SS Camaro - Track trips, build pics etc.

[01SSRedA4]

The rear ended up wanting to lift along the lower lip, the adhesion wasnt great for whatever reason. It either didnt stick to the car, didnt stick to the lexan, or I didnt use enough urethane. At any rate, I had to improvise to ensure it didnt cause damage later down the road.





I also trimmed the cowl, mostly for ease of intake removal, and added a couple screws in the front glass just for good measure. You can see I left enough material for the stock plastic to be reinstalled and look pretty much as it came from the factory. I had to trim the cowl in multiple pieces (about 10) because I did it while the intake was still installed. It wasn't much fun.

[Weldangrind]

FAST is one of the coolest acronyms in racing.

[01SSRedA4]

Not yet, but soon......



Well sort of changed directions......REALLY changed directions. Long story short I just hadn't 100% bought into the nitrous idea, for several reasons. I made a comment to a buddy what if i sold everything i have and started over. He mentioned that to his boss who has a GTO that needs a drivetrain and 2 weeks later I have a roller. I sold the complete motor, intake, converter, and trans.



As of right now I have purchased (with the above money), an 05 Gen3 5.3 (gen4 rods) complete engine, Isky turbo cam, head studs, LS9 gaskets, Melling pump, LS2 timing set, LS7 lifters, dual springs, -10AN catch can, Huron speed turbo kit with their billet 78/75 turbo, bumper exit trim ring, Bosch 127lb injectors, billet fuel rails, and Im basically out of money. So I'm gonna start the build, save some dough for my fuel system, new trans and converter. Goal is 15 to 20 psi on e85. Complete teardown and pics of parts coming soon. Stay tuned.

[Weldangrind]

Wow, you're getting serious! Do you prefer the 5.3 over the 6.0? Is it a rod strength issue? A rod angularity issue? I'm quite curious.


I'm especially interested in how you intend to run e85; is it pretty consistent at about 105 octane where you live? What do you pay per gallon? I bet it's significantly cheaper than VP, and even cheaper than regular gasoline.

[01SSRedA4]

Originally Posted by Weldangrind

Wow, you're getting serious! Do you prefer the 5.3 over the 6.0? Is it a rod strength issue? A rod angularity issue? I'm quite curious.


I'm especially interested in how you intend to run e85; is it pretty consistent at about 105 octane where you live? What do you pay per gallon? I bet it's significantly cheaper than VP, and even cheaper than regular gasoline.

Most stock engines handle about the same power before they go boom, other then the rods. The Gen3 99-04 rods are thinner and weaker, most say they are good to 700hp. The 05 and up got a beefy rod that they say is good to 900hp. All the pistons basically stayed the same over the years. I plan on running 2 450gph fuel pumps inside the tank in the stock location and -10AN line from front to back. e85 runs about $2/2.50 here and runs from e70-e90. We test often and i will likely have two tunes for the ecm, one for e70 (worst case scenario) and one for e85. If it measures low I can still run it i will just flash the pcm for that batch of fuel.

[Weldangrind]

How will you determine octane rating before you tune?

[01SSRedA4]

Test it, and likely carry it home in several jugs, run the same tune until the jugs are empty then refill them and repeat. I have no e85 stations super close to me so I will be driving 20/30 mins to pick it up. Alternative is to buy it in a 55 gallon drum for convenience and consistency.

[Weldangrind]

So cool! It never occurred to me that you'd be able to test for octane rating. I know that newer flex fuel vehicles are able to measure and compensate on the fly, but I have no idea how that's accomplished. I can sure see the temptation to buy a 55 gallon drum for consistency, as you say.

[01SSRedA4]

Originally Posted by Weldangrind

So cool! It never occurred to me that you'd be able to test for octane rating. I know that newer flex fuel vehicles are able to measure and compensate on the fly, but I have no idea how that's accomplished. I can sure see the temptation to buy a 55 gallon drum for consistency, as you say.

The newer vehicles have an ethanol sensor, it measures the amount of ethanol in the fuel line and then compensates fueling through some type of adder table in the PCM. So say on e85 exactly call the fueling 100%, if the sensor detects 80% of ethanol, it would run the 100% base map plus the adder table of say -2% for a final fueling value of 98% of the original amount, and the table would extend to cover the usable fuels the vehicle is designed to run on, adding or subtracting fuel from the base amount. Even though my PCM doesn't contained this feature, it DOES support it. There was a version of it that had it. I could flash the newer operating system into the pcm, pin and wire the sensor, and it would function like a flex-fuel vehicle. Not many boosted guys do this and I'm not sure why, maybe they don't trust the sensor? I'm going to dive into it further....

[Weldangrind]

If you decide to install the sensor and upgrade the software, I'd be grateful if you shared that info.

[01SSRedA4]

Lots of parts have been ordered, and lots have been showing up.....and I still think of new things daily. I started with the tear-down and inspection of the 2005 5.3. Bearings were acceptable, and cylinders looked really nice. I spent hours at this point to make it look this nice.



Here is the Isky cam, grind 271-HR-672. Specs are something like 218/218 .570 .570 112. Its my understanding it was spec'd for a turbo setup. The way I ended up with it is a buddy locally had it for sale, it was brand new, and it was quite a bit cheaper then new, so here it is.



New timing set, and I wanted to drill the block for the damper but it looked like the holes would go through and hit the crank so I said fuck it and through it in the scrap parts pile.



Knock sensors were crusty so I ordered a set of them, old coolant sensor broke (they are very brittle with age) so there's that in the center, and to the right is a -10 bulkhead fitting. I'm gonna try and get this in the side of the oil pan for my turbo oil drain line.



