GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Intro
For a while now, I’ve wanted to document the evolution of my Camaro from a bone stock street car to a dedicated roadrace car. The end goal right now is to race in the NASA’s Camaro Mustang Challenge series in CMC2. The car is currently being raced in CMC1.

My Camaro, aka Knocker, has already gone thru a couple of what I consider major changes. From a 305 TBI, to an ugly 350, to a fresh mild 350, to a 305 TPI, and that’s just the engine swaps so far! As of right now, I am just beginning to swap in an LT1. I hope to get fairly detailed in my write-up for the LT1 swap and maybe get some advice along the way.

A fore-warning… There are probably a few decisions I’ve made / will make that may seem strange or against the grain, but they usually are for a reason. This is a racecar competing in a series governed by rules. Some choices are dictated by these rules. Others are to try gain a bit of a performance advantage. Feel free to ask questions or make suggestions tho.

Hope you enjoy it.

*edit* Here's a link to a lot more pictures, but then you'll get ahead of the story!
http://www.fototime.com/inv/A2D027377A80B0E

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

My 1986 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 starts its journey rolling off the assembly line in Van Nuys. A 305 LG4 4bbl mated to a T5 gearbox. 15x7 alloy wheels. 10” disc fronts, drum rears. Nothing all that spectacular by today’s standards.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

At some point, the car was sold to a guy in Amarillo, Tx. Unsure of how many changes were made before he got ahold of it, but they couldn't have been this bad. Hatch louvers, NOS seatcovers, NOS floormats and matching NOS steering wheel cover... but no nitrous. And best of all, the 'we dropped in a tree-fiddy' swap.

After autocrossing a friends ’92 B4C 1LE car, I had been looking for a third gen of my own to replace my busted ’73 240Z, aka Nuprin: Little. Yelllow. Different. This Camaro, a 350 5 speed fit the bill.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

I conned a buddy to drive 9+ hours from College Station to Amarillo to check out the car. We saw that the car was burning a little bit of oil but were told it had just been sitting up for a while and the valve seals probably needed replacing. Being young and dumb, it was hard to justify driving all that way for nothing. I bought it anyways tho I probably should have passed on it. On the way home, I ADDED 8 quarts of oil during the trip. Combining the plumes of smoke as I accelerated with keeping an eye of an overheating issue made for a frustrating drive. Pulling into the driveway at home late that night, my roommate came out to listen to the knock that had developed. “I got a name for it… Knocker”

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

When we started tearing into the engine bay, we discovered that the swap was poorly done. It was a 350 out of a truck that was seemingly just dropped in. It had the wrong dist, not hooked up to any advance etc. Of course, there were those pesky leaky valve seals. Fortunately I was working at a automotive machine shop at the time. The motor had spun a main bearing and the block had got nice and hot.



I replaced the toasted block with a roller 350 that my roommate sold me along with a factory oil cooler, put in a mild cam (XR258HR), and rebuild the stock truck heads that were on there due to lack of budget. I hadn't exactly planned on rebuilding the engine immediately after buying the car.



I added a HEI dist, Demon Jr 625 under a 3” drop base air cleaner and some cheap Heddman shorty headers. Initially I had a few issues with the Demon. Sent it back, they checked it and said there was nothing wrong. The car was running way too lean. You could hear the vaccuum. Sent the carb back again and they sent me a new one. Night and day difference. In the meantime, I was borrowing my roommates 750cfm carb and running a bit on the rich side. I crossed my fingers and hoped I hadn’t washed down a cylinder while I waited on my replacement carb.

