I am back in the (3800) v6 fbody game! Hopefully this post is gold to someone later.

[AZ3.8Camaro]

I have a 15 year boy now (crazy how time flies from when I was a teenager on here!) and his first car will be the old Camaro.
I stopped driving it back in maybe 2012 or so when a broken radiator led to an overheat and blown head gaskets.
Anyhow, I decided it would be awesome to tear the engine down and build it up with him to teach him about cars and how things work.

Pulled the old girl in the garage and took the motor out through the top like a dummy.


Stripped it down to the block. Due to a long ago issue with getting the wrong valve stem seals, I burned oil for like 6 months at one point. Even though I fixed it and drove it another 2 years, you can see the remnants. I also had filled the car with just water after it overheated to limp it home. Well, 12 years later, there was some rust in the cooling channels that we had to blast out.


Pistons and rods out, bearings looked fine and crank looked fine. There was some wear, but nothing crazy.


Cleaned up the block, painted it, and worked on the deck surface, in this picture I am still chasing some marks out. I probably should have pulled those stupid pins out, but they wouldn't come out without some special pin puller tool, so there they sit. I also tapped the balancer shaft oil hole from the back and installed a plug.


Polished up the crank (sander was not used on crank lol).


Update 1

[AZ3.8Camaro]

Cleaned up and painted the heads, cleaned and lapped the valves.


Reassembled the heads with Comp 136# springs, LS style retainers and new locks.


Got fresh L32 rods and pistons (8.5 to 1 CR) with new clevite rod bearings. Gapped the rings for boost.



Installed new clevite cam bearings and main bearings, arp main studs and cross bolts, dropped in the rotating assembly and torqued everything down. Also installed my old Comp 4x4 cam for old times sake with a ZZP double roller timing chain (did NOT forget the cam sensor). Also fresh main seals on both ends. We did plastigage on all the main and rod bearings and everything was really nicely in spec and uniform across the board.



Installed ZZP head studs - just dropping this here to remind folks to use thread TAPE and not teflon paste on STUDS. Teflon paste will leak.


Update 2.

[AZ3.8Camaro]

Installed the studs and ZZP MLS head gaskets (copper spray coated)



Installed ZZP lifters (going to try these out).


Installed the heads, with new rocker arm bolts and measured the pushrod length, turned out to be 6.95" across the board (got from ZZP). Also buttoned up the front cover (new oil pump with shaved cover, double thick gasket and Intense oil pressure kit) and a new water pump. If I did this again I would have ordered the 3/8" dia pushrods instead of the 5/16" but not that big of a deal.


Tapped the PCV hole with an M10x1.5 tap so I can plug it later (didn't plug it now).
Tapped the vent side hole that goes to the throttle body with an M10 as well (didn't plug it yet). Pics for reference if anyone does this in the future for later boost addition. If you plug these you need to run a breather/catch can setup.
Painted the manifolds.



Update 3.

[AZ3.8Camaro]

Installed the lower intake manifold with the newer spec aluminum gaskets and some rtv in the corners of the rubber seals at the head gasket junction. Also didn't forget the o-rings (picture for proof!)


Installed the upper intake manifold (don't know why we didn't clean the ultra copper off the EGR port yet but we will).
The color scheme is my son's choice (I wanted burnt bronze, he wanted gold accents, but I think it looks good anyhow)


Then I took the boy to the car wash so he could wash my car haha. It is the least he could do for all this free advice I am giving him.


Installed the valve covers, fuel rail, coil packs, MAP sensor, EVAP switch and purge, brackets and coil packs last night, but forgot to get pics.
Vacuum lines are trashed, so I measured everything and am going to hit it with all new silicone vacuum lines when they come in.

Then we are going to clean the engine bay and drop this bad boy back in.
Can I drop it in from the top and get to the motor mounts with the headers on or should I would until the engine is in to install those?
Might order new motor mounts since it is out, but don't think we want poly ones because this thing is going to vibrate quite a bit I assume.

Cheers, and I will post updates as I get them! Fingers cross this thing runs when it is all done! haha.

[ssms5411]

Nice, coming along nicely, nice pics. Your planning on a turbo with the lower compression I take it? What’s the specs on that cam? With the balance shaft undone it shakes a little at idle but cruising you won’t notice. Mines always been dropped threw the bottom, If going through the top I wouldn’t have the headers on I wouldn’t think so.

[AZ3.8Camaro]

Thanks!

Re headers - Yeah, I will leave them off for now. I heard you had to grind your pacesetters to fit with stud - I will test fit them before I drop the engine in.

