AboveTheLogic

Here are the videos:
1994 Camaro LT1 Rattle 1 of 2 - YouTube

1994 Camaro LT1 Rattle 2 of 2 - YouTube

I bought the car about 6 months ago. Since then, I've replaced the optispark. During that, I removed the flywheel/torque converter cover and jammed a screwdriver in there to keep the engine from spinning while I removed the balancer retaining bolt.

I put the cover back, and it was a bit loose, which I'm fixing today. I originally thought it was an exhaust rattle. I pulled the drivers side manifold off to replace the bolts with studs and reseal it, during which I dropped a socket and spark plug down the pipe (I know I know). In my impatience, I cut the cross pipe, pulled out what I dropped with a magnet, and patched it up with a couple of clamps and a coupler. You can see that in the 2nd video.

I'm confident my exhaust pipes aren't hitting anything. It is possible that the sound is coming from the cat, but I fear that there is a problem in the flywheel/torque converter area. I did notice a small metal sliver in the flywheel/converter cover when I removed it.

The noise you hear in the video is mild. Recently I started hearing some real banging around. It sounded like a loose fan shroud hitting a fan, but that wasn't the case here.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I'm thinking maybe the starter isn't pulling back properly, the catalytic converter is jacked, or there's a serious flywheel/converter issue (I hope not!).

JaYZeig

iTrader: (11)

im wondering if maybe you cracked the flywheel when you were stressing on it holding the motor from spinning over...you wouldnt be the first to have a cracked flywheel. maybe somehow get a little mirror and a light up by thwere it bolts to the crank and take a look.

AboveTheLogic

So, I got in there and saw this:


Yeah ok that's bad but fixable, then I turned the assembly and saw this:


There's supposed to be a bolt there!

3rd location also has no bolt.

So it turns out the only thing holding the flywheel to the torque converter was this!!


I went out and bought some M10-1.50 x 20mm class 10.9 bolts from o'reilly's. 2 of the three go right in, the 3rd is stripped to hell. Great!

Hopefully I don't have to pull the trans and change the torque converter out, although a high stall yank is on my wish list.

I'll tackle it again tomorrow or next weekend. I'm considering limping it to/from work on two bolts, haven't decided yet.

Good news is, the flywheel isn't cracked.

jsteele90

iTrader: (13)

Use some loctite on those two bolts and u should be fine

AboveTheLogic

That's what I'm probably going to do, then install a high stall converter later with a new flywheel.

AboveTheLogic

yeah that didn't work out at all! haha

i think my flexplate is bent

well, its time for me to read up on pulling the transmission out of that thing, and I'll order that high stall converter I always wanted

AboveTheLogic

I thought I'd come back and update this thread. This problem prompted me to buy another DD ('99 WJ) and pull the Z28 apart to take care of this and a few other with list items I had for it. Here goes.

Ordered a 3,200 rpm stall, derale cooler, and replacement flexplate. My original flexplate got nicely dinged up so I decided to replace it.


Removed transmission:


Side by side, stock converter vs 3200rpm stall converter:




Just a few missing parts:


Since I had the trans and flywheel out, I replaced the rear main seal. That involved replacing the oil pan gasket, which involves lifting the engine. I don't have a hoist, so I made this.



New oil pump and main seal in (decided to do the pump since my pressure was lower than optimal, especially at idle):


And the new oil pan (my old one was nicely dented, looked like someone used the pan to jack up the car):


Also bolted on and torqued the new flex plate.

Meanwhile, my CAI arrived:


Over the hump:



Also, ordered the catback I've been wanting.

Old:


New:




I hope the trash man picks this up:


All that's left really is to connect my trans cooling lines. I decided not to reuse my metal tubes, they got all bent up when I was pulling the trans. So I ordered 4 of these:
JEGS Performance Products 51995 JEGS Direct Fit Aluminum Radiators

...and I'll just use some rubber hose. This will make it easier to connect to my trans cooler anyhow. Those will arrive later this week. Maybe next weekend I'll get it back on the road. Need to get the dipstick back in (PITA), tighten up the motor mounts, fill up the transmission, top off the coolant, do the final adjustments on the cat-back system, and I should be back on the road.

