u and ur deals! seems like u just need the front ones now. 2.5" cutout? becarful where u place the cutout. u dont want the heat to break ur cutout. i read in here about spraying the pipe with paint and going for a long ride. basacly, u would place the cutout before where the paint started to burn.

i'm pretty sure the old catalytic converter spot will work. i'm pretty sure i've heard of it being used there before.

i would go for home made cutout! keep it in the budget line

yea, to those who aren't me and MFaust89, we've been discussing making my own cut out, and i'm pretty much sold on the idea. it's cheap and I get to weld. PERFECT!

I was putting in a starter so I checked the oil. it was gray on the stick, so I drained it out of the pan to see if it was all gray or just a bad reading. it's all gray. I don't know what to do now or what this means really, I don't feel very good. maybe the block is cracked? I put a little too much oil in and the engine hasn't been running for a while before I swapped it in, so do you think this could be "normal?"

alright, another theory is that gas mixed with the oil. not a bad idea, I've had crappy mileage and I can see how with my cold start injector leaking before, it would mix in. the oil also has a very stong smell. stronger than normal oil for sure. It's not at all green or brown though.

If your oil seems thinner than normal and also has a strong smell, it most likely is gas! Your oil won't have a strong smell if it is coolant in it, and it will turn more milky brown color. I have had this happen, but is has usually been with carbed cars that had a ruptured fuel pump diaphragm that was putting fuel into the oil.

I would correct this problem before I drove it again. You don't want to wash out a cam bearing or a lower end bearing.

First, figure out where the fuel is coming from. You said that you had a cold-start injector that was leaking... I assume that you have fixed it. Are there any other fuel leaks or injector leaks??

Next, change your oil and filter. When this has happened to me in the past, I also added a small amount of an oil additive such as Rislone or something like that. I didn't add the whole amount, just about 1/2 of what was recommended. I did this just to help it get the residual of the gas out of there and also to put down some protection for the rest of the engine. Your engine will consume that stuff over time, and then everything will be back to normal.

I always thought that gray oil=bearing material or metal in the oil. Is the oil metallic? You should be able to smell it is gas and antifreeze would be milk or foam.

If the oil was jet black and some water was mixed in maybe you would get gray.

yes exactly what he said :YUP: use por 15 under the car. once you use it you will see how amazing the stuf is and realize it is worth the price. yea if you can fix the rust your self. i would say go for it. i have an emotional atachment with a truck of mine. its an 86 f350 with a 6.9 diesel i could never get rid of it. however you may get to a point where you have put so much money into it you just cant get rid of it. say you put 5 grand into the car and your tranny blows. you mine as well get a new one or a very low miles one if so much stuff on your car is new. as for my truck i figure 7 more grand and every thing will be brand new. i already have atleast 7 grand into it with the cost of the truck. so think about what you really want in the long run! The waay i look at it is even if you fix every thing and every thing is new it will be alot cheeper than buying a new car. just think it through. also another thing to think about is your relationship with the car i have lost a girl friend because i spent to much time working on my truck and it was all that was on my mind.

pontiacguy1- I already did everything you said to do. no fuel leaks, but if I didn't say it before, I'll be keeping a close eye on things.

99b4c-its a good theory, but the oil had about 30 miles on it, so it shouldn't be jet black and its not metallic.

diesellou89-I've thought about por15 on the rear axle too. would you recommend that?

pontiacguy is right, it definitely sounds like a fuel problem

I have personally seen a 2.8L spin a rod bearings from fuel in the oil pan, happened fast too, within a couple weeks of infrequent use

you should take a fine brush over the fuel components, could be a leaky injector too, or a bad fpr dumping fuel... just speculation

the residual oil that was gray would've been a moisture leak, I've seen old engines taken apart with gray oil that water was exposed to. No help to your situation, just sayin, plain water and oil do make a grayish, pastey kinda oil

hey, i got my car all but road worthy. sub frame connectors coming very shortly. custom made, for free of course. my worry is it dies sometimes when it rains. just completely cuts out and dies without warning. fires right back up. any ideas? I was thinking ignition somewhere. my tach also acts up once in a while. it just flicks up and stops working for short periods of time, but it doesn't effect engine speed. still keeping an eye on the oil, but I haven't driven it out of my driveway since the oil change.

