🔧 BUILD LAME Turbo V6 Camaro

[Turbocharged400sbc]

i hate how often the use of abrasive ass anti seize is recomended

talk about threadwear lol

 

[v6buicks]

Or you can buy my ARP SR20 bolts at a little discount. That is if you're willing to do a little drilling and tapping.

I figure it's worth doing a little extra work now and never needing to buy bolts or worry about shearing them again.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

I just use the longer ford 5.0 clutch pressure plate bolt kits.

Because of the 1/4in long shoulder on the bolt you have to drill out the first two threads.... ultimate shear strength though for 5/16ths Hardware

 

[Rdrnnr]

Hell I'm just gettin em back on I just posted back in my thread instead of here. Rear cover went well. Definitely let the gasket settle the bolts I had loose were the same that needed retorqued. I'm goin back together now I don't expect this to make it long anyway lol

 

[v6buicks]

I started making a scraper. I started with a piece of shitty tin so that I could cut it easily. I didn't have card stock available.

Then I tried making the real deal.

It fit great on the pick-up and gasket, but then I realized my logistical issue. How am I going to install this? Can I get away with installing the pan, gasket and pickup at the same time? Obviously I'd still have to install the pick-up first, but I don't think it would be impossible by any means. It would just kinda suck.

Since I was getting frustrated, I switched over to getting the new bung ready. That went great.

This whole pan is a shit show. It seems that it was primed and painted with some really crappy paint because it started falling off the second I placed a brake cleaner soaked rag on it. I don't have a blast cabinet or access to one. I'm thinking about switching back to the old one now. Maybe I can replace the drain plug with a better one. That also seems like it could be a tough project since the original one with the stripped head already leaks.

 

[v6buicks]

New drain plug it is. I'm going to blame my pan rail leak on the rear cover alignment and torn gasket. Dorman has an oring style plug (assuming the picture represents the actual product) which will work much better than the sealing washer that came with the pan. It also appears to have a taller head, so no more stripping. It's just going to be tough removing the old bung and welding a -12 in it's place.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

most plugs will have a captured O ring meaning its in a groove and unseen while the plug is installed. i know dorman has it cause i bought it and a magnetic one for the cressida SI/LN3 that i installed the SII F body pan on.

i took the stocker, drilled the tip and installed the magnet i yanked out of the other plug (washer sealed...fuck that) with a drop of rtv in the bottom of the hole.

im a big fan of magnets if youve seen my build pics.

the baffle is welded to the inside wall of the pan aligned with the gasket/windage tray opening

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

Don't mind the upper right it kind of caught fire at one point when I was killing mosquitoes with brake cleaner and a lighter. It was close to the same shape as the left side.

Dashed lines are where it is bent downward and then I just grind and fit it to clear the pickup tube that I cut the side of a block out of a junk engine to make a fixture for.

I'm fairly certain I made a water jet program for it and a couple of extras but I have no clue where I stashed them

 

[v6buicks]

most plugs will have a captured O ring meaning its in a groove and unseen while the plug is installed. i know dorman has it cause i bought it and a magnetic one for the cressida SI/LN3 that i installed the SII F body pan on.

i took the stocker, drilled the tip and installed the magnet i yanked out of the other plug (washer sealed...fuck that) with a drop of rtv in the bottom of the hole.

im a big fan of magnets if youve seen my build pics.

the baffle is welded to the inside wall of the pan aligned with the gasket/windage tray opening

Trying to use sealing washers on these pans seems really stupid. It works fine on machined aluminum pans, but stamped steel? It's only dumb luck if you don't have leaks.

I guess I could move the gasket to the pan after I make a reference point with one of the bolt holes. Or since this gasket is sacrificial, I could just glue the two together, transfer the gasket to the pan, And then mark where the scraper needs to be welded.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

dont close off the oil duct/louver, your closing off behind the pickup, your keeping oil from getting up to the bores, closing it off like that will make it worse

you can see where i opened up the oil sling louvers to allow the full width of the crank throw to be able to sling into the sump instead of slinging it up onto 2,4,6 and knife edged them to direct the oil away from the crank and into the sump. i even mod the Tchain drain area with its own oil slinging "duct"

well Al and I got some more shit done...didnt finish the heads but we did finish the pan modz n button up the bottom end.

advanced down the block had the Specter/SPI pan in stock 65$ out the door part number GMP11B

single layer steel

welded in the cyl 4 scraper and since our primary oil return is via the timing area i dented and folded the front nose for a more direct path below the windage tray and down into the pan.

one nice thing is this pan would make it easy to fab a large volume pan.

