Red Alert Camaro - 1994 Camaro Build Thread

[meissen]

Since I see it appears to be the rage here on the site, I figured I'd join in. Who wouldn't take the opportunity to show off their car and huge project?

Phase 1: "All Show - What about Go?"

Back in 2002, my parents and I were trying to find my first car. The deal was that my parents would finance it with their good credit and I would pay the monthly bill. We found a gem of a 1994 Camaro for sale locally that only had 34,000 miles on the car. We picked it up and brought it home.

First picture I had of the car:


Being young and in highschool, I was "mod crazy" - and not always tasteful. Here's what the interior looked like within a year or so:


The car started to take form when I added F1 OEM stripes to my car. As you can see in the pic, I also added the DG Motorsports Carbon Fiber grill with quad fog lights. I absolutely loved the look of the Carbon Fiber and it was different which is what I wanted. At the time, most didn't like it - now people tolerate it.


By 2005, I had acquired some body parts and the real look of Red Alert was finally complete:

[meissen]

Phase 2 - What About Go?

Believe it or not, I put up with that question for 5 years. I deserved it. I made the car look fast, but its heart was still a 3.4L v6.

In the winter of 2008, I found a craigslist ad for an LT1 swap for $1,000. Yeah it's a good price, but what's the big deal? Well, in addition to the LT1 mated to the 4L60e trans, I got the PCM, and engine harness. Oh, and he also threw in the engine bay harness, the ENTIRE INTERIOR HARNESS from dash to taillights, BOTH the driver's side door and the passenger's side door, the t-tops, ALL FOUR RIMS AND TIRES, the entire rear hatch assembly, rear bumper, and rear tailpanel. For $1000. I turned around and sold a bunch of the parts for about $215. Gave away a lot of the parts for cheap, but since I got such a good deal I felt like passing it along.



















The kframe I had was bent. The car was in a frontal collision from t-boning another car. I ended up buying a kframe for $150. Also due to the accident, the accessory bracket was cracked. $40 for a new accessory bracket and I was good to go.

LT1 Swap Project Total (Running tally): $1190.

[meissen]

Phase 3 - "The Slow has GOT to Go!"

Since I run a local FBody site, MiFBody.com, admittedly it wasn't hard to find a bunch of guys who were enthusiastic about the project an who were willing to lend a hand in exchange for booze, pop if they were underage, and White Castle sliders

Keep in mind - my dad had experience wrenching, but not I. I was a total newb. I helped my dad do brake pads, change the oil, etc but I knew nothing about engines or how to tear one out.

It was November 1st, 2008, and I had a small group of guys over to help with the removal of the v6. I admit I did quite a bit of supervising since I really didn't know what I was doing. I had instructions from different websites on how to drop the v8 kframe out the bottom, and the instructions were basically applicable to the 3.4L v6. This method is NOT for the feint of heart - you're lifting the whole body of your car up by a cherry picker and a chain. Having done it multiple times now, I'm confident that it works and works great. But that first time -











The last picture with the v6 fully in the car:


Raising it up!





The mandatory pose in the engine bay:






Once the 3.4L v6 and the 4L60e trans that it was mated to was out of the car, I posted them separately on craigslist. I was able to sell BOTH for $600 total.

Project Total: $375

[meissen]

Phase 4: Give it some Go!

By this point, the v6 was out, I had the kframe mounted back to the car so I had a roller, and it was pushed out into the driveway. Over the course of the winter, I worked on gathering parts, cleaning up the engine, cleaning up the engine bay, etc.

This is where the project got fun and I started really learning alot. My dad liked to use the phrase "If you're going to do it, do it right." Well - I used that phrase right back at him. He wanted me to leave it stock, I knew I wanted it to be cammed. My response, "If I'm going to cam it in the future, we might as well do it right and cam it now while the engine and everything is out." Being the spoiled kid I was, I won.

I knew I wanted lope. To be truthful, I really didn't care about performance. I wanted that lopey cam that would give me the best sound. I'll admit it. When I looked online, I saw the Comp Cams CC503 was the "biggest cam you could run with stock heads" without sacrificing performance and that's what I went with.