SomeGuy25thZ

def. going to follow this thread because i am trying to get into the same.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

My roommate gave me an extra rear end with some 3.23s and aluminum drums he had laying around. It started a small snowball effect. While I was there, figured I may as well install a factory take-out Torsen from SLP. GMs long studs were installed also since the axles would be out. Springs would be easy to do now as well, so in went some used Suspension Techniques lowering springs. Since now the front springs had to come out, I upgraded the struts to a pair of used Bilstein Sports bought from a fellow autocrosser.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

I’ve always been a fan of functionality. Since Knocker has hood louvers, lets make them functional. First step after carefully removing the louvers was to cut a couple of holes in the hood. Cutting the slots in the plastic louvers was a bit more difficult. I ended up using a special bit I borrowed from work since a cut off wheel simply melted the plastic into gobs. I was pleased with the end result. You can see the heat coming out of the hood on certain days.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

A friend of mine and my roommate had a ‘92 RS that had been wrecked, repaired (badly) and now the repairs had failed. A group of 6 stripped down the car and it was divided between 3 third gen owners. I snagged the 16x8 wheels and the rear hatch glass to get rid of that ugly exterior third brake light and to try bring Knocker into the 90’s.

Link to teardown of ’91 RS

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

During this time, I was very active in autocrossing. I bought a used Kirkey aluminum seat to hold me in place better. Also bought a set of cheap 16x8 firebird wheels (that I painted black) to play on so my street tires wouldn’t be punished. With a 350/ 5 speed and since the motor wasn’t stock, it didn’t fall into F-Stock or E-Street Prepared. Fortunately, the club I mostly ran with, TAMCSCC, had a local catch-all class since the club was mostly students with their daily drivers. SSM, or Super Street Mod, required non race tires and a valid inspection sticker and SM, Street Mod, just required a valid inspection sticker.







A friends B4C we did an LT1 swap into (already had the T56), roommate's B4C, Knocker

Bullydawg

iTrader: (7)

Cool stuff so far! Keep up the post...

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

I felt it fitting that since the name “Knocker” had stuck and people within the car club actually knew the car by name, I should order a set personalized license plates, “KNOCKR”, from the DMV.




My David Couthard inspired helmet.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Thanks to my roommate, I now had in my possession a pair of 305 Vortec heads. I had my head guy at my machine shop replace the 1.84 intake valves w/ 1.94's and clean up the exhaust ports a bit. Wouldn’t 350 Vortec heads be a better choice? Well, it depends on what you have to pay for them.

I noticed number 8 cly had some light scratches on the wall. Next time I'll be more patient and wait for the correct working carb.

With the Vortec style heads, I had to replace the intake with one that will bolt properly to the heads. On the advice of my head man, I slightly modified the intake beneath the carb. Once it was all bolted back in the car, there was a noticeable difference in the power. The Demon carb was tuned as best I knew how to accommodate the better flowing heads.





Tip of the day... When you remove heads, get up as much of the coolant with blue towels off the tops of the pistons, then spray them down with WD40. If it's going to be a week or so before the new or rebuilt heads get put back on, spray the cylinders every few days. If the water sits on the pistons, it can cause ring failure. A lot of old dogs will tell you “you’ll blow out the rings if you do a valve job on a worn motor” It’s not the increased compression that does it, it’s usually the rings crystallizing.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

The thing with 16” wheels, is they don’t make very many wide tires for them. A 265 is about as wide as they go. I wanted moar! You can safely fit a 275/40 on the front and can kinda sorta squeeze a 315/35 on the rear. If I were to stuff some 315’s in the rear, I’d need some 17” wheels. The most common and cheapest 17” wheels for a third gen are in a 4th gen offset which requires wheel adapters. I ended up buying a set of 4-2” adapters on ebay, a set of 4 17x9.5 ZR1 replicas in a 38mm (low) offset, and a pair of 17x11’s in a 56mm (high) offset. I knew I might not always be able to shod the car with the big 315s, and might have to settle with using 275s on the rear if needbe. With the odd pairing on the offsets, I was able to use the same thickness adapters front and rear. I lucked out on the adapters. For a small extra charge, the guy machined a lip in the adapters to make them hug centric. Very cool.




Hoosiers FTW!

Here’s a great page for wheel offsets for Camaros.
The 315’s did require a bit of work with a BFH to avoid rubbing the inner fender area. I also ‘rolled’ the fender lips. Since the car was slightly lowered, I also fabricated an adjustable panhard bar for around $50 following this site. Purchased the bar and QA1 rod ends from www.colemanracing.com , a friend who recently built one for his car gave me the right and left hand threaded nuts. Had the machine shop I was working at at the time fab up the aluminum bushings.

