GM JFish's 1998 Camaro gets some power upgrades

[Mook]

 

[sktchy]

yeah yeah my opinion is ass as always, it's fine

 

[JFish75]

Went out for a bit tonight and got the headers back on, oil dipstick back in and put the plug wires on the plugs ready to go. Not gonna be able to work on it this week since I am out of town for work, blah. Catch can is scheduled to be here tomorrow, gonna do some more next weekend and hopefully make some good progress and get close to finishing. Have to put the PS and water pump on, valve covers and catch can, then intake manifold.

 

[The Beast]

yeah yeah my opinion is ass as always, it's fine

I get what you are saying I have an fbody also and have gone thru this and done this. A cam and exhaust fbody is about about 400-410 and a heads, cam, intake and TB is about 450-465. It’s going to wow you for a little bit, but a turbo would really wake the fbody up. If I only owned one car and money was only spent on that car I’d definitely add a super charger and be done with a baby cam based off of my experience and have gone thru.

 

[sktchy]

I get what you are saying I have an fbody also and have gone thru this and done this. A cam and exhaust fbody is about about 400-410 and a heads, cam, intake and TB is about 450-465. It’s going to wow you for a little bit, but a turbo would really wake the fbody up. If I only owned one car and money was only spent on that car I’d definitely add a super charger and be done with a baby cam based off of my experience and have gone thru.

I mean don't get me wrong I love a good chop as much as anybody but in the long run a guy would be ahead time and money and driveability wise to just toss a procharger on it or drop a 6.2 in it to begin with. But it depends on what goals are and if your trying to max effort an na car more power to you, it's probably just gonna make it less enjoyable unless you plan to have it wide open all the time.

But I probably shouldn't have started this on jfishs thread, this is a nice car and I'm a firm believer in building what you wanna build so I don't wanna run down what he's trying to do here and I hope it all goes well.

 

[JFish75]

So my take on the supercharger/turbo thing. So first off I really wanted to keep this NA from the start, I mean never say never, but this car stuff we do is an addiction and honestly is anything ever enough? I did the headers and ls6 intake and said I was done because the car was clean super clean and mostly original so I didn’t want to start going through it too much. Then I got used to that and did the cam, now the heads, if I do get a supercharger then when I get used to that I’ll need a bigger one. Honestly if I ever get totally bored with the power after this and or the engine takes a dump I would just invest in an engine and go with a bigger displacement.
I did poke around at one point and look at superchargers and they were just too much fucking money. Sure I could get a used one or whatever and piecemeal it together but fuck that. Doing the work myself I am not in it too bad honestly especially compared to the money some of the guys on here have. I also want this to be reliable and a cruiser, I don’t want a dedicated turbo race car as my only “fun” car. To each there own I guess. Appreciate all the info and support from everyone on here though!

 

[sktchy]

Doing heads and cam isn't necessarily an easy job no matter what the internet has to say so no discredit to any of this. I'm more looking at the aspect of what it does to your cruising characteristics unless you've got enough converter in it to tame it down. I honestly went back to a stock cam in my turbo car and could daily it all day and not even know it's there unless I really felt like getting into it but on some of the cammed stuff I've been involved with I been irritated pretty quick with the quirks from not having alot of idle vacuum to work with and having to have them wound up to keep them happy. My latest 5.3 build took 2 good days of tuning to get it to idle down in the 750 range where I wanted it without being jerky or wanting to die on the brakes or when turning and that was just a fairly mild cam and smaller chamber heads to try and bump compression to save a little of what I lost down low. But that's also preference and me not being content with an 8 or 900 idle speed and trying to maintain as much stock driveability as possible. it's also been daily driver duty since being put together so any little annoyance drives me nuts.

It's all manageable some just comes at more of an expense be it time or money and as long as you've got a good tuner and your happy with what your building then that's all that really matters and this car looks like it's gonna be even cooler than it was before anyway.

 

[Gav'sPurpleZ]

#6speed

 

[JFish75]

Yeah it’s a manual so no issues with converters and all that. I had no issues driving it with what I had done so far, I mean if I’m in a parking lot going less than 10 or something in first gear it would want to buck or whatever but for that’s not totally uncommon for any manual car, put in the clutch and all good.

 

[Lead Pipe]

Nice build, should make good power. A 450 rwhp car is still a blast to drive and can hold it's own on the street. If you want to build a fast drag car, you need at least 800 rwhp horse power and I don't care what you build, it's going to be pricey. Nothing beats the sound of a cammed LS car IMO.

You should have no issue making 440whp+. I'm not familiar with the Brawler heads, how to they compare to PRC ported 243's? I have the 2,5's.

 

[JFish75]

Nice build, should make good power. A 450 rwhp car is still a blast to drive and can hold it's own on the street. If you want to build a fast drag car, you need at least 800 rwhp horse power and I don't care what you build, it's going to be pricey. Nothing beats the sound of a cammed LS car IMO.

