LTfun's "not a build thread"
 

Hey all, just picked up my 2022 LT1 about a month ago. I did not create the order for Chevy, I walked into a dealership asked if they had any V8 cars and they said no (maybe I look like I have no business buying a new car). Right as I was about to walk out, another guy piped up that there was 1 Camaro that would be arriving in a few weeks. Yada yada yada, two months later this thing showed up. Ironically this is exactly what I would have ordered, given the choice, only I would've added the Bose system. Anyway here she is, a black on black LT1 redline edition w/ the RS package and 6 speed manual.


Anyway I'm making this thread, not so much as a build thread (best laid plans right?), but a way to document all the maintenance and maybe a few mods along the way. I've never owned a brand new car, almost all of my cars have been extremely modified but I figured with this one being so perfect out of the box, and the fact that I have a warranty, I'll try to put off modifications for as long as I can. With that said there were a few small tweaks I had to. And I may have a few more lined up. But all in all, I'm hoping to keep this thing in a state such that if something major goes wrong, I can tell Chevy to fix it on their dime. I try to do all the work on my cars myself and would like to keep it that way if possible. Not sure how that works as far as warranty so feel free to chime in. All the more reason I'd like to document the maintenance, and keep the dealership "mechanics" away from car. Cheers.

So as much as I like most aspects of the redline edition, the red on the front bumper was too much for me. Part of the reason I like the LT1 is because it's a bit more minimalist, a little more subtle. Like my grandma would always say "when in doubt, black it out". Ok I don't think she ever said that but you get the idea. I did my first oil change @ 567 miles and you know I just had to remove the front bumper while it was up on ramps :smiling1:

So we've got the OEM gloss black inserts for the lower grill P/N 84033928,
HERO Smoked Rear Reflectors, HERO LED Tinted Side markers, and Gloss Black RS Emblem Inserts (I will post some better pictures after a wash).

Went with 5W-40 Motul 8100 X-clean and an ACDelco PF64 oil filter:

:welcome: to the forums, LTfun :thumbsup:

My Camaro is also the first and probably last new car I've ever had :) (technically, my first V6 6th gen was it, but I corrected that mistake fairly quickly, so it doesn't count :smiling1:)

This is one sweet looking ride if I may say so, and your grandma nailed it, the black inserts look much better, the wheels and calipers show enough red already.

Great job on the front splitter and the LED side markers as well, adds to the menacing factor that black Camaros exhibit so well.

Not sure why you switched to a 5W-40 Motul oil, I'm sure it's fine, just being curious... hm?

Thank you sir! Yeah Grandma knows best lol. As far as the Motul I suppose its kind of a long story but on previous cars I was using Rotella t-6. Eventually, I think with all the shortages it became impossible for me to get it, and this Motul was getting great reviews. for my application at the time. I had a little left over in the basement and I know amazon can get it to me the next day so when I saw that it was Dexos 2 and seems to meet all the other specifications, I thought why not. Mobil 1 has seemed to step their game back up, for a while they were on my bad list, but I will probably go with the 0w-40 in the winter or something. From my research Castrol, Motul, Valvoline and Mobil are the only ones that make compliant stuff for us? Some people use Amsoil too? Anyway I was having a tough time finding anything locally that was not 5w-30 dexos so I think Motul is a good choice?

Oh my blackstone analysis kit just showed up the other day, so next oil change I will send it out.

Thanks for the background story :) I'm sure it works okay and it's also dexos2 compliant, I simply wondered why you went with a thicker oil in your colder climate in MA.

As long as the oil has the certification, it shouldn't cause warranty issues (I'm not entirely sure because I never deviated from the recommended weight while my car was under warranty, which wasn't long, but whatever :smiling1:).

The redline package looks really good on the black car!

Nice car and welcome! What part of Mass are you in?

Ohh got ya. Yeah I figured since they used to recommend 5w-30 and now 5w-40, if I'm not mistaken, that it's within nominal.

Thank you!

Thanks man, I'm in Somerville! I had to google Petersham, I'm not a mass native but I know the Devens/Leominster area, I used to work there. Anyway, always down for cruise or a meetup. Maybe there's more stuff out your way. I was surprised to find how few car meet ups there are in the Boston area.

