šŸ”§ BUILD LAME Turbo V6 Camaro

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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 Iā€™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 buddyā€™s dad handed me the keys in hopes that I would enjoy it and make it a race car. To be honest, I donā€™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 3ā€ downpipe
-Custom 3ā€ 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. Itā€™s been fun to build!

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sktchy

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I do remember being told about the end ones first. One thing that I think helped me the last time I did mine was if I saw it start to push the valve down I would stop and leave that one alone until I rotated the crank some to get it off of the base circle. I'm not sure I went 60ā° or anything but by the time I turned the crank 3 or 4 times they were all tightened down evenly and seemed to work as they should without making noise even with the chipped piston.

What about your pushrod length? One of my motors liked the 7.00s and they rattled in the other and it wanted the stock 7.05s. I really have no explanation why or that I even did it right at the time but obviously I wasn't measuring them like I should've either.

Otherwise I say boost test it with a good 10 or 15 psi make sure your good there before gettin too excited with much else. What's your wideband doing? And also what's wrong with your prolink? The way ive got mine to work is by logging signal voltage on whatever particular wire I have my signal plugged into be it blue or red and then transforming it to the data I need it to log, so far it's worked great
 

sktchy

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Dude my prolink is hooked up with just wires twisted together maybe wire nuts if I'm feeling fancy and I never have issues with it logging

A while back I remember seeing guys having issues with the aem gauges themselves and aem replacing them maybe? I can't remember what your running for sure but maybe that's where it issue is?
 

v6buicks

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Dude my prolink is hooked up with just wires twisted together maybe wire nuts if I'm feeling fancy and I never have issues with it logging

A while back I remember seeing guys having issues with the aem gauges themselves and aem replacing them maybe? I can't remember what your running for sure but maybe that's where it issue is?
I can usually wiggle wires and make it bounce a few points so I know my wiring is trash. I just ripped it all out and decided to start over with alligator clips. Unfortunately it hasn't gotten me very far. The really strange thing is that I was logging a believable reading with the car off and then it went to a flat 7.3:1 as soon as I started the engine. No re-grounding or wire shaking would make any difference at that point which doesn't make any sense. :confused:
 
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v6buicks

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What about the sensor itself maybe? I wouldn't see anyway the 7 could be accurate my car gets big mad when it tries to idle in the 10s
It's not real because it doesn't move. The sensor is fine because the gauge displays the real deal.

I figured it out. It's that damn OBD splitter. I hate that I can't use HP and Aeroforce at the same time. I guess I just need to forget about it and move on. It's not really necessary to see anything without working knock sensors anyway. I guess I can start looking at the fuel system because its running lean even just idling in the driveway.
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v6buicks

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I said "screw it." I'm not bothering with diagnosing this trash. I started rewiring everything I added in the console and dash. While I'm in there I'm going to replace the AutoMeter boost gauge with an AEM controller because the line is kinked in several places and I don't want to come back here. I'll just be using it as a gauge until I get the car to run right though.
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v6buicks

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I made a "drawagram" as I'm calling it. A true diagram would have made the layout, connector types, and actual logistics a bit tough to plan.
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There are a couple things for which I need opinions though. First, I'll clear up the mess above a bit. I have four devices that I deleted and want to re-add. They are the wideband, boost gauge/controller, line lock, and HPT Pro Link. Things get messy because some of this stuff is pretty sensitive and needs to be tied together. The line lock already has it's own slick hot at all times power source. The boost gauge and and wideband do not, and AEM suggests fusing each of them at 5A. The boost controller has some fancy features which I do not plan to set up right away, but I want those options to be available in the future via simple programming. Therefore, a switch for scramble boost in the ashtray, and another LED for overboost warning in the bezel will be added.

As far as power goes, do any of you find it necessary to have two separate fuses for the gauges? Space behind the gauges is pretty plentiful, but the switched 12V power source I'm using is from a stock unused connector (base models FTW). Any fuse I add to this circuit is also going to be fused closer to the battery, and I just can't imagine even these fancy AEM gauges drawing much current. If you all think a second fuse or a different switched power source would be wise, I'll probably have to buy some more stuff.

As for grounds, I used to have four of them in three different bolts, and it was a friggen mess. I now need six. The wideband sensor, analog output, pro link, and boost gauge need grounds and they all may be sensitive to ground loops. The roll control and both LEDs could probably be grounded together, but they'll be so far apart that it wouldn't make sense.
Six separate grounds is going to be a new mess unless I use something like this. Waddya think? Is it still a potential ground loop that can send noise into my sensor circuits?
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sktchy

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I think you may be overcomplicating it. The wideband will pull the most because of the sensor heater but otherwise just put em on switched power wether you prefer key or a flip switch or whatever get em grounded good and send it. Maybe there is somethin to the ground thing but gauges havent ever been somethon I've had to fight in mine
 

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v6buicks

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The ground bus bar is coming tomorrow. Deutsch connectors, split loom, an assortment of wire, and my well thought plan are bringing this all together very nicely. It's just a long process when you actually take the time to make documentation for future reference, cut the wires to a proper length, and tie it in cleanly with other circuits.

My least favorite part is that it often looks like you've done absolutely nothing until it's actually done. Here's after a few hours of work.

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v6buicks

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I messed up really good yesterday. I was soldering the LED wires and managed to drop hot solder directly into my wideband connector. Of course it was the tiny one too. I haven't had much luck getting it out yet. I did get a wire hot enough to turn it into a ball, but it wants to stick to the pins rather than the wire. Cool. Maybe the desoldering station at work will help.
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The reason I was up there anyway was because, I discovered a flaw in my plan. The line lock LED wasn't switched by anything. It was on all the time. Now I'm redoing all kinds of stuff to fix that. I also failed to notice that the boost warning LED is ground controlled so that needs to be flipped and powered. Fun times. The layout is looking pretty cool though.
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v6buicks

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I fixed all my fuck ups except for the wideband solder blob which is keeping me from installing the gauge pod again. I figured that I'm kinda stuck until until I go to work or get my ashtray switch panel, so I decided to finally paint the gauge pod. They are shipped in a primer that looks almost identical to the original plastic color, but it gets scratched really easily. All the in and out from wiring new stuff and drilling holes for LEDs took its toll, so I shot some low gloss black on it. Something flatter probably would have been better, but I suppose I can change it up later. It'll certainly be better than it was!
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