Namrepus28 Engine Top End Re-Build Thread

[ssms5411]

Sounds good, for wideband O2s I have had my Plx for 20 years just changing the wideband O2 a few times and it was like .2 off on the dynos O2 so pretty accurate. So it’s been great and the O2s are down to $30 for a wideband O2 sensor so pretty cheap. PLX doesn’t make mine anymore so if mine goes out I’m looking at a Ballenger O2 , Hptuners recommends them and take the same O2s as my PLX.

[Namrepus28]

Just an update on the progress.

Things have been pretty slow around here (whole province is on a lock down that doesn't end until May 20th...maybe) so I'm sitting around waiting for things all the time now it seems.

Luckily this has made me more likely to tackle little projects around the house and to make some progress on tearing down the Camaro. I've decided to make this an even longer-term project and kind of restore the car as I go along as best I can, learning along the way.

The car is so old and has seen so much use that it's a filthy mess under the hood with lots of surface rust all over the place, so I'm going to clean it up the best I can, sand down the painted surfaces, primer them, and repaint them while I'm working on the mechanicals.

That being said, I need the mechanical components out of the way as much as possible. In the last month, I've gotten the A/C system completely removed, lines, accumulator, compressor bracket, etc. I've also gotten the valve covers off, the heater hoses and tensioner are out, the SLP intake was finally wrestled out two days ago, and the headers were removed.

I still have a ways to go, but that will involve draining the coolant, the power steering fluid, brake fluid and engine oil before I can remove more components.

The pushrods are on the way from Intense sometime this week and the next big purchase will be reconditioned heads from ZZP. Then cam and timing chain.

I'm sure there will be a ton of little stuff along the way as well (I've got a cart at Summit and one at RockAuto both currently up to 300 CDN worth of smaller replacement parts) but it does feel like things are coming along.

It all feels very therapeutic to work on cars these days. Especially when I can take my time and enjoy it, learn, and put things back together the right way instead of in a panicked rush.

[Namrepus28]

Another update why not,

More parts were ordered months ago, but I stopped working on the car after removing the entire cooling system and the crank bolt. (Thank you impact gun!)

Other things came up, more work was done on the Bonneville, and I wanted certain parts in before I continued removing items from the Camaro's engine.

I just placed what I hope to be the last big dollar order of parts for the Camaro. Took advantage of ZZP's Black Friday sale and got 10% off the whole lot.

Ordered a set of reconditioned heads with 90 lb valve springs installed and ready to go, as well as a GT1 cam and Rollmaster single timing chain.

This coming spring and summer will belong to the Camaro as I'm just about done with the mechanical improvements on the Bonneville now.

Looking forward to doing the engine work as I've never dug this far down into one before.

[ssms5411]

Nice.

[2.8 Bird]

3800 all the way.

[Namrepus28]

In case anyone ever worries that they're wasting money on expensive synthetic oil and premium filters...

...you're not. This engine has almost 300,000 km on it (approx 185,000 miles). Look at how terrible it looks on the outside and how damn clean it is inside. Wow.

Anyway, with the weather warming up lately I've been trying to do a quick job on the car every day of the week (sans weekends) and today I finally removed the timing cover.

Next up will be removing the rockers, push rods, lifters, and heads.

[ssms5411]

Looks great, yeah I use synthetic on all my vehicles.