ok, so I took it around the block and the problem has definitely gotten worse, the tach almost never works and the car dies often. when I got home I poked around with the engine running and found my car dies when I wiggle the distributer. told you it was ignition related but now I have a more difficult problem. when I turn the car on it takes longer to start and when it idles down it wants to die and usually does. not enough advance? I turned the distributer back to where it was (approximately).
update-took the dizzy out and cleaned it and taped up the wires going to the icm. not starting, but when i put it in i didn't spend enough time on it so it might have the opposite firing order than it needs.

had my buddy check it out. he said ICM or pick-up coil. I'm going to get a jy distributer and see what i have to work with. and of course get the ICM tested.

ok, its running again, but i've been having non-stop problems with it. just one thing after another. sometimes i swear this thing hates me. i put in a distributer, then i had to fix an exhaust leak, now i just had a coolant leak with a faulty hose clamp. the hose clamp (new, properly sized) broke when i just touched it. didn't even try tightening it. damn this car is frustrating me today. lets not forget i live 15 minutes away from the parts store and i found this out 10 minutes before they close.

Ouch, such cruel irony. I finally got my engine running ok, but the tranny is going out!

ah, yea, i know how it's such a pain sometimes. seems like everything just feels like breaking some days. found a new clamp though. after that it was time to put the camaro away for a day, i've broken and fixed to many problems for one day. I'm just lucky they didn't cost me money. lol

solution: give more love to it i leave 2 mins away from a parts store. guess what? expensive as hell!! u can get clamps from a construction store. are u using ones with ajustable screw?

yep adjustable screw. like i said, i found another one and it works fine now. engine is retimed and running really smooth. gotta fix the exhaust leaks next.

seriously, what diameter is the stock exhaust? gotta fix those exhaust leaks. gotta know by tomorrow. the end of my exhaust is deformed and i can't get an accurate measurement. probably 2" right?

so easy to know that. find out the circumference of the exhaust, then use PI (3.14) to find the radius (r).. the formula is: Circ = PI x 2r

good formula, i just went to the parts store and ordered a new I-pipe. 2 1/4" is stock diameter. gonna get the dual outlet muffler sometime in the future. too cool

thats what happen when u take calculous university level what muffler u have now? stock one?

yea just a stock muffler. circles have never been my strong point in math, much better at it than trig though. trig has always been confusing to me.

Yeah, pulled my transmission yesterday, only to find an oil leak on the camshaft cover plate gasket (why couldn't it be a freeze plug?). Went all over to see if anyone had that specific gasket, nope. Have to order from the dealer. It does come in a fel-pro gasket set, $100. Not spending that much cash for just one gasket. So now the car will have to sit for a few more days. Total days in the shop: 3 -- Days to go: 3+

http://www.60degreev6.com/taxonomy/term/20/all

I thought I should add this to the thread. d0001, you might be heading into a problem with your plan of a 160* thermostat. read the article, and you'll see what I mean. besides the reasons in there, I've noticed that its best to keep these engines hot. I would recommend everyone to read up on the article. very useful info.

That's good to know. I actually decided against it, my engine doesn't get that hot, or maybe the fan doesn't work (haha!).

glad to see you've decided against it. hmm, fan doesn't work. i know that one, haha. watch out for coolant leaks, i've had a lot of those...a lot.

Head gasket is leaking, not much, but will cause problems soon if I neglect it. Only problem is, I'm waiting on someone to buy my VW so I can buy parts for the camaro. Having no job is a pain.

yea, i haven't started working yet and it really sucks. head gasket is really an asap fix. what vw do you have? (i'm a closet vw lover)

I might end up having to buy a full gasket set just to get that stupid gasket for the camshaft, guess I'll do the head gasket as well.

