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Its been 7 years since the car was driven more than 2 days in a row, and only put 1400 miles on it in the past 6. Been 2 years since it saw a track, and all it did last year was drive 60 miles to the new house then got buried under boxes in the garage. Started a new job last week that doesn't provide a company car, and my wife got tired of sharing fast. The 8 year old battery finally quit, but I threw in a new battery, inflated the tires, and it fired right up. Cleaned a couple mouse nests out of it, washed it, changed a couple bulbs, registered it, and drove it to work today.
Cleaned and in the driveway
Gages look good, gotta figure out how to get rid of the airbag light and abs light for inspection
Made it to work
This is the first time Ive driven it on backroads with the new suspension setup and it handles great. The BMR/bilstein combo and 32mm/22mm sway bars keep it glued on the 295/35/18s all around. The spohn non adjustable poly ended LCAs dont like to flex so I need to get ones with rod ends on one side, and the spohn short style torque arm I dont like on the street, I wish I hadnt gotten rid of the BMR long style and relocation mount. The wipers are rotted, I cant go over any speed bumps, only 2 out of the 3 speakers are working (4th wasnt installed), leaks oil from the timing cover, clutch chatters still after I smoked it driving home from the track with 10psi fuel pressure at 6000rpm, it runs a little rough at low rpms I think due to the old gas, and my neighbors are going to hate me starting it up at 5:30 every morning since the magnaflow 18" bullet hanging off the Y pipe is a touch loud.
But there is just a feeling that many people dont understand, the smile, the tingle, the heart racing that you feel as you sit down in the seat and turn the key and it comes to life. Feels so much better than being trapped for 40,000 miles a year in a 1.6 liter turbo escape, 5 cylinder colorado or astro van for the past 6 years. It will get split DD duty with the Vulcan 1600 for a couple weeks until I can get a few paychecks and buy a truck.
The oil leak and clutch will get taken care of when I install the new heads/cam motor in the garage, might put a real catback on it if it continues to see DD duty.
Last edited by bufmatmuslepants; 05-28-2015 at 06:46 AM.
.....Feels so much better than being trapped for 40,000 miles a year in a 1.6 liter turbo escape, 5 cylinder Colorado or astro van for the past 6 years. It will get split DD duty with the Vulcan 1600 for a couple weeks until I can get a few paychecks and buy a truck.
HEY!!
Be careful how you speak about the Canyon/Collie twins........I had one (a 2005 4x4) as a winter driver, and it served me well, for 10 years!!
The colorado wasnt bad, if it didnt have 1000lbs of parts and tools in the bed with the cap on it. The astro was the beast tho.
The LS1 rear brakes feel great, still need to figure out if I want to do C5, CTSVs, or LS1 fronts. Stops so much better than anything else, but 3000lbs on 295s helps.
Congrats man. Everyone one knows that feeling, something just feels special about driving a F-body. You almost feel like everyone is looking at you in a good way lol. Those 295's all the way around look nice, I go to auto-x events a lot and it reminds me of some of the guys setups there. SSRR and Puck, looks like muscle pants beat you on getting his ish together... Lol
I swapped all of the rod ended stuff and the spooled 9" out 2ish years ago because it stopped being fun on the street, and set it up like this so I can hammer through the appalacians out to my cabin in WV. Need to get a few more things buttoned up before Im willing to head out to no cell service land, but I needed it to stick hard in the turns because some of those roads are crazy curvy, and I hate the staggered look.
congrats, the car looks good! how wide are those wheels? i was surprised when i read you had 295/35's all around but they dont seem to bulge too much, im running the same size tires but on 10.5in wheels all around. i love the rod-ended stuff i have on my car, makes the ride harsher but i dont really care since it is only a summer toy and is a blast to rip around corners in.
So it was running a little rough and I was attributing that to old fuel.
Then I came across a 5.0 on the way home and really didn't feel right, I should have pulled on him, but it had been so long since I've driven this thing it felt fast at first, but now I notice its not all there.
Came home, readjusted all rockers 1/2 turn past 0 lash, still shitty. Grab a temp gun and sure enough cylinder 6 is 200 degrees less than the rest. Pulled the plug and its bone dry and there's carbon on it but its completely shiny and new looking on 1 spot in front of the tip on the round part. So I think injector. Swap injectors from 4-6, problem stays on 6. For good measures threw a spark tester on 6s wire, good strong spark.
Inspected the wires, no chew marks noticeable, but there was a mouse near in the interior.
Any hints on where to go from here other than tracing wires?
Found the ground strap for the ICM was touching the ICM to opti wire, causing a spark every few seconds. Kept hearing the ticking and that's why I adjusted the valves, but then it got dark and I saw the spark reflecting off the MAF.
For 3 ******* years I've been making stupid excuses for this symptom, and the only way this strap got there was when I did the EWP, rockers and lid one day. When I started it up after that, the day before Cecil 2012 it was running like this funk and I almost didn't go because of it, I thought the rockers were set too tight. It ran 12.39 but only at 109 instead of 112, but I thought eh its fine its the gears or that's how its supposed to be with a faster 60'. Then I went to the track again a year later with the new suspension and couldn't do better than 12.8 at 109 and said eh its the new suspension and 18s and I'm rusty driving. Then it ran like **** a year later in the rain and thought eh I'm sucking water through the chrs1313 ram air.
