So now that my build is to a point where the car is running and driving I decided to share the fun with you guys. I seriously would have had some major trouble building this car without the help of friends, family and some of you on this site, so I'd like to thank you for posting your problems and solutions for my reading pleasure.

My project starts off with a bone stock 1985 Camaro Z28 that had only 20,000 miles I bought about 10 years ago back when I was in high school. My plan was to just let the car sit and keep it for shows as an all original car, I changed my mind and decided to have some fun with it instead of let it sit and do nothing.








And so it began...




Let the header building begin




Hot side done! Now the real work begins!

 

looking good. More pic's of how its sitting in your sig. What tire/rim combo. offset /bs / size , etc..

 

 

Keep it coming, or should we give it a break??

 

Wheels and tires are:

Fronts: 15x4 prostars with 26" MT S/R radials
Backs: 15x8 prostars 4.5 bs with 275/60's 28" tall MT ET street radials

 

No fun rev up or anything crazy. This was start up day and just let her run for a bit.

 

wow, your engine bay looks amazing. great job on the exhaust. i think i need to clean up the drool on my desk now......

 

That's ganna be one bad *** sleeper if you keep the oem wheels
Good work !!

 

Thanks guys, Yeah I broke down and got prostars. It doesn't get the looks i want when its just cruisen around on the stockers. People were like why is this stupid thirdgen with an exhaust leak tryin to race me. hahaha

 

Got it out in the sun finally... Guess its not all perfect. She likes to warm up pretty good. Think it needs better fans and and bigger radiator

 

Very nice ride! I like the turbo setup. How much power you think you are making on it?

 

wow, it's amazing!

 

Chassis dyno date is the last week of July at Speed Inc in Schaumburg Illinois. Car has a base tune from them right now. I'd like to see 675+ after the tune.

A local guy has a similar project in a 73 Nova and he made like 515 rwhp on 8lbs of boost with the master power T70 and a stock ls1. He upgraded to a Turbonetics tc78, bumped up the boost some and made 673rwhp! Here is a link to his thread on our local forums.

http://qcaautoforums.proboards.com/i...y&thread=10460



Another video of the car running and driving. This was the first week it ran.

 

Very clean car, nice work! Man I love turbos, no one knows what you got until it goes woooosh!


TC78 is my turbo of choice once I get to that point.

 

Got my TC78 on the way!! Decided it would be best to have it before the tune! 700 hp here I come!!

 

So the dyno day came and went. I'd say I'm impressed with the numbers the old coolmaro put down for me.
Boosted Ls motors are amazing.Got the TC78 Turbonetics
turbo on and we started on some 93 at 11psi.
Put some 110 in and kept upping boost until the fuel system couldn't handle any more.
Max 703 rwhp and 734 torque at 18psi. What a good day. Thats as close as they let us get to the dyno..
Kind of a bummer

 

Sick!

 

Sweet build. How the T56 feel with the turbo? Is it built? Who coated your hot pipes? Looks good!

 

Really nice numbers you put down!

What did you make your gauge panel out of? You did a really nice job on it.

 

this is one badass sleeper...

 

Sorry guys, haven't been on here in a while. The T56 is the most amazing part of the whole driving experience in this car. I wanted it streetable just for the fun of cruising around and shifting. There is nothing cooler than some dude looking over at you like what the hell is that as you shift and the blow off valve makes a nice pshhhhhh. The pipes were ceramic coated by a very good company called QC coatings in Michigan. About $400 for everything, but well worth it to me.


Drkhrse89: Thank ya! The gauge panel was purchased from jimmy-jams website. Its just a steel plate painted with all the holes drilled and ready to go. He sells after market stuff like that for thirdgens. I tried making my own and couldn't get it right, so I broke down and bought his for only $55 and it fit great.

Thanks again guys! I'm driving the car at least 3 times a week and its running great. I hit 15.6 psi just playin around the other day and I about sharted in my pants!

 

when you do shart ur pants, u should take a pic and put it in ur build thread lol. bound to happen with those numbers lol.

 

^^^ Hahaahaa! Good call! I think a few of my buddies have done sharted themselves based on their facial expression after I get into it.

 

Amazing car.... I'd love to do something similar myself one day. Im in love with the idea of a turbo smallblock that's daily drivable.