Cam is basically a ZZP GT2 cam but with a 112LSA - I got it custom ground through Comp way back in the day before ZZP sold it.
216/216 112LSA 108IC extreme 4x4 grind. It was conceptually designed to work best on the stock heads, but ended up needing a lot of valve spring due to the aggressive ramps. I figured I wouldn't mess with porting the heads if I was going turbo later since the cost is high and the gains kind of low.

It might shake even more because the rods/pistons probably don't weigh the same as the L36 stuff either. I didn't have it rebalanced because A) I didn't think of that until it was in and B) it's going to shake anyways with the balancer removed. Teenagers don't really care about vibrations anyhow.

Turbo is in the future. Going to break it in NA and then probably get the ebay hotside kit and adapt from there. We might make manifolds ourselves, not 100% sure yet. I'd really like to do 2 small twin turbos for packaging reasons but I think the coolant outlet on the drivers side might pose a problem. I have some 3D scans of the engine and the engine bay - I will post on that coming up.

[ssms5411]

Yeah my head studs didn’t work well with my headers they were RK sport headers, grinded them up so bad had to get the Pacesetters, then just went back to regular head bolts, so definitely check them out. Pushrods I went to Comp .105s stock length. Yeah your cam should do well. Mines a ST2 cam with Com 1.7 shaft mount rocker arms, stock is 1.6 or 1.63 depending on year. Sounds like you have all the parts and took your time on the install so should run great. Good luck Also the piston and rods won’t shake it too much mainly the balance shaft removal. Mines Diamond forged 9:5.1 pistons with L32 rods and it didn’t, when first installed I had ZZP VS cam and had a little lobe to it.

[AZ3.8Camaro]

Did you balance your rotating assembly? If not, that gives me some hope haha!

[ssms5411]

No I didn’t so you should be fine. You have Hptuners? Might need a crank re-learn, but I think you’ll be fine. I just adjusted my idle when cold to 900 rpm’s and when warm 750 rpm’s. You should probably get a wideband O2 and Hptuners so you can tune it. If not already.

[AZ3.8Camaro]

I have HP Tuners, but haven't bought a wideband yet. I plan on getting one before the turbo stuff for sure.

Is there a good way to log the wideband with HPTuners?

[ssms5411]

Yes , tap off the EGR wiring forget which wire( I just look at the wideband screen for idle, part throttle and WOT. You have the cable version of Hptuners, should have a spot for one wire, .5 volt I think. Might have to search it. I’d get a Wideband to tune it, with that cam it might run rich or lean either case you would want a wideband. And of course if you get bigger injectors. My VS came didn’t need any tuning in 2002 when the engine was built but it’s close to stock just higher lift. Might need to adjust timing also.

[ssms5411]

To tune for injectors, at idle I think it is flow vs. injector rate and to tune for part throttle and Wot it’s PE vs rpm something like that, don’t have Hptuners in front of me.lol You have a 97’ and I use a 97’ pcm in my 1996 so I can help tune if you need it. Just remembered something it’s a wire off the egr and one coming off the wideband then you have to create a PID on Hptuners sorry but haven’t logged my wideband for 20 years.lol

[AZ3.8Camaro]

Thanks a ton for the advice. I haven't tuned anything since an old AEM system back in 2004ish timeframe so you are better than I am for sure! I dinked around in HP tuners and shut off some codes, cleaned up the timing table to avoid KR and that's about it. Once I get the car running I will grab a wideband and DEFINITELY hit you up for advice! I will tune up a nice NA tune, to get back into tuning, then eventually swap to the turbo setup and bigger injectors.

On the turbo setup, I hear that the MAP sensor is used mainly on the VE chart to some extent, and the PCM uses the MAF exclusively on the PE table anyhow so I hear a mini-afc is recommended to keep the MAF frequency on the chart under boost - sound right? No need to try and swap a 2 bar map or anything. Trying to plan what I need to buy long term.

[ssms5411]

No problem, my PLX-m300 wideband has lasted 23 years just replacing the O2 ever so often. Probably do the Ballenger O2 wideband if this one ever quits. Mini afc is only needed if you max the maf , So far I haven’t maxed it, I’m around 7psi , have a boost controller to get it around 10 psi then no more. I’ve heard you can get around 15 psi out of the maf, depending on your turbo and how much air it’s flowing , then need the mini afc to adjust fuel. Need the injectors and fuel pump though. My Waldo 255 highflow has lasted 23 years also. Then have 65lb injectors (60lb) on our fuel system. How much boost you plan on doing? I still need to do more tuning, but taking care of my house and my mom it’s hard to get out and do it.

[ssms5411]

Yes you’d want to use PE tables to tune for fuel. I don’t use Ve tables, I think mine are stock tables.