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Thanks for the compliments! I actually have an A-pillar pod sitting on one of my parts shelves along with a trim bezel that I had grafted a plate to before making these vents. Pretty much a mix of "haven't seen this done in this way to a Camaro" as well an excuse to get back into 3D modeling and additive manufacturing after 4 years of only 2D CAD work prompted me to do these. The dash gauges weren't too difficult; you just cut a piece of aluminum to the right shape to fit a gutted gauge housing so that it could bolt in and then fit all the surrounds back to it. I took the factory gauge acrylic cover off since it seemed kind of hokey with the aftermarket gauges being individual.
Ever think of crafting something to mount them infront of the shifter / delete ash tray / cubbyhole, or just mount a pod over the dashboard above the vents for them and have them angled and facing at you?
It runs, have a couple longer videos but have to wait to upload until I can work around some size limitation issues on what my phone will do. Tach doesn't work in this video since it needed a pull up circuit (did and tested, no video for that though). Gauge cluster is a prototype for a bolt in 1 piece casting I'm making that replaces the stock cluster so turn signals and lights other than the MIL are missing and the gauges are slightly crooked compared to older pictures. Gets to temp and doesn't overheat sitting idling in my garage which while not terribly surprising is good, we'll see how it does in summer traffic. Have datalogging set up and ready to start with SD tuning to get the VE tables good before doing MAF tuning. Unfortunately, looks like my brand new Tremec input shaft seal is leaky already so I'm on hold until I get that pulled out and tear it down to figure out why a new seal has an issue already . This transmission has had more issues than any of the transmissions I've done in the past, manual or auto.
Pulled the transmission, the plug at the 7 o' clock position on the front plate was the culprit. Had a small dribble of fluid coming from that plug with the rest being bone dry. Easy fixes are always nice since I was starting to look at the transmission in my 70 Camaro sitting unused and had images of clutchless shifts under boost bouncing around my brain in the ultimate mismatched combination. Have a tall transmission jack on the way to make life easier for reinstall, I've determined this is the last time I'm pulling a transmission from roughly head height (6'3-6'4) without a jack.
Man. You got lucky. Glad you didn't have to pull the adapter plate back off. I just rebuilt my T56 and I was very weary of getting that endplay plug to seal. I used red permatex.
Definitely, I was not looking forward to going through it again without having driven the car. Was running the rebuild and install through my head trying to think of what could have happened to cause a brand new seal to leak. Forgot completely about that plug until I had the transmission out. Cleaned everything up and used ARP thread sealant, looks like a burr in the thread kept the plug from tightening enough for the taper to seat properly the first go through. Minor issue in the scheme of things and if it's the worst issue to come up in this process I'll consider myself lucky.
That's the only other picture showing the bracket I have from when it was out of car. It's just saw cut 5/8" aluminum, finished the draft for the portion the blower fits into and rounded the outside shape using various grinders and sanding drums. It isn't anything special but should do the job, if there's any issues I'll go with something more similar to commercially available kits.
Finally got around to doing an alignment, clutch is bled and adjusted, pretty much just doing some last minute things before registering it to get it on the street. Last major part on my list for the moment is a PCV setup which will involve a fairly low budget belt driven vacuum pump setup to get it going. Been kept busy with doing C5 brakes/spindles and QA1 coilovers on a '70 Chevelle as well as Wilwood 4 pistons/Hotchkis springs on a '71 El Camino that will soon be getting FiTech fuel injection that'll I'll be tuning so haven't been able to focus exclusively on this.
Camaro is running and driving. Determined the torque arm mount crossmember for the UMI torque arm hung way too low for the car after a handful of speedbumps. Shaved it down and plated with some 1/4" steel plate I had in stock. Took it out and no more clearance issues.
I also could not fit the vacuum pump due to interference with the sway bar and blower bracketry, instead I routed a hose from the valve cover through a check valve, an air oil separator, and to the supercharger inlet via a bulkhead fitting at the filter base. Have a drawer full of -10 and -6 fittings as well as hose to play with the PCV setup depending on how this works out. Eventually I'll likely do something with the dirty side having a separator with a tee going to two check valves with one side leading to the intake manifold and the other leading to the supercharger inlet with a fresh air side feeding at the supercharger inlet as well. The biggest hurdle is packaging as the supercharger area is probably the busiest, lowest space area for the car.
So now it has a new spot in the garage as the lift has been occupied with an FZJ80 that likely will not be getting the LS treatment. All that's left for the time being is a QA1 strut tower brace that triangulates back to the cowl to replace some structural rigidity lost from the core support removal and to finish tuning. Over winter it might get some bodywork and a respray of the Medium Quasar Blue depending on what kind of time I have available. Working on finding a GoPro to borrow for some in car videos, the car definitely pulls strong for what it is and is a blast to drive.
So not exactly a happy ending with this one. Emissions appears to have screwed me as I can't get this combination to pass as an engine conversion. For the 600 miles I was able to drive it I had as much fun as I'd had with anything I'd built. Considering the money and time put into it I took survey of what I currently own, immediately threw out all logic beyond basic measurements to ensure I'm not being a complete idiot, figured I'm young enough at 25 to make at least a few more poor decisions, and decided that I'll put everything from drivetrain to suspension in my '70 Camaro to make it a fun street/autocross/track day/whatever car. It was originally to be a street/strip car and is currently a back half/caged shell with front Wilwoods and DSE suspension pieces but having had a couple second gens I'd like to do something a little different with this one anyway. This will be a fabrication heavy project as opposed to the '97, a car that had become known as the "bolt on car" due to how little fabrication I had done with it compared to previous projects. I have an FZJ80 that needs a quick engine rebuild for a new DD before I jump in with both feet on this hybrid but when the time comes I'll have a new thread to document how I'm going to accomplish it.
04-22-2016, 12:23 PM
. This transmission has had more issues than any of the transmissions I've done in the past, manual or auto. 
awesome build! Looking forward to more videos 
