Ed's Daily Fun 2SS

[The_bald_eagle_machine]

Also, excited to see that I am not the only Mighty Card Mods nerd in here... I have been following them since high school watching youtube videos on my business class computer. Back when they were putting coffee cans on cars and calling them mods to make fun of the car scene. Now they build proper turbo cars etc... The buildoffs are my favorite although they havent done any since 2sexy and 2wisted I believe.

[Eddymel1998]

Originally Posted by SlowLS1

Good work on the Camaro. I've got to do the bushings also and NOT looking forward to it.

If you have the tools for the transmission swap you can probably drop the cradle, it seems like a hassle but it will save a lot more time and effort in long run, it you heat the bushing mounts with torch to where the plastic bushing sleeve starts to melt you can push them out by hand, for install if you lube them well and whack with either a sledgehammer or in out case the dull end of an axe, you can probably get it in without too much of a hassle, it does make a huge difference to the drivability though.

Originally Posted by The_bald_eagle_machine

Also, excited to see that I am not the only Mighty Card Mods nerd in here... I have been following them since high school watching youtube videos on my business class computer. Back when they were putting coffee cans on cars and calling them mods to make fun of the car scene. Now they build proper turbo cars etc... The buildoffs are my favorite although they havent done any since 2sexy and 2wisted I believe.

I actually only stumbled on them few months back but have been going through bits and pieces of the backlog from past 6 years or so, I don't typically follow car YouTube channels because a lot of them are these big production builds in specialized shops with huge crews making some ridiculous car that will probably only drive on a Dyno to give some crazy number and maybe on track twice before it blows up, MCM is basically complete opposite which I'm huge fan of. I also enjoy watching them get excited when a car is modified enough to make power in the ballpark of what a stock ls3 makes.

[The_bald_eagle_machine]

Originally Posted by Eddymel1998

If you have the tools for the transmission swap you can probably drop the cradle, it seems like a hassle but it will save a lot more time and effort in long run, it you heat the bushing mounts with torch to where the plastic bushing sleeve starts to melt you can push them out by hand, for install if you lube them well and whack with either a sledgehammer or in out case the dull end of an axe, you can probably get it in without too much of a hassle, it does make a huge difference to the drivability though.




I actually only stumbled on them few months back but have been going through bits and pieces of the backlog from past 6 years or so, I don't typically follow car YouTube channels because a lot of them are these big production builds in specialized shops with huge crews making some ridiculous car that will probably only drive on a Dyno to give some crazy number and maybe on track twice before it blows up, MCM is basically complete opposite which I'm huge fan of. I also enjoy watching them get excited when a car is modified enough to make power in the ballpark of what a stock ls3 makes.

Another good channel to check out then would be Legitstreetcars he does alot of cool small build series where he really shows you how to modify your car yourself, and he has everything from Buick Grand nationals and Ford lightnings to Supercharged Corvettes and Procharged express van.

[1JEWLDSSRS]

Originally Posted by The_bald_eagle_machine

I may have copped out a bit on this but... My local performance shop quoted me $500 to install the cradle AND the rear diff bushings... I couldn't pull out my wallet any faster. I knew that job was going to be a nightmare without the proper tools and a lift. He told me it was a bitch and he had access to air chisels, torches, etc... which I did not. I was happy to pay them to suffer instead of myself.

Hey, you didn't cop out on that. I didn't have any means of doing mine either and had to pay my mechanic to install them for me, as he had the lift any every other tool needed. 2 hours later and 350 bucks,,, DONE, and an alignment!! Money well spent in my book!!

[Eddymel1998]

Oh yeah, I agree, if I had to do the poly bushing again, with same tools I might be giving local shops a call, with solid bushings I would be stupid enough to try again, but if you asked me before this job, even being told what I know now I still would do it myself, just for experience. I fortunately still have a good bit of youth and lots of good health, having spoken to a lot of people, I realize both are very finite so I will take some abuse to get hands on experience while that's still an option, but that is 100% subjective point of view, smart way is to pay people to do what you don't want to do and then do the things you do want to do (if you can afford it).

[Eddymel1998]

Learned about a fun quirk with my car, last week had a drive, about hour of it was laid back 2 lane cruising, just modulating gas, no need for brakes, it was pouring all day, apparently got around 2 inches of rain that day, which is not massive but still heaps, anyways towards the end of that highway stretch I hit my brakes and... Nothing, puckered the butthole straight through the seat as I smashed the pedal through the floor, got it stopped fine but had same issue on way back, around town once brakes dried off a bit was no issue. Need to be more mindful of brakes on the rainy longer drives I guess.


In other news, I'm taking a Friday off work few weeks from now and set up an alignment appointment Monday morning following that to try and get all my suspension stuff knocked out, going to be a tight time table but that's just way she goes.

