Well I have some downtime and I wanted to try and show my progress so far on my TPI build. The car is an 88 Camaro that was originally a v6, but was bought as a roller with no interior. I picked up a 350/th350 on Craigslist for a song and ran the car carbureted for the summer and then broke it down to go TPI. But first I did the ultimate budget paint job.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...paint-job.html

 

Then I realized that I didn't have a headliner so I look the old ruined cardboard and fixed it up a little, the stains showing through were repaired by covering it again after the last picture.

 

Moving on to the TPI.. I picked one of those up on Craigslist from a guy who salvaged 3 from a junkyard and ended up quitting the project so he gave it all to me for a song, with lots of spare bits too.

 

I started off cleaning up the intake and making a few tweaks to make it nicer. Starting with the throttle body... The IAC housing was seized on and the whole thing was full of crud.

Here you can see where I cut off the provisions for running coolant through the intake since it was all rusted and cracked anyway.




Then I moved on to opening up the plenum and making it shine.. I sanded and polished the manifold and distributor cover and then ported the two inlets decently then very lightly on the 8 outlets.



Here is a comparison.. showing the stock has a square opening to pull air from the egr into the airstream.

 

I moved on to painting up the rest of the TPI and tearing down the carb engine. I ended up going black for the base and engine matching orange for the runners.

 

I tore down the engine and did a small amount of gasket matching on the heads, but nothing too dramatic because I really didn't know what I was doing haha.

 

I didn't really want to buy those ridiculous fuel injector clips from GM so I got a 5 dollar set of clip rings and put those on instead, worked just as good and was much more convenient.



I then made an ALDL cable for when I got it working, based on a thread here on the forums..


Then I took a shot with the rails on and a runner testfit.

 

I then got a 4th gen fuel tank and fuel sender which I am going to mount with one of those aftermarket fuel doors, but painted body color. The feed line is -8an and the return is the factory feed line with -6 hoses at each end for flexible pieces. I do not have pictures of all this yet, but those are to come...

 

Looking good so far. How come you didn't use the stock factory fuel tank? What wire harness are you using?

 

I forgot to show off my 'tasteful' dash mod lol. I am using an 88 Camaro engine harness and a 88 Firebird dash harness. I actually have a firebird dash in the car because I find them a lot more attractive and functional. inb4 trans-maro.. I'm not doing that... For the dash I have a quick video of when I first had it in the car, no door panels or carpet, but just look at the dash lol. Warning, its kind of loud because I was revving it.
Just click on the picture to see the vid. I lost the files of the work I did before the dash so it wasn't the focus of this video. When it gets all put together I'll take new shots.


As for the fuel tank, my original one damaged and leaking and since I had to get a new one anyway I thought why not just get a better one. Not to mention if I ever get the $ to do a ls1/t56 all I have to do is reassemble the internal regulator and I'm golden.

 

Haven't had alot of time to make progress lately, but I've been ordering parts. I got my 4th gen fuel tank, the sending unit with some AN hose connections, and got some steel to make the tank straps out of. Still need a fuel filler spout thing that the cap screws onto.. I've seen a few on ebay for corvettes, c4 I think, but haven't seen anything for a camaro either there or at a local boneyard. I did modify my stock gauge to work with a 4th gen sending unit. Also have my to-do list down to about 6 sticky notes.
Don't mind the mess in my room, just a college kid with a pizza box, back pack, original eagle sales brochure, and summit racing goodies.

 

sub'd

 

Getting ready to get my harnesses in this week any maybe get the tank in if the parts I need show up. I also need to get new clips for the door panels. Tonight I got the engine bay cleaned and painted up. Going with a metallic black for it. Blue matches the engine, but black matches everything.

 

Fuel tank and sending unit all ready to go with the LS1 pump, pressure regulator gutted, and braided line quick connects. Even made some new tank straps because the old ones were junk.

 

Got my dash put in yesterday and started setting up the wiring harness, but its going pretty smooth so far. I have a few extra wires in the center console area that are confusing. Also the convenience center is reaaaally in my way, I hate it lol.

 

Harness and plenum in, just updated pictures.

 

Looking good. Not a huge fan of the red runners but, I like the black manifold and painted heads.

Should be real nice when it's all done.

 

No matter how you look at them in real life they're the same orange as the block, came out of the same spray can. I don't know why the camera makes them look so red.

 

I know it's the standard gm block color. I call it red even though it's a burnt orange

 

 

i like it so far, cant wait to see it finished

 

Has there been any progress on this build? I'm leaning towards building something similar, I just picked up a 2001 trans am tank with no sending unit for 30 bucks with all the fuel lines. I still have a polished 350 TPI unit sitting in my garage all I need is a sbc 350 with the serpentine setup. This will all go into an 84 firebird, I'm pretty anxious on how your build comes out though.

