🔧 BUILD LAME Turbo V6 Camaro

General Information

Hello! Welcome to the shit show! I am updating this post in 2021 to explain what new readers are about to witness. If I knew that this thread and build were going to explode into what it is today, I would have started it out a lot different.

This car was (and still is) a basket case. The whole inspiration for starting this project was to start learning how to modify engines in a car that I didn't like. That way, if and when I screwed up, I wouldn't be ruining a nice car. It spiraled out of control from the first moment that I felt boost. I loved what I had created, but it took a ton of work to get to where I was. As soon as I got the car running nicely I was always saying "I'm going to fix______, and THEN I'll just enjoy driving it." You know the drill. Drive, break, fix, repeat! Before I knew it, I enjoyed driving and working on this turd more than the nice car I was trying to preserve!

The point is that the focus of this thread shifts A LOT. To complicate matters, I never have just one ongoing project open at a time. I listed some thread contents with links below. I will update this as new milestones or big updates happen. Just know that even if you click on the shortcut, you may have to scroll past other project posts to reveal the outcome. There are also some mini-projects and very helpful advice from other members in between, so read the whole dang thing if you want!

2018-2019
1. A late introduction
2. Discovering how a PCV works (and plugging it)
3. Custom grill for intercooler
4. Fuel pump trap door
5. Learning that I'll never learn anything from my goofy wide band gauge
6. Deleting AC completely, but retaining heat
2020
7. Low profile heater hose fittings
8. Deleting an air bag without setting a light on the dash
9. Starting a second round of floor repairs
10. ABS delete and line lock installation
- A separate thread for the electrons
11. Installing catch cans with nice brackets (Way overkill)
12. Figuring out the "blow by" problem once and for all (F-body intake plug)
13. Second clutch job, first rear cover job, and preliminary transmission swap research
14. Floors are "done", and Interior is installed.
15. I don't know how to tune, but this wide band might help.
16. Poly trans mount. Yeah, it actually deserves a link.
17. I waved the tuning white flag. Dyno Brian sets me straight!
18. T5 Pro5.0 shifter
19. New shifter was too much fun. OG T5 explodes, and my transmission conversion ideas start to get serious.
-TKX conversion
-TKX swap official write-up
20. Reconfiguring my exhaust for a quieter and less leaky future
21. I'm not done enjoying this car for the year, so I install a $100 T5 instead of a bulletproof conversion. SPOILER ALERT: It only lasts two months.
22. Minor repairs/updates that make the car livable (lighting, stereo, speedometer re-zero, and a clutch master cylinder that actually does it's job!)
23. Wheels and addressing rust again since I got time!
2021
24. Custom center caps
25. 1.9 roller rockers and LS6 springs
26. CAI V2.0
27. TKX is delayed so it's time to address the little annoyances.
-OE pan is junk. Dorman pan gets hot rodded
28. TKX is still delayed, so I install just one poly engine mount and beef up my flimsy turbo drain plumbing
29. TKX does NOT ship the following Monday. Flywheel bolts upgraded to ARP M10 x 1.0
30. When you're on a Chinese garbage budget, you better be ready to work harder. (Oil drain fitting hot rodding)
31. Finally repairing the oil sender pig tail, replacing the other engine mount, and test fitting the TKX.
32. Finally addressing rear brake lines while I wait for more transmission parts.
33. Modifying an ICM for a WOT box
34. Dash gets re-instrumented so that diagnostics become possible.
35. N2MB WOT box
36. Porked crank key. PSA: Be careful installing your balancer!
37. Car runs great after plug change, but the rear main seal needs to be changed again.
38. BURNOUT! Also, I kinda bought a cam.
39. Turbo drain finale (better be) and full exhaust commenced
2022
40. Downpipe V3 and BMR strut tower brace
41. Panhard bar and relocation for bro truck exhaust
42. Muffler, driveshaft, torque arm, and giving up smoking.
43. First trip to the GS Nationals (feat. time slip)
44. The very custom AC project is born
45. New dyno results (up 50 hp!)
46. Exhaust hanger repair before Michigan/S.S. Badger/Wisconsin trip
47. Sizing a better turbo
48. Painting but still not installing the IS3 heads and Monster clutch unboxing
49. Firewall brace
50. New ECM
2023
51. Out of storage and SC engine buy failure #3
52. Modified double roller and spitballing crankcase evac ideas
53. Completing the rear suspension. UMI rear control arms.
54. Cracked headers and L32 swap begins
55. My newest L32 was trash. I'm upgrading the L36 instead
56. Side project: The ultimate-ish intake manifold takes shape


Now back to 2018!
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Now that this car is running and driving, I figured I would start a thread dedicated to all the questions I’m about to pummel this group with. This is the first time I've really built anything to move quicker than stock, so I'm hoping to learn a lot from you guys before I make unnecessary mistakes. I also have a thread in the Turbobuick.com 3800 section, but I'm not getting as much input there due to a lack of audience. Here goes nothing...

