Sent you a return PM Shiv515.
Didn't mean to go APESH*T there, but...there are so many ways to get burned by going the NWC T5 route. Finding a WC T5 is in itself a PAIN. I've been burned a couple times when it comes to getting a WC T5. NOT FUN. Anyways, the WC T5 can handle more power/torque in stock trim, and can actually be rebuilt to handle 600RWHP and 500LB-FT of torque by G-Force Transmission. Here's the link:
http://www.gforcetransmissions.com/tran_gt-5.asp
I just didn't want to see you get the NWC T5, only to find out that you'd have to find a WC T5 later on to take the abuse you plan on pushing out of your flywheel.

 

Need an opinion here guys. I'm about to buy the Tokico Illumina 5 way adjustable struts and shocks. The struts, obviously go in the front of the car, but they don't come with the coil springs. Any idea what is a good coil spring for regular driving applications(for now) and will work with these struts?

 

I believe konis are pretty good for suspension components, can't think offhand of who else makes springs for our cars other than moog, but theirs are just replacement more than aftermarket, but I know there is another brand or two.

 

Ok in my late night stupor I forgot to ask the most important question. What difference does it make if my car has AC or not, in relation to the coil springs. Everywhere I look I'm finding springs for a car without AC...I don't get how having an AC Compressor there obstructs the spring in anyway.

 

Same reason a v8 has diff springs than a v6, weight, AC system weighs about 50 lbs or so, still I am somewhat surprised theres a difference in springs for that small an amount, but Im sure it wouldnt really matter considering an avg person weighs 140 lbs.

 

It shouldn't make any difference in performance. That 50lbs is really NEGLIGIBLE.

That just means you have to lose 50lbs somewhere else in the car, or you can just go jockey-style and starve yourself into losing 50lbs...LOL!

Besides, if you're going with the 5-way adjustable Tokico struts, you can adjust that weight difference away in terms of performance.

 

Essentially the springs that I use, the differences between the v6 springs that I use are not a big deal then?

 

We're talking about handling, weight distribution AND exterior appearance at the same time. That 50 pounds (IIRC, it's closer to 60 or more) is 50 pounds more that the springs, shocks, struts, sway bars, suspension bushings, and the tires all have to jockey front to rear and side to side (most of the weight of the system is on the driver's side in the compressor and brackets, FYI). That's 50 pounds more sprung weight that is located AWAY from the drive axle that the axle has to lift when accelerating. And, if the system were removed, that would be 50 pounds less on the struts that increases the front end ride height (shifting the center of gravity towards the rear where it should be to increase rear end traction).

Now, for drag racing, the A/C would be a detriment as it's heavy and moves the CG towards the front instead of the rear. For road racing, it may or may not be an advantage to keep it as it increases weight loading on the front wheels that steer the car, but the one side is heavier than the other. Whatever you decide to do in the future, keep this in mind.

Basically, the lowering springs have a slightly higher spring rate for A/C than without to maintain the same or similar ride height to those without A/C because of the weight of the system.

 

Thanks for the explanation, but I understand most of that, including the deleting the A/C thing(although all of the AC delete pulley's i've found are for v8 models); however I wasn't asking about lowering springs. I wanted to know about the actual regular coil springs that go onto the front struts.

 

Same difference. The springs differ between A/C and non-A/C, manual and auto trans (another BIG difference in weight there), standard and performance suspension. The spring rate changes based on the options. That's why, for any specific year, there are several different spring offerings for each engine (each spring with its own RPO code).

And you don't need an A/C delete pulley for the V6... I don't run one and haven't since I deleted my compressor last year due to faulty pulley bearings.

 

Wait, how did you do this? Did you just measure the length needed with a string or measure belts at the local parts store?

