5thDrift Camaro (Camaros?) - Camaro5 Chevy Camaro Forum / Camaro ZL1, SS and V6 Forums

5thDrift · 06-09-2020, 11:11 AM

Figured I might as well come over here and post this to help myself have a better running log of what's been done. We're just getting into the third season of racing this car, and it's been quite a learning experience along the way. I'm going to try and keep things in chronological order but no guarantees. (Please let me know if I need to change how the images are linked, I looked through the forum rules I couldn't find to see what the preferred method is. I can edit as needed)

She's built for Pro-Am Drift competition, the first two seasons we ran Lone Star Drift here in Texas, this year we're taking a bit of a break and running a couple of events here and there throughout the year while making some upgrades and changes. The original plan was to drive LS Fest West then go to Horsethief Mile to run JustDrift Round 2, but with everything that has happened this spring those events haven't happened. So we're just taking it easy and getting ready for next year.

Bought this car from Copart in the fall of 2017 after writing off my LS powered 240SX on track. The Camaro was a 2011 V6 RS Auto that had been in a front end wreck that nearly took the core support off.

Tore everything apart and got what I didn't need out of the way:

Picked up a 2014 hood and bumper, and a new pair of fenders for it:

Built a new tubular core support(Which later had a removable center section added in):

Meanwhile I got the interior stripped and started on the cage structure:

I'm going to try and keep it to 5 pics per post here.

5thDrift · 06-09-2020, 11:23 AM

Gutted the doors and continued on door bars and cage structure:

The door bars run out into the doors, they basically touch the inside of the outer door skin. Probably one of my favorite features of the car, super easy to get in and out and much higher than some of the other cars we race with.

I rolled and brushed in Rustoleum Hammer tone paint on the interior, both to get rid of the yellow and to prevent rust on the cage. Decided to two tone it to be similar to most of the modern chevy interiors. I like to use the hammer tone because it lays on thick and its easy to touch up.

Also got the COPO center stack and handbrake handle mounted up. The shifter hole was originally clearanced for my old T56 to go in, but later on I ended up trading the T56 for a TR6060, which ended up making my life much easier.

Once the cage was done it was back to external structure and body. This was the first bash bar and core support setup

Next: Suspension and finish work

5thDrift · 06-09-2020, 11:29 AM

This was the very first generation of the front suspension. This worked for a few events until I snapped an arm dropping off track at TMS at full lock. Baer Tracker outer tie rods, a custom lower control arm bolted into a tapered sleeve where the original forward lower balljoint was, a slightly relocated rack, and a set of BC coilovers. This lower arm was something I mig'd up quickly to see if the theory would work.

Angle wasn't bad but not great either. This design had a pretty serious bind issue because of the angle the hole through the knuckle is at.

From here on out the tire size is going to look a little unusual because we run low profile 18s.

The engine is the same setup I had in my 240SX. It started this life as a free 4.8, that I got home and found a broken piston, wristpin, bent rod, and one trashed bore. We went .127 over on the bores, added wiseco pistons and a set of TSP 862 heads cut down to 58cc chambers, Holley Hi ram intake, Comp cam, CTSVR Lifters, TSP valvetrain, and a few other tricks. It still uses the 4.8L short stroke crank, putting it right at 5.1L with a 10.3:1 CR. In the 240 we put 417 to the wheels on a mustang dyno through the T56, with the draggier 5th gen driveline we're at 386 to the wheels on a dynojet.

Exhaust is all TSP in this car, for the first two years we ran no axle back, just dumped right past the diff. I'll get to the new axle back a little later on.

5thDrift · 06-09-2020, 12:10 PM

This basically brings us up to how she rolled out of the shop under her own power for the first time. V6 diff, SS Brakes, mismatched colors, the wrong wheels. But made it to the alignment rack and the dyno and all was good to go.