 

Yeah the engine is complete, have a few pictures, but I need to take some updated ones. Probably has some dust for me to clean off too

Got an IROC louver hood for it as well, but I am going to change the whole car to black.

 

What did you end up using on your serpentine set up? Also, can you elaborate on what you did on the fuel pump as in gutting the regulator. Better yet a thread to point me to?

I got to say that set up looks mean great choice of colors.

 

I ended up using a setup off of an older truck because I was only running an alternator and power steering pump. It used a micro-v for the alt and regular v for the PS pump. I really liked this setup because both belts ride on the water pump so if one brakes my engine is still safe.

The regulator is kind of tricky you can pop it out of the sender and just leave it like that, or what I did was cut the guts out with a dremel and put the outer part back in the sender so the return fuel went down the little tube instead of spraying everywhere. Hard to explain without pictures and mine is in the tank right now. I know theres a thread out there, but I can't find it atm.

 

Thanks for the reply, I like your serp setup too. I might have to do do something similar I took my AC off and all the smog stuff is trashed. You know exactly what king of truck it was? I get what you are saying about the regulator, I'm just going to have to order mine and fiddle with it.

 

New paint on there, new wheels still aren't ready yet though.

 

Going to the Ice Cream Cruise this year? Im from Council Bluffs Iowa. I have a 90 RS V6.

 

Yeah I'll be there. Idk if I will be able to cruise the whole way due to the 4.11 gears so if I don't have them swapped out by then I'll just go to the show. No waxing for the show though due to the new paint lol.

 

Got some new wheels too, but they started off pink.

 

New wheels on, its all come together.

 

Atleast you can go to the show and show it off. Lol

 

How did you modify your fuel gauge or the sending unit so that the fuel gauge worked properly.

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/ltx-...ml#post5175001

Mine quit working again though so I think I might of overdone one of the resistors. The original thread used 1watt and I only used 1/4 watt resistors.

 

Ha I thought about picking up those wheels. lol Good to see that you went black with the paint instead of that blue.

 

The guy was nice, but he had the wheels tucked away in this child-molester shed behind his house.. lol. I'm happy with them, they just needed some TLC. The center caps were perfect. I might have to sell this car soon... a project is boring when its all done.

 

i would change the spoiler to an iroc one and change the black rim in-lays to gunmetal gray instead, otherwise nice job

 

My dsm has grey so I wanted a change, plus the kids these days seem to prefer black.

By IROC spoiler do you mean the tall dove tail or the high rise version of mine?

 

dove tail, it flows with the lines of the car so much better

 

That's true. If I come across a hatch set up for one on the cheap I'll grab it. My hatch has some real bad tint I can't get off and some of the heating wires are chipped. Plus if I got late RS style stripes they would look really good.

 

I was trying to see in the pictures, i guess im getting too old :P but how did you do the vacuum ports on the pass side of tb area. reason i ask is im trying to hook up my tpi(got roller with box of parts....) and have everything in and hooked up but them. i kno originally one went to valve cover pcv and other to emissions but i have hooker headers so no ems, can i just loop the two together? and does the heater core hose really run into the intake right there? i swear thats where i seen it go but just seems funny.. im new to tpi.. only ever messed with one, and that was 3 years or so ago.. lil rusty, would appreciate any advise!

 

I found a picture of how it is supposed to be set up. If you have any you aren't planning on using I would plug the port instead of looping to another one. Just helps to avoid leaks and confusion in the future. Mine is a bit different because I have a more hacked setup. On mine I have the trans vac running on the pass side of the throttle body and no EGR, pcv, ccv, ect.

This photo doesn't show the brake vac or the exhaust AIR system(or ems you called it). If you have new headers you might as well remove the air pump and the big plastic diverter valve for it.



The heater core has one line running to the radiator and the other runs into the bottom of the throttle body then down to the front of the base manifold. I think its supposed to have a barb to hook on a hose. My feed comes from the water pump, so its a little bit different.

Here is a shot of the bottom of the throttle body where the water lines hook on, its unpainted because I cut that section off.

 

reviving an old thread here.....like what you did with the engine, except with the gasket matching I would have def saved up to have a shop do that, not to be mean but your job was terrible, also your car looks great other that the wheels, you put a black lip around the wheel and it makes it look like you have 12" wheels on with black sided tires on IMO, and dont change the spoiler, Ive never seen a low rise like that and i think it looks great, better than the dove tail.

BTW Look forward to seeing this car up close, Maybe ICC this year in August. That is if you still have this car, lol.....