🔧 BUILD LAME Turbo V6 Camaro

[v6buicks]

Damn dude, you don't mess around

Haha. The cards I've chosen have given me few options! Two toys, a respectable but oddball daily driver, a 30 year daily driver for my girlfriend, a two car garage, and a short driveway means I need to hunker down and keep busy! I thrive off of it for the most part. Wrenching, hotrodding, figuring out the best way to keep my tools organized for optimal efficiency, and overall just improving my skills are all fun for me. However, I'd be lying if I said it didn't wear me out sometimes.

There was a short period where we had all of these cars PLUS a 1988 C1500 Silverado on top of it! Man, I sunk a ton of time and money into that thing. I thought I couldn't go wrong with 350 in a Chevy truck. It would be the simplest and most reliable thing I ever had and give me the trucking capabilities I needed. Having five cars to maintain and insure with one of them still not even paid off proved to be past my limit. If I had a bigger shop and plot of land I would have let it sit until I could get to it, but I sold it instead. I probably won't find another one as well optioned and rust-free for that kind of money again.

As much as I loved that truck I realized that it was time to downsize my stable so that my vehicles could get the attention they need. The C30 will have to go, and a newer and more reliable truck will take it and the Silverado's place. There's not as much adventure in it, but there's something to be said about having a vehicle that works all the time and does so with the comfort of air conditioning!

 

[v6buicks]

My new toy arrived early. This quarantine got me spendin!

 

[TurboTPI]

Glad to see your back on the road with the camaro!

 

[v6buicks]

Thanks man! I'm hoping that these 500 break-in miles will go quickly. I'd go drive around aimlessly, but you know... Stay at home.

Today I just took some back roads to add a few stops between home and work. I'm up over 100 miles already, so I should be able to get some cool videos soon. I've never really beat on it before. In fact, I don't think I've revved it over 5k. I'm kinda scared!

 

[v6buicks]

I guess I'm back at that "dreaming" phase I the Camaro's circle of life. lol You know, because nothing is ever good enough. Besides, I seem to like working on stuff more than actually driving stuff.

Anyway, I feel like a bit of a chump. I have a scan gauge and a wideband, but I'm not tuning anything on my own. At this point I have plenty of resources whic/who can help me get through the process. Plus, apparently buying HP through ZZP comes with remote tuning support which is pretty darn cool if you ask me. The other thing I'm looking at is a basic valvetrain upgrade. I've started noticing my valves floating and I haven't even hammered down past 4k. I know I've asked about this before and the answers really came down to how much I wanted to dig into and spend. I wish I could throw 130+ lb springs in and let it rip, but I know that's going to be rough on a stock timing chain. Any springs much looser than that will probably not be good enough for whatever cam I eventually buy. Now we've come full circle.

For now, my short-term dream is to throw some 105# springs in and start tuning. However, I don't plan to spend any money on this car until the world goes back to "safe" or some sort of "normal". I've been throwing money around like it's water despite having an unknown future with my job as well as known massive expenses toward the end of the summer. Besides, having a turbo L36 with 0 tuning experience is probably a rod bomb waiting to saw my block in half. Buying a full valvetrain upgrade instead of doing stuff in small stages would save money in the long-run, but I also don't want to potentially have an failure that trashes a cam and lifters. I'll save that stuff for my SC short block swap.

That was a lot of rambling... sorry for all the talk and little action. Please feel free to chime in and sway me a different direction if you think my choices are unwise. I'm still new to hotrodding!

 

[GTPpower]

I would look in Corvette groups for used ls6 springs. Those would work well for the stock cam and chain, and you can find a super low mile set for cheap.

 

[v6buicks]

I would look in Corvette groups for used ls6 springs. Those would work well for the stock cam and chain, and you can find a super low mile set for cheap.

I considered those too since they would be super cheap. I'm sure a stock LS6 redline is quite a bit higher than mine too. lol

 

[10sec]

How do you know you're floating the valves? You shouldn't be floating valves at 4k.

 

[v6buicks]

How do you know you're floating the valves? You shouldn't be floating valves at 4k.

Ehhhh okay this is embarassing, but I needed to hear that. 4k may be an exaggeration because the tach is not something I'm looking at very closely, but you're still right. I'm probably not floating the valves. Realistically, I might just be letting off the gas out of fear... which is making the engine fall on its face. lol I'm not exactly scared of crashing or anything like that. I guess I'm just scared that I'll blow up without anybody witnessing it or ever getting a time at the drag strip. Running the mail tune from Intense sketches me out.

What do you think? Maybe skip buying more hardware until I have some actual data to prove what the car needs?

 

[10sec]

The tune is just a general tune, it should have basic timing and fuel. All you need to do is monitor your wideband for a full 2nd gear pull (cause it's quick not super loaded) and make sure it's no leaner than 11.5:1 and it's safe enough. If it's leaner than that without a proper tune I would stay out of boost given your experience.