You should have no issue making 440whp+. I'm not familiar with the Brawler heads, how to they compare to PRC ported 243's? I have the 2,5's.

Thanks I’m hoping for the best! Sounds like they are pretty comparable, here is from the website.

 

[JFish75]

Went to URW’s event today then came home and worked on the car with @KyaLorne. Starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel here. Got the water pump and PS pump back on, put the coolant steam pipe on and block offs in the rear, valve covers on and I got fancy coil brackets. Apparently I had a bunch of “Summit bucks” from buying my intake manifold and throttle body. So I bought some random fluids and shit and got these.

 

[Gav'sPurpleZ]

Nice !

 

[Shawn1112]

I like ICT Billet stuff, doesn’t look like you have much left to do. Who is going to tune it?

 

[JFish75]

I like ICT Billet stuff, doesn’t look like you have much left to do. Who is going to tune it?

Yeah finally getting down to the last pieces. I am planning on having NextGen tune it. I reached out a couple weeks ago and they said they were a week out for tuning, so trying to push and get this done in the next couple weeks or so and get it in for tuning. Hopefully they don’t get too backed up in that timeframe. Fingers crossed there are no issues on start up and all goes smoothly.

 

[JFish75]

Oh also got my might mouse catch can so will install that all as well.

 

[JFish75]

Radiator hoses back on, belt on, intake manifold and throttle body installed! @KyaLorne was invaluable again, I was looking at the purge valve and couldn’t figure out where the associated line was and she was like uhhh it looks like that’s it in my hand, lol I was thinking it went somewhere else, that and her little hands getting the bolts started where my fat fingers couldn’t. But it’s getting real now, just need to install the coils and then start plugging shit back in and fill coolant and change oil, install the catch can and put the exhaust back on (not looking forward to that, hopefully it goes on easier than taking it off).If I can plug away after work a little and this weekend with any luck might be able to try and fire this bitch up this weekend.

 

[Gav'sPurpleZ]

 

[Greasy]

Looking awesome!!!!

 

[Teege24]

Radiator hoses back on, belt on, intake manifold and throttle body installed! @KyaLorne was invaluable again, I was looking at the purge valve and couldn’t figure out where the associated line was and she was like uhhh it looks like that’s it in my hand, lol I was thinking it went somewhere else, that and her little hands getting the bolts started where my fat fingers couldn’t. But it’s getting real now, just need to install the coils and then start plugging shit back in and fill coolant and change oil, install the catch can and put the exhaust back on (not looking forward to that, hopefully it goes on easier than taking it off).If I can plug away after work a little and this weekend with any luck might be able to try and fire this bitch up this weekend.

View attachment 256753

 

[JFish75]

Got the coils installed and plug wires and the catch can in, just need to cut one more hose for the the fresh air and I got a little elbow fitting so I can tap it into the intake bellow before the throttle body. The stock throttle body has a fitting integrated for that but the new one does not.
Thinking about cranking it over with the coils and injectors disconnected just to get some oil moving before I actually fire it. Any opinions on that? Might not be necessary and me just overthinking. I poured a tad bit of oil on top of each rocker arm and used a little assembly lube on the tips of the pushrods and rocker arms so it’s not completely dry.

 

[sktchy]

i know guys that will argue about it but pulling coil and fuel power and turning it over until you get oil pressure is good practice if not standard procedure after major engine surgery. The one time I didn't get oil pressure to build with the starter I tried to dry fire one and all but welded an oil pump together.

I'm not sure if the camaro does it but alot of vehicles have a "clear flood" mode built in when you hold the pedal to the floor and crank it that disables fuel and spark without having to pull fuses or relays.

 

[Boost Leeroy]

A lot of LS’s won’t create much, if any oil pressure with crank RPM. Not all, but it’s worth a try. Just don’t beat your head if you don’t see any after a little cranking and fire the bitch up.

 

[Gav'sPurpleZ]

I unplug the main connector/sensor for the coil packs and crank the car until the gauge reads oil pressure every spring.
Gauge will read 40psi.

Plug in connectors and start the car

 

[JFish75]

Plugged in the injectors and bled the clutch, definitely got some air bubbles out, the speed bleeder made it fairly easy so thank god for that . I got the wrong fitting for the fresh air fitting to the intake bellow I got a 90 degree and ended up needing just a straight piece but I got the hole and everything set so I ordered the correct fitting and will pick it up tomorrow. I even took out the K&N air filter and gonna clean that tonight so that will definitely get me 10HP . Other than that I just need to jack it up and put the exhaust back on and change the oil and fill the coolant then cross fingers and hope it starts and runs with no issues. I’ll plan to do that Saturday so will update then with hopefully great news!!