JoeK

Hi All, Wondering what folks are doing with their reverse solenoid? Very little mention of it here, though on the wide world of the internet it looks thee are lots of opinions. Some people wire it into the brake light switch, others just push harder on the stick. Some modify the solenoid with a smaller spring or cut the sring down. Others install a module that hooks into the speed sensor and under 5 or 10 mph, it will turn on the solenoid. While I like this last option the most, not sure if it warrants an added $100+. I just finished rebuilding my trans, and don't like the idea of pushing on the lever hard enough to overcome the spring in the solenoid. Maybe it's fine, but with the trans sitting on the bench, it feels like it'll break something before it'll push that detent in. I pulled the solenoid back out to be sure it was the offending item, and yes it shifts very smoothly into the reverse. Easily enough that I can see going there when trying to hit 5th, especially if I was in a hurry. Anybody hook it up to the ECU? Would it work fine if I also ran the vss wire to the ECU? Thanks,

Go to the Group Buy section. Look for the Speedhut Group Buy thread. There are lots of pictures and descriptions on different sizes and installs there.

Finding a tranny somewhere would be the hard part. T56's are like gold these days, broken ones fetching over 1k. I'll be giving some thought to the idea of taking the trans apart again, probably 5 hours work but seems like it would be worthwhile to do the exhaust without having to climb under the car 50+ times.

If I had one of those plastic mockup engines, and a mockup trans, I'd probably go for it. Speedway motors has damaged mockup block right now for $200, but I can't find a T56 mockup and just finished putting all the internals back in mine. Wish I'd thought of it a couple weeks ago.

I sure wish I could build my exhaust while the car was still on the rotisserie.

Yes, I am pretty much trying to keep it stock (LS1 motor that is). I figure it'll be fast enough to start, and when I think it feels slow, I'll go see a shrink. Seriously though, I just want to start out with a dependable runner. I keep resisting go fast motor parts as it's a slippery slope. If I do a cam, I'll want to do an intake too, which will lead to a new throttle body and fuel rails and injectors and rockers and springs and 243's and ARP's and .............. Sounds like I should do oil pan and valve cover gaskets, and the pick up tube oil ring seal. I'll probably do the water pump while I'm at it, since it's cheap insurance. And check the rear seal while the pan is off. New clutch, hydraulic throwout bearing and pilot bearing for sure.

Trans is all rebuilt and ready to go in. All I had was the GTO shifter, so I tossed that and put a MGW short shifter on it. Just had to change the offset lever, which is part #93 in the Tremec T56 schematic. The Camaro offset lever is just slightly different than the GTO one. Moved to the engine, to get it cleaned up and replace a few gaskets and such. When putting the oilpan back on, the long rear bolts stripped out the threads in the rear cover. Seemed to strip them at about half of the torque setting, so I'm thinking this was past damage or something. Also, one of the other pan bolts was about a 1/2" shorter then the rest, so somebody was in there before and may have tightened those rear bolts too much then. Thankfuly, a new rear cover was only about $35 and looks pretty easy to swap out. Looks like I may not even need to remove the oil pan. I'm gessing I'll have to take it off the engine stand though, just to get to all the bolts in the rear cover.

Ordered wheels, but turned out they could only find two in the color and size I wanted. So they are ordering more from the Phillipines, which will take about 2 months. Since I don't want to take the car down without wheels, in case I need to move it around in the garage, it's going to have to stay up on the rotisserie until the wheels come in. So, I'm starting on the next few things. Got the trans completely torn down. When I got the trans, it was already partially torn down and really just a box of parts with most of the gears still on the mainshaft. But I got it organized and mostly reassembled to figure which parts I had and which were missing. Most everything was there, just a couple small parts mia. Ordered up all the parts I'll need from gearbox and should see them in about a week. And my attention is finally also turning towards the motor.

Double post

Yep, sounds geeat. Congrats, hope you get some axles in the car soon so you take it for a spin.

