Wheel Hop:

Wheel hop is a problem with the Camaro and many other cars with independent rear suspensions. Wheel hop is when the tires are just barely braking traction causing the suspension and shocks to load up then release their tension resulting in the tires hoping on the ground. This hoping can destroy parts. It is extremely hard on the rear end and axles.

To prevent it I am replacing stock stamped suspensions parts with stronger ones that will not flex as much. The stiffer the links locating the rear tires the less the car will tend to wheel hop.

PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) System:

There is also a picture of the catch can I installed in their. The catch can is installed into the PCV system to prevent hot oily crankcase gases from entering the intake. The last thing your engine needs is these gases entering the cylinders under WOT, it can lead to detonation. The PCV system is their to vent the crankcase with fresh air and relieve crankcase pressure that builds as a result of blow-by around the piston rings. Breathers used to handle this task but venting the crankcase gasses to the atmosphere is now frowned upon…

The Boost a Pump Experiment:

The 2010 Camaro has a returnless style fuel system and a Fuel Pump Control Module controlling the fuel pump. The Fuel Pump Control Module varies the speed of the intank fuel pump based on the fuel demands of the engine. The module tries to maintain the rail pressure at 58psi by varying the pulse width modulated signal it supplies to the fuel pump. The advantages of a variable speed pump are less evaporative emissions, no noise at idle and less heating of the fuel.

This module acts like a voltage regulator, boosting the voltage into this module will not effect the output voltage of the module. Although wiring the BAP in before this module does slightly increase the fuel pump output.

This car’s fuel system is very robust and will support around 600RWHP with no modifications. This is why so many people are wiring the boost a pumps before the FSCM even though it isn’t doing much.

Boost a Pump Wiring:

I tried wiring the BAP two different ways, before the FPCM and after the FPCM.

Wired after the FPCM the BAP actually worked great… for 2 weeks then it started blowing its inline fuse constantly. Apparantly it does not like the pulse width modulated current it was seeing. It is unfortunate it did not work when wired this way. Before it failed it was keeping my fuel pressure constant with its control knob on 1/2, meaning I had pleanty of room to grow.

Wired before the FPCM it does work but it doesn’t make a huge difference. The FPCM is taking the voltage in and steeping it down before it sends it out to the pump basically canceling out what we are trying to do with the BAP. Wired this way my fuel pressure drops to 45psi as opposed to 35psi with no BAP. I will leave mine wired this way until I move to a intank dual pump setup which is the real answer for this problem.

The bottom line is the BAP does not work well in this car, a different solution is needed…

This tool makes changing the valve springs a breeze, do yourself a favor and pick one of these up before you do your next spring job. The lever tools are extremely difficult to use compared to this tool.

Check out the new spring seat and valve seals.

These are the stock rocker bodies with the new trunnion bearing upgrade installed. The bearings are pressed into the rockers and their are “C” clips on the outside of each bearing so they can’t come out. These are a must for any cam and spring install, their is no comparison between the stock setup and this one. This trunnion also allows for 360 deg rotation of the rocker body. The valvetrane was very quite after installing these.

Here is a closer look at the rocker problem. All the rockers are removed and I pressed out the trunnions and bearings in preparation for the upgrade kit I’m getting from Comp Cams.

I believe contact between the trunnion and outer race of the needle bearing is what cause the rocker to fail. you can see in the pictures that the rocker can only “rock” back and forth on the trunnion but it cannot rotate freely 360deg due to flat spots in the design of the trunnion and bearing. Notice the “D” shape of the trunnion and bearing, this is what limits the amount of rotation. The higher lift cam I installed now requires the rocker to rotate more than it did with the stock cam.

The upgrade kit I will be Installing allows the rocker to rotate 360deg on the trunnion, eliminating the possibility of this type of failure.

It helps to have at least 3 arms when changing the valve springs, good thing god gave me an extra! Here are installed pics of the hardened pushrods and double springs. After firing her up and enjoying the sick new idle, she started ticking and I knew it was a rocker. I opened her up and found one of the stock rockers had failed on me. The stock rocker was not up to the task of pushing those stiff springs with this big cam.

Comp Cams makes an upgraded roller bearing trunion for my stock rockers that will fix this problem and prevent it from happening again…pics will be coming soon.

Pull the shit off the front of the engine and there she is: the stock cam.  The wood dowels are there to prevent the lifters from falling out of their trays and making this a much bigger project.

Look at those little stock springs… I’m replacing them with manly double springs, they will keep this valvetrain under control.

New Cam!

420RWHP just isn’t enough.  I’m also pretty sick of the smooth quite idle.  So it’s time to do somthing about it. I installed a custom comp 23X 23X 580 cam on a 112 lsa that should push me over the 500RWHP mark! Like I said earlier, these LS engines really like to breath, and they love cams!

To install the cam the radiator has to be removed but the condensor can stay, just lower it out of the way, no need to discharge the AC system.

Here is my clutch pedal return spring mod. I didn’t like the feel of the stock clutch pedal so after looking around under the dash I found this little spring. After removing the spring the the clutch pedal feels much better, requiring a more linear pressure to operate. I like it much better and it only takes a minute to remove or replace.

I got the idea from some of the corvette guys who have been doing it for years now.

American Racing Headers… 1 7/8” Primaries to 3” pipes. These headers really woke the car up.  After the headers and a tune for E85, I dynoed at 420RWHP.  Stock she was probally around 370RWHP max.  That’s around 50hp for exhaust and a tune. These LS engines really like to breathe! (This is an LS3 motor 6.2L V8.)

The mufflers are still stock.  They are a straight through design that does not hurt power, and more importantly, they do not drone at all! Tests have shown around a 5hp increase after removing them.

Looking at the side by side pics, it’s not hard to see where the extra ponies are coming from.