🔧 BUILD LAME Turbo V6 Camaro

[v6buicks]

I changed to zzp rockers which I'd say have a little bit more clearance at the retainer area but the bigger thing that helped was switching to zzp retainers. Those moved the spring hight down like .050 compared to the retainers that were in there. The installed hight with the zzp's were about 1.780" and they just have a really low profile in general

GREAT. So glad I sold my ZZP retainers. They were the older version anyway, so a new set should be lighter anyway.

 

[v6buicks]

I did some digging. The valves in my heads according to the Intense website are supposed to be Manley severe duty units. When I look at the part numbers they show up as LS valves.

I went ahead and bought a set of pedestal shims AND modified steel retainers from ZZP. With the .060" rocker height change, I will certainly have to recheck my lifter preload and probably, but I'll feel a lot better having the correct geometry vs just grinding reliefs. I bought retainers because if I don't decide it's better now I'll certainly use them for another project.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

You have is3/4 heads?
I don't think the is2 got the manley

 

[v6buicks]

You have is3/4 heads?
I don't think the is2 got the manley

Is3

...at least that was what I was told. The valves are definitely not stock

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

How's vsr on em?

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

Is3/4 cnc ports require shaving large portions of a gm aluminum lim gasket id

 

[v6buicks]

How's vsr on em?

They're the Manleys. They look bigger than the ZZPs.

Is3/4 cnc ports require shaving large portions of a gm aluminum lim gasket id

I'll be sure to pay attention to that. I smoothed the intake a little too, so I don't want an obstruction.

 

[v6buicks]

How's vsr on em?

So I was doing some reading and just found that you were probably referring to valve seat recession and not valve spring retainers. Lol

I have to guess it's fine because all the valves were even on my straight edge.

I'm borrowing a spring height mic from a buddy though, so I think that will tell me more.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

So I was doing some reading and just found that you were probably referring to valve seat recession and not valve spring retainers. Lol

I have to guess it's fine because all the valves were even on my straight edge.

I'm borrowing a spring height mic from a buddy though, so I think that will tell me more.

mic is a really good idea. You'll learn a lot. You'll also be able to shim your springs correctly if so inclined.

 

[v6buicks]

mic is a really good idea. You'll learn a lot. You'll also be able to shim your springs correctly if so inclined.

I spent a couple days at the GS nats helping swap valve springs in my buddy's GN last year. I had no idea how naive I was about springs. Lol

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Valve springs are ABSURDLY important as is valve height and all the stuff you're going through. You're stressing over it but it's stuff worth stressing over; You're talking about the stuff that will keep you from having weird ass problems later on at higher RPM; I ended up putting 1/4 inch longer push rods in that 383 I had in the Astro after I measured. Made a huge difference.

 

[turtleman]

i started diligently using lead substitute after i got the IS4 heads majorly refreshed (they recut the valve seats) and never had any issues but i don't have a control group to say you have to do that. I do know that induction hardening is only so deep so cheap insurance is probably worth it even on a streetish car. Those heads had the valve seats re-cut at least twice. The lead is supposed to act as a chemical surface hardening that needs to be part of the diet. Not good for the catalyst tho

 

[v6buicks]

Got some stuff from UPS and made plans to bolt the valve covers on for good.

I deburred the pedestal shims since they were rough as hell.

Woohoo! All rockers clear the retainers!

Then I started performing the sharpie test on all the valves. All of them looked pretty good with the 7.08" pushrod although some markings were tough to read. Most looked something like this though which I was happy with.

I torqued down the rockers which started out well with about 5/8 of a turn from 0 lash to full torque. One head stayed pretty consistent with that.

Then I went to other side and had problems. Not only did I have to make room in the head gasket which turned out like poo, but I my preload goes from iffy to non-existent. 0 lash cannot be achieved by hand on either of the #5 valves and it's at full torque in under 1/4 turn. There's even still some lash after torque too. That might explain why some of my markings were tough to read. #3 is just out of tolerance.

I bought 8 more pushrods. This time they're 7.05". I get to wait until the end of February for them, so I'll pout and dwell over not having this right until then.

I'll tell you what. I used to go back to page one and see how ugly, slapped together, and awful this car was and be so happy about how far it's come. Lately, I've been missing those days. I've done all the cheap, fun, and easy mods. Now I'm stuck only doing the laborious, expensive, and risky stuff. 🫤 Hopefully the L36 lasts a while and I don't have to do this again for a long time.

Here's how I smashed over the head gasket holes if anyone cares. I'm not thrilled about it. I'll probably be dropping lots of graphite into the valley.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

I probably have a bundle of 7.050 sitting somewhere

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

I gave up

I did find the rest of my l67 white injectors so I have 8 36lbers for the ferd.

So there's that

 

[v6buicks]

I took advantage of the 50+ degree temps to take the GN for a spin and get some things done before I pulled it back inside. It was a very therapeutic and long anticipated stretch of work, but it also came with some unpleasant realizations.

I had my mind set on chassis and suspension because I'm at a stalemate with engine parts not showing up.

