01-05-2019, 02:07 PM | #1 |
Drives: Chevy Vega Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: NorCal
Posts: 13
|
LFX newbie rebuild
Hello everyone, new guy here.
I don't own a Camaro, but recently purchased an LFX out of a 2013 Camaro. This forum keeps popping up in my search for parts and knowledge, and I thought I should join. So, without further ado, heres the skinny on my project. I've got a '72 Vega that is the recipient for this particular transplant. I picked up the engine off Facebook. It was already pulled and sitting on a pallet. Complete sans wiring harness, ecm, and throttle body. Supposedly had 80k on it, was running when pulled, but complained of ticking noise. Ok.... So I rolled the dice for $500. I got it mounted on the stand, and began a quick disassembly and inspection. The top end looked pretty good. There wasn't any buildup of sludge or odd wear on the cams. Compression seemed good too, when I turned it over. It looked like oil had been changed recently too. Cool. Then I drain the oil, and remove the pan. (What a pain in the ass). I notice one of the con rod caps looks a little toasty, and I find some stuff that almost seems like tin foil stuck inside the pan.... Oh boy. So, what do I find, but a ruined bearing (possibly journal as well). I proceed to get ready to pull the crank. And again, it seems engineers must truly hate mechanics. What a pain the whole front end was. Ggood thing I planned on replacing the timing chain anyways. So that's about were I am at right now. Depending on how bad the crank is, I may be in need of a new one. |
01-05-2019, 05:50 PM | #2 |
Drives: 2015 Chevrolet Camaro 2LT RS Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Posts: 271
|
You're pretty smart. Since you have everything opened up already why not just put forged pistons and rods also bigger cams?
__________________
K&N intake, Custom Tune, Billet Catch Can, K.C's Ported 72mm TB & IM, Jacfab IM Spacer, Primary/Secondary Cat & Muffler Delete, Magnaflow Xpipe, 2.5" Straightpiped, GM Strut Tower Brace, Mace Engineering Cams, Solo Performance J pipes, Magnaflow Resonators x 2
340rwhp Dyno |
01-05-2019, 06:56 PM | #3 |
Drives: 2015 camaro 2lt Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Northern West Virginia
Posts: 925
|
I agree
__________________
Cosmetic mods: SS hood with painted vent, SS bumper, acs 1le front lip black, big worm gfx tinted all lights, solar wing v2, Camaro seat belt pads and oracle color shift halos and fog light halos and rear colorshift bow tie, carbon creations carbon fiber stingray z spoiler
Wheels: lexani r-3 bg finish 19x8.5 Performance: cold air inductions intake, mrt v1, jacfab ported intake manifold, intake manifold spacer, overkill tuned on E85. |
01-05-2019, 10:18 PM | #4 |
Drives: Chevy Vega Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: NorCal
Posts: 13
|
The goal was to get it in the car and running, quickly, and with as little cost as possible. For now at least. I had been planning on modifying it later on.
|
01-06-2019, 10:50 AM | #5 |
Drives: 2016 C7 Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Key Largo
Posts: 52
|
I like the swap,,, never see any Vega's around anymore, well maybe the occasional Cosworth but that's about it. Should scoot pretty well. What does a Vega weigh?? You doing stick or auto?? How does the oil pan fit the crossmember??
Almost done putting a 2015 LFX and 6-speed into my Scion FRS. Not quite running but almost,, as a sidebar it's taken wayyyy longer than I expected. LOL www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117334 Keep us posted..... |
01-06-2019, 07:07 PM | #6 |
Drives: Chevy Vega Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: NorCal
Posts: 13
|
Thank you, I'm really looking forward to getting it done. The curb weight was 2,400lbs when new. With 300+hp, it better scoot.