 

Drive-Rite part number 815K6 or equivalent (non-AIR, non-A/C belt). If you keep the stock compressor bracket, you'll want to remove the intake bellows and crank the belt tensioner wide open to get the belt on. If you delete the compressor, bracket and all, you'll need to remove the rear bracket on the power steering pump, undo both upper and front bolts, leaving the small bolt in the water pump loose but in the hole, and swing the P/S pump bracket in towards the engine at the top until the outer hole, where the thick long bolt passes through the bracket, lines up with the lower hole on the cylinder head. But, that's if you have a serpentine belt...

:edit: It's how GM did it... Look at the factory belt routing sticker on your radiator support if you have one. The 91 I pulled the engine harness from was set up like this.

 

if you have an odd setup and you use the string method you dont have to measure the belts at the parts store the part numbers they use tell you the length. however it helps to get one of the smart guys at the parts stores. for instance the 815k6 is 81.5 inches long and has 6 ribs on the belt.

i have underdrive pulleys, no air pump and ac, there is no listing for such belt lol

 

Need a little advice here, finally installing the new injectors I got from South Bay(great freaking service by the way, highly recommend them), and I pull the fuel rail and notice it's pretty dirty. What is it, almost 25 years of the injectors never being touched, yeah, the thing is kinda dirty. Anyway, I searched online and found nothing about cleaning the fuel rail itself, only about cleaning the injectors. I was wondering if there's any aerosol spray I can use. My dad was talking about using some carburetor cleaner, but I'm not sure if it'll damage anything. Thoughts por favor.

 

Hmmm...is that gunk inside, where the fuel flows, or on the outside of the rail. If it's on the inside, REPLACE YOUR FUEL FILTER. Not sure about the outside, though. As long as there are no plastic/rubber pieces, I don't see why you couldn't use carb/choke cleaner, or, my personal favorite, CRC Brake-Kleen. Ummm...that stuff smells SOOO GOOD.

 

Hrm. Lets say it is on the inside, how would I clean it right now? Well tomorrow...

 

Pull the old injectors, and spray about a can or two worth of CRC Brake-Kleen into it. You know what Brake-Kleen is, right?

 

Worked at Autozone for about 2 years man. I lived off of the chemical aisle lol, seems most normal daily driving people want some quick fix injector cleaner or this or that, so selling that stuff was a forte. Chemicals in general that is, not just CRC products.

 

LOL! Didn't know...
Between Brake-Kleen and a nylon brush or two, I can't see that job taking too long. I highly recommend changing your fuel filter, though. Gunk INSIDE the fuel rail is never a good thing...

 

Arrightt. Time to showcase the nastyness that is the inside of my engine. >,> I hate you PO...I really do.





Is there anyway to clean that stuff? Or do I have to just replace that entire area, oh, and it's like that on both sides.

 

Engine degreaser, my VCs looked like that too, Idk the best brand for it, but I used black magic and it seemed to do the job alright. Kerosene also works, Idk if you're tearing your engine down or not, but if so, just pull the heads, strip them down and soak the valvetrain in kerosene, and degreaser for the VCs.

 

Try running the engine with some ATF in the oil, or some of that Engine Flush stuff. Chances are that if the valve covers and underneath look that bad, it's even worse in the lifter valley (as I said in my other post, been there... My valve cover parts didn't look THAT bad, however). Keep in mind though, if you do this, you may end up loosening and removing the crud that's currently plugging small gaps and cracks in the seals and gaskets, so some of those might be in your future.

And I hope you know to keep up with the oil changes in the future... That crud is what happens when the average person decides "everything is going to be okay if I let it run without an oil change for an extra 2000 miles".

 

Sounds like fun >,< Right now my dad and I had to call it a night, we were trying to take off that whole top part, not just the valve pans, and we have to remove the distributor. I suppose since the previous owner was as crappy as it gets he somehow raped this part as well, considering the thing WON'T come out. Removed the bolt and little harness holding it, and the freaking thing just won't turn and come loose. Sprayed some intense PB into there, hopefully by morning it'll soak in and loosen up a bit...

