3800 Camaro Build

So the day had finally come that the 3.8L Camaro needed to be retired. I’m not entirely out of the game, I’ve picked up a 2002 LS1 Camaro that I am currently building to take the fastest Canadian N/A all motor record for bolt on LS1 F-bodies. I’m applying all that I have learned from working on the v6 over the years. I have to say, I dearly miss this car, and I will definitely one day get back into the 3800 game- that is a promise. This 1996 3.8L Camaro goes down in the history books as the fastest all motor N/A v6 F-body in Canada. She had just shy of 300,000km on her (187,000 miles). The car had run a 13.7 N/A  in the 1/4 mile cam only with a much smaller cam than what was installed during the motor rebuild when she ran a best of 13.4@100.77 mph (videos here)

The end goal was a 12 second N/A car. I’m still confident she could of run it considering the run of 13.4 was done when completely lean in 3rd gear (13.9 AFR) as I had maxed the injectors out and the DA for the night had dropped down far enough that the computer couldn’t compensate (and of course my laptop was dead). On top of that, my drag radials had cracks in the sidewall, which forced me to use a buddies radials on corvette rims (almost twice the weight). I never got the opportunity to take advantage of the electric waterpump by pulling the drive belt either. So I am very, very confident 12.99 was not a long stretch by any means. This is how the Camaro sat when she set the 13.4 record. Bolt ons:

• Short ram intake
• Headers
• High flow cat, exhaust dumped at the rear axle
• Meizere electric water pump

Hardcore Engine Mods: The motor blew at roughly 280,000km ( 175,000 miles). It was replaced with a 2005 Buick Lucerne 3.8L series II motor (exact same block that was in the Camaro to begin with) Pictures Here

• Heads fully port and polished
• 1.9 Manley intake valves/1.57 manley exhaust valves
• 130# valvesprings with Manley retainers
• Heads were decked 0.015
• .045 MLS gaskets (compression on the car is roughly 9:9:1)
• custom ground cam (230/240 .512/.512 113LSA)
• 7.00″ pushrods
• Rollmaster double roller timing chain, with a Cloyes chain
• Stock lifters

Suspension:

• PA racing lightweight K frame (mild steel)
• PA racing lower A arms
• QA1 coil overs with 300# springs up front
• QA1 shocks out back with stock Moog replacement springs
• Sphon tunnel mount adjustable torque arm
• Poly motor mounts
• double adjustable aluminum Panhard rod
• J&M Lower Control Arms

Drivetrain: (pictures here)

• Aluminum Driveshaft
• Custom built Ford 8.8 rear end
• 4.10 ford racing gears
• 31 spline Track Lok posi
• 31 spline custom Moser axles

Transmission:

• Stock Camaro 4l60e transmission with trans-go HD2 shift kit
• corvette servo
• 3200 TCI Stall
• B&M transmission Cooler

Brakes:

• Stock Camaro brakes
• upgraded to rear disc brakes
• proportioning valve
• line lock

Weight Reduction: (pictures here) Additional aside from the lighter weight suspension/mod parts already installed on the Camaro above, the following was removed:

• AC
• ABS
• EGR
• Spare tire and jack
• Insulation under carpet
• Insulation behind doors
• Motor lift mounts
• Front swaybar/mounts
• Insulation on hood
• Part of rubber insulation on lower part of firewall
• Most heatshields
• Miscellaneous  screws

Electronics:

• Hp tuners (tuned by me)
• Tiny tuner (minor tweaks I couldn’t touch on hp tuners)
• AEM wideband
• Aeroforce gauge (mainly for monitoring KR)

Interior:

• Swapped leather seats

Future Mods (that I wanted to do):

• Holden lower intake manifold
• Custom built upper intake manifold for the Holden
• Further weight reduction via Lexan rear glass, lightweight carpet, carbon fibre hood (painted black to match the car), swiss cheese parts
• upgrade to 42lb injectors (the 36lb injectors are currently maxed out at 90% duty)
• Subframe connectors
• lightweight seats (thinking about Kirkey’s, but I dunno about them in a daily driver)
• Meth, my Camaro hates heat

On a side note,

If you ever buy a Camaro from a private owner you may need to choose a car transport company to ship the car to your home. Most car shipping companies will give you a free quote and answer any questions you have regarding transporting your car safely.