While the car was at paint we got an SS diff I picked up prepped with 4.10 gears and a welded carrier. The welded carrier turned out to be a terrible idea, as the spiders slightly misaligned and the axles did not want to move in or out freely. It worked but I had to use the 2500 truck to remove them.

Got it back from paint and out to the first event of the season:

SSEssence · 06-09-2020, 12:13 PM

Very cool, love the stance and the front knuckle kit, that's awesome!

5thDrift · 06-09-2020, 12:18 PM

2nd event of the first season and we rod knocked the engine due to some un noticed damage from the 240 wreck. Got it off to the machine shop, they checked everything and replaced the number 4 rod(remember this for later).

Got it back together for Round 4 of the season at Texas Motor Speedway. This track is unbelievably fun to drive, there is no way to get through it clean that isn't 100% kill mode. If you try and go in slow the track eats you.

After Round 4 we took some time to tweak the front suspension while still using the original knuckle. Managed to get quite a bit more angle out of it.

Round 5 the car drove great:

5thDrift · 06-09-2020, 12:24 PM

Then Round 7. We were driving really well and getting the car settled back into TMS trim.

When we dropped a wheel off the track in practice and snapped a coilover and a LCA.

And the wheel took out the fender and the side skirt:

So I built a new set of LCAs out of 1.5x.250 DOM tubing, with a slightly revised design and had them Tig'd by a friend of mine.

5thDrift · 06-09-2020, 12:29 PM

So I think this brings us to October 2018. We did some testing at Clubloose Texas in preparation for NODRFT End of Year Bash. Car drove absolutely amazing all day.

ND EYB went pretty well until the clutch completely failed. Had a bit of a moment on track and a driveline reversal shifted the straps on the pressure plate.

Around this time I also added an OMP HTE-R Halo seat

And a Safecraft Fire supression system

5thDrift · 06-09-2020, 12:37 PM

Near the end of 2018 we ditched the Camaro PS pump and switched to an electric Mini Cooper pump. We had killed 5 or 6 Camaro pumps during the 2018 season, to the point where I was calling the parts store closest to the track and ordering them on friday so they would have them in stock when I needed it. The electric pump has been 100% since and I won't go back.

So now starting the 2019 season we had pretty much everything working. We ran every event in the Lone Star Drift season, and while I would have liked better results in competition I was very happy with having confidence in the car on the start line of every competition.

NewCamaroguy78 · 06-09-2020, 12:39 PM

Hi guy. Hope all is well during this time.
Ok, I have a 2014 as 6speed manual.
Shop said I have a bent lifter stuck in the bor and wants to replace my engine $10k. Any ideas to my gear heads out there?
I'm new to this and not sure if I'm even posting in the right place.

5thDrift · 06-09-2020, 12:44 PM

For the last 2 events we made a change to what I'll call V3 front suspension. We took inspiration from the first iteration of Conrad Grunewald's Formula D car, and milled the back of a knuckle off flat and bolted a steel plate in using the hub bolts.

We picked up a bit of angle with the new setup but mainly corrected the geometry that was causing bind at full lock.

After two events testing on a simplified version, I had a couple sets of the latest version of the knuckle plate laser cut.

This latest version integrated a steering stop and slightly tweaked the geometry from the previous version. We also built a new LCA to go with the new knuckle.

5thDrift · 06-09-2020, 12:49 PM

At the end of the 2019 season we did the normal health checks on the engine and found compression down 20 psi in cylinder 4. Remember that rod that got replaced in 2018? Apparently that machine shop put in a 5.3/5.7 rod instead of the 4.8 rod, so it was .177 shorter than the other 7. We ran a year and a half on 7.5 cylinders. We also found that the new clutch that had been replaced before the season was beginning to fail. So we sent the engine to a different machine shop and ordered a Mcleod Mag Force to prep for 2020.

