Sean's 78 Camaro Z28

[Texas82GP]

Time for another installment. A break from the body shop!!

Early in January of 2013 Sean got serious about procuring a mill for the Camaro. Initially we intended to stick with a Gen I SBC. We contemplated putting in the 290HP/350 and maybe hopping it up a little bit. When Sean started seeing commercials for 400 HP Hyundai's we decided we needed something with a little more beef. We decided we wanted the LS3 or the LS 376/525 but due to budget settled on a 6.0 truck engine. He bought an L96 out of a 2010 Express Van with 20k miles on it. From the front the van looked brand new.

Evidently something fell on it and crushed it in the back and it got totaled. I don't remember the name of the place but as I recall it was up in the Dakotas.

Here's the engine as delivered on 01-16-13. I love the unicorn oil filler spout.....

My brother worked at home back then so I got that picture at work. When I got home we got it picked up off the skid, put it on my engine stand and started peeling off all of the van/truck stuff that we weren't going to use.....

My brother didn't waste any time and a few days later he cleaned it up and painted the block. We went with Corporate Blue since that was the color of the original 350 in his car. It is a bit of an homage to how the engine looked when the car was new. I'm of the opinion that the LS engines are a bit homely stock so we wanted to jazz his up a little bit....

Don't mind that the remaining truck stuff looks a little grungy. We weren't going to use that stuff so we didn't spend time on it.

I had a GMPP LS Hot Cam kit for my truck sitting in a box waiting for me to gather the rest of the parts for my cam/torque converter swap. I went ahead and temporarily donated it to the project in the interest of moving things forward. My brother later bought me a replacement kit. On with the cam swap. The engine was every bit as clean as you would expect a 20k mile engine to be....

We were also replacing the truck oil pan/pickup/windage tray with an F body setup so the pan came off as well....

To be continued in the next post.....

 

[Texas82GP]

We wanted to run the Corvette front accessory drive and wanted to run a drive-by-cable throttle body so the VVT was a no-go for us. As said before, on with the cam swap...

We went back together with the LS2 style timing chain dampener in favor of the LS3 style tensioner...

Since the oil pump only had 20k miles on it, it went right back in...

New F Body oil pump pick-up, windage tray and pan...

And on to valve spring replacement....

We didn't do the popular trunion upgrade on the rockers. With .525 lift I didn't feel it necessary. The 20k mile rockers went back in, but of course they went back to the exact same valve they came off of....

Followed by freshly painted van valve covers....

Followed by the van coil packs, just cleaned up, along with the plugs and wires that came with the engine. The plugs were later swapped in favor of some E3's. I have no way of knowing what they do for it if anything. I'm a little skeptical....

Followed by the timing cover, balancer and F body oil filler spout. Doesn't look much like the van engine that showed up anymore. Starting to look pretty slick....

To be continued in the next post.......

 

[Texas82GP]

Followed by the headers. We went with Stainless Works. While expensive, I can't say enough good things about them. They prototyped these headers using a T56 and a G-Force crossmember. The motor mount swap plates were included so it was an engineered solution that matched what we were doing. I didn't want to deal with sticker shock from my brother so once I decided this was the way we were going I just bought them and decided we would work it out later, and didn't really care if I got paid back. He did pay me back though. Here they are.....

This is a good place to leave off. We did the cam swap on 2-9-13 and put the headers on the night of 2-28-13 so we'll be ready to roll into the March of 13 with the next post. I hope you guys enjoyed the LS engine coverage. It was a welcome break from three years in the body shop. Stay tuned. More to come.....

 

[O. D. Showtime]

Nice progress Jared! The motor looks sharp!

 

[Longroof79]

What a great donor engine to start off with. Lookin' good, too, Jared.
You're wowing us with all this great stuff...😀

 

[Texas82GP]

Very compelling build, Jared... I'm enjoying the subsequent steps in getting the body back in shape.
I'm also looking forward to seeing the completion of it.
What's nice is, you have it all documented.