I also think you should put the stock wheels back on. You could surprise the hell out of people with them. I normally hate those 15s, but on your car with THAT motor I woudlnt want anything else. Maybe some IROCs... But with the stock 15's your car, THATS the package!

The wheels on it look nice but you kill the sleeper part of it. And you REALLY need to drop the rear suspension a little.

 

Sweet build! You have any pics how you mounted the intercooler? I notched my bumper and boxed it, then drilled a series of 2" holes in it..for looks and airflow.

 

nice build

what altenator bracket is that

 

Its tough to be a lowrider with 28" tall tires.


Oh and coolmaro are you going to give us any specifics on the motor or is that on an "if I told you I would have to kill you" basis?

 

It's not about being a lowrider. Every good looking drag car is lowered.

I suggest you pull out the rear spring isolator and replace it with some heater hose around the first coil of the spring. Only a half inch drop, but it makes a difference, it's cheap, it's easy, and it wont affect your spring rates or your pinion angle much at all. Just a very subtle drop that doesnt tweak the rest of the setup too much.

 

Thank you! I had the same problem and yours looks great and that is not a bad price either.

 

no it's not


the car looks great coolmarocrzy! im glad you chose to do something with the car. i also like that you didn't do anything permanent, so you can go back easily if you so chose to.

 

Thanks guys! I do agree about the back end.. its a little high for my taste, but I was just pushing to get it running and tuned so I could drive it this summer. I have some major plans for the winter down time. Like some new brakes!! I hit 120 just havin fun the other day and it felt like I wasn't ever going to slow down. They are manual brakes and its not terrible... but they could do better. Its just the stock calipers and rotors at this point. I still have my stock wheels I plan to throw back on it for ***** and giggles some time.. They will need some good tires though.. Otherwise they'll just burn off. haha

The alternator and bracket is a stock setup from an ls1 f-body. She fits juuuuust right.

I will post a few pics of the intercooler mock up. I had it right infront of the radiator at first and that really killed my cooling, so I moved it forward.

The motor specs are nothing real special. Turbos just love boost! haha 5.3 bored to ls1 specs with diamond pistons, 8.5:1 compression, cometic head gaskets with ARP head studs, comp cams turbo cam, and an ls6 intake and tb. Fuel pump is the bosch 044 and I'm already thinkin about upgrading to bigger. This motor still has more.. It was leaning out on that last pass so he quit a little early.

mw66nova: That car looks great man. I love the stance.

 

Not sure how i missed this thread until now but this is a badass car and even better in person . I saw your car at the track sunday but never did see you.

 

Sorry Tyler.. I was just hangin around. Never ran the car.. Didn't feel like gettin kicked out on such a nice day.

 

Wow, what a nice car! You really did a great job with it.

 

Nice build. Definitely a sleeper though. I need a set of those headers for sure so I can build mine.

 

any pics of the intercooler mounted?

 

This is just clean, great build crazy numbers.

 

Very nice build. Good job!

 

Such a clean build. Did you fab your own turbo piping? I might have overlooked that.

Very impressed with the overall clean original look of the car. The numbers are very impressive, and make me wanna get a new credit card LOL!

 

You should market your turbo piping

 

 

Maybe I missed it, and I apologize if I did, but are there any shots of the crossover? How much clearance do you have down there?

 

That is one of the nicest low mileage 85 Z's I have ever seen. Very nice job!! Man do I ever want to go turbo.....

 

Awsome build man im looking into collecting all the parts over the summer to build one over the winter. Where did you get all the tubung and so on to build it. Thanks

 

Thanks man, I have a buddy who owns a local shop called Yates EFI. He does ls swaps in anything and everything. (meanyellowz is his name on here) He sent me in the direction of a site caled Mandrel-bends.com He said he orders most of his tubing from there. Great place and pretty reasonable prices.

 

so when you starting on mine? I wanna go fast too

 

I'll say it again, and again, and again!!!! I just love looking at this car! Nothing like a stock looking Z to shock the hell out of all the ricers who want to go. This car is just clean.

 

We can start on yours whenever your ready! I'd love to do another turbo build. Only this time on someone else's wallet!


Thanks coptzer! I spy a nice little project your getting started with too! Can't wait to see it come together.

 

seems pretty cheap Would save me from building new big tube headers this year as well.

 

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