There is about 85k on the motor. That is all the history I know about. I never saw the donor car other than a short video of the motor running before they pulled it. Not leaking any fluids. It will require a good cleaning at the minimum.

My sights are moving towards getting my motor ready for installation. Its been sitting on a stand in the corner for nearly a year. The LS1 came out of a stock '98 Camaro with about 85k on the clock. I've deleted the power steering pump and the car didn't originally have AC so think I have the front accessories basically figured out. I still have to work out the oil pressure and temp sender locations. The main info I'm looking for is what maintenance type things I should consider doing. Oil pump? Timing chain? Rear main seal? I don't necessarily want to fix it if it ain't broke, but if it's much easier to do while on the stand...

I'm doing the feed line to the Corvette filter/regulator. The Corvette filter/regulator has a return line on it, so that goes back the return on Camaro tank. I had not realized the Camaro tank had a built in regulator, so I hope this doesn't cause issues. When you figure out the wiring for the Camaro tank, let me know

Yes, the ones from Japan fit super nice. Really easy to tell which ones go where, because they just fit perfect where they go, no bending or twisting. And they were about the same price after shipping as the MSA fiberglass ZG flares. I just looked at my spreadsheet and I paid $237 shipped for the Marugen Shoukai ZG set from RHDJapan.

These tend to dry out and become brittle. They are available new from the dealer. I think it was like $85.

Which flares did you go with?

I've been sick of not being able to find the time to paint the interior. Basically the last thing I wanted to do before I take the car off the rotisserie. So, today I called in sick to work and painted the interior. I went with a matte black. Now to order up some wheels and tires, and get this thing back on the ground.

I finally dealt with my rusted fuel filler. We'll see how it holds up. There were holes rusted through the body, and when I removed the recessed portion, I found the entire area traps moisture and was pitted with rust. So, I started looking for a replacement, which was kind of like looking for a live Unicorn. After finding some that may have been just as rusty as mine was, I decided to take another look at what I had and see if I could make a repair. I decided it wouldn't hurt to try welding in a simple patch panel. I only had to weld through rust in a very small section, and was able to get it done. But welding the recessed filler in wasn't going to work. It was too pitted after I beadblasted away all the rust. So in steps structural adhesive. Basically epoxy made for autobody repair, this stuff is designed attaching entire body panels to cars, so it should be good enough to hold my filler on. It ain't exactly the prettiest work in the world, but it's smoother than it looks and the filler will be less than 1/16" thick.

The rotors are cheap, I think they were $120 per pair including shipping from Rockauto. I don't want to talk about how much I paid the machinist, but I guess if I piad more than $1 it was too much. I have a drill press, but lack a metal lathe. I've still been unable to find a machinst in the Bay Area that will do this for me, which seems ridiculous. If anybody knows a machinst who will do this for me, I'd drop ship the parts directly to them. I can also email a pdf of the layout, it's pretty simple.

Well, he also had to drill a new bolt pattern. That is also off by the same amount. So he'd have to elongate the holes, which I don't like the idea of at all. the rotors clear the calipers, so it seems to me the worst that will happen is it'll feel out of balance, like an unbalanced tire.

I ended up finding a local garage machinist to do it for me. Though he didn't end up getting it centered and it is out by .090. See post #5 here http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/39437-how-much-radial-rotor-runout-is-acceptable/?hl=%2Bradial+%2Brunout I'm going to run it and see if it causes havoc, unless someone tells me otherwise...

http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/125156-watanabe-rs8-type-a-w-new-tires-set-of-4/ They will fit a Z, don't know about ZX. Smack dab in the center of the Bay Area though.

Great Idea, thanks for sharing. I may do the same thing if I find I need to take it all apart again, like say, for an adjustment.

For what its worth, I think the shape on the bottom cut looks unique and interesting. If you clean it up and go for even reveals around the camber plate, I think it'll look sweet.

That'll depend on tire height. Lots of calculators on the web.