Engine SwapEverything about swapping an engine into your Third Gen.....be it V6, V8, LTX/LSX, crate engine, etc. Pictures, questions, answers, and work logs.
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With cleaning came some frustration, I found many cracks on this box... Is this usual? Anyway here they are.
Here's the big daddy I showed you all yesterday Camaro 22.JPG
Here's another Camaro 23.JPG
And another Camaro 24.JPG
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Looks like new on the inside and good on the outside exept for the crack.. My parents would be pissed if I was cleaning my car parts on the table inside ahah
fiberglass would do the trick on the first pic, i cant see the crack on the second and is the crack in metal on the third picture. It looks like the metal has been scraped or corroded. If its metal in the third picture and its not all the way through, putting some rust resistant paint would do the trick.
So are you saying I should get a new box five7kid or repair it? Mom and dad weren't home, so I got away with it. I put new paper on the table when working with it, I just removed the paper before the pic.
Quick side not, I just found a place that will hot tank my heads for $5 bucks a piece!!!! That seems really cheap, and here comes the good part, the place is on my way to school. Yippie!!! lol.
hey bro i just spent the last hour reading this, your doing an awesome job, im really looking forward to more post, i just finished my build, now im going on to the interior and you gave me a bunch of ideas which is great, but keep it up.
They're dipped into a hot solution, I believe it's hot, either way they are simply dipped into a solvent or solution that cleans all the sludge and hopefully most of the carbon off. My heads need it because they are covered in thick oil sludge, and the intake and exhaust ports are really dirty.
It's a caustic soda solution (sodium hydroxide, aka lye). It is heated to make it work quicker and more effectively.
Don't use it on aluminum parts, though, as the caustic soda will eat into the metal. For aluminum parts, a hot detergent water machine should be used. Many shops only use the detergent machine these days due to the wider use of aluminum in engines.
Those caustic tanks are awsome. We have a huge one at our sister shop in houston that will take a 12000 lbs cylinder block.
In the field we don't have that. We ussually scrape it off and then blow it down with varasol. Wire brushes on high speed 1/4 inch shank air grinders work good.
Also when you get your heads back spray em down right away with WD 40 or wet em down good with varasol. Those caustic tanks clean the oil right out of the pores and then they pressure wash em with water when they come out and it doesnt take long before they get rusty.
DacMan, you are doing a great job in my book. I know how hard it can be to get things done with little to no money sometimes and find the enthusiasm to keep going.
That's what I was thinking Five7kid, not to discredit duderjay at all, I just need to get my heads in paint as quickly as possible I suppose. Thanks a lot intrepid... I heard you boys from Bloomfield are nothing but a bunch of haters.. lol. Hey Five7kid, I'm still confused on whether you were suggesting to fix my air box or replace it, I'd appreciate your clarification if you don't mind.
Hey I gots a quick question, I've been looking on ebay seeing that I can buy a nib comp cam xtreme energy cam shaft, for really really cheap, but it's just the cam not the kit. My question is, do I need the double roller chain, new springs, yada yada yada, or can I just throw in a new cam. I ask because I aint got the money for a cam but from what I've read, higher lifting cams do alot for the 305.
