Mark's LS2 2nd Gen Camaro build by Marktainium

6 minute(s) of a 242 minute read

Ok, so here's what I am starting with. This shot shows the space between the upper rad support and the hood. It's about 5/8" to 3/4" at best. The hood latch is in the lower left corner of this shot. It isn't stock as I had to fabricate that as well to accomodate the old intercooler. I may still have to do something else for the hood latch, but am holding out until I actually have the new intercoolers in hand to mock them up and see where everything fits.

Here's the original intercooler. core size is 12"x24"x4"

Rad support

Here's what I cut out. I figured that I wanted to move my rad forward about 3" and down 3". This keeps it above the lip of the chin spoiler, and flush with the original rad support sheet metal after the formed part is cut out.

I removed the lower valance to cut out the rad support. Enter Sawzall!

Next I used paper to trace out caps for the rad support frame ends. An easy way to do this which I use all the time is this. Hold a clean sheet of white paper over the shape you want to trace, and without moving the paper around too much, gently rub your dirty fingers across the paper over the edges of the object. I use this method when I need to make my own gaskets as well. In this case, I cut the tracing out through the middle of the image and then transferred the paper to 18 guage steel.

Steel caps tig welded in

3/1/2011

A little more progress... I took some 18 guage steel and formed it to hold the original rubber saddles. I then drilled 1/4" holes in the appropriate spots to locate the rubbers. I put the radiator in place on top of a pair of jackstands and lowered the car until I found my desired clearance. I used some welding rod and bent it to give me a guide for making the drop down brackets to support the formed piece. I cut these out of 14 guage. formed them and checked out the fit. I will be mounting these from the bottom bolted into the front subframe. I decided to stop at this point and wait until I can mock up the intercoolers just to be sure everything fits before welding anything.

3/2/2011

Got some work done today on the turbo to manifold pipes. I am using schedule 10 2.5" stainless steel pipe for these. As always a big thanks goes out to Mike and Ryan at Custom Metalcraft.

Turbos mocked up, passenger side was the more difficult side, so did that first.

Some various pics of the process.

I did all the mock up with the springs removed from the front suspension, and the wheels on and jacked up to bottomoed out with the wheel turned both ways to be sure there would be no clearance issues later. I will be making my own inner fenders. I also continually checked the clearance to the hood.

Its not all good, I'm broke. I can only do this stuff because I pre-bought all the parts when I was working. ***Lesson to be learned??? Stock up while you can!***

Some more pics...

Trying to figure out exactly where to put the wastegates. These are Precision Turbo 46mm units.