This was when we changed the core support out to a removable center section

Cut a bunch of excess steel out of the back of the car

And firewalled off the back of the car (This is not finished, there are cover plates around the cage to seal off the slots and it's all flat black now)

5thDrift · 06-09-2020, 12:52 PM

We got our new Superior steering wheel (Right) to replace the old Superior (Left) that is now on the sim rig for practice.

And added the SFI Shift boot(and a driveshaft loop) to be in line with the new FD Pro Am Regulations

Which pretty much brings us up to now. This is the car ready and prepped for a friday test session at MSR houston with 1 event worth of rear tires mounted up.

5thDrift · 06-09-2020, 12:53 PM

Saving this post to edit with videos from events and testing.

Testing at MSR Houston
https://www.facebook.com/5thDrift/vi...7062389915364/

Most recent dyno
https://www.facebook.com/5thDrift/vi...0793472530189/

Slo Mo From TMS
https://www.facebook.com/5thDrift/vi...4023505912686/

Chase car footage from TMS
https://www.facebook.com/5thDrift/vi...5074222348651/

Very tight track at Mineral Wells, footage from a drone
https://www.facebook.com/5thDrift/vi...9029336321132/

Drone footage from Club Loose Texas
https://www.facebook.com/5thDrift/vi...4807032736529/

Lone Star Drift at Gulf Greyhound Park
https://www.facebook.com/5thDrift/vi...0854676716681/

06-09-2020, 11:11 AM	#1
5thDrift Drives: 2011 Chevy Camaro Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Houston Posts: 13	5thDrift Camaro (Camaros?) Figured I might as well come over here and post this to help myself have a better running log of what's been done. We're just getting into the third season of racing this car, and it's been quite a learning experience along the way. I'm going to try and keep things in chronological order but no guarantees. (Please let me know if I need to change how the images are linked, I looked through the forum rules I couldn't find to see what the preferred method is. I can edit as needed) She's built for Pro-Am Drift competition, the first two seasons we ran Lone Star Drift here in Texas, this year we're taking a bit of a break and running a couple of events here and there throughout the year while making some upgrades and changes. The original plan was to drive LS Fest West then go to Horsethief Mile to run JustDrift Round 2, but with everything that has happened this spring those events haven't happened. So we're just taking it easy and getting ready for next year. Bought this car from Copart in the fall of 2017 after writing off my LS powered 240SX on track. The Camaro was a 2011 V6 RS Auto that had been in a front end wreck that nearly took the core support off. Tore everything apart and got what I didn't need out of the way: Picked up a 2014 hood and bumper, and a new pair of fenders for it: Built a new tubular core support(Which later had a removable center section added in): Meanwhile I got the interior stripped and started on the cage structure: I'm going to try and keep it to 5 pics per post here.

06-09-2020, 11:29 AM	#3
5thDrift Drives: 2011 Chevy Camaro Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Houston Posts: 13	This was the very first generation of the front suspension. This worked for a few events until I snapped an arm dropping off track at TMS at full lock. Baer Tracker outer tie rods, a custom lower control arm bolted into a tapered sleeve where the original forward lower balljoint was, a slightly relocated rack, and a set of BC coilovers. This lower arm was something I mig'd up quickly to see if the theory would work. Angle wasn't bad but not great either. This design had a pretty serious bind issue because of the angle the hole through the knuckle is at. From here on out the tire size is going to look a little unusual because we run low profile 18s. The engine is the same setup I had in my 240SX. It started this life as a free 4.8, that I got home and found a broken piston, wristpin, bent rod, and one trashed bore. We went .127 over on the bores, added wiseco pistons and a set of TSP 862 heads cut down to 58cc chambers, Holley Hi ram intake, Comp cam, CTSVR Lifters, TSP valvetrain, and a few other tricks. It still uses the 4.8L short stroke crank, putting it right at 5.1L with a 10.3:1 CR. In the 240 we put 417 to the wheels on a mustang dyno through the T56, with the draggier 5th gen driveline we're at 386 to the wheels on a dynojet. Exhaust is all TSP in this car, for the first two years we ran no axle back, just dumped right past the diff. I'll get to the new axle back a little later on. Last edited by 5thDrift; 06-09-2020 at 12:03 PM.

