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  1. #11
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    Nov 2012
    Name
    Shaun
    Vehicle
    1994 Formula
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    Phillipsburg NJ
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    Quote Originally Posted by TrybalRage View Post
    Reached a point where the motor's just about all together, got a new water pump, sensors swapped, wiring mostly done.

    My old exhaust manifolds have snapped off flange studs, the headers that came with the new motor have significant rust, and I'm not sure what to do next. I was planning on taking the manifolds to have new studs installed... but at the cost and while I have the motor out of the car I'm debating throwing some stainless headers on there. Of course this would require exhaust, tune, blah blah. So I'm a bit frozen by indecision. Since I'm in PA emissions is a concern.
    youre in pa, thats very easy to get around. as long as when it plugs in it doesnt have a light youll be fine, or if you drive "less" than 5k miles a year
    2021 Charger Scat 392
    1994 Firebird Formula 381 stroker - Carrying the torch! - 9.90 @ 134.3mph on a 200 shot

    The wrench/driver for LTConvert's 94 Z28- Ellwein 383/LE Trickflows/ D1SC / CPT Ultra Pro Race 4L60E
    10.78 @ 125mph. Shooting for 9.99 for Frank Cahall!

  2. #12
    LTX Member


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    Jul 2009
    Vehicle
    1997 Camaro SS
    Location
    Reading, PA
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    39

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    Slowly making progress.

    Had the broken studs on the exhaust manifolds replaced at a local exhaust shop. Emissions stuff, wiring harness mostly on. Pulled the K-member out tonight and got the motor bolted down to the motor mounts hand-tight. So many little things to hook back up... brakes, wiring to the chassis, then radiator, etc etc. Still have old unlabeled bags of bolts and stuff and no idea where they go

    There may still be 5 year old fuel in the tank, haven't tried to pump it out yet. Need to get a new pilot bearing and then can assemble the clutch components and get the transmission attached before I roll the whole works back under the car.
    1997 Camaro SS ~ 220k of stockness... undergoing transformation.

  3. #13
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    1997 Camaro SS
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    Reading, PA
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    Current situation:


    Unfortunately though, since I'm assembling from boxes of parts, I have a couple of brackets that I cannot yet identify where they are supposed to be.

    I think this might be transmission related:


    And I seem to recall this supporting the wiring harness or something?
    1997 Camaro SS ~ 220k of stockness... undergoing transformation.

  4. #14
    LTX Master


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    Aug 2013
    Name
    JB
    Vehicle
    1994 Camaro Z28 1996 Camaro SS
    Location
    Atoka,TN
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    The bracket in the top picture goes from the block to the back of the A/C compressor

    Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
    Same as everybody else...350 small block, double hump heads, 3/4 cam

  5. #15
    LTX Member


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    1997 Camaro SS
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    Reading, PA
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cathead View Post
    The bracket in the top picture goes from the block to the back of the A/C compressor

    Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
    OK, thanks! I didn't disassemble the supports on the new motor which is probably why I didn't find a need for this one.
    1997 Camaro SS ~ 220k of stockness... undergoing transformation.

  6. #16
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    1997 Camaro SS
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    Got the clutch installed and transmission mated to the block last night... no installation tool handy so just time, time, more time, and some wiggling to get it all bolted together. Since I'm on a budget (and just trying to get rolling) re-used my old flywheel and pressure plate. They had some surface rust on them from sitting, but hand-sanded lightly with some 100grit and then shot with some brake cleaner and they looked pretty damn good. Going to do a fluid change on the trans before I roll it under the car.
    1997 Camaro SS ~ 220k of stockness... undergoing transformation.

  7. #17
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    1997 Camaro SS
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    Reading, PA
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    Productive weekend with an extra set of hands to help.

    Got the motor and trans installed. Playing a fun game of 'find the bolt' to put everything together.

    Now that I've got it in, unfortunately, I'm re-thinking a lot of the cooling system stuff. My old setup had a ton of dexcool mud in it, so my old radiator, heater core, overflow tank, etc are all 'compromised'. Don't really feel like polluting the whole system again, so ordered a new radiator from rock auto. Wish I had thought of this before putting the motor in since now my heater hoses are pretty much blocked off, so for now just going to run a bypass hose on the water pump to exclude the heater until later. Tried to pull the tube out of the overflow tank and broke it so now trying to figure out what to do with that. Replacement tanks are cheap enough, but none of them seem to come with the metal tube.. so maybe just a generic aftermarket tank is in my future.

