As some of you may remember, back in February I was set to start on a long term project and build a V8 Miata. I had the car lined up but my mom offered to give me her '02 Z-28 if I agreed not to buy the Miata (something about saving me from myself, I think).

Well, I finally took delivery as of Thursday. Here she is at the Lake after a little bit of work (mainly the car seat, as you'll see).

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The Pilot's seat (seat cover is for protection of great upholstery, not to cover up bad upholstery)

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T56 6-Speed w/ factory Hurst shift package and premium sound system

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What the?! Ever seen a baby seat in the back of a Camaro before? (Yes, took some custom work to get it to fit. Added a 3rd seatbelt to the original factory anchor points, and is anchored in the rear to the rear deck cargo anchor points. It overlaps the other seats slightly but my kids are still young and small enough to fit.)

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I like the neon, its really the only ricey thing on this car, but I'm not in love with the color purple. I have a blue neon frame but its cracked at the bottom (easily sealed with some epoxy but not sure how tacky it would look after repair)

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"Damn, they'll put an LSX into anything these days..."

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Hero shot.

Nice ride there, Ok!

While I am not a big fan of that year body style, I know how exciting that must be to have a Z28 to work on. Lot of heritage there for sure. Have fun!

Owned a 78' Z and a 82' T-top Indy Special back in the days. Favored the 82' since it was standard.

well, nice car... I should really just say nice motor . Worked my whole career at a pontiac dealership back in my car days... retired to become a mech engineer in 2001. Had two 89 camaro r/s and a 30th trans am... the car will have a bunch of rattles so its good it has a nice motor. Fun to drive tho no doubt, hopefully you have the dreaded gear skip bypassed so you can have more fun with it. As long as your going straight its hard to beat the ls1


edit: just noticed its not lowered either.... wow havent seen one stock height in like... well 6 years

Nice ride!

I did the same thing with the 3rd rear seat belt in my Supra when my son was born... Not a lot of 5 passenger Supras out there... The kids don't fit back there anymore really anymore, so I've been considering removing the back seats altogether.

Thanks! I LOVE it! This past week has been a blast, even just driving to work and back!

Yeah, and even though for me it's been 13 years and more than 400,000 kms, my daily commute is STILL a blast, so here's hoping that you get many years of joy from this...

I got to drive from Atlanta to Pigeon Forge TN today, just outside Gatlinburg. OMG what fun. Dashing through the Blue Ridge on the way to the Smokies! I know how you feel, OK/Sup ... I think I am now a lateral G junky.

Okay, now some tech stuff.

My mom loaned me this car for almost a year after I got out of Tech school back in '03/'04. (So this is when it was still pretty new).

At that time the mileage I used to get was low 30s on the freeway and mid/high 20s around town.

Now I'm getting mid/low 20s on the freeway and high teens around town.

- Its got ~160K on it and it hasn't had much other then regular maintenance.

- Pretty sure its still the original cat and muffler (my mom doesn't remember replacing them and I know I didn't when I was using in back in '04)

- I'm unsure when plugs/wires were last changed.

- I've scanned it and its not throwing any codes

I've been searching around over at LS1tech, but the site seems to be arranged solely by engine generation, not by vehicle, so finding things that relate specifically to a '02 Camaro rather then all Gen III LSXs is a bit daunting.

I'm going to try to reclaim some of the mileage.

I've got or will have ready to go in:

NGK TR55 plugs (Seems to be the plug of choice around LS1tech)
New wires
K&N Air Filter

Can't afford a new cat yet, but it will get replaced soon as well.

Also can't afford yet, but will get a SLP Air cleaner lid to eliminate the restrictive factory unit soon.

Can anyone think of any cheap/easy mods I can do to gain some economy back?

General mileage troubleshooting... (In no particular order)

1. Airflow. A new air filter can make a world of difference. (Should take my own advise here, my air filter is starting to look pretty crusty.) Intake and exhaust are generally the first steps to performance upgrades, because they help both power and efficiency, they're cheap, and they will make any further modifications down the road more effective.

2. Emissions controls. North American vehicles are equipped with an EGR system (exhaust gas riser) which allows some of the exhaust gasses back into the intake at low loads/cruising. The primary reason for this is emissions, but it also means that you're adding effectively inert mass to the airflow, which means that you burn less fuel, and therefore also create less heat. Unfortunately these are also prone to sticking, particularly if the car isn't allowed to fully warm up over a period of time, or there is a rich mixture for other reasons. (High throttle driving, for example.) An improperly functioning EGR system will make a signifigant impact on fuel economy.

