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Couple more things fixed on the car yesterday. New windshield was installed and I finally got an inspection sticker.
Windows will be getting tinted on Monday. Im going with 13% tint.
Car drives nice and straight considering I replaced all the front end components including strut tower plates but I still need to get an alignment. Hopefully next week for that.
I was expecting a LOT better ride from this car with the addition of the Konis but thats not the case. It rides hard. I have the struts and shocks set to the middle setting right now. Maybe a slight adjustment on them will yield better results. Roads in Mass. suck too so thats not helping me.
Magnaflow exhaust is QUIET! Almost as quiet as the stock replacement exhaust I took off the car. Had I known it would be this quiet, I would have not bought it. Maybe it will get louder. Maybe the car will sound better next winter when I do the Dyno Don header/ypipe combo.
I concur! This car is looking awesome... Wheels look great with the white paint! Then again, I always liked your silver Camaro as well. You seem to have good taste. Keep at it! I will be following.
Thanks guys. I love this car so ,much but I do miss my silver one. That car was an animal. Im not going that far, performance wise, with this one. The silver car was hard to drive as a daily. It was a full time job! I just want to cruise around now with the wife and enjoy a nice clean car.
I will be adding some Dyno Don headers when the winter arrives. He is building my set now. Id also like to add some 3.73s to the rear as well. That should be it for the performance mods.
I'm also working on gathering the parts I need to do a drum to disc conversion using 13" Baer rotors.
I'm also working on gathering the parts I need to do a drum to disc conversion using 13" Baer rotors.
I think I still have a set of Baer rear drum to disc brackets for 13" conversion... I will have to look in my storage next time I'm over there IF you haven't got brackets yet.
I think I still have a set of Baer rear drum to disc brackets for 13" conversion... I will have to look in my storage next time I'm over there IF you haven't got brackets yet.
The only parts I have already are a pair of brand new OEM PBR calipers that never left the shelf at a local GM dealer. THey still have new GM pads in them. I scored them by accident.
I was looking at the hassle free brackets from Flynbye. They seem to be the easiest way to convert over. I will have to check and see what Scott has at BBU.com. Hes been very good to me with the front brake parts but I really dont want to cut my OEM rear up.
Let me know what you have and we can figure something out. Thanks
The only parts I have already are a pair of brand new OEM PBR calipers that never left the shelf at a local GM dealer. THey still have new GM pads in them. I scored them by accident.
I was looking at the hassle free brackets from Flynbye. They seem to be the easiest way to convert over. I will have to check and see what Scott has at BBU.com. Hes been very good to me with the front brake parts but I really dont want to cut my OEM rear up.
Let me know what you have and we can figure something out. Thanks
I had to cut mine for the Baer brackets to work. Just let me know if you want me to dig around for them
Finally got the car to the alignment shop this week and what do you know... I didnt even need an alignment. I have no idea how I managed to reassemble the front suspension and steering components and not be way off. The car drove great and didnt feel like it needed an alignment but I took it anyway just to be sure. These are the numbers that the machine registered for the car.
I did have a slight vibration in the wheel and a shake in the dash at highway speed so I had them recheck the recently mounted and balanced tires and both front wheels were way off. RF didnt even have friggen weights on the wheel at all. I got that corrected and she drives like a new Caddy now!
The car looks great! I wasn't sure how I felt about the 17x8 front, but they look really good with the deep lip in the rear.
Im pretty sure I could have fit a 9 or 9.5" wheel up front but I would have had to run a deeper offset or use a spacer and I didnt want to do that. I didnt want a deeper lip on the front because it just looks terrible so I settled on the 8" width. It works for me. The car is a weekend cruiser. It handles amazing and best of all, it doesnt track at all which is the downside to wider wheel/tires up front.
Another update here. I was sick of starring at my Dyno Don headers on my tool box so I decided to start a winter project now hoping to be done with it by the end of the week. It's been a long and frustrating road with this car and the headers were no different. I am currently waiting on a replacement LH header from Don because the 2 bolt flange is jammed in one position and I cant get it to move and the header leaks between the mounting bolt and the #1 primary tube. Car has been down for a week now and I have no idea how long it will take for a replacement header to be made and shipped across the country to me but the car is down in the meantime and Im not too happy about it.
