🔧 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 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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sktchy

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desoldering braid or solder wick is what you're looking for. If you can get some a bit of coax outer jacket may be a good bet too.
There ya go I can tell you what it looks like and everything just couldn't grab the actual word. That or some fine braided wire will suck it right out of there tho. Just make sure to put the heat on the wire so the solder like walks to it if that makes sense.
 

v6buicks

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I think the solder sucker did the trick. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, it's basically a soldering gun with a straw tip and a vacuum pump. It's very handy! I never had a need for it until today.
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I checked the resistance between pins and have no shorts except for two pins that show 0.2 ohms. I had no idea if its supposed to be that way or not, but it's suspect since they are right next to each other. Only one way to find out!
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Sure enough, this "short" is part of the circuit. Now I can move on.
 

v6buicks

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That's a nice desoldeirng station. I really miss my soldering gear, it's in storage with the rest of my electronics gear right now.
Perks of the job. Lol. I have one of the spring loaded syringes too, but getting it in there with the iron wasn't gonna happen. This is the only time I've never needed the station.
 
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v6buicks

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I couldn't get pictures of the gauges powered up, but I was able to test everything (except the pro link) that I had 100% wired and set up. Everything is good so far. Wideband, boost gauge, and scan gauge all work. The line lock and associated LED work as well when I ground their respective wires. I was able to give the hose a quick suck n blow (;)) to make sure the boost gauge was actually going to do anything. It showed what I wanted to see, but I soon got a battery voltage error. I probably should have disconnected that before leaving the doors open for hours at a time.

As expected, the color of the pod isn't correct, but it beats scratched to hell primer. Unexpected is that the line lock LED no longer wants to hold itself in it's hole. :( I might need to put a tiny dab of silicone on it or something because I'm already pushing it back in every few hours or so without moving the car. Otherwise, I like the way this turned out! I'm happy to finally consider myself done with the dash for a while. The only thing I'd consider changing is the lack of fuel pressure monitoring. That should
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There aren't very many flat surfaces to mount the ground bus under the console. While this is slightly in the way of the shifter boot screw, it's pretty central. No regrets.
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This is probably still ugly to those with more experience than myself, but you should have seen it before! It is not recommended that the wideband sensor or scan gauge wires be cut, so I decided to keep them coiled and zip tied in here. Thank god for the AEM gauge having a normal vacuum hose fitting instead of nylon tube. Win. The only modification I made to the stock harness was replacing the proprietary TCS Metri-pack connector with a standard six-pin Deutsch. Before, I just had metri-pack pins without a connector electrical taped to the proprietary stock connector for a power tap. It worked, but it was ugly and unserviceable.
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I sorta kinda got ADD and tired of looking at this cob job of a shifter boot. It's still pretty bad, but a lot better than before. I'm really kicking myself for cutting the body now though. I'll have to weld a piece back in there some day, but that won't be until I trash this clutch or something.
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The nitrous switch plate should be here today so that I can finish this side project and get back to figuring out why the engine runs like ass! I swear if the wideband still doesn't get logged in HP reliably after this, I'm going to lose it! I have pretty high confidence though. I found a lot of issues with the junk I removed.
 
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v6buicks

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Thanks! The Nitrous Outlet switch plate is in my mail box right now, and I have a hose barb fitting for my boost reference on the way.

Speaking of which, I noticed that the provided tee fitting that comes with my used AEM boost controller has an orifice in it. I guess that means I have some reading to do, because I don't understand it's purpose. It's possible that I won't be able to remove my MBC and install the solenoid in it's place which would kinda suck, but I suppose that is a problem for the future.

EDIT: the instructions and stock photos don't show or mention using a special tee. sktchy sktchy3.8 was that tee even part of the kit or did you just toss that in there?
 
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sktchy

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It came along with it. Orifice goes towards the gauge but I'm guessing you figured that out already lol. I actually have the same kind of tee fitting on my glowshift gauge I used to replace that one (some idiot opted for pretty colors rather than functionality ?)

I assume it's to stabilize the gauge so it doesn't bounce but I also have a theory that it's why my gauge only showed 15 psi when my jbox peaked at 17 to 23 when I canned my last motor so I kinda have mixed feelings about running it. That gauge always seemed super accurate tho and being able to just push a button and see the high boost score was pretty cool. Get that scramble button hooked up it should be alot of fun
 

v6buicks

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Hmm that's strange to me. I guess it assumes that I would be teeing into my waste gate plumbing which is not how I was doing it before. I had the boost gauge hooked up separately straight to the manifold after the throttle. My waste gate plumbing I pre-throttle and hooked straight to the turbo housing as recommended by Precision. ?‍♂️ Should I just tee in and plug the manifold?
 

sktchy

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Leave your wastegate as is unless you plan on putting the mac valve to work and using it as a controller and in that case you'll use the port on your compressor housing and both top and bottom ports on your gate. I'd also recommend taking that stupid brass filter off the valve and just running a vent hose to the front port of it as any time I've ever had one of those filters on literally anything it's gotten plugged and become a pain in my ass at some point.