    My antilock brake unit has (had) a sensor plug on top of it that has been snapped off, don't know when that happened. I know I was having some brake issues before I parked it - random antilock kicking in, that sort of thing. Maybe just delete the whole setup and go with a basic brake system.

    Now that it's getting so close I'm getting nervous. Putting an un-tested facebook marketplace engine in here with all this work... a dozen sensors that haven't been used in 5 years... if it fires I half expect a christmas tree of lights on the dash.
    1997 Camaro SS ~ 220k of stockness... undergoing transformation.

  8. #18
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    1997 Camaro SS
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    Reading, PA
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    New radiator + hoses in.


    Getting close, hoping to try and get her to fire this weekend.


    The gantry crane I built two years ago might be the most useful thing in my garage.
    1997 Camaro SS ~ 220k of stockness... undergoing transformation.

  9. #19
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    Getting close to trying to fire... hoses done, ghetto heater core bypass in, driveshaft installed, new fuel filter installed. Hooked the battery up temporarily to try and pump some of the old fuel out of the tank while the filter was out, discovered 2 unfortunate things...

    1. The tank is 3/4 full of 5 year old gas. I'd burn the pump out trying to get it all.
    2. The security light never turned off, and I was reminded that near the end of it's last time running, I was starting to get intermittent issues with VATS.

    So I pumped out maybe 2 quarts of old gas. Not sure how much more I should try and get. Doesn't phase separated gas have all the bad stuff at the bottom?

    Unfortunately since radio shack isn't a thing anymore, I had to order some resistors from amazon. I say 'some' because the cost of what I needed ($6) vs a 1200 count kit ($12) just didn't make sense for me. So now I'll be stocked up on resistors for life, I guess. They should be here tomorrow, so once that's done... I guess crank it and see what happens.
    1997 Camaro SS ~ 220k of stockness... undergoing transformation.

  10. #20
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    ITS ALIVE!!!

    Damn that feels good.

    Wrapped up a few things last night. As I mentioned, 5 year old gas, so I jumped the primer connection to get about a gallon or so of the old stuff out - didn't have other extra fuel containers. I added a bottle of iso-heet, usually I think this kind of stuff is snake oil but it came up many times in online discussion about old fuel, and it was only $3. I also added about 5 gallons of fresh 93 octane to dilute the old stuff a little. Hooked the fuel lines back up and primed some more to get gas up to the injectors.

    Made a nice little soldered rig with a resistor to bypass VATS - it didn't work at first for some reason so I yanked it off and added it again just twisting the ends of the wire together, and finally the security light went out.

    Cranked it for a few seconds and it FIRED! Woooo!

    Unfortunately there was also a clanging/clunking sound that at first had my heart sinking... thought I just went through all this trouble to install an unknown motor with bad bearings or something. But after a little investigation just found the sheet metal shield at the starter/flywheel was bent slightly around the starter opening and was making contact with the teeth on the flywheel. Pulled it out and hammered it flat, put it back in and no noise. Yay!

    The night unfortunately ended on a sour note. I got one of those lisle no-spill radiator fill funnels, never used one before. Filled the system with the bleeders open before starting it, but had coolant in the funnel to continue to fill the system once the thermostat opened. My temp gauge, however, does not work anymore, so I had no idea how hot things were getting. All of a sudden, the level began to rise... and rise... and rise... I expected it to drop at some point when the stat opened but it never did! Then I made the fatal mistake of... shutting the motor down. In retrospect, I KNOW BETTER. Non-circulating coolant will boil over. I know this. But it's all I could think of in the moment.
    Holy shit what a mess. All over the motor, all over my garage, all over my tools. Probably lost a gallon all over the place. Hopefully I didn't just toast my opti. Looked like a volcano gushing out of there. What a mess.

    So I need to fix the temp sensor. Properly fill the system, start taking care of other things. Check engine light is on, so I'll need to pull codes. But it RUNS! And sounds pretty smooth too. So stoked.
    1997 Camaro SS ~ 220k of stockness... undergoing transformation.

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