 

[v6buicks]

Is that 11.5:1 based off gas or E85?

 

[10sec]

it's safe for both.

 

[bs009]

I never understood why everyone says you'll hit valve float more with boost. Sure there's more pressure on the backside of the valves trying to push them open, but there's also even more pressure on the front side of the valve too under boost.
I never noticed any valve float yet in my Grand Prix and I've run tons of boost through it shifting at 5500 rpm. I'm still running the stock springs too. If it's there it's subtle enough that I haven't noticed it...

 

[GTPpower]

It's just some crazy rumor. If you sit down and actually do the math, boost adds almost no extra force to the valve.

It's mostly the cam profile that causes it, and maybe some weak springs.

 

[v6buicks]

it's safe for both.

I usually get roasted when I bring topics up like this because I don't know much. However, this doesn't seem right to me. I though 11.5 was pretty flippin lean for wide open on E85. My wide band doesn't even go to 12 and stoich for this stuff is like 9.7:1. I know lambda is lambda. That never changes, but I thought AFR should be be way richer with E85.

 

[10sec]

They read the same on a wideband.

 

[GTPpower]

10sec is assuming you leave the wideband calibrated for gas. Most people on this platform do that, so it acts like just using lambda.

If you calibrated it to e85, it would read 8.1 or whatever that goes to.


I did that for awhile, but it's just easier to leave it calibrated for gas and read it as if it were lambda.

 

[v6buicks]

Yeah, mines calibrated for E85. It's the one I show on page 1. I thought I was doing the "right" thing by opting for that before I knew that everyone just spoke in terms of gas AFR and lambda. I guess I at least have a little more useable range than I would if I were sticking to a gas cal'ed unit

 

[v6buicks]

I can't post the video. Imgur only allows up to a minute, but you'll have to take my word for it when I say that the daily is back in action! I still took the Camaro to work this morning because I really want to get this clutch broken in and figure out my Camera settings. On my way to work I popped off a charge pipe. I've never done that in this car, but when I do it on the GN I typically do a lot of cussing. It wasn't until now that I started to like the MAF integrated into the throttle body. Sure, the rest of my drive was boring, but at least I got there!

 

[v6buicks]

I'm trying to diagnose some Camaro issues. One thing I've always noticed is inconsistent boost control. Here's what I have.

The waste gate is a Precision PW40 and the boost controller is from Turbonetics. I went back to the directions for each to make sure I had everything plumbed right. What's funny is that Precision says I have it right. Turbonetics says "no".

I'm not sure what to do. The Precision way is the only way I've ever seen a simple set-up like this done, so I'm leaning toward getting a nicer boost controller to start. However, I'm not convinced that my waste gate is big enough or that my boost gauge is at all accurate. (Autometer) ZZP sells bigger gates than mine with their kits.

 

[bs009]

I would have the waste plumbed directly off of the turbo like precision says. Turbonetics has an iffy reputation anwyay. I have the boost gauge plumbed off the intake myself.

Are you getting too much boost or too little?
How is the exhaust plumbed into the wastegate? does it have to go through any sharp angles? I know that that's the issue with my manifolds.

 

[v6buicks]

Too much boost. Gauge is plumbed to the intake. Waste gate has a nice smooth transition. No sharp angles although maybe a bit too far away to be considered "priority". I'll post a picture in a bit.

 

[v6buicks]

 

[TurboTPI]

I dont think the wastegate location or angle would cause any issues. And I think your wastegate should be plenty big. My Firebird has a single 44mm gate for a 355ci SBC and a 76mm turbo. Never had a boost problem. My manual boost control only has one vacuum line going to the bottom of the wastegate. The top fitting is not used.

 

[v6buicks]

For those who have not seen yet, I started another thread in the general Automotive Discussions. I figured it was going to be a pretty detailed process that wasn't necessarily 3800 related, and I screwed up a long time ago by not putting this thread in the Members' Rides section. Oh well. Here ya go.

4th Gen Camaro Line Lock Wiring - The RIGHT way.

Sorry (super popular line lock kit company), your kit is too trashy even for my free car. Okay, that might have come off a little snobby. In fact, I am not in any way above this kind of hackery. I've made a lot of modifications to cars of which I am not too proud, but if I'm spending the...

www.thechicagogarage.com

Basically I have way too much time on my hands, so I'm trying something I wouldn't normally do for my line lock wiring. The kit was pretty junky anyway. Vampire crimps are simply unacceptable.

Speaking of way too much time on my hands, I bought another toy to keep me busy. After talking with one of the guys at ZZP, I decided to take tuning into my own hands! If you buy HP Tuners from ZZP, they will review your logs and give you tips on where you can improve. For someone like me who has no idea what the're doing or a good way to transport their untuned car, this is a big deal! My stimulus check is in, so HP Tuners is on the way!