1968 Camaro Build

[icemanrd19]

since your firewall isn't painted you could weld a stud on the inner part of the firewall to bolt the vintage air to it. Why not smooth the firewall and run the vintage air bulkhead? Also since its not painted our fuse box since very nice to the right side of the pedal right on the corner of the trans tunnel kit. You still have access to the vintage air air duct hoses. Easy to access as well.

As far as the fan kit goes look up pcm of nc and get their ac bump kit and dual fan relay kit. Now you can put all your relays in the fuse box to clean up the clutter. Then run 4 wires to the fan and your done. Took me about 30 min to install. i also wires my vintage air accessory and constant power wires to my fuse box.

Im not sure what gauges you have but the tach and speedometer worked by using the extra bulkhead off the gmpp unit. The oil pressure one didn't work for me.

[Brad C]

since your firewall isn't painted you could weld a stud on the inner part of the firewall to bolt the vintage air to it. Why not smooth the firewall and run the vintage air bulkhead? Also since its not painted our fuse box since very nice to the right side of the pedal right on the corner of the trans tunnel kit. You still have access to the vintage air air duct hoses. Easy to access as well.

As far as the fan kit goes look up pcm of nc and get their ac bump kit and dual fan relay kit. Now you can put all your relays in the fuse box to clean up the clutter. Then run 4 wires to the fan and your done. Took me about 30 min to install. i also wires my vintage air accessory and constant power wires to my fuse box.

Im not sure what gauges you have but the tach and speedometer worked by using the extra bulkhead off the gmpp unit. The oil pressure one didn't work for me.

That's an interesting thought to put the fuse box up and right of the pedal inside. I'll have to look at that.

I hadn't seen that AC bump kit before. Thanks for the tip. Which dual fan relay kit are you talking about from PCM? I see several on their site. (Edit) - I found it. Looks like it requires an HP Tuner to enable it. Seems like a nice product but I wasn't planning on buying the tuner.

I was thinking about running one fan off the fused/relayed line coming out of the ECU fuse box and the second triggered by the A/C. If it turns out I need both fans for just the engine when I wouldn't otherwise have the A/C on, I can trigger it's relay from the power to the first fan. That's at least a simple setup to start off with I guess.

There are fused accessory leads coming off my main harness kit inside already that I'll use for the vintage air power so that's covered.

I have the Dakota Digital VHX gauges. I already swapped out the stock oil pressure sensor and was planning on using the bulkhead leads for tach and VSS. Looks like they make a fan controller unit too that can interface with my gauges. I'm looking in to that more.

[icemanrd19]

Dont need HP tuners. Send them the ecu and they will do it for free

1 or both turn fans turns on with the engine temp and both turn on with the ac but will also turn one off with temp. The kit works like factory. Trust me get the kit. You cut one wire, install two relays in the fuse box, add 2 wires inside the fuse box, and then put the fuse in the location and your done. The ac bump is very simple as well. Same wires you are messing with to add dual fans to our GMPP kit you just put the ac bump in line with it and then run 1 wire to the binary switch on the vintage air unit. Again very very simple. acts as stock

[Brad C]

Dont need HP tuners. Send them the ecu and they will do it for free

1 or both turn fans turns on with the engine temp and both turn on with the ac but will also turn one off with temp. The kit works like factory. Trust me get the kit. You cut one wire, install two relays in the fuse box, add 2 wires inside the fuse box, and then put the fuse in the location and your done. The ac bump is very simple as well. Same wires you are messing with to add dual fans to our GMPP kit you just put the ac bump in line with it and then run 1 wire to the binary switch on the vintage air unit. Again very very simple. acts as stock

Thanks for the input!

[Brad C]

It was nice to take the week off from work and focus on the wiring. I needed the uninterrupted time to figure it all out. Now it seems so simple. I have everything in the interior done and just a few more things to finish up on the engine side. I cranked it over for the first time the other night and scared the crap out of myself. It made a terrible sound that I thought was metal on metal. After looking at it for a few minutes I realized that the tape I had over the intake made a giant kazoo out of the motor. Whew - for a minute I thought maybe I messed up something swapping the balancer and was looking at having to pull the motor back out. It's funny now of course. Luckily I didn't suck the tape in either.

I got all of my interior a couple weeks ago too and it looks really nice. I put the dash pad and headliner in just cause I could. Can't wait to get the seats in and panels on.

I think I'm maybe a few weeks away front being able to start it up for the first time. I have the power steering lines on order and A/C lines are here. I need to hunt around for radiator hoses and figure out what I'm going to do with the intake but then it should be ready!

[Brad C]

It's alive!!

