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Old 12-15-2013, 05:16 PM   #15
h018871
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catch can

Our storage delivery arrived at the new house, so now I had tools again.
I had planned to do a lot of mods myself over the next couple of weeks
Well. As life sometimes is……………things did not go according to plan.

I had contacted a few shops and talked about what I wanted along with how realistic my goals were. It turns out I’m not as unique as I’d like to think. My focus was on drivability and torque as measured by the butt dyno, not big numbers on a piece of paper. I settled on a shop and a plan. They would do quite a bit of what I had planned to do myself while putting in a cam and performing a tune (it’s there & i had time constraints).
I put the catch can on the evening before taking the car to the shop
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Old 12-15-2013, 05:19 PM   #16
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To the Shop: Cam, trunion bearing kit, pushrods, springs (retainers…..etc), ported throttle body & high flow oil pump. While there they also installed some parts I had: headers, hi flow cats, magnetic engine drain plug and the scoop/washer bottle. Then they did a longevity tune
Here are some of the goodies in the trunk the night before, ready to be installed
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Old 12-15-2013, 08:46 PM   #17
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Very nice ... looking forward to your updates!
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Old 12-16-2013, 03:53 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 45TH RS View Post
Very nice ... looking forward to your updates!
thx, i like the 45th
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Old 12-16-2013, 03:55 AM   #19
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Picked it up a few VERY LONG days later.
When they fired it up and backed it out of the shop, I was amazed how bad *ssed and how loud it was. All I could think of was “oh man, I went too far”. Took it home and drove it around a bit, *amn! I had to relearn how to drive the car……….again. Nice power, but loud and it had a drone at 1500RPM. The car has NPP exhaust, so the flaps are supposed to be open at idle and closed by 1500. Soon after I got it home I discovered that the vacuum line was disconnected, so the flaps were open all the time. Connected the vacuum line and the NPP worked as designed. This knocked the drone down a bit.
The next day I got a check engine light, called the shop and they said “bring it in and we’ll take a look”. It turned out to be a loose header flange. While they tightened the bolts, I got a chance to talk to the tuner, he then made some adjustments that made it MUCH more well-mannered and changed the second fuel table to run on lower grade fuel (not in the plan, but I travel and 93 is not always available). We talked about the possibility to tune the NPP to be closed at idle (it was AWESOME, I mean loud backing out of the garage at 0530). I am the newbie in the neighborhood and I do not want to start things off being the obnoxious neighbor. Besides, there is a constable two houses down from me and I don’t want to attract undue attention.
Back to the tuner, he said “nope, not possible for them to tune the NPP”. A good shop, by the way. I’m quite happy with their interest in me and the car after the sale. AND I got two T shirts………..worth the money for that alone, haha

once i figure out how to post a video, i'll put up how it sounds
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Old 12-16-2013, 04:06 AM   #20
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Eighth mod: I got with my son Jason over lunch one day and we came up with a plan to add a relay to make the NPP either quiet all the time or run with the factory settings. One day’s labor and I could remove the safety wire holding the flaps closed. i do need to put in a nicer looking switch............

Details of the mod here: http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=318683
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Old 12-16-2013, 06:12 AM   #21
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Ninth thru fifteenth mods: I wanted to change the fluid in the trans and differential, so I added a magnetic plug to the trans, the diff already had two. Then added the separate clutch reservoir and upgraded to clear DOT4 for the clutch. While there I also swapped out the brake fluid for DOT4.

Here it is after a little over a month. I am glad that is no longer going into the brake system
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Old 12-16-2013, 06:14 AM   #22
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Next I pulled off the front fascia and installed a front tow hook (why is it called a hook? it is an eye). It was not as easy as I had imagined, but after some fiddling, no bad words mind you, I got it back together with all the lights working. It is not real obvious, because I painted it black
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Old 12-16-2013, 06:18 AM   #23
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Sixteenth thru eighteenth mods: I have never really cared for the rear bow tie nor the chrome bezels around the rear tail lights. I got some fishing line, a heat gun and some 3M adhesive remover………… 5 min later and the bow tie was off. Then I sanded the bezels with 220 grit sand paper to give the paint something to hang on to. They looked a lot like stainless pieces after sanding, I kinda wish I would have not painted them right away to see how they looked for a while. Too late now, they are flat black.
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Old 12-16-2013, 06:21 AM   #24
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rear tow hook

While the paint was drying, the rear fascia was removed and I started looking at how the rear tow point was to be installed. I have to be truthful here, I was not looking forward to cutting the fascia for the hook to go through. That is an expensive piece and I’m not a fine cabinet maker. To say I was apprehensive would be putting it mildly. The cut was going to be close to one of the backup sensors, this made me even more nervous……… as things can occasionally turn out, when I stare at something for a while sometimes, not always, a different solution presents itself. I was fortunate this day.
The low risk solution was to put the hook/eye on the passenger side on the bottom of the bumper. Two advantages, 1) the hook was not near the backup sensor and 2) I did not have to cut the fascia! The cut point was moved to the diffuser, right in the crease………………which made the cutting even easier.

DIY here: http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=329205
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Old 12-16-2013, 06:28 AM   #25
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the stable

Not a car mod, but it sure makes my life easier: Jason and Steph came over one Sunday and we wired the garage for lights (8 of them), outlets and added 240 power for the air compressor. Turned out to be a full day (glad I had hung the lights the previous day).


Right after we moved in I was talking about the garage with my brother-in-law, Rich, he had installed a nice rack system in his garage and I really liked it. I went to the store, they helped me to design it, took the bits home and now that it is installed, it has really helped keep stuff off of the floor and makes it easy to be organized.

We plugged in the air compressor and as it was building up pressure………………BANG and a loud rushing of air. It blew a hole in the bottom of the tank. I got the compressor used many years ago and it had been in storage for 10 years. Prior to storage, I drained the tank and dumped some oil in the tank on the hope that it would not corrode. I was wrong on that.
I solicited and got lots of good advice from folks online regarding decent compressors. I went with a 60gal, single stage model (that’s it in the corner).
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Old 12-16-2013, 06:33 AM   #26
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While waiting for the compressor to be delivered, I took care of some maintenance and
Nineteenth mod: removed the engine cover and the rear bracket. It is starting to look like an engine now
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Old 12-16-2013, 06:36 AM   #27
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Next mod: shift light. This was much more fiddly than I thought it would be. A handy mod though, I just need to train myself to use it effectively
this was helpful, thx to ThunderSS
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1378858
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Old 12-16-2013, 06:38 AM   #28
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I have been very glad I added the catch can since it seems to collect a lot of oil. Through some research on the internet (therefore it is TRUE) I’ve learned that mine seems to collect a lot more oil than others do. Things predominately pointed to either a blow by problem or a bad valley cover. I’m not thinking excessive blow by because the pipes are not oily, it does not smoke and I have not fouled any plugs or blown out any seals. As a test, I rerouted the PCV line to pull from the rear of the driver’s side valve cover to eliminate the valley cover. The catch can is now collecting a LOT less oil. I ordered a new valley cover kit today and will post a DIY when done.
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