Its amazing how if you drive a slow piece of **** every day for 6 years, even an f body on 7 cylinders feels fast. Until I rolled up on that 5.0, I would have just kept accepting it, but I had beaten too many 5.0s in the past to have not been able to leave this guy, he was glued to my bumper.
But now, it runs PERFECT again. Can't ******* believe it. I need to get back to the track, its never ran faster than 109 since I did the lid, rockers, EWP and springs, used to run 111 with all that stock.
Last edited by bufmatmuslepants; 05-28-2015 at 08:32 PM.
Wow man.. Glad to see you got all the bugs worked out.. That's why it's always good to keep the garage queen in good working order.. You just never know when you might really need her..
you could try replacing the DERM module to fix the airbag light. That's a common failure for these air bag systems and it's like $30 on ebay and you'll still have working air bags (or $1000 brand new if you REALLY want to)
congrats, the car looks good! how wide are those wheels? i was surprised when i read you had 295/35's all around but they dont seem to bulge too much, im running the same size tires but on 10.5in wheels all around. i love the rod-ended stuff i have on my car, makes the ride harsher but i dont really care since it is only a summer toy and is a blast to rip around corners in.
The wheels are 18x9.5 C5 wagon wheels, tires are Goodyear Eagle F1s, the sidewalls are not vertical but they are not bulging, they feel good but I haven't really pushed them yet and never had 275s or 285s on these wheels to compare it to, it might get squishy as I push the limits but I have alot to sort out until then.
1-5 and 7 plug wires are 6 year old Taylor 8.2s, 6 and 8 are 9 year old Taylor 8mm. Over the years I'd burnt or cut 6 and 8 and put the old wires on temporarily, now its time for a new set because they are still arcing a little, I can still feel it a little at low rpm and hear the tick correspond with the stumble. The good thing about the HVAC delete and all firewall insulation gone is I can hear everything in the car now, and I can stop blaming the tick on poorly adjusted rockers. I can't remember when I changed the plugs, either 6 years ago when I did the wires or may have done it since but they look pretty rusted and the path to ground is now easier through other things than the plugs, so time to change them. 6 was still at 0.035. Injectors ohmed out at 13.2.
The Spohn torque arm has play in it where the top torque arm bolt holds to the piece bolted to the housing, I don't know if its elongated the hole over time or what, but the rocking back and forth is going to cause a failure so I'm being easy on it until I can pull it and fix it or get a new one. I also don't like how low the crossmember is, it bottoms out on everything, no prayer of going over speed bumps.
The bullet is too loud for 5am, I ditched the catback and saved 35lbs, but I need to find another lightweight quiet setup, its going to be way too loud with the new cam.
The wheels are 18x9.5 C5 wagon wheels, tires are Goodyear Eagle F1s, the sidewalls are not vertical but they are not bulging, they feel good but I haven't really pushed them yet and never had 275s or 285s on these wheels to compare it to, it might get squishy as I push the limits but I have alot to sort out until then.
1-5 and 7 plug wires are 6 year old Taylor 8.2s, 6 and 8 are 9 year old Taylor 8mm. Over the years I'd burnt or cut 6 and 8 and put the old wires on temporarily, now its time for a new set because they are still arcing a little, I can still feel it a little at low rpm and hear the tick correspond with the stumble. The good thing about the HVAC delete and all firewall insulation gone is I can hear everything in the car now, and I can stop blaming the tick on poorly adjusted rockers. I can't remember when I changed the plugs, either 6 years ago when I did the wires or may have done it since but they look pretty rusted and the path to ground is now easier through other things than the plugs, so time to change them. 6 was still at 0.035. Injectors ohmed out at 13.2.
The Spohn torque arm has play in it where the top torque arm bolt holds to the piece bolted to the housing, I don't know if its elongated the hole over time or what, but the rocking back and forth is going to cause a failure so I'm being easy on it until I can pull it and fix it or get a new one. I also don't like how low the crossmember is, it bottoms out on everything, no prayer of going over speed bumps.
The bullet is too loud for 5am, I ditched the catback and saved 35lbs, but I need to find another lightweight quiet setup, its going to be way too loud with the new cam.
Think you could just run another bullet where the cat was to tone it down a bit? As long as its straight through like the Magnaflows it shouldn't hurt power much and would be a cheap and easy fix.
Thats where the bullet is now, its literally off the end of the Y pipe, then nothing after that. I guess I could try 2, or possibly extend the pipe farther back and see if that helps smooth the airflow through the bullet and quiet it down a little. Just bought new plugs and ordered new Taylor 8.2s from Summit, as well as put a fresh tank of Shell 93 and some fuel injector cleaner in it, hopefully this all smooths it back out. Already felt better about 5 minutes from the gas station.
Spohn got back to me very quickly and gave me the part number for a new rod end for the torque arm, Im going to pull it first and inspect it to be sure thats it, but its $10 so not a big deal if it is elongated.
05-28-2015, 06:01 AM
The garage ornament is now a DD 
on getting the Camaro back on the road!! 