130$ and weld the bottom onto the other with a simple extension on the pickup tube...thinkin about it. definitely getting another one for the TR....if any car needs it the flaming turd does...

here you can see the drainback and the scraper with the jig installed.

the Timing oil drain path and chain scraper through the windage tray opening

you can see the longer tray slots actually open across both rods and most of the counterweights. sealed the shit outta it and screwed it down....

 

[v6buicks]

I don't understand yet, but I'll reread this when I have my stuff in front of me again. Thanks for the tips.

 

[v6buicks]

I got my vaccine a couple days ago which came with the side effect of not wanting to play with cars. I'm back at it though.

I cut and drilled the -10 off my old pan.

and welded a -12 in it's place. FWIW. I did not do this because I thought I needed it to be bigger. I think better routing would be a much better solution which is why I'm making hard lines that ensure a downward slope. However, I only have access to 3/4" line bender. I don't have anything for 5/8". Also notice that I got a much nicer drain plug with the embedded oring. As much as I love the tall head on that plug, I am a bit concerned about it interfering with my crossover. I guess we'll see when it's all together again.

Buh bye

I needed to clean up the inside of the pan this time because I had a nice lip that wouldn't clean up with the drill. A carbide burr bit on the die grinder did the trick.

I'd hate to say it, but I'm probably going to skip the windage baffle. I'm way out of my element there. As simple as the mod looks, I fear that I'm going to end up making an issue worse rather than better.

 

[v6buicks]

I forgot to talk about something else too.

When I pulled the pipe off to replace the timing cover gasket, I noticed a small bubble in the paint. When I poked it, wet paint didn't come out, but coolant did! Oh well. I've said it once, and I'll say it again. That was WAY too much work to fix something that wasn't broken. While this hose doesn't look great either, I shouldn't have to worry about a thing.

 

[v6buicks]

OH YEAH!

Putting the hose on prompted me to fill this thing back up with coolant too. That shitty aluminum elbow leaks really bad. See how projects can quickly spin out of control?! I don't know why I'm so anxious about the transmission taking so long to ship. I have so much other crap to take care of that I probably STILL won't be ready to install it by the time it get's here.

17 days if Jegs isn't lying to me.

 

[v6buicks]

I'm regaining my zen, and progress is picking back up. I decided to try another pair of aluminum elbows I had. Why not? If other people have had good luck with them then the quality control must suck. The second pair went in with a respectable amount of resistance. I slammed all that back together, filled with coolant, and observed no leaks! Sick. I'm done under the hood for a while. *slams that bitch shut and wipes hands*

While I was doing that, I filled my oil pan with water and waited for leaks to show themselves.

No, that is not actually what the water in Indiana looks like although it sure would explain a lot. I doused the pan in WD40 before hand to prevent rusting later. Anyway, I found a small leak that I'm choosing not to fix. It's so small that after sitting for an hour the water didn't even make it to the ground.

After wrestling for a while and completely forgetting how much of a pain in the ass it is to install one of these oil pans, I got it done. The engine is finally sealed back up. Tonight I'm going to try another thing that wasn't on the list.

Dammit, Jon! Stop making this project bigger than it needs to be!

I have had poly engine mounts in my basement for over a year now, and I know that my stock rubber ones are shot. With the transmission out and the k-member loosened, I think it's a good time to use the "while I'm in there" excuse. <-Famous last words. If that goes well, I'll start drilling my crank! 13 more days until the transmission is shipped. ?

 

[Rdrnnr]

Keep goin bigger it makes me feel better about the stuff I do to mine and you usually get to the hard stuff first [emoji2937]

 

[v6buicks]

...I decided to try another pair of aluminum elbows I had. Why not? If other people have had good luck with them then the quality control must suck. The second pair went in with a respectable amount of resistance. I slammed all that back together, filled with coolant, and observed no leaks!...

It's a good thing too. If I hadn't gotten that stuff figured out last night I'd be ready to burn the car down. Not sure what this is about. Maybe the dealer still sells them. I'll have to remember this next time.

 

[v6buicks]

I have never needed to replace these clam shell style motor mounts before. I guess if you're swapping stock rubber for stock rubber you toss this whole part away and put the new $5 part in it's place. Done.

For poly, it involves drilling the welds out of the shell, pulling the rubber, cleaning the hell out of the inside, and zip tiying the shells back together until the bolts are secured. I decided this was a good opportunity to repaint.

