BUILD JFish's 98 Camaro SS

[JFish75]

It’s incredible how clean this car is.

Thank you!

 

[Pro Stock John]

I had a '98 Camaro SS, #2786 which I bought new, they are great cars.

 

[Jon01]

Very nice! This definitely takes me back to my 02 SS, it was a very similar build back in 2005-6.

 

[JFish75]

Gonna try and do a little more updates this morning, I had the car dyno tuned after I did the intake manifold and the headers (removed the egr, AIR pump, etc) so it was necessary. The video I have was too large so I had to host it to you tube, ( I hope it works) and the dyno sheet from that time.

 

[JFish75]

Forgot to mention in there before I did the headers and intake, I had decided to take a little personal road trip and drove it down to Nashville. On the way back home the clutch pedal started hanging up and sticking to the floor while I was stuck in a huge traffic jam on 65 coming home. I was using the clutch as little as possible and thank god I made it home, after I got home it was permanently stuck to the floor so after some research found that it was a very common issue with these cars. The clutch fluid was BLACK as night. I tried flushing it and bleeding it to no avail, and ended up replacing it with a Tick master cylinder. I don't have any pictures of that since it was more of a needed repair at the time and I wasn't thinking about documenting it. It fixed the issue and haven't had any real problems with it since, the engagement is a lot different as it hardly has any pedal travel and the pedal is a lot firmer, its closer to an on/off switch, but I got used to it, just makes it hard to launch at the dragstrip since there really isn't any slipping the clutch.
I had a few pictures from the Nashville road trip but not sure where I stored them, once I find them I will try to add them

 

[JFish75]

Did a trip to Blackhawk Farms to try my hand at some road racing! this was back in 2017.

 

[JFish75]

Found a few pictures from that Nashville trip, I won’t bore you with all of the scenery and other shit, I’ll stick with the car stuff. Stopped at the Corvette museum on the way, and hit “Cooters Garage” while out there, then on the way back stopped at Mammoth Caves.

 

[guspech750]

The corvette museum is pretty awesome. When I went there. They had just poured the new floor after the sink hole fiasco. It was still an awesome experience.

 

[JFish75]

The corvette museum is pretty awesome. When I went there. They had just poured the new floor after the sink hole fiasco. It was still an awesome experience.

Yeah I was there about the same time as that, they still had all the wrecked cars from the sink hole on display in the original spots before they fell. Was a surreal experience, I was talking with one of the workers and she said she was the last one to see the cars before it happened as she was doing last round before closing, she started to tear up as she was telling me about it.

 

[JFish75]

Little more update, this is spring 2018 and I did some suspension upgrades. Installed Founders tubular rear control arms, and Strano sway bars and poly bushings I also installed Strano's brake master cylinder brace but I don't seem to have any pictures of that as it was a different day and pretty simple install. The Girlfriend likes car stuff also, and wanted to learn so I put her to work! Also got some BLING with a fancy SS cylinder head plaque and I filled in the bowtie with black carbon fiber vinyl wrap, it was originally filled in blue by the original owner but I like the black better

 

[JFish75]

Preview of the next update, I’ll add the install pics when I have time.

 

[JFish75]

And the biggest part of the build so far, did this over the winter of 2018-19. I have a small one car garage but there is enough room to make it work so I just did it little bits at a time and took shots at it when I had time along with a little help from the GF and my neighbor. Parts installed - Texas Speed 228R camshaft with double valve springs and their titanium spring retainers, 7.4 hardened pushrods and I also put in the Straub trunion bushings to get rid of the stock needle bearings. replaced the oil pump, LS2 timing chain, and a new ARP crank bolt. I think that covers everything, so onto the pictures!

 

[JFish75]

And then the reassembly... I cleaned up the timing cover and painted the crank pulley so it looks good as new!

 

[IDAFC21]

mmmmmmm.

 

[JFish75]

First start up

 

[JFish75]

And then Dyno Tune

 

[JFish75]

And that's where I've been at since, just been enjoying it but I will keep posted with any happening's or updates if they do come along. Thanks for letting me share and I hope you guys enjoy!

 

[Pro Stock John]

Nice!

 

[IDAFC21]

Love all of it.

 

[JFish75]

I had this in another post but thought it should fit here as an update, when I bought the car the original owner had a billet gas cap and antenna. I was never super thrilled about it and I have the original with the box of original parts that came with it. But I think this turned out pretty cool as an accent and I painted the antenna black also. Just wrapped in “carbon fiber” vinyl wrap.

 

[JFish75]

In 2019 I made a 2nd trip to Blackhawk Farms after the cam install, what better way to test your workmanship right? Needless to say it held together so I obviously did something right!
Take a ride with me on one of my best laps, volume up!

 

[IDAFC21]

Not bad!!

 

[JFish75]

Not bad!!

Thank you!

 

[JFish75]

Oil change, finally getting ready for the season even though weather is supposed to tank again this week.

 

[95SC]

Very nice clean manual Fbody , just turn this into another drag car with auto