Going to be summer again

Summer is approaching and so much stuff to progress in.

A lot of stuff namely the Camaro has not been been put in priority in these number of years. Because of my day job, plus borrowing a garage to do the job, also chores for the coming week.

Other distractions have hurt my motivation lately like Twitch, which is getting to the point now where it is nightly after work and leaks into weekend when I just want to relax. The streamers are nice people and are glad to see that I am in the chat to small talk. What I have to when I get my car out is not show up as often to work on the Camaro. The streamers I think would in effect miss that I am not around as much and appreciate more that I came to chat. Other distrations are the car video guys on YT that film their builds or Test Drive a car. Watching them seems like I am just a fanboy when I have a car sitting and waiting to be fixed.

I will be booking some time off for vacation. But I am not going to wait until that time to start working on it.

What needs done is:

-T-Tops weatherstripping- yes still

-Headliner

-Seatbelts and receivers

-Install 5.0 Shifter

-Install Cutout

-Fix Antifreeze leak, oil leak find where its coming from.

-Install Volt gauge

- CHange the Diff oil (never done since new parts installed)

Actually I have one problem with how to videos from Youtube namely for the Ttops. Two different methods and view points on how its done.

Just going to do the best of my judgement based on research and just do it. Spend some solid time actually doing it not pondering doing little bit here and there. Will have to hand off chores to do for me to free up time or time management.

Camaro Saga

Finally my Camaro Saga has ended. I had changed the differential gear oil like I had posted earlier. That did not change a thing. I was then convinced that my pilot bearing was worn and that was the cause of the vibration. At that same time I got the clutch changed. Vibration was still there. My mechanic pulled the driveshaft out and took it to drive line shop to see how balanced it was. Well the drive line place said it was dangerously out of balance. They offered to build a aluminum one for a high price, but I ordered a used one from David T's Camaro and Firebird in Edmonton for $100. They checked that one to make sure it was balanced as well and it was. It was put back together and now it's very smooth going now. It still has a gear noises because the brand new gears and the Detroit Tru-Trac is trying break in.
My suspicion on why the driveshaft was bent. It must have been dropped and installed without realizing. Looking back at all this grief it would been cheaper to buy the Moser Engineering 12 bolt Rear End Assembly. And just install it in a timely fashion. At least it's fixed now. My plan for next spring/summer is to just drive and put some mileage on the car.

On a side note I bought new Moser 26 spline axles and they were put in while installation of the Detroit Tru-Trac.

Car business

This spring my brother announced that his wife is selling her 08 Chevy Equinox Sport next year when their lease is up. That sparked my interest at the time that I could sell my Camaro and my Grand Cherokee. That Equinox is equipped with 3.6L VVT DOHC engine that produces 260hp and has AWD also. I looked up the vehicle this spring to see if I can find any performance parts for it like exhaust, a performance programmer, etc. With hours of looking I got nothing which hampered on my decision to save up for that vehicle. And also when my brother told me that his wife is selling that vehicle I had already put in the Powertrax locker and diff gears that got me concerned that it might make the Camaro hard to sell.

In that time leading up to today I have done some mods to my Camaro as I have posted before http://lukepohr.squarespace.com/blog/2011/7/19/rear-end-hiccup-tuning-figuring-and-a-moving-shifter.html I have done a few different things that were not posted like a new timing chain, fuel filter, water pump, valve cover(made the engine bay pop), and spark plugs made a big difference in performance and woke it up big time. I had also bought most of the weatherstripping parts to redo the T-tops and doors. What I didn't do from the earlier post was the crossmember mounts, speedo gear. Which I will do this spring the first drive out back to home.

Today I looked up the Equinox again just see if I missed somewhere online that does sell some parts for that vehicle. I was pretty well unsuccessful at finding any parts. I did however try to search for engine parts that are for different cars that share the same engine. I didn't find anything. Apparently in Australia they make performance parts for the 3.6L engines. I didn't find any site that sells parts.

With my financial situation right now from buying parts for the Camaro this year and having other interests set me back from saving up to afford a newer vehicle. Also the fact that it can't be modified like the Camaro kinda sucks. The fact that I did mods to the Camaro this spring/summer made me feel good especially after I replaced the timing chain. But there are still some work to do on it yet. Hopefully nothing else will go wrong and I can get out of my financial hole.  

Rear-end Hiccup, tuning figuring, and a moving shifter.

After I bit of driving the Camaro for awhile something did not seem right on our(myself and my buddy) rear-end mod on the Camaro. It would howl lots on the road. So last thusday of this month we got into it (to include what we didn't do is put in shims to space the lash properly and get a accurate pattern for the gears to mesh in). After 6 hours of all said and done we got everything perfect. At that point we were both glad that it was all over. 

And now that was done. I moved on to tuning the car. I took it over to my brothers place which he is familiar with tuning Camaro's. He set the timing on it with a timing gun. The car woke up with power on the straightway for awhile. I tried to launch the car and the shifter(5 speed manual) was pushing up(I noticed it earlier that day) and this knocking sound was happening, apparently from what my brother said is that I need to get new transmission crossmember rubbers. We then turned around to go back it started to have lack of power again. We put the timing gun back on timing is staying where its supposed to be. We pulled a spark plug, burning good from what we could see from brand new ones. I do have brand new plug wires installed as well. We do suspect that the line fuel line to the carb is twisted a little bit is restricting fuel on the carb and therefore making the engine have lack of power at certain times. We are going to swap fuel lines(just to the pump) and see what happens there. Just before I drove home, my brother set to more degrees advance. The car drove awesome, it felt the car was more free. And the car didn't when I drove it home, lurch the car around and pound on the floor because it runs at a higher rpm at idle.

First thing now is the crossmember rubbers and check motor mounts too. Then the fuel line thing and hopefully replace the carb with a Edelbrock one. Tinted windows will be come soon I promise. 

Jay Leno Takes the Camaro SS for a spin.