Passenger header is in and it fits perfect. I chose the single cat ypipe deleted all smog stuff. I wont be able to reinstall the ypipe until the new drivers side header is installed so in the meantime, I will be wrapping wires and brakes lines with heat sleeves to protect them. I also have to buy a new set of plug wires and I will most likely replace the valve covers with something nicer if I cant clean the stock ones good enough to look good.
Im also trying to decide if I should ceramic coat the ypipe or just paint it with high temp grill paint and call it day.
plug wire suggestions please. I do not want MSD. I have had terrible luck with their products.
I always buy the Summit kit that allows you to make your own wire set. They give 45, 90 or straight ends, cut the wire to length and install the ends. You should still be able to buy it up to 9mm I think.
Another update for anyone following. Car is STILL down.
What was supposed to be a 2 day header install has now turned into a 3 week and counting job. I promised my 6 year old I would take him to his first day of school in the car but that's not happening now and I also missed a Dyno Day session as well. Not happy.
I did manage to get the Ypipe done and coated. I also ordered a pair of Spohn SFC. I'm hoping I will have them here for the long weekend so I can get them installed while I wait on a header. I chose the bare metal version as I dont want red on my car. I will paint them black once they are installed.
I also have a chance to pick up a TPIS base and SLP runners but both the seller and I are on the fence about pricing. I dont know if its worth my time effort and money to do TPI upgrades and I think he is sleeping on my $400 offer for the parts.
Not sure what I will pick up for power with just the header install but I am NOT looking to build a race car. I would just like 300rwhp.
Beautiful car man, just power through all the problems until they are all fixed.. keep the vision alive and don't let disappointment and frustration win.
plug wire suggestions please. I do not want MSD. I have had terrible luck with their products.
Dont know how i managed to miss this thread all this time.
Anyway, for plug wires, i run the Accel 9000 series, ceramic plug wires. Their about 100 from ebay, and i gotta say, Their the BEST plug wires ive ever bought, And ive gone through quite a few sets. Had no issues with the boots burning since i put them on, but i do also valve cover mounted wire seperators.
Last edited by 86CamaroDan; Sep 8, 2016 at 08:55 AM.
Car has officially been retired for the season. I ran a compression test on the engine and cylinder 7 is 119 psi while the rest are 180. There is an issue with the valve or seat in the head which needs to be fixed.
Looks like its going to be heads/cam/intake upgrade now.
Got the heads back from the machine shop. The #7 exhaust valve was bent. No idea how it happened but it was the cause of my low compression readings in that cylinder. Hoping to have them reinstalled this weekend.
I also picked up a TPIS intake and SLP runners for $425. That price also included a spare intake plenum and runners. Not a bad price.
I will be putting a Holley AFPR on the stock rails and then installing new Bosch III injectors I got from Fuel Injection Connection.
I'm debating if I should paint or powder coat the TPI setup or not.
update: Im almost finished putting the engine back together. Had I just did the simple head repair then I would be driving it already but Im afraid I have opened Pandoras Box.
I opted for the Big Mouth intake and SLP runners and its been a frustrating last week or so. I do not like the fit and finish of the runners to the intake and plenum. Hopefully they sealed up and I dont get a vacuum leak.
I also opted for a pair of Proform valve covers. Those were NOT a simple bolt on and go upgrade. They are taller so I was unable to install the runners and bolt them down which made me remove the covers to get the runners bolted up. The PCV and oil fill locations on the new covers are in different locations so now the OEM hoses wont work. Ill have to hope the guy at AutoZone can let me pick through the hoses they have in the back. I might get lucky with one that works for me
I reinstalled the Dyno Don headers and I am not convinced they will seal to the heads with the gaskets he recommended. Im just not happy with the headers and gaskets at all. Time will tell I guess.
Dyno Don also recommended a certain set of plug wires that he swears by with his headers. Im not happy with those things either. They are way to long and look like a crap all bunched up near the distributor. I may go to a custom made set over the winter to make it looks cleaner.
Fingers crossed that this thing fires up without any issues this weekend
Update, I got the engine running BUT the friggen header tube is STILL starting to turn orange with a little RPM. So apparently, I didnt fix the issue. Something else is causing a lean condition or something in cylinder 7. I did a second round of compression test and got the same exact numbers as I did before I pulled the heads off to be checked out. Cylinder 7 was 119. The rest were 170-180.