Alright guys, got some more tedious paint work done today. I started the day off by sanding and painting my air conditioning pump, once in primer I saw how many paint edges there were, where I didn't feather in the paint to raw steel well. So I didn't paint it black and instead left it sit. I'll have to wet sand it with 600 to feather the edges some time next weekend. Here it is. Camaro 26.JPG
I then decided to paint my power steering pump. I sanded it down, then wet sanded it to 600 just to make sure my problems didn't occur again. I also went out and bought some 3m wax and grease remover.... man that stuff is expensive !!!!! $16.00 for a quart! Yikes. But I used it on the power steering problems and no orange peel issues so I was happy. Camaro 25.JPG
I then sanded down my brake booster and painted it black. I'm obviously painting all these pieces gloss black, it should look good in contrast to my satin engine bay, but the more I think about it the more I worry that the gloss black will be a huge pain to keep clean. here's my brake booster. Camaro 27.JPG
Hey everybody, beware the Dac don't sleep, booooooo ooo ooo! (did I scare anyone? lol) Anyway I decided to clean the carbon off my valves. I used a combination of a wooden rib, putty knives, and a wire brush. pretty straight forward work, just dirty. here's a pic of my setup. Camaro 28.JPG
I then decided to clean all the threads on my head bolts. I kinda setup a step by step process on how to get em real clean. I first took a bolt and went over it with a wire brush, the threads and the head. Then I took a thread restorer nut from my craftsman kit, threw a few drops of cutting oil on it, and ran it up the bolt. I would then go up and down the bolt with it, until I could do it with my fingers with ease. I then took the bolt and washed it off with that black bucket on the floor by the trash can. The solvent in it was just some carb cleaner you get in a plastic bottle. I then took a tooth brush and cleaned the threads off really well. I went over it with a paper towel afterwards, and walla. A good clean bolt. here's a pic of my "station" Camaro 29.JPG
And here's a pic of the final product compared to an untouched one. Camaro 30.JPG
Wow man, I just found your post and I have to say, you are doing a great job. I'm in your age range as well, 19, and I'd have to say you've done a far better job than I think I could have done. You seem to have great talent with paint, I have seen not one run in anything you've painted yet. I've got a project of my own that I'm working on but its not near as much as what you are going through. I have an 86 Firebird that I picked up for $300 and it only had a few rust spots on the whole car. Mostly on the rear fenders at the bottom, just small spots. The interior is decent and not one crack at all on the dash. I'm basically just doing an engine swap and then eventually getting a paint job done on the car. And hopefully fully building the motor later on. It had the 2.8L in it but that thing is done, so I picked up a 96 LT1 out of an SS Impala with 80k on it for $250 and I'm working on getting a tranny for it for about the same price and then I've just got to get a wiring harness and get everything wired up and I'll be riding around with close to 300hp without really too much work at all. Can't wait to get the true duels set up with flowmaster exhaust and the K&N intake, this thing going to sound beastly when I'm finished with the minor stuff. LOL but yeah, anyways, man I just wanted to say good work with everything so far and I'll continue reading your thread and if there's anything I can help with I'll tell you what i know, but I've learned a handful of good information from reading all of this so far. Thanks for posting this thread and keeping it up to date. I really like what you've done here. I'll post a few pics of my car incase you wanna check out what I managed to pick up for so cheap lol. I couldnt beleive it when the guy said he'd take $300 for it.
Wow james,
Congrats on the great deal! I wish I would have gotten into the car you did instead of mine. I'm glad to hear that I've given you some tips and ideas,and please let me know how your car is going.
I decided against a cam. I don't have the budget for a full set of new springs, lifters, and cam. Ohhh well. I only drove my camaro once and that was home, due to it's condition I immediately took it apart, so when people tell me that the 305 is slow I have no way of knowing how slow, and it kinda worries me that my car is going to suck when it's done. Which I am beggining to assume that it will.
I built a 305 from a 91 caprice block with flat top cast pistons, mild comp cam, and headers. It'll melt the tires pretty easy. So I wouldn't really say it's slow. Even my all stock 91 RS 305 with half the rings screwed up moves pretty good. I don't remeber if you said anything about headers, but they are a good performance bang for the buck.
Last edited by morepowerjoe; 11-02-2009 at 09:27 PM.
yeah I didn't even think about headers. Just curious, how much hp do you think I would gain with headers? And what brand do you prefer. I realize there are a lot of threads out there on this subject, but I'm just curious what you prefer?
I just always buy the cheap ones. lol. But I really do. Then I just clean em up good and spray header paint on them from the auto parts. It sucks sometimes dealing with long tubes but the performance gain is pretty good. I felt a big difference when I put my long tubes on. I would think going from stock manifolds to even mid length headers would be aleast 12-20 hp. The brand doesn't really matter much, I think the quality comes down to the flanges and finishes. What exactly are you going to be running for your engine set up? You've got a really long thread it takes a while to get through it.
Not much more than a stock 305 by the looks of it, so much for the 350, speaking of that i found a full Vortec 350 from the oil pan to the throttle body the other day on craigslist for $100 but he GAVE IT AWAY before I got there. Look around some Dac
I know I Know intrepid... I just don't have the ability. If I throw in a 350 I have to put in subframe connectors, because my rusty frame sure as heck can't take more than a hopped up 305, and maybe not even that. Also my tranny is getting tired and I'm sure a 350 would push it right over that edge. Every time I think about a 350 it sounds good, until I think of all the stuff I'd have to do to get there. Guess the name of this thread is a little misleading, sorry if I let your expectations down intrepid lol.
