The Camaro Club (UK)

Yeah thats the plan

Roller cams, ali heads. I got a set of new +030 high comp forged pistons with all the bits as well

And I made a bit more progress with the car in general tonight.

I think I have found the source of one of my oil leaks, my water leak and my high speed squeal.

Looks like the water pump bearings are knackered as it appears the water leak is from the hole in the bottom of the pump, rather than from the hose joint that I thought it was from in the first place. Thankfully I have a spare pump which should fit.

The engine oil leak seems to be the sump to block joint, mainly around the front seal. Also looks like the filter has been on there for a long time. So I plan on dropping the sump this weekend and refitting with proper sealer in an effort to reduce the leaks. It also looks like it's been jacked on the sump at some point as its a bit caved in, so will be straightening that out when its off.

Also seem to have a leak on the transmission oil pan. So I will drop that at some point too.

Fun stuff!

_________________
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.

Been a long few days...

Changed the waterpump on thursday evening. Never flushed so much crap out of a cooling system. Its as clean as it's likely to get now. Of course it didn't all go to plan as my new fuel filter leaked so I had to sort that out as well. Needless to say it was a late night

Yesterday I had planned to change the sump gasket and investigate the oil leaks further, but it turned out the engine is a 87 or later so has a one piece rear main seal. But as I had the car up on ramps I did a bit more digging and found that someone had decided to route the main power and charging cables between the headers and block... needless to say they were pretty fried. So I pulled them out and totally rewired the passenger side of the engine bay and rerouted all the cables around the edge of the engine bay. It was a bit of a mess, and I found out why several other things didnt work... And it looks like at least one oil leak is a pinhole in the sump.

I think who ever has done some of the rewiring on this car had a job lot of chocolate block connectors...they are everywhere. Pulled the dash board out today to try and find out why none of the warning lights worked. Turned out to mostly be bad connections. And now I think everything is working...

Then decided to tackle the oil pan on the transmission, before starting noticed a bolt missing from the gearbox mount and the remaining one halfway out. Tried to tighten it up and it wouldn't... M10 bolt in a 7/16UNC tread Thankfully the tread wasn't damaged, still mount out and bolted back in properly. Needs to come out again anyway as the mount is knackered.

Having dropped the exhaust and header off I now have a blowing exhaust, so got to trace that in the morning

Oh and my main beam headlights have now decided to stop working. Switch is fine, but no tell tale on dash and the lights aren't working. Something else to fix. I'll eventually get around to rewiring the whole car, but at the moment it looks like it will be dont piece by piece anyway!

Found a few patches of rust too, usual places though, some will be a pain to get to but I'll tackle them eventually.

_________________
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.

Thought I would add some photos

This is the wiring that was awaiting me




Nicely roasted and mostly connected with chocolate blocks



So it was all pulled out and completely redone



And rerun well out of the way



Ok its not hidden away now, but I would rather know it isn't going to be melted and short out

Also fixed the headlights this morning, found a wire 'repaired' with a scotchlock which seemed to have a bad connection. Spliced in a new piece of cable and it seems ok for the moment. Its all part of the drivers side engine bay wiring that will be getting tidied up and redone fairly soon anyway.

Now for some gratuitous pics....









And no F body would be complete without some rust! Although its pretty minor, like most I have found so far...

_________________
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.

Wow, good job on the wiring..
These cars seem tio get bodged so much over the years to get stuff to work, or to get the indicators rewired to UK spec and repair melted or fused sections. Mine's like yours used to be or maybe worse..

The boot floor is a common one, but if that's the worst then that's not bad at all, certainly saveable..

_________________
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

Thanks

Theres a few holes in the floor that need doing, and maybe some preventative measures on the firewall. The firewall stuff is the hardest to get at I think. The passenger side footwell is wet as well, but I am hoping (please!) that its the non-existant door seals that are responsible. I need to get the screen replaced as well, so it will be interesting to see whats lurking around that

If I can get it mechanically sound and water tight then I'll start repairing the rusty bits.

_________________
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.

Hey I thought I'd seen your car before somewhere! I posted you over on Nasty!

Great to see your thread over here too , I've just started posting up my build in the projects section of this forum.

Gonna be at least another year before mines back on the road, wish I coulda fixed mine up and driven it at the same time too!

Cheers!

Cheers, I'll take a look at yours in a minute

Pulled the passenger seat out this afternoon which let me rip the carpet up and survey the damage. Its had a few patches in its life time, all done from the inside and sealed up with silicone after welding.





So they will be getting removed and the floor patched properly and re-sealed. May well make a start on that next weekend if the weather is good. The rest of the floor is nice and solid as are the sills.

I'll pull the drivers seat during the week and have a look under there too.

_________________
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.

hi mate the problem with your passanger side floor been wet could be your heater matrix this is a common problem with the 2nd gens mine has done it and i believe luke with the 77 camaro has done it to hope this helps thanks shaun

Didn't smell like antifreeze, but will check it out just in case, thanks

_________________
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.

Just caught up on your thread, the new purchase and list of jobs tackled already. At this rate it will allbe ready in a month or so.

Good to see you are on the case with all the jobs so soon...

I do like the subtle reworked rear ends on the last 2nd gens...

Hopefully get to see your car in the metal someday.

Keep up the speedy good work!