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I have finally opened up the wallet to spend some of that moldy money so here is a build thread for my 86 z28.
I have been working on the car for a few months now and I wasn't sure if my build would be exotic enough to deserve a thread of it's own.
So here we go.
I bought this car during my senior year in high school. I go through the winter and that spring I sold my Impala and used the money to buy the camaro. My parents had always been against me buying a "hot rod" but as I've learned through the years. It's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission.
Found the car an hour and a half away in Minnesota, drove there with my brother, in the family'r for Taurus wagon. The old timer wasn't lying when he said the car was from Nevada, the only rust i have ever seen on the car was surface rust on the battery tray. 2,700 bucks and I had the car I always wanted.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 08-19-2017 at 05:57 PM.
Reason: Added some back story.
So a few years ago while the camaro sat in a shed with a broken rear end I had the opportunity to buy a 2001 z06. I had always wanted a z06 and this one had 43k on the odometer and a STS twin turbo system.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 09:31 AM.
Reason: photobucket sucks
I had fun with the car, all stock besides the STS system it was fun, made cool noises and got great MPG for a 487 rwhp car. (small injectors, conservative tune, low boost)
I took the car to Road America in Elkhart Lake Wisconsin for a open track day
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 09:31 AM.
Reason: photobucket sucks
Long story short, I only got one hard lap in before I noticed smoke and pulled off. Tons of blowby was pushing the dipstick out and we were oiling the track and the underside of my car. Glad we brought the trailer, took it home to find 4 cracked pistons. No damage and you couldn't tell the piston was broken until you held it in your had and pulled the ring land out of the piston with your fingernail.
I had the engine repaired, put it back together and sold it at a loss. Spent good money on a Ron Davis radiator, changed gear oil, brake fluid, new tires and rims, all to get one lap in. Screw it.
The car was paid off though, so now after it all I am using some of the money to build the neglected camaro.
Big brake upgrade, I never planned on the Baer kit but a guy was selling it on a facebook page for 600 bucks, brand new in box so I grabbed it. It only took an afternoon and my buddies were riding my *** about upgrading the brakes on a car that didn't move but, its a process right?
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 09:33 AM.
Reason: photobucket sucks
I thought that was the way they went on, however, the rotors were on backwards and after i took the car for a drive months later, I tightened the castle nut just a touch and seen the sticker on the rotor telling me i had them on the wrong sides. oh well, didn't take long to swap em side to side.
Picture of the first 700r4 I had build. spent good money, and let a stock converter puke its guts into it and ruin it. Cheap stamped pan always leaked.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 09:34 AM.
New transmission. It was a 4wd core I got for free and I was hoarding in the back of my dads barn. Had this one built just like the other. Look whats hanging off the front too
Brand new vigilante 3400 rpm stall converter. Paid more for the converter than I did for the transmission.
I will probably paint the transmission to match the engine when the new engine goes in.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 09:36 AM.
Reason: photobucket sucks
Can't find a picture of the torque arm, decided I couldn't put all these new parts in with any factory rear suspension stuff. The car already had lca's and a panhard bar so I bought a new crossmember/torque arm mount and a new torque arm from BMR.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 09:37 AM.
The Rear i had was junk but i found a 9 bolt from a guy named Les Olson, nice dude and he has a couple very nice thirdgens. 3.70 ratio and my first non 10 bolt so I wanted to make it last. Torco 85w140 with a bottle of LSD additive, the TA girdle and stud kit and I hope it takes the abuse better than the last two rear ends.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 09:40 AM.
Reason: photobucket sucks
Brand new Walbro 240lph pump and sending unit in the tank, new rear, trans, suspension. it drove out of the shed under its own power for the first time in over a year.
The last two rear ends were from 4th gens so I dont have spacers for the rear to run matching rims and I am not sure the stock rims would fit over the 13" rotors on the front of the car so this is how it sits at the moment. The new rear I put in so carefully has a whine, not sure how i feel about that. I was told it could be the gearset but I have the sinking feeling I would be better off taking it out and tearing it apart again.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 09:41 AM.
Plugging away slowly but surely. Got the exhaust manifolds off, I plan to order a set of Dyno Don headers, from what I gather he is on vacation this week so I patiently await his return. I need to figure out another bracket for the power steering I see, that or run an ugly set of washers or an adapter.
Probably source another bracket or make something. More parts came in the mail yesterday so that is always exciting.
Ditching the 165 ecm. True I didn't try that hard to tune it, didn't give it much of a shot but looking at the costs for a mini ram or stealth ram, plus injectors, etc etc I said screw it, carb style intake manifold and a Holley Sniper throttle body.
I have the dual sync distributor on order for it as well so, sticker price plus the distributor, not cheap but with the new motor, the MSD was going to cost the same anyway.
NEW PARTS!!!!!!!!
First impression, I wish I got black. The "shiny" or whatever they call this finish leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion. On the site i think it is listed as "shiny" or something dumb so I should of known better. If it was "polished" it would of been listed as polished but I hope for too much at times.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 09:46 AM.
Under hood picture of the car as it is, "before" for comparison.
Not entirely accurate because I already removed the windshield wash bottle and charcoal canister and that made it look a bit better already.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 10:04 AM.
Reason: photobucket sucks
The valve covers I had lusted over for years arrived as well, I was less than pleased to see my GM performance covers with a made in Taiwan sticker but never the less they look good.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 09:51 AM.