The plugs looks like really clean but kind of on the lean side but they are brand new plugs. Engine ran for maybe 5 minutes with 30 seconds of it being at 2500 rpm in the garage. Thats when I noticed the header tube starting to turn a faint orange.
I pressurized the cylinder and can hear air leaking out the dipstick and valve cover breather holes which would normally mean th rings are bad BUT I did the same test on 5 other cylinders and got the same results. I can hear a slightly hiss of air coming from the dipstick tube and valve cover. The rockers were loosened up on all cylinders that I tested. Piston was not at TDC for the test but it wouldnt matter since the valves were closed anyway.
I'm now starting to wonder if a small amount of air leakage is normal and the rings are actually fine. Doing a wet compression test on cylinder 7 did not raise the psi number.
I am 99% sure the injector is fine on cylinder 7 since they are brand new injectors. Plus, I sent the originals out to FIC just to have them tested hoping that they would tell me that injector for cylinder 7 was bad but they called and told me that all 8 were perfect. So, that ruled out the cause for the lean condition the first time around. New set of Bosch III injectors go in, new exhaust valve on cylinder 7 installed, new valve seals installed and I fire up the car and the nothing has changed.
Timing was set within 10 seconds of firing up the engine. If it was truely a timing issue then I think I would have issues with more than one cylinder. If it was a lean running engine then I think I would have issues with more than one cylinder.
Could it be a vacuum leak, maybe but at the same cylinder as before AND with a different intake and runners??? Highly unlikely that I would have that bad of luck.
For anyone interested in following this issue in detail and offering me some insight then please read through my thread here. Id appreciate any insight and opinions.
Remember, this car has 56K original miles on it and as far as I can tell, the engine has never been out of the car.
Did you do a leak down test on it? All the rings could be worn and leaking some but just not as bad as that cylinder. A leak down test should give you a reading so you can compare between cylinders how much it is leaking. Did they pressure test the heads when they changed the valve?
My leakdown tester had a bad gauge on it so I couldn't do the test properly. What I did do was just pressurized the cylinder with a compression tester hose with the shrader valve removed.
I just repaired the leakdown tester so I will make another attempt at the test this evening.
I don't think 119 psi is enough to cause a noticeable drop in horsepower because I managed to put 225hp down on the dyno just one month prior to finding this problem. Car was bone stock I'm pretty confident that this issue was present during the dyno session too considering the discoloration inside the #7 exhaust manifold tube.
it appears that the leakage was at the rings since I was hearing and feeling air blowing up through the dipstick and out of of the grommets on both valve covers. I am at an absolute loss for how this engine runs like it does with those leakage numbers. You would never ever know something was wrong with this engine when driving it. The engine is nice and quiet and idles and rev just fine. It even put down 225/301 on the dyno in the summer bone stock through an A4 trans. How in the heck is that possible with those numbers?
There is no way this engine messed up in the 50 miles I put on it since the day I took it to the dyno.
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Man, I hope I get luckier than you... just bought a 35k mile 350 TPI GTA... I assumed all original and mint with that low mileage, yet all the interior panels were found to be rattle canned, and the whole car was repainted. I paid around the same as you. I'll be making a thread on it.
Your car is looking really good though! Keep pushing!
Update on the car. Engine is running great and I have moved on to the rear disc swap. I will be going with the 13" Baer 2pc Eradispeed rotors and a pair of NOS PBR calipers I found locally that were removed from a 10 bolt rear at a local dealership. Just waiting on a few parts from Ed Miller now.
On a different note, where is the best place to buy new coolant and washer tanks??
Update on the car. Engine is running great and I have moved on to the rear disc swap. I will be going with the 13" Baer 2pc Eradispeed rotors and a pair of NOS PBR calipers I found locally that were removed from a 10 bolt rear at a local dealership. Just waiting on a few parts from Ed Miller now.
On a different note, where is the best place to buy new coolant and washer tanks??
washer tanks= Hawkes thirdgen
ethylene glycol coolant 50/50 premix Prestone brand any parts store
I paid around the same as you. I'll be making a thread on it.