RS Chris

Gary, I have been following your progress for some time. I'm really liking this thread. Someday when school is over and Im not in super debt Im going the same route.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Thanks guys, sorry the 'updates' are coming so slow, but I'll keep them coming.

Around this time, my roommate, who had raced in SCCA’s American Sedan class years ago among other series, suggested I look into getting into road racing. A-Sedan looked like a lot of fun, racing big American V8s. Unfortunately, the class requires a LOT of money to even run midfield. My roommate suggested I look elsewhere unless I wanted to “hemorrhage money.” He pointed me towards NASA’s Camaro-Mustang-Challenge class which had originated in CA and had made it’s way to Texas a few years earlier.

This class is close to what the idea of showroom stock is. Foxbody and SN95 Mustangs versus Thirdgen and LT1 Camaros. Each car was limited to 230hp/300ft*lbs to the wheels on a dyno using either a factory engine combo or a specified aftermarket carb option. This is to help keep costs down and the playing field equal. Other areas of the rules are fairly limited, such as stock suspension pick-up points, 16x8 max wheels, spec Toyo RA1 tires. It was promoted as a drivers series.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Of course, you are also required to have a rollcage to go wheel to wheel racing. Even tho it will be a few years before I could even think about being able to afford to go racing, (entry fees, trailers, tires etc), what I could afford was a hundred dollars here, a few hundred there. Since I was still working at a machine shop, we could get a pretty good deal on material, so I decided to tackle the task of building the cage first. A couple of friends who have installed cage kits, and modified/added bars to other cars help me with the bending, notching and welding. Ok, in reality, they did all the welding, most of the bending, and I did a lot of the notching.



I designed the cage, taking a bit of inspiration from many different cars including some rally cars. I went with the “X” door bars also because I wanted to keep the interior installed which required for autocrossing in SCCA’s new SM class. I left out the upper front portion of the “X” to make egress easier. When I got the car ready for wheel to wheel road racing, I planned on completing the “X”. The cage must be at a minimum of .095 1 ¾” DOM tubing for a car weighing in under 3000lbs. My cage is a mixture of .120 wall and .095 wall. The main hoop, diagonal, lower door bar along the door sill, and rear backstays are .120 with the rest being .095. Rules state you can only have 8 mounting points. The cage ended up being extremely tight against the body, contacting, but not attached in several placed. The A-pillar bars are seamless with the A-pillars of the car to reduce the blind spot. These guys did a great job.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

The tabs that the dash bolted to on the ends were cut and re-welded to the front down-tubes. The carpet was trimmed and a few panels were modified, but overall the interior, with the exception of the headliner and door arm rests, all went back in. Mirror was replaced with a Longacre 14” convex mirror mounted to the cage. Added the cheap padding at this time to the cage as well.









The red swith is for my fans (for now!)

GTAwheelman

sweet write up will be waiting for more

procamaro85

Very cool!!...it's good to see 3rd gen race cars being built.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

I got everything put together just in time for the SCCA Tour in El Paso at the end of the month. Even running on some old dying Hoosiers, the car was a blast to drive. I had recently bought an A/C delete box since the A/C didn’t work anyways. I had briefly considered not even doing that and just covering the hole in the firewall. On the drive home, I’m so glad I left the heater in!



That El Paso trip will be a memorable one. Well, the stop at Van Horn on the way to the event will be anyways. I managed to toast a wheel bearing, I think due to me over tightening the nut. Details in the link below.

El Paso Event Write-up

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

More Autocrossing.

SCCA Tour in Houston








Bonus shot ... mild NWS

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

I had been looking for a 305 TPI motor to swap in to go racing. I had joked with a buddy of mine who had a b4c/1le car (not my roommates white one) that if he ever wrecked it, I got first dibs. A few months later, he did and true to his word, he sold me the ex-DPS pursuit car. I kinda felt bad for saying that, but he then bought an LS1 formula, so it wasn't all that bad.