Other things that shown up were the Mishimoto radiator, TCI deep finned aluminum trans pan, 3" 180 degree mandrel bend and the magnaflo high flo catalytic converter. Took an evening to rip the old manifolds, y pipe and cat off but now we are ready for new stuff to arrive so we can mock it up.
I took the AC compressor off and the power steering pump off to give more room, I haven't yet made my mind up if the AC will be going back on the car. It never worked before, still air conditioning would be nice.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 09:53 AM.
Reason: spelling error
Here is the aftermath. Those little metal tabs that get crimped around the bolts proved to be a pain in the butt, however with some patience it seems nothing is really all that difficult.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 09:59 AM.
From here, I think I may start removing the old harness and the TPI setup. It could be nice to grab a junk intake manifold and try the new EFI out, it would make the install of the new motor a bit more straight forward with the Sniper wired in and mounted but it also could be a waste of time. There is plenty of other work to be done in the meantime anyway. I stopped by the machine shop to see how my 357 was coming along.
Tim the owner was having a hard time balancing the used crank because someone had already added a lot of heavy metal. After going back and forth with our options we decided the best thing to do would be, purchase another crankshaft.
It would be silly in my mind to order a stock stroke crankshaft, he agreed to take back the forged wiseco pistons he had for me and the crankshaft so I went from a 357 to a 385. (0.040 overbore)
It gets worse, the heads that i had machined for lift, ported, screw-in studs, were vortec 062's. Those i felt were a bottleneck on the old combination so, we went ahead and ordered a set or Brodix IK 200cc's
At least we kept the Xfi 280 camshaft. Oh well, I think I will be happier with the new motor anyway. Here is the block.
roller ready, 4 bolt main? Seems like an interesting piece. Not sure what it came out of, he misspelled Ellsworth, no big deal though.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 10:08 AM.
Reason: photobucket sucks
Eagle forged H beam rod. 5.7 length. Should be a good rod, we had a nice set of forged Wiseco pistons and the heads but no use showing pictures of parts that aren't going in the motor anyway.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 10:06 AM.
These rods are brand new but this guy is pretty particular and he goes through and checks them all over just like he would a used rod. I've been told by others that I am getting ripped off by this machine shop but i love his attention to detail and he does a lot of winning clay oval, sprint car, touring modified, late model ETC motors. Build it once the right way.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 10:10 AM.
My brothers and I putzed around on the K10 restoration for a bit this morning but once that was done I figured it would be fun to build some sub frame connectors, when I bought the car a corner of the passenger valve cover was bent. This resulted in a plume of white smoke if you were on the throttle and turned to the left, SO the bottom side of my car has always been coated in a thick, baked on layer of oil.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 10:12 AM.
Dawn dish soap, a brush and a dish cloth. Oh and my father's four post lift. Thank you Dad!
Going alright, at this point I really wish i could use the pressure washer and 4 cans of engine de-greaser. The farm is 45 minutes from the nearest store that would have de-greaser so screw it. Use the one can I found, plus a can of wheel cleaner I rolled the lift out towards the door so i could squeegee the water out, although it makes cleaning a pain in the *** because now I can't lift the car high enough to stand underneath it. OH WELL, I am already spoiled by having the lift to use, the key is to not be a bitch.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 10:15 AM.
Well after about 2 hours of fun this is my result. I feel like I didn't do that great of a job and I may have to do it again. The plus side is, at least it is clean enough now to where I can grind paint off and weld without all the grease and junk being in the
some of this stuff, especially back here is very thick and hard to get off. I think a trip for foaming engine degreaser will be worth its weight in gold here. SO i will stop tomorrow on the way to the farm for that stuff.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 10:18 AM.
Alright, so some pain and trial and error. We are going to try it this way for now.
New GM restorations emblems. I sprung for the extra cost to have the correct ones, i seen the other ones were attached with adhesive and these use the two studs and a stamped steel nut like factory. I have seen the other type peel off and that's why my car is missing one.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 10:23 AM.
The old hatch release button was a little broken so i threw it out, then I had a hard time finding a replacement until recently so i went ahead and grabbed a new one. the other switches in the car were all new anyway.
With the AC ripped out of the car new heater box just laid in to see how much space was opened up. Looks great, definitely won't have any issues putting headers on the car or changing this side of spark plugs on this side anyway.
Last edited by 11ellswray; 09-02-2017 at 10:24 AM.
I had been awhile between posts. I'm putting in a new can filling line at Coca Cola in Eagan Minnesota. Between the long drive and working saturday I haven'y made much progress. However I have some updates!
New Brodix's are in so that's sweet, my brother was in the shop asking about his Blower motor and he sent me a snapchat of my parts. much appreciated.
Welding the seams under hood. The gas struts that hold the hood up are pretty wore out so I used a pair of vise grips and some rags to hold the hood up high.
Back at it again! Still smoothing some things under the hood. Things are moving along, the headers should ship soon, the engine shop is starting assembly, and I'm still plugging away.
Here is the stock radiator core support, I already threw a little weld on the seam
08-16-2017, 08:35 AM
Thank you Dad! 
I rolled the lift out towards the door so i could squeegee the water out, although it makes cleaning a pain in the *** because now I can't lift the car high enough to stand underneath it. OH WELL, I am already spoiled by having the lift to use, the key is to not be a bitch.
much appreciated. 