If you put a shift kit in a 700r4 thats on it's last leg, it'll last a lot longer. My 86 with my olds 350 has about 400 hp and the tranny was almost out. I put in a b&m shift kit http://www.jegs.com/i/B-M/130/70239/10002/-1 and now it shifts like brand new again, even better then new. On your engine is it tpi, tbi, carb?
Last edited by morepowerjoe; 11-03-2009 at 07:19 AM.
That too small of roller problem you have is one that I ran into, just have then take the biggest roller they have and roll a center left and right bead roll, it's the perfect size to fit your old rolls. I haven't posted much because I am in a private school 5 days a week, and they hit me with some extreme homework every night. I've got like 6 papers due right now. And to make things worse we just lost an hour to daylight savings time so when I get home from school around 5:45 every day, it's already dark out... huh... ohhhh well.
Wow I can't belive how cheap that is. How much work was it to drop in a shift kit? Do you have to drop the tranny?
Thanks, DacMan
No you don't have to drop the tranny but to me it's a lot easier. There are a few little bee bee sized check balls that can be a pain from underneath. But you can hold them in with a dab of grease on reasembly. I wouldn't try it from underneath but a lot of people do it.
Alright fellas, I got some work done tonight, painted my a/c pump (no pics of that, it's just gloss black). But also I got my heads prepared for hot tanking. I started off by removing my old spark plugs and using a spark plug hole thread restorer. Here's a pic of it in action. Camaro 32.JPG
After I restored the spark plug threads I then used a thread restorer on the rocker arm studs. I also restored all the threads drilled and tapped into the heads, so the intake and exhaust threads for example. So the heads are all ready for dipping. My mom was going to throw away this old broken cloths hamper she had so I told her to let me have it, and it's now living a new life as a head hamper lol. Here's a pic of my heads all bundled up... I realize these pics are kinda lame, but that's just the part of the resto I'm going through right now.
Notice how dirty and sludgy these heads are. I just couldn't bring myself to put new gaskets and valve seals on such dirty heads. Camaro 33.JPG
Notice how dirty and sludgy these heads are. I just couldn't bring myself to put new gaskets and valve seals on such dirty heads. Camaro 33.JPG
lol I don't blame ya man. Plus every little bit helps, it'll at least help bring some of the power back to that old 305. They aren't bad motors and you can definitely beef them up, I mean they are still basically 350s. Like morepowerjoe said, the headers will definitively help and get a K&N filter on that intake and you'll notice a little difference. And later upgrade the cam and heads and you'll be out there blowing past the 350s(stock ones) in no time. I also recomend cutting the cat out and running straight pipe to the muffler(I personally like flowmaster mufflers the best). Oh, and the shift kit doesn't add hp but it makes for smoother shifting so that'll make it feel like its stronger too.
Just read through this thread, I've been following for a little while now and it's coming along nicely from what I can see. I just wish I had the time to work on my car now, school is taking up all my free hours and plus I had to leave the Camaro about an hour and a half away at home so I'm starting to get separation anxiety from having the interior gutted with no one to put her back together haha. Good luck with the rest of your build though it's really simple but you put a lot of attention to details so it will turn out sweet.
Yikes those really are dirty! I took my valve covers off the other day and my oil is still brown, I'm so proud So what does the thread restorer do exactly? And how does it do it? You're gonna repaint the whole block riiiight Dac?
Yikes those really are dirty! I took my valve covers off the other day and my oil is still brown, I'm so proud So what does the thread restorer do exactly? And how does it do it? You're gonna repaint the whole block riiiight Dac?
Brown oil ... So what, when I change my oil it's a thrilling adventure! The thread restorer sharpens up the threads. Any imperfections in the threads from previous removals of spark plugs will be corrected, also (the main reason I use thread restorers) is that it throuroghly cleans all the dirt grim and rust out of the threads. The way it works is through the design, basically it has sharp edged threads, that very slightly cut into the steel. It then has gaps in the threads for dirt and grime to flow into. I use cutting oil to make the threads go easier and make the thread restorer last longer. I'm deffinatley going to paint the block. The oil pan might not look really great. I might remove it and paint it, but it should look great from the top.
jk dac 
. Look around some Dac
