🔧 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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Follow it into the TB and see where it winds up
It starts inside the TB between the maf and the throttle plate, so we know it's currently unmetered air being drawn in from the valve cover under vacuum. Then it's also a metered boost leak. I can't imagine how much better my car car is going to run with the plug.
 

GTPpower

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Keep the screen.

That port needs to be plugged. When your car is unboosted, the intake vacuum pulls the oil fumes from the crankcase through the intake and through that port, them burns the oil in the combustion chamber. But when you boost it, the turbo is feeding boost directly into the crankcase via that port. So not only are you pressurizing your crankcase, but you are making your turbo inefficiently supply a lot more air than the engine is running on.
 

v6buicks

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Keep the screen.

That port needs to be plugged. When your car is unboosted, the intake vacuum pulls the oil fumes from the crankcase through the intake and through that port, them burns the oil in the combustion chamber. But when you boost it, the turbo is feeding boost directly into the crankcase via that port. So not only are you pressurizing your crankcase, but you are making your turbo inefficiently supply a lot more air than the engine is running on.
Right, I get that something needs to be done about the hole, but my bigger question is why is it there in the first place? It had a PCV too, but that's completely separate. What's the difference between the post throttle blade passage with a a valve and the pre-blade passage without. I'm just curious about what GMs idea was.

I'll quit worrying about it and just plug it... I just wish I knew more.
 

v6buicks

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I figured that if I was finally going to remove the throttle body I should clean it up. I don't have any before pics, but take my word for it when I say is was pretty coated in oil. I also figured I would swap MAFs with one I had sitting around.

These are the kind of things that get me in trouble because nothing was wrong with the old MAF. I just new that it's screws were never going to come out if I ever needed them too. Somebody before me replaced them with some phillips heads that were clearly not automotive approved because they rusted out pretty bad. Vise grips and PB Blaster did the trick once I cut the heads off though.
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Clean TB 3-20.jpg

Not perfect but good enough for me!

Yes, I actually put tamper proof torx back in! I think there's a thread where this could rile some people up... They were with the other MAF and in great shape.
New MAF and screws 3-20.jpg


Then I made my second service valve. I didn't really think about this, but the location of this valve might not work when I build my down pipe. I'll cross that bridge when it comes.
Service Valve 2.jpg


Bank 2 drain valve 2.jpg


I'm about as done with this as I can be until Saturday when my Summit order arrives. Tomorrow I'll probably be stuck trying to figure out my brake issues again. Gross.

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v6buicks

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Today is a damn good day! Everything I did went pretty smoothly. My only complaints are once again with AC Delco. I'll get to that in a minute because I like to report chronologically.

First of all, I'm finally happy with my brakes! It turns out that my aluminum calipers are having a disagreement with my ferrous bleeders. Corrosion between the two causes the voids between the threads to open up. The brake fluid can now escape between the threads while you're trying to bleed the system. This explains why my pedal felt pretty good despite seeing tons of bubbles in my clear hose between the bleeder and my vacuum pump. This also explains why I had more bubbles when vacuum pumping versus gravity or pressure bleeding and why no external leaks could be found.

Here's my temporary fix. The air is only going to be an issue when the bleeder is open as long as the mating surfaces are still good. Take the bleeder out and put thread tape ONLY ON THE THREADS. You may need to wrap it several times as these threads are not intended to make a great seal. After this I was able to throw the bleeders back in and bleed the tiny bit of air out of the top of the bleeder. Was it entirely necessary? Probably not. The pedal feels almost exactly the same, but now I have that piece of mind. Someday I'll have to replace these calipers, but today is not that day.
Leaky bleeder fix.jpg


NEXT!

This came in the mail.
AC Delco TB gasket 1.jpg


AC Delco for another lose! Poor picture quality, but you can still see how bad of a match this is. The worst part is that I had to cut some paper off the inside so it doesn't block flow!
AC Delco TB gasket 2.jpg


AC Delco TB gasket 3.jpg

Oh well... at least it seals.

I also got my last fitting in the mail! This little nook is starting look extremely cluttered, but none of this is really noticeable unless the car is on tall jack stands anyway. Sometimes the car sits on them for so long that I forget that it's not a truck. :ROFLMAO:
Passenger side done 3-20.jpg

Ahhh. This was very satisfying to complete thanks to my new AN wrench set that arrived today. I used to think that these were stupid because an AN hex is a normal standard size. However the extra width and being made of aluminum really helps with keeping the fittings looking nice. Too bad I didn't have these earlier....
AN wrench set.jpg


Since I was on a roll with mechanical work, I figured I'd keep going. I've had new power steering hoses forever, but didn't want to dive into another system while still having floor patching, busted brakes, and crankcase vents all started but unfinished. I also thought this would be a major pain given the rust, but its actually quite easy when you just cut the hard line off. This allows you to put a socket on the nut instead of an open end wrench.

I'm glad the engine bay was dirty for this job. PS fluid will leak on EVERYTHING below it when you undo the hoses.


New PS hoses 3-20.jpg

All this new stuff is awesome!