For once, an area of the car I'm addressing for the first time really wasn't too rusty to begin with. I just wanted to clean up the suspension mounting points so I could throw everything together, but I might as well clean up everything around it too.

First, the plastic wheel well liner had to go. It's missing almost everything it mounts too so it flaps in the wind. Cutting the front half off reveals the metal that hasn't faired as well.

The patches aren't going to be pretty, but it'll be better than rust.

I didn't take any in progress pictures but I wore wheeled all the little rusty spots welds and rust where the suspension mounted. Then I shot over it with a rust converter and VHT chassis black. I did not get around to doing anything with the holes because I realized that I needed to take the whole front of the car apart to do it and I do not have the space to store all the parts. The GN needs to go to storage before I continue working on the shell. Damn.

So I switched my focus back onto the engine. I didn't have any parts to make meaningful progress but I've been long overdue for mocking stuff up with the modified intake and other ideas I had. For one, I started researching parts I wanted a while back and in thata research learned that EFI fuel pressure regulators don't get plumbed the same way as carbureted symptoms. My idea for using the L32 rails is out, so I'll have to figure out something else. The custom L36 rails are back in the saddle.

I never noticed that the angle of which L36 and L67 injectors are aimed in the port is different by about 15 degrees so technically the L36 rails are still wrong for an L67 even if I make the correct brackets. I'm pretty sure they'll still seal fine, but I wonder if aiming the injector that crooked will result in the spray pattern hitting a wall. What do you guys think?

Even then, one won't fit because the alternator gets in the way. There's a lot of excess though and the fit is close. I'll just have to chop it down and have a new fitting welded on the end.

I've also been thinking that I don't want to fix my old hot side. I worry about the factory FWD manifold becoming an issue before I reach my goal anyway, so let's just go ahead with these.

How can I keep putting these damn things on the shelf when I love them this much??

I have an electric plan for deleting the belt driven power steering pump that gets in the way of the driver side header. I'll have to chop off and reroute the #5 primary to clear the steering shaft and build a new crossover with a T4 flange but it's worth it. This is gonna look sexy.

Another bit of motivation for going this way is that it makes no sense to axe LS coils. I have to move the ICM in order to run these cylinder heads so I might as well rewire it for the end goal. The ICM will likely be mounted on isolated standoffs on the firewall and ground strapped to the engine to avoid a ground loop/noise. Then I still need to mount the LS coils somewhere. I'd like to weld standoffs onto some aluminum valve covers, so I won't have room for the downpipe that I've loved for so long.

This cam and head swap started a rather long train of dominoes, but I guess there aren't any more excuses!

 

[v6buicks]

Oh yeah. I forgot about this. As mentioned in the lounge, I bought new NTK knock sensors. I have no idea if mine were bad or what was going on when I first built the car, but the engine is out so I'm going to swap them and hope I can turn them back on when it gets retuned.

I wrapped them in some killmat as well. I hear that helps with isolating itself from any outside percussions.

I was sure that there was a different torque spec for boosted cars but I'm finding everything I'm finding says otherwise. I'm also glad I didn't torque to 14lb/ft because rechecking the spec revealed that number to be in lb/in! That's sensitive! I'll probably need to borrow a smaller torque wrench.

Edit: no way. That's for sure a misprint. That's so light that it wouldn't seal. Plus, it doesn't agree with the metric spec. It has to be lb/ft. Here's the FSM just so don't think I'm going crazy

 

[ASlowV6]

Are you going with the Volvo PS pump? If so let me know and I’ll dig up the link to the CAN controller that I’m using on mine.

 

[v6buicks]

Are you going with the Volvo PS pump? If so let me know and I’ll dig up the link to the CAN controller that I’m using on mine.

That's a likely plan. I should have ripped the pump out of my C30 before I traded it in. They didn't give me shit for the car anyway.

 

[ASlowV6]

That’s exactly what I ripped mine out of at the junkyard lol. If I remember correctly several fords and Mazdas got the same pump.

I kinda like those C30s. I was hoping my wife would go for one after we retired her V70 from daily duty, but she wanted something bigger.

 

[v6buicks]

That’s exactly what I ripped mine out of at the junkyard lol. If I remember correctly several fords and Mazdas got the same pump.

I kinda like those C30s. I was hoping my wife would go for one after we retired her V70 from daily duty, but she wanted something bigger.

It was a great car, but it was kind of terrible at the same time. The hatch was pretty worthless even when you folded the seats down. Nothing fits through that little glass window. If I could have done it all again, I would have looked for a V50 T5 AWD. Since my truck only gets a few mpg worse and does it on 87 octane.... Good riddance!

 

[ASlowV6]

I absolutely loved the V70, but my Roadmaster did better on gas. Volvos are hogs!

 

[sktchy]

As long as the injector sprays in the general direction of the valve so it gets sucked in with the air charge I would think it'd be fine. I've asked the spray pattern question between L36 and L67 placement assuming gm had a reason for it and got crickets sooo

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

The angle from front cover to rear is the same, only the lay back angle changes and that's because the inj shoots at valve and sc injectors are right on top of em

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Man you're doing the lord's work. That's weird on the heads, it's like there's tolerances there that are weird or something was cut.