Last night I happened to find a guy with a silver '86 2.8 Camaro that he was happy to sell. And with no engine or transmission in my '84, I was happy to spend 5 Benjamins for something I drove home!
When I first started it, ( it hadn't been started in months ) it had an intermittent knocking. But it drove 9 miles that way, not getting worse.
I'm hoping to need a different short-block, so I can just switch to a 3.4L in there, I can get a good used one for $150.
I'll be spending tonight reading up on what it takes, as far as the injectors and electronics go. Tomorrow I'll pop the valve covers, to check for a bad lifter or anything.
The wheels are aluminum 14x7s, and the tires are 205/70s that need replaced. I'm torn on what to do. I don't want a slow car to look fast, so no IROC-Z wheels, nor anything larger.

 

Sounds like a good score. Where ya located? A local guy here is giving away a free rebuilt '91 3.1. I was gonna grab it, but wifey noticed the lack of garage space....

 

Thanks, but I'm nowhere near ya. And a 3.1 just seems..halfway to the goal.
It's raining, so I can't get a pic.

 

IROC rims wouldn't really make the car look fast, probably 9/10 people wouldn't notice or know the difference, and they look so much better than the steel rims. Was one of the first mods I did, and at $100 for all four rims, 2 of them with pretty much new tires it was a bargain. Also I have an RA from a 2.8 I could part with if it turns out you need new internals and you don't go for a new block.

 

The 3.4 swap was pretty straight forward. I just recently did it on my car. You dont have to swap the electronics. I would just keep the 2.8 electronics and use the 3.4 injectors. Makes life soo much easier and its really hard to screw up IMO.

 

Well, it's gonna be a 3.4L. I pulled 2/3 of the intake manifolding, popped the right valve cover, and turned the crank. It's got a bad cam. Somebody ran it without ZDDP.
I checked the oil on Saturday afternoon, it looked fresh. I checked it this morning, massively glittery from metal shavings.
At this point, I really don't care if the long block assembly could be saved, as doing a new cam and new lifters would cost about as much as the 3.4 swap.

 

It could also be low oil pressure, I would say thats more likely than a fried cam, I've been having similar issues lately, and discovered at least half of my lifters were flat, was able to push the plungers down by hand, till I discovered that I had suspected my cam was toast, because one of the valves wouldn't reach proper preload.

 

But I found all those particles of metal in the oil.
So today I went to a few salvage yards, my best deal was $125 for a 3.4L long-block with flexplate and injectors. Score!

 

Today I got the 3.4 onto an old Harbor Freight engine stand.

 

Pics tonight, I expect. I spent half of yesterday researching cams. I want the 206/206, and I want headers. But since I'm using ported stock manifolds, the 204/216 looks helpful. If I later get headers, I will swap cams at the same time. Maybe the 212/212.

 

In a surprisingly productive hour, I managed to get both heads off the 2.8!
Looking through the intake base, I see GM has overly bulged the aluminum into the ports at the injector bosses. I want to do a bit of grinding there.
Tonight I'll be soaking the heads and base in solvent.
Sorry, no pics until tomorrow night at the soonest.

 

Sorry to disappoint about pics, an old sports injury is haunting me. But I scored a replacement distributor for $15, and a set of Camaro aluminum 15x7" 5-stars, off an '82-'83 Z28, for $100 / set!
For now, tires will be 225/60R15 front and 235/60R15 rear.
This morning I discovered that it will need a new RF brake hose, and a new RF high-beam bulb. The rear brakes look good.
The 2.8 heads and base are still sitting in the solvent.
I got the oil pan, timing cover, valve covers, and intake base off the 3.4L, and all looks well, except the timing chain is rather slack. No surprise. Supposedly has 208,000 miles on it.

 

I got the heads disassembled, and I see some possible grinding that I think I can do. In this thread: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/v6/5...d-porting.html There is this link: http://www.60inclusive.com/index.php...php&p=tkoheads
Lots of pics there. They claim a gain of 38% more flow, so there must be potential. Plus IF I make a hash of it, I still have the other pair of heads.
I promise, I WILL post pics!

 

Here are some crappy pics of my crappy attempt at porting my 2.8 heads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all for today.

