🔧 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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v6buicks

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I marked up the Khols lot pretty good. :LOL: That's pretty awesome for an open diff!
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Also, I came home from Iceland to a new package. I'm trying not to get too excited about it because I know I'm not installing it for at least another year. I found somebody selling an unused ST5 cam on ebay. I shot them an offer and ended up saving about $75 over ZZP's price. (y) They packaged it very nicely too so I'm sure it's still in great shape. I guess I'll slowly start working on gathering things like even stiffer valve springs, lifters, push rods, gaskets, ect.
 

v6buicks

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I was offered a day of lift use from a friend of a friend, so I took it.
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We got the transmission all the way out only to find that the rear main seal wasn't leaking at all. I still had to adjust the TOB in a little though.

It didn't help the growling though, so the only thing left that makes sense is having a pissed off input shaft bearing from a misaligned bell. I'm not going down that rabbit hole right now. Growl away, I guess. ?

After the test drive, we found that ALL the oil was coming from the turbo drain pipe. The drain plumbing needs to be completely gone through again and made with better parts. The AN fittings will not seal. I don't get why. They get tight without bottoming out.
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It's hard to tell by the picture, but the whole side of the pan is oil, and the bottom is quite shiny.

This was a big waste of a day. However, I'm glad I at least had a lift to limit the project to only one day. I'll start gathering new higher quality fittings.
 

v6buicks

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I'm starting to think that my aluminum tube is the bigger problem. Perhaps the tube flaring die I used was for 37 degree stuff while the fitting was for 45 or vise versa? It's hard to tell with the naked eye, but I think it's time to give up on the tube and try something else. It's clearly not working.

In the mean time, I have a couple new hose fittings on the way to replace the Summit junk. I'm normally a fan of Summit branded stuff, but their fittings have given me a lot of trouble. I think swapping one of my straights for a 30 degree elbow will greatly improve the slope anyhow.
 

sktchy

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+1 for the oil fill sensor hole lol.

The thing I don't like about a valve cover return is you don't have the gravity to help with flow but if I'm getting away with 2 90s and a line that's basically on no slope at all it's gotta be in the fitting.

I wonder if you could fit an oring in the top of your fitting to make it work in the meantime?
 

bs009

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Problem I had with -10 AN is that the hole size in the fittings is nowhere near as large as it should be. -10AN should be 5/8" in diameter but all of the fittings I found were 1/2" ID
factory oil flange for the Holset I used to have was more like 3/4" ID so I just ran a rubber hose on mine since I couldn't get an AN fitting large enough or didn't want to pay as much as they costed, I can't remember

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I think you're on the right track looking at the angle/type of fitting. I've heard of people having trouble with some fittings and some hoses not playing well together.
 
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v6buicks

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ive only ever had to use braidedd hose -10

though ive always had em mounted far enough above the pan

have you verified that your not overpressurizing with oil and sending it out the turbine shaft seal?
My drain hose is a -10 rubber hose, but it goes to a -12 exducer where an aluminum tube takes it from the front of the accessories to the top of the the pan. I wanted this to be more rigid because the long hose I was running before would bounce up and hit my accessory belt. It was almost worn through by the time I took it out. I have a -12 Summit weld fitting migged close to the pan rail but on the opposite side of tornado valley. The turbo actually seems to be holding up great. My charge pipe is dry, and I haven't noticed any nastiness from the exhaust.
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you have a sleeve inside the line nut? there's almost always a collar to support the flare and the nut thrust face.

oil fitting near pan flange, preferably near a main web/timing area below and behind the windage tray perimeter to keep the tornado from affecting it.
Yes, I'm using Fragola stuff there. One thing that I wonder is what angle the automotive fitting manufacturers machine their flare angles. It's kind of important to know and nobody advertises it. To be honest, I don't recall to which angle I flared my tube either, but the aluminum is so soft that I should be able to crank it down and force it into shape.
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I decided to cancel my original Summit order, do away with everything, order all new supplies, and start over. I wonder more about the flare angles now because it seems that both leaks are coming from each end of the tube. While I think the tube had potential to work with better execution, it's neither here nor there now. I decided to play Fragola's game, and order all -10 stuff of the same series. Their 6000 stuff is way overkill for an oil drain, but I wanted stainless braiding for added protection from the belt. While this will for sure be too stiff to ever bounce around, a Nylon braided hose might be just soft enough to get tangled.

I will have to run -10 to -12 exducer in order to connect to the pan, but this may be a blessing in disguise. It's possible that the Summit weld fitting is junk too. I could have warped it enough to leak since my welding is sketchy at best. It may also have been crappy from the start. If I get this all together and still have a leak between the exducer and the pan, I will have no problem scumming.... I mean skimming the Summit flange surface with red RTV and calling it a day. I tend to scoff at these practices, but it's no harm/no foul if I have another serviceable fitting right next to it. There's no way in hell that I'm pulling the pan off just to replace the weld fitting.

