The $600 1986 Camaro (Re)Build

Baby steps but it getting there.

When my son started the first engine he rebuilt he had his mom stand by in case it caught fire. That did not make her feel real good about starting it in the garage.....

 

The final steps of re-assembly were putting on the alternator, main belt, exhaust manifolds, starter, and spark plugs and plug wires (I put the plug wires on backwards the first time). I picked up some new bolts for the exhaust manifolds, as the originals were so rusted that there were at least 3 different size heads on the bolts. Before I put on the alternator, I took a wire wheel to it to shine it up a little bit. I think it turned out nice!



After all of this was done, the motor was ready to go on the test stand! My dad and I tried to get it on there, but could not angle it correctly. We didn't end up attempting again as I only had a few days before it was time to leave for college. I decided that I would come back in October and get the help of my shop teacher for wiring the stand and mounting the motor.

 

Now it's time for the main event! This past weekend I came home with the intent of firing up my engine for the first time. before mounting it to the stand, I bolted on the flywheel and bell-housing. By using a longer chain and having two people pull the motor as another let it down, we were able to correctly position it on the test stand and bolt it down. All in all there was not much to hook up besides the mechanical gauges. Oil pressure and engine coolant temperature were the only two gauges we hooked up. Other than that we just had to provide power for a few essential parts.

There were two wires needed for the starter, one to operate the piston and engage the gear with the flywheel, and another to actually turn the motor.



We also hooked up the alternator.



Since the motor had been sitting for a few months, we pulled out the distributor and spun up some oil pressure again. Then we put back in the distributor and tried to turn the starter to seat it.



The starter itself worked fine. We could hear the piston engaging and the starter turning, but the motor itself did not move an inch. After a little research and a trip to NAPA, I found out that the old starter we were using was for a 168 tooth flywheel, and this particular motor had a 153 tooth flywheel. $70 later, I was hooking up a shiny new starter to the motor, and it worked!



Once the gas lines were hooked up to the fuel pump, we test fired for the first time! Sadly, it did not work. We went through the three main requirements: fuel, air, and spark. Fuel and air were accounted for, but we could not get any electricity to the spark plug. Electricity was going into the distributor, but not coming out. After some further investigation, we decided that this plug was suspicious and did a little research on it.



As it turns out, the plug was meant to connect to the car's computer system. Since it was not getting power, we think it was acting like a relay to prevent power from getting to the spark plugs. I remembered seeing a few extra distributors when I was organizing the car, so I went and checked. Sure enough, there were two sitting in the trunk! One was broken in half, but the other was in usable condition and did not include the computer harness! After pulling out the computerized distributor, we switched the cap to the non-computerized body after putting a little grease on the centrifugal advance and cleaning the rest up with some laquor thinner. When we were done prepping the new distributor, we found TDC on cylinder number one and put it back in, hopefully for the last time now! Here is the test stand in all it's glory:

 

@silverbullet02 Awesome work going to hang out here for a bit


@Jamesboy2233 Got a link to your build ?

Shameless plug for my 007 Taco Pro Build

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/007-taco-pro.527692/

 

Had a good laugh at the muffler paint job. Keep up the good work.

 

For as much time as I spend on TacomaWorld, I sure am bad about updating this...

Once we connected power to the motor, we fired it up! It only took a couple cranks to get it going. We did not have the radiator hooked up, so we couldn't it for more than a few minutes at a time. It was so rewarding to hear the motor run! After our initial startup, we killed it and hooked up the timing light. We timed the engine for between 8 and 10 degrees before TDC, and it seemed to run well this way! Oil pressure was around 40-45 psi, which was good as well.



After running it a couple times, I took it back off of the test stand and returned it to the engine stand for the winter. I am calling the motor good! With the transmission already overhauled (not sure how much I believe that), the next step will be to prep the car for the motor!