It is possible that the car could have been fixed. I could have put a new cage in it and started a racecar with it. Or repaired it, sold it, and then began to search for all the good parts I just sold. It made more financial and logistical sense to me to strip it and put the good parts into Knocker.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

I had recently moved back to Houston in with my parents until I could get back on my feet and find a real job. I borrowed a dolly and brought the B4C to their house to sit in their garage until I was ready to build up Knocker.

mcgarnicle

iTrader: (14)

subscribing. Very good write up so far. I'm enjoying reading about you and your cars journey.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

I finally landed a real job. It was now time to get to work on what would become the racecar. To start with, I needed to strip the ’92 1LE/B4C 5.0 Litre, 5-spd, ex-DPS donor car. I have no airtools to strip the car, so it took me a little longer than the 3 1/2 hours it took to tear down the ’91 RS. I did take extra care to removed everything complete and by not cutting unnecessarily. In the end, everything that could be unbolted, was. The B4C sat in the driveway with only the broken windshield, what was left of the exploded battery, and air bag sensors waiting for the wrecker. I couldn't help myself, even knowing fully well that I'd never use them, I unbolted the sensors before the car was taken away.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Next came the task of stripping down Knocker. The plan was to use pretty much everything from the B4C. And I do mean everything. Baffled gas tank, fuel lines, parking brake handle, engine cross member. And of course the good stuff like the Koni's, disc rear end w/ 3.42's (dropped in my torsen), big front brakes, World Class T-5, and the LB9.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

With Knocker down to just the bare body, now was the time to clean and paint and clean some more and paint… and more painting. Once Knocker was pressure-washed, I painted the engine bay and everywhere that I could find that wasn't red. Yeah, yeah, I know. "White is gonna get dirty so easy." Don't care, it's not a showcar, and I don't want to hide the oil leaks, I want to be able to find them.
BEFORE

AFTER




Unfortuanately, IIRC, I chose a semi-gloss white. Not the best choice as it doesn’t clean very well. I had made the same mistake on the rollcage. Next time I do this, I will use a better paint (still probably white) with a more durable gloss finish and just try to be patient as it dries.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Working on the car on nights and weekends, it slowly went all back together. I cleaned and painted the parts that came off and used the B4C bits instead of Knockers (even tho some parts are identical to the ones that were on Knocker). This way, I wasn't faced wik the task of cleaning and painting everything at once. It was nice to just hit assembly mode. The toughest part was the C100 connector. Everything infront of the firewall plus the ecm was from the ’92. Firewall back was ’86. I had purchase an 1992 service manual from eBay and already had an 1986 one. Using the wiring diagrams, I was able to repin one side (I forget if it was the engine side or cabin side).

I installed the A/C delete pulley and air pump delete pulley before dropping in the engine. Plugged up the AIR ports on the exhaust manifolds with these. Engine also received a crank underdrive pulley and serp belt, new valve springs, new oil pump, new heavy duty oil pump drive, and a Canton Road Race pan and pickup from Livermore Performance

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

The padding around my head was finally replaced with some of the Hi-density SFI rated stuff.

Brake cooling dust shields were installed at this time too. These were purchase from Skute.com. The NACA ducts and the hi-temp hose is from Pegasus Auto Racing. Front Springs are (IIRC) 10” 1000lb Hypercoils.




Headlight Covers fabbed by Vilas Motor Works. Rules require you to run covers similar to the stock profile or tape up the headlights. Most third geners just used a flat bit of plastic or metal across the opening. I think the 4 headlight look is a defining part of a third gen. With this simple change tho, I knew that there was no turning back. Knocker wouldn't ever be a Sunday driver again or be legally driven on the street.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

It’s ALIVE!



Since computer tuning is not allowed per the rules, I couldn’t simply turn off the anti-theft stuff. I used the ’92 VATS module. Since I had the ’92 key, I was able to measure the resistance and thanks to ThirdGen.org, wired in the correct resistors in line with the module/computer.

