Wayne's Garage

Canadian Performance LS2 arrives.

2008-03-11T04:34:00.000-07:00

Got a call on Thursday morning that the motor was leaving the Great White North and heading down here on a truck. The driver estimated a lunchtime delivery. I made sure the shipping company knew that they were delivering to a residence.

The driver calls when he's 20 minutes out and informs me that he's driving a truck with no liftgate - he asks me what I have to move a 500lb crate out of the back of his truck. WTF? I call my buddy with a landscaping company and he agrees to meet the driver back here on Friday morning with a forklift.

Everyone meets at my place at 6am and the unloading process goes without incident. It took longer to unload the Bobcat than it did to actually move the motor. In hindsight, I could have moved the motor with the help of a lifting buddy, but for the money and time spent on the motor, better safe than sorry.

I'm guessing about 3 weeks of work to get the motor on the mounts, plumb the fuel system and turbos. Then some electrical work to get the methanol injection working, AMS1000 wired up and off for tuning.

I can't wait to drive this thing.

Cleaning up the 69

2008-02-18T13:34:00.000-08:00

After getting the '69, there were a couple things I needed to change. The Momo wheel that came with the car belonged to the previous owner's race car and he wanted it back as part of the sale. A quick trip to OG Racing and I had a new Sparco wheel for the car.

Next on the list was replacing the black plastic driver's side mirror. It probably looked right on the Datsun it came from, but it just didn't look right on the Camaro. Year One came through with a stock-looking reproduction piece.

And then the wheels before...

And after...

... and a few pics of the entire car cleaned up (damn cloudy day).

I'm hoping my next update is pics of me dropping the LS2 into the empty engine bay of my C5.

The 69 Camaro arrived.

2008-02-13T18:02:00.000-08:00

As I expected, the Camaro showed up today. I expected it, because we'd just received a heavy ice storm the night before and freezing rain was still falling at 7am.

Since the truck delivering the car was a large 6 car tractor trailer, there was no way it was going to fit in my driveway. I agreed to meet the driver around the corner, at the local Park N Ride. I decided to call a flatbed to meet me there to bring the car the final 3-4 miles back to my house. There was no way I was going to drive it in the ice (or all the salt they laid down).

My car was one of four cars and a motorcycle in the truck.

Unfortunately, every tow truck driver in the county was working overtime with all the wrecks from the bad weather, it took over 2hrs before he arrived. He was great with the car and treated it "much better than any BMW" (his words).

The trip back to the house was without incident and my new baby is resting comfortably inside the garage.

The 69 is on the way to Maryland

2008-02-07T10:22:00.000-08:00

My buddy, Scott, sent me these pictures as the car was being loaded up.

The shipper said it can take as little as 4 and as much as 10 days to make it from CA to MD. I'm hoping it's not 10 days.

Canadian Performance LS2

2008-02-06T05:19:00.000-08:00

I got the word yesterday from Dave @ Canadian Performance (website link) that my engine was done, except for the oil pan that I was sending him.

After a little more than a year of screwing around, all the pieces are coming together for my twin turbo project.

The Camaro is on it's way... well, sort of

2008-02-01T10:21:00.000-08:00

FedEx delivered the title today and Reliable Auto Transport (www.weshipyourcar.com) called to confirm pickup of the car in San Jose next week. Enclosed shipping, door to door, ~2800 miles was $1550. Not bad.

Dave @ Canadian Performance dropped me a line to let me know he was bolting up the heads and was waiting on a couple parts from me to finish up my forged LS2.

Spring is fast approaching, but at least my plans are finally coming together. Now I have to get off my ass and start wrenching.

The Big Idea

2008-01-11T11:03:00.000-08:00

It started with my fairly stock C5 Z06 a little more than a year ago. I had done a few mods to the car.

A Vortech supercharger @ 6psi, LG long tubes w/RT cats, Halltech cold air, Carolina Auto Master's tuning and an Exedy twin disk clutch.

It was a great setup that yielded a totally reliable ~550rwhp and high 10s at the strip. The car sounded, looked and drove like a stock C5 Z06 until you got into boost.

But I wanted more.

I bought a T-Trim head unit to replace my S-Trim and an Alkycontrol.com meth-injection setup. I figured this would get me into the low 600rwhp range and I'd be happy with the power again. I started disassembling the car to install the mods. That's when I saw the new twin turbo kits that APS was offering.

From there, it just snowballed. I sold the superchargers and bought the twin turbo kit with the idea that I'd install it on the stock motor and run low boost until I built a second, forged motor to drop in the car. Once I received the kit, I figured screw it - I pulled my motor and started plans to build it. After talking to several engine builders, I settled on Canadian Performance to do the build - but not on my stock motor, we'd start with an LS2 and build that motor.

So here I sit - my stock, low mileage motor is sold. I have a garage full of parts and my LS2 is currently being built. Now all I have to do is wait.

In the meantime, I still need injectors, an Acceleronics Versafueler (www.acceleronics.com) and a boost controller.

Good times.

The current state of affairs...

2008-01-11T07:13:00.001-08:00

I've created this blog-style update page to more easily post up the pictures and progress on my TT project and my upcoming purchase of Scott's Camaro. For now, I'll include a picture of the soon to be mine Camaro and my motor-less Z06.

With my motor less than a month away from completion, there will be many updates in the coming days/weeks/months.