Thanks Jack. I'm really pleased that some of you guys are enjoying the thread. Again, credit goes to my brother on documenting the build and keeping up with all of the digital pictures. He had a few machines crash but because of his backing the pictures up in several locations we still have them.

Nice progress Jared! The motor looks sharp!

Thanks Kevin. I appreciate the compliment. We are proud of how it turned out.

What a great donor engine to start off with. Lookin' good, too, Jared.
You're wowing us with all this great stuff...😀

I agree Jack. It is hard to beat a Vortec truck engine as a starting point. They are plentiful so they are affordable. They put out decent power stock and are basically just de-tuned. The heads on those Gen IV 6.0's are amazing. We wanted the aluminum, true LS, but for the price difference we just couldn't justify it. Plus, when we put the front end together we went back with stock F41 springs since we thought we were going back with a Gen I small block. I think the iron block helped us stay close to stock ride height and the aluminum block might have had us a little nose-high so it worked out.

 

[Longroof79]

Jared,
You can't beat the new generation LS engines. They are an entirely different animal compared to the first generation small blocks. The beauty of those are that it's so easy to squeeze horsepower out of them. Let's face it, it's newer technology. They're much more efficient.
A friend of mine is helping a friend put a 5.3 into an '80's Caprice. When they pulled the heads off to do an inspection, he said there was not a single ridge present, plus the bores were completely round...and this is a 150,000 mile engine... Hard to beat. I'd be happy to have a 5.3 in my crate.

 

[Injectedcutty]

Jared,
You can't beat the new generation LS engines. They are an entirely different animal compared to the first generation small blocks. The beauty of those are that it's so easy to squeeze horsepower out of them. Let's face it, it's newer technology. They're much more efficient.
A friend of mine is helping a friend put a 5.3 into an '80's Caprice. When they pulled the heads off to do an inspection, he said there was not a single ridge present, plus the bores were completely round...and this is a 150,000 mile engine... Hard to beat. I'd be happy to have a 5.3 in my crate.

That's for sure Jack!!!! That's why i converted to this 5.3 to put in the cutlass. Jared...sorry in advance for the thread jack!

 

[Texas82GP]

Jared,
You can't beat the new generation LS engines. They are an entirely different animal compared to the first generation small blocks. The beauty of those are that it's so easy to squeeze horsepower out of them. Let's face it, it's newer technology. They're much more efficient.
A friend of mine is helping a friend put a 5.3 into an '80's Caprice. When they pulled the heads off to do an inspection, he said there was not a single ridge present, plus the bores were completely round...and this is a 150,000 mile engine... Hard to beat. I'd be happy to have a 5.3 in my crate.

I agree Jack. They have a lot of inherent advantages. I didn't go with an LS in my for a few reasons. One being cost and the other being that I had already done an LS swap in Sean's car. Another being that I already have a warmed up LS in my daily driver. Finally, I wanted to build my car mostly like what I wanted at the end of high school. The car I couldn't have then. A G Body with a warmed up carbureted 350 and a five speed stick.

That's for sure Jack!!!! That's why i converted to this 5.3 to put in the cutlass. Jared...sorry in advance for the thread jack!View attachment 67440

No hijack here. Friends are welcome in this thread.

 

[Texas82GP]

Ok, getting back on track with this build. We skipped 2012 in the interest of having fun with the LS pictures and taking a break from the body shop. We did a lot in 2012. When I left off in December of 2011, the metal work was done. The body work was substantially complete. The entire body was in epoxy primer and had been mocked up. Time for some color, starting with the inner fenders. We used DuPont Hot Hues Hot Rod Black. We used exclusively DuPont paint on this project. The Hot Hues was great to work with, but I'll admit, I like the SEM Hot Rod Black just as well and it is a better value........

Followed by the bottom of the hood...

Next we blew apart the front clip for jambing....

Followed by Hot Rod Black on the Core Support...

Followed by Hot Rod Black on the cowl...