While acquiring parts, I also started tearing down the LT1:



Working on the heads:


Had a small stock pile by January 2009:


Me being addicted to Carbon Fiber - I couldn't pass this up:


LPP Stainless headers:


I took my heads to my tuner, he knew a guy who could deck and mildly port the bowls on my heads. I also had a nasty time trying to get the 918 beehive springs installed with the crappy rental spring compressors from the local auto store, so he installed the valve springs for me while he had the heads:



Cleaning the LT1 intake:


Yanked the stock cam out:


Stock cam vs CC503:


CC503 in:


Heads on, timing cover on, valve covers sitting on the heads:


LT1 intake painted red, fins sanded smooth and polished:





Intake installed, opti installed, waterpump and harmonic balancer installed:



Looking like an engine!





And then, as if the project wasn't expensive enough... this is around the time the project really snowballed...

[meissen]

Phase 5 - "Going fast is very expensive"

At this point, I know I have a decently sized cammed engine to be installed in an otherwise stock and tired out V6 chassis. I knew I needed to do some supporting suspension work, upgrade the springs, stiffen the chassis a bit, etc. What I didn't realize was how quick this would snow ball.








Springs and shocks installed onto the kframe. I already had an upgraded SLP front swaybar, so we swapped that over to the LT1 kframe as well:


I also figured while all these components were out, it was time to do some paint work. I purchased some POR15 kits and got to work! I painted the suspension parts in above pic, as well as coating my underbody:
(Flash made the por15 look thin and show red)


And then I figured, well with the upgraded engine, it was only a matter of time before the v6 rear end blew. So I found a buddy on MiFbody who had upgraded the axles in his 10 bolt with some beefier parts and was now selling his 10 bolt. A little splurge later:


While I was going to town with the POR15, I figured I better coat the engine bay. I knew I'd be painting over the POR15 with red paint, but I figured the POR15 would protect against rust in the future.



Smoothed and filled some of the holes in on the strut towers. It was time for primer to see how it'd look with a solid coat of paint:




Did I mention some chassis suspension upgrades?



A red engine bay!




Stock rear end comes out:


And while it was out, I figured it'd be a good time to coat those wheel wells with some POR15!




LT1 rear end goes in with a few other upgrades:




Engine bay ready for a new heart!





The transplant, ready for install:

[meissen]

Phase 6 - "Install Ye Fire Breathing Dragon!"

The day was finally here. It was March 29th, 2009. The car was as ready for its heart transplant. The heart was complete and ready to put in.



Raising the body up over the LT1 and kframe assembly:


Lowering it down:


Bam!


Tight fit!





Kframe bolted up, car lifted back onto the wooden blocks.


Close enough to start the engine:



And so we did (pay attention from 0:30):


April 16th, 2009 - Red Alert moves under her own power with a new engine:








Total Engine Swap: $1441.07
Total Maintenance Upgrades: $873.91
Total Upgrades: $5565.09
Total Misc (Fluids, nuts and bolts, etc): $442.42
------------------------------------------------
Total Spent: $8322.49
Total Sold: $815
----------------------
Project Total: ...DUN DUN DUN... $7,507.49

[meissen]

Phase 7 - Disaster

As alluded to in Phase 6's video, the engine stalled because it was running hood rich. While building my LT1, we upgraded the injectors to 30# injectors but I let it run for a total of 15 minutes (on and off heat cycles) without the proper calibration in the tune for 30# injectors. Furthermore, while we had the engine apart, we did not check the bearing's health. We know it was running rich, all we can assume is that the engine running with the 30# injectors on a 24# tune allowed the engine to wash the cylinders with fuel ruining the piston ring's fit.

Being new to engines, I did not know that after your first start up and letting it run for a few minutes to heat cycle that it was necessary to drain the oil and change it. Being a newb, I didn't change the oil at all... After getting the PCM calibrated for the 30# injectors, I drove out to the local cruisin' strip, Woodward with my new engine. Within 80 miles of the new build, disaster struck. The engine seized, and I had to be flatbedded home.


April 25th, 2009
Upon checking the oil, I noticed the oil was far above the fill line and smelled strongly of fuel.