I had bought some 00 battery cable and crimps from a boat store of all places. This connected the battery from the back seat, to the kill switch, to a battery thru panel connector which serves as a junction block, finally to the starter. Never had a problem cranking. Also wired up a push button start and used the old red fan switch as my ignition (moved the fan switch to just below the headlight switch using a regular toggle).

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Since I can’t even begin to think about welding anything myself, I loaded up the car to get the exhaust put on. Unfortunately, common sense seems to be dying off. After two different muffler shops refused to work on it because it didn’t have cats (hello! It’s a racecar! As in, “Off-road vehicle” no headlights etc), I got tired of dragging it around and went to go get raped by a local speed shop on Hwy 6. I also had them weld in the base Vilas Motor Works fabbed for my battery mount in what used to be the rear passenger seat. They said it would be ready in a week for $200. Two weeks later I go to pick it up and they’re still welding on it as I pull in. I’m taking my car ready or not. Then the owner gives me the invoice for $340. YGTBSM. A week later than promised with them wanting 70% more than what they first estimated without ever contacting me? Poor welding at that. A few days, 15% is understandable. Never going to that place again.

CharcoalBird

iTrader: (4)

Nice build thus far. For some reason, trips to El Paso are always memorable. Last time I went, it flooded! Then I broke down 2 hours outside of San Antonio on the way back(middle of nowhere.)

PontiacMC

I am following this for sure! I am looking at autocrossing my 88 GTA so its nice to see someone else getting into it big time.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

During the off season, CMC2 was introduced. This class had a slightly higher HP/TQ limit to give newer cars a place to play. This class also allowed larger 13” brakes and 17” wheels. The basic concept remained the same. At this time, a third gen was not an eligible model to run in CMC2.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Took Knocker for it’s first real shakedown at a TAMSCC autocross practice. Barely got it off the trailer before becoming uncooperative. Diagnosed the problem to be a bad cheap master kill switch. Fortunately, I was able to bypass it for the event (kill switch is required for CMC, not autocross) and ordered a good switch when I got home.

mightymaro94

GARY super sweet ride man ... and ive love following this thread... keep up all the good work man

RS Chris

The shop you were refering to wouldn't happen to be ARD would it?

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Yup.

Coolwheels84

iTrader: (5)

Cool build man. I can't wait to get the funds together to finish my '84 and start on my '91Z.

RS Chris

You know I had ARD put some Spohn subframe connectors on my car, and I thought they did a pretty good job. But after reading your post about their welding abilities I was under the car the other day changing struts and oil and took a good look at them. I'm not as impressed as I was when they first did it. Especially since I went to school a few years ago to learn welding. There basically gorilla welds.

TPI TERR

iTrader: (9)

nice build.. using spohn sfc?

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Completely forgot about those! They were one of the first things I added sometime in 2003.

Bolted and welded on the Alston Racing subframe connectors purchased from Top Down Solutions. The sfc's are tucked up and hug the body pretty tight. Also bolted on a TDS Wonderbar at that time too. Wonderbar was super easy to install. Zero issues with the service of TDS.

More up/backdates coming soon. Just been super busy lately.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Loaded up the car and took it to a buddy’s place in San Antonio. A group of friends were there to work on his GT1 Camaro and I’d be able to get some stuff done on Knocker too. Main goals on the list were welding on the splines for my removable steering wheel, mounting my new Ultrashield Road Race seat (which would also require some welding) and mounting my right side window net. Good thing one of the guys is an awesome welder.

Now of course with welding, comes sparks. And sometimes a small fire. Fortunately this happened when I was away buying lunch as 'payment'.



Seat mount is very similar to this picture borrowed from LAW Motorsports. It uses 1" square tubing with threaded bungs welded in every 2" or so.


Right side net mounting.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Needed just a few more things to be CMC legal.

Drilled the hole for my Competition Components (03K05) “Retained Steel Bonnet Pins” Hood and hatch pins. I can't find these anymore. These are nice in that they are all steel. Most of the others I've found have aluminum retainers.