I've also redone this enough times to justify trying a fancy 30 degree elbow out of the turbo fitting. 45 is too much and straight down doesn't make sense either. By the way, there is a small victory in all this. Two fittings and some timely custom work later, my turbo drain flange fitting finally stopped leaking! ?
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v6buicks

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I am not sure that the elbow angles I chose are going to be the best options due to their longer sweep. 45 and 120 may have been better, but I'll find out for sure tonight. The satisfying part is that a little extra money went a long way. Don't screw with the Summit branded fittings. They're a PITA on so many levels. I did a lot of cussing when I was building my catch can hoses. Sure, they sealed eventually and turned out alright, but it took a lot of WD-40 and elbow grease. I still cuss at them now because their hex size does not correspond to their fitting size. In other words, my fancy aluminum AN wrench set is useless on some of my Summit fittings, and they're slowly turning to shit due to using adjustable steel wrenches on them.

Fragola hose ends though... ? These things are a breeze to put together. Matching Fragola hose and Earl's vise jaws got this fitting together without any muscle or WD-40. There is no spinning where things aren't supposed to spin, and I have no doubt that these hoses will be leak free. One feature I though was strange when I bought them is that everything including my straight reducer swivels. It seemed unnecessary at the time of purchase, but I totally get it now. All I need to get right is the length. There is no need to be dicking with the often time consuming process of clocking the fittings just right. Go Fragola! Even if my elbows are the wrong angle, I have no problem buying more and keeping these in my tool box.

(I am an unpaid non-attorney spokesperson) ?
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Turbocharged400sbc

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And sizes are 5/16 of an inch OD tube diameter so I dashed n is for a 5/8 OD tube. ID tends to be smaller yes. To find out what angle it is all you need is a small inside square a 45-degree SAE flare fitting will be a 45 degree face so the right angle Square will sit across both ceiling surfaces. The a n fittings / jic 37 degrees stuff you will see
 

v6buicks

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New vs. old
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The 30 and 90 degree elbows turned out to be a great choice.
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Best of all, I don't even need zipties to keep the hose away from the belt! I wish I did this from the get-go. It was much easier than I pictured, and worked flawlessly. I still haven't done enough to eliminate the smoke though. :cautious: The turbo drain doesn't leak, but it appears that the oil pan gasket was the worse offender.

Screw this thing. No, it's not getting ANOTHER new pan. No, it's not getting ANOTHER new gasket. This sloppy whore is getting the smear of RTV it deserves. I'm also going to remove the wrap on the bottom of the crossover, since it just seems to soak the oil in and exacerbate the problem.

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v6buicks

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Oh my god... That's a huge pipe... How on earth is this supposed to fit?! ????
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Even more obnoxiously BIG things are on the way. ;)

Okay, this porno's over!

Two things I dislike: tater pipes and single turbo cars with dual exhaust.
This is the only single shot I could find that cost less than a grand. It's aluminized steel and 4" in diameter. Yes it's way overkill. You can call it a bro dozer if you like, but it achieves my sleeper look (turn down before the bumper) and it's cheap ($500 after shipping and tax). Thanks, Hawks!
 

v6buicks

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Here's a first. I bought a non-engine F-body part for an LS car that didn't fit my V6 car. It took a lot of dicking around with the hangers and surfing the internet to learn that V6 and V8 F-bodies got different exhaust hangers and brackets. Weird. My hangers were rusty as hell anyway. Shocker! I guess I get to do some shopping. Anybody parting out a 4th gen?

Even after that, I'm not convinced that the pipe is going to fit between the floor and the track bars. I have seen more people say that it fits great than those who don't though, so we'll see.

LS hanger
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LS hanger
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My hangers. Looks like my driver side hanger can just be cut to match the LS style.
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v6buicks

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I'll have to look at my bird when I get some time if i didn't cut them up. I'm not sure if they'd work from a y87 car tho didn't they get the same exhaust as the ls cars?
Not sure about the fancy V6 cars but my ultra basic car had a 2.5ish inch single. I think LS cars have a 2 3/4 inch ish fake duals.
 

sktchy

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Not sure about the fancy V6 cars but my ultra basic car had a 2.5ish inch single. I think LS cars have a 2 3/4 inch ish fake duals.

The fancy v6 cars were a 2.5 or so to a single muffler with fake duals, limited slip rear end and steering box from the v8 cars, might be a couple other insignificant things but that's the gist of it.

Rear ends were the only thing I really cared about even tho they still kinda suck
 

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