Imagine my lack of surprise when I found my oil looked like this:


Bearing dust:


But isn't it supposed to have gold glitter in it?


Back up she goes:


Getting to be pros:







"Oh dear god..."


"That doesn't look good..."


"Nor does that..."


"Oh f@#$..."


At this point, all you can do is move on. We contacted a local engine shop and arranged to get the engine cleaned, cylinders bored, and short block rebuilt.


May 13th, 2009
We got it back bored 0.040 out. A 357ci LT1.




May 15th, 2009



May 16th, 2009






May 17th, 2009







So you might be wondering - why the dates? Well, May 30th, 2009, was the date of my website's annual car show. Everyone knew my car was down for the count, no one knew my engine was being rebuilt except for a select few. We built it back together as quickly as possible, this time remembering to change the oil after it heat cycled a few times, and I immediately had it tuned proper.

May 30th, 2009

[meissen]

Phase 8 - Fin

325hp/322tq


312hp/306tq (Mustang dyno)






And my wrap up video:










Mods List:

Exterior:
Wings West F1 Front Skirt
Wings West F1 Side Skirts
Vizage/Stella Rear Bodykit
DG Motorsports Carbon Fiber Grill with Quad Fogs
Z-Roc / Stinger Hood
Freedom Designs Brickyard Spoiler
OEM Wheels ZR1 Rims
Smoked Front Turn Signals
Carbon Fiber Rear Tail Panel
EmblemPros.com "CAMARO" Fill-ins
EmblemPros.com Custom "Red Alert" LT1 Badge

Interior:
StockInteriors.com Red Carpet
LeatherSeats.com Leather Reupholstery Kit with custom "Red Alert" embroidery
97+ Trans Am Center Console
97+ Trans Am Door Panels, reupholstered with red vinyl
97+ Camaro dash
6LE Custom Gauge Face
GlowShift.com A-Pillar with Vacuum, Fuel Pressure, and Trans Temp gauges
6LE 2 gauge panel for radio bezel with LC-1 Wideband AFR Gauge
Fully Custom (DIY) 8" Touchscreen Computer mounted in place of the radio
Fully Custom (DIY) HVAC and Radio moved to Glovebox

Suspension/Chassis:
UMI 3pt Subframe Connectors
UMI Lower Control Arms
UMI Panhard Bar
UMI Rear Sway Bar
SLP Front Sway Bar
KYB AGX Shocks
Eibach Pro Kit Lowering Springs
PA Performance Tubular K-Frame
TA Girdle Rear End Cover

Engine:
357ci LT1
Mahle Forged Pistons
Stock Crank
Comp Cams CC503 Camshaft
Comp Cams 1.6 Pro Magnum Roller Rockers
Comp Cams 918 Beehive Springs
ARP 7/16th Rocker Studs
30# Injectors
SLP Cold Air Intake
LPP Stainless Steel Headers and ORY
Magnaflow Catback Exhaust
RaceReady Electric Cutout
Ridings Automotive Torque Converter
Ridings Automotive Performance 4L60e
Tuned by Steve Boldizsar @ SB Tuning

Engine "Bling":
BMR Polished LT1 Radiator Support
UMI Shock Tower
Canton Valve Covers
MBA Radiator Cap
MBA Power Steering Cap
MBA Brake Reservoir Cover
MBA Brake Reservoir Cap
MBA Throttle Cover
MBA MAP Cover
Stainless Steel PCM Cover
MBA Fusebox Cover

[ndtguy]

Awesome build! Sucks about the first engine, but I bet the new engine kicks ass. Good job!

Good idea throwing a pair of pics of the g/f in there too.

[meissen]

Thanks! Only one of the two girls was my girlfriend at the time, I'll leave it up in the air as to which one it was. Now I'm happily married and don't keep in touch with either of the girls, but their pictures live on.

[insidethreat07]

Damn looking good.

[Ivan @ Southwest Speed]

Always enjoyed reading your threads.....well done sir.

Been a journey for sure.
Ivan

[demonspeed]

Excellent journey! Funny how what we think is cool in HS becomes completely tacky in hindsight.

Oh, and pics of wife with car.

[xXSilencerXx]

Nice build, good to see you didn't give up on the car when it got rough.