06-09-2020, 12:13 PM	#5
SSEssence Instagram: Sangstah Drives: 2019 Camaro 1LE Join Date: Sep 2016 Location: Buena Park, CA. Posts: 2,802 View My Garage	Very cool, love the stance and the front knuckle kit, that's awesome! __________________ 2019 SS 1LE - "CaSSandra" 2014 SS - "AleSSandra - Sold" 94 Z28 - Sold Follow the build https://www.camaro6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=612717

06-09-2020, 12:39 PM	#10
NewCamaroguy78 Drives: Chevy camaro G5 Join Date: Aug 2019 Location: Florida Posts: 1	Really need Best Advice and alot of help Hi guy. Hope all is well during this time. Ok, I have a 2014 as 6speed manual. Shop said I have a bent lifter stuck in the bor and wants to replace my engine $10k. Any ideas to my gear heads out there? I'm new to this and not sure if I'm even posting in the right place.

06-09-2020, 12:53 PM	#14
5thDrift Drives: 2011 Chevy Camaro Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Houston Posts: 13	Saving this post to edit with videos from events and testing. Testing at MSR Houston https://www.facebook.com/5thDrift/vi...7062389915364/ Most recent dyno https://www.facebook.com/5thDrift/vi...0793472530189/ Slo Mo From TMS https://www.facebook.com/5thDrift/vi...4023505912686/ Chase car footage from TMS https://www.facebook.com/5thDrift/vi...5074222348651/ Very tight track at Mineral Wells, footage from a drone https://www.facebook.com/5thDrift/vi...9029336321132/ Drone footage from Club Loose Texas https://www.facebook.com/5thDrift/vi...4807032736529/ Lone Star Drift at Gulf Greyhound Park https://www.facebook.com/5thDrift/vi...0854676716681/ Last edited by 5thDrift; 06-09-2020 at 03:40 PM.

06-09-2020, 11:23 AM	#2
5thDrift Drives: 2011 Chevy Camaro Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Houston Posts: 13	Gutted the doors and continued on door bars and cage structure: The door bars run out into the doors, they basically touch the inside of the outer door skin. Probably one of my favorite features of the car, super easy to get in and out and much higher than some of the other cars we race with. I rolled and brushed in Rustoleum Hammer tone paint on the interior, both to get rid of the yellow and to prevent rust on the cage. Decided to two tone it to be similar to most of the modern chevy interiors. I like to use the hammer tone because it lays on thick and its easy to touch up. Also got the COPO center stack and handbrake handle mounted up. The shifter hole was originally clearanced for my old T56 to go in, but later on I ended up trading the T56 for a TR6060, which ended up making my life much easier. Once the cage was done it was back to external structure and body. This was the first bash bar and core support setup Next: Suspension and finish work

06-09-2020, 12:10 PM	#4
5thDrift Drives: 2011 Chevy Camaro Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Houston Posts: 13	This basically brings us up to how she rolled out of the shop under her own power for the first time. V6 diff, SS Brakes, mismatched colors, the wrong wheels. But made it to the alignment rack and the dyno and all was good to go. While the car was at paint we got an SS diff I picked up prepped with 4.10 gears and a welded carrier. The welded carrier turned out to be a terrible idea, as the spiders slightly misaligned and the axles did not want to move in or out freely. It worked but I had to use the 2500 truck to remove them. Got it back from paint and out to the first event of the season:

