Rhino79's 2010 Camaro 1SS Build Thread

[Rhino79]

Well,
Its been a build in progress, and of course like most when I bought the car, it was perfect.........

For a little while.

I signed up on Camaro5 and immediatly noticed the fuse pull mod. It sparked my interest and once I performed that, the quest for more began.

My goals have been basic. I wanted to build a street friendly car I could drive anywhere, but be a terror for most on the street and lay down good times. I wanted to go mod by mod, and track progress along the way, but I couldn't really resist going against that later in the build. So once it was past just bolt ons, mods came quicker and with less track passes in between.

Here is the rundown on how my car has transformed along the way!

I had owned EFILive for several years, so the obvious first step was to tune the car.

1. I started with the transmission calibration first, because that was where the car to me felt like it could use the most refinement.

2. About 3 months later, I finally gave in and tuned the ecm. I was surprised at how much I could tell a difference even with the transmission being tuned. I also started playing with the vvt setup some, and experimented with different rev limit and shift point combos.

3. First track visit! With only a tune, I wanted to get a benchmark of where I stood. I am a very competitive person and have invested a lot of timing dialing in the tune for this track run. Unfortunately the weather was very humid and I was actually THE ONLY person that showed for test and tune since the forcast was high for rain. I made 7 passes within 25 minutes....lol. On the last pass the rain was there and the track was shut down. The best pass of the night for me was 12.88 at 108 with a 2.0 60'. I knew there was more in it, I just had to figure how to launch the car.

4. Longtubes/cat delete. This was a great bolt on with immediate measureable power gains felt. Or course I had to retune for it, but it felt much much stronger in the mid range and up top.

5. CAI. The next track visit was approaching and I decided to built a cai setup for my car rather than buy one. I went with a tube style, 4" setup that is well insulated and fabbed my own heat shield and scoop to accompany the CAI.

6. 2nd Track visit! Still on the stock Pirellis, I went to Memphis again for some more test and tune. Weather was average, and ripped off a new best of 12.4 at 113. By this time I had figured the launch out pretty well. On that pass the 60' was low 1.9s on stock rubber.

7. Torque Converter. Since the car responded so well to the bolt on mods, I wanted to start working on the rest of the setup to maximize what power was already there. I installed a Yank SS32000 and borrowed some slicks on 17's (thanks Gretchengotgrowl). 388 rwhp

8. 3rd Track visit. Memphis here we go again! Weather was hot and humid. Bolted the tires up, and while the car was deadly consitent, it only picked up 2 tenths. The converter was too tight for my liking and it only 60'd mid 1.7's. Best pass of the night was 12.2 at 112. :(

9. Cam/springs. Enough of the bs, I wanna go fast. I really thought the bolt-ons and stall would land me in the high 11's, but it wasn't to be for me with that converter. So I installed a Mast SS VVT grind. 230/244 on a 111 lsa, along with beehive springs and a afm delete. 457 rwhp

10. Ported tb and ported intake. I decided to try and help the cam breathe up top by doing some porting work on the intake and throttle body. It paid off by helping power throughout the curve. 474 rwhp

11. V6 brakes, had to make room for track friendly wheels!

12. Track time again! Went to memphis to rip the car with the cam setup. I was very very impressed despite the weak 60'. 1.7 60', 11.39 at 121.42! Dyno numbers the day before the track run were 468 rwhp.

Basically thats where I sit now. Stock suspension, stock gears, stock driveshaft, stock heads, stock bottom end. Cam and bolt ons knocking on 10's

In the works is E85, Circle D 1E 4000 rpm converter, 3.70's, Underdrive Pulley, and a Victor JR. intake manifold w/elbow.

Get your popcorn out, come March or April the Redsled is gonna set the bar a little higher if I have my way.......



Here are some photos and vids along the way!







Bolt on times w/o converter on stock tires


11.392 pass at memphis, cam, bolt ons, slicks and skinnies, 3200 converter

[Pro Stock John]

Awww yeah. Will you be making runs at Memphis?

[Rhino79]

I will indeed!

[Pro Stock John]

Are you running V6 brakes front and rear?

[Rhino79]

Yes I am.

[Pro Stock John]

Troublemaker will be making it's way to you next week, it's milder cousin showed up today.

[Rhino79]

Did you ever see what the wot shift extension was?

[Pro Stock John]

No, no traction at all up here, 35F.

[96MrBass]

Your build is very inspiring even for us LS3 owners . Keep up the good work.

[Rhino79]

Thanks much!

[inferno camaro]

Hey rhino, what do you use to tune your car? I found a used hp pro suite but have never messed with any of this stuff. I would like to learn to do it but don't want to hurt something in the process. Is it fairly straight forward or easy to destroy something. I don't mind spending some time but really don't want to blow something up.
I'm just tired of adding mods and paying big bucks for another tune just to do it all over again.

[Rhino79]

I used EFILive on mine. I have been tuning for about 8 years on ls stuff though. I also use HP Tuners as well. There is a steep learning curve and you have to be careful with the tuning, as there are tables that may need messed with and some that never need to be touched at all. I encourage anyone to own a tuning suit like that though for logging and learning about tuning.

In the end its all still comes down to fuel spark and air, but as I mentioned, research research research!

[inferno camaro]

Thanks for the info, I'll probably get it so I can atleast log and change simple stuff at first and hopfully learn as I go.

[Rhino79]

Ill help ya if youd like, we can email back and forth logs and info.