🔧 BUILD LAME Turbo V6 Camaro

[m_dogg]

Moving along ?

 

[v6buicks]

Moving along ?

Any chance I have to make an ounce of progress, I take it. It's been an unhealthy obsession the last week or so. I should be excited as hell to be meeting some friends at Power Tour today, but I'm kinda not. I just want to finish the Camaro. ☹ I'm sure my attitude will change once I'm there though. I love the cars that this event brings.

 

[v6buicks]

I know that now is not the time to be screwing around with stuff that don't involve the transmission, but I got really excited to do the bs009 special on my ICM since I happened to have a spare. The trouble is that I think the spare is from a 3100 or 3400 car. It looks nothing like his does under the cover and I know the 3800 ICMs do not share PNs with the 60 degrees. Oh well. I don't know how they're different, but I'd hate to cause silly problems. I'll just have to modify the one that's already on the car whenever I actually buy a WOT box. No pro-activity for me.

In terms of getting this car on the road, it stormed really hard so I was unable to get a lot done. I did get the cross member 100% finished though.

You can't even tell which holes I made. Damn I'm good.

 

[GTPpower]

I want to modify a spare icm too now.

 

[v6buicks]

I thrashed last night. Now I'm too sore to move, but the amount of progress I made was worth the pain.

I painted and relocated the custom bolt. I needed to re lock the HTOB so that one hose was on top and the other on the bottom. Before, they were on each side which was going to be impossible to bleed and impossible to route outside the bell without kinks. The sleeve is also held on by RTV to prevent it from spinning.

I also drilled, painted, and pushed grommets into the bulkhead plate.

After once again dialing in the bearing height and checking pilot engagement, the trans was ready for final install. I struggled with this for over an hour. Those offset dowel pins put the bell in a bit of a bind that makes installation a bit tricky even without a transmission attached to it. I hope to god that I have this right because I'm going to be crushed if this mofo makes noise after all this.

I pulled the whole clutch assembly off again to realiign the disc a little better. That ended up helping a ton. The new bolt hole for the trans mount ended up aligning fine, but I didn't make the the socket access hole wide enough. This meant getting in there with a carbide bit on my die grinder. Doing this overhead friggen sucks. ?

Then I dialed in the shifter handle plate. I drilled/tapped two new holes a little closer to the dash and bent it a little more. I will need to trim part of the console so that it clears in reverse though. I don't like doing stuff like that, but it's a small price to pay. I think I nailed the handle length though!

Just so I could knock one last thing off the list before bed, I got the bulkhead installed. I think it turned out nice!

I may be sore, but I plan to continue my progress once I'm done with my coffee.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Looks like you're getting really close. Here's to everything working immaculately.

 

[v6buicks]

Thanks! We're moving along. Paint on the shift handle bracket is drying, the flywheel cover is installed, and the floor boot is in process. I might have trouble with this. Luckily, the TKX shifter has its own dust cover unlike the Pro5.0 shifter for the T5. However, I might need to do a similar cut in the boot because the stock one will not allow for movement where I need it.

Here's the new stock T56 boot I got with a hole for the shifter handle. See what I mean? Too close to the outer edge of the accordion.

I'm think cut a big hole for the whole shifter to pop through and turn the accordion inside out. It won't be the greatest seal, but it's better than nothing.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Wouldn't be surprised if in the long run that's something you can get made from Ninjaflex and a 3D print.....

 

[GTPpower]

Excellent work! The end is in sight!

 

[v6buicks]

I basically said fuck the boot. There's no way to do it nicely with the parts I have, and there's no way that I'm going to wait for an aftermarket thing to show up. I drove this car for a while without a boot when the car didn't have an interior in it. Nothing ever seemed to fly up that far anyway. Someday I'll do it nicer, but today is not that day.

Everything is done except for the clutch hose, oil, and setting my pinion angle. Friggen wild.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

Done yet?

 

[v6buicks]

Done yet?

So damn close. I'm waiting on my clutch line and trans fluid to be shipped. It's so friggen miserable outside that I don't know if I'd really want to drive this thing. We drove the 240 about 20 minutes today with weak AC and hated it. I can't imagine not having it at all.