Pulled out 3-20.jpg

This is the part where I REALLY want to go for a spirited rip, but cant because there's a giant patch of bare metal floor. Damn, I hate body work, but this is exactly the kind of motivation I need. Due to medical expenses on top of booking a vacation, I can't buy my clutch kit yet anyway.
 

v6buicks

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I might single-handedly jump start this economy.... I didn't want to get bored during a possible quarantine, so I bought a clutch kit. :D

On a crappier note, my daily driver 2010 Volvo C30 decided not give me heat anymore. This is just one of several HVAC issues that this car is plagued with, and I'm over it. At 174k I should really trade it in and get a new truck or something. Then again, I can probably handle not having heat for the last couple weeks of cold mornings. Who knows. A $1000 relief check might just change my mind. :unsure:
 
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v6buicks

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My clutch got drop shipped a couple weeks earlier than projected! I ordered a Spec SC824 which is a six puck unsprung clutch and a stronger pressure plate. I'm a little worried that this is going to be really unfun to drive on the street, but it holds 471 ft./lbs of torque according to Summit. We shall see. Initially I think I'll just be happy to have capable parts.
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I did a little more work last night, but remember a while back when I was all upset about the body and talking about selling the car?

Then I went all Bob the Builder saying I can fix it... later.

Well I'm at the "screw it" stage. I hate body work so much, but I also want this car back on the road WITH the interior back in it. Therefore, I've made a compromise. I'm not going to get the car right, but I'm going to get it back on the road. I've said before that it's THIS car that I like. I've felt like I've done many of my cars a disservice by giving up on them and then selling or scrapping them. However, in the case of this Camaro, it was bound for the scrap yard before I even bought it. I have already given it a short but fulfilling second life. Anything that happens now is a bonus.

To make a long story short, I'm grinding down the remaining problem areas, rust converting them, and then filing them with fiberglass. If it doesn't last the remaining time I have left with the car then I'll deal with wet carpet for a while. If it does then I can just wait for the perfect deal on a sweet roller!
More floor work 3-18-20.jpg


Here's some randomness. I needed something to fill my Summit cart. They have a deal where you get $50 off orders over $500 this bump stop filled the void. I think I got screwed because for some reason I thought I was getting two instead of just one. This big chunk of rubber cost me $60. This wouldn't bother me too much If I thought they served an absolutely necessary purpose. What do you think? Are bump stops really needed on a car that's got stock suspension and isn't being taking off sweet ramps? I feel like I was better off buying a bunch of shop rags and brake cleaner instead. Oh well.
Bump stop 1.jpg


Bump stop 2.jpg
 
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v6buicks

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UPS is the real MVP today! Thanks to everyone who is still working and keeping the world from falling apart.
Spec St4 1.jpg


Spec St4 2.jpg


Spec St4 3.jpg

I hope to get started on pulling the transmission this weekend, but I won't hold my breath. There's still a lot of work to do on the floor even though I'm half-assing it at this point. We're getting closer though!
Undercoating 1.jpg


Undercoating 2.jpg
 

v6buicks

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I'm back at it.
Second clutch job 1.jpg


Yuck... That's a combination of burnt oil slung off the clutch/flywheel and clutch material. I knew this was gonna be ugly.
Second clutch job 2.jpg


I had a bit of a 3800 newb moment when removing the rear cover. I actually had no idea that this sealed off oil and coolant, so I took a bath.
Second clutch job 3.jpg
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Aaaaaand the money shot! Can you believe that this whole combo has less than 1000 miles on it?
Second clutch job 5.jpg


That flywheel was brand new. :( I'm hoping I can find a place that still does cheap resurfacing.
 

v6buicks

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That things gonna be cool though. I go back and forth about my intentions with this car. Part of me wants to go fast. Another part of me thinks the stick is part of what makes the car so cool. Another part of me doesn't care about what's cool because if I did, I wouldn't be building a V6 Camaro.

As of now, I think this clutch job is just a band aid regardless. If I can blow through an upgraded clutch that quickly even with the oil contamination I can only imagine how much the stock gear set is going to hate all this. I also think that any automatic swap will end up being much more difficult than it plays out in my head. The T56 swaps are super pricey, but probably worth it? I dunno. I think it will come down to how much is left to be desired after using this clutch.
 
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v6buicks

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Do the t56 if this doesn't work. Be the hero we need
Haha I'm not sure if the owner is on here, but the only stateside T56 conversion that I know of is that super high compression NA 3800 Firebird. I wish I could get more info on it. When I emailed Mal Wood he didn't seem too interested in international shipping.
 

SleeperLS

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Haha I'm not sure if the owner is on here, but the only stateside T56 conversion that I know of is that super high compression NA 3800 Firebird. I wish I could get more info on it. When I emailed Mal Wood he didn't seem too interested in international shipping.

I see your predicament. Good luck man. I really enjoy your build thread.
 
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v6buicks

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I'm really not sure. I know about this kit, but that's it.


I can fab simple stuff, but I don't have the tools or ability to make nice plates quite like that. I might try emailing him again. The last time I tried was years ago.
 

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