3. Tire type/pressure. Okay, this is really basic, but are all of your tires properly inflated? I know many people who drive around with their tires about 10 PSI low all the time.

4. PCV. This is kind of also under Emissions, but the PCV system does other things for the engine, too. Make sure that your PCV (positive crankcase ventilation) valve is properly functioning. This can get cloged with oil residue from the valve covers, or the nasty mayonaise-like mix of oil and moisture that happens when the car does not get to fully warm up over time.

5. Thermostat/Cooling system. Make sure that the cooling system thermostat is working properly. If it is open too much, then the coolant will constantly run through the radiator, and the engine will not reach proper operating temperature. This will excaberate some of the other things in this list, as well. The ECU will constantly think that the engine is cold, and will keep adding additional fuel until it "warms up" -- which it won't. (There are some people who deliberately trick the ECU into thinking that the engine is cold all of the time so that it will do this, for more power.)

So, what I'd do...

1. Install your plugs, wires and air filter. They certainly can't hurt.

2. Check tire pressure, becasue it's free, and might help. (Can't hurt.)

3. Replace the thermostat, possibly the coolant as well. (Do you know when it was last replaced? Coolant should be replaced every 2 years, anyway.) That will cost about $10 for the thermostat/gasket, and maybe $30 for new coolant. Also cheap. Where you are, in OK, you probably want a 185-190 degree thermostat. I tend to go with a 195 myself, but we don't get anything near the kind of heat that you do here.

4. Have the EGR and PCV systems checked out. Probably an hour's labour at a shop.

5. Start looking for a high-flow exhaust system, complete with high-flo cat.

Tomorrow starts my "weekend" so I will be attempting to do the wires, plugs and an oil change over the next night or two.



Actually, I have some of those valve stem caps that change color depending on the tire pressure. Like these except mine are 36psi:

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(They're green when the pressure is above 36, and red when below)



Had someone else suggest that as well. I will put that on the list.



I can replace them both for pretty cheap. I guess I have something else to add to the list.



I only have 2 concerns with changing the whole exhaust system. Sound and looks. I'm trying to keep things appearing stock for a sleeper feel, so I want to retain the factory tips. Plus, I don't want it to sound particularly aggressive.

I'll keep you posted.

Thanks Dan!

For those valve stem thingies... I had a set of those too. I chucked 'em out, cause they stopped working after about 3 months. (Still showing good with the tire nearly flat.) There's no substitute for a good tire pressure gauge.

Otherwise, sounds like you're on top of things.

For coolant/temperature, it also occurs to me that you should get the temperature sending unit checked.

On my car, there are two senders. One is for the gauge on the dash, and one is for the ECU to tell it when the engine has warmed up and it's okay to stop adding extra fuel. (I had the wire to that one break. really crappy mileage for a while 'till I found that.)

Hmm, I have a tire gauge in the car, may have to double check the valve stem caps (I've had them for about a year now, they were on my other car until I got the Camaro).

Yesterday I managed to change 6 out of 8 of the plugs and wires. Its so cramped on the passenger rear that #6 and #8 are going to be near impossible to get to. I'll get 'em, but I was hot and frustrated by the time I got to them so I decided to leave them for another day. I also changed the oil and filter and rewired the license plate light.

All in all it was a fairly productive day. And the plugs seem to have helped a bit (haven't filled the tank to recalculate the mileage yet) but it feels to be running a bit better.

Looking good, OK!

I wonder, though, why you didn't choose to go with maybe a matte black rocker switch? That one sure stands out.

Maybe something like this $3 part:

Honestly, because I already had it. It will get changed to a lighted black rocker switch soon.

Still, great video ... putting the fm transmitter right there is a great idea.

I wonder if you could also maybe get a GM part from that year Camaro as a switch also, even if it was a different dash spot? Heck, maybe just another GM car from that period?

Sorry if I sounded critical, more brainstorming really.

No worries, I appreciate the suggestions. I think once I paint the plastic and install the black switch it'll look a lot better. But I was skeptical as to how well the modulator was going to work, so I opted for the quick/cheap install first. Now that I know it'll do what I wanted of it, I'll spend a little more time making it look good.

Very nice install.

For cosmetics, yeah, there are nicer looking switches, but with the way that you did that, it's really simple to change out, so no problem there. As a "Proof of concept" it works well.