 

There's 2 gaskets on the dizzy (base gasket between the block and the shaft, and an o-ring inside the bore), or there's supposed to be. They like to stick like mad when the dizzy hasn't been touched in a while. Try turning it a bit before you do anything.

 

So, my dad is a warrior and decided to go back out and dig deeper into the engine. Here's what we came up with.





Is there ANY way to clean this engine up? In addition, the lifters(I guess?), are they supposed to be that high? Or is that all gunk pushing it up?

 

WTF?!
That's just...HORRID!
I've ripped apart a 305 TBI, a G54B 2.6L out of a '85 Conquest, and a 2.8L V6....and none of them looked like that!
I'll help you track down and kill the PO if you'd like. Free of charge...LOL!

 

Yeah man, this guy obviously had NO respect whatsoever for his car. And the funny thing is when he was selling it to me, he gave me this whole sob story about how much he loved this car, and financial expenses stopped him from fixing the car up to what it used to be. Some people!

Edit: Just thought about something...antifreeze is supposed to be in those holes right? 0_o

 

Some of the holes, yes, coolant is supposed to be there. However, a lot of the holes that have coolant in them, aren't supposed to have coolant in them.
You know what time it is?! ENGINE REBUILD TIME! LOL!...then cry.

 

Goddamn...I was really hoping to run on this engine until it blew on me, so then I had a good reason to go spend a bunch of money on a hybrid swap. Blah, as it stands right now, I def don't have the cash or the resources(neither me nor my dad has ever done it before) to rebuild it.

 

damn! ive done aton of tear downs and nothing to this extent!

 

Well...I happen to have a 2.8L V6 as well. My friend and I tore it down, and about the only issue I know of with the block is one of the cylinder bores is kinda roughed up.
Rebuilding an engine ain't too bad. The biggest cost I can think of would be the machine shop going over and through the block. Bore honing or overboring, magnafluxing, cam bearings, line-honing, hot-washing... Figure around $500. Then it's just new piston rings, or pistons and rings if you had to have the cylinders overbored, gaskets, and a torque wrench. Maybe some new fasteners here and there...
Personally, I'd just find a 3.4L V6 out of a junkyard. Those engines are all over around here for less than $500, with the transmission of choice. That would be an easy swap...ish. Then, you'd have some more cubes, a little bit stronger block...
ALL IS NOT LOST. Welcome to the joys, and the heartaches, of a PROJECT CAR! LOL!

 

Lmao thanks. Yeah I'm gonna be shopping around for a 3.4L. That T5 you gave me, will it work on a 3.4L out of a 93-95 'maro?

 

yeah it will bolt up no problem...i have a 95 3.4L with a 90 t5

 

OMFG! I've seen an engine with 350K on it and it didn't look like THAT! All I can say is, WOW !

Anyways, if you notice, the coolant is pooled in the lifters directly under the coolant passages in the cylinder heads, which is almost considered normal if you haven't drained the block before removing the intake :nono: . Did the PO of the car EVER change the oil in that engine? Might want to check the trans fluid as well, with the engine oil looking like that. I'll bet it's practically as black as the engine oil is.

You can clean it up, but make sure nothing gets down into the cam chamber. Use a shop vac to clean up what you scrape off the block (and DO NOT use a degreaser in there). Yes, the lifters are in their normal position. The heads of the lifters will sit just above the bores when fully retracted.

How did the intake come out with the dizzy in place?

 

You telling me?

Funny thing is, I changed the oil when I bought the car, never really bothering to check the inside of the engine, had other concerns at the time. Idk if the PO did though. My dad and I had changed both the transmission pan gasket and the oil pan gasket, but IIRC they didn't look horrible, the gaskets were just done.

Gotcha. Kerosene it is.

Haha, see funny thing about that is... A little manpower is a beautiful thing. >,>

 

I wouldn't use any sort of solvent in there... Anything that can break up the oil film on the cam and crank below could be even more hazardous to the engine's health than the gunk in the upper end already is. Unless you want to change the oil again and prime the oiling system (provided you get the dizzy out sometime) when you're done.