The plan was to put a manual behind it, which I will have to find later. It looks like the oil pan will clear the crossmember without anything other than the (obviously) custom motor mounts. It will make it sit a little too high to close the hood. So the solution for now, would be a fiber glass cowl hood for clearance. Long term goal would be making a custom crossmember, and modifying the oil pan to shorten it, and adapt it for dry sump. And, as it's already shown me, it's going to take longer than I would like. Of course |
01-11-2019, 12:39 AM | #7 |
Drives: Chevy Vega Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: NorCal
Posts: 13
|
So the engine is completely disassembled. I will have to see if the boss will let me bring in parts to clean in the solvent tank as needed.
|
01-11-2019, 08:00 AM | #8 |
Drives: 2012 Camaro LS V6 Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Ohio
Posts: 124
|
Keep posting these. I'd love to follow your build.
|
01-12-2019, 04:40 AM | #9 |
Drives: LT W/2LT,blue metallic Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: central florida
Posts: 4,915
|
out of curiousity,what about the dreaded intake valve oil buildup?lots of people claim a catch can is needed for these engines to run long term.how many miles,and what do the valves look like?
|
01-13-2019, 08:36 PM | #10 |
Drives: Chevy Vega Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: NorCal
Posts: 13
|
I have not taken the heads apart yet, to see what the stem side of the valves look like. I will post pictures when I get around to that.
|
01-21-2019, 12:49 PM | #11 |
Drives: 2013 Camaro 2SS RDP Tuned L99 Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Ottawa, Canada eh?
Posts: 1,889
|
Cool build. My cousin had a friend when I was in late grade school or early high school that had I think a 73 green Vega station wagon with fake wood paneling on the sides with a 350 LT-1 motor shoved into it. The car looked like a POS but man did it ever go..... Your project makes me remember those days. Thx for that!
|
01-21-2019, 08:47 PM | #12 |
Drives: Chevy Vega Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: NorCal
Posts: 13
|
No problem! I'm looking forward to making this thing go! Here's what this POS lools like
redcoats1976, here is what the intake valves look like off the passenger side cylinder head. Like I said earlier, the story is the engine had 80,000 miles on it before being pulled. Unless you would run some sort of cleaner (even just squirting some gas down the ports) through the intake with any sort of frequency, I would recommend installing a catch can. |
01-21-2019, 09:41 PM | #13 |
2010 Camaro 1LT/RS
Drives: 2010 Camaro 1LT/RS, 2017 Silverado Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 39
|
Great confirmation Pic of the build up on the valves. Unfortunate about the bearing. Did you find out anything about the crank?
__________________
My 2010 1LT/RS New Jasper Engine, BBK Long Tube Headers, Ceramic Coated w/ High Flow Cats, K&N CAI, Halo Headlights, Generic Oil Catch Can
|
01-21-2019, 11:13 PM | #14 |
Drives: Chevy Vega Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: NorCal
Posts: 13
|
Crusin, Ive yet to take it to a machinist. I measured the journals earlier though. The good ones are right at 2.206". The bad one, not including the depth of the scratches, is at 2.193" so its looking bad. There may be some light at the end of the tunnel, depending on how much and if the machinist can grind it down.
Center to center rod length on these is 6.000 inches. That just happens to be a popular rod length for 350sbc. 2.125", is the closest big end inner diameter under 2.206". The next issue, is big end thickness, which I was measuring at 0.856" on our rods. The sbc rods tend to be thicker, somewhere around 0.9-1.0", but depending on the rod, may be something that could be skinny-ed up by a machinist. Again, that would all depend on whether the rod journals on the crank, could be ground down close to 2.00".... 200 thou is a LOT of material to grind off, and being a forged crank, I'm not sure how that would affect the structure of the metal. *Edit* or perhaps have smaller rod ends opened up, and/or both. A set of rods for a 350sbc, can be as low as $200. And theirs obviously a plethora of other options out there. I'm only thinking along this oath, as there are relatively few options readuly available for this engine, and I will likely be changing journal size by quite a bit anyways. Last edited by V6Vega; 01-21-2019 at 11:40 PM. |
|
|
|
|