The Camaro Club (UK)

i guess you going for a separate trans cooler then?

Dave - looks like I need to drag my camaro to yours for a fiz n paint and a couple of patches

Yes, got a seperate trans cooler to go in. I couldn't find the ties for it, should have them for the weekend,, then I can get the fan and cooler in along with a few other bits. Should get it running over the next couple of weeks.

If you aren't in a hurry.... had someone elses car here for months, need the Camaro done before I can make a start on that one though. Its a bit smaller though

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

Made a start on the subframe braces, need to bend up a couple of bits of tube to finish them off. Needed to get these bits in as I plan to use them to run the fuel feed and return, and I don't want to make up the braided hoses twice!

Need to reroute those heater hoses as well

I'll finish all the fuel line plumbing off tomorrow, and then run some pressure tests. I also need to make an oil system priming tool as well.

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

Nice work on the bracing - combined with subframe connectors you'll have a very stiff chasis!

What are you using for a tube bender? I'm contemplating buying a tube bender to make the exhaust vs. buying pre-bent tubing and piecing it together that way.

Cheers!

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Thanks Ray. I borrowed a friends tube bender for 10 minutes to do these. I wouldn't want to try and do exhaust tube at home, its a pain to bend, kinks really easily as it's such thin wall. You'd need a good industrial type bender to do it. I bought my bits from Summit, through WASP, worked out cheaper than buying just the bends over here.

Finished the braces off, just need to paint them at some point. Ran the fuel lines front to rear, finished some more wiring and plumbed in the transmission cooler. Not too much more left to do other than fill it with some vital fluids and some final checks...

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

It lives! Sorta anyway

Took a few attempts to get it going, partly because my battery wasn't man enough Its had a good 15 mins running between 2000 and 2500 rpm. More tomorrow then I'll start setting it up and get it running properly.

Doesn't want to restart when hot either, so need to look into that once I've got a decent battery hooked up tomorrow. Fires up straight away when cold though.

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

SSSWWWWEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTT!!!!
just like mine it rocks its own heart

loving the reverse dashboard

Had loads of issues the last few days. Engine spat back hard enough to smash some teeth off the flex plate, now need to fit a new one. Had problems getting a clean tach signal too. Thats now fixed, but I couldn't get the engine to run properly at all. Acted like a huge air leak. Pulled all the inlet system back off and resealed it all with no change. I may pull it again once I've got the engine running nicely as I put loads of sealer on it, and it won't help things in the future!

Found my fuel pressure was shooting up over 100psi (its a good test for my fuel system as nothing leaked!). I am hoping this is the source of the bad running problems! The culprit seems to be the return I used to the tank has some sort of restriction in it. I used the old breather hose and it must have a restriction in the tank. I could blow through it easily, but it couldn't flow the volume of fuel it needed to.

I dropped the tank and fitted another return into the top of the sender plate with some threaded fittings I had laying around. I have retained the breather tube and will acutally put it to use as a breather!



Put it all back together and the fuel pressure sits right at 43.5psi, where it should.

Today I've been doing more welding on the body. Finally got around to patching up the drivers rear quarter. Nothing too fancy, it'll be covered by the arch flare anyway. Ignore what looks like a scrape in the paint, its just dust



Tomorrow I am going to strip out the transmission ready to fit a new flex plate later in the week....

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

Fitted the new flex plate and put it all back together tonight. Reasonably simple job thankfully!

Fired it up, turns out fuel pressure was indeed the issue.

Started up first turn of the key. 8)

Gave it another 20mins of cam run in for good measure at 2-2.5k rpm. Sure that pleased the neighbors at 8:30pm. Then spent a few minutes fiddling with the idle and hot start. All pretty much there, but there are some niggling issues. It starts on the button when hot, as it should. Temps stayed at a constant 195F all the way through with the fan running from the ECU. Oil pressure was 25psi at idle with 30 weight oil, rising to 50psi at 1500rpm and up.

Used about a gallon of fuel

1. Burned the plug boot on #3 cylinder away, now occasionally sparks to the exhaust, so I've got a misfire
2. Something odd happens with the idle speed, it randomly speeds up. Could be something to do with the ecu, idle valve or an intermittent air leak. Needs more investigation, but I had to call it a night.
3. Need some slightly longer torque converter to flex plate bolts now I've got the SFI plate in there.

Next job is re-do the inlet manifold gaskets and change out the running in oil for some nice new stuff. Oh and see how it behaves when cold.

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.

Had a few problems with crank signal sync losses which took a bit of getting around. A little bit of noise filtering and more fiddling with the vr sensor circuitry seems to have fixed it. Time will tell, I can't hold high rpms or do anything under load yet, which is when the real fun starts.

That said I've got the idle and free revving dialed in nicely now. I just need to sort the warm up settings out as its a little temperamental warming up, needs some throttle to keep it going. Adjusting the IAC and warmup enrichment should have that solved. Trouble is it warms up so quick, 5 mins and its hot, it doesn't give much time to dial it in.

All in all I've used 5 gallons of fuel so far messing around

Changed out the oil and filter for some proper stuff today, and also found out my trans dipstick has a major leak. Will whip it out tomorrow and seal it up properly. I knew that the o-ring was never going to work!

It's starting easy when hot and it also idles nice and smooth(ish) now.

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My '80 progress thread - hugger orange! Now with LQ9 power - forged pistons, LS2 rods, 236/242, .621/.612, flowed and milled 317 heads. MS3X

4L80e, 12 bolt, 4.11, Moroso brute strength posi, steel shafts.

Subframe connectors, g-braces, solid body bushes, carbon hood and front bumper, custom door cards, Autometer gauges.