Getting close to wrapping her up. All the wiring is being redone by a good friend of mine @ RAR Racing in San Antonio. ECU being installed. Removing my aluminum Kerkey seat and getting two much more comfortable seats. Gauge cluster done. Lots of work goin on! The pic of the laptop is my el-cheapo refurb Dell E4200 that I will be using with TunerStudio Ultra to tune my Camaro. I’ll also use a tablet real-time to monitor my EFI setup while I’m driving.
Looks like its going to be time to drop off the turbo Camaro at a friends shop for some total rewiring, EFI install, Fuel system install and some small stuff. I think I’ve done all I can and now leave the wiring to an expert.
My EFI setup is from EFI Source – MS3 Gold Box. It has everything you need to go EFI, from 80# injectors to the ECU, complete wiring, documentation and a base tune to get your car running. The fuel system I’m going with is from Magnafuel, its their MP-4303 pump and is going along with their pre/post fuel filters. The injectors with the kit, I read that they dont support 1000HP, which is fine, since my engine has a stock rotating assembly. We’ll cap it at 900HP. LOL. Juuusssttt about done with this turbo car.
Last but not least, I finally installed my manual tensioner from ICT BIllet. Lines up perfectly.
Well, it was time to mount the fans on the radiator. With the guidance of Mike @ RAR Racing here in San Antonio, I put this together. The fit is perfect and it also provides excellent support to the fans along with a “shroud” like effect. Also at RAR Racing, the waterpump was tapped and plugged since I’m not going to be using a heater. Installed both the waterpump and the new fan setup and also got started on the final piece from the intercooler to the throttle body. Also getting started on the gauge cluster. Going to remove the gauges my car came with and redoing the aluminum piece and adding the SpeedHut gauges I bought.
The water pump lines up perfect.
Getting started on the last tubing from the IC to the throttle body. Reused some old tubing I had. Going from 4″ –> 3.5″ to 3″.
Time to setup my gauge cluster…
Finally got around to doing a few things on my setup. Installed the fabricated intake, SFI flexplate, converter and put it all back in the car. Did the final weld on the downpipe and made a small bracket to hold it up. Next up is mounting the dual fan setup to the radiator. Its a super tight fit. Then modifying the water pump to block off the heater since I will not be running one. I also had to modify my old cold side since it was for the blow-thru setup, not the new EFI setup. Turbo to IC done, still need to modify what I have from IC to intake. Cooling setup first though. The shot under the Camaro is with the new F-body oil pan, much better clearance than before!
While I’m waiting on my transmission to get finished, I decided to start fabbing up a turbo setup for my friend John. Best way to learn how to fabricate and to get better at welding is to keep doing it. I’ve got another setup to do after this for a friend also, that’ll be a twin turbo 5.3 LS. More on that later. John’s setup is a 5.3L LS with a gt45 t4 turbo. Those LS3 manifolds I picked up at the New Braunfels swap meet, well, here they are. Grinded off some tabs, casting and then the 2 bolt flange was grounded off. Tac-welded some 3″ v-band flanges on to it. Still need to grind it a little better where the 2-bolt flange used to be to make it more rounded. Its not necessary to do so, but it’ll “look better”. I also made a bracket to hold the gt45 since its heavy. I’m not super happy with the bracket but it looks ok. The manifolds had some sort of provision for a sensor, so I filled that in, looks clean.
Well, the turbo Camaro is patiently waiting for a TH400 transmission. I ended up taking my trans and all parts I bought to Winners Circle Transmissions for them to build it. I ended up taking the core apart, putting it back together but didnt feel comfortable building one that will go behind a 900hp turbo Camaro. Here’s some pics of what I bought, it was all from CK Performance. Not pictured is the TH400 master rebuild kit with Alto red clutches, steels, etc. Pictured is the reverse manual valve body with a trans brake, billet input shaft, forged steel rollerized forward clutch hub, 6 clutch direct clutch housing w/34 element sprag, 4 clutch billet intermediate pressure plate, billet sun gear shaft. This setup will easily hold 1500hp at the minimum. I had to yank out my engine and mockup th400 transmission while I wait for mine to get built. While that was done, I had to replace the “muscle car oil pan” since it still sat too low and installed a F-body pan, pickup tube, windage tray and also had a -10AN return tapped into the side. You’ll also notice I test fit the new fabricated intake with a Nick Williams 102mm throttle body onto the engine. I’ll need to modify the throttle body since it doesnt open up all the way. The TB hits the intake so I’ll need to grind the throttle cable guide a little to clear (pic shows the interference). Also pictured is a flexplate that enables my 6.0 LS to bolt up to a TH400 with the converter without needing to round out the converter holes on said flexplate. The pic under my Camaro is where you can see the muscle car pan. It just sits too low.
Not much in the way of accomplishments, but I did get a new waterpump for my LQ4 engine. Its for a C6 Vette which will give me more room infront of the engine and lines up with my Dirty Dingo alt bracket. Had some time to finish the 5″ downpipe from my s475 turbo. Should look good for a street car 😉
On the pie cuts, they are pretty clean thanks to my Evolution Rage2 metal blade chop saw.
Going slowly down here in Texas. With Christmas around the corner, I decided to get my turbo car a present. Picked up a 102mm sheetmetal intake off of ebay.
Specs:
Height: 9″
Material Thickness: 3 millimeters
Throttle Body Opening: 102 millimeters
Intake total length: 20 inches
Came with 3/4″ high flow fuel rails, gaskets, hardware and a braided fuel crossover line. It has 3 vacuum ports.
Had a local shop here in San Antonio, Lethal Performance, do some work for me. They’ve done quite a bit on my other cars. Being that I’m a newbie fabricator, I learned the hard way about fitment when fabbing up a turbo setup. Who better to learn from than Lethal. It started with me just wanting small stuff, for example, just modify what I have and “make it fit”. It was easier/cleaner/quicker for the to just redo my hot side. Being that I want to start the New Year off with much less work to do on my car, I just dropped them a to-do list. I’ll take better pics a little bit later.
Hood “pins”, TurboSmart 60mm Wastegate, hot side redone, radiator and intercooler mounted, core support redone. Not much left at the shop. Once its back, I’ll start on the TH400 and converter install, then on to other things like gauges, fuel system and the best part, FiTech fuel injection. 1000HP OR BUST!
Its been a long journey..from learning how to weld to fabbing up my own turbo setup. It took so long because I don’t really spend every day working on it. Sometimes 4 hours, sometimes 2 weeks later I start up again. Something called work and family gets in the way 😉 Well, he’s the coated tubing, tubing installed and also a BG400 fuel pump, filter and gauge I picked up thanks to Kendrick Automotive. I also sprayed the down pipe with some “Flame Proof” spray paint, supposedly it’ll withstand 1200*.