 

Well I was planning to remove that whole top half and soak as much of it as I could in kerosene. I did see one guy post something about 2 years ago about "changing the oil" using kerosene instead of oil, letting the car sit for 3 days, then draining the oil and changing it. Apparently the kerosene in the system cleaned up all that sludge? Idk...thoughts?

 

I have a thought...REBUILD THE ENGINE OR REPLACE IT.

 

Been a good while since I've done anything to the 'maro, but times have been good to me, so work will resume shortly. Just thought I'd update, definitely decided on getting rid of that engine, gonna find a 2.8 and just use that for the time being, got other priorities in the mean time. Anyway, main question of the night, I'm looking into a 145mph instrument cluster, I was just wondering if there would be any difference between a US and a Canadian one. I see one for sale from Canada, and it has the speed in kmph(which I really like considering my entire family is from the Trinidad, and all of the cars read in kmph down there, so they'd like that when they come here), so just wondering as long as it's cable speedo it should be fine right?

Oh and one more thing, my car's instrument cluster doesn't have the RPM gauge, what do I need to do to use the RPM gauge in this instrument cluster?

 

As long as you're still using a mechanical speedo its a direct swap as far as I know, for the tach to work properly it needs to come from a car with the same # of cylinders, otherwise though, the wiring and connections for a tach are already there from what I've read, just have to swap clusters. Also might want to check if they both use idiot lights or real gauges, gauges require getting sending units for bat/temp/oil to gauges to work if you only had idiot lights before.

 

Ok so looking for a 2.8 lately has seriously pissed me the hell off considering I'm finding 3.4's for about the same price. I'm seriously considering just buying the 3.4, what's stopping me is the fact that I bought a whole exhaust system, muffler, headers, cat back etc. for the 2.8 and I'm not really sure how much work it would take to get the 3.4 working in there. Any thoughts?

Oh and I've got a t5 sitting there, no idea if it'll bolt up with everything that I got from it there(bellhousing, flywheel, etc.)

 

If you got a 3.4 out of an F-body, you're fine. Just swap over the intake like you would if you were going to swap in a replacement 2.8. Everything you just bought bolts right on there. You won't, however, need to use 2 of the sensors, and you will need to remove the oil pump drive and put your distributor in its place. Oh, and if you got a flywheel for an 86 2.8 to go with the T5, find one for the 3.4, as the one you may have (if it's pre-88), is for an externally balanced engine (weight on the wheel) and the 3.4 uses a neutrally balanced (no weight on wheel) flywheel.

If not, you will either want to trade it or ask Purple82 for advice on the engine mounts... And the starter mounting as well.

 

Well all of the 3.4's I'm looking at are out of 93-95 'Maro's. What about all of the wiring and the ecm, etc.

Another route I'm thinking about going is selling the retarded amount of parts I have sitting in my house, getting rid of the Camaro, and just buying one that's already pretty fixed up from someone on here. That should be a tell-tale of how frustrated I actually am with my project.

 

It all bolts up, screws in, plugs in, attaches, what have you. You will, also, need to either swap your existing intake manifold or pull the plug out of the back of the 3.4 intake and put in your 7th injector.

 

feel free to look at my threads for proof and pictures of a 3.4 in a thirdgen

 

Sent you a pm bro.

 

There should only ever be the O-ring.

If there is a gasket between the base of the dizzy and the block, someone has put one in there. This can actually cause problems. It will change the wear/mesh pattern on the gears between the dizzy and the cam.

 

And the main reason people put the gasket on is because they had an oil leak from there or they were keeping from getting one because if the o-ring isn't sealing you will leak oil from the dizzy hole .

 

:facepalm:

A new O-ring seals just fine, and for many many thousands of miles.

 

Just a quick opinion question to you all out there. What are the best racing seats you all have experienced, in terms of price, look and bang for your buck?