Also I slapped one of these on:
TCI Auto 378011 - TCI Chrome Plated Steel Transmission Pans - Overview - SummitRacing.com

My old pan got nicely dented so I decided to replace it. I like the TCI since it has the drain plug. Also kinda sorta has cooling fins, but not really.

Can't wait to get it back on the road with the higher stall converter, CAI, and new sound.

DisasterFormula

iTrader: (1)

1. Very nice engine lift. I may just use that lol.

2. All that work and free space and you didn't change over to Headers/ORY. Dafuq is wrong with you? O.o

3. Why why why go Slowmaster? Open headers sounds better than that!

4. Since you had the motor off the mounts and the trans out, I hope you swapped over to poly mounts for all of them...

AboveTheLogic

1. Thanks, I can't take credit for the idea but I can take credit for making it work.

2. Believe me, I've thought of it, many times. When I bought the car last year, there was a nasty exhaust leak on the drivers side. The rear most manifold bolt broke off in the head when the previous owner decided to try to tackle it. He gave up and sold it. While removing the manifold all the way, TWO MORE bolts broke off for me.. the front most and the 2nd to the farthest back. I ground down my manifold to fit with the inner threaded holes on the outer edges of the head, and am running less one bolt. I'm very afraid of what's awaiting me on the passenger side. I'll probably still eventually do it, though.

3. Honestly, price. $250-ish on ebay. I read that there are better flowing mufflers out there, but that the pipes are decent quality. After seeing the kit, I have to agree about the pipes. I might swap out the muffler later, which would be a pretty small job.

4. No, didn't even think about it. I'll be honest, the whole job wasn't thought through from the beginning. It mostly went... OK I have this out, I might as well do this... and this... until I decided to STOP finding new things to replace and focus on getting it back on the road since it was becoming a pretty scary sight to see it that far apart.

After doing this, I can imagine getting back in there to do the mounts and headers without it being a big deal. I have all the tools and such now to get it done, including my custom engine lift

DisasterFormula

iTrader: (1)

Ah, I feel your pain. The 2 rearmost bolts on my driverside exhaust manifold are broken off inside the block and the front one has fcked up threads in the head. Prior owners of my car were troglodytes. I'm probably gonna try to swap heads/cam at the same times as I go LT-ORY-Borla with deleted cat. Makes more sense to me to do that than to swap gaskets when I pull the heads to get the old bolts drilled out and threads fixed then replace them again when I put new heads on.

I think a Magnaflow setup is about $380 on amazon, dunno on eBay, so I would've just waited a while to get a better set up an run factory exhaust.

Yeah, I know how you feel. My car sat on jack stands for 2 weeks when I had to replace the opti b/c I didn't have the money for a new complete dist., so the water pump fans, alternator, all that good stuff sat in the back seat and I was afraid of getting towed lol.

AboveTheLogic

Yeah when I did the opti, I did it in a day. Bought a cheap one from rockauto that seems to be fine. I wanted to do the water pump and the other junk while I had it off, but it was my DD at the time.

You gotta be careful with those jobs, they can snowball out of control. I made a judgement call to get the car back on the road ASAP so I could drive to work that monday. Meanwhile, I feel that if I had to replace the water pump, I could do it in a few hours, no big deal- since I've already taken it off twice (yes twice, stupid mistake...).

DisasterFormula

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, luckily I have another car that's very mechanically sound from 2006 that I was able to use to get to work. Water pump should be easy to do. Jack up the front, drain some coolant, intake, belt, smog pump, water pump, gaskets, then installation. Seems like it'd be doable in about an hour.

AboveTheLogic

I just noticed this

DisasterFormula

iTrader: (1)

Not by my choice. One of the aforementioned troglodytic prior owners installed it. I'm going Borla as soon as I have the money.