Melling 10295



Bosch 127s. These were actually an ebay score, dyno runtime only, $600 shipped!!



New rear cover gasket, rear main seal, water pump gaskets, and new front cam plate.



New intake gaskets, NGK BR7s, MSD plug wires fit for truck coils, and a new pinion seal for my 12 bolt, figuring I'm gonna swap out the 4.10s in favor of the 3.73s I have on my shelf.......



Chinese blow off valve, and really nice turbo smart wastegate that came with the huron speed kit (which is backordered BTW). Thats my ebay catch can with -10 lines that will come off each valve cover.



Billet fuel rails for the truck intake. Gonna have to figure out if it will work with these LS1 length injectors......Will mock it up soon.



So I took the heads to the machine shop, I told them just get them clean, and touch them with the mill to make sure they seal. No valve work or anything like that. Here they are fresh and clean.



I basically added some valve grinding compound to the valves, spun them on the seats to make sure everything had a fresh sealing surface, then installed the new dual valve spring kit.



Of course i went with the head studs, and LS9 gaskets, and sealed them down to the engine. I threw the oil pan and front cover on quickly just for paint, they will need to come back off for new gaskets. Added the intake just for the pic. This was left over graphite paint that I used on the Fast 102 intake.



I've got a buddy that goes to the junkyards often so i told him i needed another 4l80e. He ended up driving an hour and a half away to get me the most crusty, dirty, filthy POS trans I've ever seen. But when I opened it up i was pleasantly surprised. The junkyard sells these for $89.



After careful calculations of time and budget, Ive decided to service this trans and add an HD2 kit and run it as is, and see what it can take.



Once fully involved in the HD2 shift kit install, it was me and my trans buddy's opinion this trans had already been rebuilt. Score!!!!!! That would explain why it was so clean inside.



With that stroke of good news I called up Circle D converters and got me a shiny new triple disc converter on the way!!! We decided on something loose (due to not having a transbrake at the moment), should footbrake to mid 3K RPMs, and will be a little loose on the big end so I will be anticipating locking it up in 3rd gear. Also, Chrs1313 dual 450 pumps will be here soon, and I just ordered a PST forged 4l80e yoke for my existing driveshaft from Midwest Chassis. Turbo should be here today though the piping is back-ordered. More pictures coming soon, parts are rolling in daily.

[BlackBike]

WOW. Thanks for all the great pics and details.

That transmission is a great one and has lasted me for 17 years in my Silverado (properly cared for w Mobil 1 of course)

This is a big event , especially with the turbo fit up! I have watched turbo conversions on that tv show and it's balls to the walls. How much hp is this expected to turn out?

[01SSRedA4]

No clue, 750 would be nice.

[01SSRedA4]

Billet 78/75

[01SSRedA4]

Got a few things done on my days off. First, i knew a had a mismatch on injectors/rails. What I have is car injectors, a truck intake, and truck billet rails. Here's the height difference.



After mocking it up and seeing the space between the rail and the intake, I measured that i needed 4 .850 spacers. I went to Home Depot and got some 1/2" square and round tubing. After playing with them I decided I like the square tubing better, so I made 4 spacers and bought 4 longer bolts. I believe they were m6x1.0x40mm.



Both sides on, crossover installed, they fit nice.



Spin the motor over. I'm not gonna use or need the low oil sensor thats in the pan, so I'm gonna remove it and buy a plug. Cruising around ebay searching that size I realize someone makes a plug specifically for this, so I bought it. This is not tapered thread so an oring must be used.



Didnt get a complete "before" pic, but i decided to move the oil sump to the rear of the pan. We know these engines can starve for oil on hard launches so I wanted to correct this and honestly didnt want to spend 200 on Improved Racing's baffle. The main cap bolts are about 4.5 inches apart, and since the support bolts to them I figure why not just move it back one....So I cut the tube and remounted it...



Grabbed the old pickup tube that came with the engine and hacked a piece out and welded it in.



That was pretty easy, now we have to alter the pan to make it work. Here is the stock baffle, as you can see the pickup is in the center of the motor but in the front of the pan's sump. That is great for braking, and probably decent for corners, but poor for hard acceleration.



Under the bolt in baffle there is a casted in V shape. That is the way it combats acceleration forces. Some oil gets through the center but most is forced to the sides and is sort of trapped, and at the very least slowed down from going rearward. This probably works, but only so good. It had to be cut because thats where the pickup will be located now. Also notice the new -10AN drain for the turbo, more on that in a bit.



This is what was left after everything was clearanced. The hump that was on the right had to be removed for the tubing to clear, and I added the crossbar in the back to help keep the oil from going up the back of the engine during acceleration. Not pretty but functional. I just used flat bar I had laying around.



Then I realized I've just shifted my issues, now I may lose pressure during braking. So i pulled the baffle back out, bent two little sheet metal V flaps, and made two more crossbar flats across the top. The idea was to essentially reverse the stock idea, pickup in the back and control the oil going forward. Not pretty but functional.



Now I wanted to do something fun. Lets see how much oil this pan can hold. Also, I wanted to know what level I could be at and still have the turbo drain properly.

6 Quarts:



7 Quarts:


8 Quarts:


Pan held level and 9 Quarts:



So we know my turbo will drain with the 7 quarts i plan on running, but what about windage, where is the crank in all of this?



1.5 inches into the pan. Let's see how that hits the marks we just made.



I got the feed for the turbo tapped in above the oil filter with a 1/8NPT to -4AN fitting. Also got these in, these are for the 4l80e, and will converter the cooler outlets to -8AN which is what I have in the car currently.



Stay tuned, more to come.