Per my usual slacking, that's all I've got for that process. It's way too difficult to get any pictures of them inside of the car, but I should have showed the completed mount anyway. Whatever. Just imagine a bunch of cussing as I wiggle the engine hoist and try to get my bolts straight in the frame.

That was last night. Today's job was mowing down that jungle you see in the last picture and improving the turbo oil drain. It's a good thing I decided to do this. It appears that the steering shaft was rubbing.

This picture sucks, but the phone was practically resting on my face as I took it. This is my first test fit. I have tube nuts and sleeves on the way with an adapter fitting. It looks like I need to bend the tube another 15 degrees or so.

 

[Rdrnnr]

I have never needed to replace these clam shell style motor mounts before. I guess if you're swapping stock rubber for stock rubber you toss this whole part away and put the new $5 part in it's place. Done.
View attachment 86373

For poly, it involves drilling the welds out of the shell, pulling the rubber, cleaning the hell out of the inside, and zip tiying the shells back together until the bolts are secured. I decided this was a good opportunity to repaint.
View attachment 86374


Ok so I think that's what I was supposed to do with the torque arm bushing was drill the rivets and slap the new one in. But ripping the rubber out and cleanin it up with a grinder worked out alright too.

Per my usual slacking, that's all I've got for that process. It's way too difficult to get any pictures of the inside of the car, but I should have showed the completed mount anyway. Whatever. Just imagine a bunch of cussing as I wiggle the engine hoist and try to get my bolts straight in the frame.

That was last night. Today's job was mowing down that jungle you see in the last picture and improving the turbo oil drain. It's a good thing I decided to do this. It appears that the steering shaft was rubbing.
View attachment 86375

This picture sucks, but the phone was practically resting on my face as I took it. This is my first test fit. I have tube nuts and sleeves on the way with an adapter fitting. It looks like I need to bend the tube another 15 degrees or so.
View attachment 86376

Yours is so much prettier than mine I threadtaped the shit out of and 10an fitting and sent that bitch home, there's some pretty good flex in these pans when u put a lil torque to em btw ?

 

[Mook]

Awesome job on the first post

 

[v6buicks]

Yours is so much prettier than mine I threadtaped the shit out of and 10an fitting and sent that bitch home, there's some pretty good flex in these pans when u put a lil torque to em btw ?

I'm trying. It gets a little bit nicer every time I redo it. I guess it's the boy scout in in me. I try to leave everything nicer than I found it.

Awesome job on the first post

Thanks!

Let's be real. Nobody is going to read the whole thread anymore. I might as well make it easy to skip to the good parts!

 

[Rdrnnr]

I'm trying. It gets a little bit nicer every time I redo it. I guess it's the boy scout in in me. I try to leave everything nicer than I found it.

QUOTE]
If it was somebody else's i definitely would've ordered the right thread fitting or fittings in or tapped it, I need to get a torch yet so I can start brazing some stuff. But on mine me knowing both are soft enough that if i don't strip it it'll be aight. And it technically is better than I left it cuz the oil level sensor had seen better days after 265k lol.

That bein said I'm breakin my tire guy habits and goin back to bein kinda anal about things and that's what takes me forever to get anything done on it anymore lol

 

[Rdrnnr]

Also I see my quoting skills are terrible, my bad ?

 

[v6buicks]

Holy crap.

I have a lot of work to do!!

I fiddled with the drain line some more. I have to hope and pray that I can still flare the pan side after bending it so close to the end. It's going to be close. I also cut the hose side too short. I'll either have to buy a new piece of tube and recreate it or weld some more tube back on.

I also decided to start this project.

After an hour or so of pulling that heavy flywheel on and off a bunch of times, drilling, blowing, lubing, all overhead while laying on my back, I got this far. Yep. Two out of eight. I need to lift the car up about a foot in the rear so that I can sit pretzel legged in the tunnel. I think that would be much more ergonomically pleasing. I admit that I kinda botched the first hole. The bottom half of the threads are solid but not so much on the top. Hopefully they'll hold the full torque spec. The trick ended up being to use the flywheel as a jig for the tap. It's a lot softer, easier to get straight, and the perfect hole size. By the time the tap is threaded into the flywheel, there's no wiggle room for the tap to walk, so it goes straight in. The rest of the holes should be easy as long as my bit stays sharp. lol

 

[v6buicks]

Flared up. Test fit tonight.