Just a few more small changes. After doing a quick wash I decided to rebadge most of the car. I like shiny paint over plastic emblems. For anyone looking to do this, it's pretty easy. It helps to have a little detailing experience, your gonna want to buff the area after. I started with fishing line and used it like floss to get behind the emblems and gently saw along the panel, with a slight bias towards me (away from the paint). Once that's off the will be a good amount of double sided tape style residue.

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This is where go gone really shine. Apply to a microfiber or rag and really saturate the adhesive. You can really let the go gone work and and keep re applying as you remove the stuff to reveal dry adhesive underneath. People say not to scratch which is always great advise but if you're a good detailer, you can use your finger nail to speed up this process. You will get small scratches in the clear coat but as long as you're gentle a mild rubbing compound will make it good as new. See pictures.

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I got rid of this emblem too but I wanted to see how it would look on its own.

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Looking good, same car same color here. RS package as well.

Awesome Camaro OP!

While I have modded several of my previous Camaros I am leaving my LT1 mostly stock for now. But I would think about a Rotofab dry. It does not need a tune, Will not affect your warranty and gives you 5 RW HP. And the sound that it adds to NPP is the best sound in Camaro land.

Thank you, good choice! I was snooping around for pictures of your car - I was curious what makes the redline package have what I will call the "SEMA grill"? I can't find a car that has the redline shaped lower grill but in black like mine, even though it seems to be a production part. Very confusing, but they all look good!

Mmmm an engine mod that does not affect warranty, very tempting. I'm always a fan of induction noise, even more so than exhaust tbh. With that said, I love the NPP exhaust. I will have to do some research. How do they work with GM to prevent them from denying warranty claims?

On today's episode: Radar detector and Dash Cam install.

I have a Uniden R3 that I want mounted w/o suction cups and hardwired. I used the gen5DIY harness. It is a plug and play piggy back off the connector that goes into HVAC module (under the passenger side kick panel) to get +12V w/ignition. It also has a capacitor which apparently is needed to smooth voltage drops, I guess an early version w/o the cap had issues where occasionally the radar detector would inadvertently shut off.

Anyway it tucks in seamlessly under the headliner. Routed up the C pillar, it hides nicely behind the fabric. Just like the instructions state, pop off the dome light and anchor the wires to something there before drawing them out and going directly to the detector. FWIW That dome light was a PITA to pop off, maybe I was being too gentle but I didn't want to break anything, I had to use a few plastic trim tools to get it off:

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BTW, I did get some DMM readings from the dome light LED while I was in there (but of course I didn't write anything down). IIRC it's a 5V circuit. Not sure when/where the voltage step down occurs but this would actually be great for the detector because it's also 5V. But I couldn't make it work, I forget what's going on there IIRC the ignition signal switches on a ground or something. So anyway not piggy backing onto that, I just used the harness I bought and it works great. With the electrical finished, it just became a preference of how to mount it.

I had one of these left over from my last car:

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It is supposed to work like this but our Camaros have a somewhat unusual mirror mount so I had to get creative:

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I bought a second one to be sacrificed. I cut and welded it up to make third joint.

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I started rushing so no pictures of it re painted black, or the final assembly before I put it on the car but here's the final product. Note the way it wraps around the mirror, kind of crazy but it works.

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For the Dash Cam I want it always on and recording since I will pair it with a a low voltage protection unit to prevent a dead battery. Looks like this:

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So where to get constant power? Usually that's the easy part but not on these cars it seems. If you search you'll see a lot of people struggling to find it inside the car. One solution is to go to the battery in the trunk or if you have a rear sub apparently you can piggy back off that. I wasn't easy finding a solution but now that I know how to do it, it's actually pretty easy. I know that doesn't make sense but hear me out. I was determined to use the fuse box in the engine compartment because I'm also going to use that for another project (more on that later) and because I knew if I could get through the firewall, I'd be home free (I just followed the same path that I took for the radar harness). BUT after trying a variety of ways to snake a wire through the grommet used for that beefy battery cable, I was about to give up. BUT if you have a REALLY long screw driver, you can use some electrical tape to smoothly wrap the wire to it and push through the fire wall. From there it's a piece of cake! Don't forget to add some circuit protection if you are going right off the battery, mine came with a small fuse and I just used that.

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Anyway that's it, you really can't even tell it's there and no cutting or splicing involved.