I'm kinda picky about my sound quality, and I'd be bothered by the limitations of an FM tuner, particularly on certain songs. There are a couple of songs that I won't even listen to in MP3 format, because even at 320kbps, I can still hear some artefacts from the compression, but that's just me being picky.

All in all, that's a nice mod for relatively cheap. Fortunately, my aftermarket stereo comes with an iPod control.

Heh, you sound like some of the guys over at MP3car. Fortunately, I'm not very picky where that's concerned.




Yeah, I like it, especially for the price. They make adapters that will turn the factory CD changer control into and Aux port, but they're $60+. I figured at $17.50 it was hard to pass up.





Indeed. Now that "proof of concept" is done, I went ahead and installed the nicer switch backed with black abs:

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Absolutely! A <$20 solution that works as well as that is hard to beat.

My iPod control is nice in that I can do all of the selection from the deck, and it shows song titles and so forth on the deck face, but it does require an iPod with the dock interface to do anything. In this case, the iPod interface came with the deck as a promotion, but if it hadn't, it would have cost an extra $50.

Split this out of the "Monster Miata" thread as I had taken it quite a bit off topic.

pardon my ignorance, however are you using ethanol cut gas, and even so would this have an effect on the mileage? I have heard mixed reports.

No pardon necessary. I always appreciate suggestions.

Yes, the station(s) I use frequently (Quiktrip) sells ethanol mix. However, it is also the station my mom has used since the car was new.

I have also heard mixed reports regarding ethanol mix. I have a friend with a 92 Camaro and he says he sees a good 2mpg loss when he deviates from 100% gasoline. Based on his recommendation I used 100% gasoline for the first several tanks after taking delivery from my mother. This was inconvenient since the closest station that sells 100% gasoline is out of town and more expensive then anything else around. After seeing no change in mileage or performance with 100% gasoline I have now switched back to Quiktrip.

I suppose that it makes a difference if you're talking about E-85 or E-90, which is mostly ethanol, or if you're talking about the blended gasolines which have up to 10% ethanol in them.

Ethanol contains less potential chemical energy per unit of volume, so fuel efficiency does go down, but for the 10% blended gasolines, it does not go down much. Ironically, the ethanol blended gasolines seem to produce more power, but at a cost of higher consumption. The greater consumption seems to more than offset the increase in power (But that's something to remember next time I'm going to a motorsports event. )

Unforunately the (typical) cost difference between the two still makes the ethanol blends more expensive to operate.

If you are seeing worse than expected fuel economy... (I know we've gone over this before, and I'm purposly NOT checking what I said earlier, 'cause I might think of something different this time.)

Check air filter, 'cause it's cheap and you can do that yourself.

Check tire pressure, for the same reason.

Check spark plugs, plug wires, distributor (If your car has one. Mine doesn't anymore.) and other ignition components. I used to check my plug wires by popping the hood of the car in the darkest place that I could get to, and watching the engine idle. When my plug wires wereold and cracked, it put on a really cool light show, with little arcs between the plug wire and the cylinder head. You can buy detectors for cheap enough which are more reliable though. This worked for my '75 Chevy 'cause the plug wires were REALLY bad.

Check O2 sensor(s). These tend to either work or not, but it can't hurt to check for carbon fouling which can be a symptom of a rich mixture. If it is carbon fouled, you can clean it with a propane or butane torch. Many cars will have more than one of these, and V block engines can have as many as 4! (Always seemed overkill to me, though.)

The guy that came over and looked at my car did this exact same thing. I thought "well thats a simple idea" I had never thought of it.

Just a 90/10 Gas/Ethanol mix. As stated I used 100% gasoline for several tanks and saw no difference whatsoever in performance or economy. Since the 100% gas was more expensive and the station that sold it was outside of my normal commute, I've now switch back to 90/10 mix.



I've been spending most of my free time on this car lately. Here's a rundown of what I've checked/accomplished:

- Modulator installed as referenced above. (although the new switch install looks so good I've decided that I'm going to try to sneak a female 3.5mm jack next to the switch to make it look like a Factory Aux jack)

- Current paper air filter looks okay, but I'm buying a K&N reusable filter next week anyway

- Tire pressure is okay

- I just replaced the plugs and wires

- 02 sensors are okay

- Fuel filter will be replaced as soon as I get the time

- Power steering pump is whining, so it will be replaced soon along with a new serpentine belt (probably going to have to wait for my check on the 18th for that one, though)

Now it was time to turn my attention to a few other things.