It's a 1961 VW beetle with a baja kit. Piston was seized so I tore apart the engine, and then needed a vehicle of my own that ran, so I bought the camaro. Fiance needed someone to drive her to work. Temporarily living with my parents and have two siblings that drive, so we were constantly "fighting" over who gets the vehicle. But now the camaro is having problems, three months after I bought it. So now I have to sell my favorite vehicle (sorry TGO) so I can fix/modify my new car. I have the Jimmy, but that's not something I can drive 240 miles a week and only spend $10-20 on gas 1.5 weeks, would have to fill it up practically every day.

selling your camaro so soon? get the gasket set, you're gonna need all of the gaskets. you've got a pretty reliable car. just needs a little tlc. unlike my car, it needs therapy. lol. if you want a good daily driver, get a cavalier 2.2L. any generation will do. mine is almost unbreakable. I have a page for it on cardomain.

got a thread from earlier if anyone wants to give it a read through.
http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/v6...ml#post3956446 (could use some help)

No, no, no! Haha, not selling my camaro. Selling my VW (favorite car, hence the "sorry TGO") Haha. My bad.

d0001 your signature picture is hilarious.

i've been working on installing that exhaust, but work started this week so I haven't had much time for my camaro lately. won't turn on now. definitely sounds timing related, try to start it and it makes a big pop noise. maybe i bumped the dizzy when i installed that fan switch? idk, but i think i'll play with it a little and get my buddy down here to check it out too. (he has a timing light, yay!)

posting my new rust repair thread so those subscribed can read and leave input.
http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/fa...ons-input.html (Fixing Rust (suggestions/input welcome))

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku
will this ring and pinion work with my rear end? when I pull the rear out I'm putting in a 3.73 ratio. once it hits third it just looses that umph that 1st and 2nd have. I'm sure other T5 guys know what I'm talking about. hopefully my neighbor will teach me how to install them, because if not I'll have to take it to a shop...hopefully not. how hard are those to install with the rear end out? I know it's a lot of shimming and precision.

yes that is the right gearset, u also need an install kit,besides knowing how to install a gearset properly ur also gonna need a press/split bearing remover to get the old shim out from under the stock pinion earing and a bearing race installer to complete the job.

if u have never done this before i strongly suggest u save the money up and take it to a shop that does rearends. with u supplying the parts labor should be 250-350 bucks tops anymore then 350 bucks go somewere else

if u install the gears improperly and run them there is no going back, once u upt about 20 miles on them the teeth will start to wear into each other and u wont be able to correct the gear pattern

yea, I'm aware you NEED to do things right. few people know how to do it and I would LOVE to be one of them though. the bearing remover and bearing race installer, those aren't specific to rear ends are they? might be able to get my hands on those. I'll really have to see how this all plays out though, because I know I can't install them by myself. what I'm wondering about is the pinion spline count is 27 on the gears but from what I looked up I have a 26 spline. couldn't find a 7.5/7.625 gearset with 26 spline though. it was all dana.
as always, thanks for your input project.

ok, so I haven't been driving my car in a few months but I wanted to fix this issue I've been worried about. I ground out the fan switch (back of the passenger head) w/ the key "ON" and I hear a click from what sounds like the fan relay (replaced already) but the fan doesn't turn on. what is that? a short between the relay and fan?

Yeah, sounds like a short.

so the teardown has begun on the camaro, and who would've guessed the cold start injector is leaking...again. it leaks right where the nut threads onto the fuel rail. if anyone out there is selling a 3.1 fuel rail, (no cold start valve) PM me please. I don't want to put this engine all back together and not put at least one goodie on. I'm kind of thinking headers or 1.6 rockers/pushrods. any other suggestions on what I should get?

^^do headers, cam/lifters, ls1 springs, arp studs, slap some chrome vavle covers on there....port match everything...then maybe a turbo...haha....these are all things i will be doing when i pull my motor, either this winter or next(depeding on motor)...so feel free to copy me!

haven't heard of LS1 springs on our engines, but I'll check that out. headers are really tempting. I hate how my car sounds like a big lawnmower. same w/ the cam, but I'm tearing the top end down to the heads w/o removing the heads so ARP studs are out too. I <3 my black valve covers, screw the chrome. As for the port matching, I've got something better in mind a little down the road. haha.