 

I've been doing a bit more reading on my motor and transmission while at school, and I found it pretty interesting. It seems that there are a lot of mixed reviews on the Goodwrench motor, and I'm not sure how much is fact or fiction. Either way I guess I'll find out soon enough! The motor retails for about $2,000 new, which means I scored it for almost a quarter of the price! The following are some specs from Jegs.com, which carries the motor currently: https://www.jegs.com/i/Chevrolet-Performance/809/12681429/10002/-1

• 4-bolt main with a 2-piece rear main seal
• Nodular iron crankshaft
• 4.000'' bore x 3.480'' stroke
• Internal balance
• LT1/LT4 powdered metal connecting rods
• Cast aluminum pistons (dished)
• 8.5:1 compression ratio
• Hydraulic flat tappet cam (.383"/.401" Lift, 194 / 202 Duration @ .050", and 112° lobe separation)
• Cast iron cylinder heads with 76cc chambers
• 1.940'' Intake / 1.500'' Exhaust valves
• 1.250'' diameter valve springs
• 1.5:1 ratio rocker arms
• 3/8'' pressed-in rocker studs
• Block is compatible with left or right side oil dipstick (plugs for unused side included)
• 4-quart oil pan
• Oil pump, oil pump pickup and oil pump drive shaft installed
• Includes timing tabs for a 6-3/4" or an 8" balancer (balancer not included)
• Recommended spark plug: 14mm thread, .460" reach, 5/8" hex, tapered seat, projected tip (AC Delco p/n 065-R45TS, Autolite p/n 417-144)

So with such a low compression ratio, I'm not holding my breath on quarter mile times, but that's ok with me. I'm building a fun car, it doesn't have to be fast (yet). Later on down the road I can put in a new camshaft and potentially wake the motor up a bit. I'll just have to wait and see how the car drives!

 

As for the transmission, I found out this is a trans from a V6 car (probably from the exact car I have now). Not what I was hoping for, but I'll roll with it. This means that it is a Non-World Class T5 as well. I ran the numbers from this sticker on the transmission, WG 13-52-156



I was able to find the gear ratios for this particular trans as well:

First: 4.03
Second: 2.37
Third: 1.49
Fourth: 1.00
Fifth: 0.76
Reverse: 3.76

Since this is a transmission from 1986, it uses gear oil instead of ATF, but I believe it has ATF in it now. Non-World Class T5's were rated for 280 ft/lb's of torque, which is plenty for what I am hoping to get out of the initially. I am hoping this trans will work fine with the V8, and if it breaks I will weight my options and see if a WC T5 or a T56 would be more appropriate. I did also find that the crossmember I have will work on my car, which is a huge plus!

Here's a good thread if you are interested in reading more on T5's: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/transmissions-drivetrain/444098-t5-faq-everything-we.html

 

This weekend I was home for thanksgiving, and I was able to start cleaning out the interior of the car and vacuuming it. I ended up with almost two 5 gallon pails full of dirt, mud, walnuts, insulation/padding of some sort, and the remains of potted plants... With just the vacuuming alone it is already much better! I picked up the Turtle Wax Power Foam for the floor, but did not get a chance to use it. Also, I got to look through the stockpile of spare parts that had been collected for the swap that were stored in the car. Finally, I peeled off the terrible rear window tint and scraped off the faded Oakley sticker on the rear hatch (it had seen better days for sure!). I left a box of baking soda in the car in hopes that it will absorb some of the stink in the interior.

I failed to take any pictures of the end result, but I will be back for Christmas break in a few weeks and will grab some then.

Black Friday was also good to the Camaro, as I scored some Summit Racing headers for the car! I do not think that the Blazer manifolds would fit in the car very well, and they were looking pretty rough anyways, so why not?

 

Keep it up !

 

strong work young man! Ill be subbing this for sure!

 

If you can find an ozone air purifier/generator for cheap they are a great way to git rid of odors. They are 2 on my local craigslist for less than $75.

 

I haven't thought of that before! I will certainly check that out, it sounds like it would save me a ton of headache until I pull the carpet and deep clean the interior!

 

Nice Job, so far on the restoration.

I did a V8 swap in 1981 olds cutlass many years ago, back before the internet was around to help with research. I spent alot of time with a hollanders interchange manual set and parts books from the auto parts stores.

it was a nice car until some little old lady t bone me and totaled it out.

bringing back some memories.