I was just using it as a gauge so I had it teed in between the map sensor and fuel pressure regulator and it seemed to work great. For whatever reason I tend to try and control boost by spring it just seems more reliable to me but who knows I'm pretty good at blowing them up by now ?
 

v6buicks

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I already have an MBC, so putting the AEM controller in place is functionally no different than what's already here. Changing waste gate springs every time I want to adjust boost would be a huge pain in the ass. I'm almost leary about having a fancy gadget controlling it when I know that my MBC works and can be adjusted just by popping the hood and turning a knob. I'll do some research on the orifice and find out if it's really necessary.
 
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v6buicks

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This is all I can find from AEM.
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It seems that the orifice is not necessary for proper gauge function. Maybe, it's just so that there isn't a delay in the build up of pressure between the boost source and waste gate if you plumb the gauge between them? Idk. I'm just going to plumb it how I planned to all along with no orifice.

I have a nice new swiveled barb fitting on the way as well as some sweet exhaust plans If I can ever get this car running right. lol Automotive ADD is a real disease I tell ya.
 
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sktchy

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My dude you are not wrong. It goes in spurts for me tho. I do all the things until I burn myself out and then I screw it off for a while. I'm taking that orifice out of mine then I'd rather see my gauge bounce than have it read low like it did when it died last time. Not that a boost gauge is necessary for much other than having an idea where your at
 
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v6buicks

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While I don't like half/incorrectly utilized poser mods, this Nitrous Outlet switch panel was necessary for getting this job done. I tried making my own switch board last year and never finished it because I couldn't pull it off nicely. Until today the line lock switch just sat loose under the console which is even less cool. I might remove it and relabel everything someday, but I'm not feeling that picky. I can just close the ashtray. ?

Line lock is on the top left, and scramble is on the top right. I might use the opener for an exhaust cutout and the purge for an ejecto seato someday. Idk.
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Until then or when I find out that the wideband still doesn't communicate with HP, I'm done wiring for a while!
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Also sorry for not providing any "finished" pics of the wiring. It's hard to really see anything which I suppose is a clue that I did alright!
 

sktchy

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Have you tried logging signal voltage for the red and blue wires on your prolink? Checking signal voltage on the wideband itself with a meter? I'd just start isolating shit and see what u got where. If I remember right there's a white brown and green and I had mine backwards for some stupid reason at some point
 

v6buicks

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Like go into your channels and add the red and blue signal voltages and whatever one reads right click it and then go to transform and then pick your wideband out of the list. That's the only way I could get my glowshift to read accurately
It was always wired "correctly" per se. The brown wire on the wideband just wasn't grounded properly. The link itself is fine.
 
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v6buicks

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I pulled the fuel rail out and noticed a couple things. First of all, chalky.
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Second of all, I don't think this injector was even pushed fully into the bore. It took no force to get this thing out, and it didn't seem like it was very deep either. The chalky residue also goes up past the oring which is a clear indication of a leak. I'd hate to be without my injectors for a week, but it seems silly to have them all out and not get a free cleaning. The bottoms aren't chalky, but they do have some small dark deposits.

Then I saw the map sensor adapter. WTF is going on here? This is after a pretty deep cleaning and the inside was just caked in crap. The oring was hardly visible because of some nasty oily goo all over it. I'm going to try shopping for some good orings now. I'll probably send the injectors to get cleaned, but it's quite tempting to just get orings, seal the couple vacuum leaks, and do burnouts this weekend.
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v6buicks

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So I had another one of those nights where I was laying in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, and thinking about what I just saw in the garage. I think the o-rings are simply wasted. I don't believe that the rail had been removed since I installed the injectors, removing the rail required no force, and removing the clips resulted in some of the injectors almost falling out on their own. That shit ain't normal! I did a quick google and found that this is pretty common for E85 people who don't drive their crap all that often. The rubber o-rings are either changed yearly or replaced with very pricey ones. I like low maintenance so I'm going to spend the $50 on THESE. I think I'm out of luck in terms of the MAP sensor adapter o-ring though. I'm going to poke around at work to see what I might find, but it would suck to have to replace that all the time. It's by far in the worst shape.
 
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