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

Looking good!

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

Don't be a pussy, mankind has survived without air conditioning far longer than we've had it. .

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

The older I get the more I like AC

 

[v6buicks]

I ain't scared to say that I am full vagina in terms of my climate control. Sure, I'll survive without it, but I won't necessarily enjoy it. The only thing getting me outside to work on this stuff now is determination, a box fan, shade, and having a pool directly behind the garage.

It feels wrong to not work on the car when I have a wide open Sunday, so I tried to set my pinion angle. Oops. The UMI torque arm relocation kit doesn't come with a bushing. I ordered one on Amazon and then sat wondering what to do next. I was going to fuck with the boost controller and some other wiring bits, but noticed a concerning puddle on the floor.

It wasn't that I hadn't already noticed it. I kinda just chose to ignore my rusty axle brake lines for the past two years. I've had the tubing, the calipers already had new speed bleeders, and the hoses were new too. Time to knock it out.

I don't know why I didn't do this years ago. It was about a three hour job. Speed bleeders are amazing.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Better you than me. I always hate doing brake lines, and I swear every project car I ever get needs them done.

 

[v6buicks]

Better you than me. I always hate doing brake lines, and I swear every project car I ever get needs them done.

Out of my ten cars, six have received extensive brake work. By that, I mean master cylinders, hard lines, proportioning valves, and rust problems. The Camaro has had everything brake related replaced EXCEPT for the pedal, calipers, pads, and rotors. Lol

I've grown to hate brake fluid, but I've gotten good at bending and flaring lines.

 

[sktchy]

Looks like this things coming along awesome. So close man

 

[v6buicks]

Looks like this things coming along awesome. So close man

Thanks! Fingers crossed that the bell isn't warped or some shit. I'm still a bit sketched out by the trans not sliding right into place. Once my missing parts arrive, I'll be on the road for a test.

 

[sktchy]

Best of luck man can't wait to see it moving again!

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Out of my ten cars, six have received extensive brake work. By that, I mean master cylinders, hard lines, proportioning valves, and rust problems. The Camaro has had everything brake related replaced EXCEPT for the pedal, calipers, pads, and rotors. Lol

I've grown to hate brake fluid, but I've gotten good at bending and flaring lines.

I've definitely gotten better at it over the years, did the trans lines in the Fastro. Still decidedly not super happy about them but they're way better than anything I've done in the past. I want to get some of that cuppo-nickel stuff I've always heard good things but it's always been out when I try to get it.

 

[v6buicks]

I've definitely gotten better at it over the years, did the trans lines in the Fastro. Still decidedly not super happy about them but they're way better than anything I've done in the past. I want to get some of that cuppo-nickel stuff I've always heard good things but it's always been out when I try to get it.

It's a game changer for sure. After seeing for how poorly the pre-bent stainless stuff tends to fit, I won't be messing with that crap anymore. The pre-flared stuff at the parts stores are nice in a pinch, but I hate that it still rusts. I bought a long roll of the Ni-Cu on Amazon or Summit for pretty cheap. No regrets. Having this ultra expensive straightener tool is a big help too though. I'm not bragging. It was a dumb thing to buy for how little it gets used. lol

 

[sktchy]

It's a game changer for sure. After seeing for how poorly the pre-bent stainless stuff tends to fit, I won't be messing with that crap anymore. The pre-flared stuff at the parts stores are nice in a pinch, but I hate that it still rusts. I bought a long roll of the Ni-Cu on Amazon or Summit for pretty cheap. No regrets. Having this ultra expensive straightener tool is a big help too though. I'm not bragging. It was a dumb thing to buy for how little it gets used. lol
View attachment 98554

I'm still eating my ass over the expensive tool in the corner of my shop that hardly ever gets used but it's still pretty awesome to have when a guy gets to use it.

 

[v6buicks]

I'm still eating my ass over the expensive tool in the corner of my shop that hardly ever gets used but it's still pretty awesome to have when a guy gets to use it.

Haha I could only imagine the kind of shenanigans that would happen here in Indiana if a friend or I had a dyno. It would probably never go unused.