decent base tune off of the Sloppy Mechanics wiki page and firied it up for the first time in about a year.
Fans are wired. Instead of the fuses Derale provides, I went with the auto reset circuit breakers. I found them online for $3ea, but shipping put them at about $6ea. I’m going to cover the posts with some vacuum nipples or short pieces of hose and add some loom to the wiring. I also used the terminals and butt connectors with the solder and heat shrink built in; definitely worth the money.
I got the BMR radiator cover from Summit. They have the hammertone finish instead of that gawdy polished finish.
So at this point, I’m pretty much done under the hood. I just have a few loose ends to take care of and I need to decide on what to do about a fuel system before i can make some WOT pulls in boost.
So at this point, I’m pretty much done under the hood. I just have a few loose ends to take care of and I need to decide on what to do about a fuel system before i can make some WOT pulls in boost.
I don't think I've seen you list power goals. Plenty of people go with either twin 255's or a single 450 and either Siemens 60 or 80lbers. That'll support a pretty good amount of power.
08-27-2018 | 12:50 PM
Polishing a Turd: 1999 Camaro Turbo Build 