The car I have is a 2002 Camaro with only ONE factory option (rear window defogger). The story supposedly goes that my buddy's dad was looking forever for a new Camaro because he never buys anything for a penny more than the best deal. He almost ran out of time as this was the final model year for the F-body, and '03s were already on the market. The dealer from which he found this car bought it for the sole purpose of being able to advertise "Brand new Camaros for under $10k", so this was the one he took home.

Fast forward to 2018. The car was structurally a wreck from living in the rust belt, but has a great interior, okay black paint, a third pedal, a 3800 (which is a plus in my book), and a lot of sentimental value since I remember riding in it when it was brand new. My buddy’s dad handed me the keys in hopes that I would enjoy it and make it a race car. To be honest, I don’t care for F-bodies, but I couldn't resist this one for the reasons above despite knowing that the floors were in desperate need of existing again.

I already had my dream car which is a 1986 Buick Regal Grand National. As much as I love that car, I like it the way it is in fairly stock form and modifying Buicks has gotten terribly expensive anyway. I figured a black 3800 Camaro could easily fulfill my childhood dreams of racing a badass turbo Buick V6 car while being on a budget, so here I am.

The car is now equipped with:
-6765 ebay turbo
-Precision PW40 wastegate
-Custom turbo exhaust utilizing a stock Camaro and FWD manifolds
-Air to air ebay intercooler
-AEM 50-1200 fuel pump
-Siemens Deka 80# fuel injectors
-Open 3” downpipe
-Custom 3” charge pipes
-Intense mail order tune
-Very ugly but functional upright radiator conversion (the core support was all just rust anyway) :dunno:
-Custom space saving AC delete without bypass pulley
-Midwest Chassis bumper support modified to mount my intercooler
-Spec Stage 1 clutch kit

The car is far from refined and has a lot of little issues to sort out, but I will leave the first post as sort of an introduction to that. I hope you enjoy hearing about it. It’s been fun to build!

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v6buicks

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I made this fancy little recovery tank over the weekend. It certainly wasn't on the top of my list of priorities, but I was tired of not having one. I hope it holds up. I also found some supposed brand new OEM F-body valve covers on ebay, so I snagged those. I figured it would be nice to start working on the catch can set-up while still driving the car.
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Coolant recovery tank 9-19.jpg
 
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v6buicks

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I was not sure how limited my intercooler efficiency was due to lack of air flow through the bumper. I'm not wondering any more though. Thanks to my awesome girlfriend who has a much better eye than me for outlining the cut!
Bumper Hole 1.jpg
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Bumper Hole 3.jpg


Bumper Hole 4.jpg


Bumper Hole 5.jpg


I plan on finishing it off with some sort of black mesh in the new hole to make it look a little better.
 

v6buicks

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I failed to mention that the car has not been running at all since Friday. It won't even make an attempt to run. There's no spark or injector pulses, so I'm trying to replace the crank sensor. However, the Camaro has the funky looking balancer and my 3800 puller bolts aren't working. Does anybody have any tips or tricks for these? I have a 3 jaw puller, but I'm afraid that its just going to tear the rubber and leave me with the center section.

97 Camaro Balancer.jpg


EDIT: I stooped really low and asked the 3800 Performance Facebook page about this, and actually got a decent response. I found some 1/4" -28 x 3" and 4" bolts. I'm going try using these instead of the service tool since they have more threads. I heard that as these wear out, the outer portion of the balancer gets further from the threads which makes it almost impossible to use the service tool. Longer threads might be the fix. It's free so it's worth a shot.
 
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v6buicks

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Just kidding. Those raised holes actually have threads in them. They just had so much rust colored dirt packed in them that you would never know. The thread is 5/16"-18. Hopefully I didn't destroy it while attempting to pull it off with a 3-jaw. It bounced back just fine and the rubber doesn't seem cracked, so I'm going to send it. Sadly, this is all I got done today...

1.jpg


Warning... semi-gross biology ahead.


It's not that bad, but it did cause me to come inside early for the fourth day in a row.



















Something has been biting me like crazy, and it gets to the point where my determination to finish what I'm doing is overcome by the itching. These are the only ones I could get decent pictures of, but I have much bigger ones on my back. They stick up almost a 1/4"! My girlfriend is super paranoid and wants me to take a break from car stuff until the bugs settle down. I don't think I can wait that long!
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v6buicks

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The car is back together, but as expected I need to do a CASE learn. Has anybody done this using their Aeroforce gauge? I see it has the capability, but when I click on it makes me jump through hoops that I can't get through like revving the engine to 4k rpm.