Started the car up today for the first time! Went really well. It did get too hot after about 10 minutes so I shut it down and pulled a vacuum on the cooling system again. It took in a fair amount more coolant so that was the issue. After that all was well when I started it back up. Let it run for 20 minutes or so and the temp stayed right where it should. Oil pressure came right up after start. It wouldn't register just cranking the starter like the manual said to do but I read many others seeing the same thing so we just went for it. The smoking was temporary of course as the coatings on the exhaust and I assume assembly lube burned off. Runs really clean actually.

Only other issue is no tach signal but I think the problem is I need to pull up the voltage on the signal line. I'll call Dakota Digital Monday to verify but I think that's the problem.

Exhaust sounds sweet! Not too loud but pretty aggressive when you hit the throttle. I think it will be good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU_ut0Od1Ao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8mqbGgXxGw

[Zoomin]

Congratulations on the first start! Not too much drama with LS engines - no long cranking, belches of fire from the carburetor- but still a thrill nonetheless.

[Brad C]

Thanks. I could have had the fireball effect I guess but I decided to fix the fuel leak I had at the tank before I started it. Couldn't leak where I could get to it without dropping the tank, no way. Ha.

[drc9805]

Congrats!

[Centerforce]

Nice! It started up like it had already been running for years.

[Brad C]

Yeah, that's one of many cool things about LS crate motors.

I figured out why the tach wasn't working. It seems that it actually helps to have it hooked up to the gauge controller module, go figure. Forgot to put the patch wire in from the main harness to the module. Duh.. Found it sitting in the harness box all lonely looking. It doesn't need a pull up resistor - works fine now.

[Brad C]

Haven't posted anything in a few but I've been busy on the car still. It's starting to really come together. I have a good portion of the front end on now and I'm just about ready to order glass. Once the front end is all done and all the lights wired, I'll be taking it in to have the front and rear glass installed. I'm also thinking about letting them align the side glass too. Not sure yet. I'll put it all in but it seemed pretty reasonable price wise for them to align everything. After glass, I'll set up the suspension and have it aligned and then it's road ready!! I can work on the interior after that but I'm really itching to drive it.

[BonzoHansen]

Is that a quick jack? What model? How do you like it?

[Brad C]

Is that a quick jack? What model? How do you like it?

Yeah, it's the earlier AC powered 5000. I got it when they first came out, and they've made some small changes to it I think since with the line connections. It's great. Works really well and I've had no issues with it. I'd rather have a full lift of course but it's a good alternative.

[BonzoHansen]

Thanks. Keep up the good work!

[no_go nico]

Rear end showed up today. Pretty nice!

Attachment 120961

Sweet. Where'd you get the rear end from? Did it come powder coated and assembled or did you do it yourself?

[ryanleiker]

Attachment 125535

Attachment 125521

This piece looks great. Well done.
I think someone (yourself) should develop a way to 3D print a dash gauge panel for these cars... or a '72 Nova (cough, cough). It seems like one could be made way cheaper and more efficient than the plastic molded ones that are a few hundred dollars a piece.

[Brad C]

Sweet. Where'd you get the rear end from? Did it come powder coated and assembled or did you do it yourself?

It's from Moser. You can order it a lot of different ways but I went with a mostly assembled 12 bolt 3.73 with Truetrac posi. I added powder coating on the order and I just had to install the axle seals, axles, and brakes.

[Brad C]

This piece looks great. Well done.
I think someone (yourself) should develop a way to 3D print a dash gauge panel for these cars... or a '72 Nova (cough, cough). It seems like one could be made way cheaper and more efficient than the plastic molded ones that are a few hundred dollars a piece.

Haha. Thanks, I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. Seems to match in with the rest of the dash well enough. It was really only affordable because I did the design myself and I have access to the 3D printer at work ($200k machine and still limited to 10" cube working size). Otherwise it's not a cheap part at all. It would probably be $500 to have it printed from a service company on the same machine, let alone the design cost. Crazy because there's really only about $30 worth of material in it. It could be done on less expensive printers of course too, size permitting. They are getting better and better all the time, but it would probably need a lot of post finishing work. I just scuffed, textured, and painted it so it was pretty easy. The material is fairly durable too.

I have a CNC router at home that I was making custom RC parts on for a friend of mine who owns a hobby shop a few years ago. I found out doing that is a great way to suck the fun out of it pretty quick. So I probably won't go down that path again, sorry.

[Brad C]

Oh, by the way. If anyone is planning on doing what I did with the Vintage Air system for a factory air car and using their slider controller, they aren't compatible. The heater valve wasn't working so I called VA to try and figure out what was going on. The factory air system expects the stock cable slider converter module. The non factory air system works with the controller I used. VA was great about it though. They are updating the ECU in the evaporator for me. I just had to pull it out and ship it to them. Bummer but at least it's fixable!