Rears bolted to a tab that I had welded on in San Antonio. Put pins on the hatch so I could get rid of that heavy latch mechanism.





A Safequip tow strap was bolted to the front bumper. Not the ideal way, but it'll work til for now. For the rear, I knocked out one of the studs that hold the 'frame' to the bumper, replaced it with a larger grade 8 bolt and bolted another strap to that.



New window net, new right side net and a new G-Force 6 point Harness were also installed. I'm not a huge fan of camlocks, more parts to fail the way I see it. Also mounted my I/O Port seat back brace.

AMB Transponder, ugh. $400 for a little red box. Glad it will give laptimes to .001 of a second.

Excuse the boilover from the overflow tank. Picture was taken much later on

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Now for the stuff that wasn't exactly necessary to be legal. Redid the exhaust from the 'over the axle, muffler in the back' to a side exhaust with no muffler. Used a round to oval transition bend from Dr. Gas simply for the looks. Yeah, full oval exhaust would be nice, but expensive.



When I first put in the 350, I bought the triple gauge cluster from O'Reilly's with o/p, water temp, and volts. Sure I would have liked to get the Autometer stuff, but I'm on a budget. With the stock gauges now gone, I added the other gauges from iEquus



The wire and small black box on the dash is my sequential shift light. This is one thing I spruged on. I ordered it with three small blue lights, a small yellow light, and a big red SHIFT light. I think it's pretty cool. You can program the RPM where the first light comes on, RPM when the red light comes on, and the flash RPM. I like how it flashes after the programed SHIFT point at the SHIFT RIGHT MEOW!!!1! point. Good idea for normal 'lets keep this motor together for a long time' shifting, shift on the light, but for those times when you're neck and neck with someone and are looking for any possible advantage, shift on the flash.

All interior panels, with exception of the required dash, didn’t go back this time.

FueledSoul

iTrader: (18)

subscribed

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

Finally, the time had come to get on a racetrack, and the next NASA event happened to be at my 'home' track, Texas World Speedway in College Station. Now, even tho MSR-H is closer to me, I've worked corners at TWS and helped crew for some friends out there a handful of times. This would be my first event that I was doing the driving.

I signed up for HPDE1 (High Performance Drivers Education) as part of the process where they evaluate you as you learn and work your way up to actual wheel to wheel racing. A lot of people confuse HPDEs (or DE's) as racing. It's not. My goal was to work my way thru the required HPDE's as quickly as possible. Some people do HPDE's with no intention of going W2W, and that's fine, just not my goal.

I had moved my old 15" Kirkey into the passenger seat so I could have an instructor ride with me. The 15" seat kinda limited the instructors that could ride along! I got Marshal, a tall skinny guy. The first session we took it real easy to learn the course. He yelled at me for the first full lap, then yelled at me only every once in a while. No mufflers made it a little difficult on him.

Second session (and each session after that), we went a bit faster. The first time at full speed down the front straight was nerve racking. There was all sorts of squeeks and rattles and strange noises. It was worse that I knew it was ME who had quite literally touch most every bolt on the car last. I hoped I torqued and locktited and anti-siezed and lubed everything I was supposed to. At the end of the day, everything actually held together and nothing fell off the car. I call that a success.







The front end is a little too low. I had to take the low line into T1 else it would bottom out pretty hard. Either a spring spacer or new springs would have to be added later.

A few weeks later I did another track day at TWS with a different club, TWS-MSC, to get more practice at this whole going really fast and turning thing.

GMan 3MT

iTrader: (4)

At this point, I finally owned a set of my own GTA crosslace wheels. In the relatively short time I've owned Knocker, it's had quite a few different sets of stock wheels on it.

86 Z28 15s

91 RS 16s

Firebird 16s

GTA 16s (ones in this picture are borrowed)

4th Gen 16s (borrowed to make the trip to El Paso)

4th Gen 16s

ZR1 replica 17s

Iroc 16s

TPI TERR

iTrader: (9)

on the Alston subframe connectors? how good did these tuck in? any pics?