[Eddymel1998]

Installed my banks gauge over the weekend, used these carbon fiber universal pods, I bought an A pillar mount but guy on eBay took my money, and over 2 months later has not shipped it and is ghosting me and my refund requests, so these should do, second one is for the wideband which is gonna happen whenever LTs are in the books.


For mounting I didn't want to use the included self tapping screws, I just don't like use them anywhere on the car, was going to just throw set of nuts on the end and call it a day, but remembered I have a thread tapping kit I bought for different project and never got to use, so I grabbed some aluminum bar, spent a bunch of time making sure holes were dead on, and made do, had to trim a bit of bit of plastic on inside but piece of bar slotted in like it belonged there.


Overall really happy, it sits low on pillar so I don't think sagging is going to be an issue, it's easy to read but doesn't block vision, was able to run cable through the gap to the dash so no big hole to fit that wide flat cable, it also sits just below the actual airbag and even if it didn't the cover is meant to pivot so I dont think I'll get a face full of it if airbag does go. I'm set on the color but I'm still tinkering with what data to display, main reason for this was to see what gear I'm in, could never keep track with the auto, as well as monitor what the baseline looks like, I have trans temps and engine oil pressure on for now.

[SlowLS1]

Very nice. That gauge is super useful. Which wideband are you going with?

[Eddymel1998]

Originally Posted by SlowLS1

Very nice. That gauge is super useful. Which wideband are you going with?

It is pretty useful, didn't expect so many parameters, I'm sure I'll be learning how to use it properly setting alerts and such for months, pretty sure you're the one who sold me on it in a thread few months back. As for wideband, not sure yet, might be looking at summer for that work, cross threaded bolts in the passenger head have been keeping me from going through with it, still brainstorming best way to deal with that.

[SlowLS1]

What's up with the cross threaded bolts? Which ones?

[Eddymel1998]

Long story short I was replacing the burnt through garbage gaskets that came with my headers after few months of driving around, when putting everything together I was going gentle but not gentle enough for aluminum, guess it was a learning experience for me, but cross threaded few of the bolts, I think two in the back and one with all the washers in the pic below, had to go help friends with something so left car in garage and my dad get everything in best he could (very thankful), the stack of washers is because bolts refused to go in all the way, all the ones with single stack are just because headers were not squeezing the gasket enough before bolts bottomed out, that's just cost of cheap headers tho. Right thing to do is heli coil the bolts or re thread one size higher, got lots of awesome advice here but unfortunately no space without pulling the head, what I'm thinking now is getting some titanium studs and cutting them down to length since clearly some thread still exists and headers are not under that much stress that they will rip the bolts and threads out. Part of me just wants to bite the bullet and buy some new heads, but then you get the whole im in there thing going and it becomes a no go.

[AlisoBob]

Originally Posted by Eddymel1998

... I smashed the pedal through the floor, got it stopped fine but had same issue on way back, around town once brakes dried off a bit was no issue. Need to be more mindful of brakes on the rainy longer drives I guess.

My BMW lightly applies the brakes at speed, whenever the windshield wipers come on. This keeps the brakes dry and ready for action.

All the hardware exists on the Camaro to do this. It's just a software tweek so the windshield wipers, the speedo, and the antlock brake controller can talk to each other.

GM is really dumb sometimes.

[Eddymel1998]

Finished up another big round of upgrades, had Friday off and worked most of the day each day until basically middle of the night yesterday, car is getting alignment right now with JPSS aggressive street alignment. List is: front and read Bilstein mono tube shocks, bmr adjustable front and read sway bar, bmr adjustable front end links, new front lower control arms with poly bushings, new FE4 LCAs in rear, bmr adjustable toe links and trailing arms with poly outter trailing arm bushings, as well as some "heavy duty" rear endlinks and some new shock tops, here are some pics

Some noteworthy stories
Had to get creating with bushing press tool to get the trailing arm bushes, but once that was figured out they went out easy

Also removed one of the upper control arms on front just to find out my bushing pressing kit doesn't have a sleeve big enough, so shoved that back in with stock bushings, have some BMR ones but I guess I'll just leave them be, did help get front sway bar in without lifting the engine


In rear, second to last bolt was on the toe rods, the eccentric adjustable one, unscrewed it and it wouldn't come out, it butts into gas tank, so very angry because I was already running late, I went and dropped the cradle while cursing out GM, when getting it back in I mounted it the other way so I wouldn't have to deal with it again, thankfully I've done tons of work with cradle so it was dropped within 15-20 minutes, still pissed me off.

[Eddymel1998]

Just drove down from the shop to work, bumps and potholes are way more noticable, wouldn't necessarily say harsher but they do rock the car a lot more, I have not noticed any increase in noise, except some clacking from the rear around the parking lot, which I'm guessing is just spherical stuff, but acceleration feels way more responsive, corners don't roll the car anymore, if I was a car journalist I would say it's "on rails" or "planted" but I'm not so ill just say it's good.