I said "screw it" and decided to buy a Tech 2. I've wanted one for a long time anyway. Hopefully it does me some good.
 

v6buicks

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This issue has been burning a hole in my brain all day, so I'm going to share a little more. I didn't have injector pulses on my test light or spark, so the crank sensor was my go-to. After replacement I went to start it. It would start almost immediately but then die almost immediately. I then tried to do a CASE learn not knowing the procedure and I think I made it worse because its back to not even trying to run. Hopefully I can figure it out with my Tech II. I'm pretty excited to finally have good scan tool anyway..
 

SaturdaysGS

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This issue has been burning a hole in my brain all day, so I'm going to share a little more. I didn't have injector pulses on my test light or spark, so the crank sensor was my go-to. After replacement I went to start it. It would start almost immediately but then die almost immediately. I then tried to do a CASE learn not knowing the procedure and I think I made it worse because its back to not even trying to run. Hopefully I can figure it out with my Tech II. I'm pretty excited to finally have good scan tool anyway..

I believe the car should run regardless of needing a case learn. The case learn more or less helps the computer know which cylinders would be misfiring. You have another issue.

 
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v6buicks

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I think it's VATS delete time. Using my spare key made the car run, but this is a bit silly because my I thought security was turned off in the tune. I also don't have the security light like I had seen on other GM cars with a bad VATS key. Oh well. It's a place to start. It's not the end though.

I did the CASE learn and the car still runs like shit. I'll pull the plugs again soon and see what might be the problem. I'm thinking a bad injector which sucks since these are brand new and I paid a lot of money for them. However, I sometimes smelled strong ethanol when I was cranking it forever with the bad key. Why do I always get so many problems at once?! It makes diag. very difficult. lol

Thanks to all you guys for pointing at the easy stuff and getting me out of my tunnel vision.
 

v6buicks

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Pump is brand new too. AEM 50-1200. The entire system gets re-primed every time I turn the key even if I've just shut it off. Without carpet it's pretty noticeable. That could be because of a bad pump check valve, but if that was the case I think my starts would take longer and the car should still run fine.
 

v6buicks

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After playing with the GN for about a week I finally got back to the Camaro. It's fixed and running well again.

I went back to the basics and started unplugging injectors to try finding the misfires. Unplugging cylinder 2 and 5 yielded no change in RPM, so I blamed the coil which is one that I have already replaced. Granted, it was also an OEM unit with an unknown history. I knew this would happen eventually, so I had three brand new Delco coils on standby.

Question for you guys... Are these coils ground through those tiny mounting bolts? I noticed that my bolts were very rusty and actually getting so thin at the tops that I'm worried about snapping the heads off. For now, I just cleaned up the bolts with the wire wheel and put a dab of grease around each of the heads to attempt prevention of further corrosion and issues.
 

v6buicks

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Back to fun stuff with pictures! I finished the bumper, and I think it turned out even better in real life than it did in my head. This doesn't usually happen with my custom aesthetic body work projects. :LOL:

Bumper 2.jpg

It looked kinda gaudy without some paint. Plus, seeing the bare poly on the inside of the bumper wasn't pleasing either.
Bumper 3.jpg


Bumper 4.jpg


Bumper 5.jpg


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There are things that I would have done differently. Some cuts were made to fit the intercooler which was before I even had a vision for the bumper; however, I still think it turned out pretty slick for only four nights of work and a $30 Lowes bill. The Camera can't capture the black grille very well. You'll just have to take my word for it being better in person.
 

v6buicks

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Thanks a bunch! That means a lot. I have a lot of questions since this is the first time I've really modified a modern engine, and I sometimes wonder if it comes off like I give up too easily. I just like to document everything so that I have a thorough log of everything I do to this thing!

I hope things don't start to slow down too much, but the Camaro is at a pretty good stopping place. My GN really needs some work too and it has to get me through a five day trip at the end of the month. Regardless, of what happens I'll be back to working hard on the Camaro this winter.
 

v6buicks

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This crankcase pressure is out of control. This gasket is less than a year old.
Blown valve cover gasket 10-19.jpeg


I was trying to keep this car on the road through the cool fall weather so that I could enjoy it a little more until winter. However, I think I'm cutting that short. The rear main seal is considerably worse than before, and it is discovered that something is not right in the clutch. I've been trying to figure out how to launch from a stop. Having stock wheels, street tires, and an open rear end it should be easy to light up a tire, but all I get is clutch smoke. Since replacing the master cylinder the engagement on the clutch has been very high in the pedal throw. It's bad enough to where I'm not sure if my pressure plate even has full tension on the clutch disk. I'm rambling now. The point is that the car will go under the knife soon while my GN tears up the streets instead.
 

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