AboveTheLogic

Back together:


Firing it up. I'm pleased to see the oil pressure now at over 40psi at idle. It used to be down near 10psi at idle.
http://youtu.be/V9zGRqHTr5w

Testing out the stall a little bit in the driveway with my foot on the brake. Blipping it with about half throttle.
http://youtu.be/GjspLrkYkOY

When I went to fill up the overflow tank, the coolant started pouring out the bottom. Not sure what the deal is there, but the temperature was hitting nearly 110* outside so I called it a day. I'll take a closer look at the leak tomorrow.

I did drive it up the street, definitely sounds better, and that stall makes quite a difference. So far I'm pretty happy with it. Lots of work, though.

AboveTheLogic

..oh and for anyone who is curious... I used 4 of these to connect my trans cooling lines
http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS+Performan...51995/10002/-1

I considered doing a braided line setup but didn't want to spend the money. With those 4 adapters, I was able to run 3/8 hose straight from the trans, to the radiator, and my derale cooler.

At the trans (hard to see), zip tied the lines to the dipstick:


Clearing the exhaust, zip tied the lines to the starter:


Upper radiator (to the right):


Lower radiator:


Also I bypassed the oil cooler.

At the pump:


At the radiator:

DisasterFormula

iTrader: (1)

Right after I swapped my opti, I didn't get one radiator hose on tight so it leaked a little coolant. I tightened up the clamp, it did fine, drove it around, thought the engine was running a little high, poured about half a gallon of water in the overflow and most of it pissed out on the ground, so I wouldn't worry about it as long as the radiator is full, overflow has coolant in it, and the engine isn't cooking.

Also, regarding the oil pressure, the electric gauge tends to be somewhat unreliable. But it does make sense to me that if the oil cooler is out of the equation, it should increase pressure. Tell us what pressure it gives you once it's warmed up and idling. My M6 usually has about 25 psi when idling about 190F and 1000 rpm. Cruising usually has it around 40. But that's on the electric gauge. I want to try a mechanical gauge.

Elthesh

iTrader: (1)

I may be seeing something wrong, but, is the engine essentially being supported by the fenders when it's lifted? If so, I can't even imagine how that works being that they are plastic and all, but I would be really impressed. Even with weight distribution and all that just seems unreal, but impressive.

I'm surprised you didn't just use a 6x6 for the central beam. That's a heck of a lot of work you got done there. Personally, I'd have to have a lift installed to do waht you did, lol. Removing the tranny alone would just cause me to invent curse words and probably break something. When they took my original off at the shop, the huge guy working on it needed, and I kid you not, what looked like a 6 foot prybar to break the tranny loose from the car. I have a 4 foot crowbar here and it was MUCH longer than that.

Excellent work there.

AboveTheLogic

DF, actually the oil cooler is still there, I just bypassed the cooling lines. Next time I do an oil change I'll pull the cooler out. I'm certain my pressure is better because I replaced the oil pump and pan. Not sure if the pan has MUCH to do with it but I read that a dented pan could cause a loss of pressure.

Thanks for the info about the overflow. My radiator was full, and I was filling the overflow when it started leaking a lot. I'm still not comfortable with it and will get under there and see what the deal is before I drive it out of the neighborhood... but I'd be pretty happy to learn that its nothing.

Elthesh... the wood support beams are on the fenders, but they're near the strut towers, not on an area that you'd see when the hood is closed. I really should have used a 4x4 or a 6x6 for the center beam, but I didn't want to make another trip to Lowes so I used what I had and it worked fine. I made sure to shove some pieces of wood in the motor mount area so if the upper support failed my arms/fingers wouldn't get crushed.

A lift... man my life would have been 100x easier if I had a lift! Getting this car on and off the taller jack stands is a nerve-racking process. I don't recall needing to pry anything to get the trans out. It came out surprisingly easily once I had everything unbolted. Going back in was another story, though.

Thanks for the compliments, it was a lot of work.