First - the milky headlights:

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They sell kits with polishing wheels and polish and everything in between but I already had some "Scratch Out" from a previous project, so I gave it a go.

Not bad for just hand polishing:

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And here's a wide shot, driver's side done, passenger not:

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These were all taken a few days ago. Since then I've started experimenting with wet-sanding with 2000 grit. I'm not satisfied with the results yet, but will post more pictures when I'm done.

This is something that happens with '93+ JDM Supras. The North American ones have glass headlights, so they don't do this, but hte Japanese ones have acryllic lenses, so they do.

A trick that many people have had success with is to take out the headlight assembly and put them into the oven. At about 200-250 deg F the acryllic will soften slightly -- enough that the scratches will fade by themselves.

I'd do some more research befor trying it myself, but I figured that I'd put hte idea out there.

I saw a guy do that with a Benzomatic torch. He just fanned it over it a few times and it came out looking much better than before.
Im assuming it takes a light touch.

Here's the "final" results after 4 passes wet sanding with 2000 grit (1 horizontal, 1 vertical, polished, wasn't satisfied, so 1 more horizontal 1 more vertical then polish then wax)

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Before and After:

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Not perfect, but I ran out of sandpaper and am too cheap to buy more. Its definitely an improvement and I'm happy with it...

Changed the power steering pump yesterday. Autozone didn't have the pump with reservoir and even if they had it was $100 more, so I just swapped the old reservoir onto the new pump. Also changed out the belt while I had it all apart.

All in all it wasn't nearly as hard as I expected it to be.

Today I installed a skip shift eliminator. Best $10 I've ever spent on a car!!!

WTF was GM THINKING putting CAGS on a Muscle Car?!

http://xse.com/leres/ss/cags.html

quote form that site:
I think CAGS was an elegant solution to the gas guzzler tax. I'd much rather install a $25 part than pay a $2K tax to the IRS.

But yeah,.

BTW whats your take on the new Camaros?

I think they're absolutely beautiful, but otherwise I don't know a lot about them.

Honestly even if I could afford one I wouldn't buy it. I used to be a die-hard Chevy fan but now I have no desire to give GM any more money then the taxes that were already extorted from me to bail them out... (Which, BTW, the most recent "revelation" is that those "loans" will likely NEVER be paid back. Of course, I was saying that BEFORE we gave them the money...)

Being to largest defense contractor for vehicles (to my knowledge) I'm not surprised. IMO the gov has been trying to find a way to acquire GM for a very long time. Think about it - They now own a substantial amount of the the company making hummers and tanks + others last I knew. Correct me if I'm wrong, but last I knew.

I think the new Camaros are smoking hot, I had one follow me up the road for a while and I had to stop to clean off he steering wheel / column. I could hardly take my eyes off the rear view mirror.

in 2011 maybe 2012 if they are still being made I'll get one, give them time to work out any quirks.

Now all this take no shine off your ride for sure, its an awesome car. I want it.

Had I the money I would have one of each model, from each year. Birds too.

New Camaros, very pretty, gobs of power, even the V6 produces more than enough power to induce a grin. Handling leaves something to be desired, but then I may be spoiled.

I used to be a Chevy guy. I could build up a Chev small block V8 in any of a number of ways for top end power, low end torque, or anywhere inbetween. I had built up a 427 big block where it had more torque than the frame of my car could hold, and still got better highway mileage than most people would believe. It could also get much WORSE mileage 0-60 than was reasonable, too.

It's been a while since I'd have given any GM much of a second look. When they discontinued the F-Body cars in favor of building more SUVs I pretty much stopped looking. The Saturn Skye/Pontiac Solstice got me to take another look, but only briefly, since I'm not really a roadster kind of guy, but the new Camaro shows a lot of promise.

I do, however, think that the Mustang is looking better and better, and the new Dodge Challenger looks pretty damn hot, too. Since Toyota seems to have forgotten how to build anything fun, I might have to look at a domestic... Eventually.... Not yet though.

*cough*

No "e" in "Saturn Sky" there, Supra.

A lot of people get stuck putting that out there though. The "redline" model has a symbol after the word SKY that makes it look like an "E".

But that's me being picky. hehe

I never said that I can type, either.

Today I tidied up the wiring on the CAGS eliminator (I had left it dangling as I wasn't sure if it would work or I would like it) and changed the fuel filter.

With the exception of the reusable air filter (went with an Accel as it was more in my price range) which will be here on Monday, according to UPS, I think I'm done with it for a while...