06-09-2020, 12:18 PM	#6
5thDrift Drives: 2011 Chevy Camaro Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Houston Posts: 13	2nd event of the first season and we rod knocked the engine due to some un noticed damage from the 240 wreck. Got it off to the machine shop, they checked everything and replaced the number 4 rod(remember this for later). Got it back together for Round 4 of the season at Texas Motor Speedway. This track is unbelievably fun to drive, there is no way to get through it clean that isn't 100% kill mode. If you try and go in slow the track eats you. After Round 4 we took some time to tweak the front suspension while still using the original knuckle. Managed to get quite a bit more angle out of it. Round 5 the car drove great:

06-09-2020, 12:24 PM	#7
5thDrift Drives: 2011 Chevy Camaro Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Houston Posts: 13	Then Round 7. We were driving really well and getting the car settled back into TMS trim. When we dropped a wheel off the track in practice and snapped a coilover and a LCA. And the wheel took out the fender and the side skirt: So I built a new set of LCAs out of 1.5x.250 DOM tubing, with a slightly revised design and had them Tig'd by a friend of mine.

06-09-2020, 12:29 PM	#8
5thDrift Drives: 2011 Chevy Camaro Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Houston Posts: 13	So I think this brings us to October 2018. We did some testing at Clubloose Texas in preparation for NODRFT End of Year Bash. Car drove absolutely amazing all day. ND EYB went pretty well until the clutch completely failed. Had a bit of a moment on track and a driveline reversal shifted the straps on the pressure plate. Around this time I also added an OMP HTE-R Halo seat And a Safecraft Fire supression system

06-09-2020, 12:37 PM	#9
5thDrift Drives: 2011 Chevy Camaro Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Houston Posts: 13	Near the end of 2018 we ditched the Camaro PS pump and switched to an electric Mini Cooper pump. We had killed 5 or 6 Camaro pumps during the 2018 season, to the point where I was calling the parts store closest to the track and ordering them on friday so they would have them in stock when I needed it. The electric pump has been 100% since and I won't go back. So now starting the 2019 season we had pretty much everything working. We ran every event in the Lone Star Drift season, and while I would have liked better results in competition I was very happy with having confidence in the car on the start line of every competition.

06-09-2020, 12:44 PM	#11
5thDrift Drives: 2011 Chevy Camaro Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Houston Posts: 13	For the last 2 events we made a change to what I'll call V3 front suspension. We took inspiration from the first iteration of Conrad Grunewald's Formula D car, and milled the back of a knuckle off flat and bolted a steel plate in using the hub bolts. We picked up a bit of angle with the new setup but mainly corrected the geometry that was causing bind at full lock. After two events testing on a simplified version, I had a couple sets of the latest version of the knuckle plate laser cut. This latest version integrated a steering stop and slightly tweaked the geometry from the previous version. We also built a new LCA to go with the new knuckle.

06-09-2020, 12:49 PM	#12
5thDrift Drives: 2011 Chevy Camaro Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Houston Posts: 13	At the end of the 2019 season we did the normal health checks on the engine and found compression down 20 psi in cylinder 4. Remember that rod that got replaced in 2018? Apparently that machine shop put in a 5.3/5.7 rod instead of the 4.8 rod, so it was .177 shorter than the other 7. We ran a year and a half on 7.5 cylinders. We also found that the new clutch that had been replaced before the season was beginning to fail. So we sent the engine to a different machine shop and ordered a Mcleod Mag Force to prep for 2020. This was when we changed the core support out to a removable center section Cut a bunch of excess steel out of the back of the car And firewalled off the back of the car (This is not finished, there are cover plates around the cage to seal off the slots and it's all flat black now)

06-09-2020, 12:52 PM	#13
5thDrift Drives: 2011 Chevy Camaro Join Date: Jun 2020 Location: Houston Posts: 13	We got our new Superior steering wheel (Right) to replace the old Superior (Left) that is now on the sim rig for practice. And added the SFI Shift boot(and a driveshaft loop) to be in line with the new FD Pro Am Regulations Which pretty much brings us up to now. This is the car ready and prepped for a friday test session at MSR houston with 1 event worth of rear tires mounted up.