 

This 3.4 is non-roller lifters. It's been a few years since my last non-roller engine. Back then, it was GM EOS and diesel oil.
Now, I'm finding trick oils from Lucas and Royal Purple, to name my top 2 candidates. But this stuff is around $ 8 per quart!

 

pics of the Camaro that goes with this engine: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...ml#post4948751

 

I just ordered my Fel-Pro FS8699PT6 full gasket set, my Sealed Power timing chain set, and 5 quarts of Edelbrock ( Torco ) #1073 ( high-ZDDP ) oil.
I'm trying to have this thing driving by July.
The ported heads aren't going on anytime soon, but I will be doing the manifolds.

 

Since noone commented on my head porting pics, I see no need to post my pics of porting my lower intake manifold. But now that it's done, I'm dead set on having the heads. It's only another $26 for the head gaskets.

 

Honestly the pics don't show much, too up close, and way too much glare reflection, in short, can't really judge them cause they are too hard to see, but I hope you left alone that vane on the intake ports.

 

I'm not much of a photographer, and I find it difficult to get good pics of the inside of a curvy hole.
But I didn't remove the vanes, I just ran a 3/8" carbide down both sides of each vane.
I just ordered a pair of Fel-Pro 9105PT head gaskets. Now if I could just find money to do the cam.....

 

My e-mails show that all my parts have been shipped out. I got the 2.hate out of the engine bay, and the exhaust manifolds look like there's not much porting to do. They look like the designer was actually thinking about flow.
The knocking was a piston hitting a head. Middle piston, driver's side. But you should see the cam! It's ruined! You should see how it moves around! Too bad I can't post video.
And even with pry bars, I still can't get the old dizzy out, so I'm more glad that I got another one.
More pics in a day or 2.

 

I got to thinking about having the heads milled. I just couldn't find specs on these heads, how many thousandths = 1 cc?
So assuming the SBC formula of 0.006":1, then 0.030" should put me at 9.6:1. I like that.
I finished porting and polishing the first head, late last night. And the "Edelbrock" (Torco) oil arrived.

 

If you want an accurate CR use a CR calc and take the mill down height off the gasket thickness, an SBC has a larger volume per cylinder.

 

Yes, but I just wanted a rough estimate. The math says that removing 5 cc will get me to 9.6:1.
I don't care if it takes 0.025" or 0.035" to get to 5 cc, that's up to the machine shop.
I called 2 different machine shops this morning, each has a burette, so either can do 5 cc, and the price is virtually identical.
I just need to finish porting the second head. I have it about 1/2 done.
I'll be running the 3.4 cam, there's no hope of funds for a mild performance cam. But at least when I humiliate any other V6 F-car, I can honestly claim no aftermarket parts except gaskets!
Porting the exhaust manifolds was an easy thing, there really wasn't much to do. Same for the middle and upper intake manifold.
Maybe this fall I can get to a chassis dyno. There are at least 3 within a 2-hour driving area from here!

 

I just received my timing set, only the crank gear was not in the box. I wasn't angry, so I called customer service. They're shipping another set out today! Rock Auto is the best!

 

Most of them for sure, but not any, I know of 4 offhand that would thrash it pretty bad, and mine would outrun it as well, I suspect after allen's engine went that I probably have the quickest all motor 60/6 iron head, ported heads, 260 cam, full exhaust, gutted dual snorkel intake, 3.4 plenum, but most notably a lot of weight reduction on a base coupe maro which is fairly light to start with...and I've got a lot of mods on my to do list as well, working on a B&M megashifter atm.

 

I guess the timing chain is technically an aftermarket part, but it's not a multi-key, so it adds no performance.
And none of those killer V6s you know are in my county, so no worries there

 

True, most people don't mod their v6 f-bodies at all, except the 4th gen 3.8s, but the few people who do mod the 3rd gen v6s usually go kind of far, lol. I guess because unless you take it far you won't get much out of them, takes more dedication, ingenuity and money than most people are willing to commit.

 

I just delivered the heads to the machine shop.

 

Here, the lower manifold is upside-down.





More later.

 

The head gaskets arrived yesterday, but not the polishing rolls.

 

The polishing rolls arrived, so I can finish the manifolds. The heads are done, I just need to go get them and pay for the milling.

 

bad news first:
when I dropped my heads off, he promised to do them Monday, and wrote my name on the work calendar, in permanent ink. I told him I'd pick them up Tuesday ( today ).
This morning, they hadn't even started on my heads. I asked if I could have them at lunch time: "No."
This shop is getting reported to my local BBB, and I'll forever badmouth them, and never go back again, after I get my heads.
They should have at least called. Gas is expensive! Damn wasted trip, and wasted time, all because they aren't men enough to call.
But the good news: as of now, all the gaskets are here.
I found that aerosol brake cleaner does wonders for cleaning out the plenum, but I need to get another can. Then pics.

 

Here's the intake manifold, all shaped and polished

 

now, back to the heads.
I just started polishing the chambers, before milling, but ran out of polishing rolls. Hence what you see here.



Now, a couple of the valves. Note that the valves I polished are showing that I lapped them to their seats. I'll show my method soon.

 

As pitted as the exhaust valves are, I really should have them re-faced. But I expect to do a V8 swap next summer, so this only need to run until then.
If this was a keeper, I do a 5-angle valve job, then back-cut the valves. But for now, just all the performance that I can have for virtually free.



Here the chamber is all polished, as are the valves. I believe I should keep each valve with the port that I lapped it to, so I marked them accordingly.

 

This one is to show the valve seats after lapping

 

to lap the valves, I first put some compound on the valve, like this

then I put some of this lube

on the stem, like this

next it goes in the head, then wipe the lube off the tip, so the drill won't slip

 

after lapping, pull the valve back out

then wipe the compound away, and look at the results. I had to do each exhaust valve twice.

 

in that last pic, note the excess lube that ended up in the port. That needs wiped away, too.

 

I'm getting worried, my replacement timing set has not arrived. If it remains missing at noon tomorrow, I'm calling them.
I got the pistons polished, and bolted the ported heads on to my 3.4 with lube on the bolts, then 45 ft-lbs, then 75. I used the '86 bolts, they shouldn't be TTY.
It looks like these 3.4 heads may have slightly better exhaust ports to start with. I'll be porting this set also, just in case I made the 2.8 heads too thin in some critical spot.
It took 3 cans of brake cleaner to get my LIM free of all shavings, but in a few hours I'll be test-fitting it.

 

I should post some pics of my port job on my 3.4 plenum mouth, its a great design, but I know they crap out at like 5k, and judging the size of the runners and plenum, and the design, I am pretty certain that the restriction is the small Tbody mouth, damn thing wasn't even matched to the TBody, was some excess material in front of it, ported it out to the diameter of a 3400 Tbody plate, can't recall for sure, but I think thats 58mm, I'll have to check when I go back up to my car and take my caliper.

I don't suppose anyone knows if the 2.8 tbody has enough metal to take it out to that size? I know i won't break through the wall on it or even come close, but I worry about what side effects grinding out that scoop for the IAC might have, I'm sure it would still get air, just not sure if it would be the right amount, but seeing that I am pretty sure I will have to rig the TV and throttle cables I might just use the 3.4 tbody, is an IAC even necessary if you adjust the idle speed via the throttle stop? Only use I see for it, is compensation for AC, PS and alternator. Bit of a thread jack, but I figure we're working on similar stuff atm, lol.

 

I did get the 3.4 UIM, but not the 3.4 TB.
Grinding the plenum neck behind the TB was really easy, I just opened it up, out to the edge of the carbon deposits. I probably gained 2 MM of diameter. Not much, but should end any reversion, and reduce turbulence.
This creation of mine should be up 5 HP due to the compression, and another 5 HP due to the polishing of the valves, chambers, and pistons, even IF the plenum negated ALL my other porting.
So, this UIM was good for 135 HP on the 2.8, and 140 on the 3.1. I MUST have AT LEAST 150 HP.
I have seen chassis dyno evidence that a no-porting, no-headers 2.8 to 3.4 upgrade, with the 204/214 420/442 112 cam, was worth a solid 20 HP, so that makes me want the cam even more.
Tomorrow I'm gathering my scrap aluminum. Oil pans, other intake manifolds, old rims, whatever.
Maybe the recycling place will give me enough so that I can order the cam, and be SURE of AT LEAST 160 HP.
Still, the $145 I'd spend on a cam would go a good ways toward the V8.
Lastly for now, I just realized I'm an idiot, for putting the heads on before bolting the block to the 700R-4. Dammit!